Honest people, honest people have to deal with
things honestly. And that is especially true with
regard to spiritual things. We speak about peace, that blessed
peace you just sang of. If we have peace with God, in
our consciences. I'm not talking about a little
religion. I'm not talking about a little
religious exercise. I'm not talking about religious
devotion. I'm not talking about a pretense
to peace. I mean if indeed our souls are
to be at rest before God. If indeed our consciences are
to be at peace before God. We must have a legitimate biblical
ground upon which that peace is found. Peace that can be rightfully
and honestly claimed. Do you have such peace? Do I
have such peace? We come to God in the name of
Christ. That's what faith is. It is coming
to Him in the name of Christ, calling on Christ's name, believing
on the name of His Son. But what gives us any right to
come to God on the merit of another with no merit of our own? Turn
with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and I'm going to be
working my way down to verse 30. Beginning in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Now he is not suggesting here,
the Apostle Paul is not suggesting that baptism is insignificant
or meaningless or has no place of great importance, just the
opposite. The problem he's addressing is
these folks at Corinth. like many today, lined themselves
up with preachers, and they referred one gospel preacher to another,
claiming, I've been baptized by Peter, I've been baptized
by Paulus, I've been baptized by Paul. Paul said, I didn't
baptize any of you, and then he gives a whole list of folks
he baptized. He baptized them, and what he's saying is, you
know I didn't come among you just making converts and talking
folks into being baptized. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. We preach the gospel and baptize
folks who believe. Now watch what he says. He sent
me to preach the gospel. All the time. This is the message
we preach. In chapter 2 he says, I determined
not to know anything among you. Verse 2. Save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. True preaching is gospel preaching. It is the preaching of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. I had the difficult task sometime
back of writing to a man I highly esteemed and loved dearly, and
I had to reprove sharply because hearing him preach, I said to
him if I had come in the doors ignorant of who Christ is and
how God saves sinners, I'd have walked out the doors just as
ignorant and that ought never happen. That ought never happen. God keep me from such an abuse
of this place and keep every other man who he sends to preach
the gospel from neglecting this blessed responsibility and this
awesome responsibility. Christ sent me to preach the
gospel. I've come here tonight for that
purpose. Watch this. How do we do it?
Not with wisdom of words. Now, for me, simplicity is easy. For some fellows, it's more difficult.
But the gospel is to be preached with utter simplicity. With utter simplicity. If it
is not preached with simplicity, the fellow preaching doesn't
know what he's talking about. You just mark it down. If you've
got to go home and get a dictionary and look up the words I use,
I have failed you and failed my purpose miserably. The gospel
is to be preached with simplicity. Oftentimes people will walk out
of places after hearing somebody preach and they just scratch
their heads just in utter confusions. Boy, that was so deep I couldn't
understand it. It wasn't deep, it was muddy, and there's a difference.
Muddied with man's wisdom. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ, that is, lest the gospel of Christ, should
be made of none effect. We reason with men. We reason
with men according to the scriptures. not by mere human logic, not
by compelling men with argument that they must now acknowledge
this is the only reasonable conclusion to come to, but rather we reason
with men from the scriptures the things concerning the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We do not try to persuade men
by our brilliance, by human logic, by history, or any other means
to profess faith in Christ, but rather we simply proclaim Christ
to men, and if we get men into religious experience by some
other means, we've made the gospel of none effect to them. Read
on. for the preaching of the cross,
the word of the cross, the proclamation of the cross, the declaration
of the cross, that is, declaring who Jesus Christ is, why he came
into this world, what he accomplished by his sacrifice on the cross.
Just declaring it is to them that perish, quite literally
to them who are perishing. to you who are now perishing.
And some of you are. You're yet without faith in Christ,
perishing under the wrath of God. To them who are perishing,
what I'm doing right now is foolishness. It's foolishness. You'll sit
and think about other things, try to ignore what I'm saying.
