The Bible says that there was
no beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ that men should desire him. There
was nothing about him as he came in the flesh that would cause
the natural man to see God in him and cause the natural man
to desire him, respect him, reverence him, and receive him into their
hearts. We know that the Apostle Paul
here has been dealing with a subject that I believe will become very
precious to those that are the children of God as they think
and meditate upon these verses that we've read to you today.
I believe that every child of God here today considers the
Lord Jesus Christ to be precious. He is precious to all those who
believe. Now the difference between the
natural man who does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
their foolishness unto them, and they cannot know them because
the things of God are revealed unto the souls of men by the
Holy Spirit. The difference between the saved
man and the lost man, their attitudes toward Christ, which is absolutely
totally different, is because of the revelation of God's Spirit.
We see beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see salvation in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We see wisdom in Christ. Christ is the all in all of the
child of God and a lost man does not have a shadow of a hope without
Christ and he does not know who Christ is and he cannot believe
the gospel because his mind is so calloused and hardened by
sin and by Satan that he has no ability in and of himself
to come to Christ, to believe Christ and to repent of his sin
and to believe savingly on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
work of the Divine Spirit. God must do all of this in those
that are saved in his people. He must call them by his Spirit. Now, in the context to our verses
here today, the Apostle Paul has been led to make the confession
that Jesus Christ was despised or looked down on by both the
Jews and the Gentiles. But this was no cause of stumbling
to the Apostle Paul, because what others thought foolishness,
and certainly men thought, that the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate,
God in human flesh, They thought that this was foolishness to
think that God would come down to this earth and that He would
live among sinners, take upon Himself the nature of man, and
that He would end up on a gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem,
dying there, the death of a sinner, in order to save His people.
The world thinks this is foolishness. But Paul says that which is foolishness
to the world, he said, I believe this to be wisdom. And Paul rejoiced
in this foolishness of God that he said was wiser than men and
the weakness of God that was stronger than men. Now those
who have studied the Word of God to any length know that God
Almighty is a success. They know that God is no failure.
They know that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's servant, is no
failure. They know that He will accomplish
the purpose that God sent Him here to accomplish. And let the
world look at the cross. Let the world look at the lowly
and despise Jesus. And let they say what they will
about Him. But the Lord Jesus Christ will
triumph He will have his people, he will save his people from
their sin. Now then, the Apostle Paul understood
that God had to open a man's eyes, that God had to reveal
Christ and reveal the mystery of the gospel to a man before
he could ever understand who the Lord Jesus Christ really
is. Where is the wise? He asked in
verse 20. Where is the scribe? Where is
the man who would argue and dispute with God? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? Now we know that most people
feel they can get them some commentaries and they can get them an education
and they'll know who God is. They can find out who God is
by simply studying and reading books. But my friend, you cannot
find Christ just simply by becoming an intellectual and by getting
all and hoarding up and making yourself a big library. You certainly
cannot find Christ in that way. The Lord Jesus Christ is found
by the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the heart through the
foolishness of preaching. God saves those who believe the
gospel as that gospel is preached and as it is proclaimed and declared
unto them. God must reveal His Son. God
must reveal His salvation. Now Paul in verse 22 says the
Jews, they want a sign, and the Greeks, they just want more wisdom.
But they don't understand. But Paul said, we just go on
preaching Christ and Him crucified. And this is a stumbling block
unto the Jews and to the Greeks. It's just utter foolishness that
a man would get up and preach about a Jesus who came into this
world. A Jesus that wound up on a cross. A Jesus that suffered death.
in the behalf of, and vicariously on the behalf of those that his
father had chosen and had given to him as a love gift from the
foundation of the world. This is utter foolishness. But
then we look in verse 24, But unto them which are called, but
unto them which are called." Now, those are the ones that
God has given to Christ in that eternal covenant of grace. They
have been called irresistibly by God's Holy Spirit. They have
been called effectually. They have been brought out of
their sins. They've been brought out of sin's
death. They've been brought into the life and liberty and light
of the gospel. They have been called of God,
not merely invited, They have been called. They have been changed.
