Alright, let's go to Psalm 26.
Psalm 26. It's good to see everybody. Thank
you, Art. Thank you, Brother Robbie. Psalm 26 is a psalm of David. We read verse 1. This will be
our text, just verse 1. He says, Judge me, O Lord, for
I have walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord,
therefore I shall not slide. Now David wrote this, David was
used to write this, but the Holy Spirit is giving David here the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says later that he is declaring
the wondrous works of God. That's what Christ came into
this earth to do. He says, at the end, I'll bless thee in the
congregations. Hebrews 2 tells us that Christ
who sanctified us, and they that are sanctified are all of one,
for which cause he's not ashamed to call us brethren, saying,
I will sing praises unto thee in the church, in the congregation.
I'll bless you in the congregation, O Lord. Christ is preeminent
in this. And everything that's said here
is spoken of Christ. David said here, Judge me, O
Lord. David knew that he was not justified
by his own righteousness. He said, I've walked in my integrity.
He wasn't saying this of himself other than in Christ. He knew
that of himself he was not justified by his righteousness, but by
the righteousness of Christ. When it came to his sin, David
said in Psalm 142.2, Enter not into judgment with thy servant.
For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. So it's
only in Christ that David could say this. But now let me tell
you this. Christ could make this plea. Christ could say, Judge me, O
Lord. The righteous God-man could say,
Judge me, O Lord. Without a mediator. Without anybody
else to represent him. Just of himself. He could say,
judge me, oh Lord. I've walked in my integrity.
I've trusted also in the Lord. Therefore I know I shall not
slide. Christ could say this of Himself,
by Himself. The Lord Jesus is the righteous
and the holy faithful servant of God. He walked in integrity
and faith all His days and all those who walk in Him. trusting in Him alone, can say
with Him, I shall not slide. That's the only way we can make
this plea, is in the Lord Jesus. So we're going to focus on Him
now as the perfect God-man serving Jehovah, as the representative
of His people. When you look at Christ, there's
God manifest in the flesh as a man. like His brethren. Representing those He shall save. Representing those who shall
be born of Him. Representing those God gave to
Him in eternity to save. He's the one righteous, faithful,
holy man. Just the one. And His people
in Him are made so by Him. And that's who we see here in
this passage. He could say, judge me. You and
I can't say that. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand? We can't say that of ourselves.
But Christ could. First of all, Christ could plead,
Judge me, O Lord, because of His righteous walk. He said,
I've walked in mine integrity. Secondly, Christ could make this
plea to be judged of the Lord because of His perfect, holy,
heart, faithful, trusting God. He said, I've trusted also in
the Lord. And thirdly, Therefore Christ could say, I shall not
slide. Now let's look at Christ here.
First of all, consider the righteous walk of Christ. He said, I've
walked in mine integrity. Now that word that's translated
integrity, it's the exact same word that's used over in Leviticus
in the law where it's describing the offerings, the sacrifices,
the lambs. And the word there is translated
without blemish, without spot. Same word. Integrity. It could
literally be read this way. I have walked without spot or
blemish. That's how this psalm could be
read. It means whole. It means complete. It means innocent. It means in perfect accord with
truth. As the servant of God. that one
who humbled himself to become a servant. When he became that
servant of God, he literally was serving God. He was acting
on behalf of his people as a man of faith, trusting God and walking
before God righteously. Christ was doing that for his
people. So he depended entirely upon the Lord in what he was
doing. Christ walking in his integrity
under the law perfectly, without spot, without blemish. He walked in perfect accord,
in perfect harmony with the truth of the law from the womb all
the way to His death. He could walk without spot and
blemish. The law could look at Him. And when I say the law looked
at Him, I mean the all-seeing, all-knowing eye of God. God could
look at Him and look Him up and down, look at Him inwardly, look
at His thoughts, His words, and His deeds, and God could say,
He walked in His integrity, He's holy, He's without blemish, He's
complete. He's complete. The Lord Jesus
offered Himself without spot to God. When He went to the Garden
of Gethsemane, He presented himself as the spotless lamb of God. That's how he presented himself
to God, without blemish and without spot. One who had walked in his
integrity. And that had to be. If somebody's
