Thank you, Joy. Let's open tonight's
service from the hardback's hymnal number 44. 44. Let's all stand together.
Number 44. On the second stanza, just before
the chorus, if you've got a pencil or anything with you, if your
hymnal still says Adams, it should read His Own, His Own, His Own
Helpless Race. OK. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me, who caused his
pain? For me, who him to death persecuted? Amazing love, how can it be? That thou, my God, shouldst die
for me. Amazing love, how can it be That
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? He left his father's throne
above, so free, so infinite his grace. Emptied himself of all
but love, and bled for his own helpless race. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be That my God should die for me. No condemnation now I dread. I am my Lord's and He is mine. Alive in Him, my living God. head and clothed in righteousness
divine. Amazing love, how can it be? that thou, my God, shouldst die
for me. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Please be seated. Thank you Tom. Boy, changing
one little word in that hymn from Adam's race to his own. That's the gospel. A little bit
of leaven leavens the whole lump. And with Satan is so deceptive
and just changing one little thing like that changes the whole
message. If Christ died for everybody,
then it's up to man to save himself. Thankful for that. Let's open
our Bibles to Psalm 98. Psalm 98 for our scripture reading
tonight. I was telling somebody that after
listening to the messages from Sunday, I need to be gone more
often. What a blessing. Adam's message last Wednesday
night and Caleb and Robert Sunday. I was just so thankful and so
encouraged. Psalm 98, oh, sing unto the Lord
a new song. Somebody gave me a book recently
about the new covenant. And the author of this book obviously
doesn't realize that the new covenant is infinitely older
than the old covenant. We sing a new song because it's
new and fresh every time we sing it. Every time we come together
for worship, we pray the Lord will make it new to our hearts,
but it's not new. It's the oldest thing there is.
It's the covenant of grace established in eternity past. Oh, sing a
new song. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song for he hath done marvelous things. Hath done. He did them in that covenant.
As the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, he's
done marvelous things. Put away our sin, satisfied God's
justice, fulfilled the law. His right hand, that's Christ,
and his only arm hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath
made known his salvation. His righteousness hath he openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. They don't wanna see it, they
don't wanna hear it, but he's openly shown it. It's not God's
fault that men won't hear the gospel. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. We wouldn't hear it
either. The Lord didn't stop us in our
tracks, knock us off our high horses, give us ears to hear
and cause us to hear. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice
and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp
and with the harp and the voice of a song. with trumpets, the
sound of a cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King."
What reason we have for rejoicing. The Lord tells us, rejoice in
the Lord always and again. Say, wait a minute, you don't
know what I'm going, no, and again, I say rejoice. Let the sea roar, the fullness
thereof, Our God is God over the seas. There will come a day
when there'll be no more sea. The world and they that dwell
therein, let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be
joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth.
With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with
equity. That's the way God's people want
it to be. We want to be judged with righteousness and equity.
We want to be found in Christ, knowing that the righteousness
of God is complete in him, and that God has satisfied his justice
perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't judge me any other way. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We cannot even know how dependent
we are on you to open the eyes of our understanding, unstop
our ears. Lord, we hear the voices of this
world so loud and so clear. We pray, Lord, that we would
hear your voice. We pray that it would be. Louder
and more clear and more sure. And all the clamoring of the
roaring of the seas of this world. Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit
to take your word. And make it true to our hearts.
So that above. Everything else. We know. That thy dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ is revealed. From truth to truth and grace
to grace. Or that we would find our comfort,
our hope and all our salvation. In his glorious person and his
accomplished work. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number three from your Gospel Hymn Spiral
hymn book, number three. A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person an
offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God,
with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from view. The work which his goodness
began, the arm of his strength will complete. His promises yea
and amen, and never was forfeited yet. Things future nor things
that are now, Not all things below nor above, Can make him
his purpose forego, Or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palm of his
hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart it remains,
in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure. as sure as the earnest is given,
more happy but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. Please be seated. Sunday week ago I started a message
from Psalm 97 and we got through the first seven verses and I
told you we'd pick up and finish this psalm. There's so many glorious
things in the last few verses of Psalm 97 if you'd like to
turn with me there in your Bibles. The last of this psalm, verse
12, is where I find my title. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Remembering
his holiness. The word here is memorial. And every time we come together
to worship God, we are celebrating a memorial of his holiness. That's, that's what we're doing.
