The Cross-Centered Gospel

[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:12] 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to begin reading in verse 26 all the way to the end of the chapter.

[0:27] So 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 says, For consider your calling, brothers.

[0:39] Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many of you were powerful. Not many were of noble birth.

[0:53] 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.

[1:07] Even the things that are not to bring to nothing things that are. So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

[1:21] And because of him you are in Christ Jesus. Who became for us wisdom from God. Righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

[1:35] So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. One of my favorite stories of the well-known English preacher, the 18th century Charles Spurgeon, is an experience he had ministering alongside his grandfather.

[2:03] Mr. Spurgeon writes, That might be a word for some of you.

[2:20] But we have no control over railways and breakdowns. And so it happened that I reached the appointed place considerably behind time. Like sensible people, they had begun their worship.

[2:33] And had proceeded as far as the sermon. And as I neared the chapel, I perceived that someone was in the pulpit preaching. And who stood in the pulpit preaching but my dear and venerable grandfather.

[2:50] He saw me as I came in the front door and made my way up the aisle. And at once said, Here comes my grandson. He may preach the gospel better than I. But he cannot preach a better gospel.

[3:02] Can you, Charles? Charles pressed through. You can imagine this scene. He pressed through the pews. And he answered, You can preach the gospel better than I, grandfather.

[3:13] Pray, go on. Keep preaching. But he would not agree to that. Spurgeon continues, I must take the sermon. And so I did. Going on with the subject there and then.

[3:25] Just where he left off. There, said he, I was preaching for by grace you have been saved. And so, the grandson, Charles Spurgeon.

[3:36] The prince of preachers began to preach. A few minutes later, Charles felt a pull on his coattail. It was his grandfather who desired to say a bit more.

[3:49] He took his turn again. And for the next five minutes, the grandfather preached again. When he finished, Charles was allowed to continue to his grandfather's delight.

[4:00] Right? Spurgeon remembers, recounts many years later. He said, Now and then, he would say in a gentle tone, Good, good. Can't cry at a story, you know.

[4:15] Just imagine a grandfather's delight. Once he said, Tell them that again, Charles. And of course, I did tell them that again.

[4:30] He says, I seem to hear that dear voice, Which has so long been lost to earth, Saying to me, Tell them that again.

[4:43] Well, this morning, My job is to tell you that again. To tell you the good news about Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[4:54] My privilege, my honor is to proclaim to you again, The doctrine of sovereign grace. The privilege of taking the senior Spurgeon's advice To tell you that, Again, for some of you, You know it all together.

[5:08] Well, you spent years studying the doctrine of Jesus Christ And him crucified. You rejoice in the peace and security You have derived from the gospel. You're following Christ Through this upside down world That values the wrong things And doesn't value the right things.

[5:25] But I dare say, Because of the ever present opposition you face, I must tell you that again. For others of you, You know you don't know it well enough.

[5:37] You're learning so much in these days. I love the first days of faith. And you're aware of what you don't know. And you're aware of all the things you're learning. And so to keep you learning, I must tell you that again.

[5:50] For still others of you, You think you know it all together well. Perhaps you've prayed the prayer. Perhaps you've walked the aisle. Perhaps you've gone to church your whole life, Led Bible studies, Small groups, Prayer groups.

[6:06] But do you know it well enough? Do you know it so well, That it's turned your life upside down? Your commitments, Your time, Your relationship, Your giving.

[6:17] Do you know it so well, That it's vital to you, Into the DNA of who you are, The most precious thing about you? I dare say, You need to hear it again.

[6:31] The fact is, All of us need to be told The wonderful story of Jesus Christ, And Him crucified, Again and again and again. And not as a mantra to hear again and again, But to be reformed into these truths.

[6:44] In these verses, The Apostle Paul does exactly that. Now we're studying the book of Corinthians, And so there's so many things going on here, But the Apostle Paul, He's addressing this church that was, I mean it was birthed by sovereign grace.

[6:56] God intervened like He often does, Or like He always does when He brings salvation. And so this church was birthed out of grace, Rejoicing and grace. But the church that was born in grace Began to lose its way.

