back to Matthew chapter 12. And
I preached on this morning. Brother Byrd is the one who taught
several of us that hymn that we just sang, Look Ye Saints.
And it kind of reminded me of when I was in false religion
that anytime we would sing a hymn that had something to do with
saints, I always sort of thought, well that can't be talking about
me. But then when I heard the true gospel and the Lord made
it effectual to my salvation, I really learned what a saint
is. A sinner saved by grace. And now we can sing as a saint,
with the saints, without embarrassment. without blushing, because we
know that we're all in the same boat, just sinners in need of
a Savior. And we have nothing to brag about
or boast in but Christ, our Lord and Savior. And that's what that
hymn was all about. I've loved that hymn ever since
that he taught it to us. And we sing it, so just a side
note. Had a good day, good weekend.
We've really enjoyed it. We do thank you. for your hospitality,
for your prayers, and we do covet your prayers as we travel back
to Ashland tomorrow, and I'll be traveling back to Georgia
at the end of the week to get back there to the ministry. But
know that we don't forget about you. We don't just put it out
of mind. We in Albany, and I know the
brethren in Ashland, we all continually keep you upon our hearts as you
go through this process. I know for us it's a tough thing
to do, but I also know that the Lord's in control and that he,
in his good time, he will set things straight and he will give
you the man that he would have to lead you to be your pastor
because I know this, he says it in his word, he will never
forsake his sheep. He'll never do that. He'll never
leave us to ourselves. And thank God for that. Because
we know if he did, we'd be in a mess, wouldn't we? So let's
consider those things. All right. Now tonight, I want
to continue on through this chapter. The title of the message for
this evening is Every Believer's Account. And I'll show you how
I derived at that title as we go through. spoke this morning
on the subject of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Lord
here, after having healed a man, after having exorcised a demon,
a man who was demon possessed, who was blind and dumb, after
having been accused of doing such a great miracle by the power
of Satan rather than the power of God, he sets things straight
And he essentially describes the gospel ministry, the ministry
of Christ by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
word. And he describes it in verse 29, talking, and what he's
doing here, remember, he's showing that he is not in alignment or
in partnership with Satan. They are enemies. He talks about
How can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods
except he first bind the strong man? That's the power of Christ
over Satan as he brings a sinner out of darkness into his marvelous
light. Sends his spirit to impart spiritual
life to dead sinners. That's what we are by nature.
We're spiritually dead. Somebody said, graveyard dead.
Well, spiritually speaking, we are. We hear things, we see things,
but we're totally unable to see and hear the things that glorify
and honor God and love them. I often, you know, people ask
me about total depravity, the total depravity of man. And the
total depravity of man does not teach that we are all as bad
as we could be. And we thank God for that. We
thank God for his restraining hand, even upon the unbelieving,
even upon society, and especially upon ourselves. But if I were
to define total depravity, you don't have to turn there, but
I'd go to Romans 3. That's where I would go. You could go to a
lot of scripture, but I think this is one of the clearest.
Where it talks about there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh after
God. And really gives you three things to think of when you think
of the total depravity of man. And here they are. Number one,
we are not righteous before God. There's none righteous, no not
one. None good, no not one. By nature, we're born dead in
trespasses and sins. By nature, without Christ, we
have no life, we have no hope. That's what the scripture says.
You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
What did we do? We walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.
And that's at our best or at our worst. So we don't have,
we're not righteous by nature. Secondly, total depravity, we
can't work one. We can't create one. We can't
do enough to make ourselves righteous. We just can't do it. Romans 3
again, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. We can
determine in our minds that we're going to do our best And we even
fail to do our best, but our best isn't good enough. What
does the Bible say? Man at his best state. Altogether
what? Vanity. You might be looking
at the new and improved me, the reformed me, but it's still not
righteous. So we don't have it and we can't
work it. And thirdly, and here's the kicker,
and this is what is so significant for this message in speaking
of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, we do not want righteousness,
and underscore this, God's way. Now we want righteousness, but
there's two problems with man by nature. First of all, our
standard of righteousness is way too low. It's like the guy
who says, well, I know I'm not perfect, but I've never done
anything to deserve hell. Oh, really? Well, the scripture
says the wages of sin is death. That's all we can earn. Somebody
says, well, I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as. And pick
whoever you want to compare yourself with. Man wants righteousness,
but by nature we don't want it God's way, because we want it
our way, a way that exalts the flesh, a way that gives us room
to glory. But God's way of righteousness
leaves us no room to glory, no room to boast in ourselves. It's
all boasting in Christ, you see. And that's what total depravity
is. Well, Christ speaks of gathering his people. Look at verse 30
of Matthew 12. He that is not with me is against
me. There's no neutrality here. There's not a group of people
somewhere that you can say, well, they're against him, I know.