We're, we're, we're worshiping the one and the only one who
is holy and remembering his holiness and all that that implies and
all that that means for us is the hope of our salvation. If
we go back to verse eight, it's his holiness that fulfilled his
purpose in sending his spirit to give his people ears to hear. In the last two or three months,
I've had an opportunity to preach the gospel, two weddings and
one funeral, where the majority of the people there were unbelievers.
This past Sunday in Atlanta, I suppose there was about 150
people there, and Reynaldo and Laura and Tricia and I, as far
as I know, were the only believers. And the response is just so amazing. It's so stark, different between
the believers and the unbelievers when it comes to the gospel.
I, Lord gave me the ability to be as clear as I could about
the gospel. And I suspect that most of the
people that were there Sunday were religious people, but not
a single soul spoke to me afterwards. Went to the reception. I was
the, I was the plague of the, of the reception. I thought,
you know, this is just so sad. It's so sad. They, you know,
whatever they heard, they didn't like. And look at verse 8, Zion
heard and was glad. I have a confession to make. I
have been convicted in preparing for this message that I have
probably been guilty of praying more for my ability to speak
clearly with conviction and with compassion and clarity of the
gospel than I have been to pray for people to hear. The real miracle of preaching
is not the ability to speak. The real miracle of preaching
is the ability to hear. Why don't they hear? Why do they
have such a hatred for Christ? May God move my heart and your
heart to pray more for our ability. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye are from God. If God doesn't give us ears to
hear, we won't hear. And men don't hear because, well,
they don't want to hear. The Lord's not giving them ears
to hear. Zion heard and was glad. Let him who has ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I've been reminded
in these past few experiences of preaching, because most of
my preaching is for you. And, you know, there's always
a few unbelievers among us when we gather together. But to preach
to a large group of unbelievers and to experience their response
to the gospel is very clear. I mean, it's... What are we glad that we've heard?
What is it that the memorial of His holiness has caused us
to be glad? Well, we've heard that salvation's
of the Lord. We rejoice that our salvation
is all of God. We rejoice in the fact that we
have a God who sovereignly chose His own people according to His
own will and purpose before time ever began. We're glad for that. Lord, if my salvation is determined
by me choosing you, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. But I'm glad. I'm glad to have heard that God,
in his own purpose, chose a people. The unbeliever is not glad to
hear that. It robs them of their free will. It robs them of their
choice. It robs them of their dignity
and of their power because they think that salvation is ultimately
up to them. And to tell men that salvation
is of the Lord, the believer rejoices and is glad to hear
that, but the unbeliever doesn't. The believer rejoices to know
that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was effectual. that he
bore in his body all the sins of all of God's people, that
he didn't die for everybody? You stand before 150 religious
people that are unbelievers and tell them that Jesus doesn't
love everybody? And that he didn't die for everybody?
And that he's not trying to get everybody saved? That he actually
accomplished the salvation of those that he went to the cross
for? And that he wasn't making an
offer to man, he was making an offer to God, to his father.
And his father saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied.
