As you know, our theme for this
conference is in him. In him is our theme. Two little words that constitute
nothing but a preposition and a pronoun. But if you know anything
about words, prepositions are very important. In fact, the
Bible uses approximately 15 prepositions particularly throughout the New
Testament, propositions that are exceedingly important in
explaining the relationship between one thing and another. In fact,
you can barely have a logical or rational sentence without
a proposition. And yet all the propositions
that are in the New Testament as important as they may be,
I believe and assert that the most important of all of them
for which all the other propositions rather are important is the preposition
in, in. It is a penetrating preposition. It speaks to a location, a place,
a state, a realm. And when you read the Bible with
respect to this pronoun him, him, You know, that's one of those
insider terms. If you listen to a conversation
and someone says, well, we know him and we've heard about him
and we're so thankful for him. And that term indicates insider
language because it doesn't describe the person properly, but it assumes
that the person who has been spoken of is already known. And
so when we speak of the hymn factor of Scripture, we are actually
talking about the one of whom the whole book is speaking of.
We have said it for many, many years, haven't we? The Bible
is a hymn book. A hymn book. An H-I-M book. When you grasp that concept,
you are now beginning to understand something of the blessing of
the Scriptures. And when you understand who the
him is, then you understand the prophecy. Now, of course, saints,
when we talk about him, who are we talking about? We're talking
about Christ, that's right. When we say in him, we are saying
in Christ. When we say we know him, we are
saying we know Christ. When we say this is a him book,
what we are saying is he comes in the volume of the book is
written about him. That's what we are saying. And
as we contemplate today, the idea of being in Christ or in
him, I do want to hurry up and apprehend your thoughts with
this. The subject of being in Christ, even though these two
little words are as terse as you can put it, is probably the
most spectacular and profound contemplation the soul could
ever have. See, when we are talking about being in Him, we are talking
about a mystery that can never fully be fathomed. To be in Christ
is to be a people exceedingly blessed of God. To be in Christ
is to be part of God's eternal purpose. To be in Christ, according
to the Scriptures, as we will be dealing with on Sunday, is
to be eternally blessed. Now there are a couple of things
I want to say in preparation for our message tonight and that
is this, when you contemplate being in Him and therefore we
are contemplating union with Christ, the union between God
And the center, there are a couple of things that I want you to
keep in mind so that we can wrap our minds and our hearts around
this consideration. The first thing I want you to
keep in mind is this, that as you contemplate the idea of being
in Him, consider the office of High Priest. Consider the office
of High Priest. You're going to need that in
order to legitimately be in Christ. That's the first thing I want
you to consider. The second thing I want you to consider is the
idea of sonship. Sonship. See, without these two
offices, the idea of being in Him doesn't happen. For the sinner to be found in
Christ, he or she or they, need a mediator. You can't get in
Christ on your own. You can't come to Christ on your
own. You won't be found in Christ without a high priest. We need
a high priest in order to even consider the possibility of being
in Christ. And the other thing that's essential
to being in Christ, as I hope to be able to affirm down the
line, is that to be in Christ requires sonship, sonship. Another way to put it is kinship
kinship if if any man be in Christ or if any man be in Him as is
our thoughts there are several things that have taken place
for that man for that woman For that people of which I want you
to consider. The first thing is this if a
person has been placed in him That person is protected for
all eternity a man or woman is found in him, his soul, her soul
has been protected for all eternity. See the Bible tells us in the
book of Jude that God the Father, watch this now, preserved us
in Christ before the world began. For a man or woman to contemplate
therefore then being in Him is for them to understand the protection
of their soul. I mean, this is an enormous thought
that somehow by virtue of me being in him, my fragile eternity
bound soul is secure, is eternally secure. You see what I want you
to grasp as we work through these few points tonight is this, God
has been pleased to take a little phrase in him and communicated
to us by words in order that you and I might be able to get
a bit of a handle of His everlasting love to sinners in Christ. See, that's not hard terminology,
is it? To be able to say, in Him, is not hard, is it? To be
able to say, in Christ, is not difficult. And yet, do you know
what the Bible says all through the New Testament about what
it means to be in Him? To be in Him is to be blameless. To be in Christ is to be righteous.
