Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 239 from your hardback timinal. 239,
it's a good hymn. Art thou weary. Let's all stand
together. Art thou languid, art thou sore
distressed? Come to me, saith one, and, coming,
be at rest. hath he marked to lead me to
him, if he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his sigh. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? Yea, a crown if every surety
but adorns. If I still hold closely him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask him to receive me, will
he say thee nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 4, for our call to worship Psalm 4. Beginning at verse one, hear
me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after leasing? Selah. But know that the Lord
has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear
when I call unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, Who will
show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of thy
countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep. For thou, Lord, only makest me
to dwell in safety." Right now, Jeremy Parker's mother
had a massive heart attack yesterday. They put her on life support,
and she's in Shands Hospital at Gainesville. And right now,
they're disconnecting her from the life support. So Jeremy is
up there, and I assured him that we would be remembering him and
his family in prayer tonight. talked to Anne Neal today. Today
was Wayne's birthday, and it's been right at a year since the
Lord took Wayne home. So if you get a chance to call
her, she'd love to hear from you. I've got her phone number
if you need it. And Mary is going to see, Mary Williams is going
to see an orthopedic doctor on Friday to find out what they
can do with her broken clavicle. So we need to remember to ask
the Lord to give them the wisdom they need to make the right choice
there. Let's pray together. Our heavenly Father, we come into thy presence in
a time of great need. Lord, we're in need of your mercy.
We're in need of your grace. We're in need of the Lord Jesus
Christ who speak to our hearts in peace and to manifest your
glory and enable us to find all the hope of our salvation in
his glorious person and in his accomplished work of redemption.
Surely he is all our righteousness before thee, all that you require
and all that we need. Lord, we pray tonight that as
we open your word that you would enable us to look upon him and
to find in him the hope of our salvation. We pray for our brother
Jeremy and ask Lord that you would give him grace and wisdom
as he grieves over the loss of his mother. And Lord, you would
give him the right words to speak to his unbelieving family and
Lord, teach him what to say and when not to speak. And Lord,
comfort his heart with your presence and your mercy. Pray the same
for Anne as she grieves the loss of Wayne and pray that you comfort
her and care for her in these days of her frailty and life. Lord, we pray for Anne for Mary
and ask Lord that she would be with the physicians that tend
to her on Friday and give them the knowledge that they need
to make a good diagnosis and treatment for her broken bone. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
Hymn number 340 in the hardback hymn, 340. ? Nearer, still nearer
? ? Close to thy heart ? me my savior ? Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest ? ? Shelter me safe in that haven of rest ? ? Nearer,
still nearer, nothing I fear ? ? Brought as an offering to Jesus
my King ? ? Only by sinful now contrite heart ? ? Grant me the
cleansing thy blood doth quench ? be the cleansing thy blood doth
impart. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
thee thine. Sin with its follies I gladly
resign. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last, till safe in glory thy anchor is cast. Through endless ages, ever Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to thee. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to thee. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23. It's been good for us these past
couple of months to be looking on Wednesday nights at the names
that the Lord has given us of himself in the scriptures. We
consider that name Jehovah Saba, the Lord of Hosts, and rejoiced
in knowing that our God is sovereign. over the armies of heaven and
all the inhabitants of the earth. Our God reigns. He really is
the Lord of hosts. Last Sunday, we looked at Psalm
23, the Lord our shepherd and the Lord Jehovah-Raha. And we saw in that Psalm, all
the names that we've been looking at are implied in just the six
verses of that one Psalm. but what comfort God's sheep
have in knowing that their shepherd laid down their life for them,
and that he promised never lead them nor forsake them, and that
righteousness and peace shall follow them all the days of their
life. Tonight, I want us to look at
Jehovah Sidkenu. We sing that hymn. Matter of
fact, we're going to close this service by singing that hymn
from the Sproul Hymnal. The Lord gives us that name of
himself here in Jeremiah chapter 23, and we'll begin reading in
verse three, and I will gather the remnant of my flock out of
all the countries, whether I have driven them and will bring them
again to their folds, their folds, and they shall be fruitful and
increase. God's people have always been
his from eternity past. chosen in the covenant of grace,
placed in Christ. He's never seen them outside
of Christ, and they've always belonged to him. They've always
been reckoned by his righteousness, the righteousness of Christ,
and always been justified in Christ. But before he calls them
in saving faith, he scatters them. Many of us were scattered
into different forms of man-made religion and the Lord used that
to reveal to us the glory of Christ by showing us an example. You know what I was thinking
recently, sometimes the Lord puts people in your life, oftentimes
the Lord puts people in your life to show you how not to be.
