The pastor has taken his seat. I'll take that as my cue. If you're cold, just find somebody
you want to snuggle up with and get close, I guess. This has been such a delightful
time. Just in so many ways, I'm thankful
to be back with you and to have fellowship with your
pastor and get to know Brother Richard better
and hear him preach. It's been a good week. Turn back with me, if you would,
our verse in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, where the Apostle Paul says, and without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory." Now, we've come to that part
in this verse that I want us to think about this morning where
he speaks as a part of this great mystery of godliness. That this
one who is none other than God manifests in the flesh, Paul
says he is believed on in the world. And the thing, I think the first
thing that struck me when I began to look at this aspect this verse
was, isn't it an amazing thing that what preachers and evangelists
and such in false religion describe as such an easy thing, this business
of believing, he puts as a part of this great mystery of godliness. And I think in this he shows
us the importance of believing God, the importance of believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he says in another place,
without faith, It is impossible to please God. Not only that, he says, he that
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. And maybe it isn't put any clearer
than such statements as this, where our Lord says, If you believe
not that I am He, you'll die in your sins. Or maybe what it says in Mark
16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that
believeth not shall be damned. That elevates this business of
believing to a pretty high place. And you see, it seems in this
world that men are told that this business of believing on
Christ is just the matter of exercising the faith that men
supposedly already have. But I'll tell you this about
biblical God-given faith. If you've got it, it will be
exercised. It isn't lying there dormant. And as a matter of fact, the
Bible says all men have not faith. But why do any ever believe? Why is it that men and women,
some of them are brought to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
believe the truth, and others are not? Well, if you'll turn
back to the book of Acts, chapter 13, and I might want you to do
a lot of Bible drill this morning. I tell my folks sometimes the
Bible is not a book for the lazy. We've got to turn a few pages
and read and study and such, but turn back to Acts chapter
3. If you remember yesterday, That
which he says as a part of this was that he is preached unto
the Gentiles. Well, look here in Acts chapter
13, in verse 47, after the apostle had preached, and he says in
verse 47, For so hath the Lord commanded us saying, I have sent
thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth." And then in verse 48 it says,
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed." Now, that's just the opposite
of what people are told. They are told if you believe,
you will be ordained to eternal life, when in reality, Our believing,
if we truly do believe, it is because God Almighty has ordained
us or appointed us unto eternal life. As was said, we do not
believe that we might live, but believing is that evidence of
God-given spiritual life. As many as were ordained unto
eternal life believe. And so it says all throughout
the gospel accounts, all throughout the book of Acts, when this gospel
was preached, It was then, just like it is in our day, it says,
and some believed and some believed not. But the first cause of those
who believed was simply this, they were ordained of God's free
and sovereign purpose of grace. They were ordained unto eternal
life. and therefore he brings them
to believe. Turn over, if you would, to the
Gospel of John and that first chapter. John chapter 1, and
look down at verse 10. It says, he was in the world,
and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He
came unto his own, and his own received him not." Seems like
it would be end of story right there. Came to his own world,
came to his own people after the flesh, he came unto his own,
and his own received him not. And then it turns and says, but
as many as received him. To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." Well,
why did they believe? Why did they believe and others
didn't believe? He says, which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." They believed not because of an action by them,
or an action upon them, or an influence of man upon them, but
because they were born of God. But if he says without faith
it is impossible to please God, then this business of believing,
this matter of faith, the question has to come up, how does faith
please God? As a matter of fact, the Bible
speaks of the righteousness of faith. Because Paul writes in
Romans 4, in that 13th verse, and he says, for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. Now, I'm absolutely convinced
more and more as I live in this world, and as I hear people talk,
even people who are supposed to believe the grace of God,
I'm more convinced that men do not understand about righteousness. And I think that they often confuse
holiness and righteousness. And I would have to say, and
maybe I'm just thinking of my own mind like this, but I would
define it something like this. Holiness has to do with how God
is. God is holy. But righteousness seems like,
for the most part, to have to do with what God does. Abraham, if you remember, when
thinking about what was about to be done in Sodom, and knowing
that his own nephew Lot was there in Sodom, It says that he says
to God, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Now, you ought to stop and think
about that, because God rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah
He destroyed all the inhabitants in the city of the plains, but
he brought out one man who he describes as righteous. Righteous Lot. Now, in that is
a clear example and evidence of God doing right. And when you go back over in
the Old Testament and you begin in maybe first mentions to find
out something about God and God demonstrating how he is in commanding
those in Israel to do how they were to do, listen to what he
says in Leviticus 19. You see, the first mention that
we have of righteousness in scripture has to do with a man. And that is when God says to
