I invite your attention back
to I Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30. It is said in this passage of
Scripture, in order that we would understand why
we are not to glory in our flesh, that God, the sovereign God,
has made Jesus Christ to be some things to us. to be some things. And whatever God does, God does
forever. We can count on that. So what
this here is for every one of you who are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has brought the faith in Him, who
were chosen because you were weak and frail and puny, not
because you were great, who was chosen because you're nothing
rather than something. That God has made Jesus Christ
to be to us so Jesus Christ is this to us, and we are this in
God's sight because God has made us to be. Now the word made here,
God hath made Him to be unto us. The word made means to regard
as, put in the category of, treat as, and actually make someone
to be. And here it says that Jesus Christ
is made to be our wisdom. Our wisdom. And that's a very
good thing because God has said He's going to destroy the wisdom
of the world in this very chapter. He goes on to say that in His
wisdom, Man's wisdom can never discover who God is. According
to his predestinated plan and purpose, you, by the wisdom you're
born with, no matter how great it is, no matter how great it
becomes, no matter how much you study, no matter how much you
do, can never ever discover God. It is according to God's wisdom
that by man's wisdom, man cannot know God. God has said He's going
to destroy wisdom, human wisdom. Then He goes on to say that Jesus
Christ, preaching Jesus Christ to be crucified, is the wisdom
and the power of God. And then He says this, that Christ
is made to be our wisdom. What does that mean? It simply
means this, to know Jesus Christ is to know God. And to know Jesus
Christ is only by revelation. What does that mean? It means
one day you knew it, the day before you didn't. No, let's
make that closer. One second you didn't know it,
the next second you knew it. That's impossible. With you it's
impossible, but not with God. You did not become, over a period
of years, a believer. Now God in His prevenient grace
may have worked many things in you before He introduced you
to His Son. He may have done many things
for you. In fact, He controlled your life and guarded your life
because the elect are immortal until God has them meet Jesus
Christ. And nothing can happen to you. And God in prevenient grace may
have done many things, but one day, one hour, one moment, God
made you a believer by giving you faith. And what you had not
believed a second before and could never believe and could
never be convinced of, the next second you were a believer. And you could never be convinced
that what you now believe was not the absolute truth of Almighty
God. And you die for it and you cannot
believe anymore. That's by revelation. By revelation. Our Lord prayed to His Father
and said, No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and no man
knoweth the Son but the Father, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. Salvation is a revelation. Look
over at 1 John just for a moment. God has made Christ to be our
wisdom. In 1 John chapter 5, In verse
20, this is what the believer knows. How does he know? He knows by faith. Peter said, We believe and are
sure that Thou art the Son of the living God, and that's the
way it works. He didn't say, We're sure and therefore we believe.
He would have said, We believe and therefore we're sure. We
know some things by God's Word. Verse 20 says, We know that the
Son of God is come. We know that. Have you ever seen
Him? Have you ever talked to Him face
to face as a human being to a human being here on this earth? Not how you know. We know this. How do we know? God revealed
it to us. That's how we know. It's the
only way we know. God gave us faith to believe
what He revealed to us. And we know that the Son of God
has come. And what did He do when He came? And has given us an understanding. He's given us an understanding.
He's not laid out several ways for us to gain this understanding.
He's given us an understanding. He's written His laws and His
words in our heart and in our minds. He's given us an understanding. What does this understanding
entail? What's this understanding about? That we may know Him. That is true. This is why you
have an understanding. Not so you'll be smart. Not so
you'll reach the higher levels of academia or theological academia. That's not why you're given an
understanding. You're given an understanding of one thing, so
you'll know Him. You'll know Him. What does that
mean? When somebody speaks of Him aright, you know they're
telling the truth. When somebody's talking about another Jesus,
you know they're not because you know Him. You know Him. You understand a counterfeit
not by looking at the counterfeit, but by looking at the truth.
You understand. The only way you can tell a stick
is crooked is to lay a straight stick down beside it. That's
how you know it's crooked. We know because God has given
us an understanding so that we would know Him that is true.
Not only that, He's given an understanding that
we are in Him that is true. What? We're in Him. We're in
Him. This is the understanding you
have. You know, when the Lord teaches you the Gospel, He doesn't
teach you what you might do, or what possibly could happen,
or that if you do such and so, He'll do such and so. When the
Lord teaches you the good news of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, He gives you an understanding that you may know
Christ, and this is the understanding that you are in Christ. How long
have you been in Him since God put you in Him? since God put you in Christ.