You know, you have an experience with somebody and you see yourself
in that person and you say, oh, that's I don't want to be that
way. And and I think part of that,
the Lord takes us through false religion in order to show us
sort of like, you know, taking Paul to Mount, to Arabia, the
teaching, the gospel. You know, we, we learn by contrast
sometimes, don't we? And so that's his promise here. I'm going to gather them out.
I've driven them out. I've driven them into these different
areas. They're mine. They were always
mine. When they were engaged in false religion, they were
mine. And now I'm gonna call them out and call them out of
the world and bring them to myself. And I'm gonna put them into different
folds. You see that word is in plural. Those are the various
assemblies of God's people, the little flocks that meet here
and there. And that's the way the church has always been. God
has always had a people, but they've always been a remnant.
They've always been a few. And we ought not to be discouraged
by that. The Lord tells us, do not despise
the day of small things. God doesn't need to do great
big things in order to get the thing done that he's purposed
to do. And I will, verse four, and I
will set up shepherds over them and they shall feed them. Peter,
lovest thou me? Oh yes, Lord. Feed my sheep,
feed my sheep, feed my sheep. Told him three times, didn't
he? And that's what we do every time we gather together. The
shepherd, the under shepherd takes the sheep to a pasture
of green grass and feeds them from the bread of life. We break
open God's word and pray the Lord will feed our souls with
Christ. I will set up shepherds over
them, and they shall feed them, and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord."
The spirit of fear is not of God. Perfect love casteth out
fear. If the Lord's pleased tonight,
in these few minutes we have together, to show us again what
his name means, then fear will fade away. We fear because we
lose sight of who he is, don't we? We fear because like Peter,
we get to looking at the wind and the waves and our difficult
circumstances, and we get afraid, and then we cry out, Lord, save
us. And he reaches out his hand and
delivers us again and again and again. So that's the promise
here. He said, I'm going to make them
so they're not afraid, that they won't lack anything. The Lord,
our righteousness is Jehovah said, can you, that's what we're
going to be looking at tonight. And, uh, we lack nothing. If we have Christ as all our
righteousness, all that God requires and all that a sinner needs is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't add to him. You can't
take away from him. That's why this book ends with
that warning. If any man adds to the words of the prophecy
of this book, the curses of this book will be added unto him.
That means adding to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Adding to his righteousness. Trying to make some contribution
of your own. The Lord says, I'm going to show
them who I am and they will lack nothing. They won't have to add
anything to who I am and what I've done. And they won't be
interested in taking anything away. Ah, from me, denying me
my glory in salvation. Look at verse five. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. And we know who that is. A righteous
branch. Sometimes the word righteous
is used as a noun, and sometimes it's used as an adjective. Here
is an adjective. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
branch and the description of that branch is that he's righteous.
I'm going to raise up a righteous branch. In another place we have
the name of the Lord is as a high tower. Now we looked at in the
book of Judges, Sunday morning, how Gideon tore down the tower
of the people that would not participate in his campaign against
the enemy. how that's a picture of man building
his tower the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous
now that now it's a now you see the righteous branch is an is
an adjective but the righteous that's a that's a that's who
we are they runneth to it and is safe is safe we find our safety
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high tower. We don't try to build a tower
to God. We don't try to earn favor with God by our works or
by our will. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all our righteousness. I will raise up unto David a
righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. That's exactly what he did on
Calvary's cross. The King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's cross, when the sword of God's justice was sheathed
into his very heart and God was pleased with the travail of his
soul, justice was met. Everything that God required
to pay the penalty for sin was paid in the sacrifice that Christ
made on Calvary's cross. This righteous branch, this one
who comes as the son of David, is going to execute and he's
going to prosper in that execution of judgment and justice. There's
our hope. There's our hope. Justice has
been satisfied. Judgment has been executed. There's
no more reason to fear the wrath of God. We come unto him. He calls us into His presence,
in His goodness, and in His mercy, and in His grace. And as we saw
Sunday, the warnings that are in the Scriptures are by His
mercy as well. We warn our children of the pitfalls
of this world, and the Lord does that for His children. He doesn't
threaten them. He doesn't beat them into submission.
