Yeah. Thank you, Joy. Good morning.
The Lord met with us last night. And our hope and prayer is that
he will do that for us again today. In John chapter four, our Lord
speaking to the woman at the well said, if thou knewest the
gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, get me to drink,
you would have asked of him and he would give to you living water. Kind of like you brought out
last night. I don't remember her ever asking, but he gave
her that living water, didn't he? And she went back into Sychar
and she said, come meet a man that told me everything I ever
did. And when the people from, when the Samaritans came in verse
41, it says that many more believed because of his own word and said
unto the woman, now we believe, not because of thy saying, For
we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed the
Christ, the Savior of the world. Saving faith is not believing
because you heard it from a preacher. It's believing because you heard
it from Him. And that's our hope this morning is that we'll be
able to say with those Samaritans, now we believe. Not because of
your testimony, but because we've heard from Him. Let's ask the
Lord's blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father.
We come before thy throne of grace in the name of thy dear
son. Knowing that we have. All acceptance and righteousness. All hope. All our justification. All our salvation. Bound up in his glorious person
and his accomplished work of redemption. We ask that you would
send your spirit in power. That Christ will be lifted up.
Lord, that you would draw us to him. That we would hear his
voice. And follow after him. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Tom's going to come lead us in
number 226 in your hardback temple number 226. Let's stand together. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take him at his word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read. For in my heart I find a need
of him to be my Savior. That he should leave his place
on high, And come for sinful men to die. You count it strange,
so once did I, Before I knew my Savior. And O that he fulfilled, may
see, the travail of his soul in me, and with his work contented
be, as I with my dear Saviour. ? Yea, living, dying, let me
bring ? My strength, my solace from this spring ? That he who
lives to be my king ? Once died to be my savior Please be seated. Let's turn to number 212 in that
same hymn book, 212. nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. We're going to have special music
now by Caleb Hickman and his daughter Lacey. And if you'd
like to follow along, they're going to sing hymn number 12
from that spiral hymn book. Upon my great and sovereign God
I cast my soul and rest My Father's hand controls the world And God,
He does His best. Be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power. Combined to make me blessed In
ranging storms and fiery trials He keeps me from all harms He
walks with me and holds me in His everlasting arms Be still
my heart and doubt no more Believe and find sweet rest God's wisdom,
love, and truth and power Combined to make thee blessed My God with
skill, infallible And great designs of grace, with power and love
that never fail, shall order all my ways. Peace to my heart
and doubt no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God. Who promised that in all
things He Will ever do me good He's still my heart and doubt
no more Believe and find sweet rest God's wisdom, love, and
truth and power What a blessing to hear about
sweet rest with such sweet voices. Lacey, thanks for letting your
dad sing with you. August of 1996, almost 24 years
ago. Sorry. The Lord was pleased to
send a preacher to Orlando from Lexington, Kentucky. And he brought
a clear message of the gospel. And then he was pleased to give
some of us ears to hear. And this brother has been. Todd, you come up here. Be still my soul. Now, if the Lord is pleased to
give us the grace. To understand what he's saying
in his word. I trust we're going to be enabled. To leave this place. Being still. Not. Raging trouble. Brought on by our own sinful
hearts. but being still. I've entitled the message, the
reality of justification. Would you turn to second Corinthians
chapter five, verse 10. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 10. For we. Everybody in this room. Everybody
outside of this room. This is speaking of all men without
exception. For we. Must. This is absolutely necessary. This is something we all must
do. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. What is important going on today
in light of that? We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body. According to that, he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. Literally? Literally. The reality of justification. Now, before I comment on that,
I want you to turn back to Luke chapter 18. Verse nine. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Now here we have the definition
of self-righteousness. You trust in yourselves that
you are righteous. And what goes along with it invariably,
they despised others. I can always find somebody that
I'm a little bit better than they are. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, and these two men are representative of all men. You
and I are described as one of these two men. You can just write
that down. The one, a Pharisee, And the
other, a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. It didn't get any further than
the ceiling. He thought it did. God, I thank thee. that I am not as other men are. I'm giving you the credit. I
believe in grace. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are. You know, I was thinking while
we were singing that hymn, what can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Has there ever been a better
hymn written? If there has been, I don't know of it. And this
man knew nothing about that. He was thinking about all the
things that he was enabled to do by grace. Now, they were all lies. They weren't
real. But I don't know that he knew
that. Let's go on reading. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee, I'm giving you the credit
that I'm not as other men are. Extortioners, unjust, Adulterers
are even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And here's the other man, the
publican. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
God, Be merciful to me, thee, sinner. I tell you. Now, isn't that authoritative
when the Lord says, I tell you? This isn't some preacher telling
you, I tell you. Well, there's the authority.