God has laid hold of them. God has crossed their path. God
has changed the circumstances of their life. God has changed
their attitude. God has changed their mind. God
has interfered and undertaken for them. and in some way or
another He has brought them to the place where they've been
able to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him into their
heart, into their soul. Their eyes have been opened to
understand what they are by nature and who God is and who Christ
is and the demands and claims of God. They've been able to
understand and realize and they've been brought to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, and to hope in Him for the salvation of their
soul from eternal ruin. And so these are the call. Paul
said unto them, whether they be a Jew or they be Greek, Christ
is the power of God to these people, and He's the wisdom of
God. And today, Jesus Christ is the
power of God to you that believe and to you that trust. And as
far as you're concerned, there is no other way but the way of
the cross. There is no other way but the
way of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way to God but
through Him, and in Him you find your acceptance. Christ is the
wisdom of God to all believers. Now in verse 26, He said, for
you see your calling, brethren. And so do you see your calling
this morning? Has God laid hold of you? Has
God been pleased to cross your path? Has God been pleased to
teach you to the Lord Jesus? Have you come to the place where
you're empty of self, and where you're sick of self, and you've
come to that place where you're fond of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and where you hope in Him, and where you trust in Him? Do you
see your calling, brethren? Do you see it? Has God revealed
Himself to you this morning? Now then, God has used the means
of the Gospel. Through the foolishness of preaching,
He said, He saves them that believe. God has used His Gospel. But
now brethren, what Paul is doing here in these verses, he's showing
us that God, as it were, has come to that place where because
of His glory, And because of the ultimate end that he has
in mind, and that is that he will save his people, and in
the end there will be no flesh that will be able to glory in
his presence, he has worked things just like this. You see your
calling brethren, not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called, and this is for the same reason.
Paul is saying that God is going to be all in all and that no
flesh is going to glow in his presence and therefore he's going
to save people by revelation and not by their smarts and not
by their merit and by their wisdom. Now that's the reason why that
we hear testimony often of people who cannot even read that come
to understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is, who God is. They come to salvation and come
to have a good testimony of the grace of God in their heart because
God reveals Christ by His Spirit to their hearts. Now then, when
we come to this 26th verse, and he talks about God having chosen,
in verse 27, the foolish things of the world, and God hath chosen
the weak things, and then in verse 28, the base things of
the world. This is a description of God's
people, those that God has chosen out of the world. And it's clear
to me, and I think it is, to any of you that have read and
meditated to any degree upon this chapter, that everyone who
observes scripture and observes fact, that God never did intend
to make his gospel fashionable, and that the very last thing
that was ever in his thoughts were to select the elite of mankind
and to gather dignity for his truth from the gaudy trappings
of rank and station. God had never in his mind the
idea that he would save those that are considered by the world
to be somebody. that God would lay hold of them
and save them and thus bring honor to His gospel by saving
the up, the mighty, and the powerful of this world, the noble, and
those that were really somebody. God never had that intention.
On the contrary, God has thrown, as it were, down the gauntlet
against all the pride of manhood, and he is throwing dirt, as it
were, into the face of human excellency. He's throwing dirt
into the face of those that are the wise and the prudent of the
world, and he's hid his truth, hid his gospel, hid his salvation
from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. overturn, overturn, seems to
be the very motto of the Lord of hosts, and shall be so till
he comes again, whose right it is to reign, and that is the
Lord Jesus Christ. His is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever, and he will have it. God has fixed it
so that Christ will have the honor and the glory, and that
no flesh will ever glory in his presence. Now brethren, There
is no doctrine that is truly more humbling than the doctrine
of election. The doctrine of election is truly
a humbling doctrine. Because what it reveals is that
you and I, that we would not choose Christ. We would not choose
God. We would not choose right, left
to ourselves, on our own. We would not come to God. We
would not trust God. We would not believe in Him.