To be in Christ is to be holy. To be in Christ is to be spotless. To be in Christ is to be just
like God. Just like God. To be in Christ
is a concept that is beyond our capacity to even reason through. And yet, If we are not in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. Misery is found for the person
that's not in Christ. And so as we contemplate in him,
not only do I want you to keep in mind the role of the high
priest and and therefore the role of the kinsmen or the the
sonship principle, as we shall see, these are essential to men
and women being placed in Christ, but there are three things I
want you to grasp as we contemplate being in Him. To be in Him is
to understand three things. What God did. That's the first thing. The second
thing I want us to consider as we think about being in Him is
this. What we have. And the third thing I want us
to consider for the person that's in Christ is who we are. What he did, what we have, and
who we are. Now, all I want to talk about
tonight is what he did. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. Listen to what the writer to
the Corinthians says about this very Very important subject of
being in christ. I want you to grasp the way he
puts it and then we're going to work through our outline to
come to our through our through our text to come to verse 30
and Contemplate simply what it says to those who are in christ. Listen to verse 30. Are you there?
but of him Are you in christ? Do you see that? but of him Are
you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption? Listen, when we contemplate being
in Christ, you know what we are contemplating? Something that
only God can do. And what that means is this.
You can't get into Christ by faith. It's not faith that places you
into Christ. It's grace that places you into
Christ. It's faith that affirms that
you are in Christ, as we shall see. You guys do understand that
the foundation for faith is what? Grace. Grace must always be understood,
children of God, ladies and gentlemen, as the work of God alone. So watch this now. I want you
to grasp this now because you'll hear a lot of people talking
about believing on Christ and being in Christ and all of that.
But I do want you to mark this. If in fact we are in Him, God
put us in Him. God put us in Him. God put us
in Him. And so the contemplation of being
in Christ is a free sovereign grace contemplation where we
are marveling at the prerogative and the purpose of God to do
something for the sinner he couldn't do for himself. Am I making some
sense? When you contemplate being in
Christ, you must never contemplate being in Christ on the basis
of who you are or what you did. The idea of being in Christ is
not the idea of negotiating with God somehow in order to change
your condition or change your position in order to have his
position and his condition. The idea of being in Christ is
the idea of coming to learn that God has done something for the
sinner that the sinner could never do for himself. If we are
in Christ, It is the work of the sovereign triune God alone. I want that point to be driven
home. I want that point to be driven home. When the Bible explains
and the Bible elaborates upon the message of grace and redemption,
you know the purpose for which it's doing that? So that the
redeemed people of God might marvel at God. might marvel at
what God does, might marvel at why God did it, and might marvel
at how He did it. When we contemplate grace, when
we consider the grace of God and all that it entails, you
are being called upon to consider the work of God alone. and therefore never view grace
as something that's instrumental in the hand of the sinner or
even the believer. You and I are saved by grace
through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a what? It's
a gift of God. It's a gift of God in the way
that the apostle is setting up the concept of being in him here. The idea of the glorious doctrine
of being in him here is that he makes sure that the Corinthian
church grasps the fact that they, having been called a church of
the living God, and thus, as we read in verse one and two
of the opening chapter, you are sanctified in Christ Jesus and
you are called in Christ Jesus to the church of God, which is
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ and called
to be saints. What Paul said to them was, you
didn't do that. God did that. God did. I wake up every day amazed that
I'm saved. I do. I wake up every day, I
wake up every day just tickled pink that I'm saved. And every
day I wake up thanking God that I'm still saved. Don't you? Still saved. And I marvel at
the fact that God was pleased to save me. So it really doesn't
bother me at all that when the Bible is opened up and is properly
proclaimed and preached to me that it strips me any notion
of having helped God put me in a place of eternal security I
don't have a problem with that do you the the other thing that
I wanted to say about the idea of the being in him and thus
realizing that this is the work of God. I didn't say it earlier,
but I'm going to say it now is it constitutes the protection
of the believer. We'll get a chance to fully open
that up, but it also constitutes the provision, the provision
of the believer. Do you know the man or the woman
that's, that's in him has everything necessary for life and godliness
through Jesus Christ. Do you know that? Watch this
now. This is really true. Now, we're going to be challenged
with some stuff over the next three days, but it's really true.