Remember Brother Gary Vance, his grandson one time, Gary asked
Little Gary, he said, Son, do you ever hear what Brother Hap
is saying when he's preaching? And he's about nine years old
at the time. He said, Grandpa, I try not to, but sometimes somebody
slips in anyhow. And that's exactly what folks
do. They try not to hear. Because the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness. Foolishness. But unto us which are saved. Again, it's really present tense.
To us who are being saved. It is the power of God. It is the power by which God
saves sinners. For it is written, you can read
it at your leisure later over in Isaiah chapter 29, it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Men think themselves wise and
think they can, by their searching, find out God, and think they
can, by all kinds of works, make themselves acceptable to God,
and their religion is that which they consider their wisdom. God
says, I'll destroy it, bring it to nothing. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Jim Grant and I were talking
back in the office a little bit ago about evolutionary suppositions,
speculations, what they call evolutionary science. You look at it and listen, and
if you're the least bit honest, doesn't matter whether you're
saved or lost, if you're the least bit honest, doesn't matter whether
you have spiritual knowledge or carnal knowledge, if you're
the least bit honest, Every supposition of evolutionary nonsense is utter
foolishness, and yet the whole world embraces it as great wisdom. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Add to that the wisdom of this
religious world? What foolishness! What foolishness! I see the religious world around
us and the nonsense going on. Heretics a hundred years ago
would roll over in their graves to imagine folks were doing the
things they're doing in their name now. It just gets more and
more foolish every day. We don't. Verse 21, For after
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Folks are quick to say, preachers
especially, they're not talking about foolish preaching, it is
the folks who listen and refuse to believe. Just foolish, just
foolish. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, show us something. And the Greeks seek after wisdom,
teach us something. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews who want to see a sign, a stumbling block. And
unto the Greeks, the Gentiles, who want to be taught something
so that they can reason it out, foolishness. But unto them which
are called, quite literally, unto them who are thee called. And the definite article ought
to be there. Both Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, religious
folks and irreligious folks. Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. Christ, whom we preach in preaching
the gospel. He is that which makes the gospel
we preach the power of God, and He is that which makes the gospel
we preach the wisdom of God. For He, Jesus Christ crucified
is the power of God and he is the wisdom of God. I want you
to remember that. Read on verse 25. Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is
stronger than men. For you see your calling brethren.
Look around you and see how God saves sinners. These are those
who are the called. Now that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Some,
but not many. Paul was a brilliant man. He was a brilliant man. David
was a mighty man, a noble man. Abraham was a mighty and a noble
man. Job was a mighty and a noble
man. But not many mighty, not many
noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world, folks like you and me, to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
the things that are. Now, why does God do that? Why does he save sinners in this
way? By the preaching of the gospel,
not with the wisdom of men's words, but in utter simplicity. Why does God choose that which
others would cast off as useless and make these useless things,
like us, to be instruments of usefulness in the building of
his kingdom? So that if anything's done by
you or me, anything done by all of us collectively, it's evident
it wasn't our fault. It wasn't because of us, but
God's. That no flesh should glory in
His presence. That no flesh have anything to
boast of before God. I always like it when I come
to a but, and the scriptures are describing what I am, describing
my nature, describing my carnal, fallen, depraved, corrupt, sinful
nature. But of Him, that is, God is the
source, God is the means, God is the power, of him, by his
power, by his will, by his work, are you. You base things, you
despise things, you weak things. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. What does that mean? Paul is specifically talking
here about our experience of grace in Christ. We are in Christ
eternally, in an eternal union with Christ so that we are really
and truly one with him. As our Lord Jesus stood before
God in eternity, as our surety and our mediator, we were one
