We're going to print out this
special Bible print. Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number two from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book. Hymn number two. Let's all stand
together. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. Oh, do not our suit disdain. Shall we seek thee, Lord, in
vain. Lord, on Thee our souls depend. In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
praise. Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go till
a blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Romans chapter 7, beginning in verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. Because that which I do, I laugh
not. For what I would, that do I not,
but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. Father, we come before You tonight,
Father, plagued by the sin that is in this flesh. Father, the
sin that bothered Paul, a man who was mighty in prayer and
mighty in the Lord. And it's with us, Father, and
it will be until we stand in Your presence. We'd ask, Father,
that you'd bless us tonight with fellowship and gospel. We ask that you'd watch over
us, you'd give us the grace, Father, give me the grace to
bring a message. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together again and
we'll sing hymn number 199, from the hardbacked hymnal, 199,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Sinners Jesus will receive, sound
this word of grace to all, who the heavenly pathway leave. All who linger, all who fall,
sing it o'er. and or again. Christ receive the sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receive the sinful man. Come, and He will give you rest. Trust Him, for His word is plain. He will take the sinful last. Christ receiveth sinful men. Sing it o'er. and or again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth sinful men. Now my heart condemns me not
Pure before the law I stand He who cleansed me from all spot
Satisfied its last demand Sing it o'er and o'er again Christ,
receive the sinful man Make the message clear and plain, Christ,
receive a sinful man. Christ receiveth sinful man,
even me with all my sin. Purged from every spot and stain,
heaven with him I enter in. Sing it o'er and o'er again. Christ receiveth sinful man,
Make the message clear and plain, Christ, receive a sinful man. Please be seated. Turn, if you will, to Psalms
26. Psalm 26. Judge me, O Lord, for I have
walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord,
therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me in my mind and my heart, because Thy lovingkindness is before
mine eyes, and I have walked in Thy truth. This is referred to as one of
the Messianic Psalms that is speaking about Christ, but it's
also speaking about us. There are several Scriptures
in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, that used to just kind
of terrify me. I could not understand how David
could stand there and say, judge me, O Lord, by my integrity. Because I know and you know that
we don't have any integrity. Romans chapter 7 makes that very
plain. And the Lord did finally open
my eyes that we have to be judged by another's integrity and call
it our own. That is the main thing behind
this. We don't have any integrity because
we have a tremendous problem. The things we don't want to do,
we do them. The things we want to do, we just can't seem to
find the time or we can't seem to be inclined toward doing them. The reason is we have two natures. We have the old man, the one
that was born. The one that was brought forth,
was conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. The one that came
forth from the womb, speaking lies as soon as they be born.
That's the old man. And when God calls His own, we
don't change that much. We're still living in this sinful
body. We're still compassed about with
infirmities and bad thoughts and things that we don't want
to do. That's the old nature. But there's also a new nature. And if we don't understand this,
and if we don't apply this to the Scripture we read, we're
never going to truly understand Scripture, and we're never going
to get any comfort from it. The old man is this, 1 John 1,
verse 8, If I say, I have no sin, I deceive myself, and the
truth is not in me. You know what that means? Right
here and right now I have sin. That's what it says and that's
what it means. I am a sinner. I came into this
world totally under the dominion of sin. I'm no longer totally
under dominion, but I am a sinner and I will be until I stand in
the Lord's presence. If I say I have no sin, I deceive
myself and the truth is not in me. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. That's the old
man. That's the other half of who
we are. The half we are in Christ is
2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We not only sin every minute
of every day of every month of every year until we die, we are
also the righteousness of God in Christ. So anytime that I
raise my hands to heaven and say, oh Lord, judge me in my
integrity, I'm wanting to be judged by the integrity of Christ
because I don't have any of my own. Now, integrity has two basic
definitions. The first one is this, honesty,
and a strong moral value. The second one is this, unity
based on a sound construction. So the first one we're going
to speak about is integrity based on honesty. I'm not an honest
person. I mean, I'll tell a lie or two
occasionally, especially to get out of trouble. We all will. Every one of us, somewhere along
the line will tell a lie, maybe a big one, maybe a little one.
Maybe we might even believe it ourselves, but I'm not honest.
I'll make excuses for myself. I'll find a reason for not doing
the things that I would like to do. But Christ is honest. The Lord Jesus Christ never made
a statement that was not true. He never, ever told a lie. He never made a promise that
He didn't keep. That's what I want to be judged
on. The very first words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in
the New Testament, Greg mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, is
in Luke chapter 3. Every year, Mary and Joseph went
up to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had to. That's one of the
things that you had to do. This particular time, the Lord
Jesus Christ was 12 years old, and they took Him with them.
