WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 I'm going to tell you guys a quick story. 00:00:03.820 --> 00:00:10.800 So when I was graduating from seminary in 2017 and looking for a job as a pastor, 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:17.519 I assumed that I would end up back on the East Coast because the way things work in the church world is 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:22.240 it's hard to get a job where you don't know anyone, and the only people I knew were on the East Coast. 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:27.839 Except I forgot about one and exactly one person who I knew in Colorado, 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.480 and that man's name was Jonathan Clark. 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:35.740 Jonathan and I went to seminary together, and Jonathan was the intern here at this church, 00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:38.100 Cheyenne Mountain, summer of 2016. 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:41.100 So those of you who are old timers will remember him. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:47.340 And Jonathan knew that this church was hiring someone, and Jonathan said, 00:00:47.340 --> 00:00:49.200 this is a wonderful, beautiful church. 00:00:49.620 --> 00:00:56.260 The job is not for me because I feel called to college ministry, but you should hire my friend Matthew. 00:00:56.259 --> 00:00:58.679 Here we are. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.439 I say that to say two things. 00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:04.900 One, this is not Jonathan's first time in our pulpit. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:12.200 Jonathan preached several times in the book of Romans six, seven years ago now, however you do the math. 00:01:14.019 --> 00:01:18.439 Two, you have Jonathan to either thank or blame that I'm here. 00:01:20.039 --> 00:01:23.379 With that, I'm going to welcome Jonathan Clark up, and he's going to bring us God's word. 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:23.439 Thank you. 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:33.000 Good morning once again. 00:01:33.160 --> 00:01:34.460 It's good to be with you this morning. 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:36.560 Matthew is one of my best friends. 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:38.480 We talk often. 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:40.520 He's a dear, dear brother. 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:42.100 He and I live together. 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:47.320 So, yeah, small providence, funny providence that the Lord brought him here. 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:48.300 Yes, my name is Jonathan. 00:01:48.939 --> 00:01:50.760 Some of you have known me since I was a baby. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:52.160 I grew up in Colorado Springs. 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:54.460 Some of you don't know me from Adam, but that's okay. 00:01:54.459 --> 00:01:55.959 It's great to be with you this morning. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:58.679 I love this church. 00:01:58.759 --> 00:02:01.119 I love this city, so it's a delight to be with you this morning. 00:02:01.259 --> 00:02:03.059 I hope to be here with you more often. 00:02:03.699 --> 00:02:16.459 Thank you all for letting me come this morning and share for moments in Sunday school, and now, of course, to worship with you, what the Lord is doing in my life, what the Lord is doing in our family, and hopefully what the Lord is going to do at UCCS. 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:20.680 So, yeah, I'm married to my wife, Caroline. 00:02:21.420 --> 00:02:25.439 She is a graphic designer and a mom, and she could not be with us. 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:26.659 She's not with us. 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:27.379 We have a daughter. 00:02:27.980 --> 00:02:32.159 She's three years old, and then we have a—she loves dinosaurs and trains. 00:02:32.659 --> 00:02:34.140 We have another dog. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:35.600 You know, everyone's got a dog. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:37.599 So, looking forward to getting to know you all. 00:02:38.239 --> 00:02:42.240 Work for RUF, as you've all heard, and we're hoping to start one here. 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:44.400 So, please do pray with us. 00:02:44.459 --> 00:02:45.620 But that's not why we're here this morning. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:52.379 Today, we are here to study God's Word, to see how it ministers and cares and speaks into our lives today. 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:59.500 And so, if you would, please stand with me as we read God's Word and turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1. 00:03:01.060 --> 00:03:03.799 1 Corinthians 1, and this is God's Word. 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:14.660 And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 00:03:15.380 --> 00:03:19.500 so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. 00:03:19.640 --> 00:03:20.240 Please be seated. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:22.439 Would you pray with me? 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:30.020 Father in heaven, we pray that you would send your Spirit now to be in our midst, because these things are too great for us. 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:35.820 Your Word is too magnificent, too mighty for our minds, for our hearts. 00:03:35.939 --> 00:03:41.379 We pray that you would work through these times, that what is said here would be more than words from a pulpit, 00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:47.520 but they would be indeed your words to comfort, challenge, convict, equip, and send us out. 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:57.800 Lord, we pray that you would send us to the Lord to be faithful ministers in your name to a city, to a family, to a base, to a world that desperately needs you. 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.840 Do these in Jesus' name, and we will give you the glory. 00:04:00.980 --> 00:04:01.960 It's in Jesus' name we pray. 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:02.280 Amen. