Well, I'd ask you to turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 1. And it has been a little while since we were last here. So before we read the passage that begins at verse 26, let's try to put this within the context of what Paul has been addressing up to this point in his letter. Paul you might remember is in Ephesus at this time and he's writing from there in response to some reports that he's received from and about the church in Corinth and some of the problems that have arisen in that congregation. Among those problems was a very serious one of divisions and factions and rivalries. I had argued that Paul was implicitly addressing these problems, even from the very opening of his letter, the introduction that he gives in the first nine verses. But certainly, at least in verse 10, we see him begin to tackle that problem head on. And there he wrote, I appeal to you brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree And that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. And what I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. the divisions that Paul begins to address there in verse 10. He is still addressing when we get to the end of this chapter and the passage that we come to today. He hasn't moved on, but he has moved deeper because, as I mentioned last time, when we looked at verses 18 to 25, what Paul understands is that these divisions and rivalries, although they are a problem in themselves, they are telling of an even bigger problem. And Paul is concerned to address that bigger problem out of which these rivalries and divisions were born. So what was that bigger problem? Well, it was a problem of misplaced or misdirected values. What Paul is showing the Corinthian church is that their cliques and their rivalries are all indicators that they have adopted the values of the society and the culture around them. A culture that was intoxicated with personal power and honor and fame and the appearance of wisdom. These are things that they esteemed and honored. These are things that they sought after. And if men didn't possess these things themselves, then they sought to attach themselves to others who did. But what Paul wants them to see is that that is all foolishness. That is absurd. Because as he made very clear in verses 18 to 25, the gospel of God, which centers on the cross of Jesus Christ, it turns the world's values completely upside down. So that power and wisdom and weakness and folly all need to be re-examined and redefined in light of the cross of Jesus Christ. There in the cross, what the world mistook for weakness and foolishness and defeat was actually the almighty power and wisdom of the almighty and all-wise God for the salvation of sinners. And so what that means is that the world's values are not really a good indicator of what is valuable. And what the world esteems is not what God esteems. Yet the Corinthians were living as though it were, boasting and glorying in all that the world boasts and glories in, in power, influence, impressive personal achievements, reputation. And it was the pursuit of those things that led to all of the divisions and factions that plagued the church in Corinth and that have plagued many, many other churches since then. So Paul's concern is first to show the Corinthian believers that their rivalries are in fact due to misdirected values, and then second, to see them reorient those values, being persuaded that the world's values are antithetical to God's. And to make that argument that the world's values are antithetical to God's, Paul points them to two pieces of evidence. The first, Exhibit A, is what we already talked about. It's what Paul brought out in verses 18 to 25. And that is the cross of Jesus Christ. As we said, the cross turns upside down the world's concepts of power and wisdom and weakness and folly. But then, in the verses that we come to today, Paul directs them to his second piece of evidence, Exhibit B. And do you know what it is? It's them. It is the Corinthian church. You yourselves, Paul says, you are evidence that what is valued and honored in the sight of the world means absolutely nothing in the sight of God. And God is determined to bring to nothing the very things that the world thinks are something, all that it glories in. power, influence, impressive personal achievements, reputation. So what in the world are you of all people doing, running after those things so as to boast in them? Paul does not discourage the Corinthian church from boasting, but he does want them to see that their boasting has been in all the wrong things, little things, petty things. Things that if they had just stopped to think about God's dealing with them, they would have known not to boast in. So that's where Paul directs their attention, starting at verse 26. He says, Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. So Paul begins by highlighting these things that were so highly esteemed in that Greco-Roman world, wisdom, power, nobility or social status. And he reminds the Corinthians, not many of you fit those categories. But if those were the things that mattered so much to God, if God were as impressed with those things as much as we are, then don't you think that he would be filling the church with people like them? But he didn't. Instead, God chose what is foolish. God chose what is weak. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, what the world regards as absolutely nothing and an utter embarrassment. These God chose. And Paul's point is not that the only ones who responded to the gospel and therefore made up the Corinthian church are those who were uneducated, poor, and of no reputation. But instead his point is just that the things the world values and esteems and boasts in mean nothing to God. He is not impressed. And insofar as men find their identity, their security, their worth in those things, in their wonderful education, their reputation, their pedigree, their powerful influence, God is determined to show it all an empty boast, a vain hope. He will bring it to nothing. It might earn you a standing before men, but those things will not earn you anything in the sight of God. And we could say that Paul was especially coming after the values of the Greco-Roman culture in which the Corinthians lived and which found their way into the Corinthian church. But you know, those values are not exactly unique to Greece and Rome. In fact, what Paul says here is essentially