Well, when they left after the Passover, He stayed. And they
walked all day long. And you have to imagine that
there's friends and kinfolks and everybody, I mean, a multitude
of people walking down the road to get home after the Passover. Kids running everywhere, everything
going on. Well, that night when everybody
stopped, they checked all the kinfolks, looked at all the kids,
and the Lord's not there. So they walked all the way back
to Jerusalem. Scripture said it took them three
days to take care of all of this. And they found Him in the temple
talking to the lawyers. And the lawyers were amazed because
of His answers and of His questions. And Mary said, Son, why did you
do this? Your father and myself were worried. And the Lord Jesus Christ opened
His mouth and the first words out of His mouth were, Honest!
How is it that you sought Me? wished you not that I must be
about my Father's business?" That's the reason He came. To be about His Father's business. To take care of all of God's
children. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
because He shall save His people from their sin. His entire His
entire life and his entire ministry was taken up by taking care of
God's business. Everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ did, He did on our behalf. Nothing for Himself. Everything
for us. Everything He ever did pleased
God. And it was all accounted to us
because we're in union with Him. You can't look at me on the outside
and know that I am a saint. All of us are. We hardly ever
think about this. I am a saint because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have already, already been
blessed in all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I have already been predestinated
to the adoption of children unto Himself by Jesus Christ. I have
already stood holy and without blame before God in love. I have
already been accepted in the Beloved. My name has been written
in the book of life because of everything He did on my behalf. He was always honest. Ye of your
father the devil, and the works of your father you will do. He
was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and when He speaketh
the lie, He is the father of it. The Lord Jesus Christ never,
ever, ever was rude to one of His own. But He never hesitated
to tell the hypocrites who they were and what was going to happen
to them. His honesty was one of the biggest parts of His integrity. If I'm going to ask God to judge
me by my integrity, it's going to have to be the integrity of
Christ. because I don't have any, He's
got it all. The strong moral values. Now I want to spend a few minutes
on this because it is important. Because we're sinners, because
we're in the flesh, because we don't know any better, we've
got everything twisted around. We don't have our priorities
straight. We don't know what's important
and what's not. But I want you to consider this.
2 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16, And the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the trump of God and the voice
of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together in the air to meet the Lord, and
so shall we ever be with the Lord." Comfort ye one another
with these words. There will come a day when the
last name in the book of life, whoever he is, whoever she is,
wherever they are, there is a last name in the book of life. And
because God is not willing any should perish, but all should
come to repent it, He will not come until that last name is
called. When the last name is born again
and brought to our knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, why go on with the world? It's nothing but a cesspool anyway. So when the world is folded up
like a vesture and put off to the side, what then? What then? What's next? Revelations
chapter 20 and verse 12. And I saw the dead. This is the
Apostle John speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
from the Isle of Patmos. This is the very Word of God. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
that was in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead that were in them. And they were judged every one
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever's name was not found written in the book of life was
cast into the lake of fire. So you've got a whole crowd of
unsaved people standing there waiting on judgment. The pits
of hell on one side, the lake of fire on the other side, and
there they stand. To point out the foolishness
of how we feel about moral values, and how little we know about
moral values, in that day, in the day of judgment, which is
the most important? that I stole a bag of chocolate
chip cookies from Walmart? Or that I stole a glory from
God and gave it to myself because I believed in free will? Which
one is the most important? Which is the most important?
That a person committed adultery with his neighbor's wife? or
that he committed spiritual adultery against God. Which one is the
most important? Which one is the most important?
That I told my mother and dad a lie because of where I was
at before I got home at 2 o'clock in the morning, or if I lied
to God? You see what is spiritually important? What is morally important? Not
all of the things that we think are so bad, but the things that
are against God. Heaven itself is going to be
full of people that committed adultery. David will be there. Physical adultery. David will
be there. He's also guilty of murder. But
hell is going to be full of people that never committed adultery.
But there's not going to be one person in heaven that committed
spiritual adultery. You see where the importance
is? You see where the spiritual help that we need, you see where
it is? It's in Christ. Because Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. That's the integrity that I want
to be judged by. That's it. We have a tendency to be like
the rich young ruler that ran up to Christ and said, good master,
what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? And the
Lord said, you know what the law is. And you can see this
young man standing there, oh yeah, I've never committed adultery,
I've never stolen anything, I've never told a lie, I've never
killed anybody, I've never envied anyone. There's nothing wrong
with me. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
you lack one thing, give up everything you've got. Give up your high
moral standards. Give up your money. Give up your
pride in yourself. Give up everything you've got
and follow Me." And the boy didn't do it right
then, but I guarantee you he did because the preceding Scripture
says, Jesus beholding him loved him. And He doesn't love people
that He doesn't call. But nevertheless, We all have
our priorities in the wrong places. We all put so much importance...