And the believer says, Amen. Oh, thank the Lord, I'm so glad
it's that way. God's given me ears to hear that
what Christ did, he did perfectly. And he did fully and completely. He finished the work. He didn't
leave any of it left up for me to do. He finished the work. And if you've got ears to hear,
you're glad to hear that, aren't you? That he's not counting on
you to wrap up what he's done. He did it all. Aren't you glad? Zion's been given ears. You've
been given ears to hear. I'm telling you, you tell the,
you tell the unbelieving world that, and they get mad. They're
not, they're not happy about that at all. They've not heard. They hear with the natural ear,
what we're saying, and they're offended by it. It's the offense
of the gospel, or they try to, or they try to take what they're
hearing and force it into what they, you know, that it's like
I said, a couple of weeks ago, like a child trying to put a
square peg in a round hole. And one of three things will
happen when you've got a square peg in a round hole. You either
get rid of the round hole, figuring, you know what, I've been going
around in circles all my life. And this square peg's got to
fit somewhere else than what I thought it was supposed to
fit. Or you take the square peg and get rid of it. You know,
it's the stone which the builders rejected has become the head
of the corner and has become a stumbling stone. So they throw
away the square peg. I see this all the time. They
shave the edges off the square peg to make it fit into the round
hole. They take the offense out of
the gospel. They say things like the death of Christ was sufficient
for all and efficient only for the elect. Implying that it's sufficient
for the reprobate if they would just make a decision You see, that's taking the offense
out of the gospel. Or that there is a sense in which
God loves everybody. They try to shave the square
peg to make it fit in the round hole, don't they? We don't want
to change the square peg with all of its sharp edges. It's
God's gospel, and He's given us ears to hear it, and we rejoice
in it, and we're glad for it. We're glad that our salvation
is of the Lord. We're glad that Christ has accomplished
everything. We're glad that they say, well,
you're not under the law, you're under grace, and they take you
back to the law. What are they doing? They're shaving the square peg.
Take you back to the law. We're glad that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. We're not under the law. And
they hear that and they say, well, that must mean you're lawless. No, we have a different law.
We have the spirit of the law. We don't have the letter of the
law. We've got the spirit of God in our hearts. We've got
the love of Christ that constrain us. We've got, we don't need
that measure ourselves and monitor one another and motivate each
other by a written law. We've got the spirit of God in
our hearts and the more Christ has lifted up. Well, this is
part of our text. Look at verse 10. I'm getting
ahead of myself. Ye that love the Lord hate evil.
It's the love of Christ that constraineth us. He causes us
to love what he loves and hate what he hates. No one hates their
sin more than a believer. No one grieves over their sin
more than the one that the Spirit of God has caused to grieve over
their sin. No one is brought before their
advocate, their savior, more than the believer who sees his
sinfulness before God and his need for a savior. But they don't have ears. They
cannot hear. Listen to Acts chapter 13, verse 48. Paul
went to Antioch and preached the gospel and he went to the
synagogue first, as was his custom, because the Lord told him, he
said, you take the gospel to the Jews first and then to the
Gentiles. And the Jews, when they heard
the message of the gospel of God's free grace and the glorious
person and finished work of Christ, blasphemed. They hated it. And men still blaspheme and they
hate it. They hate Christ. He takes their hope away. If your salvation is in your
works or your salvation is in yourself or in your decision,
then the gospel is going to rob you of all of that. And nothing has changed. They do exactly the same thing
that they did in Antioch. They blaspheme the gospel. And then the scripture says,
and when the Gentiles heard, and when the Gentiles heard,
the dogs, when the dogs heard, when the sinners heard, they
were glad and they glorified God for his word. and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. The Gentile dogs love the gospel. They do. I had a man come up to me Sunday
after I preached the gospel and he wanted my affirmation that
he closing his business on Sunday was his righteousness. Men will make a righteousness
out of anything. They'll make a righteousness out of anything. Acts chapter 16, and a certain
woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira,
heard us for the Lord had opened her heart. She heard. She heard. All rejoice, brethren,
rejoice that God's giving you ears to hear. Most people can't
hear. And what they hear, they hate. If God's giving you ears
to hear the gospel and to love Christ and to believe the gospel,
rejoice, be glad. Be glad he's made you to differ.
The majority of this world walking around blind and deaf, they've
got no interest in God, hate the gospel. I'm talking about
people that are outwardly good people, moral people, people
that will give you the shirt off their back until they find
out what you believe. I've told you this before, Hugo
said years ago, he said, the only reason people hate, don't
hate us more than they do is because they don't know what
we believe. Well, when you're the preacher, they find out what
you believe. And I mean, that's okay. I'm
not trying to play martyr here. I'm just saying that, that when
they do hear what you believe. Zion heard, they heard about
the salvation. that the Lord had accomplished.