[7:11] They began acting like the world, Quarreling and fighting, Drawing lines and picking sides. Not that that's ever happened in church before. They began boasting in men, And so the Apostle Paul writes to them To correct them, But he does so, Not just merely smacking their hand, But brilliantly unpacks the implications For the gospel, And the way they're walking, Helping them to see that following Christ Is not merely about understanding things About Jesus Christ, It's not merely even about believing things About Jesus Christ, Following Jesus Christ, Ultimately, It's about boasting in them.

[7:49] It's about, Into the core of who you are, Trusting and boasting in Jesus Christ, And Him crucified, And these verses are for us. And they're at your core, I'm going for your heart, Trying to, That it would reshape everything You care about, Talk about, Sing about, And where you derive the greatest joy, In a word where we're going, Let us only and always boast in Jesus Christ And Him crucified, Because anything good in us or about us Is from Him.

[8:22] Let us always and only boast in Jesus Christ And Him crucified, Because anything good in us or about us Is from Him. We're going to break this out, Three points, The first is, Who you were not.

[8:36] Who you were not. Paul doesn't even begin with talking about Who you were, He begins talking about with who you were not, You know, And the past, Last week we learned about the people That reject the gospel, And how the world is separated Into those who are perishing, And those who are being saved, And so the wise, The scholar, The philosopher, The who's who, The well educated, And well learned, Reject the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[9:00] But here we learn about who accepted, And we learn firstly, Who they are not. In so doing, In many ways, The apostle Paul gives us A set of gospel glasses, To see who are not here, To see who we were in a moment, And to see who we are now, Later.

[9:21] Paul begins, Remember your calling, Consider your calling, Look down there, Verse 26, Consider your calling brothers, Which implies brothers and sisters, Addressing the congregation. We sometimes use that word, To, Of calling, To refer to something we feel, Equipped, Call, I mean, Equipped, And especially positioned to do, I'm called to fight this or that, I'm called into this or that, Industry, But when the apostle Paul is using it here, He's talking about what was going on, And what you were like, And how did your conversion take place?

[9:53] It's not about a vocational, Or occupational call, He's talking about what they were like, When God intervened, He reminds them, Immediately, Falling, Consider your calling, He's telling them what their calling was, Not immediately, Not many of you, Were wise, Not many were powerful, Not many were of noble, Birth, Now this is just, These verses are, You know, Brace for impact, These verses are written in such a way, That it's just going to land on you, There's a threefold repetition, In this first section, In verse 26, Not many were wise, Not many were powerful, Not many were of noble, Birth, He continues that threefold, In 27 through 29, Talking about what you were, And then he has a threefold, Of who you are now, With righteousness, Sanctification, And redemption, But where do these categories, Of wise, Powerful, And noble, Come from?

[10:48] Now it's clear, That Jeremiah 9, And 1st Timothy, Or 1st Samuel 2, Are in the background, Of these texts, He references, Jeremiah 9, In verse 31, He quotes it, And if you know Jeremiah 9, It's, Let not the wise man, Boast in his riches, Let not the rich man, Boast in his, Wise man, Boast in his wisdom, Let not the rich, Powerful man, Boast in his strength, Not let the rich man, Boast in his riches, But while those passages, Are definitely there, The apostle Paul, Is describing the scene, In Corinth, These categories, Are from the city, Of Corinth, The wise, Are the well educated, We talked about this, The past couple weeks, The learn of the experience, We learned about, How folks in Corinth, Were enamored, Were enamored, With wisdom, With sophistry, And stoics, Trying to be wise, And so, This was a class, Of people in Corinth, That he's addressing, And saying, You were not, One of them,

[11:50] Then he talks about, The powerful, The influential, The power brokers, The one, With the money, And relationships, That pull the levers, Of power, Corinth was like, So many cities, It's not about, What you know, It's about, Who you know, And so, That's who he has in mind, Who are the powerful, These influential, Power brokers, Paul's had these people, In mind, For the past several verses, When he says, Specifically, That Christ, Unlike what they think, Christ is the power, And wisdom of God, Then he says, Who were of, Noble birth, Those are just, The blue bloods, If you will, The people that have a status, Based on, Their birth, Now the fact is, We're all born, Into different families, And some people, Are born into families, With more wealth, More status, More connections, And awfully, Often more success, And it can be a wonderful thing, Although sometimes, Those people are hard to be around,