You know why we do that? Because we're here living in
the middle of them. I can tell you a lie and get
away with it, and I don't have any concept of telling God a
lie, because I don't have a real concept of God except through
Christ. It is so easy. for me to make excuses for myself,
but there's gonna come a day when there will be no excuses. By the grace of God, we've already
been judged on Calvary. We've already been set free from
our sins. We've already inherited the righteousness
of God because of Christ, because we're in Him. This is a deeper
relationship than the free will preachers tell you. Oh, He imputed
His righteousness to you. That is not all. We are in Him. We are in union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are crucified with Him. Nevertheless,
we live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in us. And the life we
now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved us and gave Himself for us. We were raised up together
with Christ. Ephesians 2.8, But God, who is
rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. For by grace are ye saved. And
He caused us to sit in heavenly places in Christ. This is not
just somebody who says, oh, well, you paid the price, I'll let
them go. We actually literally were in Christ when He was this
honest. We were in Christ when He did
everything about God's business. We were in Christ whenever God
said, this is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. We
were in Christ when all this occurred. He is my integrity. He is the one that was honest
and had the high moral virtues that I never had, but now they're
mine because I'm in him. That's the integrity I want to
be judged by, not mine because I really and truly don't have
any. None of us do. None of us do. The second meaning
of integrity is unity and of a sound construction. Where is your foundation? What do you base your hopes on? Whenever you sit down and think
about the future, about the day of judgment, about those you
love who do not believe and probably never will, What do you think is going to
get us through this? If our foundation is not Christ,
we're not going to make it. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3,
other foundation is not laid except Christ. Now if you want to know if you're
based on the right foundation, there's a simple enough way to
know. Don't trust your heart. Scripture says the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? We can't
know it. It's our own heart. But a long time ago, the Lord
Jesus Christ and two angels went down to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah
because a cry had went up to heaven. And they stopped at Abraham's
tent. And Sarah fixed them something
to eat. And they left. And Abraham walked a little ways
with them. And because we don't have a brain
any bigger than a grain of sand compared to the Lord Jesus Christ
or anyone else really, God breaks these things down into a manner
that we can understand. It's called anthropomorphism.
It's giving the attributes of a man to God so we can understand
it. God never repented, but it says
God repented Himself of what He'd done. That just means for
us to understand that God's going to go another way. Because God
doesn't repent. When it says other things about
God that is common to us, that's anthropomorphism. So we can understand
it. So we can understand what's going
on here. The Lord Jesus Christ thought
within Himself, should I tell Abraham what I'm going to do
because he is my friend? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
have to tell anybody what He's going to do, but we're fixing
to learn something here. So He told Abraham, He said,
we're going down to Sodom and check it out. Now Abraham knew
what kind of a place Sodom was, no doubt. And Abraham said, will you destroy
the righteous with the wicked? If there's ten righteous there,
would you destroy them along with the rest of the city? Five. Would you destroy it for five? Be that far from you, Lord, to
do a thing like this. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? You want to know if you're built
on the right foundation? Look at your life and whatever's
going on, I don't care if it's good, bad, or ugly, no matter
what it is, no matter what position you're in, do you believe that
whatever God is doing for you is right? Do you really believe
that everything God does is for our good? Do you really believe
that? Or do you just give up and sit
down on the floor on a pile of ashes and throw them in the air
and scrape yourself off like Job did? If we are built on the
foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we cast aside every
weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and run with
patience the race that God has set before us, which is the rest
of our lives, If we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, then we're built on the right foundation. If we
turn to God in a time of trial, in a time of trouble, and even
in a time of joy and fellowship, we're built on the right foundation. We are built upon the rock. We don't know any other foundation
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, if these things were true
for us, then we can stand here and say, judge me, O Lord, on
my integrity. Because my integrity has paid
the total price for every stupid and sinful thing I ever did.