Isn't that what our text says? But of Him are ye in Jesus Christ? How'd you get there? God put
you in Jesus Christ. And this is the true God. This
is what you understand. This is the true God. And this
is eternal life. Christ has been made to be our
wisdom. Our wisdom. Not only is that, it says He's
made to be our righteousness. Righteousness is really a forensic
term. It's a legal term. The actual word is equity or
justice. It can be often used for righteousness
or just. Justify. Christ is our righteousness. What does that mean? That our
standing before God in answer to the righteousness of His law
is Jesus Christ. It's our standing. He is our
righteousness. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And His name shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. Do I have another? No. Do you
need another? No. Some people believe you do. They say you have an imputed
righteousness. God has charged you with righteousness.
And you have something else that happens inside you that is also
a righteousness. Now it's the same righteousness,
one righteousness. Jesus Christ is my righteousness. He's my
right. God had made Him to be unto me
wisdom, righteousness. Also our redemption, it says.
God had made Him to be our redemption. And that's the price paid for
our recovery from the slave market of sin. How were we recovered
from the slave market? We were redeemed. bought back,
taken off the slave market and never to be put on the slave
market again by the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made Him to be
our redemption. What is my redemption? It's Christ.
What is my wisdom? It's Christ. What is my righteousness?
It's Christ. And then it says here, God has made Him to be
our sanctification. Our sanctification. Think about
that. Christ is our holiness. That's what sanctification is. The Latin for Holy Spirit is
Spiritus Sanctus. Holy. Holy Sanctus. We are saints, not because we've
been canonized by the Roman Church, because we've done three miracles
that have been proven by a hierarchy of cardinals. We're saints because
God has made Christ to be our sanctification. And He is our
sanctification. And this passage is a wonderful
and unassailable source of confidence and peace for the poor sinner
upon whom God has freely showered His grace. There can be no greater
defense no more singular plea, no more solid foundation to stand
upon for the sinner who is faced with the accusations of conscience,
or the taunts of Satan, or the harsh requirements of legalistic
religion. There is no sounder word than
this, Christ has been made to be our sanctification. On what solid rock can a sinful
man claim to be wise unto salvation, to be righteous, to be holy,
to be redeemed? Christ. It's Christ. Would to God we'd get a hold
of that. It's Christ over and over in our minds. The sinner makes no application
to his own achievement, doesn't consider his own merit, Or is
presumed morality here? The redeemed sinner has but one
thing to say, one song to sing, and it's simply this, God has
made Christ to be unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now when you say this, that my
holiness is Jesus Christ, you can expect religion to raise
its ugly head. Expect the lawmonger to put forth
his foul argument as to what the safe center ought to be let
me tell you something before God You are what you ought to
be I? Know you're looking at yourself
now say that can't be it can be because it's before God not
before you You see how God sees the thing is how it is Took me
a long time to figure that out, but I finally figured it out
no matter what I think I No matter how full of doubts I am about
myself, no matter how I struggle with sin, no matter how I mourn
over sin, no matter how much I realize that I'm so afraid
that I'll be discovered for the fake that I am, God sees me as
wise and holy and righteous and redeemed. That's how God sees
me. Religion says, this is how you
ought to be. The Gospel says, this is how you are because God
has made you to be by Christ. This passage declares in no uncertain
terms that the believing sinner is what he ought to be because
God has made him so by Jesus Christ. You say, well, what about
all the admonitions in Scripture to do this and do that? Do them.
Do you have to explain that? Does that have to be explained
to you to do right? I could do that. I could spend
a whole ministry telling you what to do and what not to do, but
it ain't going to do you no good except make you feel like you're holy
and righteous. My brother Crow said at a funeral
recently, a preacher got up there and told all these people about
this casino and this and that. I guarantee you there's so many
people that went out of that church that night feeling righteous.
Well, I don't do none of that. And them sorrow people that go
along with that. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our sanctification.
The believer knows that. He struggles with his own self,
but he doesn't struggle with the Gospel. He rejoices in the
Gospel because it is a view that is totally foreign to him except
by faith, through grace. It's foreign to him, but because
God has given him faith, he can look at this and say, Yes, I'm
sanctified. Yes, I'm holy. Because God says
it. God says it. This blessed text
states that God has made Christ to be the sinner's sanctification. And note that there is no condition,
no mention of the will of man, no clever trick designed to dangle
this truth just out of the believer's reach. This simply means what
it says. This is a word from heaven. This
is God-inspired and God-breathed. God Himself spoke this from heaven
and put it in the mouth of Paul and in the pen of Paul to write
down for the Corinthian church. Of whom in the very next chapter,
Paul will say, y'all act just like a bunch of carnal babies.
