And ye are Christ's (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] For the Lord's help this evening, I would direct your attention to the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the third chapter, and the first clause of the twenty-third verse.

[0:12] The first clause of verse twenty-three, the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter three. And ye are Christ's.

[0:26] And ye are Christ's. The knowledge that we are Christ's can never be measured in its value, in its preciousness, in its glory, and in its wonder.

[0:50] Surely, it is such an assurance that everyone of the children of God seek after.

[1:03] Because if we are Christ's, then undoubtedly, we shall reach heaven at last. And if we are Christ's, we shall see him as he is.

[1:18] Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Everything in our lives depends upon and revolves around these few words.

[1:39] And ye are Christ's. And ye are Christ's. It will cover the whole of our lives. And it will, in due time, be the reason for our being recipients of eternal life in the soul.

[2:05] we may have many evidences of the truth before us but how wonderful if the spirit of God should speak these words powerfully into our souls none speaketh like him cause an observation by his enemies whilst Jesus was here upon earth and the people of God know from time to time that there is none that speaketh like God because when he speaks he speaks peace unto his people what peace will be brought into your soul and into mine with the application of these words and ye are Christ's this word may well develop from our subject on Lord's Day concerning the elect of God everyone of the elect of God have this to follow in their experience and ye are Christ's the father chose a people for his praise and he gave them to Christ in order that he might live and die for them and prepare them with the washing of blood and the clothing of a pure righteousness for heaven in due time everything emanates from these few words and it is as pleased the father that the whole election of grace should be as it were the property of the Lord Jesus Christ because of this the Lord Jesus himself has undertaken all that is necessary to bring them safely on their way we have

[4:48] I think mentioned this evening already that safety is of the Lord and the reason for this is so far that the people of God are concerned is that ye are Christ's and therefore ye are safe ye are safe from all the dangers of life ye are safe from the temptations of the devil because though he may tempt and though you may fall yet you can only fall into the arms of Christ who has redeemed you from under the curse of the law and has given the assurance by his death and by his resurrection that sin shall not have dominion over you that Satan shall not conquer you that the grave shall never be able to boast a victory and all because ye are Christ's now with the help of God we would look at one or two points which come forth from these words as we view it in our various experiences if we are called by grace if we are regenerated by the spirit of God it is because we are Christ's none other are called by grace and none other are renewed in the spirit of their mind and none other are regenerated in their souls therefore because ye are Christ's the blessings of regeneration and eternal life are known to those that are Christ's sometimes

[7:01] I have said that though we may not always have a spoken word from God concerning our standing yet we may have many clear evidences that we are the Lords no if we are not the Lords we are the Devils the word of God makes it very clear we cannot be half and half we may go back to the beginning of our lives if our names are written in heaven though we know not the Lord yet the Lord knows us and therefore it may be said that in the days of childhood and of youth and maidenhood and so on until the appointed time comes for God to manifest his love to us and regenerate our soul we are still

[8:07] Christ's yeah Christ's is the result of a covenant engagement we do not become Christ suddenly when we are manifested by the power of regeneration we have been Christ from all eternity and maybe we can look back over those days when we knew not the Lord and now we have an answer to why we were preserved and why we were kept and why we were watched over and why we were hindered all because Yah Christ's is it not good sometimes to look over those days whether they be many or or fewer and see that the Lord's eye was upon us because

[9:17] Yah Christ's what a consoling thought this is some parents have deep exercises concerning their children and maybe as yet their children are not made manifest as truly having the grace of God Christ's but if they're Christ's perhaps you may have some encouraging hopes because you see that God's eye is upon them and that sometimes they're hindered and sometimes they're preserved in a remarkable way they may not realize it but if you've been praying watching over them with your prayers then maybe you may have this confirmation in your soul that they are Christ's because

[10:22] God's love is upon them they don't know it you can't say anything about it because it hasn't been made manifest that they are the Lord's but nevertheless your hopes are encouraged and your hopes will look forward to say today when the regenerating power of the spirit of God will come upon those people and manifest them to be Christ's and so when God's law is brought into the soul and we become aware that God is holy then people are very confused and very disturbed and they think that God has gone out against them not realizing that these things have come upon them because they are Christ's God has begun the good work of grace in the heart he has made them feel that this world is not satisfying he has made them feel that there's something that they lack has made them feel that what they see in others whom they believe to be the people of