So I can safely say that. We have a very little concept
of what Christ has done for us. We have a hard time understanding
spiritual things because we're carnal beings. But they're scattered
all through the Scriptures. People say, well, we've got to
do this, or we've got to do that. What did the Lord tell the Israelites
whenever they went in to the Promised Land? He said, I'm going
to take you into these houses and supper is going to be on
the table. You don't have to do anything. You just open the door and walk
in and there it is. I'm giving you everything. There's nothing you have to do. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
help me to be saved. He saved me. The Lord Jesus Christ
does not help me to lead a sinless life. He led a sinless life for
me. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
have to strengthen me to go through judgment because He hung on the
cross and bled and died and was forsaken of God so I wouldn't
have to. He is our Savior and He has left
nothing undone. It is unified and it is of a
sound construction. I'll give you one more example
before we move on. This book. is the only record
we have of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This
is everything we know about eternal things. You're not going to find
it anywhere else but right here. So, I open it up. I'm going to find out about God.
What's the first thing I see? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the waters." But you know what? Science has
refuted that. This is probably some kind of
a fairy tale that somebody put in here. I have completely compromised
the integrity of the Scriptures. I can never trust anything else
in this book. Because if I believe that God
lied about creating the world, what else might He lie about? The integrity of this book as
the foundation of everything we know about God has been compromised
because I didn't believe the first thing I read. That's what
it means when it says unity and a sound construction. If you very carefully look at
salvation, The first thing you're going to have to recognize, because
if you don't recognize this, you don't even need salvation,
is the fall. If you're wrong on the fall,
you're wrong on it all. If God did not know that Adam
was going to sin, then He had to come up with a pretty quick
plan to take care of that, didn't He? If God does not give you
the grace to accept original sin, you'll never understand
salvation. Unless God gives you the grace
to realize that everything is out of our control, you'll never
understand the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
never will. But then again, we've got a dead
body tied to our back and we're not able to comprehend all of
these things right now. We have far more than we realize
that we do. Some of us are closer to going
on and being with the Lord than others are. But when we're there,
And we see what Christ has done for us. And we see how little
we were. That's where the tears are going
to come from that God wipes out of our eyes. When we see who
Christ is and who we are. And why He would do so much and
we did so little. You'll understand why it is so
important to God that we give all the glory to Him. Judge me by mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord. Verse 1. That brings us right
back to what I told you about Abraham. And shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? Trust is faith. If I trust God
to do something, then I have faith that He has the ability
to do it and that He will do it. I have trusted God. The faith that I trust Him with
is a gift from God. Ephesians 2.8, For by grace are
you saved through faith, or trust, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which were before ordained, that
we should walk in them." The word workmanship is translated
other places as poem. We are God's poem written on
the heart of Christ, if you can say such a thing. We are His
workmanship. Everything, the breath we take,
everything we have is the gift of God. And only the children of God
give Him credit for it. But that's what it's all about,
isn't it? The children of God will praise His name. Therefore,
I shall not slide." You can strike out, therefore, because it's
in italics. And that makes it a definite
statement. I will trust also in the Lord,
I shall not slide. The Lord Jesus Christ said, My
sheep hear My voice, and they answer My call. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither can any
man snatch them out of My hand. My Father who gave them Me is
greater than all, and no man can take them out of My Father's
hand." So we will not slide. There's no way. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not die on the cross to let one get away, I'll tell
you that. Judge me, O Lord, in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord. I shall not slide. Examine me,
O Lord, and prove me. Try my understanding and my heart,
because Thy lovingkindness before mine eyes and I have walked in
Thy truth. Everything we've looked at tonight
is a gift of God. We depend on God for everything. And He gives much more abundantly
than we're able to receive. Father, we come before You tonight,
Father, asking for more faith, Father, to believe in You, to
praise Your name, Father, to glorify Christ, to understand
even part of what Christ has done for us. We come before You
tonight, Father, wanting to know the important things about judgment
and morals and about all of the things, Father, that we're so
conflicted about and the things we don't understand. We thank
You, Father, that You've brought us all here to a church where
You've raised up a man, Father, that You've given the grace to
make the Scriptures plain. Be with those that are not here,
Father, and bring them back safely Sunday, and be with us as we
go home. We ask all these things, Father,
in Jesus' name, amen. We'll say number 300 from your
hardback tendon. Let's all stand together again.
300. More secure is no one ever than
the loved ones of the Savior, not yon star on high abiding,
nor the bird in home nest hiding. God his own doth tend and nourish. In his holy courts they flourish. Like a father kind he spares
them, in his loving arms he bears them. Neither life nor death
can ever from the Lord his children sever, For His love and deep
compassion Comforts them in tribulation. Little flock, to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this Defender,
At His will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows the Father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose
wholly, tis his children's welfare solely.