going to represent sinners, then that person, before he can ever
take our place on the cross, he's got to be perfect. That's
what God was teaching in the Old Covenant Law when He said,
if you pray a lamb, you got to look through that lamb, make
sure there's not even a gray hair in there. Off color. He
got to be without spot. He can't have any defects on
Him anywhere. Because it was a type of the
spotless Lamb of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. And that's how
Christ walked when He walked this earth. The reason is, is
because in order to accept a sinner, we have to be as righteous as
God's holy law. What I'm saying is we have to
be as perfectly righteous as God himself. We have to be the
righteousness of God or God can have no dealings with us whatsoever. He can't have any dealings with
us whatsoever. Now, is there anybody here, anybody
here that would suppose that you could walk without spot before
the law of God? Anybody here that thinks you
could go to God and present yourself and say, Judge me, O Lord, I
have walked in mine integrity without spot, without blemish,
perfect, complete and whole. Judge me, Lord. Could we do that
of ourselves? No way. There's absolutely no
way. Then how can I have the righteousness
of the law? How can I have and be made the
righteousness of God? How can that be? To everyone
Christ represented, to everybody brought to believe on Christ,
the Word of God declares to us exactly how. Exactly how. Turn over to Colossians 2. Colossians
2. This is how We can walk in our
integrity right here. This is how we can walk without
spot and without blemish, complete and whole. Right here. Here it
is. Colossians 2, 6. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him. and established in the faith,
in Him, as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
But beware now, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy,
in vain deceit, through this preaching that tells you to touch
not, taste not, and handle not, after the traditions of men,
after the creeds of men, And after the rudiments of the world,
he tells you down the page, that's the touch not, taste not, handle
not, that's to perish with the using, that's just, it just has
a show in will worship. Don't be spoiled by that stuff,
he says, because they're not preaching after Christ. He says,
for in Him, now listen to this carefully, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily All the fullness of the Godhead
is in Christ all the righteousness all the integrity of God in all
its fullness is in Christ Now listen to the next word and ye
are complete in him That word fullness and that word complete
is are translated from the same exact word. It could read like
this, In Christ dwelleth all the completion of the Godhead
bodily, and you are all the fullness of the Godhead in Him. You could
interchange them because it's the same exact word. John said,
he says here, he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And John
said, Of all those that are saved by Christ, of His fullness have
we received. His fullness, of His completion. So that, sinner, if you want
to walk before God in integrity, if you want to walk in spotlessness,
in completion, then walk in Christ Jesus, not looking to yourself,
but believing on Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness of God
for His people. That's how you walk in integrity.
Walking in Christ alone. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Have you ever
heard men read that passage, that verse, and say, but now
that's just talking about righteousness. He's not talking about holiness
there. He's just talking about righteousness there. Let me tell
you what he's talking about there. He's talking about everything
you need to be accepted of God. Christ is the end of it. He is. He is the termination point of
the law for the believer because He's everything we need. He's
all fullness and we're complete in Him. That's what He's saying. And you know that He was manifested
to take away our sins and in Him is no sin. There is no sin
in Christ. His people have no sin in Christ. That's the only way God sees
His people and has fellowship with His people is in Christ.
Spotless in perfect integrity. Paul said in Romans 7, In my
flesh dwells nothing good. Absolutely nothing good. But
thanks be to God. The next chapter he said, There
is now no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus
who do what? Who walk. How? After the Spirit, not after the
flesh. See, to walk in integrity is
to walk in Christ, to be rooted in Christ, to be built up into
Christ, to be abounding in thanksgiving for Christ, to know that in Christ
I am complete, I'm full, I am perfected forever. No charge
ever can be laid against me. That's what it is to walk in
Christ. I tell you, when you walk there,
brethren, oh, that's peace. Some of you sitting here are
older than some others. Now, we don't know who's going
to leave this world first. We have no idea of knowing that.