[11:41] God they themselves do not possess and in due time you may be able to trace these uneasy feelings when you have more positive evidence that ye are Christ's than then you felt those feelings because of this truth ye are Christ's and so we may pass on from day to day and year to year in our lives let us ask ourselves now have we any evidences in our own souls by the way that God has led us the geochrist's is it not this an important point should it not be since we are all hastening to out of time into eternity and we should face the solemn facts that if we are not

[12:46] Christ we are lost oh then what urgency this may press upon our spirits which it will do if God has given us a tender heart to know that we belong unto God though God's election is a truth small comfort there I see till I am told by God's own mouth that he has chosen me now if we are chosen we are chosen in Christ and if we are chosen it is because we belong to Christ does this exercise our soul sometimes one of the evidences of our belonging to Christ will be set forth in the desires of the soul we think of those words in the song of Solomon the first chapter tell me oh thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions and if that desire is in our souls and he that believeth hath the witness in himself we may well have a good hope through grace that we are

[14:28] Christ's the people that are Christ's will be followers of Christ and if they are followers of Christ they will have to give up following the world we cannot follow both because they go in opposite directions the world walks in the way of pride Christ walks in the way of humility but if we are Christ's we should be followers after Christ and we should want to know where he dwells where dwellest thou and he said come and see the geographical situation is not told us but we do know this from the scripture

[15:30] I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite heart do we ask where the Lord Jesus dwells if we are Christ we should discover that he dwells in our hearts by faith so when we move along from day to day we shall feel that we are not alone and when you pray unto the God of heaven there is a movement in the soul sometimes that movement is the spirit of God of Jesus of the father prompting you to sacred prayer and directing your heart and affection above and expressing sometimes a longing after Christ and this is because ye are

[16:37] Christ's so do we feel sometimes the movement of the spirit of God in our hearts I believe it is an experience of the people of God that suddenly there is an urge to pray and if that comes upon you do not be hindered in any way I know Satan will immediately rise up and attempt to set before you but this must be done and that must be done first but there have been a few occasions in my life when I have been in the midst of business and the urge has come upon me to turn aside and pray it it hasn't always been convenient but God has made a way

[17:38] I've also known the other side restraining prayer and continued with the work in hand and then sad to say we felt that spirit move away it's a good thing to feel when the spirit moves away though it's not a positive evidence it's a negative evidence that we realize that we're alive because we felt the spirit go and how we made more and because now we turn to prayer and we seem to have no words to speak we do not realize always it is because ye are Christ and being such we are being instructed being instructed in the truth sometimes instructed in our own weakness in our own depravity at other times or sometimes at the same time being instructed in the power of the spirit moving upon our hearts but then if ye are

[19:06] Christ there will be times when there will be shining here we may well remember what one has written shine gracious God and then I can feel sweetness in salvation's plan Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me there be many which say who will show us any good and if the Lord lifts up the light of its countenance upon you it is because ye are Christ's now do you wonder whether ye are Christ's are you tempted to think you are not Christ's and yet have you some of these evidences in your soul's experience I hope at least to some of them you will be able to say well I know that's true and I know that's true well a few points that we've raised already if it's true in your experience it is because ye are

[20:10] Christ's and if ye are Christ's there will be a hungering and a thirsting after righteousness and there will also be a hungering and a thirsting after hearing the word of life have we this evidence that we are Christ's because there have been times when we could join the psalmist as he said I was glad when they said unto me let us go up to the house of the Lord not merely to engage in a social occasion but to worship the Lord and to adore the Lord and to exalt the Lord and to magnify the

[21:11] Lord we may not always be in this feeling alas that such a sad situation should sometimes arise but if you are Christ there will be sometimes when you have come to the house of God with a sweet anticipation and may that sometimes be many times because the more times you are thus favoured the more evidence you will have that you are Christ's because he has communicated to you a spiritual hunger now if we have a spiritual hunger we shall also have a distaste for that which is not spiritual some people may think that it is a very hard thing to give up the world and all that it offers to us but if we have a spiritual hunger it won't be a hardship at all especially if we are hungering after Christ and his fullness and furthermore see the reason for this because you are

[22:39] Christ's now Christ and his church are one they are united to one another in an indissoluble union and therefore the life which is in Christ he gives unto them and the life which is in Christ is eternal life and eternal life is described in the scriptures that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent do we know God and do we know Jesus Christ the mediator of the new covenant with trembling lips we may say I do we dare not say we don't even though we may with some anxiety say we do then ye are

