Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the chapter we read, Isaiah
54. Isaiah 54 and verse 17, the last
verse and the last half of the verse. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. The whole verse reads, No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, said the Lord. In these chapters in Isaiah,
we have the prophecy of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially
we have in chapter 53, his sufferings, his death, so very clearly set
forth. In chapter 54, where we are,
we have the Church of God established upon those blessings that Christ
hath purchased upon Calvary. And then we have the wonderful
proclamations of the gospel as the prophecy goes on in chapter
55. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money. and without price. It is these
chapters that are most blessed in pointing and seeing the fulfillment
in our Lord Jesus Christ and what has been accomplished by
Him at Calvary and the blessings that the Church of God has at
this time. I've just read for our text the
last part of this verse. I believe that this heritage
of the servants of the Lord applies not just to the former part of
the verse but all that is written in this chapter and really all
that flows out of the Lord Jesus Christ coming and what he's accomplished
for his people. Sometimes we would think of heritage
and inheritance has been very similar. They are both things
that come to us from someone that we have a connection with
and it is after their death. We think of receiving an inheritance
from someone that dies, usually it is some land or some money
and as far as we are concerned it has come to us from one or
two steps or so. But when we think of heritage,
perhaps an example would be in this land where we have not only
national trust, but we have English heritage. And they look back
to years gone by, a heritage in buildings and a heritage that
has built the nation in various laws, its history, you can go
to see where the various things happened, the laws were made
in this country and it is something that has gradually shaped our
nation and made it to be what it is today. So in one sense
the heritage is something that is passed down over many years
not so much in our buildings or wealth, but spiritually, morally,
in many ways that shape us. The society we live in didn't
just begin yesterday. The things that we and affect
us today have been shaped by hundreds of years or a thousand
years before. And if that can be said, in the
way of materialistic things and the world things, then surely
it is, and it is in the way of our text, that there is a heritage
that the Lord's people have. Now I know some of you might
think, There's a book that Gerald Buss partly authored, A Goodly
Heritage, and it is our articles of faith explained, and he's
added on the creation articles and Sabbath day, and he's looking
back to what we are in our churches today is being shaped by history
in the past, and in one sense a heritage We're in the buildings
that our forefathers have bought or left to us. We have doctrines
that have been formulated years ago and if we go outside of our
denomination we have the confessions, the Baptist and Westminster confessions
and the ancient confessions that are passed down to us. But what
we have here is looking back further than that, going right
back to our Lord Jesus Christ, His sufferings, His death, and
what it is that He then has done that has left a heritage that
carries on right through the church, right through to the
end. Now, the Word of God, of course,
is very clear about an inheritance. Paul Peter speaks about it in
inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you and
those that are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And he's pointing very clearly
to heaven and inheritance in heaven for you. The psalm that
we read, Psalm 16, actually joins the two together in two verses,
verses five and six. David says, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance and of my cup, thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. So he is saying
that he has an inheritance but he also has a goodly heritage
as well. And so what the Lord has purchased
for his people, that is one aspect. We know of that which is very
prominent in the Old Testament as the children of Israel went
into Canaan. That was to be their inheritance
given to Abraham, though Abraham never possessed it, and that
then was given to them by lot. The Lord decided what part of
Canaan each one should have, and they had to be very careful
in maintaining those individual inheritances in the lot. And I think it was the daughters,
Zalota had. They had to only marry within
their own tribe. If they didn't, if they married
in another tribe, because they were given an inheritance because
he had no sons, no daughters, then their inheritance would
move from one tribe to another. So to get around that, they only
had to marry in their one tribe. In the times of the Old Testament
and in Canaan, the inheritances were very carefully guarded.