Not on our own. God had to choose for us. He had to make the choice and
He had to bring us unto His Son. Yea, He had to bring us unto
Himself. Now, it was for this reason that
the Apostle Paul here refers to it, that the disciples here
at Corinth, that they might not stumble when they would hear
about the fact that they in and of themselves would not believe
Christ, trust Christ, and come to Christ, And it's for this
reason that Paul here describes and tells them about how God
has give up on the wisdom of this world and the things of
this world and how that Jesus Christ who was despised by everybody
that is anybody, how that he was God's wisdom and God's salvation
so that when they followed the lowly Jesus and were rejected
of men themselves, that they would not be made to stumble,
they would be made to realize that they were following the
lowly Christ and that they themselves were those at recipients of his
goodness and mercy and kindness and grace and they would not
in any way be stumbled by this. Now the doctrine of election,
as we said, is a humbling doctrine. Now, let me talk a little bit
to you this morning, first of all, about the elector himself. Three times in this text that
I've read to you, beginning with verse 26 through verse 29, we
find this mention that God hath chosen. God hath chosen, God
hath chosen. He is the Elector. Now some men are saved and others,
they pursue their sin on to judgment. What is the difference and who
makes the difference? Now we know that there is a difference,
we've told you a little bit about this, that there are men that
go to hell. Why do men go to hell if there's
such a thing as salvation? If there's such a thing as God
reaching down and delivering men from hell, why do men go
to hell? Well, it's because of their own
sin. They will not, in and of themselves,
come to Him. They will not turn, they will
not believe. They will not. They would rather
perish. They would rather perish than
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, whose will is it that puts
the difference between those that will not and those that
do? Well, it's God's will. Because James 1 and verse 18
says, Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. And
John 1 and 13 tells us that it's those not born of blood, nor
the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, but those that
are born by the will of God. God hath chosen the grace which
is found in any man and the glory and the eternal life to which
any attain are all the gifts of God's election and are not
bestowed according to the will of man. It's all bestowed according
to the will of God. It's bestowed because of the
great Elector, the Lord God Himself. Now, notice, if you will, these
facts. Number one, from the beginning,
God's choice of men rather than the angels, for an example. Now,
we know that the angels sinned and they sang around the throne
of God and were the servants of God in heaven above, but they
were deceived by Satan and they fell into sin. And then we know
that Adam and Eve was put into the Garden of Eden, and we know
they fell in sin in the Garden. But God made a choice between
men and angels, and He chose men. God, through grace, whispered,
as it were, into the ear of Eve in the garden and said that the
seed of the woman would bruise the seed of Satan, the seed of
the devil. And this was a message of grace,
would bruise the serpent's head. And so this was a word which
indicated that God was going to save a people out from among
the Gentiles, out from among all mankind, if you please. God
was going to save a people for His name, out of the race of
man, that He would save a multitude that was more numerous than the
sand of the seashore. Angels, He left. In their first
estate, he left them, and they had fallen, as it were, by Satan,
and God said, I'll just leave them. I will leave them. For
reasons known only to God, he left them, and he said, I'll
set my love, I'll set my affection upon the sons of men. I will
call out of Adam's race a people. He said, I will have mercy. on
whom I will have mercy, Romans 9 and 15. And so God then left
the angels to themselves and unto eternal judgment, those
who fell, and chose to save men who had fallen instead. Now,
think of God's choice of men, if you will. We know and we've
said that men do not choose God. Abraham did not choose God. Abraham, God came to him. and
he called him out of the Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham was Assyrian
and he was in idolatry ready to perish and God called him,
God chose him and called him unto himself. Israel was a chosen
nation while other nations were left to bow down before the gods
of wood and stone. They alone were beloved of God
and had the prophets, and had the sacrifices. Beloved, this
is something that we have to face. God has made choices, and
God has chosen His people. Well, what about David? We think
of David, and did he choose the throne? No. Turn back, if you
will, to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and look at this.
