If you want to mark 2 Corinthians 4, we're going to go there as well. Now each regenerated child of God is holy by the work of God alone. When we've been regenerated, we're holy by the work of God alone. God the Father sanctified us, made us holy in divine election in Christ before the world began. He didn't choose us because of anything in us. Christ the Lord perfected us, sanctified us by His one offering on Calvary's cross. He came and fulfilled the will of God on behalf of His people. And the Spirit of God sanctifies us when we are regenerated. He imparts a new Holy Spirit within us when Christ is formed in us. when Christ is formed, and Christ is the holiness of the new man. And the God of peace shall sanctify you wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y. He'll sanctify you completely in body, soul, and spirit, in resurrection glory, when He raises us to be with Him forever. In every way, in every way, sanctification is of God. Sanctification is what God does for us and in us. Sanctification is of the Lord. It's not something we do for ourselves. It's not even something we do for ourselves by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is of God. We're holy by our triune God alone, entirely by Him alone. by Christ who died for us and dwells within us in spirit. A newborn child, when they're conceived, they're a child from the moment they're conceived. They're a human being, and they're not going to grow to be more of a human being. They're going to grow in that state of manhood in which they were conceived. Well, the child of God, is holy by this new birth. When Christ, through the Spirit, circumcises us in the heart, in the new man, we are holy. We grow up from then on. We grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To whom be glory, both now and forever. Amen. That's what Peter said. We're going to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but God's going to get all the glory now and forever. That's what Paul is saying down there in verse 15. He tells us to be of the same mind. If you've been matured by the Spirit of God, grown in grace, he says, be of the same mind. And he says this, and if in anything you be otherwise minded, you don't have to condemn one another, you don't have to separate from one another. Why? Because you've experienced the power of God, you know God shall reveal even this unto you. It's all of God. Sanctification is of the Lord, to His praise and His glory. And whatever you need to have revealed to you, God will reveal it to you. But God's saints do not become more holy. We grow up in the sanctified, holy state of holiness which Christ has created us in, but we're not growing more holy. Now that's important because there is a different spirit created when God sanctifies a sinner than that spirit that's in a sinner who boasts that he sanctified himself or that he had some part in sanctifying himself. There's two totally different spirits because the work is totally different. Most speak of sanctification with a great deal of confidence in their own strength and their supposed progress. But by creating a new Holy Spirit within his child, Christ makes us, as Paul said in verse 3, he makes us worship in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. True growth in grace, true growth in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is growth in all three of those areas. He's growing us more and more to see our worship is in spirit, in the new spirit he's given, a true heart, a sincere heart. He's making us rejoice more in the Lord Jesus Christ when he grows us in the knowledge of Christ. In the new spirit, Christ grows us to have less confidence in this flesh, less confidence in ourselves altogether, so that we count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ and count them all but done. He gives us faith so that our new will, our new will, our one desire is to be found in Christ. Not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is of God, given to us through God-given faith. So our subject tonight is a saint's new will. Paul expressed his will there. I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through Christ's obedience. This is a sinner's new will. Now, here's what I want you to get for the message tonight. True growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ makes us value Christ and all that we have in Him above our own flesh, above all others in this world, and above all worldly things. And we're growing to value Christ and what he is and what he's done for us and what he's doing. We're growing to value him more and more. And the things of this world and the things of our flesh, less and less. Less and less. He's gonna grow us more and more to count them but dung that we may win Christ. Now here's how the Lord does this, and this is what Paul wanted to know more of. He gives us The new will, right here, that Christ creates within his people, and he divides it into three things. Paul says, by the power of our Lord Jesus, verse 10, I want to know him. My will is that I may know him. He said there, the second thing is, in verse 10, I want to know the power of his resurrection. That's the power of his life. The power of his life. It's his power, Christ's power. the power of his resurrection. And then verse 10, he says, and I will to know the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, that by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. These are the three things that are involved in this new will that Christ creates in us by his power. I want to know him. I want to know the power of his