I tell you. But this man, went down to his
house forgiven rather than the other. I didn't quote that right,
did I? Pardoned, shown mercy. No, this man went down to his
house justified. Justification before God is you've
never sinned. All the things done in your body
are good. You've kept God's law perfectly. You have no sin. You have never sinned and you
never will sin. That is what justification is. Now, I fear that most people
believe in what you might call a virtual justification. Now, what do I mean by that? Let me read the definition of
virtual. Virtual means it's an adjective
that means almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according
to strict definition. The example is I'm speaking about
things I don't know. I've never played a computer
game. I played Pac-Man, that's the closest I've got. But I've
seen the commercials. The only reason I know this is
because I've never seen one, but I've seen commercials on TV where
you've got those dragons going through the air and these military
guys blowing up all kinds of people. I don't know what the
name of it is, but it's a virtual reality. Looks real. It's generated
by computer software. Looks real. But is it? No. No. You've heard this statement. Justification is just as if I
never sinned. If it's just as if you've never
sinned, you sinned. It's a virtual justification. It's not real. It won't really
stand before this judgment seat that we read of. We must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive
the things done in his body according to that which he has done, whether
it be good or bad. Now the Lord is going to deal
in strict impartial justice. This verse back to second Corinthians
chapter five. This verse has been used by many
preachers. as a different judgment than
the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation chapter 20. I'm
going to call this man's name John MacArthur. He says this
is the Great Bema Judgment. This is the judgment where believers
will be judged after salvation in their bodies, and that's where
their position in glory is going to be determined. How? I've done,
I'm going to be receiving the things done in my body. There's gonna be mansions in
glory, and I guess there's gonna be shacks. And there's gonna
be people driving Rolls Royces, and people be driving old beat
up Volkswagens, you know. Depending on the works done in
your body. Do you want anything to be judged
that you've done in your body? Well, God will oblige you if
you want that. He will, but no believer wants that. Now, without question, there
are degrees of punishment. I think of what the Lord said
to those people of Capernaum, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Now you know what that is, moral perversity of the greatest proportion. He said the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah will have it worse, I mean better on the day of judgment
than you. You who have rejected my gospel,
those people in Sodom and Gomorrah, it's gonna be easier for them
in judgment than it is for you. Now punishment is according to
works. Yes, there are degrees of punishment
in hell. And every time I talk, if I even
mention the word hell, it's scary. It's just scary. I don't even
like to talk about it. I think it's interesting that
in the writings of the Apostle Paul, you know, he didn't even
mention that word once. He implied it, obviously, but
he thought the word too terrible to even use. But it's still true,
there are degrees of punishment but there are no degrees of rewards
because Christ is my reward. There's only one righteousness,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Can you add to that? Would you
dare put one of your works upon his and say, I'm gonna have it
better? You know, I heard a preacher
say in Lexington, Kentucky, He was speaking to his congregation.