You think of the history of Ruth, Boaz, the teaching that if a
woman died or a husband died and left his wife a widow without
children, his brother had to take her and raise up seed upon
his inheritance. And that is how it was that Boaz,
who was a near kinsman, that he was able to perform that part
with Ruth and marry her. And so all along there is a lot
of teaching that is relative to inheritance in a natural way
with Israel. And this is taken up then in
the New Testament, very clearly pointing to heaven. But our text,
the subject more this evening, is not heaven, it's not the inheritance
above, it's the heritage of the Lord's people as they walk here
below. So I want to look firstly at
the servants of the Lord, our text, it says, this is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, who are the servants of the Lord. And then secondly, their heritage,
this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, very clearly stated
here, so what is that heritage? And then thirdly, their righteousness,
this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. The servants of the Lord. We're
not of course to suddenly think, well this only relates to ministers,
this is only relating to the Lord's servants. No. All of God's
called and saved people are to be servants of the Lord. By nature,
We are servants of self and we are servants of Satan. And Paul
in Romans 6, he says, to whom he yield obedience to them. He are their servants to whom
he obey, whether sin and to unrighteousness or whether of the law and the
righteousness. He are those servants to whom
he obey. And so all of those that God
calls out of nature's darkness and into his marvellous light
are called to be the servants of the Lord. The apostle Paul,
and we know of course he was called to be an apostle, but
when the Lord called him by grace, his first word was, Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do? He would be, instead of his own
servant, his own master, he desired to be a servant of the Lord. Our Lord himself was spoken of
as my servant and mine elect and it is a title that he was
not ashamed to be called and he did his father's will and
his father's bidding and the people of God should not be ashamed
either to be found the servants of the true and living God. Of course, in one place, the
Lord gives an even greater title. The servant knoweth not what
his master doeth, but I have called you friends. If you do
whatever I command you, ye are my friends indeed. But the illustration of servant
still does apply. And as we walk through this world,
who Who are we serving? Who are we giving our time to,
our money to, our affections to, our allegiance to? Who is our Master? Who is the one that we are truly
serving Him? And the Word of God is very clear
for His people. they serve Him. This people have
I formed for Myself, they shall show forth My praise." And where
the Lord would call a people, He uses them in many, many different
ways. You think of the servant girl,
she was a servant girl literally from Israel, captive by the Syrians,
Naaman, the master, the mistress, and serving her, she says, oh,
that's my master, but with the prophet
that is in Israel, he would cure him of his leprosy. And just the simple utterance
of that young girl was the means of Naaman going to Israel. and
being cured. A step in the chain. The Lord
has his servants everywhere. She was unashamed to speak up
and to own the true God of Israel. And every one of God's people
should be that. I think it's a very sad thing
if there are those that feel, well, all I need to be is just
converted and baptised and I can come in and out to the services
of the house of God, I'll sit on church meetings and round
the Lord's table and that's all the Lord would have me to do
at all. It should be our design, Lord
what will thou have me to do? In the most simplest way, the
Lord choosing, like with that servant girl, how he would use
His people. And of course we have it with
the Lord's servants, those of us in the ministry. Even if you
were to look round our own denomination, we're called to minister in very,
very different circumstances. Some of us, very small churches,
some large churches, some in the country, some in the city,
some itinerant ministers. It is very different. Who chooses? what one will do. It is the Lord
that makes that choice, not man. And it's a blessed thing where
we see the will of a church and the will of His servants brought
together and pastors appointed and settled over a people. But we should always remember
that we all serve the Lord and do His bidding and seek to do
His will and do that which is glorifying to Him. What would
it be if you had an employer, and he had an overall plan that
he couldn't divulge to all of his employees, but asked one
to do this and one to do that, but then one after another they
came and said, I don't like the task appointed for me, it's too
menial, I'd rather do this. And all the time he was trying
to fend off these who wanted to do their own way, but they
didn't know the overall plan at all, but the owner and the
employer did. And we don't know God's plan,
we don't know His purpose or what He is working out, but we
know that He controls all things, and all things are in His power.
And who is He that saith, Only cometh the past when the Lord
commandeth, it not. And it is a blessed thing where
there is that desire, what will Thou have me to do? And each
member of a church, a community, is seeking that in some way that
they'd have their ear open to know what the Lord would have
them to do. The Lord's servants, the Lord's
servants here, those that He has redeemed, those whom He has
walked out that in Isaiah 53, those whom He has suffered, bled,
and died for, those that He has redeemed, and those that He has
called. Parents, native, place, and time,
all appointed were by Him, and He's appointed that as well.