Noah, thee have I seen righteous in this generation. Well, in Leviticus chapter 19,
this is what God commands as a standard in Israel, especially
amongst those who are committed the chore of judgment. He says, you shall do no unrighteousness
in judgment, in measure, in weight, in measure, just balances, just
weights, a just ephah, and a just hen shall ye have. I am the Lord your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt." He said, when you weigh,
when you measure, Whatever you determine, all that you do, it
is to be done in righteousness. It is to be done by a just standard
of judgment. How in the world did God look
at this man, Noah, who hung around in this life long enough And
God showed us that it could not have been by virtue of anything
in him morally or his character or anything like that. How could
God say, I've seen you righteous in this generation? But not only
that, how could he say it of any person? Turn over to the
book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, because here in Hebrews 11
we have what some people call that great chapter concerning
faith, this great chapter of believing. And you don't get
very far in what the Apostle says here. If you look in verse
2, after he talks about faith, which is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, he says, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. By what? By faith. By faith. All right? Look down
in verse 4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, And by it, he being
dead, yet speaketh." He gave God, that is, bore a
witness and a testimony to this man, and by the way, that's the
only one that counts, that he was righteous. The God
of heaven said of this man, testified of this man, that he was righteous. Well, look at this fifth verse. By faith. And if you'll notice
here, all through this, it says, by faith. It doesn't matter who
it names, by faith. by faith Enoch, here's another
man, was translated that he should not see death and was not found
because God had translated him, for before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God. He pleased God by faith. Well, look down in verse 6 again. But without faith it is impossible
to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Now look at that 7th verse. By
faith, Noah, being warned of God, of things not seen as yet,
moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house,
by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith." Well, that's all pretty amazing. Here's
a man that pleased God. Here's a man that became heir
to that righteousness of faith. Here's a man who had this testimony
of God that he was righteous. And if you'll turn over into
this same chapter to verse 33, listen to what it says concerning
all these people and many more. He says in verse 33, who through
faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness. By faith. They subdued kingdoms. They wrought righteousness. They obtained promises. They stopped the mouths of lions
and goes on to say a lot of other things. But the things that hangs
in my mind are those two words. They wrought righteousness. And that's in light of the fact
that the Bible says that there are none righteous, not one. You see, the scripture shows
that the only way that anybody has faith is because God gives
it to them. It is the gift of God. Paul says, for by grace, writing
to these Ephesians, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." God gives faith. God enables us to
believe. And God-given faith always finds
its object in that written revelation of God, that Christ that is identified
and clearly identified in Scripture as the Son of God and the only
salvation that there is. And so believing on Christ, And
how many times do you hear people say, well, I believe on Jesus.
But believing on Christ and Him crucified, that is not believing
on some mystical person, like believing a legend, or believing
a fairy tale, or believing in Santa Claus, or whatever it is
you know. because he describes this believing
by the Apostle Paul as being faith in his blood. Faith in his blood? Well, I'll
tell you what that tells me. That tells me that believing
on Christ is not simply believing, as some say, just simply on the
person of Christ, Because in the gospel, we preach not ourselves,
but we preach Christ crucified. You can't separate the person
of Christ from the work of Christ. You can't separate the life of
Christ from the death of Christ. There's not some kind of mystical
Jesus that we are to believe in. but Christ and Him crucified."
Now, I heard a man one time, and he was given this definition
of faith. He said, faith is simply believing
that God will do what He has said that He will do. And I thought
about that. Everybody amened it. You know,
I can't amen everything myself. I don't know. If I don't amen
something a preacher says, it doesn't mean that I don't necessarily
believe it, but it means I've got to think about it just a
little bit. I thought about that just a little bit. And I thought this. Faith, in
a sense, is believing that God will do what He says that He
will do. But faith is first believing
that God has done what He says He's already done. Because if
I am not enabled to believe in and rest in and have confidence
in what God has said that He has done, what good would it
do me to believe that He will do what He says He will do? And
that's why faith is a looking outside of ourselves, and a looking
out to the Lord Jesus Christ, and a confidence in the record
of God, that record that He says that He has given unto us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son, and it is only in His Son
in this particular way, which is by His blood. And that's why John says that
the Lord's people do righteousness. Now, I'll tell you, I, for many
years, I just stumbled through what John says there. If you'll
turn over to 1 John chapter 2, I just stumbled and stuttered
and, You name it. Detoured, just a
whole bunch of things. Kind of like playing hopscotch
when you're trying to preach around what you don't understand,
you're just jumping from one place to the other. Well, this
kind of hangs in your mind. 1 John 2 and verse 29. John says, if you know that he
is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of him." Well, somebody said, well, I
heard a lady say this one time. She said, you can tell who's
godly. That's exactly what she said.
