Beatitudes~Clothed in Christ 1 ~ Christian sermon by Paul Washer

good morning no I'm not preaching as all of our members are certainly aware our church has a strong history of being a place where you can come and consistently hear the word of God preached from this pulpit in line with that history and in the absence of our pastor the elders have invited brother paul Washer to deliver the message this morning and in the evening service brother paul washers head of heart cried missionary society and staff member of Waldo Baptist Church in Metropolis Illinois those of us who know him will remember him as a former member of Christ memorial and missionary to Peru that our church supported for many years I have known brother Paul for the last 15 years and can testify that he has a sincere heart for God and is dedicated to preaching his word please join the elders in welcoming brother Paul to Austin and to High Point Baptist Church let's open up our Bibles to the book of Galatians the book of Galatians chapter 3 verse 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free man there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus let's pray father I I come before you in the name of your son and I know that apart from him I would have no part with you and as always father you know me you know who I am and you know what I am that I stand in need of grace upon grace mercy upon mercy I pray that in this day Lord you would prove yourself wise prove yourself strong in using this day the weakest among us Lord I trust thee that you have been an ever-present help for me and that you have done so for your own glory and because you are loved father I will preach a message today that I myself have trouble living Lord do not allow me to be in the hypocrisy of making people believe I'm something I'm not for I know Lord there are no such thing there is no such thing as a great man of God only weak pitiful faithless men of a great and merciful God Oh Lord if you would provide the power through your Holy Spirit to change my life through this message and to make me more conformed to the image of Christ through this message Lord I would greatly appreciate it help us all Lord in Jesus name Amen you may be seated for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ Paul is speaking out of the book of Galatians a book in which the church is being attacked by Judaizers legalists now make no mistake about it there is a need for law and rules and wisdom in Scripture we have the law of Christ we have the commandments of God all these things are true but I'll tell you something it is so easy to cross all the T's and dot all the i's it is a quite different thing to be clothed with the cent with the life of Jesus Christ usually when there is no power of God we go to rules and we say because we do this or don't do that we're spiritual my dear friend the mark of spirituality is the fragrance of Christ in our lives and the fragrance of Christ in every aspect of who we are as a person I have spent many many years of my life preaching the gospel around the world I have known a measure of success people would say but I want you to understand something that that preaching and ministries and great things are not the mark of success it's the fragrance of Christ on your life it's the love that you have for the people of God it's the love once I was preaching and after a move of the power of God in a certain place a lady came up to me and she said surely you are a man of God I said have you ever seen me with my wife she said what I said how can you say I am a man of God by listening to one puny sermon you must watch you must see you must look any fool can preach but to be like Jesus Christ that's the question of my life I have got to the point where ministry matters very very little to me I want you to know it matters very very little to me because if I look in the mirror with accolades hanging off my shoulders and medals around my neck but I look in the mirror and I do not see Jesus Christ and I must confess to you that many times I look in the mirror of God's Word and I do not see Jesus Christ in paul Washer then what does all the ministry matter what does all the noise and the banging of drums matter the question for me is this am I conformed to the image of Christ and not just in the realm of Church I know how to put on a show with my wife and with my children with your wife and your children your husband and your children those around you those closest to you that will determine that will determine are you clothed with Jesus Christ this is the challenge God can win the world God can do all sorts of things God does not need me but he commands me to be like his son and that is all and he my dear friend that is enough that is enough now what does it mean to be clothed with Jesus Christ and we're going to go back to our principle text now I want us to go to Matthew chapter 5 look in verse 13 Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 you are the salt of the earth now I want to put special attention just for a moment on something you are it is an affirmation he does not say that the Christian is to become he does not even say in this point that the Christian is to act like he says you are what we have to realize today there's a very important word in philosophy comes from a Greek word on toss it is ontology is the study of being today we are too much about what we do and not enough about who we are what we are what am i Who am I am I like Christ am i this in my own life and even before you today I appear much more spiritual than I actually am it's not about what I do it's about who I am being in the very depths of the core of my person it says you are the salt of the earth but if the salt has become tasteless how can it be made salty again