God knows He's appointed it today. But just by natural thinking,
you think you're going to meet God pretty soon. Do you want
peace? Do you want that burden lifted
off of you that's causing you to hate the thought that you're
about to perish? I'll tell you where you can find
it. In Christ. That's the only place. And it
is so sweet to know that I can stand in Christ and stand in
Christ. A man who in my flesh is nothing
but sin and yet in Christ, by Christ, I know and have this
assurance. I have walked in my integrity.
Not by me walking, by Him walking in my room instead. Oh, that's
so good. Wouldn't you love to, would you
be so foolish as to go to court without a lawyer? Would you go
to court and try to make your plea yourself? That judge will
throw you out on your ear. Don't you want somebody to stand
up and speak for you so you can just sit there and keep your
mouth shut? That's what every believer has in Christ. In the
day of judgment, There won't be anybody talking but our Redeemer.
That's mine. Judge me, Lord. I've walked in
my integrity. So is that one, because he walked
in me. I want that. I want that. Alright, let's go
to this next thing. Consider Christ's holy faith. He said, I have trusted also
in the Lord. I've trusted also in the Lord.
Now, I say Christ's holy faith because of this. Holiness of
heart. And faith, it says here, trust.
I've trusted in the Lord. That's I've believed in the Lord.
I've cast my care on the Lord. Holiness and faith go hand in
glove. They go right together. You're
not going to have one without the other. Not one without the
other. Where you got holiness, you got
faith. And where you got faith, holiness is there. A holy heart.
Listen to this. Acts 15.9 says he purified. That means to make holy. He purified
the hearts of His people by faith. There you got holiness and faith
together. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says, God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.
There is a holy heart and belief of the truth. There is faith.
See they go together. They go together. Now Christ
didn't have any need of being made holy. He didn't have any
need of being sanctified. He didn't. He is holy. in his
mother's womb. You and I can't say that. You
and I are conceived. The moment life is made in the
womb of a woman, in the womb of your mother, that life that
was there was sinful. It was corrupt. But Christ, the
Holy Spirit, God made a body for him. He had a body prepared
for him. And the Son of God came down
and assumed that body. Even in the womb, He was holy.
He came forth holy. He came forth with a heart set
on God to please God, to worship God, to abhor sin and evil and
everything that's contrary to God. That's just who He was,
who He is when He walked this earth as a man. And from His
perfect holy heart, He trusted in the Lord. I know we have difficulty
with that because He is God. And some people might say, how
could He trust in the Lord when He's God? How could He be trusting
in the Lord when He is the Lord? Well, when He humbled Himself
and became a servant, then He walked trusting the Lord. But
it started way before that. In eternity, the reason he entered
into an everlasting covenant of grace with the Father to redeem
the people God gave to him was because he trusted the Father.
He believed every promise the Father made with him. The reason
he entered into surety ship and said, Lord, I know your people
will not pay the debt they owe. They will not walk in integrity.
They will not trust you and believe you. They will be sinful from
the sole of their foot to the top of their head. But I'll be
the surety for them. He did that because he trusted
the Lord God. what He would do in that covenant
toward Him. He trusted that when He had finished
that work of redemption given to Him, that God the Father would
give Him that glory that He had with the Father before the world
was made. He, in a sense, left that glory when He came down
and walked this earth. But that was His prayer was to
be just like you and I are looking to be raised in Him and glorified
in Him and enter into His glory. That's what we want. That's the
terminus of our salvation. That's what we're looking for.
And when Christ walked this earth serving God as the faithful man
of God, trusting God, that's what He looked for. That's what
he said in John 17, Lord, I will that thou whom thou has given
me be where I am, that they might behold my glory, which I had
with you before the foundation of the world, because you loved
me before the world was made. He wanted to go back into that
glory. That was the end, that joy to which he'd look and to
have his people go with him in that. But in order to do that,
He had to walk through this life with all the snares and the temptations
and all of the Satan's beguiling and all of the evil men's wickedness. He had to do it with a perfect,
holy heart, trusting the Lord. You're not saved by your faith.