Here's David and he's out tending the sheep and God has rejected
Saul and the Lord has chosen a new king. Samuel was sent to
anoint this new king and Samuel didn't even know who it was that
the Lord had chosen. And so the seven sons of Jesse
were marched before Samuel, and Samuel thought, in verse 6 here,
in 1 Samuel 16, that when Elab came before him, Samuel said,
Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said
unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height
of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth
not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And so Jesse called
Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither
hath the Lord chosen this. And then Jesse made another one
of his sons to pass by, and neither hath the Lord chosen this. And
so seven of Jesse's sons passed by, and the Lord had not chosen
any of them. And Samuel said in verse 11,
Are here all thy children? Is this all of your children?
And he said, No, there remains yet the youngest, and behold,
he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, You
send and fetch him, for we'll not sit down till he come hither.
And so he sent, and he brought him in, and the Lord said to
Samuel, he said, Arise, and anoint him, for this is he. Arise and
anoint him, for this is he. This is the one that I've chosen.
This is the one that I've chosen to be my child and to be king
over Israel. The one that I will work in and
through. The one that I will give victory
to Israel through. This is the one. And so God does
indeed make choices among men, and he's made choices even down
to every one of his children, God chooses those that he will
save. Now, notice if you will this
thought also, that God's office demands that he be in a position
to make choices. Now the Lord is king and clearly
the Lord's will must determine the matter. Shall not the king
have his own will? I am and there is none besides
me, he says. He gives no account of his matters
to others. And so God's office, now listen
to me, all the questions that would be asked of God in His
position as King, He answers them by Romans 9 verse 20 and
21, where He said, Who art thou that replyest against God? Can
the thing formed say to him that formed me, why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay to make of the same lump? Can he not make the vessels
that he chooses? God is in a position of power
and he's king over all. And so he can do what he will.
And he can do what he will with his own. And now we know that
the church is a building. And shall not the Lord, is it
not His sovereign prerogative to choose, as it were, the living
stones that makes up His building, the church? Shall He not choose
the members of His body? Christ is the head, and the church,
the members, makes up His body. And shall He not choose them?
Shall He not choose His bride? Does not every man and retain
the right unto himself to choose that one that he would marry,
and shall not God Almighty be able to choose the bride for
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ? And also, my friend, he is adopting
members into his own family. Shall he not make the choice?
Is it not in His power? Is it not in His hand? Should
it not be left to Him to make the choice of those that makes
up His family? Now the absolute position of
God as King demands that His will be done in these matters. And who the Lord saves, that's
His business. That belongs to God. That is
for Him to decide who is saved and who is not. Now then, so
much for the elector. God is the elector. God hath
chosen. God hath chosen. God hath chosen. Now notice, if you will, the
strange choice or the election itself which God has made. The
Lord is about to choose the people that will give honor to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are to be redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ. and there to be in some sense
a worthy reward for the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
then, we read the text here with astonishment. You see what kind
of people, did you read, did you listen as we read the text
this morning? Now listen, this is a strange
choice indeed for him to make. He chooses the kind of people
that is contrary, directly contrary to human choice. Now men chooses
those who are the most helpful to them. Well listen, these would
all be left out. We would never choose the kind
of people that God chooses. This is indeed a very strange
choice. God chooses those to whom He
can be the most helpful. We would choose those that would
be the most help to us. We select those who are best
because they are most deserving, and He selects those who are
worst because they are least deserving, so that His choice
may be more clearly seen to be an act of grace and not of merit. Now listen to these words. God
hath chosen the foolish things. Not many wise, not many mighty,
not many noble. God hath chosen the foolish things. God hath chosen, as it were here,