it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men this text terrifies me it truly does there now we all know of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints but at the same time we cannot deny that throughout scripture we are warned to be careful we are warned to be careful now when this text is usually preached it's all about doing something we're the salt of the earth so as the salt of the earth we need to get out of the salt shaker we need to be this influence in the world we need to do all these things well I would like to submit to you that that's not the contextual interpretation of the text when you pull a verse out and simply use it as a cliche lose its meaning I want us to look at what he's saying he says you are the salt of the earth but if the salt has become tasteless how can it be made salty again now the point that he is making is this now I'm not a I'm not a chemist as a matter of fact I I didn't do very well in chemistry at the University of Texas but there are certain properties elements if you will to salt if you take away those elements you might and replace even put something better in their place you might have a fine thing but you no longer have salt there are certain characteristics of salt and if you take those characteristics away it's no longer salt so what is he telling us there is certain there are certain characteristics to being Christian that cannot be replaced they are principled and necessary elements of what it means to be Christian and those things cannot be replaced without making the name Christian without meaning now we ask ourselves well what are these necessary elements to Christian to being Christian not to doing Christian things but what are the necessary elements to being Christian now this is not how do we enter into the Christian life we enter into the Christian life through faith in Jesus Christ but once we're there what is it really all about it seems like every week it comes down the pike some new teaching about what Christianity is really all about but what is it really all about according to Jesus well he's just laid for us that there are certain characteristics to Christian to being Christian that if those characteristics are removed oh my friend as the English say you might have a fine thing which you don't have Christianity so what are they now do we have to just ramble all through the Bible and pick out certain verses no again context what does it mean to be Christian what does God want from you blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are the gentle blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness blessed are the merciful blessed are the pure in heart blessed are the peacemakers blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness I have just described the clothing the fabric and the fragrance of Jesus Christ I am so tired of just doing so tired of having my Christian life reduced down to how I perform and what I do Jesus Christ comes to me his yoke is easy and his burden is light and he tells me this it is not what you do for I can raise up rocks to do what you do and do better than you do but it is Paul the seal I have set upon you the decree in the hope is that you be conformed to my image that you be conformed that is what He desires and I submit to you today that all the problems if not all most of the problems in your life come from who you're not from your character who you are as a person our squabbles in our marriages come from frightened fleshly outbursts they come from not reflecting Jesus Christ the problem between brothers the problem in life the problem the disruption of our own conscience every comes down from we're not putting enough emphasis where emphasis belongs and it is on becoming like Jesus everybody wants to do something when we ought to be wanting to be something now I want you to look at something that is very important in verses 1 and 2 when Jesus saw the crowds he went up on the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him he opened his mouth and began to teach them saying there's something very important here something extremely important have you ever been to Jerusalem there just aren't a whole lot of mountains if we were in Colorado right now this church most definitely would not be called High Point you're not really sitting on a very high point there are not many mountains in Jerusalem yet Mathew inspired by the Holy Spirit uses the word Mountain he says Christ came up on a mountain and why is he doing that I'll tell you exactly why he's doing it Matthew was written to the Jews and Matthew is telling the Jewish people now listen to me the one prophesied the Prophet the one greater than Moses has come he's gone up on the mountain he opens his mouth and God says this is my son hear ye him what Matthew is doing for us is he's saying the one greater than Moses has come with a law greater than the law of Moses he's not going to lower the bar he's going to raise it he's going to raise it but he's going to raise it not in a rule keeping legalistic sort of fashion as we go through the teachings of Christ he's gonna raise it in this way it's gonna come down to one thing there's an old pastor who boy he's not that old if he hears this message he'll be mad at me but there's a there's a pastor who's been a mentor of mine for years now I know men who have PhDs all over the world and everything else this man pastors a church of about 80 people but God's got his hand his life like no one I've ever met and he always tells me this he'll tell me Paul in the New Covenant love is not a thing it is the thing and everything Christ commands us comes down to this royal law of loving God and loving your neighbor and being conformed to the image of Christ not on a mountainside where it's easy but in the context