He woos them in his mercy and his grace. And the goodness of
God leads to repentance. And he delivers us from the bondage
of fear and death and hell. He's conquered all of that. Look
at verse, judgment and justice in the earth has been satisfied.
And in his days, Judah shall be saved. Shall be saved. When were we saved? We were saved in the covenant
of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ, as the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, became our surety before the
Father, and we were hid in Him all the way back then, weren't
we? We were saved when the Lord Jesus
Christ executed and ratified that covenant on Calvary's cross
when He bowed His mighty head, and He fulfilled all the requirements
of that covenant. We were saved when we heard the
gospel, when we first heard about who Christ is and what he had
done. And God gave us faith to look upon him and to place our
hope in him. And we're being saved right now,
right now. We're always in need of being
saved. Every day, the Lord brings us back to himself and saves
us from ourselves and from our sin and from this world. One
day we shall be saved when he delivers us from this world and
we see him as he is and be made like him. Righteousness will
reign forever. There's our salvation. Israel
shall be saved. I'm not, it's not, I'm going
to try to save them or I'm going to make an offer of salvation.
I'm going to accomplish their salvation. And that's exactly
what he did. The righteous branch. that grew from the tree that
was cut down is now producing his fruit. And Israel shall dwell
safely. We dwell safely under that branch. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. The Lord, our righteousness. What is righteousness? It's a right standing in the
presence of God. Now, there's only two options
in terms of you and I standing in the presence of a holy God.
Either we're right or we're wrong. Either we're righteous or we're
unrighteous. To be able to stand in the presence
of the judge and not be condemned by his law, that's what righteousness
is. It's to be able to stand in the
presence of God and the holy unbending law of God can find
no ground to condemn the righteous. The ability to stand in the court
of God's justice and to be declared innocent of all charges. That's
righteousness. How is somebody like you and
me going to stand in the presence of a holy God? Who shall approach
His holy hill? Who shall stand in His holy presence? If God should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? How are we going to be inspected
by the perfect, unbending, uncompromising law of God and be found righteous? How can it be? I must be found
in Christ. I must be found in him. His name
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to
be hid in Christ. I've got to have all of my acceptance
in the beloved. You're there in Jeremiah chapter
23. Turn over just a few pages, 10 chapters to Jeremiah chapter
33. Jeremiah chapter 33. It's the same promise repeated again that
we just read. We'll begin reading in verse
14. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will perform the good thing which I have promised
unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah in those
days. And at that time, I will cause
the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David. And he shall
execute judgment and righteousness in the land. And in those days
shall Judah be saved. It's the same, it's almost the
same words, isn't it? In those days, shall, not maybe,
not I'm going to try or I'm going to make an offer. I'm going to,
I'm going to save Judah. Jerusalem shall dwell safely
and this is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord
our righteousness Jehovah Sid Kenya this is why when we when we perform
a man a wedding and there's a marriage between a man and a woman The
woman takes on the name of her husband. Because the marriage union, particular
between believers, is the mystery of Christ and his church. And
by virtue of union with Christ, we have his name. No longer known
by our old name. We have the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ given to us. That's how we're going to stand.
How am I going to be righteous? I've got to be found in him.
All of my acceptance before God must be in the beloved. Colossians
chapter three, verse one, I must be dead and my life must be hid
with Christ in God. I've got to be hid in him. How
am I going to get myself in Christ? You're not, you're not. He has to put us there, doesn't
he? And he does, he does. Revelation chapter 19, verse
eight, John sees this great host in heaven and they're all dressed
in white. And he asked the angel what these are. And the angel
says, the fine linen that you see is the righteousness of the
saints. as the robe of righteousness.
