Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Let's
open this morning's service with a hymn from our spiral hymn book,
the gospel hymns hymn book number four. Let's all get ready and
let's stand together and hymn number four in your spiral hymn
book. Hail sovereign love that first
began The scheme to rescue fallen men Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace That gave my soul a hiding place Against the God who rules
the sky I fought with hand uplifted, I despised the mention of His
grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in thick Egyptian
night, And found of darkness more than light, Madly I ran
the sinful race, Secured without a hiding place. But thus the
eternal counsel ran, Almighty love, arrest, That meant I felt
the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view,
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with frowning
face, This mountain is no hiding place. And long a heavenly voice
I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared, who led me on with
gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. on him almighty vengeance fell
that must have sunk the world to hell he bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place a few more rolling suns
at most shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall
sing the song of grace to Jesus Christ my hiding place. Please be seated. Good morning. What a hiding place
our Lord is. Sinners can find no hope or comfort
in the original response to sin by our father Adam, which was
to blame or to hide or to make excuses. None of those things
give any comfort to the heart, but Christ does. The Lord Jesus
Christ. He is a. He is a. A proven faithful hiding place. I'd like to ask you to open your
Bibles, if you would, with me to the Song of Solomon. This
is not our text. I just want to begin our morning
with reading these two verses. Song of Solomon, chapter four. And we'll begin reading the verse
16. Now, the church, in the Song of Solomon is referred to as
a garden, God's garden. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
speaking here in verse 16 when he says, awake, O north wind. The Lord Jesus is calling upon
the spirit of God to come and blow in his garden. And faith
agrees with his prayer. Lord, that's my prayer. Blow
the north wind and chill my affections for the things
of this world. Awake, oh north wind, and come. Thou south blow upon my garden. Oh, the warm south wind would
would warm the affections of our hearts toward Christ and
toward the things of God. That's our prayer this morning.
Lord, send your spirit and take away from me the sinful affections
that I have for the things of this world and give to me a love
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Blow upon my garden that spices
thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits." The Lord Jesus Christ eating
the fruits of his labor in the worship and love of his children. In chapter five, verse one, I
am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. The Lord is referring
to his people as his sister, his spouse, his wife. And he
says, I am come into my garden where two or three are gathered
together in my name. There I am in the midst of them. We don't have to manipulate the
things of God in order for him to come. He's promised to be
with his people and to meet with them in his garden. I have gathered
my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Eat, oh friends, drink. Yay, drink abundantly, oh beloved. Oh, to be loved of God, behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, us, that
we should be called the sons of God. He's loved us with an everlasting
love, and he's promised to meet with us when we gather together
in his name. That's our God's promise, and
that's our hope and our expectation this morning. Let's join our
hearts together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the precious
promises of your word. We thank you for your faithfulness
in keeping all of your promises. We thank you for thy dear son,
the one who himself is faithful and true. He was faithful to
satisfy all the demands of thy holy justice. He was faithful
to fulfill all the requirements of thy holy law. He is faithful
to come and to meet with his church, his bride, his sister.
Lord, we pray that you would send the wind of your spirit, chill our hearts for those things
that we've been so affectionately drawn to in this world, and warm
our hearts in love for Christ and for your word and for your
people and for all that pertains to your your work and your righteousness,
your person and your glory. Bless your word, enable us to
speak and enable us to hear. For we know that the hearing
ear and the seeing eye are gifts of your spices and of your grace
in your garden. We trust you, Lord. We thank
you for it. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's turn in our Bibles together
to Acts chapter 24. Acts chapter 24. I've titled this message True
Repentance. True Repentance. I could have
called it Righteousness, Temperance, and Judgment, but I want us to
think about how the things that the Apostle Paul was reasoning
with Felix about, how these things affect us. I've decided to call this message
fight, flight, or faith. Because when the Lord reasons
with men over righteousness, over temperance, and over judgment,
one of those three things will be every man's response. He will
fight against the gospel of God's free grace, holding on to his
righteousness, not wanting anyone to control his temperance, and
refusing to believe that he's under the judgment of God. Or
he will do like Felix did, and he will flee from the gospel. He'll run from it. Or God's elect
will bow to it, and they will rejoice in knowing that they
have a righteousness outside of themselves that satisfies
the demands of God. that they have a loving, faithful
Savior who works in them, causing them to will and to do after
God's good pleasure, restraining their evil passions. and that
they have judgment already satisfied by the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross. Notice with me in verse 25, and
he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Felix trembled. Felix trembled. Now these three things summarize
the gospel. And when Felix heard these things,
He trembled, he was afraid. And he said, go thy way for this
time. And when I have a convenient
season, I will call for thee. Felix never called for him again.