He said, some of you are going to be shining my shoes in heaven. Exactly. He won't be there. I like that. Well, it's just not so. I mean,
you know that, and it's so contrary to grace. And there are two stories
in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that deal with
this to let us know that this is not true. The first story
in the Old Testament is when the Amalekites invaded Ziklag
in 1 Samuel 30, and they carried away all the people. They carried
away all the goods. David and his men come back,
and they Weep. They even talked about stoning
David because of it. Because everything's gone. And
David asked the Lord, he said, shall I go back? And he said,
go back, you'll recover all. They're on their way there. 600
men. Two of them, 200 of them are
so faint they can't get across the creek. They stay back. The 400 come. They raid the Amalekites. They recover everything. They
come back. And there's these 200 guys that didn't go to the,
battle and the scripture says all the sons of Belial, I don't
know if I'm saying Belial, Belial, wicked men, all of the wicked
men without exception said they don't get anything. They didn't
work. We did. We get more spoil. And I love what David said, not
so, not so, that ain't going to happen. Everybody gets the
precise same thing. And then I love that parable
that the Lord gives in Matthew chapter 20 of the workers in
the vineyard. You got the ones who work one hour, you got the
ones who work 12 hours. And I guarantee you, if I worked
12 hours, I'd be upset if that one who worked one hour got the
same thing as me. But they did. They did. And this was in response to Peter
saying, we've left all, what's in it for us? Well, here's what's
in it for you. Same thing. What can you do to
improve on the righteousness of Christ? The reason men teach such things
is to motivate people to live good lives. You'll get a higher
reward, but that's mercenary. That's all it is. It's mercenary.
And it's just And as far as that goes, how could you have such
a high inflated view of your works in the first place? I'm
going to get a higher award for this. That's ignorant. It's wicked. Now let's go back to, I guess
we're there, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. For we know, verse 1. You know, one of the things I
love about the Bible is we can say we know. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. We know it. Somebody
say, I don't know it, but I do. I do, we know. If you know, you
know. You know, when you were preaching
last night, Chris, you said things that I don't remember ever hearing
before, but as soon as you said them, I knew they were so. That's
the way truth works, you know. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle, this tent we're living in were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. That is our dwelling place, eternally. This house made not with hands. I've heard people say, well,
that's talking about the houses we're going to live in until
the resurrection, when all of a sudden there'll be a resurrection,
we'll get our bodies back. Well, I don't think you're waiting
for anything in heaven. Heaven's eternal. There isn't
anything you're waiting on. And he says eternal. This is
talking about the glorified body that every believer has awaiting,
that body that doesn't sin. The promise of Whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son. That is realized. Is that something to look forward
to? Never sin again. For in this tent, this body,
we groan Well, there's. Getting old sickness
disease, but that's really not what he's talking about. He's
talking about the groan of Paul. Oh, wretched man that I am right
now. Present tense. It's called being
a sinner. Being a sinner. And I'm so. Thankful that Paul
didn't say, oh wretched man, that I was before God saved me.
He didn't use that kind of language, did he? In this we groan earnestly desiring
to be clothed upon with our house from heaven. We earnestly desire to be clothed
with Christ inside and out. Like the arc pitched with pitch
inside and out. So we won't be naked and exposed
to the wrath of God. If so being clothed, we should
not be found naked for we that are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened. Here he's repeating that again.