It started all the way back at the beginning in the fall, when
God, when the Lord Jesus Christ slew that lamb in the garden
and took the skins of that animal and covered the nakedness of
Adam. We've got to be covered by the fleece of the Lamb of God. And when we are, the white linen,
pure and clean, as John saw in Revelation 19, is the righteousness
of the saints. Not by works of righteousness,
Paul says in Titus 3, 5, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So this renewing of the Holy
Ghost is something the Lord gives us continually. This blessing of the Holy Ghost
is why we keep coming to Him. Lord, give us your Spirit. It's
the Spirit of God that gives us the eyes of understanding,
the eyes to see. It's the Spirit of God that gives
us the faith to believe. The Spirit of God that opens
our ears and points us to Christ. So the renewing of the Spirit
is a continual experience for the believer as we come before
Him, Lord. Give us your spirit that we not
trust any of our works of righteousness, but that which is found in Christ. Paul said in Galatians chapter
two, verse 21, he said, I do not frustrate the grace of God,
for if salvation come by, or if righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. If somehow I can earn righteousness
with God by my law keeping, then what did Christ die for? There'll
be no need for his death on Calvary's cross. Jehovah said, can you,
the Lord our righteousness, you and I have to be able to stand
in the presence of God. There will come a day when each
one of us will stand literally in his presence. We stand there
now, but only through faith How are we going to stand? How are
we going to be declared righteousness? You and I are never able to satisfy
any of the demands of God's holy law. We're sinners. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. If God judged us based on the
very best thing that we ever did, if he judged you and me
based on one minute of our time here tonight. You pick the minute,
the best minute that you've got in this time of worship. Pick
that minute, the minute when you were able to give total concentration
to what God was saying, and you were able to rejoice in your
heart for a whole minute over what the Lord had done for you.
You're gonna offer that minute up to the Lord for your righteousness?
You'll go to hell for it. You know that, don't you? There's
my point. There's my point. When we say
that we're sinners, we're not advocating sinful behavior. We're not saying that sinning
is okay or that we're flippant about it or that we are making
excuses for it. We're saying that falling short
of the glory of God is what sin is. And the glory of God is the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I don't have
any. Our righteousnesses, Isaiah said,
are as filthy rags. The best thing that we can put
together and offer to God is not acceptable in His presence.
That's why we've got to have Christ. We've got to have Him. Only the righteous are going
to stand in the presence of God. And the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Jehovah Sidkenu, is a high tower. And the righteous runneth
to it and You would think that the verb, the next word would
be the plural verb are. The righteous runneth to it and
are safe. But that's not how that verse
reads in Proverbs 19. The name of the Lord our God
is a high tower and the righteous runneth to it and is safe. So
that means if the verb is singular, then the noun must be singular.
So he's talking about individual righteous men and women running
to Christ to find their safety. We're not, you know, this matter
of salvation is an individual thing. We're not saved in mass. We're not saved because someone
else is saved. Each one of us have to be brought
to faith in Christ. And how do I know that I'm righteous
in the sight of God? Because I'm running to Christ.
I don't believe I have any righteousness outside of Him. He's all my righteousness
before God. I believe that He's Jehovah's
in Kenya. The righteous runneth to the
high tower and is safe. What safety we have. That's how
I know. that I'm righteous because I
have no... The unbelievers looking for righteousness somewhere else.
We don't have any. We're sinners. But as I said,
when we say we're sinners, we're not disregarding the law of God. We're not careless. We're not libertines about sin. We are under a law. We're just
not looking to our law keeping as the hope of our salvation.
We're under the law of grace. We're under the law of love.
We hate our sin. Listen, here's how Peter said it. As free, we
are free. We're free from the law. There
is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The law
cannot condemn us. The law cannot judge us. We're
not under the rigors of the law. We're not under the demands of
the law. We're under Christ. We're under
grace. But Peter puts it like this,
and God's speaking to you and me. He says, as free, yet not
using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness. Now that word
maliciousness means lawless living. Don't use your liberty in Christ,
the fact that you're free under the law as a license for malicious
living. We're not doing that. The rest of that verse says,
but as the servants of God, we bow in his presence. We have
no righteousness. We are sinful. It doesn't mean that we don't
love God's law. We love his law. His law is holy. His law is just. His law is good. We're just not
looking to God's law to make us holy. We're looking to Christ
for our holiness, our righteousness. We're not looking to the law
of God and our keeping of God's law to justify us in the presence
of God. That's what the natural man does.