with him. When He came into this world
and lived and died and rose again, we were one with Him. We lived
in Him, we obeyed God in Him, we died in Him, satisfied the
law in Him, and rose together with Him. In fact, the Apostle
Paul tells us over in Ephesians chapter 2. Turn over there if
you will for just a moment. Ephesians 2. Hold your hands
here in 1 Corinthians. In Ephesians 2 and verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, dead in our father Adam long before we had any personal
being, hath quickened us, look at it now, together with Christ. He made us alive the same time
he made his son alive from the dead. By grace are you saved
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. That's what took place when Christ
rose again and ascended on high as our forerunner. We arose to
life in him. When he died, we died. When he
arose, we arose. so that everything done by him
was done by us just as we sinned in our father Adam and died in
Adam, we are made alive in Jesus Christ and we have fulfilled
all things in him as one with him. Really and truly one with
Christ. Bone of his bone and flesh of
his flesh. We have been made one with Christ
experimentally by the Holy Spirit's quickening grace, giving us life
and joining us to Christ by faith. So that as the tree branches
grafted into a tree, We have been grafted into Christ by God's
almighty grace. And that graft branch is just
as much part of that tree as any other branch in that tree
that was there by nature. We have been grafted into Jesus
Christ, really and truly one with him. Drawing life from him
and living by him. Severed from him, we're nothing. We're in Christ. by the new birth. Now, turn over to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Let me show you what it says here. Verse 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ. Here the apostle is calling for
men and women to believe on the Son of God. And he argues from
this standpoint. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things are become new. Of Him are you in Christ. God put us in His Son in old
eternity. And God deals with us only in
His Son. And in the fullness of time of
love, He comes to every chosen redeemed sinner and puts us in
Christ, causing us to live in Him and draw life from Him by
faith. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.
Now watch this. Who of God? This is God's work
alone. Nobody could do this but God.
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now I've been studying this a
good bit in recent days because I realize I haven't come close
to declaring what's stated here. Christ is made of God unto us
wisdom. What does that mean? Well, he
gives us wisdom. He does that, but that's not
what the text says. It says he's made of God unto us wisdom. Well,
he guides us with wisdom. Yes, he does that, but that's
not what the text says. The text says he is made of God
unto us wisdom. But he is our wisdom representatively
before God. Yes, he is that, but that's not
what the text says. The text says he is made of God
unto us wisdom. Look back at what we just read
in 1 Corinthians 1.24. Unto them who are thee called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. In the new birth, Jesus Christ
comes to us as the power of God, and he's made unto us the wisdom
of God. Turn back to Proverbs chapter
8. Proverbs 8. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
wisdom, and he is made of God unto us wisdom. Now watch what
it says. Christ is here speaking, speaking
under the personification of wisdom. And it says in verse
22, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before
his works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no
depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens,
I was there. When he set a compass upon the
face of the depths, when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree.
that the water should not pass his commandment. When he appointed
the foundations of the earth, then was I by him, as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth,
and my delights were with the sons of men. Now, let me show
you a parallel passage. Parallel passage, John chapter
1. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
the Word. And without him was not anything
made that was made. Christ is the word of God and
he speaks here of himself just as he spoke in Proverbs chapter
8 as the wisdom of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
one by whom God communicates to man. himself, and by whom
men come to God and are accepted. Christ is he by whom God is revealed,
and Christ is he by whom we come to God. We cannot approach God
any other way, and God cannot come to us in any other way.
Let me see if I can communicate it by illustration. Sometimes
we hear people talk about their pets as if they were people. Sometimes I hear folks talk about
a dog or a cat. Oh, I love my dog like a child. Well, you never had a child.