[23:45] Christ and Christ will come and commune with his people there will I commune with thee from above the mercy seat and all because ye are Christ Christ and because ye are Christ the love of the father will draw you unto the mercy seat or unto the throne of grace and have we been drawn with an irresistible drawing so we had to come as we were poor and needy sinners a beggar poor at mercy's door lies such a wretch as I and it needs grace to come it needs some pulling of the father's love to come under these circumstances how can

[24:46] I come you're drawn with an irresistible drawing the everlasting love of the father drawing you to his beloved son making we're making you willing to see in him all your salvation and all your desire and all because ye are Christ now if we are Christ we shall from time to time know something of his own love and something of his own leading in the tenth chapter of John we read about Jesus Christ as the door of the sheep and also as the shepherd he says

[25:51] I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine sheep in the scriptures have a reference to those that are Christ's naturally a sheep will know its own shepherd remarkable is it not but so it is and if you are Christ you will know Christ the shepherd and you will know him because you will hear his voice and furthermore you will be led led by the shepherd and brought into the fold and brought to feel security my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my father's hand the sheep of the shepherd are the adopted children of God and I are

[27:18] Christ therefore they will hear his voice they will be aware of his presence and being aware of his presence they will feel safe it is a blessing if we're alone or if we're in danger or if we're in fear to feel that our shepherd is near and if you've ever felt anything like that I'm not alone for God is with me the apostle said all forsook me and fled but God stood by me God stood with me therefore he was not alone why because of the words that we have before us and ye are Christ's the angel of the

[28:19] Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and about those that hope in his mercy some of you are alone alone in your own abodes what a consolation when you feel that you're not alone that Christ is with you Christ is with you through the dark nights Christ is with you even through difficult days well if this is true and your humble testimony accordingly bears it out must you not say that this word is true concerning you and ye are Christ's because ye are

[29:24] Christ the love of Christ will be over you and sometimes the Holy Ghost in a particular way will shed the love of Christ abroad in your hearts and that will kindle yours and you can truly say do not I love thee dearest lord behold my heart and see and tear each hated idol down that dares to rival thee and this is a work outside of yourselves how hard we may sometimes be our nature may seem to take possession of us we become worldly not worldly like the ungodly but worldly by comparison and why do we feel that it is because you are

[30:24] Christ's and you have a nature that makes you feel that you are worldly you're not spiritual Paul says to be kindly minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace they that have no changes fear not God some have many changes in the order of God's providence but more properly we may look at that verse with the changes that may take place in our soul's feelings and why are these changes necessary if we are carnally minded and we know that it is death how much we shall prize the life and peace that comes when we are spiritually minded and when we are spiritually minded we can see oh so clearly we are

[31:33] Christ's when we are spiritually minded we shall love the Lord will not be the outcome of emotion necessarily though sometimes our emotions may be overcome but we may love the Lord love in itself generally is a strange movement within the heart we cannot express love in so many words we cannot describe it because it is something that is felt and if we have loved the Lord who can describe what we have felt and maybe we should have to say I can't find words to describe what I felt when I love the Lord but you know sometimes we may have brought to our attention that there is a way in which we can demonstrate what we have felt and so we have that word in the scriptures if you love me keep my commandments it will be a good time to keep the commandments of the

[33:01] Lord when the love of Christ is warm in our hearts indeed strictly speaking it is the only time when we may rightly follow the commandments of the Lord what if you are able to be a doer of the words as well as a hearer what a clear point we have here and you are Christ's moved by constraining love compelled and yet without force love and the love of Christ is rich and free fixed on his own eternally and if we are Christ we shall think upon his name and we shall think upon the beauty of that name and the loveliness of that name and the power of that name maybe we shall become aware of this scripture there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby ye must be saved and when you treasure up that name ye are

[34:22] Christ's Peter knew what this meant ye are Christ's he loved Christ he made a clear declaration of his love to Christ he said there are the Christ the son of the living God when the question was raised will he also go away he said to whom else can we go thou hast the words of eternal life have we got that evidence that ye are Christ's have you been tempted sometimes to finish with Christ to go with the multitude and then it is as though Christ himself spoke and said will he also go away meditating upon this you have to come to the same conclusion that Peter came to to whom else can we go to whom else there is none like unto