They heard about their righteousness being complete and full in Him. They heard about the law being
satisfied. They heard that they were sinners,
that they had no righteousness in and of themselves. And they
rejoiced. They said, Truth, Lord, that's
me. I don't have any righteousness. I don't have any hope outside
of Christ. I've heard. Don't puff me up preacher. Most,
most religious meetings are nothing but mutual admiration societies
where everybody's just telling each other how good they are.
And God's people don't want to hear that. Tell me I'm a sinner. Tell me that everything about
me is, is, is sinful before God. That's the, that's the only hope
I have. I can only hear the voice of God saying to me, come unto
me all ye that labor and are heavy laden if I'm labored and
heavy laden under the weight of my sin. If I'm just coming
to God because I'm laboring or heavy laden because I've got
some temporal problems, then when those temporal problems
change, I won't need God anymore. That's the way it works. People
come, people use God all the time to solve their temporal
problems. They think, well, I've got this
heavy laden, I've got this burden. You know, those things come and
go, don't they? And the burdens you have today are gonna be solved
tomorrow, and then there's gonna be new ones later. But sin, preacher
tell me that I'm vile, that there's no good thing in me. that I have
no righteousness before God. I need a Savior. I need an advocate. I need Christ to stand in my
stead. I need a righteousness completely
outside of myself. That's what I need. God's people
hear and they're glad. They're glad to hear they're
sinners. They're glad to hear that Christ is a successful Savior. They're glad to hear that God
is sovereign in their salvation. They're glad. The world's not
glad. You know they're not. You've
tried to talk to them. Talk to them one-on-one. You find out
they're not glad. They're not happy. They don't want anything
to do with that. You know, I was thinking, we
could fill this place up every Sunday. If I just put an advertisement
in the newspaper that I was going to preach a series of sermons
on how to have a successful biblical marriage, how to raise your children according
to the Bible, scriptural diet for a healthy body, I promise
this place would be full. It'd be full. Why? Because people that all they
have is the flesh is all they can be concerned about is the
flesh. They've got one nature, and marriage, and raising children,
and feeding the body, and getting a job, and how to be a good husband,
how to be a good wife. You know, and I was reading this guy who was
a well-known reformed Calvinist, written, you know, I don't know
how many books, very popular. And I don't have the quote with
me, but essentially he was saying that justification, the doctrine of
justification, how is a man to be right with God? How is he
to have his sins put away? The finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he would agree with everything that we believe
about that, is for the purpose of sanctification. It's so that you can live a better
life and have a better influence on society. Justification was
a means to an end. The end was sanctification. The
end of all things. is living a better life and having
a positive godly influence on culture and society. Zion heard, they heard that Christ is all
and that he's in all and they're glad Well, look at the rest of
this verse. And the daughters of Judah, that's
Zion, that's us, that's the people of God, the daughters of Judah,
because of thy judgments, O Lord, we rejoice because of the judgments
of God. We rejoice that God judged Christ
guilty on Calvary's cross. We rejoice in that. We rejoice
that the law of God, and the law of God wasn't just fulfilled
in the obedience of Christ's life, it was fulfilled in the
obedience of his death. And we rejoice that the judgment
of God was executed and God's justice was satisfied. And Christ
bore all the shame and all the guilt of all the sins of all
of God's people. And God said, I'm satisfied. The daughters of Zion rejoice
in the judgments of God. The daughters of Zion rejoice. in being judged righteous in
Christ. That God made him sin who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the judgment of God. We rejoice that God has judged
us. Lord, judge me. And we just read
that. Lord, judge me in equity. Look
at verse 9 of chapter 98 that we just read. Before the Lord,
for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he
judge the world and the people with equity. I want to be judged
with righteousness. I want to be judged with equity. Because I know that I'm in Christ. And all righteousness is fulfilled
and all equity is satisfied. Now, I'm not talking about being
judged for righteousness and equity outside of Christ. You
understand what I'm saying. But we don't want, my point is
that we don't want God to compromise his equity or compromise his
righteousness or his justice in order to give us a little
way in. You know, I was talking to a man just the other day.