I hope I never know what it is to be your child. No, that's
not possible. You can't love that which gives
no love in return. Can't be done. Can't be done. Nor can you communicate with
that which cannot communicate in return. You can command, you
can order, but you can't communicate with. You can have no communion
with. In order for us to commune with
someone, in order for us to really have fellowship with someone,
it must be another like us. It must be another like us, one
of our equals. That's what me and are. And as
we communicate with one another, we walk together on the same
ground, communicating the same ideas, because we are the same
human flesh, the same people. God Almighty could never communicate
with you, and you could never communicate with him, except
he found a way it could be done. God could never come to you,
and you could never come to Him, except He found a way it could
be done. And in this sense, Paul says,
of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. I found a way to deliver Him
from going down to the pit. Now, let me show you this wisdom
and righteousness. Righteousness. We were by nature
ignorant and foolish, blind. We could not see. We knew nothing
about ourselves, knew nothing about God, knew nothing about
sin, knew nothing about salvation. Ignorant of God, ignorant of
his grace, ignorant of his works until he comes and makes Christ
by divine revelation the wisdom of God unto us. He comes by the
power of the word and shows us God's wisdom. How that God can
be just and justify the ungodly. And he does it by declaring to
us that Christ is made of God unto us righteousness. You see,
every man knows, every woman knows that God is righteous. And God demands righteousness. He demands it. That's the reason
men keep trying to do something and make great sacrifices, hoping
somehow to appease God who demands righteousness. Jesus Christ is
made of God unto us righteousness. How? He who knew no sin was made sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Hanging on the cursed tree, God Almighty made His Son sin. I can't fathom that. In fact,
I don't even want to. I can't understand it. I can't
explain it. I'll make no effort at it. The
Word was made flesh. In the same way, He who is God
the Son, the Word was made sin. Our sin was made His because
He, His own self, bear our sin in His own body on the tree.
And when He was made sin, He was condemned justly for our
sins. Condemned justly for what he
called mine iniquities. You can read it for yourself
in the 40th Psalm. Mine iniquities. You mean our sin really became
his? Either that, or this whole book's
a fable. It is written, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. If a man condemns the righteous,
God said, he's an abomination to me. He was made sin for us. Now, in exactly the same way,
to exactly the same degree, for exactly the same reason, we have
been made the righteousness of God in Him. His name is Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. My conscience demands righteousness. God's law demands righteousness. And in Christ I am righteous. The word that is used here is
exactly the same word that is commonly translated, justification. He was made of God unto us, justification. So that we now stand in Christ,
exact replicas of God's own Son, justified. We sometimes use cliches. We live in a soundbite generation. I've heard all my life, justified,
just as if I'd never sinned. That's not right. That's not
right. In Christ, I've never sinned. He has put away our sin. Do you understand that? He's
removed our transgressions and our iniquities and our sins from
us as far as the East is from the West, so that God Himself
declares their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. He remembers them no more because
Christ by His sacrifice has fully satisfied the whole of God's
law and justice, and now God pardons His people freely and
fully and declares He has made the righteousness of God unto
us. Here I stand before God, completely
justified. The Spirit of God comes in regenerating
grace and convinces people of righteousness. Our Savior said,
because I go to my Father. How do you know? Because he who
came here to do the will of God, saying, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O my God, said, Now watch me, in just a couple of days,
I'm going back to my Father. And I could not ascend to my
Father had I not fulfilled his will. And that's what we did
in him. We fulfilled the whole will of
God for a man. But I've still got a problem.