things which are despised. And God has chosen things which
are not to bring to naught things that are. God has chosen these
and it is that His grace would be magnified and honored and
glorified. It is indeed a choice which is
contrary to ours. Now it's a very gracious choice
because, listen to me, how gracious has God been in your case and
mine? Here God has been pleased to
lay hold of a sinner, of a man who was a rebel against God,
a man who was not worthy of any of the mercies of God, and certainly
not worthy of the Lord's salvation, but God in grace. has laid hold
of me, and God has laid hold of you, and brought you out of
your sin, and brought you to hope in the gospel, and brought
you to hope in everlasting life. And this is a very gracious choice
of God indeed, because there are so many, many, many that
seem to be more worthy than what we are, but yet God has laid
hold of us. Certainly this was a choice,
contrary to human choice, and it's a choice that is very gracious
indeed. How blessed is the condescending
grace of our Lord, the condescending grace of this Lord. How encouraging
this is for us, that God would reach down and that He would
save the likes of me and you. and that he would fix us up so
that God, not even God himself, could find any fault in us, that
we would be without spot or blemish or any such thing. Yes, he passed
by the philosopher that he might receive the fool, as it were. We have no pedigree, we have
no great learning, we have no wealth, we are nobody, as one
fellow said, from no place. We don't have anything to draw
the attention of God to us, yet God sent his love and affection
upon us and delivered us. Now every Christian who finds
himself chosen of God, will think that his own election is the
strangest choice of all. That God should have touched
him, that God should have delivered and saved him. Now then, let's
look at these elected ones. And as they're described here,
and they're described both negatively and positively, and so let's
look at the negative side. We see here that they're not
wise after the flesh. Now, the twelve apostles were
not learned doctors of religion. No, they were not. They were
twelve fishermen, unlearned, that spread the gospel, and the
glory all went to God, who was the author of the gospel. God
delivered those twelve unlearned fishermen, and the gospel was
spread throughout the known world at that time, and the gospel The cause of God has been such
a success in the world, and that is because God chose the mighty,
and those mighty ones went out, and they won the world for God.
They won the world for Christ. They turned back the evil, and
they brought in the good. But God, that's not His way. He says, not many mighty. And
listen, beloved, the might of the mighty is not going to have
the glory for any success that God Almighty has. God Himself
will have the glory. The Lord, His conquest does not
depend upon the mighty. It depends upon His own power,
upon the strength of His own arm, upon the power of His own
gospel. upon the power of His own Spirit. Not by might, nor by power, but
by My Spirit, saith the Lord. God delivers, not by the mighty. Now, it also says, not many noble. Those with a long pedigree. Those
that, well, they have through a line of princesses. They have
come and there is now seated. Maybe they've come from the loins
of kings, if you please. And their blue blood in their
veins. Well, the Lord has not called
many like that. There's been a few, but not many
nobles have been called. Now then, the positive side.
Listen to this. Foolish things, God says, He's
chosen. As if the Lord here has chosen
were not by nature good enough to be called men, but were only
things. The foolish things of the world. Now this, didn't I say that the
doctrine of election was a truly humbling doctrine? Now for God
to speak of His people as the foolish things of the world. Now that might be rather hard
on you this morning, but nevertheless, it's what the Word of God says.
Now listen, weak things, not merely weak men, but weak things. God's people are by nature, they're
very weak. Larry said it was weakest water
in his prayer this morning. It's true. It's a true statement.
And then base things is what the scripture says. Things without
pedigree. Things that you can't trace.
You can't find the Father. Things which cannot be traced.
back, you see, nobody, their father is nobody and their mother
was nothing. These base things of the world,
things that you cannot, my friend, find anything, people that you
can't find anything in that would attract God Almighty to come
and to save them. Things that are despised, smeared
at, persecuted, treated with indifference. They're not worth
notice. Just pass them by and let them
alone. These are the kind of people that God has reached out
and touched. and saved. This is the Lord's
family that's being spoken of here. These are the kind of people
that God set His love upon. Things that are not. Nothing. Those nothings of the world.