Look at how they live. And then another group somewhere
else you could say, well, they're kind of neutral. No, there's
no neutrality. If you're not, listen, if you're
not with Christ, You're against him. That's the long and the short
of it. You cannot straddle the fence here. And then he says
in verse 30, he that gathereth not with me scattereth. What is Christ doing by the Holy
Spirit in the preaching of the gospel? He's gathering his people,
bringing his sheep into the fold. My sheep, hear my voice. Remember in John 10? He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, This is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. And you
remember what he said right after that? No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Everyone who hears and learns
of the Father, learns how God can be just and justify, comes
unto me. John 12, he said, and I, if I
be lifted up, lifted up on the cross to die and establish righteousness,
will draw all unto me. He's gathering his people. And
that's the ministry of his people here on this earth, the Great
Commission, going into all the world, going even into Albany,
Georgia, even into Ashland, Kentucky, even into Almonte, Michigan.
preach the gospel and what an awesome responsibility and what
an awesome privilege people of light we were talking about that
this afternoon you shine as lights in a dark world so he's gathering his people
and then he begins to talk about verse 31 wherefore for this reason
I say all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be given unto men, but
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto
men." The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost has to do with rejecting
Christ. That's what it is. He that is
not with me is against me. For I'm telling you and you know
and we tell the world that without Christ no sin is forgiven. With Christ all sin is forgiven. Is that not true? Is there some
particular sin that if I say it or commit it, I'm beyond salvation
and that God cannot forgive it? You won't find that in the Bible.
And people, as I said this morning, they walk all over themselves
trying to figure out what that is. You know, the Bible doesn't
leave things that clouded when it comes to the forgiveness of
sins. Those who come to Christ are washed in the blood, aren't
they? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Isn't that the way it is? He
says, and whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man,
it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither
in the world to come. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit's
purpose and office is to point sinners to Christ. And once he
points you to Christ, you'll stop speaking against the Son
of Man. Up until the time the Holy Spirit points a sinner to
Christ in the new birth, that's all we do speak against Christ.
In some way or other now, even living lives as an agnostic is
still speaking against Him. You know what an agnostic is?
He's one who says, well, it's not that I don't believe in God,
I just don't know, and so I'll live my life in neutrality. What
Christ say? He that is not with me is against
me. There's no neutrality here. Even if you live your life simply
ignoring the truth, you're still speaking against the Son of Man.