[12:51] Because they don't realize, They were born on third base, And we're just trying to, Circle first, So he's talking though, This is a window, Into Roman, This Roman colony, Into Roman society, It was stratified, In many ways, You couldn't climb out of, The place you were born in, Well you could certainly, Try your hand at it, But in so many ways, This stratification, These layers, Not quite classes, But these layers, We're in that society, It sounds, A lot like our society, At times, Where people are trying, To measure up, Trying to run up, Trying to climb up, And yet not, Can't do it, And so, The apostle Paul, Begins by saying, Not many of you, Were these guys, So on the one hand, Though this is teaching us, About Roman society, It's also given us a window, Into the first century church,

[13:52] It wasn't filled, With the people, You wanted to be seen with, It wasn't made up, Of the who's who, It perhaps, Might have been, More of the rejects, Of society, But before we get too far, He says not many, It does not say, Not any, The 18th century, English, Countess of Huntington, Famously said, She was saved, By an M, Because if it said, Not any, Then there's no room for her, But it was not many, And she was a great help, To the Protestant cause, And the M, Is intentional, In Corinth, So whereas, The society, Was very stratified, The who's who, And the who's out, Or the who's not, Were very cut off,

[14:52] Into different places, The church of Jesus Christ, Was wonderfully different, It was an explosion, Of all these different people, And that's what we're going to see, As we go through the rest of the book, There were office holders, In the church, We see that, Titius Justice, And Sosthenes, In Acts 18, When we hear about, The founding of the church, And even Paul, In 1 Corinthians 1, 1, He references Sosthenes, As being with him, In Ephesus, As he's writing, So there were influential people, There were office holders, Rulers of the synagogues, And civic leaders, There were heads of several households, You know, We often read households, Like mom, dad, And 2.3 kids in America, But that's not exactly, What was going on, In the New Testament, Household really represented, Someone who had great wealth, So they had slaves, And managers, And a business, Ran out of their household, And so we learn about, Crispus and Stephanus, And their household, There, So they had this, Money in command, They had people, To come into their house, There were also, Business owners, We know about,

[15:53] Aquila and Priscilla, From Acts 18, We know about, Phoebe from Romans 16, We know about, Chloe, And others, And so, There were some, Who were wise, And noble, And powerful, But they were not, Many, But why is that, Is it because, God prefers, Prefers the dregs, Of society, Is it because, God is just, A super empathetic shrink, Who likes to hang out, With those, No one else, Wants to hang out with, Is it because, Money is evil, And riches are bad, I'm not going to answer, All those questions, But one reason, Is God doesn't value, What the world values, And we're seeing that, Immediately, If Roman culture, Was built on status, That was largely set, On birth, God doesn't value, Those things, American culture, In many ways, Is not like, Roman culture, Is we are in the land, Of opportunity, Right, Everyone has access,

[16:54] To the American dream, But the problem is, The opportunity comes, With the pressure, To perform, Status is not set, So it's either, Won or lost, And all the prizes, Go to the winners, So we feel this constant, Pressure to run, Climb, Stand out, And leave our mark, On the world, Don't we?

[17:13] I remember, Several years ago, Reading an article, In the satire newspaper, The Onion, Which I wouldn't really commend, For daily reading, Don't know what you'd find there, The title was, Unambitious loser, With happy, Fulfilling life, Still lives in hometown, It said, Long time acquaintances, Confirmed to reporters this week, That local man, Michael Husmer, An unambitious, 29 year old loser, Who leads an enjoyable, And fulfilling life, Still lives in his hometown, And has no desire to leave, Claiming that the aimless slouch, Has never resided, More than two hours, From his parents, And still hangs out, With friends from high school, Sources close to Husmer, Reported, That the man, Who has, Meaningful lasting, Personal relationships, And a healthy work life balance, Is an unmotivated, Wash out, Who's completely comfortable, Being a nobody, For the rest of his life, Another said, I've known Mike, My whole life, He's a good guy, But it's pretty pathetic, He's living on the same street,

[18:14] He grew up on, And experiencing, A deep sense, Of personal satisfaction, It is so sad, Why is that funny?