And as they are brought then into this world, He that fixed
my first and second birth, He appoints me in that sharp age.
and all that they are appointed to walk through. The Lord said
to dear Peter, more than once, first he said to him of what
Satan would do. Satan hath desired to have thee
to sift thee as wheat, but I prayed for thee that thy faith were
not. When thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren. And he's telling him what shall
happen, what Satan is desiring, that he shall be restored when,
not if they are, when they are converted. And the thing that
he was to do as his servant was to strengthen the brethren after
he'd been through Satan's sieve. And after those trials, he had
a task, a ministry to do, and you read in the epistles of Peter
how that that comes out, even just in that which is part of
the inspired word of God. Peter's trials, Peter's afflictions,
Peter's sieve was used for the good of the church of God. He didn't just bury what had
happened, it had to come out to help the people of God. And then later on, when the Lord
rose again, He said to Peter, when thou art old, Another shall
gird thee and carry thee, whither thou wouldst not. By this signifying
by what death he should glorify God. Many mistook what the Lord
would have him to do, especially John when Peter then turned. What will this man do? If he
tarry, till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. It went
out saying that this Abel John should not die, but the Lord
never said that. It's not very safe often to judge
what another should do, but the Lord will make sure that if we
are to be a servant in a particular matter, He'll make sure what
we should do, and it's a good thing in that way, not to consult
or be deferred away from it by others. The Apostle Paul, when
he was converted, Ananias, it was told, I will show him what
great things he shall suffer for my name's sake. The Lord
knew what his role would be and how he would be a servant. One
of the great things that marked out the, shall we say, the success
of the Apostle Paul's ministry He says, I count not my life
dear unto me. And so he spake the truth. And
I often thought that, well, if we are called to speak, how many
times we would think, before we open our mouth, what are the
consequences? Especially today, if I open my
mouth, I'm going to lose my job. I'm going to lose my reputation. The Apostle Paul, he went forth
and he says, I count not my life dear unto me. If I speak these
things, if they take away my life, I have been faithful. I
have done that which is right. You know, years ago, I think
it was 2011, we had special Bibles, the TBS printer, the red ones. There's one particular school
I brought 101 Bibles in. the whole school. I gave two
assemblies and then afterwards went to the staff room, spoke
to all the staff and then also went to the RE where the RE teacher
was teaching the students. And in her room she showed me
all what she was teaching them and it would just be like one
of our Sunday School class. All of it, the pictures of the
parables, in fact that school, they took class sets of all Mr
Ransbottom's books from us, there's parables and miracles, they had
the lot in class sets. But that lady, she was a member
of a church, not one of our churches, in Tenterton, and she said to
me, she said, I am past retiring age. She said they can sack me
if they like, that she says, I'm teaching the children the
truth. And the fact, in a way, that
she got nothing to lose in that way, it made her bold to stand
and to really teach those children the truth. It was lovely to see.
And may we be the same, not counting our lives. We're to serve the
Lord, not thinking, well, what's the cost going to be? What is
man going to do? What are they going to react
to? What about my family? What about my relatives and those
round about us? How will they react? For the
Lord has said that he will have servants. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord. It's a great, great privilege
to be called by God's grace to be counted amongst his redeemed
family. And he's a great privilege to
be like the mad Gadarene, who when he wanted just to follow
the Lord, the Lord said, no, you go home to your friends and
tell what great things God has done for thee and had mercy upon
thee. And that's what the Lord would
have him serve him in. I want to look then secondly
at their heritage, the servants of the Lord's heritage. I want to look at it first as
by nature. What is our heritage by nature? Our heritage goes back from Adam. And what flows forth from Adam
is sin and death and the curse. and all the sorrows and bitterness
that is in this world. Spiritual death leading to natural
death, the second death and the judgment to come. That is our
heritage by nature, that's what flows out. Using the illustration
we had before, you can look back to English heritage. There's
been things lately in the news or so of going back and, oh dear,
we've got slavery and we've got things we don't like and things
that are shaping our nation that we're ashamed of. Well, you know,
one said to my father once, he said, I'm trying to trace, trace
my family roots back. He said, I'm trying to get, can
you give me some help in the family tree? Dad said to him,
well, he said, if you do really, really well, he said, the best
you'll do is get right back to fallen Adam. That's what you
do. And that's a solemn reality.