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:02.400 Amen. 00:04:04.039 --> 00:04:13.259 So this morning, I want to start off by asking us a question, a question that I often feel very acutely in my own faith and life, 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:19.620 and one that I know that students often feel, and if I know the human experience, I think you do too, 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:23.519 what it feels like to be a Christian in the 21st century in America. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:35.319 And often in my life, I know this is in students' life, I feel, I perceive a disconnect, a gap between what I believe, what I trust, what I hear on a Sunday morning, 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:41.639 and often what I experience in my day-to-day life, Monday through Saturday. 00:04:41.979 --> 00:04:43.180 There feels to be a gap. 00:04:43.299 --> 00:04:44.759 Sometimes it's an emotional gap. 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:46.560 Sometimes it's an intellectual gap. 00:04:47.219 --> 00:04:49.979 Sometimes it's a physical or a social gap, something. 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:57.319 There's a gap of what it feels like to believe what a Christian believes and then to go out and live the rest of my life. 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:01.220 And let me try to fill out for you how I feel this gap. 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:05.020 Have any of you perhaps ever felt like you were a fool for being a Christian? 00:05:06.020 --> 00:05:08.580 I know that's something that college students often struggle with. 00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:14.939 I remember when I was in college, I went to college in New York City, very intellectual, academic place, 00:05:14.939 --> 00:05:22.079 and I remember as a young man asking questions of another student who went to a large secular Christian school, 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:24.180 questions about the Christian faith. 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:27.120 And this student was, they were studying sociology. 00:05:27.699 --> 00:05:33.560 And the student proceeded to tell me, well, the Christian faith is just the, it's just a construct of, you know, 00:05:33.620 --> 00:05:35.439 religions are just products of culture. 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:41.939 And the Christian faith is just a construct of what it means of one particular culture's version of spirituality. 00:05:41.939 --> 00:05:46.839 And I, having grown up in the church, so desperately wanted to disagree with him. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:48.279 But I didn't quite know how. 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:49.360 I didn't know what to say. 00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:50.899 And so I felt like a fool. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:55.660 And I felt this disconnect of, here's what I grew up hearing and here's what I'm experiencing. 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:57.000 And I didn't know what to do. 00:05:57.060 --> 00:05:58.060 I felt unwise. 00:05:58.199 --> 00:05:59.100 I felt like a fool. 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.680 A gap between my faith and my experience. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:03.740 Maybe you felt that. 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:04.399 Here's another one. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:09.519 Perhaps have you ever felt truly dirty, not just physically after like a long exercise, 00:06:09.739 --> 00:06:12.199 but dirty to the core of who you are. 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:13.779 I remember this. 00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:16.500 Some of you are going to hear me say this and you're going to be like, you're preaching? 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:17.459 But hear me out here. 00:06:17.620 --> 00:06:23.579 I remember there was this moment when I was a little boy that my friend and I, we were absolute monsters. 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:28.000 And we trapped my dog, my family's dog, into our backyard. 00:06:28.419 --> 00:06:31.899 And we ran around with plastic bats and tried to beat the dog. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:33.560 And it was horrible. 00:06:33.599 --> 00:06:34.500 It was so bad. 00:06:34.579 --> 00:06:39.399 And I remember after that moment, just feeling so much guilt. 00:06:39.479 --> 00:06:41.579 Like, what have I done to this poor animal? 00:06:42.039 --> 00:06:42.860 Who am I? 00:06:42.919 --> 00:06:45.259 What kind of a human being does that? 00:06:46.259 --> 00:06:47.699 I felt wretched to the core. 00:06:47.779 --> 00:06:52.819 And I remember going to church and feeling, hearing this one thing about the Christian life. 00:06:52.819 --> 00:06:58.740 And then coming back to home and feeling just totally dirty, shame, condemned. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.639 And there's this gap between my faith and my experience. 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:04.659 Maybe some of you are feeling that even today. 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:06.579 How about this one? 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:10.939 Have any of you ever experienced an addiction that you just cannot kick? 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:13.300 Some sort of compulsive behavior. 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:16.259 Some sort of thing that you know is unhealthy. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:19.579 It's a self-destructive pattern that you just can't seem to stop. 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:22.360 And every Sunday you come home and you say, this is my week. 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:23.040 I'm going. 00:07:23.139 --> 00:07:28.319 And then Thursday afternoon, Wednesday, whatever it is, you find yourself falling into it again. 00:07:28.740 --> 00:07:30.340 Perhaps a moment of anger. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:32.060 Perhaps a moment on the internet. 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:33.400 Perhaps a substance. 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:35.460 Something that you say, I must. 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:37.639 I try to stop this and I cannot. 00:07:37.819 --> 00:07:41.020 I believe that God is with me and yet I cannot stop this. 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:45.160 Another gap between what we believe and what we experience. 