resurrection, and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Now let's look at each one of these. First of all, when Christ sanctifies us, he creates a new will to know more of him. Paul said that I might know him. By the power of God's grace and by the Holy Spirit, Paul knew the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew him, but he wanted to know him more. That's what knowing Christ results in. When he's made you to know him, you want to know him more. And I want you to notice here, this is connected with faith. Paul later is going to talk about, let us walk by the same rule. He's talking about the rule of faith, looking to Christ and trusting Christ, our own selves and trusting one another to Christ. And notice here, he says, he connects this knowing Christ with faith. He said in verse 9, I want to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him. You see, without faith, you can't know him. The first thing the Spirit of God does is he persuades us that we are the sinner. He persuades you and me that we can by no means make ourselves just with God. We can by no means make ourselves holy of anything we do. He makes you know that. And he makes you to see by faith, through faith, he makes you to know Christ and know that he's your only righteousness. That Christ by his faithfulness justified his people. That's what he makes you to know from the beginning. You see, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, he said, to you that are called, he said, the Jews seek after a sign. They want to see some exterior work to convince them they wanted to see that in Christ. And they couldn't see Christ, they couldn't see his works because they weren't regenerated. But they kept asking for a sign. And he said, there'll be no sign given but the sign of the prophet Jonas, as he was three days and three nights in the Beelzebub, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life. He's the sign. And the Greeks, worldly men, seek after wisdom of this world, and to them the Gospel's foolishness. But to you that are called, Christ is the power of God, and He's the wisdom of God. And why did God choose to save through this foolish means of preaching, through what the world considers foolish by a cross and a man dying in place of his people on the cross? Why do they consider this foolish? Because God chose you and me who are foolish, weak, despised things to save us and to use us to preach this gospel so that he brings to nothing things that are. He works that in the hearts of everybody he calls. When he called you, you thought you were something, and he brought you to nothing. So that no flesh shall glory in his presence. Now, if I have a part in making myself just with God, or if I have a part in sanctifying myself, I'm going to glory, and so will you. And he saves this way through Christ, through the gospel, using no bodies to preach him, that no flesh or glory in his presence. But of God are you in Christ. This is what he reveals through faith. It was of God that you were in Christ from eternity. It's of God that he called you into Christ. And Christ of God is made unto us wisdom. That's when we have the mind of Christ. That's when we begin to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. When Christ has made wisdom in us and he's made into us righteousness, he justified us and he's all our righteousness with God. Paul said, that's who I want to be found in that I have his righteousness alone. He's made Christ into a sanctification. We know we didn't believe it was by Christ being formed in us. and it was by what Christ did for us on the cross, and it was by God sanctifying us in Christ from eternity. He's sanctification to us, and He's redemption unto us, so that now, through faith, we glory only in the Lord. Well, brethren, the Spirit of God is going to teach you more and more. He's going to grow you in the grace of Christ, and in the knowledge of Christ, more and more, how that Christ is your wisdom, He's your righteousness, He's your sanctification and He's your redemption. And as He grows you more in the knowledge of Christ, you're gonna put less confidence in yourself, less confidence in your brethren's flesh, and you know Christ has saved His people and is saving us and shall save us. Your confidence is Christ, your rejoicing is Christ, and when you know Him, you wanna know more of Him. Paul said, I wanna know Him. I want to know Him. Don't you? Don't you want to know Him? That's why we preach Christ. That's why we preach His works. It's because it's knowing the person and works of our Redeemer by which the Spirit makes us know more of Him. He's the strong meat and the things He's doing and teaching us in this world. Secondly, Christ is growing us in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. And this is the will He gives us. He makes us experience the power of His life and He makes you want to experience it more. He said in verse 10, and I want to know the power of His resurrection. That's the power of His life. The Spirit of God declares in Ephesians 1. He declares to us that the same power that it took to raise Christ from the grave, it took to regenerate you who believe. He said, Paul's prayer to God was that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward usward who believe. And it's according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. The same power that it took to raise Christ from the grave, it took to regenerate a dead sinner and give us life. What is the succeeding greatness of His power? Well, it's the succeeding greatness of His sovereign power. Our sovereign Redeemer ruling and reigning everything. What