I've still got a problem. I see nothing in me but corruption
and depravity and sin. And I know that God demands holiness. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14. Follow peace. Pursue. Paul said, I count all things
but loss. This is what he's talking about. Follow peace with all
men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Hold your hand there. Look back
at 1 Corinthians 1.30. I want you to look at them both. Of
Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness and, anybody want to guess what that word
is? It's exactly the same word. Holiness. Holiness. In the new birth, God
puts in his people his own son. Holiness. It's called that which
is born of God and cannot sin. It's called being partakers of
the divine nature. It's called Christ in you, the
hope of glory. Christ is our entire sanctification. He is that holiness that God
requires. But what about our flesh, our
sin, that evil nature, this body of death? Blessed be God, soon
we're going to drop it. It shall be destroyed. Adam will, after all, die. Isn't that what the Lord said
in the beginning? He said, Adam, in the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. And most anybody will tell you,
in the day you eat thereof, It literally ought to read like
this, dying thou shalt die. I die daily and blessed be God
soon I shall die. And when I die, that's the death
of this man, Don Fortner's flesh. That's the death of sin, the
death of corruption, the death of evil that's in me. Christ
is that holiness that lives forever. How many times in the Scriptures
when our Lord Jesus came And there was one who was lame, or
deaf, or blind. And the Master said, Behold, this is what Christ has done
for us. He's come by His sovereign grace
and made the lame, the blind, the deaf, the haught, and the
dead whole again. I stand whole before God, made
me to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Can you
get a hold of what I'm saying? Christ, oh, this is the wisdom
by which sinners live forever! Christ is my holiness! He is righteousness for me, to
justify me, and holiness in me, sanctifying me, giving me hope
of glory. Now look at the next word. And
redemption. And redemption. There are three
words used in the Greek text, all of which are translated redeem
or redemption. Three words. Most of us here are families,
so let me just give you the words. The word that's usually commonly
used as translated bought is the word agarazo. It simply means
to buy something. You buy a piece of property.
You possess the property. It's your property, but you don't
move the property. I'm talking about an acreage.
I'm not talking about a house. You could move the house if you wanted
to. I'm talking about 10 acres of ground. You bought that property
up there a couple of years ago, Larry. You're not going to move
it. You may move it up and down, but you're not going to move
it. It's going to be right there. You just bought it, became the owner
of it. It is in that sense, it is that's
the words that's used in 2 Peter 2.1, speaking of false prophets
who deny the Lord who bought them. Jesus Christ, the God-man,
bought the world as a man, to rule over it as a man. It does
not imply salvation in any way. The other word is ekagorazo. It means to buy out. That's the
word that you use if you went to the pawn shop and you had
hopped a diamond and you go back to redeem it. You pay the money
and you take it home with you. That's what Christ did for his
people. But he did something else, and that's the third word,
and that's what's used here. This is the word luthrao. You
remember what our Lord said when Lazarus was raised from the dead?
In John 11.44, he came and said, Lazarus, come forth. Gave that
dead man life. His next word was loosing and
let him go. That's the word lutropo, loose. It is the loosing. It's the word
commonly used for deliverance. Our Lord Jesus Christ is made
of God and to us wisdom. This is what that means. He is
our righteousness. He is our holiness and He is
our deliverance. Soon, soon, soon we shall be
loosed. He loosed us from the grave. He loosed us from death. He loosed
us from the law, giving us life and faith. He loosed us by His
death from the curse of the law. Blessed be God soon. He shall loose us from every
consequence of evil, from every consequence of the fall, from
every consequence of sin, our own and Adam's. He will loose
us. I told you some time ago, I forgot
when, Shelby and I took Faith when she was a little girl to
Roanoke Zoo in Roanoke, Virginia. And we saw an eagle there. First time I'd ever seen one
close up. A grown man. And that eagle was sitting on
a bar. Just sitting there on a bar.
And he was chained to that bar. Just a post with a key on it.
He was chained to it. So he could fly a little ways.
But he'd about given up flying. I looked at him as he'd look
down at me, look down at faith, look down at the ground, and
he'd look up in the air as if to say, oh, how I wish I could
soar to the heavens. Lindsey, that's me. But right
now, I'm tethered here. with something called Adam's
nature. Soon I shall be loosed. When Christ calls me home to
glory, I shall be loosed from every aspect of Adam's ruin and
Adam's fall. Not loosed only from condemnation. Not loosed only from the curse. Not loosed only from sin's dominion. Loosed completely from everything
that I loathe. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth. We are the circumcision. We are
the circumcision. Worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Our
glory is not in ourselves. Our rest, our trust, our confidence
is not in us. But we glory in the Lord who
of God is made unto us wisdom. That is to say, righteousness
such as God demands, holiness such as God demands, deliverance
such as only God can give. Amen.