just what God himself had said through the prophet Jeremiah, not to Greeks and Romans, but to his own people, the Jews, over 500 years earlier. It's what we read at the start of this service from Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me. The tendency to boast and glory in our own power, influence, and achievements, or the power, influence, and achievements of others is not unique to the Greco-Roman world or to the Jews that Jeremiah was addressing. It is universal. It is part of humanity's fallen nature. that predisposition to worship the created rather than the creator, to glory in what we can do rather than what he has done, to take credit for things that he deserves all the credit for. And we in the church are not immune to those lies. We often believe them ourselves, and it shows in the way that we grow proud. every time God does something good through us, or it shows in the way that we desire and love to be recognized and get upset or even angry when we're not, or in the way that we show greater honor and preference to those who appear well-educated or well-off or gifted. We value their time and their opinions over others. We think, I guess they have some greater potential of being used as an instrument in the hands of God than someone else who is less impressive. But you know where else it shows? It shows in our false humility, our false modesty. where we would say things like, I cannot be used. I can't help there. I can't be of any use. I'm not gifted like some of those other men or women. I'm not a visionary. I'm not that smart. I don't speak that well. You know, Moses tried to use excuses like that, and God did not really appreciate it, did he? It sounds humble. But what it does is it betrays this underlying belief that our capacity for being used by God is fundamentally tied to our strength and not his. And that kind of thinking inevitably leads to pride. But in these verses that we just read, Paul sets before us at least two objects that, if properly understood, would put that pride to death. and would completely silence every arrogant boast of man, whether that boast be in ourselves or in other men with whom we are so impressed. And those two objects are God's sovereign grace and God's Holy Son. This is what Paul shows us. to humble us, to humble the Corinthians, God's sovereign grace and God's holy sons. Now notice first Paul's emphasis on the sovereign grace of God in these verses. You cannot read this passage without coming away with the realization that those who have been called into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, those who have been blessed on account of Him, have been only by the sovereign, gracious choice of God. Not because they chose Him, but because He chose them. And He chose them not for anything that was in them, that was attractive, or impressive, or showed potential, but in order that through choosing them, He might make abundantly clear that He is absolutely sovereign and absolutely gracious. If you read through these verses, you will not be able to miss it. Three times, Paul repeats, but God chose. God chose. God chose. And then in verse 30, it is because of Him, it is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus. If you are a Christian, you are one, not because God was impressed with anything in you. And it's not because you are smarter than your neighbor who rejects God. It's not because you are more moral or had a softer heart or were more humble. It is simply because God, who is under no obligation to show grace and mercy to anyone, freely chose to show it to you. And he did it in such a way and for such reasons that you would have absolutely nothing to boast in but his kindness. The sovereign grace of God then, it buries all our pride. It makes absolutely absurd any thought of boasting in personal success or strength because it shows that if we are at all blessed, we are simply as a gift by His grace. Yet that is not to say that the sovereign grace of God puts an end to all boasting, or even that it's meant to. Rather, what it does is it replaces our false and vain boasts with a right and proper one, so that we would no longer boast in ourselves, but rather boast in Jesus Christ, It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, Paul said, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. The grace of God is not some ethereal thing. It is not some mystical power. His grace comes to us in a person. His Holy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every good that God does for you, He does on account of His Son. Every grace, every blessing is merited by Him. It is earned for you by Him, and it is yours only by virtue of your being in Him. And so He is our boast. Jesus Christ is our boast. He is everything to us. And we have everything in Him. Absolutely everything that ever mattered. Listen again to how Paul spells this out and how he captures the all-sufficiency and the necessity of what Jesus Christ is to the believer. He became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Why would we boast or glory in anything else or anyone else? He became to us wisdom from God, Paul says. And I think what he means is that that wisdom, that earlier he said the world rejects as foolish, that the world sees as weak, and yet achieves a mighty salvation, That wisdom is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. God's plan of salvation is wrapped up in Him. And in the wise plan of God, the way that He saves us is by becoming for us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So let's think about what this means for a moment. He became for us Righteousness. To be righteous is to be declared right with God. It speaks of our standing before Him as judge and receiving a definitive verdict that we are clear of any and every charge. We are fully justified, declared innocent, right with Him. But how can that be? I know my sin. Do I stand before God as an imposter, as a pretender, putting on my best appearance and just hoping against hope that He won't see through it? No. He sees my sin. He knows it. But here's what can make the Christian's heart fill with joy to bursting. Although he sees my sin, he does not judge me according to my sin. He judges me according to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which he has freely given us. So I stand before God with nothing to fear, nothing to hide. No worry that I'll be found out. I am not an imposter. This righteousness