[18:25] Because no one's saying it, Right? Culture says, Shake the dust off your hometown, What it, It says, Go to the big city, Chase your dreams, Climb the ladder, Make your mark, Hashtag winning, If you do all those things, But it's not true, So much could be said right here, But we've got to pause, And pull us back to the text, We must see that God does not value, What the world values, So all of these things, To get all the prominence, And all the praise, And all the acolytes, In the world, Are not, What catches the eye, Of God, And they weren't even, Where any of us were, Or most of us, So you should remember, Who you were not, Point two, Remember who you were, We need gospel glasses, And so we put them back on, To see who we were not, But also to see who we were,

[19:26] Now Ephesians two, Famously announces, A great reversal, For all those who are in Christ, We were dead, But God is in the text, He made us alive, We were lost, But God found us, We were once far off, We've been brought now, No longer strangers, And aliens, But fellow citizens, With the saints, And members of the household, Of God, All of this, All this attention, Is on this reversal, Well this reversal, In this text, Is no less significant, And all of the attention, Is on the decisive action, Of God, You see that, Right there, When he says, In verse 27, But God chose, What is foolish, In the world, The shame, The wise, While the world, Is climbing the social ladder, In their own wisdom, God is gathering, A people in his own way, In a way unlike, The world, Three times, These verses, Underline God's sovereign,

[20:27] Initiative, Look down at it with me, But God chose, He said in verse 27, Again, Verse 27, God chose, Verse 28, God chose, The people of God, Not a random group of people, Gathered together around the common, Called, The people of God, Are chosen people, People plucked out, To be recipients, Of his sovereign, Grace, And so it accents, What God is doing, In a most moving, And beautiful way, But the sovereign initiative of God, Is not just located there, In the decisive activity of God, To choose, But in those whom he chooses, He chooses the one, No one else would choose, If we were playing backyard basketball, Or backyard football, Pick and team, These would be the last ones chosen, Only because you had to spend the pick, He chooses the fool, He chooses the wise, He chooses the low, And despised,

[21:28] And the contrast, Look down there, The text, The contrast is stark, And Paul's meant to, Put it before you, He chose what is foolish in the world, Remember, What's foolish in the world, Is not foolish in the kingdom of God, That's why he includes that, What's foolish in the world, To shame the wise, He chose the weak of the world, To shame the strong, The low and despised of the world, Even the things that are not, To bring to nothing, The things that are, Not the wise, But the fool, Not the strong, But the weak, Not the noble, But the despised, The last category, Is the most fascinating, Look down there with me, Verse 28, God chose the low and despised, Even the things that are not, To bring to nothing, The things that are, He chose the nobodies, Not the somebodies, That's literally, What it's saying, This is what you were, Not what your, Facebook handle says,

[22:30] Your LinkedIn profile says, This is what, You were, What I was, But those are just, The world's categories, If we added, Biblical categories, To underline the severity, Of the situation, It would be, All the more drastic, You were not, Merely foolish, Or weak, Or low and despised, You were disobedient, Did you not, Reject his rule, You were alienated, From God, In the same way, That Adam and Eve, Were cast out, Of the presence of God, You were separated, From God, Born into a, Born into sin, Born under sin, And in separation, From God, You were led astray, We like to think, We lead our own way, But Ephesians 2 says, We're following the course, Of this world, Following the prince, Of the power of the air, That's who you were following, That's who I was following, You were at, If those weren't significant enough, You were at enmity with God,

[23:31] You had made the living God, Your enemy, And he had made you his, Do you remember your calling, The truth is, While God chose the foolish, The weak, And the low, And the spies, The others didn't want to have, Anything to do with it, Don't get turned up in knots, The wise think, A crucified Christ is foolish, What utter folly, Is a crucified leader, The strong think, A crucified Christ is puny, How impressive, You're so great, Jump down from that cross, As they said, When they, Shamed him, And reviled him, The who's who, Think a crucified Christ, Is just pathetic, And their rejection, Of this Christ, Is a sign of the judgment, That is coming,

[24:32] But did you notice, That God had a purpose, In choosing, The fool, The weak, The low, And despised, To shame, The wise, The strong, The who's who, This word shame, And, Or dishonor, Or humiliate, Different ways it's translated, In the New Testament, Occur 13 times, In the New Testament, Seven times, In the Corinthian letters, What does it mean, That God chose, The fool, To shame, The wise, Is this, God gaslighting, Casting shade, We live in, An anti-shame culture, Lady Gaga says, There's nothing wrong, With loving who you are, Don't hide yourself, In regret, Just love yourself, And you're set, That's a recipe, For disaster,