He said, well, I'm hoping I can just, with the door shut, I can
just squeeze in the corner. I said, what'd he say? I tried to talk to him about,
you know, the door's wide open. It's wide open. Christ is that
door. We don't have to try to sneak
into heaven. We can go in, come before the
throne of grace with boldness. We've got an advocate, we've
got a savior, we've got one who has satisfied all righteousness
and fulfilled all equity. So the daughters of Zion rejoice
in that God has judged righteously. He judged me sinless and righteous
in Christ. When God gives us faith, We're prone to complain when
things don't go right. You know, when Jeff called me
Sunday morning, the first word out of my mouth, well, I won't
repeat it from the pulpit, when he told me, I get so angry with
these guys that break into our buildings, steal the stuff here.
That happened Saturday. Lost our camera and, you know,
some other things. And then, within a minute, You
know, it's Lord, you know, I don't know, whatever, but we do that. No, we get angry when things
are, when things are not right, but, but we rejoice in the end. We rejoice in his judgments of
Providence, because we know that the God of the earth will do
what's right. And that he works all things
together for good for them that love God and those that are called
according to his purpose. And so the daughters of Zion
rejoice. They rejoice that God's judgment
was executed perfectly in Christ. They rejoice to know that they
are judged before God in Christ and found to be equal with him. They rejoice in knowing that
all the judgments of providence are ordained and purposed by
their God. And let me show you one last
judgment that the daughters of Zion rejoice over. Turn with
me to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Verse one. And after these things,
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah,
salvation. and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God. Now that's all the saints of
God in glory raising their voices in unison saying hallelujah,
all glory and honor and power be unto our God for true and
righteous are his judgments. What judgment is being executed
now? Not the judgment that was executed
on Calvary's cross, not the judgment that was executed in the hearts
of God's people, not the judgment of providence, that's all over
now. Revelation chapter 19, that's all over. We're all gathered
together in glory. And we're rejoicing over the
judgments of God. True and righteous are his judgments,
for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth
with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants
at her hand. And again they said, hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and 20 elders and
the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the
throne, saying, Amen. So be it. The judgment of God
is true. As he cast Satan and all of his
followers into the pit of fire. We know that that's the judgments
of God. And outside of those judgments,
there's no salvation. You can't have one without the
other. If there's no, if there's no retribution, if there's no
judgment for those found outside of Christ, What do we have to
rejoice over? The daughters of Judah rejoice
because of thy judgments, O Lord. Go back with me too. I began this by saying that worship
is a memorial of His holiness. And it is holiness, strictly
speaking, only applies to the Lord. He's the only one that's
holy. Isaiah chapter 57, verse 15,
thus say at the high and lofty one that inhabited eternity,
whose name is holy, holy. That's his name. No one else
can be given that name. We don't give that name to a
man. Had a man ask me Sunday afternoon, well, what title do
you use? You know, are you a reverend?