Now somebody's going to jump on that statement and say, it
says in Scripture we are. What I'm saying is, Galatians
says, we're saved by the faith of Christ. The little piddly
thing we got called faith, trust the faith of Christ. That's what
we're looking to. We're trusting that what he did
when he walked this earth was he trusted the Lord perfectly.
There's my perfect faith. There's my perfect faith. Christ,
the perfection of faith. Now Christ didn't have a need
to be made holy. But when he took that form of
a servant, serving God to work out a righteousness for his people,
everything he did in order to fulfill all the covenant of God
was he did in perfect faith, trusting God. And he trusted
in God with a holy heart, and so by doing that, here's some
things he did. He did not seek his worldly good,
his worldly benefit by ever doing any harm to anybody. Now right there, you and I have
to stop and say, I can't make that claim. I can't make that
claim. You ever done anything in this
world for your good that wasn't for the good of somebody else?
Absolutely. Every day, constantly. Christ
never did. Christ never did. Christ never
did one miracle for himself. He did them for others. It said a bruised reed shall
he not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench. You
know what? Every person that ever came to
Christ with that little ounce of faith, that little pitiful
repentance, you know what we were and are when we come to
Christ? We're just smoking flax, that's
all. There's enough stink coming off
of us and enough sin coming off of us to make anybody, any one
of us, would refuse us. But he won't break that bruised
reed that's so flimsy and so weak, and he won't quench that
smoking flax. He received everybody that ever
came to him. seeking mercy, seeking righteousness
from Him alone. He received every one of them.
Stinking lepers that men said, you got to stay out there, you
can't have anything to do with us. Christ said, I will be thou
clean. He did no violence, neither was
any deceit in His mouth. Can we say that? A bruised reed, you take somebody
that is a sinner or a brother that you've known for years and
you could know them for a long, long time. And one day their
bruise starts showing. Just how sinful they really are.
You know what the first thing we'll do? I thought he was a
believer. I thought God had saved him. We break it. We just take
that reed and just break it right now. Not Christ. Not Christ. The first thing we'll do is,
oh, get that stinking smoking flax out of my nose. Not Christ. You and I can't say we ever did
anything but violence. We can't say there's ever anything
come out of this flesh but deceit and oppression and wickedness.
That's it. But he trusted in God from a
holy heart to advance his cause in everything he did in this
earth rather than look into the strength of his own hand. He
made certain when He walked this earth that we knew and understood
He is the God-man. That time when that big storm
was raging all around them and He just spoke the word, it was
gone. And the waves just stopped. He made certain we understood
who He is. He's God. But when He walked this earth,
when He walked this earth, when it came to His own good and His
own defense and His own provision, He looked to the Father. to advance
His cause. He looked to the Father. You
remember that multitude that was striving against His doctrine
and they'd walk away in unbelief from Him? A multitude walked
away in unbelief. Remember what Christ said when that happened?
He didn't do what men do. He didn't look to the strength
of His hand and try to find some ingenious way to go and persuade
them to come back and convince them to come back just because
He wanted a big congregation. He didn't do that. You know what
He did? He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. That's
trusting the Lord. He trusted the Lord to bring
them. No man can come to me except my Father which is in heaven
drawn. But they're going to all come, he said. On another occasion,
men rejected him and you remember what he said? And he answered
the Lord and he said, Lord, why don't you let me speak this word
in a way men will receive it? Won't you let me water this word
down so I can, you know, you catch a lot more flies with honey.
We ain't catching flies, we're dealing with maggots. No, he looked to the Father in
heaven and he said, Father, thank you. I'm so thankful that you've
hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them to babes. Never changed a word, never spoke
anything but what the Father gave him to speak. He just said,
Father, I'm thankful. You've hidden these things from
those that think they're so wise and they're so prudent and so
righteous and so holy. You give a man a gospel message
and he gonna come back to you and show you how wise and prudent
he is. They know it all. God help them to know nothing.