[25:34] The show, South Park, Summarizes our culture's attitude, When Cartman sings, There's no shame, In my safe places, And so we create, On university, And college campuses, Safe places, Where no one can say, Anything harmful, But really it's just, No one can say anything, That disagrees with you, But it's, In the church as well, After years of studying, Churches in America, One author says, That the main message, Young people are taught, In church, Is the central goal, Of life is to be happy, And to feel good, About yourself, But there are things, We should be ashamed of, Biblically, Now don't get me wrong, We're never to use shame, Wrongfully, We're never to mock people, For confessing struggles, Or to isolate, And avoid people, Because they sin, In certain ways, We can never imagine, Ourself sinning, Like we sometimes do, But we must not, Avoid discussion, Of shame, At all calls, We must not be, Silenced by the discussion, Of shame, Because this passage,

[26:36] Is alerting us, Of shame, And really it's alerting us, To the final judgment, There's a day coming, What it's saying is, Really what it's saying, Is this passage, Is announcing that, That what God has done, In Jesus Christ, Is overturning everything, So all these categories, Are going out, That's what this is saying, So all these worldly definitions, Of wisdom, And power, And the who's who, And influence, All those things, They're all going out, They will not be, In the new heavens, And the new earth, And he's saying, There's a day coming, Soon, When all who build their life, On anything other than, Jesus Christ, Then worshiping, Fearing him, Following him, Serving him, And obeying him, Will be ashamed, And so, These verses are not meant, To make you feel bad, Merely, They're meant to prepare you, To face the awful, Judgment of God, For your many sins, It's stunning,

[27:39] The final judgment, All who do not turn, To Jesus Christ, Will be ashamed, And will suffer, The just eternal punishment, For their sins, All who feel like, They have nothing, To be ashamed of, They have all the things, Will be, Shamed, On that day, And they will see, That all they had lived for, All they had chased, All they had attained, Was a sand castle, Under the tide, Of the judgment, Of God, And so these verses, If you will, And beloved, This could be the day, Of salvation, These verses, Are beckoning you, To stop, Building sand castles, And run to the rock, Of the Lord Jesus Christ, There is no hope, Anywhere else, But in him, It's meant to show, The utter emptiness, It's all sand, All of it, Well, Success, Power, Prominence, Influence, Followers,

[28:40] Whatever, It's all, Sand, And it will not hold, In the judgment, And so come, You sinner, Poor and weary, Poor and needy, To Jesus Christ, Today will be the day, Of salvation, But here's the reality, That with my gospel glasses on, On that day, Everything in me, Will cry out, I deserve shame, Oh Lord, I deserve, Ridicule, I deserve the rejection, That I stiffened my back, So many times, To you, I deserve, The judgment, Of God, Paul is alerting us, To these things, So that we see, That all that we have received, From him, Is completely, Free, And purchased, By free grace, Josh Howerton, Once said,

[29:40] Capturing this, Reality, For the sinner, On that final day, He says, Hell will be populated, By people who insist, They were good enough, For heaven, Heaven will be populated, By people who insist, They were bad enough, For hell, So I'm not up here, To make you feel good, About yourself, Because the gospel, Tells you some really bad news, But the Lord, Tells you good news, Point three, Who you are, Now, Who you are, Now, We put on our gospel, Glasses, We need glasses, To see, I remember, I was a high school, I got glasses, For the first time, And I was sitting next, To one of my friends, And we like to speak straight, To one another, And I said, What kind of bird is that?