Who does? Those whom God has made Christ
to be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Because your salvation is of
God and not of yourself. The sinner saved by grace is
holy. How holy? Completely holy. Perfectly holy. Absolutely holy. Because Christ is the believer's
holiness. Now it's hard to imagine that
anyone would have trouble with this truth, isn't it? You think
about it. How could you not like to know
that? How could that not be a real true comfort to you? That anyone, I can't imagine
anyone would not love this fact, but many spend their religious
lives endeavoring to make this what they call a positional thing,
but not a practical thing. I grew up on positional and practical. Let me tell you about practical.
Positional is practical. Most practical thing in the world.
You know why? Because it finishes it. That's practical. Boy, is that
practical. Leaves nothing for you to do.
How practical can you get? Position, indeed. By such language, when men talk
that way, they reveal that they desire to make a fair show in
the flesh. They want somebody to see them being a Christian
so they go to a restaurant and bow their head and bother everybody's
meal and sour the milk. They want people to see they're
a Christian so they make sure that somebody knows that they're
a giver. They make sure that they come in where folks can
see them at church. They make sure that people know
they carry their Bible around. They aggravate people. They get
in the workplace and they start praising Jesus and hollering
and then can't understand why the boss man tells them to shut
up. Because the workplace ain't for you to do that. That's why
he's telling you to shut up and you ought to shut up. He's paying
you a good wage. You work for him. Keep your mouth
shut. Being in the workplace ain't a place to raise your hands
up and tell everybody you're a Christian. Barnard said if
Christ is in you, He'll leak out on you. And He will. And it won't be because you do
this. It won't be because you say, praise Jesus, or thank you
Jesus, or amen brother. That ain't why. Those are just
words. Just words. You're a child of
God. Old Barney used to say, even
the yellow dog on the back porch, you know you've been saved if
God saved you. Because you'll be changed, won't
you? by God making Christ to be wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption unto you. And
you won't change, you'll be changed. Stop trying to change. You can. But He can change you. And does. Such folks spend their lives
trying to improve the old man. What a waste of time. They dress
up the pig, but no matter what they do, no matter how pretty
the ribbon they put around its neck, it still returns to a wallow.
You know, a snake can shed its skin, but underneath it's still
a snake. In fact, when it sheds its skin, it's a little bigger
snake, isn't it? It's a little bit more of a snake
than it was before. Religious men shed the skin of
moral violence, reforming their behavior, but they're just a
bigger version of Adam than they were before. a bigger version
of the rebel. Reform all you want to. And there's
nothing wrong if you know something wrong and you can stop it, you
ought to stop it. That's just common sense. But if you shed your skin to
be righteous before God, you're just a more bigger rebel than
you was before, even though you leave that old skin behind. So
it's applied to the flesh for things of the flesh, and what
they accomplish glorifies the flesh. They endeavor to dress
up Adam and make him the centerpiece of what they call their progression
up the ladder of holiness. They do so by surreptitiously
dividing the law into a ceremonial aspect and a moral aspect. If
you read the old writers, that's the way they always talk. You
read Gill, that's the way he talks. You know, I love the old
writers, but I'm like Moe's, old Matthew Henry's servant. After Matthew Henry had written
a commentary on one of the books of the Bible, gave it to Moses
to read, came back and Matthew Henry says, what do you think
about that, Moses? Moses said, boy, the Bible sheds a whole
lot of light on that thing. And that's right. That's right. The Bible sheds a whole lot of
light on the commentaries. It really does. divide this law, they say, well,
there's a ceremonial aspect, and that's finished. We don't
do that anymore because Christ died, but we still have the moral
law to live by. The moral law. Nowhere in the Scripture is that
kind of language ever used. The so-called moral law, the
Ten Commandments that they talk about, is simply that which defines
sin, assigns blame, and reads to you while you sit on death
row with the copper cap on your head and they're ready to throw
the switch, it reads to you why you're being killed. And rightfully
so. That's what the law does. What's
the ceremony about? What's the ceremony? The ceremony
is a continual rehearsal of the fact that God accepts sinners
only through Jesus Christ, through His blood. But those lambs and
bullocks and goats can never take away sin. So the conscience
of sin was never removed. Nobody was ever made perfect.
But here, by Christ, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. You know the words moral and
morality are not found in Scripture? They're not found in Scripture?