No evidence in scripture that he ever did. Go away. When I have a convenient time,
I'll call you again. We'll discuss this again. He
chose flight. Many will choose fight. and others
will be given the miracle of faith to believe in righteousness,
temperance, and judgment. Now, much I was telling the man in
the prayer time this morning that there's four chapters really
given here in the book of Acts, which tells us the importance
of these things. The Holy Spirit gave us four
whole chapters of Paul defending himself against the false accusations
that were being made about the gospel. And we find him here
before Felix, a Roman governor. Now, it's important to understand
that any form of sedition in the ancient Roman Empire was
a capital offense, any form of sedition. And the Jews knew that. And so the Jews could not defend
their arguments against the gospel with scripture. And so they gathered
together and made false accusations against the apostles toward the
Roman governors and said, these men are being seditious. They
are seeking to overthrow the Roman empire. And so he's brought
before this governor, Felix, who has his own job security to be concerned
with. Felix was a very cruel ruler,
and he was restrained by nothing except for his own self-interest.
His job was to maintain peace among the Jews. And what we know
now is that there was already an uprising afoot. The Jews,
within less than 15 years, are going to are going to rebel against
the Romans, and the whole Jewish-Roman war began. And by 70 AD, Israel
is completely destroyed, and the Jews are scattered. So that
was what Felix was seeking to restrain. And so he wanted to
hear about these accusations that were being made against
the Apostle Paul in fear that if there's any truth to them,
that he would lose his position of power as a Roman governor
because sedition would break out, And that's all he was concerned
about. Well, it's really not all he
was concerned about. The second thing he was concerned about
is lining his pockets with bribery. Let's read on. Notice in verse
26, And he hoped also that money should have been given him of
Paul, that he might loose him. Wherefore, he sent for him the
oftener and communed with him. So here, you know, Felix is hoping
that Paul will give him money to let him go. And so he allows
him to have his friends in place. Let's go back to verse 21. Here's Paul's defense. Verse
21, except it be for this one voice. Now the Jews have made
their accusations against him. And Paul says in verse 15, I
confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy,
so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all the things which
are written in the law and the prophets. He said, the accusations they're
making against me are true in that I believe God. And then
he concludes his argument before Felix with this statement in
verse 21, "'Except it be for this one voice that I cried standing
among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question
by you this day.'" Oh, there's where the rub was. There's the
resurrection of the dead. Now, He's not talking about the
final resurrection of believers. That was held by most of the
Jews. The Jews believed in the doctrine
of the resurrection. The Sadducees didn't, but the
Pharisees did. So for Paul to say that God's elect are going
to be raised from the dead would not have been a point of contention
for the Jews to want to kill him. turned me over just a page
to verse 25, chapter 25, verse 19. Now Festus replaces Felix
in the following, in the next chapter, and Festus is now bringing
the charges to King Agrippa. So Paul's working his way up
the ladder of authority in the Roman Empire. He's going to end
up in Rome defending the gospel to Caesar. But now Festus is
presenting to King Agrippa what the charges are. And he clarifies
what Paul meant in the verse that we just read as far as the
resurrection is concerned. Like I said, most of the Jews
believed in a resurrection. So for Paul to say just a resurrection
is going to happen would not have been a point of concern
for them. But here's the point. Look at
verse 19. Festus is saying now to Agrippa,
but had certain questions against him of their own superstition
and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. There's the problem. The resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that they had murdered and
put on a cross, Paul is affirming that God has raised him from
the dead, which exposes them and gives glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ. What is the resurrection of Christ?
