We read the chapter a few moments
ago. I'd like just to read the text
now. Verse 9. Among the three things
that Paul mentions as being his goal, his ambition, his desire,
for which he sacrificed everything else. One was that he might know
Christ. Paul knew a lot of things before,
but he didn't know Christ. Now it's Christ, Christ, Christ.
He's a spiritual porcupine. Just pluck a quill and it's Christ. I want to know him and I want
to win him. Oh, he's that pearl of great
price. He's the prize. Oh, that I might
win him. And then here in verse 9 he says,
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the law, that's all I had before, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God or from God by
faith. The title of my message is Blessed
Oneness. Blessed Oneness. There was a
preacher years ago by the name of John Kent. He wrote many good
hymns. I looked in our book, I was surprised
not to find any by him. When he was still in his fifties,
he was 77 I think when he died, but while he was still in his
fifties he became totally blind. His grandson would write down
the words of the hymns as John Kent would dictate them to him. One of the hymns he wrote is
One with Christ. Listen very carefully to it.
It illustrates the message or sets it forth. Blessed oneness,
to which Jesus and the chosen race subsist a bond of sovereign
grace that hail with its eternal train shall never dissolve nor
rant entwine. Hail sacred union firm and strong,
how great the grace, how sweet the song, that worms of earth
should ever be one with incarnate deity. One in the tomb, one when
he rose, one when he triumphed o'er his foes, one when in heaven
he took his seat while seraphs sung all hell's defeat. This
sacred tie forbids their fears, for all he is and has is theirs. With him, with him their head,
they stand or fall, their life, their surety, and their all. When John Kent who wrote that
good hymn lay dying, with death just being moments away, He stretched
forth a hand already growing cold with the chill of death,
and he said, accepted, accepted, and he fell asleep in Jesus. Here in verse 9, these three
words I'd like to consider, found in him. Those three words, oh
how full and precious they are. Found in him. Consider first
of all the word found. found. Some of us are old enough
to remember and some of you aren't. But we can remember before the
internet, before you would see folks with their heads bowed
and memorized or mesmerized by something on their phone Before
that day of high technology, children would entertain themselves. And we would play a game called
hide-and-seek. You remember that? Did you ever
do that? You'd have to have a big hiding place. But anyway, hide and seek, and
you know how it went. Somebody would be it, and they
would count. They would have to have their
eyes closed, should have. And everybody else would run
and hide. You'd count to 100 or whatever. And then that person
would turn around and say, ready or not, at least this is how
we did it when I was a kid. They would say, ready or not,
here I come. Here I come. I'm going to come
and find you. The prophet of old said, prepare
to meet thy God. He's talking to you. He's talking
to you. And he's talking to me. Don,
prepare to meet thy God. Ready or not, God comes. What a solemn thought. Paul told
those philosophers on Mars Hill in Acts 17, I mean, they had
monuments set up for every god imaginable. And they had one
with the plaque to the unknown god, just in case they missed
one and didn't even know it. They wanted to cover all their
bases. And Paul said, man, you're ignorant. He said, you're very
superstitious. You know what the literal translation
is? You're very religious. You people
are very religious. The God that you confess with
your own mouth that you ignorantly worship, let me tell you about
Him. And when Paul concluded his message, he says, that God,
that God, the true God, the real God, He's appointed a day. prepared to meet thy God. He's
appointed a day that he shall judge the world in absolute righteousness
by that man whom he has appointed and he's given evidence of it,
the certainty of that appointed day by raising Jesus Christ from
the dead. Found. Found. Every one of us
will be found in that day. Every one of us. will either
be found in Christ or out of Christ. Out of Christ will be
found here. But if ye will not do so, behold,
this is Moses talking, ye have sinned against the Lord, and
be sure. God, by grace, make our loved
ones sure, because they'll never know it otherwise. Be sure you
have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find
you out. You're not going to get by. Be
sure your sin will find you out. And that's true to everyone outside
of Christ. Oh, but how about those that
are found not outside of Christ, but inside? Found in Him. In those days, and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. They don't exist. For I will
pardon them whom I reserve, says our God, found in Christ or out
of Christ. There's no in-between. There's
no halfway house. There's no such thing as purgatory.
You're either, right now, to every one of us, everybody sitting
here this morning, we're either in Christ or we're out of Christ.