Yet people speak of these words as if they're Bible words. Kind
of like I heard Oprah Winfrey one time say, cleanliness is
next to godliness. That's in the Bible. It ain't
either. People think it ain't in the Bible. One lady told Scott
Richardson one time, asked Scott if he had Sunday school at his
church. He said, no. She said, why not? He said, well, it's not in the
Bible. She said, well, it ought to be. It ought to be. People think
that morality and the word moral and moral behavior ought to be
in the Bible, governed by the Ten Commandments,
but it's simply not. They diminish the goodness and
holiness and wholeness of the law by ripping it from the realm
of spiritual, because the law is spiritual. They cast it onto
the dung heap of man's understanding of the depraved, incapable humanity
to rend it in twain so that some part of it will allow us to be
accepted by God on our own merit. The law never will cause you
to be accepted. The law is spiritual. What does
that mean by that? It means that only a saved person can understand
it. The only one who can understand
the law is a saved person. Everybody else actually thinks
it's a way to live. Yeah, they do. Paul did until he was converted,
didn't he? He said, I had not known sin
except for the law. Wait a minute. Didn't you know
you were a sinner? No, I thought I was okay. I did
the law. I kept the law. I was a Pharisee.
I was a blameless afforder. I thought everything was okay.
And then God awakened me on the road to Damascus and I saw that
the law was spiritual and I'm carnal, sold unto sin. The law is spiritually and only
understood spiritually. Now, it can be done as far as
not killing somebody and not committing adultery. It can be
done to a certain degree on a carnal level. But even that is deeper
than what you think. Our Lord said, you have heard,
thou shalt not kill. That's what you've heard. But
I tell you, if a man hates his brother, he's already murdered
him in his own heart. He said, you've heard thou shalt
not commit adultery, but here's what I tell you, if a person
lusts after a woman in his own heart, he's already committed
adultery. That's what the Bible says. So the law is spiritual. Nobody
understands the law until they're saved, and here's what they understand.
I'm not going to mess with that. I think God is finished. I thank
God it's fulfilled. I know it must be fulfilled.
Rightfully it must be fulfilled. It's holy and just and good.
It should be fulfilled, but not by me. I can't fulfill it. Thank God Christ did. The law cannot ever be accomplished
by humanity on any level, whether saved or unsaved, to apply to
apply it to the believer as a requirement for life, or a rule of life,
or a means of attaining to holiness, or to progress in sanctification
is both criminal and forbidden by God, not to mention stupid. It's just ignorant. It's ignorant. Paul told Timothy, don't listen
to them guys that think they're teaching the law. What they're
actually doing is bringing you back into the realm of sin and
the realm of conscience. They're saying that what Christ
did was not enough. They have something to say about
it. That He did something, but not everything. Which leaves
you without Christ in all things. Therefore, they're making you,
whom God has said is perfect, pure, and holy, a whoremonger,
an adulterer, and a manslayer. And all those things by preaching
and teaching the law to you. The strength of the sin is the
law. The law. Our Lord, through Paul,
told those Galatians, you who desire to be under the law, don't
you hear the law? Don't you hear what it says?
It's ignorance that would cause anyone to believe that he can
keep the law. Ignorance. And the notion of
progressive sanctification is not only without merit, it's
without reason, and it's without sense. It's the essential characteristic
of God. I know people say, well, love is. Love ain't. In order to be the essential
characteristic of God, you ought to be able to apply it to everything
God is and God does. He is a loving God to His people. But He's not to His enemies.
He's not to Jacob. He's not to those that commit
violence. He's not to the wicked. Scripture says that. He's not
loving. He hates them. Angry with them. But He is a loving God. But you
can't say God's wrath is a loving wrath, can you? That don't make
any sense. God's vengeance is a loving vengeance.
That don't work. What is it? It's a holy wrath. And a holy vengeance. And a holy
love. His Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
His book is the holy book. And His children are a holy people. They're a holy people. Christ is holy. Being God, He's essentially holy.
This Word declares that Christ is made to be our holiness. Now, does Christ, who is essential
holiness, change to become human merit when He is made to be our
holiness? No. It's the holiness of God. He is our holiness. If Christ
is our sanctification, then the essential holiness of God is
our sanctification. Does God progress in holiness?
Of course not. Of course not. Does Christ become
more holy as time goes by? Since He is our sanctification,
then we do not progress in holiness. We do not become more holy. We
in fact neither have part nor parcel in the holiness at all.