It is God's approval, evidence, affirmation to his people that what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross satisfied everything that
I require for the salvation of all of my people. And I raise
him from the dead. He conquered death, he conquered
grave, he conquered Satan, he conquered sin. It's the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ that men have a problem with. And
not that he raised from the dead, but why he raised from the dead.
There's the rub. There's the problem. Everyone
in the world who called however many people there are that claim
to be Christians in the world today would say that Jesus Christ
rose from the dead, but they have no understanding as to why
he rose from the dead. He rose from the dead as proof
that he accomplished everything that the father sent him to do
in saving his people. That's why he raised out. I cannot
allow my holy one to see corruption. God almighty raised him from
the dead. He is the sign of Jonah. The Lord
said to those Pharisees who wanted to see some physical evidence
of his authority and some miracle that he could perform, and he
said to them, a wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign,
but no sign will be given unto it except for the sign of Jonah,
who was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. God brought him forth, and so
the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the belly
of the earth, and God brought him forth as proof that salvation,
what was the last thing that Jonah said when he was in the
belly of that whale? Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ declares, that
salvation is a work of grace performed 100% by God. Nothing you can add to it, and
nothing can be taken away from it. Everyone that God Almighty
chose in the covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, actually
successfully redeemed on Calvary's cross. And the resurrection is
the evidence of that, is the proof of that. That's where they
had a problem. That's what they hated, and that's
what men hate today. To declare a Christ Jesus who
was raised from the dead as the sovereign successful Savior of
sinners the surety of his people having done it all by himself
that salvation is of the Lord that's what they hated that's
what men still hate They want to make some contribution to
their salvation. That's why when we reason with
men over righteousness, they either fight or they flight or
they bow. They bow and rejoicing that there
is a righteousness that is acceptable to God completely outside of
themselves. Men want to believe that they
have some contribution to make to their acceptance with God.
The gospel says we have acceptance in the Beloved, in the Beloved,
to be found in Him, not having any of my own righteousness which
is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the faith and faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's where men have a problem.
So when Paul begins to reason with Felix, let's go back to
our text. Verse 22, and when Felix heard
these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred
them and said, when Lysias the chief captain shall come down,
I will know the uttermost of the matter. Now, Lysias in the
previous part of this chapter is the officer that took Paul
into custody in order to keep him from being killed by the
mob. And so now, Felix is saying, when the officer
of the guard comes, I'll talk to him and we'll find out what
the truth of the matter is here. Notice that Felix, the scripture
says, having a more perfect knowledge of that way. Now notice in verse
24, and after certain days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla,
which was a Jewish, a Jewess. Drusilla was a Jew. Felix was
married to a Jewish woman. And he understood the things of God as far as the scriptures
were concerned. He knew some things. He understood
the claims that were being made about the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Problem is he didn't know the
Lord. And he had no interest in knowing the Lord. because
he was trusting in the knowledge that he had. There's three things. What caused Felix to flight? First of all, he had some righteousness
in that he had a more perfect knowledge of the way. He thought he understood the
things of God better than the apostle Paul did. How oftentimes
when we try to talk to someone about righteousness and temperance
and judgment. They want to say, yeah, but,
and they pretend to have a more perfect knowledge of the things
of God, and they bring out passages of scripture that they think
refute the gospel. There's where Felix was. He had
a righteousness in that he had a more perfect understanding
of the way than the Apostle Paul had. The second thing that Felix
had was he had a wife who, according to historical report, she's a
very licentious woman, and she had no interest in the things
of the gospel. She was the daughter of Herod Agrippa, who Agrippa had John the Baptist
put to death. Herod the Great was the one who
tried to have the Lord Jesus killed in his infancy when he
sent soldiers into Bethlehem and had all the babies killed.