It's really true. The man or the woman that's in
Christ can say with the psalmist, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
never want. I shall never want. shall never
want because the Lord is my shepherd. He's such a good shepherd to
me that before the world began, before I had a being, he saw
to it that he put me in the sheepfold, in the sheep pen of his providence
and his mercy and his goodness and protected me from myself.
That's John chapter 10. See, we call the sheepfold, the
sheep pen of which the good shepherd calls unto the porter. He opens
up and let the sheep out. God's predestinating purpose
for his people. That means God watched over us
before the world began, created the world, brought us into the
world and watched over us in our darkness and our iniquity
until he decided to bring us to himself. I must admit again that as we
contemplate being in him, we are talking about something that
is so infinitely larger than we could even get a handle on.
My prayer is that God would allow you to take your cup. If you
are a believer, you have a cup. Did you know that? If you are
a believer, you have a cup. Do you understand that? God gives
every believer a cup. Isn't that what David says? The
Lord has set a table before me in the presence of my enemies
and my cup runneth over. And I pray that God has allowed
you to bring your cup tonight for the next three days in order
to tap into the draft of His infinite grace and drink to your
soul's satisfaction. That is the privilege of God's
elect alone. So not only are we, if we are
indeed in Him, in Him because of God, we are protected, we
are provided for But as we're gonna learn on Sunday, the man
or the woman that's in Christ possesses everything. I know, it's way too big for
you to get. I know, I know. See, listen,
the matter of being in Christ is incomprehensible. There are
great and precious promises that come out of being in Christ that
we can't, you can't get your arms around it Except by faith
Because they're too large. These are promises. These are
ideas, these are Promises that God makes to his people that
can only dwell in the realm of God God has done some things
For us who are in Christ That can only be understood by God
Our job is to rejoice in it and thank God for it So here's what
I want you to remember. Now we can rework the text a
little bit tonight. To be in him is to be protected. To be
in him is to be provided for. To be in him is to possess all
things. The other two thing is if I'm
in Christ, it's because I have a high priest who is merciful
and faithful to have stood in my gap between God and myself
and mediated on my behalf to see to it I could get in him.
The other thing is that high priest is my brother. He's my brother. And He mediated
for me as my brother with His God in order to bring me into
His blessing for which His blessings become my blessings. Am I making
some sense, Saints? His blessings become my blessings.
See, when we contemplate in Him, I want you to watch this now.
The end is big, but the Him is huge. Did you get that? Then it's cool. It's a penetrating
proposition. That means it penetrates the
object towards which it is going. And in fact, in the normal Greek
language, very often when you see in your English Bible, the
word in believing in Christ is really believing into him, believing
into him, not nearly merely coming near him and learning about him,
but penetrating the essence of who he is and becoming one with
him. That's what it means to believe
into the son of God, into the son of God. And here Paul has
given us a mass, a magnificent statement of God's provision
for his people. So I want to work through our
outline just to lay a foundation of what's going on in first Corinthians
chapter one, and then come to our text and just ask you a few
questions for tonight. Just a few questions. Just a
few questions. First, I want you to know that
when Paul wrote first Corinthians, he wrote with the objective of
restoring the glory of the gospel in the eyes of the Corinthians
who had begun to lose sight of the glory of the gospel in Christ
because they had fallen prey to everything else. Paul is seeking
to recover the glory of the preaching of Christ to these Corinthians
and to remind them of what God did. It is the preaching of Christ,
the preaching of the person of Christ and of the work of Christ
that reveals to us what God did. Do you believe that? Let me say
that again. His goal is to let the Corinthians
know not only what God did in placing them in Christ, but how
God did it. Instrumental to God's work is
God's method. And what Paul has done in the
previous verses, verses 1 all the way up to verse 31, is to
explain to the Corinthians that they were not saved by human
wisdom, that they were not saved by human cunning, that they were
not saved by man-made methods. But God chose to use a very specific
means by which he would bring them into the blessing of that
which God had done before the world began. Do you know what
that is? Preaching. The preaching of the gospel.