is mine. It really is mine. It was his and he gave it to me. I stand before God in Christ and he himself and he alone is my righteousness. He is also my sanctification, Paul says. He became for us righteousness and sanctification. We talked earlier on in this chapter about how sanctification refers to being set apart by God for His special purposes. That is what it means to be holy, to be separated unto God by God. And there is a sense in which that sanctification can be a process, that there is a progression that takes place where we grow in holiness. We are separated more and more from sin and the corrupting influences of this world and to live more and more to God, giving ourselves all that we are to serve and please Him. That is one aspect of sanctification and it doesn't happen all at once. But, Sanctification is not first and foremost that progressive process. It is first and foremost a definitive act of God. Where in the moment that He saves us, the very moment that He saves us, He joins us to His Son and He makes us what we never were before. Holy. Holy. He gives us a new identity. a new identity in Jesus Christ as saints, no longer just sinners, but saints, set apart and marked as belonging entirely to Him and for Him. And so in that sense, the Christian is not just one who grows in sanctification, though we do, but we are ones who in Jesus Christ have actually been sanctified, set apart by God for God. And finally, He who became for us righteousness and sanctification became also our redemption. Paul doesn't use this word again later in this letter. Actually, he hardly uses this word at all. Just once here, a couple other times, and a few other letters. But he does return to this concept later in this letter, in chapter 6, verse 20. When he reminds the Corinthian Christians, you were bought with a price. You were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. And again, in chapter 7, verse 23, you were bought with a price. So do not become bond servants or slaves of men. That is redemption that he is talking about. To be redeemed is to be bought, like a slave purchased from one owner into the freedom of serving another. Generally speaking, a redemption price was not paid to purchase a slave's absolute freedom, but rather to transfer that slave from the ownership of his old master into the ownership of a new one, a new lord. Jesus Christ became our redemption. He himself was the purchase price to set us free from our old master, where we were slaves to sin and to the devil. He bought us with his blood to make us his, to bring us under his lordship now. He, our kind master, we, his most happy slaves. Like the Apostle Peter reminded his readers, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from the feudal way of life that you inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood. As of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself said in Mark 10, 45, He came in order to give His life as a ransom, the redemption price for many. He is our redemption. His blood, the price to set us free, and not free to live to ourselves or for ourselves, but free to live for Him. To have Him as our new Master. To live for ourselves, listen, is not freedom. Living for ourselves is not freedom. It is bondage. Those who live for themselves are enslaved to their lusts, to their passions, to their desires, and to the devil who owns them. And if Jesus Christ had not come to be our redemption, to set us free into his service, then we would be forever enslaved to those powers. Charles Spurgeon, in what would be the last sermon that he'd ever preach, although he didn't know it and no one knew it at the time, but he talks about this idea of our being slaves. either to sin and to self or slaves of Christ. And what a difference there was between those two masters. And I'd like to read for you a part of this. This was in June of 1891, after nearly 40 years of preaching, 30 of those in the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where he stood that Sunday morning and spoke these words. Every man must serve somebody. We have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no master or slaves to themselves depend upon it. You will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Savior. You will find sin, self, Satan and the world to be hard masters. But if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and so lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold, he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If He bids us carry a burden, He carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind and tender, yea, lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in Him. These forty years and more I have served Him, blessed be His name, and I have had nothing but love from Him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here below if it so pleased Him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once. God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day. Amen. What Spurgeon saw And what he tried so hard to communicate week after week after week until he stood for the last time in that pulpit is just what Paul is telling the Corinthians here. That Jesus Christ is everything. He is absolutely everything. He is the most perfect Savior, the most complete Savior. He is the most loving Lord and Master. Life eternal. Peace with God. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. All is found in Him and only in Him. Nowhere else. And if by God's sovereign grace and choice we are in Him and have Him, then don't we have everything? We have everything because He is everything. And that is our boast. He is our boast. And may we never think to boast in anything else. Let's pray. Father, do forgive us for having eyes so dull so as not to see the glory and the infinite value of this treasure, Jesus Christ, whom you freely gave to us, so that in Him we might have everything. Your Word says that everything that you do, from the creation of this galaxy that we're in, to the farthest galaxies, everything that was made, you made for your Son. Everything that you do to glorify the Son, that we would see He is absolutely wonderful. And everything that he has done in accomplishing our redemption is for the same, that we would see he is wonderful. Father, open our eyes to see the glory and the beauty and the value, infinite value of Jesus Christ, our Savior, that we would boast in nothing but him. In his name we pray. Amen.