She said, you could tell who's godly. I was at a Bible conference
when she said that. She was this in the Bible conference.
She said, you can look at a person and tell who's godly. You know, I believe David was
the man after God's own heart. But you could look at him a time
or two, and he might not look so godly. No. You see, doing righteousness
cannot be known by looking on anything externally. Now, I believe
it, just like you said, it has a sure effect outwardly, but
that's not what doing righteousness is. Look on down just a little
bit farther in chapter 3 and verse 7. He says, little children,
let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. You know, if you don't know the
truth about this, you can't have peace. You can't be comfortable
reading those verses if you've got an honest bone in your body.
You can't be comfortable. You can't be at rest if you think
in any way that's something that's outward. Because you have to
admit that everything we do in this flesh, in this body, is
nothing but sin. That's it, look down at verse
10. Uh-oh, this is really the one, "...in this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." Now,
he's going to put them into one class of those who are the children
of God, the other who are the devil, those who are saved, those
who are lost, and this is it. What is it? Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother." Can you say that in your flesh,
day by day, even as it pertains to your fellow
man, as it pertains to life, can you say you do righteousness? And just like Brother Richard
was saying earlier, God has given His Word to comfort His people,
not confuse them, not drive them to torment, not just make them
walk in this world with their head hung down between their
knees and do what I call that bellybutton introspection every
day, you know. So why do you say this? Those
who do righteousness are the children of God. Those that don't,
they're the children of the devil. Well, because doing righteousness
is simply doing what God does. I'm from eastern North Carolina. Most of you know that. I'm a country preacher. But doing righteousness is simply
doing what God does. You say, well, what is that?
Trusting His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, does God have
faith? Well, there's a sense in which
he does, because he only looks to Jesus
Christ, his Son, and that sacrificial death that he died on the cross. As a matter of fact, let me read
this to you in Ephesians 1. Paul says that we should be to
the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Now, who first trusted in Christ?
I'll tell you who first trusted in Christ. God did. The Father
did. Before the world ever began,
before you and I ever breathed the breath on this earth, before
Adam and Eve ever walked in that garden place, God Almighty, the
triune Godhead, we might as well say, trusted into the hands of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be God manifest in the flesh,
not only the salvation of all the elect, but the glory of the
Godhead. He didn't throw this thing out
here like you guys were tossing them bags of corn at that little
old white platform with a hole the other day and hoped everything
went fine, maybe it'll hit the hole and make the mark. No, he trusted Christ. He trusted or entrusted to him
the whole of salvation, everything that was necessary to bring His
people unto Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in
whom who first trusted in Christ, now listen to the language now
in verse 13 of Ephesians 1, in whom ye also trusted. In whom you also trusted. When do you trust him? Now, this is a verse of scripture
the Lord Jesus brought to my heart in a pretty convincing
way. He says, in whom ye also trusted
when? After that you heard the word
of truth. But what's the word of the truth?