There's no in-between. Remember concerning our father
Adam? The record we had of his trying
to hide from God? And he's in every one of our
family trees. Our daddy Adam is in every one
of our family trees. Turn, if you will, to Genesis
chapter 3. We have the record of that. We'll read a few verses
of it. The fall of our father. And when
he fell, we fell in him. He represented us. What happened
to him happened to us. And Paul tells us, in Adam all
die. In the day you eat thereof ye
shall die. And death passed upon all men. You say, I don't like
that. Take it up with God. Whatever happened to Adam happened
to you and I. When he fell, we fell in him.
When he died, we died in him. Here in Genesis chapter 3, look
at verse 6. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant, Oh yes, sin
is pleasant to look upon, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat. The one thing God told them not to do. And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst
the trees of the garden. And the Lord called unto Adam
and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself. My, how strange Adam acts after
the fall. His actions, his reaction to
hearing the voice of God shows how far he has fallen. My, how strange he now acts.
The very fact that when he hears the voice of God that he wants
to hide shows that he's fallen. He's fallen. And also the very
fact that he not only wants to hide from God, he actually thinks
he can. Oh, how far he has fallen. He
thinks he can hide from the omniscient, all-knowing, all-seeing God. Do you think you're hiding from
him? Before this, after God breathe into the nostrils of Adam, the
man that he created, and Adam became a living soul. Oh, before
that, behold our father Adam. How noble he is. How upright. Look at him. The very life of
God. God's creation. How intelligent. He names all the animals. He
has dominion over them all. God places them in the garden
and says, Adam, this is all yours. This is all yours. And then he
created Eve, the woman for the man. Oh, how wondrous of work
it was. How noble Adam must have been
in the garden before When he would hear God's voice we read
in the cool of the day, he would think, oh, that's the
voice of my God. He wasn't afraid, Louis. He wasn't
afraid. He didn't hide. No, he heard
God's voice and he said, oh, that's my God. That's my Creator. That's my Father. He walks with
me. Imagine that. And he talks with
me. I'm not afraid of him. Imagine
that. And he tells me, he tells me
that I'm his own. Imagine that. What unspeakable
joy, what delight that must have been. Oh, but look now. There he is, hearing the voice
of God, hiding trying to cover his shame, his sin with fig leaves. Those fig leaves were told in
verse 7, they sewed together and they made for themselves.
They did it. They did it. They provided the
covering they thought for their sin and their shame. And you
know it's not hard to see. That's a picture of man's attempts
to cover his nakedness, his sin, his filthiness before God. It's his own doing. That's exactly
what Paul said in verses 3 through 6 of Philippians 3. Paul said,
look at my fig leaves. I spent a lifetime sewing these
things together. Look at my robe. I dedicated
myself. I gave myself. to weaving this robe of righteousness. And I knew, I knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt, God was impressed with it. I mean, why wouldn't
he be? I'm a Pharisee, a Pharisee. I
keep the letter of the law. I'm dotting every I, I'm crossing
every T. Oh my, what glorious road, what
big lease I had. And then God turned the light
on and Paul looked at it and said, man, it's done. It's done. Because before he was viewing
it in the sight of man and his own depraved concept of things. But when God turned the light
on, when sin revived, Paul said, I died. And all my righteousness,
those beautiful fig leaves curled up and died. As a matter of fact,
God says of all of our righteousness, all of our religious fig leaves,
you know what God says about it? Men thinks he's impressed
with it. God says, in my sight, they're
filthy rags. I'm not impressed. They're obnoxious
to me. Away with them, he says. And
men and women are still doing exactly what Adam, their father,
did. Like father, like son. My son
there, Roger, inherited my nature, a fallen nature. And men still
are going about, as Paul said in Romans 10, to establish their
own righteousness. They do it all the time. Do it
all the time. It started in the garden at Eden
when our daddy fell, and we've been, his children have been
doing it ever since. Sowing fig leaves and believe
God will accept them. I don't think it's coincidental
is certainly not the word, but it's worth considering, noting
that the only miracle our Lord performed while he was on earth,
a miracle that was a curse, was on a fig tree that had leaves
but no figs, representing a hypocrite. That's the only thing he did
as a miracle, he cursed it. Adam's fig leaves is a picture
of that. What do you mean, Larry? How
do people sow big leaves together? Self-righteousness. Well, do
you know God? And their answer is, I'm a Baptist.
Been a Baptist all my life. My daddy was a Baptist preacher.
You know the church down there? We helped give the first offering
to build that place. I'm religious. Or they'll say,
I'm no worse than anybody else. I'm just as good as those Christians
down there. I could worship God out there
in my fishing boat, or out in the woods, and blah, blah. I'm
just as good as those Christians. When I first started working
at the University of Kentucky, one of the supervisors in the
shop heard that I was a preacher, so he wanted to impress me with
all his knowledge. And I would invite him to services,
especially the conference in Danville every year. And every
time I would invite him, every time I would take schedules and
hand them out to the fellas, this particular guy would say,
ah, the church is full of hypocrites. It's just full of hypocrites.