He is our holiness. The believer is holy because
God has made him holy, made Christ to be his holiness and his sanctification. And let me tell you this about
your holiness. Right now, in that pew you're sitting in, with
the mind you have and the heart you have and whatever and whoever
you are, you're as holy as you're ever going to be. When you get to glory, you'll
not be more holy than you are now. Because Christ is your sanctification.
He's your holiness. This passage must be explained
away by clever manipulation of the truth on the part of those
who would progress in their moral behavior and mislabel it as holiness. No amount of sophistry, no amount
of subterfuge can disannul this truth. This passage is sweet
music to sinners. To sinners, it's sweet music. To the one who has been taught
by God that there is no place for confidence in the flesh.
who knows that it is not within himself to manufacture or even
imagine personal merit. These words are a foretaste of
glory. This is the race of the old ice
cream barrel. Before you get the cup of ice
cream, you get to lick the race. This is a foretaste of glory.
Christ is our sanctification. I know that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. I know that. I have been taught
that by Revelation. I know that I have nothing to
glory in, save Jesus Christ and His accomplishment, wherewith
He honored God fully. I know that. This is good news here. Christ is my holiness. God has
made Him to be. For the believer, this passage
is a wonderful fact of life. It's a fact of your life. Believe
that, Ralph? It's a fact of life. It's the
way things are. How are things? Oh, they're fine. If Christ is your wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, they're fine. Could it get any
better? No. Will it get any better? No.
You're going to leave some stuff behind that ain't so good, but
it ain't going to get no better. It is what it is. It's a fact
of life. God has made Christ to be our sanctification. And
if He has done so, it can safely be asserted that He did it on
purpose, because He does all things on purpose. And His purpose
in doing so was that in all things, as all things are, to satisfy
His own character. Before the world began, He chose
out of people for Himself. All whom He chose were by nature
sinners. All of them. No sin and no sinner
can stand accepted as he is in the presence of God. God is holy. God is sanctified. And all who are found in His
favor, accepted for Him, must be likewise holy and sanctified.
It's just that simple. Sinners, of and by themselves,
can never be holy. They can never be holy. No matter
if they call their church the holiest church. They can't be
holy. They cannot produce what is necessary,
absolutely necessary, to be accepted and welcomed in God's presence.
They can't produce it. If it's necessary that I be holy
in order to be accepted by God, the necessity, if we are accepted is why Christ
is made to be our holiness. With Christ's holy garments on,
the old poet said, the sinner is as holy as God's own Son. What God required of you, He accomplished for you,
provided to you, and dispensed to you what He required of you. The believer is accepted in the
Beloved, because in the Beloved he's holy before God. Holy. Can you imagine that? You know,
if it wasn't so, it would be just horrible to say such a thing
about myself. And even when I say it as a human
being standing before you preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, even when I say it, it's still... There's something...
I feel like I shouldn't be saying that. I shouldn't be saying I'm
holy. Why not? If you're trusting Christ. You
can say it. And when you say it to somebody
else, they may never understand it. They probably won't understand
it. They'll think you're goofy. They'll say, oh, you're holier
than thou. Oh, no, I'm just holy. I'm holy as God. How can that
be? Because Christ had been made
to be my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
If I'm not as holy as God is, God cannot accept me. It shall
be perfect to be accepted, Scripture says. Just that simple. But you see,
God has taken care of that. What did He do? Well, what was
I? Well, I was not noble. I was not mighty. I was foolish. I was weak. I was base, common. I was despised. I was nothing. That's what I was when God chose
me. And what am I now? I'm still
a sinner, but I'm holy. because God has
made Christ to be my holy God. That is a wonder of wonders,
isn't it? The question is, has God done
this for you? If He has, then everything's
okay. No worries, all is well. What
if I die? Be your time. What if I live? You'll live until you die. But
I tell you this, where you're at, And where you're going to
be, there will be no difference in your holiness. Your estate in Christ will never
change. Never. You will never be more
holy than you are now, nor will you digress or progress in your
sanctification. Christ is your sanctification.
Nothing more. is needful, ye are complete in
him. I say to you as a child of God,
and I know you're going to struggle with what you struggle with because
we all do, when God lets you see this, rest here. This lady, this is
a blessed bed of spices Our Lord's cheek is called a bed of spices
in Solomon. Cease to look to yourself and
remember what God is saying. But of Him, of God, are you in
Jesus Christ, who of God is made us to be, put us in the category
of, regarded us as, treats us as, causes us to be wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. So, as it is written, He that
gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen. Okay. Lord bless you.