The preaching of Christ. The preaching of the glory of
God in the person of Christ. Here it is in verses 23 through
28. Listen to the language. Here's
what Paul says. But we preach Christ crucified. Do you see it? But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greeks,
what foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and
Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. But because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. but God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound those things which
are mighty. Do you see that? You know what
Paul is saying? Listen, you guys have come to
despise this apparently lowly means that God has chosen by
which He has brought you into this glorious state. You now
are despising the preaching of the cross. But it's the preaching
of the cross that first blasted through your minds and and scattered
the darkness so that you saw God in his true nature for the
first time. It was the preaching of Christ
that opened your understanding to the true nature of the triune
God. You didn't listen. You didn't
come to a knowledge of Christ just because you were in bad
circumstances. You didn't come to a real understanding
of who God was just because you were super poor or in dire straits
or because you were rich or wealthy or because you were privileged.
If you have come to know this Christ as your savior, he was
revealed to you through preaching. There was a day when the glory
of God penetrated your heart and you saw God for the first
time. And you know the means by which
God did it? Preaching. Preaching. Am I telling the truth?
Preaching. Preaching. Somehow this moronic
means by which the rest of the world cast off as utter nonsense
was the means by which God revealed the certainty of who he was to
you. Now, we all get tempted sometimes
in the weakness of our flesh. to despise this lowly means,
but it is essential, it is essential to understand that this is what
God has chosen to do. And what Paul is teaching here,
this is really very important, what Paul is teaching here is
that God has chosen, this means not only in order to manifest
His glory to His people, but He's chosen, this means also
to confound the world. Look with me back at verse 20.
Notice what it says. Let me start back at verse 18
and go through 20. He says, for the preaching of the cross is
to them that are perishing, what? But unto us which are being saved,
it is the what? For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. And I will bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. Do you see that? Now, Paul is
taking a passage out of Isaiah and combining it with God's objective
to use the preaching of the gospel to save sinners. And he's explaining
to us an aspect of the gospel that this politically correct
age does not like. Can I tell you what that is?
It is the assertive, forward nature of preaching Designed
to assault and demolish all false notions about God God has chosen
listen to me ladies and gentlemen to make war with all the idol
gods in the world He has chosen through preaching to utterly
destroy every false notion that exalts itself against the knowledge
of Christ. Paul said here what God has chosen
to do is call all of these wise cats to the carpet and let's
see whether or not your doctrine, your truth, your message, your
idol, your God can stand over against the glory of the gospel. God, therefore, is not on the
defense. He's on the offense. Am I making
some sense? The gospel is an offensive gospel,
not in the sense that it makes people mad. It does that, too.