did Peter say on the day of Pentecost? He said, He shed forth this which you now see and hear. Christ ruled everything in this world and all everybody in this world to bring the gospel to us, and He prayed the Father and sent forth the Spirit unto us, and it was by His sovereign power that He regenerated us and separated us and made us know we're separated by Him, unto Him, in Him. And then it's the exceeding greatness of the power of Christ being the Holy Son of God, of Him being the life. He is the life. He's the priest of His people. It's the power of His endless life by which we were born again. Paul said in Romans 1-4 that He's the Son of David after the flesh, but He was declared the Son of God with power according to the spirit of wholeness by the resurrection from the dead. Christ said, he's God. He said, I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again. Christ is made a high priest, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. What does that mean? God said to him, you're a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. There's no beginning of days or end of days with Christ our High Priest. An endless life. And it was that power by which He was raised and it's that power by which we were born again. His power. That's why He's the power of God unto you. When you experience that Christ is the power of God that regenerated you and gave you a new will and made you want to walk after Him and deny ungodliness and do good works and the things that He works in His people, then you know something about the reason why you continue believing in Him and why your brethren continue, because it's by His power alone. It was the exceeding greatness of the power of satisfied justice. It was the exceeding greatness Christ having come and honored the law and magnified it on behalf of his people by laying down his life and God who's holy would not pour out wrath on his son and then pour out wrath on one for whom Christ died. You were born again because the holy justice of God has been satisfied by the Lord Jesus and demanded that you be born again. That's the power by which we were born again. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, he conquered death. That's the power we're talking about. Death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, impute yourself also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, as he grows us, and we're learning more and more of Him, of His person and His work and His power. We're learning more and more that we're sanctified and we're kept by the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same faithfulness by which we were redeemed and justified is the faithfulness by which we're born again, and it's the faithfulness of Christ by which we're being kept right now, separated unto Him. Christ said, the words that I speak their spirit in their life. He said, it's the spirit that quickeneth the flesh prophets nothing. Christ made you experience that regeneration and hasn't he made you experience that many times before? You come in here, you can't believe, you come in here and you're dull of hearing, you come in here and you're just so bombarded by the world and so encumbered, but then you sit down and you start listening and the Lord speaks into your heart and you begin to hear. And there's many more examples of this in our lives that our Lord does. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. It was the faith of Christ by which I made righteous. He said, nevertheless I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. I can't even boast that I live by myself and of myself. It's Christ living in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God. The same one who loved me and gave himself for me and made me righteous lives in me and he's my sanctification. He's made me holy and keeps me sanctified unto him. It's his power. The same power of Christ's life. that justified us will save us to the end. Listen now, he said in Romans 8.10, he said, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by what? His life. He, our Redeemer, liveth and He is at the right hand of God and He's ruling everything in heaven, earth and hell right now and He's doing it exactly for you who are His, who purchased with His blood. And you're kept by the power of God unto salvation. You're kept by Him. Now I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 4. How is He going to teach us this and make us experience this power of His resurrection, this power of His life? Well, it's going to be through suffering. It's going to be through tribulation. He left us in a body of death for this purpose. He left us in a sinful world for this purpose. He left us in the midst of a God-hating world for this purpose. But see, Christ is teaching us that the same as it was the power of God and the power of Christ, the power of His resurrection, that regenerated us and gave us life and gave us knowledge of Him in the first place and faith to believe Him in the first place, it's that same power that's going to keep quickening our inward man and keep us walking by faith looking only to the Lord Jesus Christ and doing what we do from the motive of love from the heart. You know, you take a slave, a slave, he'll be obedient to his master, And he may be more obedient to the master than that master who's a father. He may have a son and his son may not be as obedient as the slave and may not be able to do the things the slave can do. But there's a big difference within them. That slave doing what he does because he has to do it. That son's doing what he does because he loves the father and he wants