We all come forth from Adam. And, you know, in Job, Job knew,
Job knew that his Redeemer liveth. He also knew the promise of the
Saviour was through the seed of the woman. And so he says,
but how can a clean thing come out of an unclean? It was something
that he knew the promise, but he couldn't see how God would
work it out. We know how, that the Holy Ghost
overshadowed Mary, therefore that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. But Job couldn't
reconcile it or work it out. You think of Solomon when he
dedicated the temple. He said, Heaven of heavens cannot
contain me, much less this house that I have built. But will God
in very deed dwell upon the earth? He struggled with how God would
do this. God manifests in the flesh. In gospel days we have what the
Old Testament saints, by faith they believed God would do it.
but they wrestle with how he would actually do it. But when
we think of going back, we go back to the fall, we go back
to sin, entering into the world and death by sin. The realization
that everyone that is born into this world is already under the
sentence of death. There's no use trying to take
the law and obey it and think that we'll get to heaven by that,
we're already guilty. It's like saying to one that
is just being held guilty in a court of law, and that they've
got a life term in prison, and saying to them, look, if he was
let go, he can do some good works. And you can take away this sentence. They say that the sentence is
already passed. It's on what has been done. And
that is the same for us. The sentence is already passed.
Right at the womb, we're under condemnation. We're already dead. The law was given, not that we
would live by the law, but that all the world might be brought
in guilty before God. By the deeds of the law shall
no man be made righteous. Paul is very clear of this in
his epistle. The role of the law is to completely
convince us of our full of our sentence of death, that there
is no way of redemption that way at all. That's why he said
the law is a schoolmaster unto Christ. It is used. He says of the law, when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died. He could not obey
the law. He could not keep the law. The
good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. And the law is righteous and
holy and just. And now Lord Jesus Christ coming
into this world, born under the law and made of a woman, He showed
it was righteous and just. Men today would say it's unjust.
No one could ever keep the law. They did. Our Lord Jesus Christ
did. Perfectly. Sinless, spotless. You say, how do you know? Because
He rose from the dead. If He was not perfect and pure
and sin had any claim upon Him, He would never have risen from
the dead. God hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath
raised Him from the dead. Pilate says, I find no cause
of death in him. And there was no cause of death
in him, in himself, but he knew for whom he was dying, for whom
he would lay down his precious life and sin atoning blood. But
our heritage, going back to Adam, is nothing but sin and disgrace. And that comes out, and it comes
out, you might say, even in the elect, even in God's children.
They have the old nature that is still the same. We're sinners.
And really only the Lord's people, only His servants really know
what sin is. Really know what it is to mourn
over it and to grieve over it and to know the power of it.
Be ungodly and those who are dead in sins, they don't know.
They might know it in name, but they don't know it in the experience
of it that God's children do. The most holy, godly, and righteous
of God's children, they know sin more than anyone else. It
grieves them, and they mourn over it, and they long for that
time when they shall be brought to heaven where there shall be
no more sin and no more sorrow. And they can serve the Lord perfectly,
but here below they've got that constant opposition. So that's that by nature, that's
our heritage by nature as flowing from the first atom. What is
it that flows from the second atom? The Lord Jesus Christ. What heritage comes through Him? The way it's set forth here and
in this passage. Perhaps I could put it simply
in this way. It is turning the curse into
a blessing. In the day of Queen Esther, the
law had been made that upon a certain day, all the Jews would be killed. The law of Medes and Persians,
that law could not be changed. That day was set. That sentence
still had to be carried out. but another law could be made
to counter it. To turn that day that was a day
of great sorrow and distress into a day of joy. Why? Because they had on the king's
authority to be able to stand against all that would rise against
them. And you see what joy and gladness
was in that nation. And you hear what our Lord says,
when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the
Lord shall lift up a standard against him. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation
make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Hear the words of our Lord. ye
shall have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The world is still
there. Satan is still there. Sin is
still there. But in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus
Christ has dealt with sin on Calvary. He has put away the
sins of his people from start to finish. that debt is completely
atoned for, paid. And the Lord then will use His
authority and His power for His people so that those things that
come against them as their heritage in Adam are actually turned about
for good. And the heritage of God's people
in the Lord Jesus Christ is, and we might say we could summarize
it up in the whole verse that's our text. No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord. And we have this right through
the chapter here. In the first part we have the
church enlarging the place of her tent. We have the people
of God, then from verse 4, delivered from afflictions and from troubles
and from trials and those things that are then working for good. This is the waters of Noah unto
man. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. And the Lord is speaking of kindness
and mercy. O thou afflicted, tossed with
tempests and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair
colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. All thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, great shall be the peace of thy
children. One verse that was made very
precious to me in my early days was this, thy teachers shall
not be removed into a corner anymore, thine eyes shall see
thy teachers. And I trust I've seen it in many
afflictions, in many chasings, in many crosses, in many things
that have been brought against me from the world and the church.