of a bunch of people who are not very easy to love this greater than Moses this captain of the hosts of God is now standing before us the scribe of scribes the teachers there let me let me just share with you something Jesus makes this quite clear there's never been a real teacher except one and it's Christ there's never been a real prophet there are all types of one greater than themselves Christ that has never been on this earth a real king except for Christ hear ye him recognize his voice and hear ye him he speaks to you through his word but this King is going to come to you with words quite different than you ever imagined words that at first will seem almost easier than the law of Moses and then as you grow you'll begin to understand these are the most difficult sayings I have ever heard they cost more from me than the law of Moses ever could we just give you a brief example law of Moses says tithe law of Christ says if your brother said need sell everything you have and give it to him law of Moses says give God a day Jesus said give him every moment of your life every beat of your heart that does not be done to the glory of God is apostate you see how the standards raised yeah we're throwing out all the elementary principles of the law because why there's no need for shadows when the light has come when the star and the Sun have appeared and Christ is both bringing light today and night now the rule is this love each other as Christ loved you dying on a tree that's why so many people would rather go back to rule keeping now let's look at these characteristics we won't have time to go through all of them but maybe we'll get through some of them blessed you know I've studied this word I remember about a hundred and fifty years ago when I was in seminary just you know we had to do this entire Sermon on the Mount in Greek and looking at this word and was sitting there with Greek scholars and such and no one ever could really come up with a meaning well I've got one it's not very proper it's not very eloquent but the term blessed just seems to be God's face looking my way pleased that's enough why do we think that bless it has to mean all these things isn't God enough a dear friend of mine was preaching in Romania and it was speaking about heaven and it was I was sitting there I cried through the whole message I just I said they're not God this is wonderful because the whole thing was the glories of Christ that's all he talked about was the glories of Jesus Christ the presence of Jesus Christ the life of Jesus Christ and when he was done a man raised his hand and said this is wonderful but what else do we get and I saw that old preacher just his heart just break into you've understood nothing you've understood nothing blessedness is God looking down upon you my little boy in his three years old he doesn't do a whole lot right but when he does do something right I can be assured he's gonna look up did you see that dad look hard because it probably won't happen again blessedness divine favor divine favor this is my son I'm pleased big cars and fine houses and prosperity teaching is kind of weak in light of just having God look at you with light in his face another way you could look at it is take all the blessings all all the good things of God that come down from the Father of lights put them all in a bag and that's what this means that's what this means how much blessedness do you and I miss out on not because we haven't done 10 things to the victorious Christian life not because we haven't had our quiet time but we miss out on it because we have not grown in character we have not grown in conformity to Jesus Christ blessed are the poor in spirit poor we don't like that word we live in the Roman Empire we brag about steel and metal strength and brawn power don't tread on me pride wealth Fame reputation status some of you possibly tasted of that doesn't taste very good poor humble broken servant unassuming someone you would just pass over quickly poor in spirit what does it mean well let me just read a passage to you that is one of my as my little boy says most favoritest verses in the whole Bible I think I remember where it is thus says the Lord heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool where then is the house you could build for me he says I don't need a thing from you now to some of you that might be offensive to me that makes me very very happy and where is the place that I may rest for my hand made all these things thus all these things came into being declares the Lord but to this one I will look to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word you see if it was any other way there'd be no hope for me I don't know about you but for me there being a hope if he said I will look to this one the one with an exemplary prayer life and who knows the Word of God like the back of his hand if he said that there'd be no place for me to go if he said the one bold and courageous who can stand against the enemies without fear again there would be no place for me to go if he said the man of great faith able to believe great things then I'd have to go somewhere else that's not what he says he says to this one who's humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word and and why is he this way because he knows he's not he knows he's not spiritual as he ought to be he knows he's not right he looks at God's Word he says my failings my shortcomings my my everything about me and yet faith causes him not to fall into despair because he looks into the face of Christ I had a seminary student write me a while back and he said and I know this young man he's very godly it seems he's immature like like young men are but he's got God's hand on his life and he he said brother Paul I'm just so unholy and unrighteous