to please the father. And God looks on the heart. And what I'm talking to you about tonight is not just the outward, I'm talking about what God's working in the heart to make you know Christ is the power who's keeping you. Now look here, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6. He said, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge This is how Paul came to have the excellency of this knowledge, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. Paul's saying the same thing here in 2 Corinthians 4 that he's saying in our text. I want to know the power of his resurrection. How's he going to make you know that you're kept by his power, his life, him living and abiding and never forsaking you? How are you going to know that? Here's how you're going to know it. Verse 8, we're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. We're cast down sometimes, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you something this means right here. Paul suffered for Christ's sake, but Paul is talking about something, including something else in this. Our flesh is mortified, made to die by our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the power that's going to make your flesh die. And he said we experience this. And he says that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Christ also going to make you know it's him that's quickening you inwardly. Look here, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. Yes, Paul suffered for Christ's sake, for preaching Christ, but also our flesh is mortified for the sake of Christ to keep us believing Him and trusting Him and giving Him all the glory just as the Father promised Christ He would have. Look here, and we're delivered to death To keep us looking to Christ, it's for his sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, that we might know that it's Christ, our resurrection, who is quickening us within. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. So, we having the same spirit of faith. Now, who's he talking about here? Well, all brethren have it, but right here he's looking back to the Old Testament saints, and he's particularly looking to the psalmist. He says, we have the same spirit of faith as they did. According as it's written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken. That's written. I'm going to show you. That's written in the scripture. He said, we also believe and therefore we speak. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, there's the power of his resurrection. The same power that raised up by the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus. Now he's talking about in the last day when he resurrects us, but not just that, he's talking about right now when you're cast down. It's gonna be that same power of Christ that's gonna raise you up. quickening you inwardly. And in the last day, he'll present us with you. Now I want you to hold your place right here in 2 Corinthians 4. There in verse 13, Paul quotes from Psalm 116.10. That psalm includes the verse that we hear at funerals. I want you to look at Psalm 116. This psalm includes a verse that we are very familiar with. We hear it at funerals. It's the verse where The psalmist writes, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Paul quoted that, he quoted that. Now he's been talking about a death that we die in our flesh as Christ quickens us in spirit. That's what he's talking about in 2 Corinthians 4. And he quoted this, where this whole psalm right here is declaring the exact same thing Paul's declaring in 2 Corinthians 4, and it's declaring the same thing Philippians 3 is declaring when it speaks of the power of His resurrection. The death and the mortification of our flesh is by Christ. We're quickened inwardly by the power of His life, by the power of His resurrection. That's how we're quickened inwardly. The psalmist had experienced that he had no strength in his flesh. Look here in verse 3, Psalm 116.3, the sorrows of death come past me, pains of hell got hold of me, I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. We come into captivity of our sin nature that Paul spoke about. We don't want to sin, and God's child doesn't run with the same crowd, and God's brought us out of that. He's united us with our brethren, and we want to walk in a way that's honoring to our Lord. That's our desire, our will to do. And then you'll come into captivity to your sin nature. Sometimes you just sinned and you fail. Sometimes you started trying to mortify your flesh and you begin to think, man, I've done a good job. Look how far I've come. I've put away a lot of things. I'm a whole lot better off now. And you've come into captivity by that. It's just as sinful as if you fell on your face like David did. Or we get surrounded by enemies in this world or something and we get put into some painful providence and we can't deliver ourselves out of it. And in a little small way, we experience what Christ experienced when the sorrows of death compassed Him on the cross and when the sorrows of hell got hold of Him. And we experience that a little bit. and we find trouble, and we find sorrow. We try to deliver ourselves out of it, but all we find is trouble, and all we find is sorrow. And then the Spirit of the Lord turns you from you, and the Spirit of the Lord brings you to cry out to the Lord, just like the psalmist did. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. And He does it. He does it. What has happened? The Lord is showing you, brethren, that you can't mortify your flesh with your flesh. He's going to use you bodily to reject sin and to walk honorably before God, but you can't do it of yourself. Because that's just flesh trying to mortify flesh. That's like taking a dirty mop and trying to clean a dirty floor. It's just going to be twice dirty. But the Spirit of the Lord puts you in a place just like He put the psalmist here so you realize, death is compassing me. I can't find anything but trouble and sorrow. I can't get out of this by anything I do. And then the Spirit quickens you inwardly and makes you to call upon the Lord and He delivers you. And He's to teach you that in our flesh dwells no good thing. And our flesh dwells no good thing. It's to keep no flesh glorying in His sight. He's not going to let His people start glorying in how far we've come and what we've done in sanctifying ourselves. He's going to keep us glorying only in the Lord. The Spirit quickens us in the inward man, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Jesus, the power and resurrection, His life enters in and He quickens you inwardly in power and He makes you know it and He sanctifies you from the danger to teach you that it's by the power of Christ's resurrection. That's when we praise and glorify God for our sanctification. Are you with me? I hope I'm being simple. Look what the result was in the psalmist in verse 1. He said, I love the Lord because He heard my voice and my supplication, because He's inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. He said in verse 5, Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Oh, that's when you've fallen, that's when you say you're saved by grace. That's when you say that He's righteous. Because He justified His child, He won't cast you away. That's true love. That's commitment to you for Christ's sake. Look here. Yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. The simple are the single-minded. They're those that are just dependent entirely upon Christ alone. I was brought low, and he helped me return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, for thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." We experience all three of those, don't we? Our soul is just dead, and our eyes are filled with tears, and our feet are falling, and the Lord comes and delivers you from it. Look back now to 2 Corinthians 4.15. Is that not what Paul is saying here? He said we're distressed and we're cast down, we're persecuted, verse 15, for all things are for your sakes. The Lord's doing this just for you. that the abundant grace, he said, oh, how bountiful your grace is, Lord, the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. God's bringing glory to himself, Christ. He's bringing us to glorify Christ. He said, for which cause we faint not. This is the only reason we don't fall away and cease being sanctified and kept. Though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day. Same message, Psalm 116, that's the death that's precious in God's sight, the death of our flesh and the renewing of our new man because then we're casting all our care on Christ only, looking to Christ only, glorifying Christ only. We're like Paul who said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Christ Jesus my Lord. So being grown like this in the knowledge of Christ's power, His resurrection, by His power, by His resurrection, we're grown more to worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in ourselves, in our flesh. We see the faithfulness of Christ who justified us to also quicken us. And we can say with Paul, I'm not only crucified with Him, I live by His faithfulness. Look at Romans 8. This is exactly what Paul said in Romans 8. I tried to preach this to you not long ago. Romans 8, 10. He said, if you try to mortify your flesh in minding carnal things, touch not, taste not, handle not, you're going to perish. But he said in verse 10, if Christ be in you, The body's dead because of sin, but the Spirit's life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit to dwell within you. That's the power of His resurrection. Therefore, brethren, we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you'll die. Be it living in sin and wallowing in sin and running headlong into the world, or be it trying to justify ourselves by our works or sanctify ourselves by our flesh, either one. He said, but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. You see, that's what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 4. We die because the Lord puts us in these situations to mortify our flesh. The psalmist said, I was brought to a place where hell encompassed me about, death encompassed me about. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't find anything but sorrow and trouble. And then He brought me to cry unto Him. And He delivered me. He quickened me. He brought me out. And that's how, look, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, you're led by the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of Christ leading you, child of God. You're the sons of God. And if you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, you receive the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And we get in such predicaments like the psalmist was, we can't even cry unto Him. But he says there in Romans 8, but the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities. He brings you to cry, Abba, Father. Why does he do all this? Same reason, regeneration's all of the Lord. That's why sanctification's all of the Lord. That you might know the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from his dead and set him at his own right hand. And Paul said, and it's Christ our head that filleth all in