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:52.560 Lastly, how many of us, how many of you have ever felt oppressed at some point in your life? 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.320 Overwhelmed by the forces that are pressing into and against you. 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:58.840 Perhaps it was emotional. 00:07:59.020 --> 00:08:00.480 Perhaps it was social, physical. 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:03.020 Perhaps, you know, you can picture poison. 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.400 Perhaps it's a boss or a commanding officer. 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:08.379 Someone who puts this pressure on you. 00:08:08.379 --> 00:08:13.560 That you're just, how am I supposed to endure in my job, in my family, in this sort of pressure? 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:15.319 Perhaps it's an unjust professor. 00:08:16.159 --> 00:08:21.379 Perhaps it was cruel parents and you grew up in a home where it was not safe to be a little child. 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:24.699 Perhaps it was an abusive sibling or a friend. 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:31.079 Perhaps it's bigger, like an unjust government that you had to flee from or unjust laws. 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:31.180 Perhaps it's bigger than us. 00:08:31.359 --> 00:08:35.899 We know Christians around the world who experience, they know from the minute they become a Christian, 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.360 they face an uphill battle of constant pressure to reject the faith. 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.740 Facing tremendous opposition and oppression. 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:52.699 So they claim and they believe one thing and yet all of us, they feel this gap in what it feels like to be a Christian, right? 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:56.519 And what I'm trying to peel back is that for many of us there's this gap, 00:08:56.519 --> 00:09:02.439 this distance between what we believe, what we study in the Bible, and what it feels like to walk 00:09:02.439 --> 00:09:08.319 out the Christian life. I know that students feel this gap. I know that I feel this gap. And if I 00:09:08.319 --> 00:09:14.659 know human nature, that probably many of you feel it too. Day in, day out, we feel and experience 00:09:14.659 --> 00:09:20.399 the opposite. And if that's you today in any one of these things, then the good news is this text 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:27.879 speaks exactly to that moment. To that moment of, what do I do with this gap? God provides his word. 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:35.199 Today, our text shows us the miracle of the gospel, which is our union with Christ, as Matthew talked 00:09:35.199 --> 00:09:41.539 about, thinking about adoption. And then it gives us four word pictures, four word pictures that begin 00:09:41.539 --> 00:09:47.860 to fill out or flesh out and describe what our union with Christ is and how it speaks to the gap, 00:09:47.860 --> 00:09:53.019 the daily gap that you and I often feel, that when life afflicts us, we run to our union with Christ, 00:09:53.620 --> 00:10:00.240 meditate on, chew on these word pictures, and are equipped, once again, to love God and love neighbor. 00:10:01.139 --> 00:10:04.620 And so today, as we study God's word, we're going to look at this in three ways. First, 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:09.000 we're going to look at quickly, what is union with Christ? What is union with Christ? Second, 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:14.460 we will meditate on, briefly, these four word pictures. And next, we will ask, lastly, how do we 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:20.519 respond? How do we as a church, how do we as families, individuals, respond to our union with 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:25.800 Christ? And so let's dive in. The union with Christ, the miracle of union with Christ. And so 00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:30.460 we'll give a quick overview. Look down at your text with me, again, at verse 30. It says, 00:10:30.660 --> 00:10:37.759 and because of him, you are in Christ Jesus. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus. If we were to go up 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:44.059 one verse, it would say here, that he is saying, he's talking about how God has done things in our 00:10:44.059 --> 00:10:50.000 lives. Verse 29, we say that when he says God, he's talking specifically more about the Father. 00:10:50.740 --> 00:10:56.700 The Father, he says, because of God, because of him, because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:05.819 Some of our translations say it is from him, from God, you are in Christ Jesus. Now, what does this mean? 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:14.280 It means that out of God or source of God, flowing from God, the Father, we are in Christ Jesus. We are 00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:20.640 connected to Christ Jesus. And right here in these few words, these four words, because of him, 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:27.780 is perhaps the single most important doctrinal claim of the Christian faith, which is this, 00:11:28.660 --> 00:11:35.400 that salvation comes exclusively from God. Salvation comes exclusively from God. 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:43.659 God is the source. God is the actor, the first author of our salvation. Because of God, because of him, 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:49.120 not because of your own effort, not because of your own performance, not because of your own deserving. 