This is the heritage of God's people. It is what the children
of Israel proved as they went through the wilderness. And Balak,
he says to Philaen, you come and you curse the people of God. But God turned that curse into
a blessing. We find it with Joseph saying
to his brothers, ye meant it for evil, God meant it for good. to save your lives by a great
deliverance. What does the Lord say when he
sends out his servants in the beginning of the gospel, when
they persecute through from one city, then go to the next city? That is how the word should be
spread forth in the gospel day. You see how it was. Paul persecuted,
thrown into prison at midnight. He and Silas, they pray, they
sing psalms. There's an earthquake and the
jailer, he's going to kill himself and Paul cries out, see that
thou do thyself no harm. And he comes in and Paul speaks
to him and all his house. and they had wrought to believe
and be baptised. The Lord turning about, the casting
into prison, that trial, they were beaten with whips, it wasn't
a nice plain easy path. But God used it for good. Turned
it about for good. The disciples saying, or the
apostles, they confirmed the disciples saying he must through
much tribulation into the kingdom. That is the secret, that is the
heritage of God's children. He says, I pray not that thou
should take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them
from the evil. That flows forth as the heritage
of God's children. Not the inheritance in heaven
that is waiting for them, but that which is flowing forth from
Christ And through the apostles, and through the church, through
the martyrs, through the Waldensians, through those who have suffered
and laid down their lives, and yet how many times it says the
church has been built up on the blood of the martyrs, of those
who counted not their lives dear unto them, because they would
serve the Lord. And yet they knew that they had
a greater crown, a greater glory, that was in heaven. And so this
heritage for the people of God, it is a heritage that takes that
persecution and takes afflictions and takes the trials and makes
them work for good. You know, I thought a very suitable
hymn that we have just sung in Romans 8 You know, we have those
beautiful words there, we know that all things, in verse 28, we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. All things, all afflictions,
all trials, the heritage of the Lord's people is that the Lord
will turn them for a blessing, they'll be sanctified, they'll
work together for good. And what is so emphasised in
Romans 8 is that sin, and maybe those of you here, many of us,
we know that we fear sin more than anything else. We think
sin will be that which will destroy us, rise up and overcome us. But the Lord has dealt with that
at Calvary. And yes, it's right, we should
mourn over our sins and confess them and beg them before the
Lord. He'd put them away afresh, as it were, in our consciences. Poor Peter, David rather, I have
sinned, and he had to be brought to repentance. But this Romans
8, where it speaks of the love of Christ, and that love He says
in verse 37, knowing all these things, and he lists it out,
he says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sword, who say, what a heritage, if this is the
people of God, they've just got a heritage of all these things
against them. But no, that's not the heritage.
That comes through a fallen world and through sin. The heritage
is, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter, knowing all these things, we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. More than conquerors,
what does that mean? Not only shall those things not
take away the love of God from us, they shall actually work
for good, there shall be a profit in them. The Lord will use them
for his advantage, more than conquerors, not just conquerors.
And so he says that I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. The more than conquerors is through
him that loved us. And it's a blessed token, you
know, for the people of God. When they have a sickness, an
affliction, and a trial, and you might have it contrasted,
you might see someone else have it, and they fall under it, it
crushes them, destroys their faith. The trial of your faith,
much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, shall be found under praise and honor and glory at
that last day. Grace, though the smallest, must
surely be tried, says the hymn writer. It is the very love of God that
we might think, well, how can a loving God, and this is what
the world says, how can a loving God allow this and this and this?