God help them to be ignorant. God's people look at him and
say, Lord, thank you. You've hidden these things from
the wise and prudent revealed them to be. Christ did that perfectly.
Faced with the preeminent trial of faith, You and I have a few
trials, nothing. Our light affliction. But Christ
faced a preeminent trial. He went to bear the sin of His
people. He went to be made the shame
that His people were. To be made a curse for His people.
To bear God's wrath. To be forsaken of God. Would you waver? Would you waver? If you had to do that on your
own? I tell you, you would. I tell you how you know you would.
You sitting here without Christ right now, that's what's got
you scared to death. Because you fixing to have that happen
if you meet God without Christ. And it scares you to death. Christ
never wavered. He never wavered. When He sprayed
in the garden of Gethsemane and said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup be removed from me, He wasn't wavering. He was
saying that to show you and me what He ended up saying, which
is, Father, Thy will be done. He was showing us His holy faith.
He was showing us His unwavering faith and holy heart toward God. He said, now it's time to come. He went and woke His apostles
up. He said, alright, now come on, it's time to go. Time to
go to the cross. They crossed back over the brook
of Kidron and here come those soldiers to arrest Him. Peter
had on his mind what to do. I bet all he had been thinking
about was the Lord said, you're going to forsake me, Peter. Not
me, no. Those others will. I'm not going
to. So soon as he saw those soldiers come, Peter thought, I'm fixing
to show him. I'm not going to forsake him. And he pulled out
his little fisherman's knife and he cut the ear off of one
of those soldiers. You know what he did when he did that? Forsook
the Lord. That wasn't faith. That wasn't trusting the Lord.
That was leaning to the arm of the strength. Strength of the
arm. His own arm. I know that so because Christ's
answer was Jesus. Jesus said to Peter, put up your
sword and to your sheaf the cup which my father has given me.
Shall I not drink it? That's faith. That's trusting
the Lord. He said to him, thinkest thou
that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently
give me more than twelve legions of angels? A legion, isn't that a hundred?
Is that right? more than twelve legions of angels
to protect me. He said, but if I did that, how
then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?
That's faith. That's trust. And then that angry
mob began to spit on him and slap him around and strip him
naked and put a crown of thorns on his head and mock him and
accuse him and falsely and just... You've never seen a man treated
as disrespectfully as our Savior was treated when He went to that
cross, ever. The venom and the total horrid
depravity that you and I are has never been witnessed in this
earth like it was witnessed in the way we treated God in human
flesh. You look at the worst atrocities
ever committed in this world. They were just committed against
sinners. As bad as they are, they were
committed against sinners. You want to see the totality
of our depravity? It's the way we treated God in
human flesh. There's depravity. What would you do? Would your
heart waver? Would your faith waver at all? It takes just a little bit of
somebody accusing us of something or not giving us our way, and
we fly in their face all of a sudden. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. That's trusting the Lord. He
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. What was he doing? What was he doing if he didn't
open his mouth? I'll tell you what he was doing.
1 Peter 2.23 tells us exactly what he was doing. Who, when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously. I'll tell you what he was doing
when his mouth was shut. We're told in our text, he was saying,
Father, judge me. I've walked in mine integrity,
and I've trusted also in the Lord, and therefore I know I
shall not sly. That's what he was doing. If
he gave us grace to be able to keep our mouth shut and to look
to Christ, who is our integrity, and trust the Lord, we could
keep our mouth shut. and suffer. But that's the only
way we could. He did that trusting the Lord.