and so ignorant of the things of God and and I have the gift of mercy so I wrote him back and I said young man you are much more ignorant and much more unholy than you now know and he he held me back and said thanks I think and I called him up and I said listen I said I've looked at your life and much the way you live convicts me of how has an older prophet I have become dull I said young man you're probably more spiritual than I am well no probably about it but I said young man I'm happier than you are and he said I don't understand now listen to me this might set some of you free do you ever get up in the morning and you have your quiet time and feel the presence of God and you're studying the word and you seem to God seems to speak to you and then you know you go out and you witness to everybody and you're obedient and and boy you just you did it right that day I mean you were just on top of the world you loved your wife you didn't kick the cat you're just you're walking with God and you're so full of joy at the end of the day then the next day you get up well you overslept you shouldn't have watched that program the night before you should have been in the word you didn't witness when you had an opportunity and there's a real sense in which you're filled with sorrow you know what that is idolatry you have become the source of your own joy your joy comes from you and your continuous work my joy comes from the finished work of Jesus Christ now I want to be obedient I want to witness I want to love my wife and there is a real sense of what the Holy Spirit convicts me when I do not do those things but the point is poverty of spirit is a wonderful thing because when you realize it's like I used to tell young preachers I'd say in order to preach you've got to have the power of God on your life now I tell them in order to tie your shoes you have to have the power of God on your life you cannot breathe sometimes I get invited to church growth conferences not very often but they'll talk about all these great things they're going to do and then I'll get up and I'll say let me ask you a question from where does every breath come from God from where does every beat of your heart from where does it come from God oh so you characters out here all you pastors and preachers and evangelists and missionaries with all these great plans that tell me something you can't even breathe your heart will not even beat except for the power of God on your life apart from any measure of grace in my life I will be here to you today nothing more than a seething demonstrations demonstration of egotistical flesh that's all I will ever be I was reading through Galatians this morning and I was so convicted was reading through Galatians and it talked about dissension and and disputes things like that and I realized that sometimes I do that with my wife and it just showed me it wasn't that well you know I we just have a problem or we don't agree in fact the matter is I'm in the flesh I'm in the flesh and I'm not relying upon the power of God and the reason why I'm not is because I'm not poor in spirit someone says well I'm poor in spirit how much do you pray how much do you tremble how much do you rely upon the wisdom of God revealed in his word poverty of spirit but isn't it wonderful church listen to me isn't it wonderful that you don't have to be something big actually what you have to be is something low something broken and humble take the back seat wash the feet be timid and afraid of any task put before you so that it drives you to your knees realize when you wake up in the morning that I shall not move to my left or my right 1/4 of an inch because without the power of God upon my life surely I will fall that's what the passage means in the prayer lead us not into temptation it's a recognition of weakness and a recognition of a tremendous need of grace of grace blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom oh what a place what a place you know back when I was a young man not so much preaching about it anymore but people used to preach all the time about crowns you know crowns you're gonna get your crowns there's this crown of evangelism there's this crown of this and a crown of that I always wondered what I really want to walk throughout all of eternity with like 400 pounds of crowns on my head do you remember when Jesus said the first will be last and the last will be first when the first is last and last is first there is no first or last you draw a rabbinical circle I am an itinerant Bible preacher that's all I am no one's ever going to know your name either you're not big you're not Charles Spurgeon you're not George Whitfield you're not a great theologian you haven't swum across swamps in the Amazon to preach the gospel you're just you so what does that mean this kingdom of heaven is it a place that you almost ought to dread because well there's a pecking order there you know there's these big shots and then there's you you know there's all places they're places that all of us can't go you realize that I mean I remember I was no good at sports you know I never got picked for the team felt bad about that there's certain places I don't go because I don't have the reputation I don't have the money there's all these places where I'm shut out there's this pecking order in this world where I always have to take at least 56 their seventh place are down at the bottom or something and many people think that that same thing is going to be carried over into heaven well you know when I get to heaven I won't even see George Whitfield or Charles Spurgeon or anybody like that because they'll be so close to the throne and I'll just have a cabin on a hillside somewhere do you really think heaven is that demonic the Kingdom of Heaven brings such joy to