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:56.439 Our order of worship has a reflecting quote on page seven. I encourage you to reflect on that this 00:11:56.439 --> 00:12:02.059 week. It says, in other religions, it is always man we see at work trying to obtain some redemption 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:11.099 from evil. But in the Christian religion, the work of man is nothing. It is God who works, acts, intervenes 00:12:11.099 --> 00:12:16.779 in history. Skipping down, it says, the counsel of God teaches us that the work of redemption is from 00:12:16.779 --> 00:12:24.699 beginning to end. The work of God. And that is what this first clause in our text today says, 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:32.759 because of him, because of God, you are in Christ Jesus. We bring nothing to our salvation except the 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:39.920 desperate need for it. Behind those words, because of him, is the whole promise plan that God has been 00:12:39.920 --> 00:12:45.700 weaving, as Ephesians tells us, from the beginning of history, before anything happened, of God's saving 00:12:45.700 --> 00:12:53.200 actions towards his people, towards you when you have faith in Christ. So because of him, you are in 00:12:53.200 --> 00:12:59.379 Christ Jesus. The main clause of this verse, the sentence, the grammatical core is, you are in 00:12:59.379 --> 00:13:05.560 Christ Jesus. That's the main thing that Paul wants to get across to us in this. You are in Christ Jesus. 00:13:05.680 --> 00:13:12.960 That's his point. And the Bible is full of those two words, in Christ. And what I desire, if I had one 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:18.420 hope for each one of us walking out of here today, is to have a bit of a more full picture for our hearts 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:26.360 to settle into the beauty of that truth of being in Christ. In Christ means that it is God's work 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:34.459 to join us to him. Romans 6 tells us that in our baptism, we are united to Christ in his death and 00:13:34.459 --> 00:13:41.439 in his life so that what happens to Christ happens to us. And so that when we are united with Christ, 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.219 the things that happens to Christ, all the benefits, as Matthew talked about earlier, 00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:50.639 the benefits that are Christ become ours. Now, this can be somewhat challenging for us to understand. 00:13:50.779 --> 00:13:54.980 It feels vague. It feels out there. So think of it this way. When I was in college, I went to school 00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:59.899 in the middle of New York City, right? Strange place to go to college. And I went to a small Christian 00:13:59.899 --> 00:14:04.759 school in New York City. The school had almost nothing to boast about. It was not remarkable in 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:11.399 any way except one. The school was in the basement of the Empire State Building, right? Very strange place, 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:16.399 terrible for academics. But it was pretty cool, you know? We went to the Empire State Building. It was, 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:22.019 you know, it was kind of a tourist trap. But I remember there were often times that I would have 00:14:22.019 --> 00:14:26.620 friends who would come to New York City and they would want to visit. And they would, you know, so we 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:30.539 would, and they would want to go up the Empire State Building because it's, you know, it's a tall 00:14:30.539 --> 00:14:35.659 building. It's in New York City. And so they would come to visit us in New York and they would come to 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:41.179 the Empire State Building during tourist season. And the line to get to the elevators would go down 00:14:41.179 --> 00:14:47.000 the long block and then all the way down several streets. And so if they were going to come, you 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.179 know, they had maybe an afternoon in New York. They didn't want to stand in line for hours and hours, 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:57.299 right? And so they, you know, to get up to the Empire State Building. But because I was a student, 00:14:57.299 --> 00:15:04.879 I had the tenant key. I had a tenant pass, right? And so what I could do is I could just flash 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:11.439 my tenant badge and anybody who was with me got to skip the line and go straight up to the top. 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:16.899 And not only that, they got half price tickets, right? And so a little silly thing, but it gets 00:15:16.899 --> 00:15:23.139 the point across. Without, my friends would have had to wait in line. But because of their union with 00:15:23.139 --> 00:15:29.600 Jonathan, because they were connected with Jonathan, the benefits which were mine, that is being a tenant 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:35.820 of the Empire State Building became theirs. The benefits became theirs. They received the benefits 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:40.320 of being tenants of the Empire State Building. Now, being united to Jonathan in college was a, 00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:44.060 that was not a great thing. You got to go up the Empire State Building. 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:50.680 Look, think about what our text tells us, that we are united to Christ. The benefits of the second 00:15:50.680 --> 00:15:57.019 person of the Trinity. The one who has been involved in the creation and loving plan of God from all 00:15:57.019 --> 00:16:04.360 history. The one who the Father has been doting on, adoring, and loving for all time. All of his 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:13.699 benefits become ours through faith in Christ. Those become truly wonderful, delighting benefits. That is 00:16:13.699 --> 00:16:21.939 infinite blessing and benefits. So this in Christ, in him language, it's all over the Bible. And often, 00:16:21.940 --> 00:16:27.140 it's very easy for us to pass over because it's two words. And it's so, it's all over the place. And 00:16:27.140 --> 00:16:34.080 it's so short. It's easy. But it could be possibly the most theologically dense and spiritually nutritious 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:40.960 theological idea in the whole Bible. That you are in Christ through faith. So when you read your Bible 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:47.040 this week, both on your own and as a family in worship, pay attention to the times where it says you are in 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:52.099 Christ and stop in that moment and reflect once again, everything that is Christ's becomes mine. 