That was Herod the Great. Herod Agrippa is the one that
had John the Baptist killed. And he's the one, scripture says,
he stood up and declared himself to be God and he died and was
eaten with worms. Actually, the Bible says he was
eaten with worms and then he died. I don't know what that
means, but that's not the way I want to die. And so she was
the daughter of that king and she was part of the Herodians
and had no interest in the things of God. So there, Now Felix has
this wife, he's got a job that he's gotta protect, and he, at
the same time, wants gain, profit for his own benefit. Look at verse 23. And he commanded, verse 23, Felix
commanded a centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty. And he should forbid none of
its acquaintance to minister or come unto him. You know, you
get the impression that Felix knew there was some truth to
what Paul was saying. Too much at stake for him to
believe it in terms of his career as a Roman governor, in terms
of his family relationships with the Herodian dynasty, as far
as his potential for profit was concerned, in getting money from
the apostle Paul and from his friends, it was too much at stake
to believe the gospel. But don't you know, in his heart
of hearts, he knew what Paul was saying was true. Isn't that the way it is with
a lot of unbelievers? The truth is simple. The truth
is clear. Men will hear it and they will
deny it with purpose because the cost is too high. In verse 24, and after certain
days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewish,
she sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Concerning the faith in Christ. There's only one faith, one God,
one Christ, one baptism, one truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man can come to
the Father, but by me. And now he's, he's listening
to the apostle Paul of all men preach to him over and over and
over again. He calls him back and, uh, concerning
the faith in Christ. Now the first time now notice
in verse 25, and he reasoned Paul as Paul reasoned with him
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, Felix trembled. Now, the first time righteousness
is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 15, when the
scripture says that Abraham believed God. That's faith. Faith is just
believing God. So here, Paul's reasoning with
him about faith in Christ as it relates to righteousness.
And that's what we're trying to do right now, to reason with
men about what it is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as it pertains to righteousness, Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. So there's our righteousness. Our righteousness is in Christ.
All our righteousness are as filthy rags. We have no righteousness. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all gone into our own way. There's no... What is righteousness? Righteousness is having a right
standing before the holy law of God. Being able to stand in
the presence of God's holy law and not be charged with any guilt. That's what it is to be righteous.
And what Paul is reasoning with him goes all the way back to
Abraham, the father of the faith, saying to Felix, you've got to
believe God. If there's any hope of righteousness
for you, it'll only be through faith in Christ. trusting Christ,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, relying upon him for all of your
salvation and all of your righteousness. And Felix trembled and said,
come back another day and I'll listen to you again. He already
had a righteousness. He had a more excellent understanding
of the way than did the apostle Paul. He had researched this
subject. He knew what the Bible said. He didn't need a righteousness
that was completely alien to him. And that's why men either
fight or flight, the preaching of the gospel. because it strips
them naked before God and leaves them with no righteousness outside
of Christ. The gospel of God's free grace
shuts the sinner up to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we say
with the apostle Peter, Lord, where shall we go? You alone
have the words of eternal life. And we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. We don't have
a shred of righteousness to offer to God on our own behalf. Lord,
if you don't stand in our stead and be our righteousness before
God, we have none. And here's the glory. One of
the things this message I hope will accomplish would give assurance
to the people of God. Every gospel message ought to
do that. And the assurance to you, child of God, is that you
love a message of salvation. that doesn't depend upon you
to produce any righteousness. You love that message. You love
the Christ who is completely able to save you all by himself
and was successful in putting away your sins all by himself. You love that. You don't want
anything to do with the gospel that depends upon you to present
something to God for your acceptance outside of Christ. You see, the
unbeliever, here's the glorious truth. Everyone who is truly
righteous before God believes themselves to be unrighteous.