Every church I've ever been in is full of hypocrites. I'm not
coming. They're just full of hypocrites. One day I got tired
of hearing that, and I said, why don't you come anyway? There's
room for one more. Come on down. Was it Friday evening,
one of the greatest athletes in our day, in our generation,
a man that was probably known more than any other living person
at one time, was known everywhere from one corner of the globe
to the other, Muhammad Ali. He died. He called himself the
greatest, didn't he? And I believe that man was sincere.
I believe he was sincere not in that, but in his religion. He was sincere. A sincere Muslim. But he was sincerely lost. He
sincerely believed a lie. And now he knows, now he knows
that Allah was not the true God and Mohammed was not the Messiah.
He now stood before King Jesus and have heard the words, I never
knew you. Oh, that's horrible. John touched
on it this morning in Matthew 7. Our Lord said, many shall
stand before me in this day, in the day of judgment. They'll
come right up to the throne of God with their fig leaves. Look,
Lord, look, you know us, you remember us. We've done many
wonderful works in your name. And he'll say, can you imagine?
I can't imagine it. The horror, the utter horror
that will grip their heart and soul when they hear him say,
depart from me, cast them into outer darkness, I never knew
you. Lord, you must know us, I'm a
Baptist. Lord, you must know me, I'm a
five-point Calvinist. Depart from me, I never knew
you. Oh, horrible, horrible. Rolf Barner said, there are more
people hiding in church, trying to hide from God in church than
anywhere else. You may have noticed if you've
had opportunity to read it, the article in the bulletin from
our text, the mention of Brother Henry Mahan talking to a woman
who told Henry that she had been a Christian all of her life,
and Henry said, that's too long. That's exactly right. I've had
people tell me that. Well, I've been a Christian all
my life. I was born in a Christian home, so that makes me a Christian
too. No, that's too long. Because it's impossible to be
saved if you've never been lost. That's just impossible. It's
impossible to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ
if you've never been stripped of your filthy robe of self-righteousness. That's impossible. It's impossible
for you to be accepted in Christ Jesus for Christ to be your Savior,
if you've never bowed to Him as your Lord and God, it's impossible. I don't care how many soul winners
you get to tell you otherwise, it's impossible. If you've never
bowed to the King, you're not a carnal Christian, you're a
lost rebel, and in your heart you know it's so. You know it's
so, no matter how much you may try to convince yourself otherwise. Did you notice again, in the
bullet, and I tell you what, if I hadn't put old Spurgeon's
name to this, I would have just about thought it was some preacher
today that said this. A time will come when instead
of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining
the goats. Man, Spurgeon said that years
ago. It's like he looked out and saw
2016, doesn't it? And that's just the case. Let me share this with you. The
difference in being found in religion and being found in Christ. This is a matter of life and
death. This is a matter of heaven and hell. This is a matter of
being accepted by God or rejected by God. Henry again wrote, religion
is to know biblical facts. Well, you know what? You can
pick up this book and memorize verses just as easy as you can
memorize something out of the newspaper. It doesn't require
Life? That doesn't require the gift
of faith. Religion is to know biblical
facts. Life is to know God. Religion
is to know what I believe. Hear it all the time. Life is
to know whom I believe. Religion is to be baptized into
the church. Life is to be baptized into Christ. Religion is to be reformed. Life
is to be regenerated. Religion is to be a new convert.
Life is to be a new creature in Christ. A man was asked, and
what is your religious persuasion? And he replied, I'm persuaded
that nothing can separate me from the love of God that is
in, in Christ Jesus. That's where it's at, is it not? Are you still in Genesis? Look
at verse 9 of Genesis 3 again for a moment. We considered what
Adam did and what all his children have done ever since. But now
look what God did. Remember what Paul said? He turned
from his fig leaves and he said, Oh, but God. But God changed my tune. God
put a new song in my mouth. Verse 9, and the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? But God, now
you read that story and you tell me who took the initiative. Who took the initiative? What
did Adam do? He tried to hide. Who did the
seeking? Was it Adam? When God said, Adam,
where art thou? Did Adam come running out and
say, I'm right here? God took the initiative. God
came to Adam. If God hadn't come to Adam, Adam
would have never come out of the bushes to God. Remember, we've often heard concerning
the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Preachers
say, as if the Lord said to Lazarus, if you'll take the first step,
I'll take the rest. No, no. See, that's just the
problem. Lazarus is dead. Just like his
daddy was dead. Just like Adam was dead. That's
why he hid from God. He's got a will now, but it's
not free. His will is to hide from God.