me because it is a place where the poor and spirit finally find rest and absolute acceptance let me tell you something if you're a Christian you've finally walked through a door where there's no longer any pecking order and where you no longer have to be anybody and you don't have to score a perfect score or anything else because everybody is only there because of Jesus Christ that is a wonderful wonderful wonderful place to be I had a pastor friend of mine one time is also a teacher wonderful Bible teacher and he looked at a group of us who were young students and he said how many of you been called to preach and raised our hands he says first of all he says I'm not the Prophet or the son of a prophet but I can conclude this from your calling into the ministry there's something terribly wrong with every one of you he could not have spoken any clearer with regard to me broken people and at first you get into Christianity and you think boy you know I need to do this and I need to do that and well there are things we need to do but then you get this idea that well the kingdom of heaven isn't much different than the kingdoms of this world and they've been shut out almost to them my dear friend it's not that way the the young person baptized here today has the same status and glory as the greatest missionary who ever walked on the face of the earth I like that maybe if you're in first place you don't like that but if you're in last place where I usually come in you like that old lie freedom from these morbid chains that the world puts upon us and find no place at all in genuine Christianity blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven wow you say well I can't wait well then don't because he's talking about now oh I can't wait till I get there you're already there it doesn't mean that because you're already there there's no trials no sicknesses no struggling with finances no other things like that it means this because you're already there means this this is eternal life you know him now and he knows you and that is enough that's enough blessed are those who mourn why are we so in our generation of wanting to have self-esteem we are so afraid of this word to mourn so afraid oh my dear friend God wants us to be whole and complete but we will never be whole and complete by molding some false self-esteem in us we will be mold and complete as we look into his face and forget about ourselves and look to him but what does this mean to mourn blessed are those who mourn let's say that I have a statue of this man right here and stone stone statue I can walk up to that stone statue and reach under that tender part of the human arm and pinch with all my might and what's going to happen absolutely nothing why he's inanimate it's a stone has no life in it at all but now if I reach over and grab that man by the back of his arm that man in the flesh right there and I pinch with all my might I am sure we will have a fantastic reaction out of our brother why living mourning could be the greatest evidence of true conversion simply means this a sensitivity to sin first of all your own and second of all the sin of this sinful fallen world around you I was preaching a while back in in Tennessee and some people got sort of angry with me I preached in a lot of places once and they actually these group of ladies and they were leaders they came up to me and they said brother ball we're having a real spiritual battle here just a debate we're kind of we're in division and we don't know what really God would think about this and we just wanted to hear from you and I said well I'll do my best what's the question and I'm bracing myself for some tremendous theological question that would probably take hours of study and they said we don't know whether or not it's the will of God that when we take our daughters to a Britney Spears concert I looked at my said you're all lost you're lost and you're going to hell now I said that please understand I didn't I said that in a nice way okay I mean I but the fact of the matter is I said you have no sensitivity sensitivity to sin you know one of the marks of true Christianity according to first John chapter one is not that the believer is sinless but that the believer recognizes sin let me give you a perfect example there have been times here when when the pastor has preached I'm sure because he's man who preaches the Word of God when the pastor has preached and the Holy Spirit has been moving in people's lives and begin to deal with people about sin is that not true that's happened isn't it amazing and if there are pastors here they're all recognized that this is true isn't it amazing that when a pastor preaches a message and God begins to do a special sovereign work dealing with sin in the lives of the congregation it is always the most holy most devoted and most godly people in the church who come forward weeping and broken over sin and it is always the most ungodly carnal wicked church members that sit back there cold as a stone why is that we're seeing the difference between church membership and conversion the one thing about a believer is they will be sensitive to sin now sometimes as believers we can become dull and we will need the rebuke of another and all sorts of things like that but in the end we will have a sensitivity to sin and God who began a good work in us will finish it and bring us to morning even if he has to use extraordinary means I remember it was probably 15 years ago I was preaching a sermon and I want to tell you it was it was powerful and when I finished the sermon a dear brother an older older Christian in the congregation I stepped down and he said Paul he looked at me like this he said you preached the truth today and you did it in the flesh and you need to get down on your knees