He literally prayed our text when he was doing that. Now as
you behold this true holiness of heart and as you behold this
perfect faith in Christ our Lord, do any of us ever again want
to make our boast that we are holy and that we are faithful? Dare we ever make such a claim? Those God has sanctified, they're
created in true holiness one way, by the Lord. Of God is Christ
made unto us sanctification. But the sin of our flesh is so
mixed with everything we do. There is no way you and I are
to ever speak of our holiness and our faithfulness. The Apostle
Paul said, there is in me a man, a new man that desires to please
God and walk after God, the light's in the law of God. And he was
honest. He said, but in my flesh dwells
nothing good. And I can't do the things I would. I cannot do what I wish I could
do. I can't do what I wish I could
do. Does that sound like the holiness
this world speaks of? Does that sound like the faith
this world speaks of? This world talks about, I can
do the things that I want to do. I have done the things I
want to do. And I'm getting so good at it,
I've overcome my sin and I don't even need God to help me anymore.
That's what they're saying. God forbid I ever speak like
that of myself. I can't do that. I can't do what
I wish I could do because sin's mixed with everything I am. And
the only reason we are holy and remain faithful is because we're
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready, already
prepared and ready to be revealed. That's the only reason. Kept
by the power of God. When we err and go out of the
way and stop looking to Christ and walk in our flesh and walk
in our sin and our rebellion and our total unbelief, the only
way we're ever brought back to Him who is all our holiness and
all our sanctification is because God chastens us that we might
be partakers of His holiness. Of His holiness. He turns us
from our unbelief and he turns us to Christ and he says, now
run this race that's set before you. This race you look to every
step where the forerunner has already run and you run this
race looking to Jesus who has already authored and finished
your faith. who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross and despised the shame from a
perfectly holy heart in perfect faith. You look to Him who's
the author of your faith and the finisher of your faith. And
don't turn again to the flesh, don't turn again to the rudiments
of this world, don't turn again to the traditions of men. Walk
after Him who in whom you're complete. That's the only way
we keep trusting Him and following Him. We can't boast of holiness
and faithfulness. I was listening to a man talk
one time, a religious man. He was telling me how holy he
was. Boy, when I was a teenager, I
was so wild and rambunctious, and then I got older, and I stopped
doing that, and I settled down, and I joined the church, and
now I'm this and that and the other. Well, natural men do that.
You get married one day, and you're not going to cavort around
on your wife if you've got any decency about you. No, true sanctification
and true holiness is this. When God really sanctified you,
it is so separated and so opposite to what this world calls holiness
and this world calls sanctification. You look out of yourself to Christ
the Lord in whom you are holy. that is completely separate and
opposite to this world. That's true sanctification. That's
true holiness of heart. To look and walk after His holiness,
look to His holiness, walk after Christ who's already authored
and finished our faith. That's the true sanctification.
Now, lastly, let's look at this. By Christ walking in righteousness
and trusting in the Lord, while He was suffering that cursed
death on the cross, He knew this, therefore I shall not slide.
I shall not slide. Now he went to the garden of
Gethsemane as that spotless lamb, just like it's pictured in the
law. He went there spotless, holy, spotless, he who knew no
sin, but he went there to present himself so that he, the priest,
could put all the sins of his people on himself, just like
it's pictured in that, which was just a ceremony. He's the
express image of what was taking place though. He went to the
Garden of Gethsemane so that He could make Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And when He was made sin for us, it was a needed
thing for Him to be made sin for us. It never says in Scripture
sin was imputed to Him. It says He was made sin for us.
Only when somebody is made sin will God impute sin. He doesn't
impute sin to make you sin. He imputes what you are by a
prior act. He imputed sin to us because
Adam made us sin in the garden. And He imputes righteousness
to us because Christ made us righteous by His obedience. He
made him sin and then He imputed sin to him because that's the
righteous way God does things. according to this book. Not according
to men, according to this book. Let God be true and every man
a liar. God sent Christ to manifest the righteousness of God and
everything he did in doing that on the cross was righteous. He
said, I hate him. He said, he that justifies the
wicked and condemns the righteous are both an abomination to me.
God is righteous. God doesn't do anything but what
is absolutely right according to God's way of right. And that's
what he did. And when he went there, Christ
stood there and he said, Lord, judge me and let these go. Let my people go and judge me. And God judged him. God poured
out wrath on him, justice on him, that fierce wrath that Ravi
just read about. He poured that out on Christ.