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:57.379 And I don't, not because I'd done anything to deserve it, but because it's God's free grace, his love 00:16:57.379 --> 00:17:04.960 towards me. So that's what our union with Christ is. But again, it can still feel out there. It can still 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:12.059 feel vague. And so Paul, in his generosity to us, he gives us four word pictures to describe, to fill out 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:17.480 our union with Christ. So the benefits of Christ, they're great. And he gives us, he gives us four 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:24.200 pictures. He says, and because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us or who became for us. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:30.619 He gives us four things, wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:38.519 And so what I'd love us to do is to reflect on each of these word pictures and see how do they fill out 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:43.200 and how do they minister to our hearts, to our communities in the gap. And so let us first reflect 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:49.059 on wisdom. Christ, because of you are in him, Christ became to us, for us, wisdom from God. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:54.759 What does this mean? Well, wisdom is a huge theme in the book of 1 Corinthians. It's especially 00:17:54.759 --> 00:18:01.099 all over the first two chapters. And so in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul is contrasting and 00:18:01.099 --> 00:18:07.740 comparing worldly wisdom with the wisdom of God. Worldly wisdom, Paul tells us, comes in sophisticated 00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:14.579 speech, intellectual knowledge, power, the ability to get people to manipulate human beings into doing 00:18:14.579 --> 00:18:19.960 what you want them to do. The ability to explain what is human life and why are we here. 00:18:21.460 --> 00:18:27.120 If you look at chapter 2, verse 6, it says, it is the wisdom of this age or rulers of this age. 00:18:27.299 --> 00:18:35.480 All over in chapter 12, it says, I mean, in chapter 2, 12, he says, it is not the wisdom that of God, 00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:44.019 that it's Greeks who are seeking some sort of esoteric knowledge that is not affiliated with God in any way. 00:18:44.680 --> 00:18:49.519 But he says that that is not the wisdom that we get, but we get the wisdom that is from God, 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:58.200 the wisdom that is God and an incredible power that comes from that. And this has struck home for me 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:03.019 in a way that I've, in the last few weeks, I'll get through this, but it's been hard for me the last few weeks. 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:08.720 Many of you know that my mom died two weeks ago. And that's been a really hard thing for my family. 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:14.819 I was really close with my mom. And so I've been reflecting on, as Matthew asked me to come and speak, 00:19:15.379 --> 00:19:19.819 how the wisdom of God ministers to us in that family. My mom's had cancer for three years, 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:27.039 and she was a godly woman. She loves and trusts Jesus, and she's with Jesus. And watching my mom die 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:35.399 has made me realize how necessary the wisdom of God is, something that can transcend the human 00:19:35.399 --> 00:19:41.399 knowledge in the face of death. Because in the wisdom of God, we see God pulling back the curtain 00:19:41.399 --> 00:19:47.759 a little bit in small ways on what he is doing in our life. Because apart from that, my mom dies and 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:53.379 she's gone. I have no hope of seeing her again. I have, I just, she's gone. There's nothing for me to cling 00:19:53.380 --> 00:19:59.420 to. But with the wisdom of God, that is his word given to us, all of a sudden I have hope. I have 00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:05.860 insight. I have the ability to look beyond this pale of death and say, no, my mom is with Jesus. 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:12.180 No, God is doing something redemptive in her life, in my family's life, in our world, that there is life 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:20.320 after death. That God is, that he has a redemptive and life-restoring plan. And suddenly death begins 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:26.819 to make sense. At least it becomes livable. That without the wisdom from God, my mom's gone. There's 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:32.480 no hope. But with the wisdom of God, we can say, no, God is at work in some mysterious way. I can trust 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:38.759 and know that I will see her again. Amen, brother. Yes, that she is, she is more alive than she ever 00:20:38.759 --> 00:20:44.339 has been. Friends, that is the wisdom of God that begins to fill into the gap of my mother is gone, 00:20:44.339 --> 00:20:48.939 but I know she's with Jesus. And that is, that it comes to us because we're united with Christ. 00:20:50.099 --> 00:20:55.079 The wisdom of God is deeply comforting to us, that she is with Jesus, though her body is in the grave, 00:20:55.159 --> 00:21:02.939 her soul is with Christ. And that only comes through God working in our lives. And so suddenly what 00:21:02.939 --> 00:21:09.619 feels foolish, the Greeks in Acts 17, when they talk about the resurrection, they laugh at Paul. The idea of a 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:15.799 person becoming alive again, what is foolish all of a sudden becomes believable, comforting, hopeful. 00:21:16.599 --> 00:21:22.299 Foolish ideas like blood cleansing sin, like people becoming alive again. Things that feel too good to 00:21:22.299 --> 00:21:27.199 be true, we can say, no, because of the gospel, because of our union with Christ, they are not just 00:21:27.199 --> 00:21:35.479 hopeable, but true. It means that God shows us behind the curtain that Jesus crucified, far from being 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:41.059 foolish, is the best and only hope in our world. So that when I feel that gap, when you feel that gap, 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:48.220 we can remember we are united with Christ. My mother is united with Christ. And we have a sense, 00:21:48.339 --> 00:21:56.059 a peak of the heavenly vision of God's good plan. Next word picture Paul gives us is the word picture 00:21:56.059 --> 00:22:02.500 of righteousness. Because of him you are on Christ Jesus who became to us righteousness. And this is the 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:09.299 famous word picture that lit the Protestant tradition of which we are all heirs aflame. It's the word that 00:22:09.299 --> 00:22:15.799 Martin Luther studied and he saw that those who are righteous are declared so by faith alone in Jesus that we 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:22.940 are united, connected to Jesus. Christ's benefits are ours by having faith in Christ and we are declared 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:31.440 righteous. Righteousness is legal language. It is the way and behind legal language is the idea of guilt. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:40.120 The idea of beating dogs and deserving to be condemned for it. That we are all as human beings 00:22:40.120 --> 00:22:46.420 born into sin. We are guilty of sin. That we are not just people who sin, but that we are sinners 00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:54.600 to the deepest part of who we are. That we are corrupted by guilt and we deserve God's wrath and punishment for it. 00:22:54.599 --> 00:23:02.000 And we all feel this. Each week we feel the guilt and the shame of the deepest part of who we are. 00:23:04.439 --> 00:23:13.279 And verse 30 tells us that Christ became for us righteousness. The cleansing, the eradication of the guilt 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:21.220 and the shame that we feel. Christ becomes righteousness on our behalf. That no, we do not go and clean ourselves 00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:28.200 or earn our own justification. That Christ gives it to us freely. 2 Corinthians 5 tells us how this works. 00:23:28.299 --> 00:23:35.899 For our sake, God made him, that is Jesus, to be sin. Who knew no sin? So that in him, you hear it? 00:23:35.900 --> 00:23:45.960 In him, we might become what? The righteousness of God. By faith, by trusting in Christ, we become united to Christ. 00:23:46.060 --> 00:23:57.480 And his perfect record, his benefits become ours. And our shame, our guilt, our condemnable becomes Christ's. 00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:04.740 And when this happens, God issues the eternal, not guilty verdict. Though we are guilty, we are vindicated. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:11.480 We are declared righteousness. How does this have application in our lives today? 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:17.620 Well, this word picture cares for us, ministers to us in the gap moment of when we sin. 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:23.259 Of those moments this week where we do something, we snap at our spouse or we're mad at our roommate 00:24:23.259 --> 00:24:29.579 or we say something on the social media, whatever we do, that moment where we go, oh, I did it again. 00:24:30.500 --> 00:24:37.960 I'm guilty. In this gap, the righteousness of Christ says that does not speak to who you are. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:42.859 Yes, you are a broken person who still may sin. But at the end of the day, you are united to Christ 00:24:42.859 --> 00:24:49.519 through faith. His perfection is yours when you trust in him. Through Christ, you are not guilty of sin. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:54.420 As Matthew read us in our assurance of pardon. I am not guilty of animal abuse. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:59.779 You are not guilty of the thing that you are thinking of right now when you trust in Christ. 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:07.160 That when we trust Christ, that guilt is not who we are. And this frees us from the downward shame 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:12.339 spirals that we find ourselves in so constantly. Students are the worst at, oh, I did this. And so 00:25:12.339 --> 00:25:18.000 they spiral down into, I am a shameful, guilty, condemnable person. And righteousness of Christ says, 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:24.880 you were, but you're not now because of what God has done in you, for you. And it empowers us to run 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:32.220 as our adoption states into the arms and to cry, Abba, which is the term of endearment to our Father 00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:40.119 who loves us, not a judge who would condemn us. And that leads us to the next word picture, which Paul 00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:46.219 gives us sanctification. Christ becomes for us sanctification. What does this mean? Well, if 00:25:46.219 --> 00:25:53.699 justification is freedom from the penalty of sin, sanctification is freedom from the power of sin. 00:25:53.939 --> 00:26:02.139 Jesus became to us the power to holiness, to purity like God's perfect purity, to daily actions and 00:26:02.139 --> 00:26:07.019 lifestyles which more and more align with God's character and with his will, with his law. 00:26:07.019 --> 00:26:13.859 And 1 Corinthians, in just chapter 6, a few chapters later, in chapter 6, verse 10, Paul writes this, 00:26:14.259 --> 00:26:20.700 all these sinful, wicked people who we all once were and are condemned in it, they won't inherit the 00:26:20.700 --> 00:26:27.039 kingdom of God, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:32.960 Jesus Christ. There it is again, did you hear it? In Christ. So he says, Christ became to us 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:40.220 sanctification, which means that it is possible increasingly in your life and in my life to live 00:26:40.220 --> 00:26:47.140 daily lives, daily marriages, daily singleness, daily community, daily church life, which more and 00:26:47.140 --> 00:26:53.700 more honors God, loves God, loves neighbor, is compassionate, is just, is righteous, is merciful. 00:26:54.819 --> 00:26:59.539 It's not that God saves us and says, okay, I'll clean the slate. I hope you can clean up your system. 