Do you know that the very creation in which we exist was created
for His glory? Do you know that the body that
God has given you that your soul and spirit inhabits is intended
for His glory? Do you know that the next breath
you take is a gift from God for His glory? And so to do any of
that without glorifying and honoring and trusting Him for all salvation
is speaking against the Son of Man. Well, is there forgiveness
for such people as we are by nature? You bet there is. Run to Christ. Believe in Him. Trust in Him. Cling to Him. And
who is it that's going to bring sinners to Christ? It's the Holy
Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, to
blaspheme the Spirit is to be without forgiveness. I hope that's
clear. He says in verse 33, he says,
either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the
tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his
fruit. Now that, you know, there are times in scripture when believers,
the people of God, are compared and described as a tree, trees. I think about Psalm 1 where it
talks about those who are saved by the grace of God, who are
washed in the blood of Christ, who are clothed in his righteousness,
justified, and who have been made alive, quickened by the
Holy Spirit. They're described as a tree planted
by the water whose leaf flourishes. There are some commentators who
say that Psalm applies strictly and ultimately to Christ himself
and I can understand that. I can understand that. But we
who believe are in Christ. We're united to Christ. We're
married to Christ. We're one with Christ in the
eyes of God's law and justice. We have life from Christ. And
the scripture connects the bridegroom, Christ, with the bride and speaks
of us as For example, I think about 1 John 4, 17, where it
talks about the complete goal of love, perfect love. And what
that's talking about is love reaches its goal because we can
have boldness in the day of judgment. Now, why? Because as Christ is,
so are we in this world. That's an amazing thought, isn't
it? As Christ is right now. So am I in this world. Now you
don't see that. We don't see that with the physical
eye. And the reason is, is because what John said in first John
three, it does not yet appear what we shall be. You can't tell
this by looking at our physical appearance. There's no glow about
us. There's no halo overhead. There's
no wings on our back. You see, that's, that's not the
way this works. If there was a glow about us,
we'd go around looking at our glow all the time. But there is a spiritual glow
and it's the glory of God in Christ. And we are who we are
not because we feel it or look at, but because God's word says
it as he is. Are you clinging to Christ? Another
time, believers are called trees of righteousness whose planting
is of the Lord. I like that. You look at yourself sometime
and take inventory. Based on that, would you call
yourself a tree of righteousness? Not based on that, but what God
says is if I'm washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
that's exactly what I am. Just like the saint thing. I'm
a saint, a sanctified one. That doesn't mean I'm some sort
of super Christian or I've done so many miracles or anything
like that or some fella canonized me or anything like that. No,
I'm just a sinner saved by grace. We sing that song, only a sinner
saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the
glory. But here I believe that he's
speaking of Christ himself. Christ himself is the good tree,
the tree of life from whom all life comes. And it's the ministry of the
Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel to gather the people
of Christ unto himself by giving them life from Christ. I mentioned Romans 8, 10 this
morning where it speaks of this body is dead because of sin,
the way of all flesh. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. You could say it this way, the
Spirit is life because of Christ, for He is our righteousness.
And the corrupt tree is Satan and his messengers preaching
that false message of salvation by the works and will of men,
which produces nothing but corrupt fruit. Now let me show you another
passage. Turn back a few pages to Matthew
7. I believe that will support this. This is the conclusion of the
Sermon on the Mount. Which starts off, he begins by
talking about self-righteous judgment. That's why he says,
judge not that you be not judged. And then he begins to speak of
the ministry. Talking about verse 6, for example,
I give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast your
pearls before swine. People who have no interest and
will not listen to what we say, we cannot do anything with them.
It's not in our power. It's not in our power to save
anyone, to save ourselves. I cannot make another person
believe what I'm saying. That's not what I'm here, that's
God's work, you see. Only God can change the heart.
Now sometimes through arguments and Human persuasion we can change
people's minds for a while, but we cannot change the heart We
cannot change we cannot give life to a dead sinner. We can't
even do that to ourselves But he says in verse 7 asking it
shall be given seeking you shall find and it shall be open to
everyone that asketh receive it And he that seeketh findeth
and to him that knocketh it shall be open. He's talking about salvation
there folks He's not talking about God being a genie in a
bottle Or if we'll pray hard enough and long enough and sincere
enough, we'll get what we want. We're to pray for what we want
that is honoring to God and good for ourselves, but our prayer
ultimately falls under this category, thy will be done. He's talking
about salvation. And he says in verse 11, if you
then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more your father in heaven. gives good gifts to his
children. And then look at verse 13. He
says, enter ye in at the straight gate. Straight is the gate, narrows
the way. And he says, enter ye in at the
straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction. Many there be which go in there
at. Because straight is the gate, narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that follow." What's he talking about?
He's talking about salvation, isn't he? He's talking about the fact
that many, many people are on the broad road that leads to
destruction. What is that? That's the broad
road of false religion, the broad road of worldliness, the broad
road of materialism, anything. Anything that leads a sinner
to destruction. Anything that leads a sinner
away from Christ, the one way of salvation. Christ is the straight
gate, the narrow way. And you know what that means.