Jesus Christ said, you will not come to me. If left alone, you
will never come to me. You won't bow, you won't believe,
you won't repent unless God Almighty comes to where you're at. There
is none that seeketh after God. No, not one. That beautiful little
granddaughter you looked on just the other day, John, in her nature
is a nature that will never seek after God. It won't happen unless
God drops into her heart the gift of His grace and makes her
willing in the day of His power. God came to Adam and God found
Adam. Adam, God said, where art thou? Well, of course, God knew where
Adam was, just like he knows where you are. Mr. Spurgeon, I remember years ago
reading a sermon by him or one of his works. He said there was
a deacon in his church that when they would call upon him to pray,
he would use an expression something like this. God, you would have
noticed in this morning's paper, as though God must have read
the paper to know what's going on. No. God knew exactly where
Adam was. That wasn't the problem. Adam needed to know where he
was. Adam needed to learn where he was. God had to teach Adam
where he was. Notice what else God did? Here
in chapter 3 of Genesis, look at verse 21 and then we'll move
on. Unto Adam also, oh he giveth and he giveth and he giveth more
grace. He came seeking, finding, calling, and that's not all. And unto Adam also unto his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins and he clothed them. away with those fig leaves. You
made. You provided. You sowed. That's
your doing. Here's mine. Put this on. That covered them. Remember what
Abraham said to Isaac? Isaac said, Father, here's the
fire. Here's the wood. Where's the burnt offering? And
Abraham said, Son, Son, God will provide himself
a burnt offering. You know why God would not, could
not? He would not and he could not
accept Adam's covering his fig leaves. You know why? Because
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. That was
a sacrifice. That sacrifice. The coats of
those animals, those skins that Adam and Eve were clothed in,
they were a picture of the Lamb of God that would take away the
sin of the world. His blood that was shed for his
people. God could never be satisfied
with anything less with Adam's fig leaves. Adam was satisfied,
Eve was, but God wasn't. Brother Scott Richardson, I've
told you before, used to say, before God does anything for
you, he's got to do something for himself. You know what? If
you don't have some understanding of what happened in the garden,
you don't have a clue as to what happened on Calvary. If you don't
know what happened in the garden in the fall of Adam, you don't
know what took place on Calvary in the restoration of God's people.
You don't know. What happened here is what made
what happened on Calvary necessary. Because as I said, without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission. And most people don't
know. Most people don't know. You ask
them, what happened on Calvary? Ask them. And I don't mean the
drunk out there or the harlot. Ask the average Baptist. Ask
the professing Christian. Why did Jesus Christ have to
die? Well, God wanted to show everybody
He loved them. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. Wrong! That's not why Jesus Christ had
to die. Love provided the sacrifice,
yes. God so loved the world, He gave
His Son. But why did God require a sacrifice? If it's all just
a matter of love, Randy, why couldn't God say, well, Adam,
I forgive you. We'll just forget the holes.
Ain't no harm done without the sacrifice of an animal. I'll
tell you why. Because God Almighty is holy. God Almighty is just. And God
Almighty demands perfection. And God Almighty demands satisfaction. And no sinner will be forgiven
unless God Almighty can be perfectly just in justifying that sinner. Absolutely so. There is no mercy. There's never been mercy to any
sinner by the setting aside of God's justice. Oh no. God's justice is satisfied. Jesus Christ paid it all. But most people don't have a
clue why Jesus Christ died. Why God demanded that. Why God
sent his son to be the propitiation for the sins of his people. And that's why, because they
don't know what happened in the garden, they don't know what
happened at Calvary, that's why we have another gospel, another
message. Tells people, well, really? Adam didn't really die? You're
really not in that bad a shape? He just stumped his toe a little
bit. And all that's really needed is for you to make a decision. All that's necessary is for you
to open your heart. Jesus Christ says concerning
who can be saved, Jesus said with men it's impossible. And
preachers all around us are telling people it's easy as A, B, C. Somebody's lying. Somebody's
lying. And I'll tell you what, it's not the King of Glory. Jesus
said it's impossible. Robin was telling me the other
day that she gave one of Tommy's books his lineup online to her
neighbor across the street several years ago. And afterwards, the
man seen her and he said, Robin, was Tommy a Calvinist? Ooh, that
boogeyman. He believes God sits on the throne
of grace. He believes salvation is of the
Lord. He believes sinners are dead
until King Jesus comes to him. Ooh, that's terrible. Oh, no. No, that's good news. That's
good news. It's bad news to somebody over
there in the corner trying to sew together their fig leaves.