He says it's the gospel of your salvation. The gospel that God
all by Himself and all for His glory saved you in Jesus Christ
and He did it all by Himself. You see, all my days raised up
in the church, no, let me put that wrong, raised up in what
men call a church. I mean, I got enough Bible schools
under my belt to probably get a medal. As a matter of fact,
I had the Sunday school medals. I looked sort of like Omar Gaddafi
does when he puts on his uniform like a third world general, you
know, all them little Sunday school pins hanging down and
everything like that. But let me tell you what I always
heard, the gospel of how to be saved. And there's a big difference
between the gospel of how to be saved, which amounts really
to the gospel of how to save yourself, and the gospel of salvation. Big difference. In whom you trusted
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. You see, doing righteousness
is simply doing what God does, trusting the person and the work
of Christ, looking to Him, relying on Him, depending on Him for
the full accomplishment of everything necessary to reconcile us to
God, to bring us to God, to bring us to glory, everything in Jesus
Christ. And this is what it amounts to,
in my mind. Like I said, I'm just a country
boy. But it amounts to this. God. Now, when Paul writes in
Romans 3, if you remember, he says that God sent forth His
Son, and He did it when He made Him manifest when Christ went
to that cross. Every voice for time and eternity
had to shut their mouths in any accusation of God being unjust. They couldn't say any more, well,
God let old Abraham slide. Or God let Lot slide and he slew
every one of them other folks there in that desert, in that
plains place. Or God let old wicked Jacob slide. He says he's just. He didn't
do right there. Paul says it was to declare his
righteousness, which is simply what? That God is, was, right,
to save, to justify, to bless, to take to heaven every sinner
that he does so in Christ through his sacrifice, through his mediation,
through his redemption, because in that he does so as a just
God and a Savior. in like manner. We as believers, we as those who trust the Lord
Jesus Christ, we are right to expect to rest in and to expect
every blessing of God's grace, all acceptance all of heaven
and glory, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. God did right in saving His people
through the blood of Christ, paying their sin debt. And believers
are right, looking to Christ and expecting from God all He's
promised to give. Turn over to Romans chapter 4. I'll close up pretty quick. Romans 4. Now, you ever stop and think
about all the things that could have been said when you think
of the overall life of Abraham? I mean, that old boy had some
experiences, didn't he? Well, about four times. We find the same thing said about
Abraham. Abraham believed God on this
world, in this world. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. He did right, trusting, believing
in Christ alone. Several times it says that. Look
here in Romans 4 and verse 5. But to him that worketh not,
you know that scares legalists to death. I've said the gospel, the gospel
always has a threefold work that it accomplishes. It does. The gospel will find out the legalist. I mean, you preach the gospel
of free grace, and that legalist, you'll run him like a rat out
of a hole. Secondly, you preach the gospel
of God's free grace, it'll find out the true antinomian He'll
take it like a knife and cut his own throat with it. But he'll also find out the Lord's
sheep. The Lord's sheep. It says, but
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Look down at verse 9. Cometh
this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the
uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. Verse 11. And he received the
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of
all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed unto them also." Verse 13, for the promise that
he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to
his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of
Christ. You remember when old Paul was
on that ship and that Heraclodon wind came up? A word and a name
like that, it must have been a wicked wind. at your Rockland
and William. Everybody got afraid. Paul said, be of good cheer. He said, I believe God. Well, what is it to believe God?
He said, I believe God. That it's going to be just like
He said to me it would be. That it is just like He said
it is. Do you believe God? This is a miracle of grace. That
such wretched creatures as we are, who are nothing in ourselves
but unbelief, and enmity against God, that in his mercy, here
and there and over here, he enables a sinner to believe God that
it is and shall be as he has said that it is. That's why when old Paul writes, there's a big Controversy always
going on about what takes place in this new heart or nature or
whatever men say, you know. But I tell you what that new
heart is. Yes. Turn over one more verse. Acts chapter 10. See, I always
hope toward the end of the meeting or the end of the service that
you'll, after a period of time, you'll forget how long-winded
I was, you know. Maybe ask me again sometime that
you'll forget all these things. But look here at Acts chapter
10. Verse 34, Then Peter opened his
mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. That means that God does not
determine things based on His looking at the façade that we
have built up before me. But in every nation, this gospel
is preached to every nation, the Gentiles. But in every nation,
he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Now, how many times do you reckon
that verse has been used? And somebody says, if you will
live right, God will accept you. That's not what working righteousness
is. It's believing on Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's pleading only His blood
shed for us for the remission of our sins. It's pleading only
that work, that act of righteousness that He performed on that cross
outside of Jerusalem. as our only hope. God's right to trust you and
all his people are right to trust you. And we're both looking to
the same one and the same way. And when Paul closes out that
epistle of Romans, he begins to close it out and he says,
he says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Remember those
Pharisees, they said, just tell us what the work of God is and
we'll do that work. He said, this is the work of
God, that you believe on Him whom He has It really boils down to this
when Paul makes that statement. He sets out, he's talking about
kind of another subject, but he sets out that unchangeable
principle that we find in the gospel. And he says this, he
says, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Whatever is not of Christ is sin. Believe, darling, in the Lord. Father, we thank you this day
for your Word. Be the comforter of our hearts
through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Bless your world through
the hearts of your people. In Jesus Christ, amen. Oh, yeah.