I'm doing my best. Yeah, I'm not perfect, but I'm
doing my best. Well, your best is not good enough. You've got
to obey God's law perfectly with heart, mind, and soul. Love him
every moment of every, you've got to be exactly like the Lord
Jesus Christ was. So God's law is holy. God's law
is just, but we're not justified by the law of God. God's law
is good, but it's not going to make us good. Our goodness and
our justification and our holiness and our righteousness is found
in him, in him. Doesn't mean we're lawless. Doesn't
mean we're flippant about how we, how we live. Turn with me
to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter one. You know, I think sometimes people
here is talking about how sinful we are and how the in me, there
is no good thing. And they don't know Christ, they
might tend to think, well, you know, that makes sin okay. Child
of God, you hate your sin, don't you? You hate it. And you want
the Lord to restrain it. Don't let it break out in my
behavior. Don't let it manifest itself
in my life. Lord, I know it's there. It's
always there. My sin is ever before me. But
I want to honor God with my life. Turn, look at, look at first
Peter, second Peter chapter one, verse three. According as his
divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called
us to glory and virtue. He's called us to glory and he
provides everything that we need in this life and in the life
to come. He is our righteousness. It's not just for glory, it's
for virtue also. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. Lord, I want to escape the corruption
of this world. I feel the The lust of my flesh
and the desires of my flesh for the things of this world and
for pleasure. Lord, you, you're going to have to deliver me beside
this, giving all diligence. You want to be diligent. Don't
you add to your faith, virtue, and your virtue, knowledge, and
to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and
patience, godliness, and godliness, brotherly kindness, and brotherly
kindness, charity. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make you that you shall need to be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
I want to grow in your grace. This is the fruit of the Spirit. We're not saying, well, you know,
I need to beat myself into submission. No, this is the fruit of the
Spirit. Isn't there in Galatians chapter
5, it talks about the works of the flesh, plural. The flesh
manifests itself in many ways. And then it speaks of the fruit,
singular, of the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit is
love. Love. Love for Christ, love for his
word, love for his people, love for his law, love for one's enemies. That's the fruit of the spirit. You say, well, I don't know how
much I love my enemies. A lot of people I don't like.
A lot of people I don't trust. That's not a lack of love. That's
good discernment. There's people in this world
you ought not to like. And there's people you ought
not to trust. But that doesn't mean you don't love them. Child
of God, nothing would throw your soul more than for your worst
enemy to be brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't
it? Love is wanting what's best for others, desiring the best
for them, the spiritual blessings of God in their life. It harbors
no bitterness or resentment or animosity toward anyone. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
You say, well, doesn't Galatians 5 talk about joy and peace and
faith and temperance and all those things? Yes, and those
are the manifestations of love. The fruit of the Spirit is singular,
it's love. All the law and the prophets
hang on this, is what the Lord said, the greatest commandment,
love. And that comes from the Spirit
of God. So when we're talking about our sin, We're asking the
Lord, Lord, give me your spirit that I could love Christ. And
the more you love him, the more you're going to hate your sin
or you hate your sin. That the way it works. We're
not, we're not advocating sinful behavior. And you know, when,
when we, when we say, and I do believe this, I believe it about
myself and I believe every believer believes this because the scripture
says, to whom much is given, much is required. So who do you
know that's been given more grace and more light and more blessings
and more opportunity than you and remain as unbelieving as
you are? Every child of God says, I am the chief of all sinners.
I can't look down my nose at anybody else. I can't look at
the person who's living in the world and engaged in all sorts
of sinful, shameful behavior and think myself to be better
than them. Because I've been given so much more than what
they have. And yet I remain so unbelieving. But child of God,
don't misunderstand that point to mean that we are approving
of that sort of shameful lifestyle. We're not. We're just saying
we can't stand the judgment of it. We're not preaching against
the sins of society. The Lord told us in the book
of Corinthians, I think it's in 1 Corinthians chapter five.
Let's turn there real quick. Yes, it is, 1 Corinthians chapter
five. Verse nine, I wrote unto you
in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether
with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or the
extortioner, or the idolaters, or them, for them must ye needs,
for them must ye needs come out of the world. Hey, what was that? I told you not to fellowship
with these people, but I didn't mean those that are in the world.
You'd have to come out of the world. You'd have to create your
own little enclave here and separate yourself from the world to do
that, wouldn't you? But now I have written unto you
not to keep company with any man that is called a brother.
who is a fornicator, or covetous, or idolater, or railer, or drunkard,
or extortioner. For such one do not even eat.
For what have I to do with, to judge them that are without?