all. He's the one working this. Now lastly, through all of this, Christ makes us know, verse 10, the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death. Now, when He brings you in the fellowship of His sufferings, He makes you know we're partakers of everything Christ is and everything He accomplished by His suffering. Justification, Redemption, Regeneration, Sanctification, Preservation, Resurrection, Glorification. As Paul said in Romans 8, we have an eternal inheritance with Christ. We're joint heirs with Christ, if so be we suffer with Him. So that's the fellowship of His suffering. Everything He accomplished by His suffering, we have freely given to us. But, He's going to grow you in this knowledge of Christ, knowing you're saved by the grace and power of Christ through these light afflictions which we suffer. He brings you to suffer in this world. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4 back over there in verse 17, he said, our light affliction which but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. Why? It turns you from things that are seen and makes you look at things that are not seen. For the things that are not seen are eternal. They're seen only by faith. He turns you to Christ above and makes you set your affection on Christ by making you know He quickens you and He made your flesh to be mortified by His Spirit. And so by this Christ makes us conformable to His death. Now hang on right here with me just for a minute. I'm just about finished. What does that mean to be made conformable to His death? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Our Savior fell on His face, and He prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. That was what Christ did at His death. He said, Lord, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. In Psalm 116, having suffered, and having been shown that he was delivered by the Lord, having been shown it's the Lord that quickened him, and the Lord by His Spirit that made him regard his flesh as dead. The psalmist said in Psalm 116.13, he said, I will take the cup of salvation. Christ's cross was our salvation. That's the cup He drank from. And these sufferings, these light afflictions you and me go through, that's the cup of salvation God's given to you. And He makes you pray, Lord, let this cup pass from me. When you're suffering and you're weeping and you can't deliver yourself and it's painful, You pray, Lord, let this cup pass for me. But being made conformable to his death, he's being brought to say, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will. And what do you do instead? He said, I'll take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. That's being made conformable to Christ. That's what Christ did at his death. makes you submit to His will in your suffering, makes you submit to His will in His word, in His gospel, makes you submit to His will in all His exhortations, to trust the name of the Lord and call upon Him. Christ said, I gave my back to the smiters, to them that plucked off the hair. Why? He said, for the Lord God will help me. I won't be confounded. I won't be ashamed. He's near that justifies me." And he brings you to say the same thing. Paul said he's working, at the end of Romans 8, he's still talking about the same subject of when you suffer. He said, you know God's working all these things together for you. It's the cup of salvation that God's given to you. Trouble? Yes, trouble. What do we do? We submit to the Lord, we bow to the Lord, we trust the Lord's will to save me and quicken me and mortify my flesh and to do the same for my brethren. Yes, you will be affected by it. He will make you put away your sin. He'll make you walk after him, but he'll do it in such a way that you know you didn't do it. You won't boast in you doing it. You'll know he did it. And when you're in that situation, you'll take that cup, and if all hell has compassioned you about, you'll take that cup, and you'll know this, Paul said, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that delivered up His, spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Who's going to condemn us? It's God that justifies. That's what Christ said at His death. I'll give my back to the smiters, I'll give my face to them plucked off their hair, because He's near that justifies me. And He brings you to know that though you're a lamb counted as sheep for the slaughter, you're more than conquerors through Christ that loved us. And He persuades you that nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ. That's true sanctification, brethren. You take the cup. Why? Why? Because you know if our earthly house is dissolved, we have a heavenly house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And so you take the cup being conformable unto his death, even if it means suffering unto death, Paul said, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. I'm willing to die. Trust in Christ will raise me. You let the world have this haughty, arrogant thing they call progressive sanctification. That right there is progress. to be brought to a place where you're willing to take whatever cup of suffering God puts in your hand and submit to His will knowing He's my wisdom, He's my righteousness, He's my sanctification, He's my redemption. I want to know. I want to know Him. I want to know the power of Christ Jesus, my resurrection. I want to know the fellowship of His suffering. I want to be made to submit to His will and just trust Him to save me. That's true sanctification. desire to be found in Him alone, having His righteousness alone. I pray God bless that. Amen.