00:26:59.539 --> 00:27:05.940 I hope you can clean up your act. No, God saves us and then sends his spirit to be with us the whole 00:27:05.940 --> 00:27:14.240 step of the way. God gives us the power to increased obedience. Remember how I asked at the 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:18.740 beginning, or I talked about feeling the gap in some sort of compulsive behavior or addiction, 00:27:19.539 --> 00:27:24.779 some sinful behavior that you can't do? Well, sanctification is the hope and promise of God not 00:27:24.779 --> 00:27:30.399 leaving you there. That God commits nothing less than himself, the third person of the spirit, 00:27:31.079 --> 00:27:37.200 to join you in that fight. And it's a long fight, this sanctification. I remember a few years ago, 00:27:37.259 --> 00:27:43.099 I'm a big runner. I was training for a marathon distance run outside of Aspen. And I could not just 00:27:43.099 --> 00:27:48.039 go out and run 30 miles. I had to train for it. And there were days where I would go out and run five 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:53.240 miles and I'd pull something. And the next day I was like, man, I can't walk. I'm hurting. And I was like, 00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:56.740 am I getting any better? Am I going to be able to pull this off? And then the next day I'd run out 00:27:56.740 --> 00:28:02.339 and go run six miles. And slowly over time, you wake up one day, race day comes, and lo and behold, 00:28:02.420 --> 00:28:07.019 you go out and you run 30 miles. But there were many times in that run where I, in that training 00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:12.220 process where I was like, I'm weaker today than I was when I started. And perhaps that's how often our 00:28:12.220 --> 00:28:16.880 Christian life feels. You look at it on a week to week or a day to day basis and you say, nothing has 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:23.000 changed. I'm the same person. I am just as broken. I'm still stuck in the same patterns. But then as you 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:30.000 look back over your lifetime and you say, no, by showing up, by being consistent, the Holy Spirit 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:36.799 has strengthened me. And there is growth. There is hope. I am not the same person that I was 10 years 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:41.420 ago by the grace of God. That comes from union with Christ. That is our sanctification. 00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:49.940 Here's the good news. Because of your union with Christ, you are not stuck in the same patterns 00:28:49.940 --> 00:28:56.380 of self-destructive, compulsive, sinful behavior. That there is hope in that. And if that strikes you, 00:28:56.440 --> 00:28:59.680 I'd love to hear what the Lord is doing. Or Matthew, one of the elders, would love to hear. 00:28:59.900 --> 00:29:04.740 How can we come alongside you and empower and equip you in your sanctification? 00:29:06.940 --> 00:29:12.880 Last word picture Paul gives us here, redemption. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:18.060 to us, for us, for us, redemption. And this is the word picture that has to do with oppression, 00:29:18.320 --> 00:29:26.060 of being redeemed, bought back out of oppression. And the image behind redemption is a slave. 00:29:26.500 --> 00:29:32.680 A slave who is oppressed and enchained under oppression. A lifetude of servitude. 00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:40.220 And we are, as Romans 6 tells us, we are enslaved to sin. And we are enslaved, as our confession 00:29:40.220 --> 00:29:48.660 says, to the misery of sin. We are sold into sin. And Christ's blood buys us out of it. It redeems us 00:29:48.660 --> 00:29:55.819 from the curse of sin. Ephesians 1 says, in him, there it is again, in him, we have redemption 00:29:55.819 --> 00:30:00.860 through his blood, the forgiveness of our sin. And our confession, or Westminster Confession, 00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:06.240 and shorter catechism, larger catechism, it speaks of the misery of the estate of sin. This is the 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:13.140 misery of being an afflicted, in a world afflicted by sin. The servitude, the oppression that sin forces 00:30:13.140 --> 00:30:20.779 on us. That we are incapable of saving ourselves from this. And that God, through Christ, is in the 00:30:20.779 --> 00:30:27.279 process of redeeming us, buying us out of that weight, that heavy weight of being oppressed by 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:35.259 living in a world of sin and misery. How many times in the last month, in the last week, have you looked 00:30:35.259 --> 00:30:43.619 around your life, your church, your city, and your world, and said, oh, I feel the weight of a world 00:30:43.619 --> 00:30:51.720 broken? Read the news. You look in your own family, the oppressive weight of sin. I know I do. As a 00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:59.920 pandemic continues to ripple through our society, as persecution continues to afflict Christians 00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:06.440 internationally. As there's wars, and rumors of wars, as there's unjust politicians, as marriages are in 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:11.800 conflict, as singleness feels like the most oppressive loneliness you've ever experienced. 00:31:12.620 --> 00:31:19.940 We live in a world that is oppressed by sin. And Christ became to us redemption, which is the promise 00:31:19.940 --> 00:31:25.400 that God is doing something. Remember, God is the actor in our salvation. God is doing something to 00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:31.120 redeem us from the power and the oppression of sin. Not that we have to come and dig ourselves out of 00:31:31.120 --> 00:31:37.540 it, but that God will do it. He will redeem us. He is redeeming us from sin. The good news of Jesus 00:31:37.540 --> 00:31:44.440 Christ risen and reigning is that it can't last forever. One of my mentor pastors tells me, he says, 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:50.640 if the good news of Jesus is true, then the bad things cannot last. The good things can't be taken 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:56.960 away and the best is yet to come. The bad things cannot last. The good things cannot be taken away 00:31:56.960 --> 00:32:04.500 and the best is yet to come. That is redemption and it is yours through Christ. Okay, so how do we 00:32:04.500 --> 00:32:09.960 respond? We'll move quickly through this. How do we respond if these word pictures, if our union with 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:15.759 Christ is true? Well, our text tells us the core of this is you are in Christ Jesus so that as it is 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:22.480 written, let the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord. We are united to Christ so that we may boast, 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:31.019 