Do not you judge them that are within? But them that are without,
God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among
you that wicked person." When we say that we're worse, and
I really do believe myself to be, the chief of sinners. And I know you do too. We're not approving. God hadn't
changed his mind about sin. The things that the Lord says
are wrong are still wrong. And the things that, you know,
we're not saying that's okay. We're just saying that we're,
you know, we don't want to give approval to that or participate
in that or have that in our lives. This is righteousness. The Lord is our righteousness. When is righteousness first mentioned
in the scriptures? Genesis chapter 15 at verse six,
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. This one verse is repeated in
Romans chapter four. Yeah, in Romans chapter four,
it speaks of Abraham having the righteousness of God credited
to his account or charged to his account or imputed to him
because of faith. It's repeated in Galatians chapter
three and also in James chapter two. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. There's no righteousness apart
from faith. Believing on Christ, the two
go together. For without faith, it is impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to him must
believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So this matter of righteousness
and faith go together. So what is faith? What is faith? It's the empty hand receives
the blessings of God. We're not coming to God with
something in our hand to offer God for reward. Faith is the
empty hand that receives the gift of Christ. Faith is the instrument through
which righteousness is imputed. It is the chain, if you will, of
that connects the anchor to the ship. The anchor of our soul,
planted sure and steadfast, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
are in that ship, aren't we? But that ship's gotta be connected
to that anchor. I told y'all a story about Donnie
Wigginton out sailing one time and told his, one of the buddies
that was on the boat, he said, cast out the anchor. And he just
threw it over, but it wasn't connected to anything. Donnie
had to put his dive gear on to go down to the bottom and retrieve
the anchor. Anchor is no good unless it's
connected to the boat, is it? Faith is the eye that looks to
the brazen serpent. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Faith is just believing God.
It's believing God, believing everything that God has said.
It's the voice that cries, truth Lord. It's the voice that cries,
save me. It's the voice that cries, have
mercy upon me, oh son of David. It's the voice that cries, Lord,
that I might see. It's the voice that says, Lord,
thou canst make me whole if thou will. That's faith. Faith is just believing God.
Everything that God has said and everything that he has promised.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him. It was imputed
to him. It was charged to him. And all
the places in the New Testament where this passage from Genesis
15 is quoted changes those words. James, I think, speaks of reckoned, Romans chapter four speaks of
reckoned, James speaks of imputed, Galatians chapter three speaks
of imputed. So these words are all, it's
what God credits to the account of his people through faith,
through faith. Faith is what God gives his people
to believe all that he says. But faith is not what saves. The Lord Jesus is what is who
saves. It's the object of our faith
that saves us. We're not looking to our faith
as the as the effectual means of our salvation. Christ is that. Faith is not a decision. Faith
is not our contribution to salvation. It is the miracle of grace worked
in the heart by the Holy Spirit through hearing the gospel preached
by the Word of God. That's faith. Faith comes by
hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. And every time
I read a verse or quote a verse, your faith is excited to believe
God, isn't it? The faith that God's given you
is excited to believe God, to rest the hope of your immortal
soul in the promises of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord,
our righteousness. David said, I will speak of thy
righteousness, even of thine only. We have no righteousness
outside of him, but we have all the righteousness that God requires
in our Jehovah Sidkenu. And she shall be called Jehovah
Sidkenu. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word to the hearts of your children. And Lord, give us, increase our
faith and forgive us of our sin. Our unbelief, Lord, we're so
fraught with it. Help thou our unbelief. Bless
us as we join our hearts and voices together in singing praises
to you as the Lord, our righteousness. For it's in Christ's name we
ask it, amen. 24 in the Spiral Hymnal, let's
stand together. ? And I hope I sit tenderly ? the lord our righteousness we
love to call you by that name our savior christ jesus The God-man lived for us, bringing
eternal righteousness, which God imputes to us. Jehovah's sin came to our substitute
who died. Your blood has put away our sin,
and we are justified. Jehovah Sidkenu, your love has
won our praise. Trusting your blood and righteousness,
we're saved by your free grace. Jehovah Sidkenu, We stand in
you alone. Our only fitness before God is
in our Lord, His Son. Jehovah s'il tenu, the Lord,
our righteousness. Christ Jesus, you alone we call,
the Lord, our righteousness.