I'm sure you've heard it preached on many times. It's the gospel.
The way of God's grace. The way of God's free and sovereign
grace in Christ. which includes God's electing
grace before the foundation of the world. Paul's described salvation
as that which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. It's God's predestinating grace.
If it weren't for God's electing predestinating grace, where would
we be? We'd be on the broad road that
leads to destruction. It's his redeeming grace. He
sent his son into the world to save us from our sins. He died
for the sheep. He went to the cross having our
sins charged to him. Our debt was put upon him. The
government of his grace, the government of the kingdom of
heaven was placed squarely upon the shoulders of Christ. Aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad it's not on your
shoulders? Or on my shoulders? We couldn't handle it. But he
handled it. And he did it in judgment and
justice, the scripture always says. It's the way of redemption by
the blood. The way of the cross leads home. The way of particular
redemption, those for whom he lived and died, was buried and
rose, shall be saved. Is that right? His death did
not make us savable. We don't need savability, we
need salvation. That's why his name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's
what that means. That's why his name is called
Emmanuel, God with us. That means he's able to save
his people from their sins. He can do it. It's the way of
regeneration. Life given from Christ by the
Holy Spirit. The narrow way. And then he says
in verse 15 and 16, beware of false prophets who come to you
in sheep's clothing. Now, what is a false prophet?
A false prophet is any prophet or preacher who leads people
on the way, the broad road that leads to destruction. That's
what a false preacher is. No matter what else he says,
he may come in disguise like a wolf in sheep's clothing. But
in some way, at some, let me put it this way, in some way,
to some degree, at some stage, He's going to turn the people
who listen to Him and follow Him away from Christ and Him
alone for all salvation. You hear people say, well, we're
saved by grace, but we've got to keep ourselves by our works.
False prophet. False preacher. Remember the
Galatian problem. Those were Jewish Preachers who
claim to believe salvation by grace but they said, oh no, we
have to have more than Christ alone and his righteousness imputed
in order to be really saved or really holy or really righteous. Paul said that's another gospel,
literally meaning another of a different kind. It's not just
another version of the same gospel we preach. Because you know the
reality is this, there is no other version of the gospel. There's only one gospel. And he says in verse 16 of Matthew
7, you'll know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes
of thorn or thigs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
What's he talking about? You'll know these false preachers
by their fruit. And then he says in verse 18,
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Now, what does that
say? It says a good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit. Who's that good tree? That's
Christ. Christ cannot bring forth evil fruit. That's not what he does. He says,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. That's Satan
sowing his tears through his false preachers. He cannot produce
a sinner saved by grace. All he can produce is people
on the broad road that lead to destruction. So he says in verse
19, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire, wherefore by their fruit ye shall
know them." Now what does, think about it this way, keep it in
its context, what does the evil tree produce? Well look at verse
21, not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. And he's described that several
places. What is it to do the will of the Father which is in
heaven? It's to believe on the Son, it's to follow the Son.
Yes, it's to obey the Son. And there's nowhere in the Bible
where God commands his people to try to work their way into
his favor and his salvation. You can't do it. Embrace Christ. Verse 22, many will say unto
me in that day, now here is the fruit that comes from the evil
tree. Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in your name? Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out
demons? Lord, Lord, haven't we done many
wonderful works? That's the product of the evil
tree. That's the fruit of the evil
tree. A sinner standing before God, giving an account. And what is his account? Lord,
haven't we done this? Lord, haven't we done that? And we did it in your name. Oh,
we weren't doing it for our glory. We did it in his name. Now, what am I doing tonight? I'm preaching in his name. And what I'm doing, I'm preaching
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think that I'm
going to plead that when I find myself standing before God at
judgment? Is that my righteousness before God? I hope not. And then he goes on to show the
man who builds his house on the sand. When the winds come and
the storms come, it falls, built on sand. And then there's the
one who builds his house upon the rock, and the rock is Christ.
Now go back to Matthew 12. Listen to verse 34. He says, Oh, generation of vipers.