These are God's chosen people. These are those that God has
saved. Now, there's some that will say, well, we never heard
of you. We never heard of... We've heard about a band of fanatics. that believe what you believe,
believe and teach what you believe and preach. We've heard of you
low lives, but we really don't know anything about you. And
there's never been any real bishops come out from among you, no right
reverend father in gods that's ever sprang out of your group,
no. We are the family of God, we
are the bride of Christ, we are the chosen of God, and let the
world say what they will about us. Now, let me go on. We want to conclude this. And
we have here the reasons why God has chosen these particular
people, these kind of people. Why did he do it? Well, we have
the immediate reason, and that immediate reason is given here
where it says, it is to confound the wise and the mighty, and
to bring to naught things that are. Now for one wise man to
confound another wise man is a remarkable thing indeed. For
a wise man to confound a fool is an easy thing to do. But for
a fool to confound a wise man is the finger of God. And that's
what you have in all of this. God Almighty has so worked that
those who were considered nobodies and nothing and fools of the
world, God Almighty has delivered, saved, and lifted them up and
set them up in high places in Christ Jesus, yea, even at the
right hand of God in Christ. And these people, my friend,
have overcome all the world and the wisdom of the world. Now
the second and ultimate reason is that no flesh may glory in
His presence. That's in verse 29, that no flesh. Notice that he does not say that
no man. He says no flesh. He just clumps
them all together. All flesh. He says that no flesh. I'm doing it my way, God says. I'm doing it this way and this
is the way that I've done it in order that no flesh will glory
in my presence. Nobody's going to boast when
they get to heaven that they lifted themselves up there by
their own bootstraps. If anybody gets to heaven, God's
gonna come down, down, down where you are and get you and lift
you all the way up and grace will take you all the way from
where you are all the way over the threshold into eternal glory. We only get to heaven by the
grace of God. Because the people that God takes
to eternal heaven are people who cannot get themselves any
other way except God do all for them that He demand of them. And so God does it on the behalf
of these people that no flesh may glory in His presence. My
friend, the religious world in our day and time is full of boasting. Men are so proud, lifted up with
pride about who they are, where they came from, what they believe,
and where they stand, and all that they have. The pride of
life, this is not of the father, it's of the world, and the world
is passing away. Only those whom God has laid
hold of and saved, only those that God has touched and lifted
up, only those that God has delivered and circumcised by His Spirit,
their hearts, only those, my friend, will end up in eternal
glory. No flesh is going to glory in
His presence. Now, flesh, dogs meat, worms
meat, when God chooses. My friend, flesh, no flesh, is
going to glory in His presence. He has chosen the poorest flesh,
and the most foolish flesh, and the weakest flesh, and all other
flesh that is only flesh, and only grass may see that God's
power and contempt will have no flesh, will glory in his presence,
that God has heaped contempt upon all this flesh as men speak
of it. God has heaped contempt upon
it and it will never be able to glory in his presence. Well,
what's your attitude about all this? What's your attitude about
it? You say, well, you know, I can't
hardly accept that, that God isn't somewhere or another recognizing
flesh. You mean it doesn't mean a thing
that I'm who I am? You mean I don't count? You mean
that I, you know, I mean, I can trace my way back. All my relatives been religious. Well, you know, I'd like to say,
well, that'll help a little, but it won't help a bit. Probably,
if anything, it'll hurt. Because it'll just blind you
to make you think you've got a little something. And the more
you think you've got, My friend, the more likely you're going
to go to hell. God saves people that don't have anything. That's
the kind of people that God saves. People that have no merit. People
that have nothing to offer Him. People whose hands are empty
and who just come to the cross of Christ and come believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh no, my friend, what is your
attitude? Well, don't you say, I'd like
for something to count. My friend, nothing you have,
God needs. God saves men and women whom
He has loved from eternity. and he saves them all together
on the basis of grace. Now your view of things and God's
view of things My friend, you're wrong. The Bible says, as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are the Lord's ways higher
than our ways. And my friend, you need a new
heart. If you differ in your thinking,
you say, well, God ought to recognize some of our goodness and some
of our merit. My friend, you need to be reconciled
to God. And if you were to be reconciled
in your mind to God's way, it is God's will that you live.