everyone who is unrighteous before God believes themselves to have
some righteousness. Where do you fit? Where do you
stand? You see, when When God, by his
word and through his prophet and preacher, reasons with you
over righteousness and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, do
you tremble in fear and want to flee and fight? Or do you
bow and say, amen, that's the gospel I love. That's the God
I need. That's the Christ that I've got
to have. It's a difference, isn't there? This gospel is offensive. The
cross is offensive to the natural man. It's offensive to the religious
man. Because it robbed him of his
righteousness. That's why Felix trembled. That's
why he fled. That's why he didn't want to
hear any more of it. And it's the same message that
causes the child of God to want to hear. Tell me more about a
God who's able to save me without my help. Tell me more about a
Christ who satisfied all the demands of God's righteousness.
That's the Savior I need. I've got nothing to contribute.
I've got nothing to add. I have no righteousness outside
of Him. Turn with me to Romans chapter
one, Romans chapter one. Fight, oh, we've seen plenty
of people do that. They'll fight you tooth and toenail
over the gospel. Or they'll run, as Felix did. Or they'll believe. They'll bow
and rejoice that there is a Savior who's able to save to the uttermost,
completely, without their help. And they'll believe on Him. They'll
believe on Him. Romans chapter one, look at verse
16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, the good news of Christ. The good news is that he's all
my righteousness. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein, therein the gospel is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, from his faith to my faith. That's what the Lord is saying.
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith. Faith is a gift of God. And faith
trusts the faithfulness of Christ and his righteousness. For the just, those who are justified,
Child of God, you want to be justified in the presence of
God, don't you? No charge to be made against
you. The just shall live by faith, looking in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You have your Bibles open to
Romans. Turn over to another page or two to Romans chapter
three. Romans chapter three. Look at verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe. For there is no difference for
all of sin, and come show the glory of God. Turn over one more
page to Romans chapter four. Look at verse two. For if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before
God. You see, that's what men do.
They glory in their salvation because they're trusting in something
they did. A prayer they prayed, a life
they're living, something they're not doing that the world's doing
or something that they are doing. You can't boast before. You might
be able to impress men with that, but you can't boast before God. For what sayeth the scriptures?
Here's the only question that has to be asked. What does God
say? Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. There it is. First time righteousness
is mentioned. That's it, from Genesis 15. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If God saves you
because you did something, then he owed you because of what you
did. If he saved you because of the
way you're living or because of a prayer you prayed or a decision
that you made, then your salvation is by reward. It's not by grace. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. You see, this is what Felix didn't
want to hear. Paul reasoned with him over righteousness. Felix, you have to have a righteousness
that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees
in whom you trust. You've got to have a righteousness
that causes you to be perfectly justified in the presence of
God. And that can only be had in Christ. David said, I will
speak of thy righteousness, even of thine only, only. Felix trembled and fled because
he didn't want to hear about that. Men still do that today. We preach the gospel, men don't
want to hear it because it robs them of their righteousness.