It's talking to the Pharisees. How can you being evil, speak
good things for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
What are they speaking? Their false gospel. That's what
that's talking about. You know, the Pharisees, they
could quote the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not. Still, those are good things. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about their false gospel of salvation by
the works and the will of men. That's their message. That's
the words. That's the state of their heart. That's where their
hearts are. What will you plead as your hope,
your confidence, your trust? Well, you'll plead wherever your
heart said. If your heart's on self, you'll plead self. If your heart's on your works,
you'll plead your works. If your heart is on your experience,
you'll plead your experience. I have a lot of people, they'll
talk about, they want to prove they're saved. And they'll say,
well, back when I was 12, I did this, I did that. That's where
their heart is. Out of the heart, the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Verse 35, a good man out of the
good treasury of his heart bringeth forth good things. What is a
good man in the Bible? According to the Bible, especially
in light of passages like Romans 3, which says there's none good,
no, not one. Ecclesiastes, there's not a good
man on earth who sinneth not. What is a good man in the scripture?
He's a sinner saved by grace. A sinner washed clean from all
his sins by the blood of Christ. A sinner who stands before God
having been robed in the righteousness of Christ. A sinner who's made
alive. And it says, out of the heart
bringeth forth good things. Preaches the gospel. Preaches
Christ. Points sinners to Christ. Glorifies
Christ. What are we here for tonight?
We're here to lift up Christ, aren't we? We're here to glorify
Him. This isn't about me. It's not
about you. We gain benefit from it, don't
we? But it's all about Christ and His glory, His person. I always think about John the
Baptist. I bring him up on a lot of messages. But you think about
it. You know, I see these people down in Albany. They all have
revivals. You probably have them up here too. And the first thing
they want to do is list the credentials of the preacher. His resume,
sort of, to impress people, to draw them in. And I thought about
what a resume John the Baptist had. The last of the Old Testament
prophets. None greater born of women. That's what Christ said of him. Who gave up everything for the
ministry. He wore animal skins. What was
it? Locust and wild honey. You can point to a passage of
scripture that prophesies of him. John could go back to the
book of Malachi and look at people and say, that's talking about
me. The voice of one crying in, what a resume. He baptized the
Lord. But you know what? John didn't
say any of those things about himself. What did he say? He said, you know why he didn't
say those things? His heart wasn't on those things.
Those things weren't his confidence. He said, I'm not the Messiah. He said, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world. He said, now I can
baptize you with water, but there's one coming who will baptize with
fire. That means he can give you life. He can change your
heart. I can't do that. John said, I'm
not even worthy to bend over and tie his shoes for him. And he said, I must decrease,
Christ must increase. You know why he said all those
things? You know why those words were spoken? Because that was
the abundance of his heart. His heart was filled with Christ. Pharisee stood outside the temple,
and he prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not
like other men. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of everything. You know why his words were like
that? Because he was speaking out of
the abundance of his heart. His heart was not filled with
Christ. His heart was filled with self. One of my favorite scriptures.
I think it's in John 3. And this, I believe, is the heart
prayer of every true preacher of the gospel. It's talking about
John the Baptist again, talking about his disciples, people who
came to hear John. And it says, they heard John
speak, and you know what the rest of it says? They followed
Jesus. That's what we want. If you're
hearing me speak with the Spirit, I want you to follow Christ,
not me. You know the worst thing any
preacher can get? A following for himself. It's the worst thing he can get.
I know. I've seen it. But go back to
Matthew 12. Let me bring this to a conclusion.
He says in verse 36, but I say unto you that every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account therefore in the
day of judgment. Now the idle words there speaking of the false
gospels of these Pharisees. It's not talking about telling
jokes and stuff like that. First of all, now he says, he
says every idle word that men shall speak. Do we ever speak idle words even
as believers? Well, sure we do. We get engaged
in a lot of useless talk, don't we? I mean, we do, whether at
work or in families or whatever. That's not what he's talking
about. First of all, God's not gonna bring those things up again.