But it's offensive in that it is forward. It is aggressive. It is assertive. It seeks out
to demolish everything that opposes God. That's why people don't
like gospel preaching. because gospel preaching is inherently
apologetic. It is inherently polemical. You guys know these terms. What
God does is set the truth over against the darkness and he says
this is a lie. And this milquetoast world in
which we live that doesn't want to argue about anything worth
anything, despises preaching that is authentic and biblical
because while, listen to me now, while it gloriously, gloriously
pulls sinners out of the pit of hell and saves them, at the
same time it gloriously exposes and demolishes false doctrine,
false idols, false notions. utterly demolishes them. You
know what he said? Where's the wise? Where's the
wise? Where's the disputer of this
world? Where's the man who wants to
stand up and say, I have wisdom? All throughout human history
for the last 2,000 years, do you know what the gospel has
been doing in every nation? Making foolish the wisdom of
this world. Making foolish the wisdom of
this world. So I want to share with you two
propositions under this Particular note that in the preaching of
the gospel in the preaching of the gospel It is essential that
we recognize that the Word of God is capable of exposing darkness
for what it is exposing it and it has the power to apprehend
it and destroy it and Are you hearing me? See, there was a
day when you believed in idols. You probably still do, but I
mean, there was a real day in which you believed in idols.
Come on now. Some things that we believed
in before we came to know the truth as it is in Christ is embarrassing
today. Am I telling the truth? Can I
just give you one that is ubiquitous and pervasive everywhere? This
is supposed to be an educated reality that has no basis in
fact whatsoever. And it's called evolution. And
everybody everywhere buys into evolution. Evolution is one of
the most moronic hypotheses on planet Earth. It is totally unbiblical
and unfounded. It's not even rational. It's
not even rational. And the Word of God has demolished
it from Genesis to Revelation. Are you hearing me? However,
more importantly, what Paul is teaching, not only does the Word
of God have the capacity to reprove and convince and demolish all
the game seers and false doctrines and false teachers and Heretics
and heresies that are out there the most important thing is the
gospel has the power to take people who previously believed
this stuff and bring them to the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in Christ See, that's what it does That's what
it does. It takes sinners who are captive
to these false notions and reveals to them the truth as it is in
Christ, liberating them from those notions. Wasn't it a wonderful
day when the truth took its own place in your heart and claimed
you for itself? Wasn't that a wonderful day?
And this is what Paul is saying. So here he he explains to us
in verses 23 through 28, the confounding nature of the gospel. And when I use that phrase confounding,
confounding, because that's what he does, he confounds them. That's
what he says. He confounds the foolish. Verse
27. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen
the weak things of the world to what? Confound the things
that are mighty. That's a word that we don't often
use in our generation. Confound. It literally means
to bring to shame. To bring to shame. I don't want to spend a long
time on this at all. But when we preach the gospel
under the anointing of the Spirit of God and he qualifies us to
communicate biblical truth legitimately. What it does as its ultimate
objective is to bring to shame everyone that stands up against
God. Truth will bring the sinner who
holds to lies to shame. Are you hearing me? It will bring
everyone on the last day to shame. Everyone who has refused the
gospel, believing that it's moronic, nonsensical and foolish, will
be brought to shame. All of their arguments, all of
their excuses, all of their defenses will be proven to be inadequate.
They will be standing before God on the last day utterly naked
and ashamed. Ashamed. That's what the gospel
is designed to do. Strip you of your false refuges. So he confounds them. Confounds
them. Paul knows what he's talking
about because of course Paul was one of those wise cracks,
wasn't he? He thought he knew and God stripped
him, blasted him with the glory of the gospel and made him a
captive slave of Christ. And so we recognize that the
objective by Paul is to remind the Corinthians that the gospel
of Christ, the message of redemption is what God used to bring you
to the state that you are in. Do not reject the gospel. Let me say this in point number
five in movie. I do, however, believe in the foolishness of
God. Do you? I know that's a strange
statement. I believe in the foolishness
of God. Listen to what God says. Verse
25. Yeah, because the foolishness of God is what? Why is it? I believe that. Do you believe
that? What the world calls foolish,
I believe. I believe in the foolishness
of God. You know what the world says? It's foolish to believe
that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. I
believe that. The world says it's foolish that
God would assume a human nature to stand as the redeemer of sinners. I totally believe that. The world
says it's foolish that he would have chosen a people for himself
before the world began and went through hell in order to deliver
them. Well, guess what? I believe that with all my heart.