In this tabernacle, this body of death, we groan. You know, the only way you can
understand this is if you have two natures. There's no other
way to understand this. If you only have one nature,
you... What's he talking about? That's weird. I don't get it. Well, I know you don't because
you only have one nature, but if God ever gives you a new nature and
a new heart, you'll understand. You will. In this tabernacle,
we do groan being burdened, not that we should be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, He that hath wrought us
for the self same thing as God. Salvation's of the Lord. He's
the one who's done this. We know it beyond the shadow
of a doubt. Who also has given unto us the
earnest of the Spirit. Now what is that? Do you believe the gospel? God
the Holy Spirit's caused you to do it. That's the earnest
of the Spirit. Who so believe it that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now, let me remind you, faith
is not what you believe about yourself. Somebody says, I don't
know if I'm saved. What do you know? He's the savior. Do you
believe him? Verse six, therefore, we're always
confident. Knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, we realize that. Paul said, I long to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. And while I'm in this
body, I'm here according to God's purpose, according to God's will. Looking forward to dying. Looking
forward to no longer being a sinner. Looking forward to being in the
very presence of Christ, beholding his glory. Oh, that will be glory
to me. When by his grace, I shall look
on his face. That will be glory. Paul said, we walk by faith,
not by sight. Now what's that mean? Can I see that I'm justified
before God? Can I see that everything done
in my body is all good, perfectly righteous, without any guilt
whatsoever? Can I see that? No, not at all. I know it by faith, though. I know it by faith, believing
the gospel. Verse eight, for we're confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. This is our ambition. This is
our desire that whether present or absent, we may be accepted
of him for, and here's this word for we must all. appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his
body. According to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad. Now, there are two groups of
people. People who have done nothing
but good, and people who have done nothing but bad. Called in the scriptures the
righteous and the wicked. This is true. All the righteous
believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the wicked believe
themselves to be righteous, or at least have the potential to
become so if their cards are stacked right and they're put
in the right place. All will stand before the judgment
seat of Christ. Now, like I've said, I've heard
men say that this is a different judgment than the great white
throne judgment. There's only one judgment. Only one. Not two. Turn with me to Revelation
chapter 20. Beginning in verse 11. And I saw a great white throne. And him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was
found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book, singular, was opened, which is the book of life. And
the dead, those who were dead in sins, were judged out of those
things which were written in the books according to their
works. Absolute. impartial justice. There are books that have recorded
every bad thought, deed, motive. You say, well, how this would
last so long? Oh, it's going to be just like that. It's an
eternity. I don't understand how that works. But everybody
outside of Christ is going to be judged according to these
books. That's the great white throne
judgment. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged Every man according to their
works, absolute impartial justice. And with God, the punishment
always fits the crime. And the death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death and
whosoever was not found written in the book of life. It's called
in Revelation 13, eight, the book of the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. This is the name of God's elect.
Now this is the church role that I want to be on. I've, Oh, I
want to be found written in that book. Don't you? This is the
elect of God. Those for whom Christ died. You
know what's in their book against them. Absolutely nothing. I heard a preacher say now this
judgment. That the believer is going to
experience after judgment where he's going to be rewarded and
perhaps his unfaithfulness is going to be brought up. It won't
bother him. Then I thought it'll bother me.
I don't want to have anything to do with anything like that.
I simply want to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's another group who will
be judged in this judgment, and they're
going to hear these words. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou in to the joy of thy
Lord. Come, ye blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. How can that be? God said, I
will by no means. Clear. the guilty. If you have any guilt at all,
under no circumstance whatsoever will God clear you. If there's
anything done in your body that is not absolutely perfect and
righteous and holy, God will by no means clear you. That publican Confessed his guilt,
didn't he? God be merciful to me, the sinner,
the greatest sinner to ever live. That's what he believed about
himself. He believed himself to be the worst man alive. He
says, people knew my heart. They wouldn't even let me in
this temple. I don't blame that Pharisee for what he said about
me. I'm a mess. God be merciful, God be propitious
to me, the sinner. And the Lord said, I went down,
that man went down to his house. How? Justified. That means he
never sinned. That means he did everything
in his body was good, perfectly righteous, without sin. Turn with me for a moment to
Revelation 19. Now, remember, justification
is not virtual. It's not just as if you never
sinned, because if that's what it is, you've still sinned. It's
just kind of some kind of based on virtual righteousness, and
that ain't real. It's not real. Revelation chapter 19, verse
7. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb is come and his wife
has made herself ready and to her was granted that she should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for the fine linen
is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the saints. Not what it says at all, is it?