glorify, worship the God who saves us. And so that is the right response. So first, we must not boast in 00:32:31.019 --> 00:32:38.579 ourselves. We cannot. We bring nothing to our own redemption. It is God who does it. And yet it is the 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:44.660 human heart's tendency to seek to boast in ourselves. It is the human heart's tendency to try to 00:32:44.660 --> 00:32:51.320 appear wise. It is the human heart's tendency to try to justify ourselves, to sanctify, to change 00:32:51.320 --> 00:32:59.720 ourselves, to redeem ourselves. We are all, all of us, you, me, in some small way, seeking to justify 00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:06.620 ourselves, sanctify ourselves, redeem ourselves. You're trying to do that in some place. Perhaps it's in 00:33:06.620 --> 00:33:13.620 your job. You're seeking to earn or impress your peers through your performance at work. Maybe you're 00:33:13.619 --> 00:33:19.059 trying to fix your own anger or substance or addiction behavior on your own. Maybe you're 00:33:19.059 --> 00:33:24.799 trying to sanctify your crippling depression by just one more self-care regimen you found on Instagram. 00:33:25.919 --> 00:33:31.939 Maybe you're trying to prove to yourself how worthy you are by what kind of a family you raise up and 00:33:31.939 --> 00:33:38.459 say, yes, I'm a valuable person because of what my family looks like. In all some small ways, we are all 00:33:38.460 --> 00:33:44.759 trying to wisen, justify, sanctify, and redeem ourselves. And in a tent of the day, that is boasting 00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:51.960 in ourselves. And our text tells us we must cease that, that we must turn to what God has done for us, 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:58.660 see his plentiful redemption, justification, sanctification, and worship and boast in what God 00:33:58.660 --> 00:34:04.319 has done. So I ask you this week, where are you seeking to boast in yourself? 00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:10.819 Where are the places in your story and your family and your life who are doing that? And I would say, 00:34:11.219 --> 00:34:17.739 stop. One, it can't work. It's futile. And two, you're robbing from the glory of God who is 00:34:17.739 --> 00:34:26.279 desperately saving you, who will work savingly in you. Second, our text calls us here, obviously, 00:34:26.280 --> 00:34:35.940 to deep, sustained, joyful worship, boasting in what God has done for us. What would it look like 00:34:35.940 --> 00:34:42.180 if your life rotated around boasting in the salvation of these word pictures in your life, 00:34:42.240 --> 00:34:49.240 in your marriage, in your family, in your story? How would it look if you, I mean, great love elicits 00:34:49.240 --> 00:34:53.660 great boasting. Have you ever noticed that? When you love something, you want to share it with your 00:34:53.659 --> 00:34:57.000 friends. If you see a great TV show, you don't go, I'm never going to share this with anyone. No, 00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:01.339 when you find a restaurant that you love, you call your friends and you say, let's go to this 00:35:01.339 --> 00:35:07.920 restaurant together. Let's watch this movie together. How can you boast with each other? 00:35:08.379 --> 00:35:15.279 How can you boast to your friends in what God has done for you? How can you apply these word 00:35:15.279 --> 00:35:21.719 principles so deeply that they sink into the core of who you are? There's a hidden application in this 00:35:21.719 --> 00:35:27.579 that says we are to call, we are called to share, boast about the hope of what God has done with 00:35:27.579 --> 00:35:34.359 those around us. There's, you know, when you find, like I said, great love elicits great boasting. 00:35:34.619 --> 00:35:39.179 Great love elicits great boasting. Well, union with Christ is the greatest picture of love in our 00:35:39.179 --> 00:35:45.719 whole universe. So the greatest love in the universe should elicit in us the greatest boasting in the 00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:50.500 whole universe. Praising God, what have you done in my life? You've saved me. Telling our neighbors, 00:35:50.500 --> 00:35:55.159 our families, what has God done in my life? Well, he's saving me out of destructive behaviors. 00:35:55.480 --> 00:36:00.760 He saved me from this sin-shame spiral that I could not free myself of. He's delivering me from 00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:06.519 the oppression of a broken world. Come and get in on this action. Let me tell you about this great God 00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:14.079 who is active in my life and in my world. Great love elicits great boasting. How are the ways? Where 00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:23.380 are you boasting of God's love, his redemption in your life? Today we see the majesty and the mystery, 00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:28.960 the miracle of our union with Christ. It's the best news in the world. It's the best hope for the world. 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:34.980 And if we soak in it, it meets us in those gaps. It meets us in those places where we wonder, 00:36:35.139 --> 00:36:39.840 is God active? And it connects it because of God's great love towards us. By faith, 00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:45.620 we're united to Jesus. And these word pictures show us that what is Christ becomes ours. And that 00:36:45.620 --> 00:36:53.180 challenges us of the places we boast in ourselves. And it calls us to boast in him. So I pray that each 00:36:53.180 --> 00:36:57.960 one of you would be a community, would be a congregation, families, marriages, singles, who 00:36:57.960 --> 00:37:05.519 soak the deepest part of your heart in the mystery of union with Christ and who boast in God's great love. 00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:11.719 Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you 00:37:11.719 --> 00:37:17.960 for the wisdom, the justification, the sanctification, the redemption that you give us in Christ. 00:37:18.699 --> 00:37:23.519 I pray that each one of us would be changed by this, that we would walk out of this building somehow 00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:29.800 more conformed to the image of Christ by the habits of singing, by the habits of worshiping you, 00:37:30.300 --> 00:37:34.440 and that we would indeed boast in you. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 00:37:34.440 --> 00:37:36.440 Amen.