Those three hours of darkness, we don't have any idea what Christ's
in doing. The hell that he endured right
there, that everlasting eternal death that never dies. He endured
it on the cross and he made it die for his people. He condemned sin in the flesh. He did that. He accomplished
that. But the whole time he suffered there on that law, that whole
time he was hanging there on that cross, suffering under the
penalty and justice of God, the whole time he was doing it now,
while he was made sin, while he was made guilty, while he
was bearing justice, in his heart he was holy, walking in his integrity,
trusting the Lord, knowing I shall not slide. Well, that's a mystery. How could a man be made sin and
be guilty and at the same time be holy and righteous and faithful?
There is a positive and a negative side to the law. Both got to
be fulfilled. And you see it in Christ on the
cross. That's the mystery of the cross.
That's beyond conception for you and me. But I'll show you
what He was doing while He was there. Isaiah 50 verse 6. Here's
what He was doing while He was there. Isaiah 50 verse 6. He
said, I gave my back to the smiters. They didn't take me, I gave it.
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face
from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. I'm
fulfilling His will. I'm fulfilling His purpose. I'm
redeeming His people. I'm establishing His law. I'm
declaring Him righteous and holy. He's going to help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. Therefore shall my foot not slide. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment, and the moth shall
eat them up. Senator, you want to be able
to say that? You want to know that assuredly? Do you want to
be able to know assuredly, my foot shall never slide? My foot
shall never slide? When you face that chilly Jordan
in that hour of death, do you want to know my foot shall not
slide? Do you want to know that? You
want to know there'll be no charge ever laid against you? That there's
no sin to ever be even found on your record that can be laid
against you? That there's never been a sin on your record that
can be laid against you since Christ entered covenant for you?
You want to know that? The only way we can know that
is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God. That's
the only way. Turn over to Romans 8. I'll show
you. I want you to read this now, Romans 8, and I want you
to look at how closely this resembles what we just read in Isaiah 50,
what Christ just read. And the only way you can say
this, resembling what Christ said in Isaiah 50, is if you're
found in Christ, having His integrity, His holiness, and His faithfulness.
Watch this. But if I'm in Him, I can say
this. If God be for us, who can be against us? Look at verse 33. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Isn't that what he just said? And I said, 50? He's near that
justifies me. That's what we can say in Christ.
Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. This is what we can say,
brethren. Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus? Who is it? Who is it? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
We're just sheep killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep
for the slaughter. How is it we're going to be conquerors?
Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. For I'm 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 found one place in Christ Jesus the Lord. The only way we can say I've
walked in my integrity is to walk by faith in Christ. The
only way we can say, Lord, I've trusted You and I've trusted
you in absolute perfection is to look to Him who trusted the
Lord in absolute perfection. The only way I can say I know
my foot shall not slide is in Christ whose foot never slid. It's because He loved us. It's
because He gave Himself for us. It's that He might sanctify us
and cleanse us with the washing of the water by the Word. That
He might present us to Himself a glorious church not having
what? Any spot. having walked in perfect integrity.
No spot, no blemish, no wrinkle or any such thing. And if you
would find that, if you would have that integrity, if you would
have that perfect faithfulness, if you would not slide, the only
place it's found is in Christ. And for everybody that believes
Him, we can say assuredly, I know my foot won't slide. Because
He said, He will keep the feet of His saints and the wicked
shall be silent in darkness For by strength, by man's strength,
shall no man prevail. I want to be found in him. I
hope he'll give you, I pray for everybody that I preach to that
he'll give you the grace to believe on him and look nowhere else.
Don't even trust your faith. Don't trust any, the fact you've
been sanctified and made holy. Don't trust The fact that he's
made you to walk in some degree of integrity. Look only to him
for it all. That's what I pray God will do.
Then you can say assuredly, I know my foot shall not slide. You'll
never be ashamed for trusting Christ. Amen.