Otherwise, it is not God's will that you live. And when you agree
with God that He should reign, and that God should have all
the glory, and that if anybody is salvaged out from under this
mess of humanity, if anybody is saved and made clean and spotless
before God, if anybody is delivered, that God should have all the
glory, that God should have all the praise, that God should have
the honor. If that, if you can come to agree
with that, Then, my friend, God has willed that you live, that
you live, that you have life. Oh, my friend, listen, when I
said the doctrine of election is the most truly humbling doctrine
in the Bible, I'm telling you the truth. I'm just not trying
to find something to say. I'm telling you the truth. It'll
humble you to realize That God has set his love and affection
upon his people. And then when he did so, he said,
I'll just assume every obligation to have. It's like when a man
marries a woman. He assumes every obligation that
she has. Takes it all. And that's the
way Christ was when he saved his people. He said, I just take
every obligation you got. I got it all. And he said, all
my merit is yours. You take my name. You're a Christian. You take my name. And what it
means, that's yours. I give it to you. And God only
accepts his son. And only accepts those who are
in his son. And all of his elect, all of
his elect are redeemed. They've been bought with a price.
And they've been accepted in the beloved. And if you're in
Christ, you're accepted. If you're not in Christ, you're
not accepted. You say, well, the religion I've
got. Oh, I don't care about the religion you've got. No, no,
no. If you're in Christ, you're accepted.
If you're not, you're not. You're not accepted of God. You
say, well, if I believe what you believe, would that be accepted?
Well, no, if it was real in your heart. I mean, if God reveals
Christ to you, it's not enough to say in your head, I agree
with you. That's not enough. And you know,
one of the things that I've been very much in my own heart thinking
about lately is the number of people in our day and time among
the fundamentalists who are educating their children in what we call
Christian schools. And they're teaching their children
to live like Christians. And you see, there's nothing
wrong with teaching your children to live like Christians, but
they must be told at the same time that you cannot become a
Christian by acting like one. You must be made one by the sovereign
operation of the divine Spirit of God, or you cannot be a Christian. You must be born again. You must
be delivered by the Spirit of God. And you must be put into
Christ. And you can teach a child to
be anything I've told you before. You can teach him to be a little
Catholic, a little Baptist, or a little Presbyterian. You can
teach him to be anything. But that won't save him. That
won't save him. Only God can save a sinner. Of God. If you were to notice
in verse 30, it says, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus. That's how you got in Him. Of
Him. God had to put you in His Son. And until He does that, Then,
my friend, you have no wisdom, you have no righteousness, you
are not set apart unto God, and you are not bought back. You
are still in the slave market of sin, and until God lays hold
of you, and until He does this for you, then you're not His
child. May God be pleased this morning.
We have sought to honor His name and honor Him this morning. May
He be pleased to bless and own His message. and may it be to
His glory to do so. And may somebody out of these
stumbling remarks be brought to see this morning that God
is pleased to raise up a people and to give them everything He
demanded of them and to make, by the beauty that He puts on
them, to make them His own. And can we turn thumbs down on
everything we got? and just trust Him fully and
believe that He's able to make us whatever His Father demand
that we be? If we can do that, then we're
a child of God. We're a child of God. We can
say, I'm a child of God, if so be that we can trust His beauty
and trust His merit and trust Him fully. You see, it's His
work. It's His work altogether. Well,
you know, it's really hard on flesh for it to be stripped.
It's just like making an orphan out of somebody. It's hard on
flesh when you kill their religion, kill all their works, kill everything
they got they've been dependent on, strip them of everything,
and say, Christ only is all that God will accept. And He's all
God demands, Christ. Do you know Him? Are you in Him?
May God bless you. Father, thank you.