[30:34] And he goes, That's a robin, You dummy, But I didn't see, The robin before, You know, And so we need, Glasses, We need gospel, Glasses, To see, Who we were not, To see, Who we, Were, And to see, Most importantly, Who we are, Now, So that threefold emphasis, You've seen it now, As we work through, You see it most brilliantly here, While God does shame, The wise, Strong, And the who's who, His main purpose, Is not to triumph over them, But so that no one would boast, In his sight, All the metrics, Of the world's boasting, All the legs are cut off, So to speak, And so we boast, No one is able to boast, Verse 29, So that no human being, Might boast in the presence of God, No one is able to boast,

[31:36] The things that are not, Have no wisdom power, Might, Greatness to boast of, And the things that are, Have been disgraced, And brought to nothing, All people will either remain silent, On that day, Or they'll boast in love, In the Lord, So what do we boast about, He's saying, We boast of whose we are, Look in that text, Because of him, You're in Christ Jesus, Literally, Of him, You're in Christ Jesus, You had nothing to qualify you, Remember who you were not, You had nothing to qualify you, To be in Jesus Christ, And even more than that, All that should have disqualified you, Did not disqualify you, Why, Because it was all of, Of him, All from him, It reminds me, Of those precious words, From Ephesians 2, For by grace, You've been saved, Through faith, And this is, Not your own doing, Literally, Not of you, It's a gift of God,

[32:36] Not a result of work, So that no one, May boast, It's not from you, It's all grace, It's all gift, But what is it, Because of him, You are in Christ Jesus, Everything that is true about Jesus Christ, Is now true of you, Your life is so bound to his, That whatever is true of his destiny, Is now true of you, Yours by union with him, The bedrock of our salvation, So we boast about whose we are, And we boast about where we are now, So where, There's a contrast of status, Running through this passage, Who you are not, Who you were, And now he's saying, Who you are, We have a profoundly new status, It's all from God, The wisdom from God, What men call weak, Is the power of God, What men call foolish, Is the wisdom of God, What is this wisdom, It is salvation, And all his benefits, That flow to you through Jesus Christ, And so he announces these, Look in verse 30, He said, Who became for us wisdom from God,

[33:37] Righteousness and sanctification, And redemption, Christ has become for us, Righteousness, Now that metaphor, These are all three metaphors, For describing salvation, That metaphor is from the law court, This idea, That the one who sins shall die, That the problem of sin, Is not primarily that it, Fouls up our lives, It makes relationships difficult, The problem of sin, Is that it is a breaking of the law, And it is against God, And the wages of sin, Is death, Because every sin, Against God, Is cosmic treason, So this was your status, Before Christ, Condemned, But in a most, Staggering way, In a most, Unimaginable way, Christ has become, Wisdom from God, Christ has, In this cross, That was just covered in shame, And everyone thought, It was the wrong way, And the wrong plan, Christ canceled, The record of debt, That stood against you, With it's legal demands,

[34:38] He nailed them to the cross, And he gave you, His righteousness, Making you, Acceptable in his sight, Not declaring something, Unclean, Clean, But by making something, Unclean, Clean, With the robe of his righteousness, So now, You who were condemned, Are righteous, I remember, 21 years, 22 years old, January, Hearing the words, For what I thought, Was the very first time, The words, Justification by faith, Alone, The truth that, Martin Luther discovered, The truth that, Man is not saved, By his own righteousness, But by the righteousness, Of another, That he receives, By faith, Which is all throughout, The scriptures, That I don't have time, To unpack, I remember calling my dad, On the campus of UT, And I said, Dad, I learned something today, Because I felt like,

[35:39] A bird out of his cage, Set free, All the games were over, I've been completely, Accepted in Jesus Christ, Once and for all, That is what's true of you, Beloved, You have become righteous, He became sin, He who knew no sin, Became sin for us, So that we might become, The righteousness of God, Christ became for us, Sanctification, That metaphor, Comes from the temple, From, The Old Testament, Ritual laws, Where righteousness is legal, Sanctification, In many ways is spatial, Because of sin, We were separated from God, We were cast out of the garden, We were thrown out of the holy place, We were, We were, We could only send a high priest in, Once a year, And he would have bells on his robe, Just in case he was slain, For sins he didn't confess, When he goes before the presence of God, And so there was this massive curtain,

[36:41] Saying, Thou shalt not come any further, So that was your status, Unclean, But all those who are far off, And brought near by the blood of Christ, You've been sanctified, You're a saint, Because a saint is not someone, Who's super spiritual, Or super active, A saint is a Christian, Someone who's been set apart, For God's purposes, Sealed with the Holy Spirit, And turned unto him, So you are holy, Put on then, As God's chosen ones, Holy and beloved, Compassionate hearts, Kindness, Humility, Gentleman, Put on then, This is who you are now, Spatially, You've been moved out of the tents of iniquity, Into the house of God, Isn't that amazing?