These trials and these things that happen in the world and
happen in your life, they come from a fallen world, their inheritance
in Adam, but a loving God turns those things for good and makes
them his servants for the good of his people and his people
go through them The Apostle Paul, he wanted to get out at one stage
of that thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. But the Lord said,
no, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect
in weakness. And Paul had to see as a servant,
part of that being as a servant, nevertheless not my will, but
thy will be done. and that those things that Lord
calls us to pass through, we serve him in them, and he makes
those things work for our good. They crucify us to the world
and to self. Give us some fellowship with
the man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Bring us to walk
that path. Here below, there is a heritage
that flows forth from the Lord. flows forth from him who is dealt
with sin, and that's why in that Romans, you don't read in that
long list, who shall separate us, and sin is not there. Because
the beginning of the chapter, there is therefore now no condemnation,
there in Christ Jesus, sin is dealt with. Don't ever think,
if sin is not dealt with in my soul, that this is why all these
trials and these troubles and afflictions are coming, because
I'm not really saved and the Lord hasn't washed and cleansed
me with his precious blood. No. The Lord says this is not
your rest. It is polluted. This is not where
we are suspended to. That inheritance which is incorruptible
and undefiled faded not away, that is in heaven. And so may
we be clear on the heritage of the people of God is not a heritage
of escaping the cross or escaping trouble and finding out some
other way, but it's a heritage of having that curse turned to
a blessing and the Lord with us in the trials and in the fires,
7, 5, 8, I am with thee, Israel, passing through the fire. And we can go back to that long
line of proud of witnesses that have been sinners, like you and
I, that have had their afflictions and trials and persecutions,
and how the Lord has appeared for them, delivered them, and
helped them. As thy domes, so shall thy strength
be. those shoes shall be iron and
brass. What a blessing, what promises
there are to the people of God. Underneath are the everlasting
arms to bear up and to bear strength. May we have a view to the heritage
of the saints of the Lord, not as escaping the cross, but glorifying
the Lord in it and bearing up unto The Apostle, he says, therefore
will I glory in my infirmities. When I am weak, then am I strong. He was taking those very same
things a moment ago he was trying to get out of, and now he's saying
he's glorying in them, that the grace of God might be magnified
in me. That is that which is passed
down, as it were, from generation to generation. of the people
of God, and will be until they are brought, each one of them,
safe above. But then let us come to our third
point, because our third point says, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. When we have that expectation
of the inheritance above, what an assurance to have as to how
we will stand there. Because if you're like me, and
you look at all your lives, and you look even at how you bear
up under afflictions, you'll see many things you're very ashamed
of. You can never go before the Lord
and say, look, I've done so well, I've been such a good servant,
I've been so held. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. And our works after conversion
are fruits of grace and they're not that which merits us heaven.
None of the servants and ministers of the Lord, we cannot look upon
any success or blessing on our ministry and say, Lord, because
of this we must be one of thy children, we must be brought
to heaven. We rely solely upon the grace
of God, the mercy of God, the precious blood of Christ, upon
a personal call, the same as you all do, if you're in Christ
Jesus. But the assurance here, the righteousness
that a believer has, the servants of the Lord has, is not their
own by nature, it is imputed to them by Christ. His life,
His obedience is made ours, as if we lived the life that He
lived, and we shall stand faultless then before the throne, which
we can never do, in any deeds that we have done. Thou art all
pure, my love, there is no spot in thee. The language of Song
of Solomon, I am black, but comely. Black in ourselves, comely in
Christ. Our inheritance, our heritage
in Adam is but sin and blackness, but in Christ. we are clothed
in his righteousness, and then shall appear before the throne
without shame, without fault, spotless. That is the heritage
of the people of God. Here below their path is of sorrow
and grief and afflicted. Do you think of some of the hymns?
Poor and afflicted, Lord are Thine among the great unfit to
shine. You think of the language of
the Church of God in all its afflictions and tribulation,
that their glorious hope is to stand at last before God in that
faultless, spotless, seamless robe of righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a clear statement, their
righteousness is of me, said the Lord. And you may say, For
sometimes the Lord's people are counted righteous here below.
They are designated that. And even that righteousness is
of Him. In that they do bear up in afflictions. He does give them grace. He does
give them strength. He does give them that spiritual
armour. They fight and win the well-fought
day. They achieve that which the Lord
would have them to do. here below, leaning on Him, depending
upon Him, united to that Living Vine. And in all of those trials
they get a token, their righteousness is of Me. Do you know what it
is to have the curse turned into a blessing? The Lord making that
for our spiritual good and profit, which naturally speaking, would
destroy us. But He makes us more than conquer
us. For may the Lord bless us with
being in this world, know something of the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and evidence that we are, and to be assured of
this, that our righteousness is of the Lord. This is what
the Lord says, saith the Lord.