To hear that your righteousness is as filthy rags. Oh, but to
hear to hear, to hear what that prodigal said,
or heard rather, to hear from the lips of his own father, bring
forth the best row. Hey, I want the best row. My son was dead and he's alive
again. He's lost and now he's found. Bring the best robe and cover
him up. And I'll never smell the stench
of that swine trough again because he's robed in the righteousness
of my own son. And it smells good. That's the
best robe. Oh, Jesus Christ with his holy
garments on, as holy as God's own son. Oh, to be found And
I'm drawing to a close. In him. Found, but now the word's
in him. Like Noah was in the ark. Oh, what a beautiful illustration
that is. I mean, do you suppose those men and women in Noah's
day that saw him building that ark, I mean, for a hundred years,
a hundred and twenty years, possibly? I mean, I'm sure they saw him,
they walked around. Peter tells us Noah preached
the whole time while he was doing that. Told them, warned them,
flee from the wrath to come. God's going to destroy this world.
They didn't believe him. They thought it was a fairy tale,
just like people do today. It's a fable. But can you imagine
talking to some of those people and they, I'm sure there was
many of them, could tell you, oh yeah, I've seen the ark. I've
seen the ark with my own eyes. I touched it. I walked up and
touched it. It's gopher wood. I know who's building it. I've
known Noah all my life. I know all about it. But they never entered in. They
never entered in. They never went into the ark.
They could talk about it. They could recite things about
it. They could tell you about it. But they never went inside. They never went inside. Outside
that ark, are you listening to me? Look up here. Imagine I'm standing, where I'm
standing now, there's a circle on the floor. That's to be in Him, Christ. That's to be found in Him. Outside
of that, there's nothing but rat. Outside of Christ, there's
nothing. That's what the ark is a picture
of. Outside that ark, there's nothing but God's wrath. Nothing
but judgment. Are you listening? Nothing but
hopelessness and death. That's all there is. That's all
there is. Oh, but look inside the ark.
Oh, can you picture that? Can you imagine that? Look inside
the ark. There are eight souls there.
Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. And while the storms
of life are raging, while God Almighty, outside that ark, is
judging the world in righteousness, is proving it wasn't a fairy
tale, the soul that sinneth, God says, it must die. There's no might about it. It
must die. God says, I will in no wise clear
the guilty or pass by iniquity. judgment, death, wrath, all around
except in the ark. And there they are, perfectly
secure, perfectly safe inside the ark, but nowhere else. In the ark, there's perfect acceptance,
perfect life. Inside the ark, there's nothing
but a good hope through grace. In Him forever. or to be found in Him forever.
You know, we were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world. When Adam fell, there was another
representative. There was somebody else. There
was Jesus Christ. Our daddy Adam fell, but Jesus
Christ stood. He stood. for his people and
God chose them in Christ. Thou art my first elect God said
of Christ and then chose us in Christ our head. That's what
the book teaches. That's exactly what the book
teaches. There is a verse, let me read
it to you, in Malachi that says this, and they shall be mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. And I will spare them as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him. Why? Because they're found
in him. Found in Christ. Christ shall
say that day, Father, I and the children that you've given me
Oh my soul, John, I think, I don't think it's wrong to say that
in that day we're going to look at our Redeemer with eyes so
full of love and adoration and true worship and gratitude because
we're going to realize God looks at us and he says You're with
him. You're with my son. He represents
you. Come on in. Come on in. Inherited joy prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. Welcome home. All this is for
you. In Genesis chapter 2, we read
that God from Adam's rib, created a woman and brought her to the
man. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh. And Paul tells us what that means.
Christ loved the church in Ephesians 5 and gave himself for it. We're in Him. And what God Almighty
has joined together, Christ our Bridegroom and His Bride, nothing,
nothing shall put asunder. Thank God for the blessed oneness
we have in Jesus Christ. Let me close as I began, but
only two verses this time. Betwixt Jesus and the chosen
race, subsist the bond of sovereign grace, that hell with its infernal
train shall never dissolve nor rant entwine. This sacred tie
forbids their fears. Why should we fear? For all He
is and has is theirs. With Him their head they stand
or fall, their life, their surety, their all. God bless you. Thank
you for your attention. Amen.