That makes good sense to me. I mean, real good sense to me.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. The foolish things
of God are his word, it's his ways, it's his word. But also
it's his people. I'm one of God's foolish things.
Are you? I'm one of God's foolish things.
See, you got to just love God. I'm just here to tell you, you
got to love God and you got to love his ways and you got to
love what God loves and just say that, you know, the heck
with the rest of the world. I'm just trying to help you understand,
because the world does not see his glory. It doesn't see his
glory. It calls his glory foolishness. And thus it calls me foolish.
It calls us foolish who believe the gospel. So be it. I believe
in the foolishness of God, don't you? The cross was foolishness
to them. I believe in the cross. The cross
was weakness to them. You know what I believe in? The
weakness of God. Don't you? I believe that Christ
was made weak in order that I might be made strong. Do you believe
that? I believe that. I believe. I just believe it.
I thank him for it. Now watch this. He is once again
trying to explain to the Corinthians that they are in utter danger
to now contemplate exchanging the truth of the gospel for human
wisdom. And he's trying to get them to
understand God does it this way for a reason. Pastor, why does
God do the things that he do? Look at verse 29. Here's the
reason why. Are you there? That no flesh
should glory in his sight. Do you see that? Please understand,
that's one of our Magna Cartas, that's an axiom of biblical truth.
It does not have as its origin or nature or purpose or design
the gospel, the glory of God, if it's not first designed to
destroy and demolish the glory of men. Whatever God does in
manifesting his glory, he does it while at the same time demolishing
man's opportunity, intention and motive to get glory to himself. This is one of the answers for
why God does what he does. God does what he does the way
that he does in order that no flesh should glory in his presence. This is going to help some of
you who are trying to get a handle on doctrine. You know the doctrines
of the gospel that are lampposts to the person of Christ and his
work offend this world, don't they? Am I telling it true? When God chooses, and that's
what the text said, right? He chose us. The world hates
the doctrine of election, doesn't it? When God chooses to redeem
a people for himself, which means he leaves others to themselves,
the world hates that. These kinds of ideas about what
God does and what God does sovereignly, the world despises. They hate
it. But you must understand God does
what he does the way he does in order that no flesh should
glory in his sight. Now you are coming close to the
gospel when you have a sense in the preaching that is designed
to demolish all forms of human boasting, all forms of human
merit, all forms of human work, and reserve to God alone the
glory. Which brings us to our final
point. Notice what it says in verse 30. Having already explained
to the Corinthians The reason for which God does what he does
and the way he does it is in order that he might destroy any
opportunity for the flesh to glory. And then he uses that
contrasting conjunction. But, here it is, but of him are
ye in Christ Jesus. Do you see that? We already learned
what that means. Of him means that your being
in Christ had nothing to do with you. Him means now watch this
now It means that the origin or the cause or the place from
which you are found to be in Christ is in God It's the little
proposition out of heck out of it was out of God's counsel.
It was out of God's mind It was out of God's will it was out
of God's purpose to take a people and place them in Christ It never
came into your mind It never came into my mind. It never came
into our minds collectively. It never came into anyone's mind
in the world to even be in Christ. This was totally of God. Now watch this. It was of God
that we are in Christ. Now watch this. And it was of
God that Christ was brought into being. Isn't that what the text
says? Listen to this. But of God, But of him that is
of God are you in Christ Jesus who what of God is made unto
us? Now saints, here's what God is
doing He has taken his elect and placed them in Christ and
he has made Christ to be something specific and particular to his
elect This is where I'm going to shut it down When God placed us in Christ,
he did it with the purpose of revealing Christ to us in a certain
way by which we can know that we are in Christ. But of God,
are you in Christ, who of God, who out of God, who proceeding
from God? That's the way the language is.