right now and ask God to forgive you because God did not place a whip in your hand to kill the people of God you know what he was absolutely right about me and I didn't see it when I walked down those steps but I saw it when he told me that let me ask you a terrifying question when was the last time you wept over your sin you say well I haven't fallen my friend no one Falls we slide he said well I haven't done the big stuff everything's big stuff being insensitive to my wife needing to hear I love you and a hug before I walk out the door is big stuff when was the last time you wept when was the last time you were broken when I can only draw two conclusions if you haven't been one your perfect or to your heart like mine does many times has become dull blessed are those who mourn now why are they blessed this is very very important and we're going to end here I was hoping to get through a lot more but we'll stop here why is a person blessed now in the scriptures we understand there's a repentance unto life and a repentance unto death we know that Peter had a repentance unto life Judas had a repentance unto death was not mixed with faith and all sorts of other things but here's the wonderful thing if you study the prophets man sometimes they said things to Israel that literally I don't feel comfortable even speaking about a mixed company and if you look at it and Hebrew you're really going to see some fantastic things that they said even Paul the Apostle in the book of Galatians makes a few statements that literally will curl your toes but here's the wonderful thing about the mark of a true prophet of God speaking a true message of God he might come down like a hammer he might burn like a fire but God will never leave his people without saying this come to me and I will take it all away come to me and I will fix you come to me I am not done with you come to me come to me this is how the Christian life works now this is about as close I get to a dramatic sermon as you're going to see you begin the Christian life how do you begin it you begin it with a revelation the gospel of Jesus Christ is revealed to you primarily through preaching you see God's holiness if you've never seen it before which causes you to see your sin as you never seen it before but in that revelation you are not brought to despair because although you see a revelation of God and a rillette and his holiness and a revelation of your sin you also see a revelation of the grace of God in the face of Christ and you do not fall into despair but you run to Christ the city of refuge all right and he makes all things new all right now after you become a Christian here's the unique thing that will happen you will think you're about the holiest thing going I remember soon as I became a Christian I would go out on sixth Street and preach man I thought I was the Prophet prophet Muppet maybe the Prophet you know and and I'd look at preachers who wouldn't preach on the streets and all these things and fasting and prayer and boy I thought I was just it until God began to do what God always does he began to work death in my life he began to pull back and show me what I really am that's why if you talked to a man of God who what who's walked with God for 60 years he will see himself as much more unholy now than he did when he first started but he will be happier now and this is how it works as you begin to walk with Christ and you truly begin to understand him and understand his character and His grace you begin to see as you walk with him more and more of the holiness of God you begin to see more and more of your own failings which leads you to greater and greater and deeper mourning but you also see greater greater revelations of His grace that picks you up higher than you've ever been and you continue that all throughout your Christian life so that at the end of your days you are more sensitive over sin you are mourning greater over the small things that you would have even dismissed when you began but at the same time you're happier because it is all in the face of Christ it is all Christ just Jesus just Jesus heard a young man one time and I didn't want to put out his fire but he said Jesus is all we need I said young man Jesus is all we have that's all yeah I'm not going to give an invitation this is why I give invitations but I'm not gonna give one now this is why I don't want you to take 45 minutes worth of preaching and think that the Spirit of God has done with you because psychologically you've left it on an altar I don't want you to leave it on an altar I want you to take this home I want the Holy Spirit to bother you I want him to deal with you I want him to be looking back at you every time you see your reflection I want you to sit down and ponder these things I don't want you just to superficially listen to this and let it go walk out the door and go eat it you know Ruby Tuesdays I want you to meditate on these things I mean after all if I had to suffer this stuff all morning surely you can suffer it for an afternoon pray with your husband pray with your wife gather your children together think about this sit silent the psychologist you one time said that hurry is not of the devil it is the devil and I don't agree with him because I believe in a personal devil but he had a truth in there your hurried busyness truncates spiritual life so I'll pray and just ask God to help us because we need help we need help let's pray father please help us helped us to be like Christ in the hidden places help us to be like Christ among the people who know us best whatever it takes Lord and it may take a lot make us like Jesus in Jesus name Amen

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Length: 50min 58sec (3058 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2013