He says, I'll remember your sins no more. You cannot be charged
with your sins. And he says, for by thy words
thou, he said, every man shall give an account, therefore, in
the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified.
What were the words of the false preachers in Matthew 7? Lord,
Lord, haven't we, haven't we, haven't we? What happened? What did that reveal about them?
It revealed they had no union with Christ. And by thy words
thou shalt be condemned. What are my words? What do they
say about me? When I stand before you and preach,
what do my words say to you? My prayer is that they'll lead
you to Christ. Well, what about our account
as believers? What is every believer's account?
Let me conclude with this. Turn to Romans chapter 4. And I want to show you something
here that I believe will be helpful. You know, in Romans 4, he's talking
about Abraham. He starts out talking about Abraham. How was
Abraham justified before God? It wasn't because of his circumcision. It wasn't because of his Jewishness.
It wasn't because of his works. Abraham was an idolater in Ur
of Chaldees. It was by the grace of God based
on the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what Romans 4 is about. But in three verses, verse 6
through 8, He interjects another saint, David. And listen to what
he says. Even as David also, describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Now, when did David say that?
Look at verse seven. Saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, he's quoting
from Psalm 32. Now you don't have to turn there,
but you go back and read Psalm 32. And you're going to find
that David didn't write literally the blessedness of the man to
whom God imputed righteousness without works. Those words are
not found in Psalm 32. And yet the Holy Spirit inspired
the apostle Paul to interpret David's words that exact way. And you know what that tells
us? There's no contradiction in the
Bible, folks. Bible's the word of God, inspired, verbally inspired,
perfect. It tells us that that's what
David meant when he penned those words. It's a commentary. It's like a New Testament commentary
on the Old Testament, and here's what it tells us. that every
sinner who is in Christ is forgiven by the grace of God through the
blood of Christ. And it's not just some of your
sins, it's all our sins forgiven. Blessed is the man whose sins
are covered. You know that's a picture of
the mercy seat and the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat,
the atonement which translates to reconciliation with God through
the blood of Christ. And then David said, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. He will
not charge them with sin. Now, what does that mean? That means automatically in God's
way of salvation, those sins were imputed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because he is the mercy seat.
He's the covering. He's our reconciliation. Our
debt was charged to him and we cannot be charged. That's right. Now, Satan will charge us, men
will charge us, but God doesn't charge us. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies, Romans
8. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Well,
God's a just God. What did He do with those sins?
He charged that debt to Christ. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. He paid my debt in full. Somebody
said one time, well, we're not charged, but we are chargeable.
Oh, no, we're not even chargeable. Why? Because Christ took my charge. That's what imputed sin. That's
how he was made sin. That same passage, 2 Corinthians
5, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, his elect
all over the world, not imputing their trespasses unto them. We
learn from Romans 4 that the non-imputation of sins automatically
means that they were imputed to Christ. That's how God does
it. And then it also means righteousness
imputed to us. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without word. We stand before God in Christ. Now what is my account? Will
I have to give an account? Yes. Will you have to give an
account? Yes. But what is our account? Paul stated this way
in Philippians 3, Oh, that I may know him and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,
the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Our account, my
account is Christ. Yes, I'll give an account. And
it won't be, Lord, haven't I did, didn't I do this? Didn't I do
that? Haven't I done this? No, my account is Christ and
Him crucified. That's your account if you're
in Him. I'm washed in His blood. That's my account. I'm clothed
in His righteousness. That's my account. That's your
account if you're in Christ. He is my accounting. He is the
Lord my righteousness and that is our standing in Christ. What
do we plead as the ground and the source
and the cause of our salvation? We plead Christ and him alone,
his blood alone, his righteousness alone. Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your grace in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We thank you
for the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us life from Christ.
We thank you for the conviction of sin, the conviction of righteousness
and of judgment, knowing that we stand in him whom to know
is life eternal and our salvation and our glory is sure because
of him. For we pray this in Christ's
name and for his sake. Amen. Christ is your righteousness,
then you can sing with me this next song in closing this evening,
Amazing Grace. Number 236. Number 236, Amazing
Grace. Let's stand.