No, no. No, that title belongs to my
God. Holy belongs to my God. We would never call a man holy
father. We'd never call a preacher reverend. The Holy One of Israel. In 1
Samuel 2, verse 2, when Hannah was praying, she said, there
is now none holy as the Lord. There is none beside thee. Isaiah
40, verse 25, to whom then will you liken me or shall I be equal? To whom then will you liken me,
or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? The Holy One. And when the angel, remember,
was talking to Mary and revealing to Mary that she was going to
give birth to the Son of God, he said to her, that holy thing
in you shall be called the Son of God. How can we describe the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's holy, holy, holy. He's other than we are in every
way. Christ came into this world to make us holy. Look at Ephesians
chapter five. Without holiness, no one will
see the Lord. To stand in the presence of a
holy God, one must be holy. And if God's the only one that's
holy, then what hope do I, you know, the thing that rejoices
a believer and causes them to worship their God in memorial
of his holiness is that in their hearts, They
cannot imagine anything in this world less holy than they are. I cannot imagine anything. I
can imagine anything being more holy than me. And that's every
believer's experience. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
came to make us holy. He makes us holy because he's
in us and he is our holiness before God. You have your Bibles
open in Ephesians chapter 5. Look at verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that
he might make it holy. That's why he gave himself for
the church to make her holy. God has made him to be all our
wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. That's what the word sanctification
is. I know it's the word sanctify here, but it's the word holy. that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. He that sanctify it and they
that sanctify it are all as one so that he's not ashamed to call
us his brethren. It's his presence that makes
us holy. He is our holiness before God. Jeremiah chapter 23, and he shall
be called the Lord our righteousness in Jeremiah chapter 33, and she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Our righteousness,
our holiness. That's what he came for. Look
that we would not have a spot of Rico. Look at, look at verse
28. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth
himself. He that loveth his wife, loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes
it and cherishes it, even as the Lord has done the church. For we are members of his body
and of his flesh and of his bones. By virtue of our union with the
Lord Jesus Christ, we stand in the presence of a holy God, holy,
holy. He loves his body. You love your
body, don't you? Yeah, I know you do. You love your body more than
you love anything else. Just hit yourself, hit your finger
with a hammer real good and see how nothing else is important
in that moment but you tend to that wound, right? That's your
body. And the body of the church is
the body of Christ. He loves his body. He loves his
body. No man ever hated his own body. That's why the Lord said, he that glorieth.
That verse over there in first Corinthians, It says, God has
made him to be our righteousness, our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. It goes on to say, therefore,
let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Glory in the Lord. He's our glory before God, isn't
he? Christ in you, the hope of glory. For such a high priest
became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from centers
and higher than the heavens. And he is the head of the body
of the church for the fullness of him. The fullness of him filleth
all in all Christ is our holiness. He hasn't made part of us. Holy
he's he he's come to live in us. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ is our holiness before God. We're partakers, the scripture
says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 10, of his holiness. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. Herein is our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Hey, now
here's the, 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. I shared that verse with somebody
recently and they said, I know when I die and go to heaven,
I'll be like him. Does that really say that in
this world? Look it up. Yes. A memorial of his holiness. This is our reason for rejoicing. He took on our nature that we
might take on his. Great and precious promises that
by these you might be partakers of his divine nature. Listen to Romans chapter 11 verse
16. If the first fruit, and Christ
is the first fruit, if the first fruit be holy, then the whole
lump is holy. And if the root be holy, and
that's Christ, Then are the branches all holy too. We've been grafted in. We've
got the very life of Christ. This is our reason for rejoicing.
Outside of him we have no holiness, but in him we're perfect before
God. Perfect. Chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, purchased people. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous. Every worship service is a memorial
to his holiness and all that that means. And only as God gives
us ears to hear, only as the Lord causes us to love that which
he loves and hate that which he hates. Look at verse 11, only
as light is sown for the righteous. The light of the gospel is only
for the righteous. The unrighteous are in darkness. There was a time when we were
in darkness, God translated us out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of his own son. And he had not made it us to
differ. We wouldn't, we still be in darkness. Light is shown for the righteous and the righteous all know that
all their righteousness is in Christ. They have no righteousness
of their own and they rejoice in his holiness. And they rejoice
and be in partakers of his nature. And they rejoice that God has
given them ears to hear. And they rejoice as the daughters
of Judah, that the judgments of God have been executed perfectly. Remember his holiness. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word and we pray that you would give
us faith to believe. Lord, we know that you have to
make us to differ. We would be just as cold and
indifferent and hateful towards the gospel and towards Christ
if you did not give us ears to hear. If you did not give us
a heart to believe. Oh Lord, do a miracle of grace
in each of us and cause us. Cause us for thy namesake. To
rejoicing Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number 45, let's stand together.
Spiral hymnal 45. ? How vast, how full, how free
? The mercy of our God ? Proclaim the blessed news abroad ? And
spread it all abroad ? How full it does remove the sustain of
every sin, and makes our souls as white and pure as though no
sin had been. Poor guilty sinner, come. Christ stands to comfort thee. Come, cast thyself upon his love,
so vast, so full, so free. I'm glad salvation's free. I'm glad salvation's free. Salvation's free for you and
me. I'm glad salvation's free. Thank you.