You know, there are some versions and translations that say this
is the righteous deeds of the saints. Oh? Do you have any deeds at
all that could be described as fine linen, clean, and white? The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is the righteousness of the saints. What was done in his body? What was done in his body? That's what's done in my body.
Now, how can that be? How can that be? That seems too
good to be true. How can that be? Well, turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 1. Verse 1, God, who at sundry times
and in diverse manners, spake in times past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the world, who, being the brightness of his glory and the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself, what are those next three words?
Purged our You know what that means? It means they are no more. And notice the phrase by himself. You know what that means? That means this doesn't have
anything to do with anything you've done in your body. He did this by
himself. No help from you. No help from
me. No contributions. He did this by himself. He purged our sins. How did he do that? By taking
those sins in his own body on the tree. And do you know, I'm
talking about things that I believe but don't understand. He actually
became guilty of the commission of those sins. And when God punished him, He
was giving him exactly what he deserved. Absolute impartial
justice. He took those sins in his own
body, didn't he? Scripture says that. Who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. When he
drank that cup in Gethsemane's garden, the sins of God's elect
were in that cup. And he took them in his own body. And in his own body, he put those
sins away. They are no more. And what about that perfect righteousness
that he worked out? It's mine. That's what justification is.
It's mine. I am, every believer is, the
righteousness of God in him. Second Corinthians 521 says,
for he hath made him to be sin for us. Somebody says, explain
that to me. I can't just believe it. He hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Now, just as truly as he was
made sin, every believer is that. However much he was made sin,
that's how much the believers made the very righteousness of
God. The things done in my body are
all good. Now that's what justification
is. I'd like to look at 2 Peter chapter
2 for just a moment. Now this is when God destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah Peter's telling us about it.
He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned
them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that
after should live ungodly and delivered just lot, righteous lot, vexed with the
filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling
among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from
day to day with their unlawful deeds. Now, if you didn't have
the New Testament, what would you think about Lot? What would
you think about it? You remember he was this self-serving
man that was, when given the choice between the well-watered
plains and whatever else, Abraham said your choice, he didn't give
Abraham difference, he took what was best for himself. And he
pitched his tent towards Sodom. That was wrong. And he ended
up being somehow involved in the government there, because
he sat at the gates, that's what that means. He sat at the gates,
he became somebody in Sodom. And when God was going to destroy
that place, you remember what the angels had to do? Scripture
says Lot lingered. And they drug him by the hand
and pulled him out of the city. God being merciful to him is
what the scripture says. And do you remember what else
Lot did? He didn't want to go off where the Lord told him.
He said, here's this little city. Let me stay there. There was
drunkenness and incest going on and children that came out
of that, uh, whatever it was. Now, what would you think of
Lot? What's God say? Just Lot, that righteous man
with a righteous soul given a new nature. Now this is what the
gospel is, my friends. I love it how the Lord said regarding
that public, and this man went down into his house justified
rather than the other, and he didn't make any comment about
how that was to take place. He uses the whole Bible to show
how that is. Thank the Lord for. Justification
now. Look what Paul says next aren't
X and will close with this. This lets you know he's not talking
about some kind of. You know, just for knowing the gospel that. He's not talking about some kind
of judgment after judgment. He says in verse 1111. knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord." We persuade men. Now, do we persuade men to live better
lives so they can earn a higher reward in heaven? No. And every
believer would sin no more. Amen? Every believer would sin
no more. But we don't persuade men to
try to live some kind of life that will earn them a higher
reward. Christ is the end of the law. for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Amen. I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded. He's our persuasion. Oh, thank
you, brother. Eyes not seen, nor is ear heard,
nor is it entered into the imagination of man, the things that the Lord
has prepared for us, but He has revealed them to us by His Spirit. What we've just heard can only
be seen and heard and believed through faith by the Spirit of
God. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. That's our boldness. Thank you, brother. What a blessing.
We're going to sing a couple of hymns, Tom. Number 232, 232. OK. All right. All right.