[35:29] Christ because he is the fountain he is that full sweet well of love and if we have tasted the streams thereof then all other streams must be poisoned or at least having no benefit there is curse and death in every stream but from the well of Bethlehem it is a mercy to know the difference between the streams there are many streams that may come into our lives because it will be no mercy when we know that we are drinking of this stream and now you may think upon it if you have drunk of that stream sometimes that ye are

[36:35] Christ let us not turn away and question the matter the power of unbelief is very powerful indeed and it will try to snatch away that which Christ has given to you but Christ gives a multitude of evidences to his children and sometimes he will come and speak with such clarity that he has loved you that he has blessed you that he has put away your sins that he has redeemed you and that he will remember your sins no more forever they are cast behind his back why only because ye are Christ's the ungodly will never know what it is for their sins to be cast behind the back of Christ they will be continually before them and will haunt them throughout eternity what a salvation is yours if ye are

[37:51] Christ's I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy scents and will remember them no more forever but then if ye are Christ's you will know something about God's justification that is how God can be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly how appropriate that expression is I have been glad of it sometimes the word of God does not say that Christ is the justifier of the saints though that would be true but he puts it like this the justifier of the ungodly and by the teaching of the spirit we shall feel at times ungodly we are ungodly by nature but then because you are

[39:01] Christ you will be taught by the spirit to show that you may see that the Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly while we were yet in our sins Christ died for us and that will take us back perhaps to the worst part of our life when we knew not the Lord or perhaps when we were left into a foul period of backsliding when we were yet in our sins Christ died for us and that dying was complete it was efficacious the blood of Christ was able to cleanse from all sin and can you trace the source of your salvation to these words and hear Christ this is why it is that you've enjoyed such a benefit that you've reaped such a blessing no wonder the psalmist says not unto us not unto us but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake the mercy of God has revealed to him that he was Christ that he was saved in the

[40:31] Lord with an everlasting salvation that he was loved of his God loved of my God says top lady for him again with love intense I burn chosen of God ere time began I'll choose thee in return we love him because he first loved us and Christ's love to his people is an eternal love and therefore it is an unchanging love I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed maybe we might have felt at times that we would be consumed we had a few thoughts on Friday about the fig tree that bore no fruit and the sound went forth cut it down why come with it the ground and because ye are

[41:56] Christ you will have an intercessor which is Christ who will say let it alone this year also and I will dig about it and done it and if it then bear no fruit well cut it down cut it down and the people of God are spared even when as people may look at you you're bearing no fruit but there is an intercessor and to demonstrate the God Christ he stands there and mediates as a mediator of the new covenant when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon Calvary he rose again and ascended up on high having made captivity captive and received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the

[43:12] Lord God might dwell among them one of the gifts that was given to the church of God to those that are Christ's is referred to by the Lord Jesus in his teaching for he says if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much will your Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him there's a great deal in that verse have we received the Holy Spirit the teaching of the Holy Spirit that leadeth in the way of righteousness and truth then we shall be informed that Christ has died that he has risen again powerful are the words in the 8th of

[44:20] Romans which in which the apostle does not let us remain as it were on the death of Christ alone though that is important who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is written again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us and if ye are Christ the truth will be precious to you he ever liveth to make intercession for you how precious this is when we feel that sin has stopped our mouth wonderful to know the blessings of an intercessor when we can't say a word some of you might have known that

[45:25] I've known it Mr. Hart picks up a point when he says in one of the early hymns of our hymn book teach us for what to pray and how and since kind God is only thou the throne of grace canst move pray thou for us that we through faith may feel the effect of Jesus death through faith that works by love thou with the father and the son art that mysterious three in one God bless forevermore whom though we cannot comprehend feeling thou art the sinner's friend we love thee and adore and all because ye are

[46:26] Christ's oh what blessings result from our being Christ's maybe if we thought about it we should come to the conclusion that we ought to think more about it of the blessings that have flowed down to us because we are Christ's now if we look into the world around us one salient and sad feature is this that there is such a lack of contentment but if ye are Christ's one evidence will be that we shall be contented godliness with contentment is great game the apostle said to Timothy having food and raiment let us be there with content we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and then again we read in the

[47:43] Hebrews be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me and all because ye are Christ's oh we may think upon this word may the Lord give us grace to think upon this word and to think of the multitude of blessings that flow from it the apostle says I am what I am by the grace of God and that issues from these words and hear Christ's and the apostle also says I have all things in abound and I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content and the result of that lies in the words of our text this evening ye are

[48:51] Christ's