[37:41] You've been redeemed, Christ has come for us, Redemption, The metaphor comes from the marketplace, Where goods and, And, Things were sold, And bought, It was largely financial, And the way it was used, In the Old Testament, But here the emphasis, Is not on financial debt, But on moral, Bankruptcy, You were in debt, You were over leveraged, You were a slave to the lender, You had no ability to pay, You were in bondage to sin, As our Lord said, Everyone who sins is a slave to sin, You were unable to free yourself, From sins, Far more binding than a Gordian knot, Was your slavery to sin, That was your status, Bound in chains, But Christ has set you free, Christ has delivered you,

[38:43] Now what does all this mean? You can be done with all the games, That's what it means, You can get off the treadmill, Would you please?

[39:00] You can stop jockeying for positions, You can stop making people, That are made in the image of God, Into vehicles to get what you want, Or obstacles in the way of what you want, You can be finally, And completely free, That's what he was saying, To the Corinthians, Don't you think it's a little silly, To be boasting about men, Dividing lines, Forming cliques, Don't you think it's a little silly, When you have all this, You have a status, That cannot be bought or sold, And cannot be stolen from you, A status derived from Jesus Christ, Through union with him, So please, Put off the games, And some of you get off Facebook, Get off social media, Get out of this game, And live for the Lord, How do we boast in the Lord, How do we live for him, We boast in him, By celebrating all that he's done for us, In Jesus Christ, We boast in him, By living by grace, We boast in him, By forming a community, That throws out the old standard,

[40:00] And instead, Lives by the grace of God, Alone, In a community, Where yes, There are some have, And some have nots, But instead, Are united, With a vision, And allegiance to Jesus Christ, And a willingness, To throw out anything, That stands in the way of that, Because everyone, That sits next to us, Is a brother, Or a sister, And will be an inheritor, Of eternal glory, It's amazing, Incredible, So let us always, And only boast in Jesus Christ, Him crucified, Because anything good in us, Or about us, Is from him, The well-known Charles Spurgeon, Was a young man, When that moving event occurred, He was experiencing much fruitfulness, But he went through a lot of adversity, After that, The counsel of his father, To tell them that, Grandfather, To tell them that again, Guided him from then on, We have a quote for you, He said, If my grandfather, Could return to earth, He would find me, Where he left me, Steadfast in the faith,

[41:03] And true to that form of doctrine, Which was once for all, Delivered to the saints, I preach the doctrines of grace, Because I believe them to be true, Because I see them in the scriptures, Because my experience, Endears me to them, Endears them to me, Because I see the happy result, Of them in the lives of believers, May the same be said of this church, Many, many years from now, If I can look at some of these young people, In the eye, The reality is, One day you'll be the one, Leading this church, And I won't be here, Your mom and dad won't be here, Never move on, From the gospel, The whole past of the gospel, One of the prayers I pray for this church, That would be more passionate, About the gospel than I am, And I'm pretty passionate,

[42:04] I want you to be so passionate, I want you to stand on my, On our shoulders, Your mom and dad's shoulders, Run into the things of the Lord, Run into the things of the gospel, To hold fast to the gospel, Everything else is a salty drink, I know people drink salt nowadays, But, Not a satisfying drink, And older people, Don't move on, Oh man, My prayer is that we would not give the next generation, More work to do, But less, And the first order of business, Hold fast to the gospel, Let us boast, Always and only, In Jesus Christ, In him crucified, Anything good in us, Is from him, Or about us, Is from him, Hallelujah, Bless the Lord, Let me pray,

[43:04] Father in heaven, We bless you, We rejoice in this good news, About Jesus Christ, And him crucified, We rejoice in the old, Old story, I pray God, That you would drive it down, Into the core of who we are, That we could indeed say, All we once thought gain, We now count loss, Because everything, Utterly, Pales, In comparison, To knowing Christ, And him crucified, And the power, Of his resurrection, Do it, We pray God, In Christ's name, Amen, You've been listening, To a message, Given by Walt Alexander, Lead pastor, Of Trinity Grace Church,

[44:04] In Athens, In Tennessee, For more information, About Trinity Grace, Please visit us, At TrinityGraceAthens.com To a network of brothers, Thank you.