It doesn't speak so much to his deity as to his purpose. as to
his design and his scope. We know he's God. We know he
came from God. He's equal with God, eternal
like God, but he came forth from God with a specific purpose,
and that is to reveal himself to his elect, watch this now,
as four things critical to your eternal blessing. Watch this. Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us. You know what God did? He made
Christ to be for us and to us for things. Wisdom, are you with
me? Watch it now. Wisdom, sanctification,
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I want you to
mark those four. I'm not gonna develop them. All
I'm going to do is highlight why he said it and call your
attention to a question. Of God are you in Christ who
of God was made unto us wisdom. Wisdom. Do you know not everybody
sees Christ as wisdom? Do you know that not everybody
sees Christ as righteousness? Do you know that not everybody
sees Christ as sanctification? And do you know that not everyone
sees him as redemption? Here is the beauty of what's
being said. Now, some interpreters do it
like this. They suggest that what's taking
place in the construction of verse 30, the latter part, are
four essential characteristics of Christ's work, essential for
our salvation, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
But others have said, Really one overarching characteristic
is here in view and that is wisdom That Christ by God has become
for all of his elect the wisdom of God I want you to mark this
for a moment the wisdom of God The wisdom of God in that what
verse 18 says Paul said that the gospel is a message of foolishness
to those that are perishing But for us who are believing the
gospel, watch this, it is both the what? Wisdom of God and the
what? Power of God. Do you know when
the gospel came to us in power, we came to realize that God was
wise. That when he drew up this scheme
of redemption and he placed the responsibility of our eternal
destiny in Christ, he was being wise. Do you see Christ as God's
wisdom? I do. Christ is every bit of
God's wisdom. And in fact, as God's wisdom,
proceeding from the wisdom of God, which is Christ himself,
in fact, Proverbs chapter 8 personifies Christ as wisdom. Wisdom dwell
with Prudence and I search out all sorts of things. I raise
up nobles I set them down by me do nobles decree justice and
kings sit on thrones I was with him before the world began. I
grew up with him as one beside him I was daily his delight and
my joy was with my elect He's talking about wisdom now watch
this now. I Christ is the wisdom of God
in the creation of the universe. He's the wisdom of God in the
sustaining of the universe. He's the wisdom of God and God's
providential care in the universe. But he is more particularly the
wisdom of God in the salvation of his people. In fact, when
we preach Christ, do you know what we're preaching? Wisdom.
Second, our first Corinthians chapter two, verse seven says,
but we speak wisdom in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. which
the princes of this world did not know. And do you know that
wisdom is a person? The wisdom of God is a person
and that person is Christ. Well, now, what do we mean by
wisdom? Well, there are three things
proceeding from that wisdom that I want to call your attention
to. God in Christ was wise enough to provide a righteousness by
which God could sustain and keep intact His own glory while saving
hell-bound sinners like you and I and making us the very righteousness
of God in Him. Do you know that takes wisdom?
Do you know it takes wisdom for God to act in perfect total conformity? in complete consistency with
His holy character, His holy nature, and His righteous law.
And at the same time, legitimately make righteous men out of sinners. Do you know it takes wisdom?