What about temperance? Temperance is the virtue of one
who doesn't let his desires and his passions control him. Self-control. What does the world
say about that? Felix represents all the unbelieving
world. What's the world say about temperance? I don't want anybody telling
me what to do. You know, my body, my choice
goes far beyond just the slogan for abortion. You know, the unbeliever
says, it's my body, it's my choice. I'll do what I want to do. And
so every man does what's right in his own eyes and they call
good evil and evil good. And they don't want to be under
any restraint whatsoever. They want to be able to decide
for themselves what they do and how they do it. and when they
do it, and they'll not have a God reign over them. And so any message of salvation
that suggests even a God that reigns over them, by the way,
it's not up for society or for you or for me to decide what's
right and wrong. God's already made that decision. God hasn't changed his mind about
sin, has he? This is God's choice to decide
what's right and wrong. We live in a world, as I said,
where every man does what's right in his own eyes, and our culture
has declined morally. One of the real problems of our
society. But it's not anything new. I
mean, you talk about a degenerate. Felix was a degenerate. Drusilla
was a degenerate. He's not gonna have anybody tell
him what to do. He had power. He was a governor appointed by
the Caesar of Rome. And He had the power and the
influence and the authority to do anything he wanted to do without
any restraint. He was judge, jury, and executioner,
and he didn't have to answer to a Congress or to a Senate
or anybody else. All he had to do was protect
his job. Otherwise, he could indulge himself in anything he
wanted. And Paul's talking to him about temperance. Now, child
of God, you want a loving, faithful God
to restrain you, don't you? You're drawn to that kind of
God. You know the intemperance of
your flesh, the passions and the desires of your sinful nature,
and you cry out not only for a God to forgive you of your
sin, but to restrain the outbreaking of your flesh in your behavior. You want a God that works in
you, causing you to will and to do after his good pleasure. Lord, keep me, restrain me, don't
let these thoughts and feelings and attitudes break out in my
life. Lord, I need a God who will lovingly
keep me and restrain me. And so just like a God, he's
reasoning him with righteousness. Men don't want a God like that. They don't want a God who's gonna
reign over them. But believer, his reign over
you is not You know, the law of God is not burdensome to you.
It's your delight. If you could, you'd keep every
bit of it. If you could, you'd never sin again. You hate your
sin. You need a God to keep you and
to restrain you and to help you to be temperate in your life,
don't you? And who would do it with a loving
hand? A loving, forgiving, restraining hand of grace. That's what you
need. And that's what you want. And
so you're drawn. I said I wanted this message
to give some hope of assurance. You want a God who's righteous
outside of you, and you want a God to help you with your intemperance. And judgment. Judgment. You're drawn to a God, and you're
drawn to a gospel, and you're drawn to a Savior who has taken
all of your punishment and satisfied completely the justice of God
on Calvary's cross. He buried the sword of God's
justice in His own heart, and He put your sins away all by
Himself. The natural man doesn't want
to hear about that. You want to hear about the justice
that is to come. Turn with me in closing. Turn with me to Jude. Chapter, well, Jude only has
one chapter. First, second, right before Revelation,
the next to the last book of the Bible, Jude verse 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied of these, talking about the false prophets, saying,
behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute
judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them
of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed and
of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against
him, against Christ, These are murmurs, complainers,
walkers after their own lust and their mouths speaking great
swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because
of advantage. That's what Felix wanted. He
wanted personal gain and advantage. And he didn't want to hear about
judgment. The judgment of God is coming.
The Lord has made that so clear. The child of God, the judgment
of God has already come. And that's even more clear. Everything that God required
for the punishment of sin, everything was satisfied in Christ on Calvary's
cross. Paul spoke to Felix, a Roman
governor. about faith in Christ, the faith
in Christ, and reasoned with him on righteousness, temperance,
and judgment. Felix trembled and fled. Others will fight you for it.
God's people say, I need a savior that satisfies the demand of
God's holy law. I need a righteousness outside
myself. I'm drawn to Him. I need a Savior
that will work in me and restrain me and cause me to will
and to do after His good pleasure because I've got an intemperate
flesh that there's no limits to what it can do. And I rejoice in knowing that
I've got a loving Savior. Ain't it wonderful, parents,
when your child comes to you and thanks you for correcting
them, thanks you for disciplining them? You know, maybe it doesn't
happen that often, but what a glorious thing it is. Mom, Dad, thank
you. I needed that. I needed that. Well, you know they're growing
up when something like that happens, don't you? That's the way the
child of God is. Father, thank you. Thank you. Judgment. Oh, we love to hear about judgment. Not about the fiery wrath that
will fall from heaven and consume this earth, but the judgment
that happened on Calvary's cross when the fire of God's justice
fell on our substitute. We don't fight. We don't flee. We bow. We bow. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.