It takes wisdom to hold those tensions together, to be God,
and to make people who are the least like God just like God. To be able to make them as righteous
as God is, it takes wisdom. Are you hearing me? takes wisdom. You try to do it. You try to
do it. You try to do it. A righteousness
that both, listen, justifies the guilty sinner before the
law of God while at the same time maintaining, upholding,
and honoring God's holy law. That's glorious. Do you know
what it says in Isaiah 42 21? He shall make his law honorable. The Lord shall be Well-pleased
for his righteousness sake for he shall uphold God's law and
he will make it on him Do you know in Christ becoming a substitute
for sinners? He honored God's law See this
takes wisdom Are you in Christ? Then you're gonna find out that
you are just as righteous Watch this now as God himself is or
that's hard to buy, isn't it? hard to swallow when you look
at yourself well we're gonna talk about that tomorrow when
I talk about to be in Christ is what we have today I'm talking
about to be in Christ is what he did if it's hard for you to
comprehend just comprehend this with God all things are what
all right God is able to take something that could never intrinsically
or personally become righteous and make it righteous without
one time staining his glory. Well, that's wisdom. Here's another
act of wisdom. How do you get a clean thing
out of an unclean thing? How do you do it? How do you
take a filthy, corrupt, vile creature who in
the eyes of omniscience is totally corrupt through and through. Nothing but corruption through
and through. How do you take something that
you and I would throw away and just go buy another one? We would
just say it's useless. How do you take a corrupt, vile,
contaminated thing and make it clean? That takes wisdom. takes wisdom this is why we know
Christ is our sanctification are you hearing me he's our sanctification
because he was able by his holiness watch it now to make us holy
taking our unholiness to himself while imputing his holiness to
us that takes wisdom it takes wisdom it takes wisdom for that
which is clean to make that which is unclean clean without becoming
unclean itself. See, I believe that Christ was
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. I believe that
he knew no sin, did no sin, and in him was no sin at all at any
time. I believe that when he asked
the whole world through the religious rulers, watch this now, which
of you can convince me of sin? that all the world's mouth will
be stopped, that you will never be able to find Christ to have
been in himself ever faulty before the law of God, ever flawed or
falling short of or not conforming to the law of God. Now watch
this now. Christ was always blameless. And at the same time, this blameless
savior was able to dip himself into the filth of sinful people
for whom he chose to identify, heal them of their iniquities
and come out and remain perfectly God, perfectly God, perfectly
God in a fair and legitimate exchange of conditions. He really did take my sin. He
really did give me His righteousness. He really did bear my wrath and
my iniquity. It was heaped on Him. It was
laid on Him. He bore my sins in His own body
on the tree. That's glorious, isn't it? He
went up. He went down. He got back up
again. And He was just as much God as
when He left glory. It's crazy, isn't it? Who was
a godlike until I got it did good my goodness How do you get
a clean thing out of an unclean thing, how do you make a Contaminated
sinner through and through to the core of his being holy spotless
pure and acceptable before God you can't Unless you're God Unless
you can give your holiness take his sinfulness and corruption
purge it and remain God by himself. Did he purge our sin and sat
down at the right hand of God saying it is finished. You've
got to be God to leave, come and go back the same way you
came. Here's another one. Redemption. Redemption. I know you Americans
don't think you ever once needed redeeming. Because we don't believe
in slavery. But you and I were born slaves.
We were born slaves of sin. We were born slaves of Satan.
We were born slaves of our fallen nature. Am I telling the truth?
And we did the bidding of our father. We did the bidding of
our nature. We did the bidding of hell because
we were slaves. We needed to be redeemed. How
do you purchase soul slaves from the slave block of eternal damnation
when the cost is eternity in hell forever? When all the souls
of all men from the beginning of time to the present hour collectively
could not purchase the recovery of one soul by all of their death
for that soul. Did you get that? How do you
purchase an eternity bound soul from hell when the whole human
race together couldn't purchase that soul? You can't unless you
are God. If you are God, you can do it.
See, only God, only God could purchase eternity bound souls
by taking their place under the eternal wrath of God and paying
the price necessary to redeem them from eternal destruction,
swallow up hell in himself, giving him and her and them eternal
life while remaining God. That's wisdom. Am I making some
sense? Now, here's what I want to ask
you as we wrap this up. I want to ask you the question.
How do you know that you are in him? Isn't that a good question? How do I know that I am in him? I want you to grasp the answer
because the answer is a question. The way you and I can know that
we are in him is whether or not we see Christ the same way that
God sees Christ. Do you see God? Do you see Christ
the way God sees him? If you do, you're in Christ. Did you get that? Because what
the text said was, he was made unto us these things. He's not made these things to
the world. He's not made these things to the dam, but he's made
all these things to his elect. How do I know that I'm in him?
Well, I see him just like God, Jesus. I see him as my righteousness,
as my redemption, as my sanctification, as my holiness. I see him as
my wisdom. That's how you know, amen.