55 verses 7 through 9. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts." When you think about that last
verse, it says, as the heavens are higher than the earth. You
know, the scripture speaks of the first heaven. That's the
atmosphere we live in. We see the stars and the moon
and the sky and the clouds. That's the first heaven. And
scripture speaks of a second heaven. It speaks of a third
heaven, which means there's a second heaven, which is what we know
as outer space, with the planets and the solar system. And then
there's a third heaven. Scripture speaks of a third heaven.
Paul was taken up to the third heaven. And Stephen, when he
was being stoned by the Jews for preaching the gospel, he
looked up and the heavens were open and he saw Christ standing
at the right hand of God. in the third heaven. And it's
from there that we read that New Jerusalem will come down
adorned as a bride for her husband one day. Now the first heaven
and the second heaven are real. We know they're real. So the
third heaven is real. It's a place. Christ, wherever
Christ is, that's heaven for the believer. But there is a
real third heaven where Christ dwells, where God dwells. Now
when you think about how high just the stars are from here
and the moon and that and you think about then the furthest
that we've ever discovered in outer space and then to know
there's another heaven beyond that heaven and this verse says
as the heavens are higher than the earth so are God's ways higher
than our ways and God's thoughts than our thoughts. Whenever we
left the Dawes on last Sunday afternoon, we drove over to the
Oregon coast at a place called Cannon Beach. And we started
south from there. And we stayed right on the coast
the whole way down and didn't travel more than maybe three
hours a day. We spent a lot of time and just
saw something we'd stop and visit. And the second day, I decided
I want to get a tent. And I want us to, we're going
to camp on the beach. there you can build a fire on
the beach and I've always wanted to do that so we we went bought
us a tent and we went camped out and we went out built a fire
on the beach and we looked sat there and was just looking up
and that Pacific sky was just so huge and the stars were just
from one side to the other and we were sitting there looking
at those stars and somebody said, you know, it's amazing that folks
would think that this all just came into being instead of, you
know, glorifying God, that He made this. And as we sit there
looking at that, that's the verse that came to my mind. As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than
our ways, and God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Now, when it comes to God, all God's ways and all God's thoughts
are higher than ours. But there's three things given
in this text, three specific things. And we're going to concentrate
on those concerning sin, concerning mercy, and concerning pardon. God's ways and God's thoughts
are higher than our ways and our thoughts. First of all, concerning
our sin, he says in verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way. God is saying, your way and my
way is wicked. forsake it. It's not God's way. And he says, and the unrighteous
man, his thoughts, our thoughts about God are wrong by nature. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
He says, forsake your thoughts. Whatever you think about God
by nature, it's wrong. If it's not according to this
book, it's wrong. It's just wrong. It doesn't matter what we think.
It's wrong. He says, so forsaken, when being
conceived in sin, in our mother's womb, we come forth with a very
low esteem concerning sin. We don't know what sin is and
we don't know how God regards sin. And because we come forth
sinners, we think, this is our thought, we think sin is what
we do. Sin's what we do. And so we naturally think, well,
if I just not do this or do that other thing, then that'll take
care of my sin. That's our thoughts. Those are
vain thoughts. It's not so. The scripture declares
plainly when Christ spoke of the heart and he said that's
the nature, that's the fountain from where our thoughts come,
from where our deeds originate is in the heart. And when Christ
said from the heart proceed adulteries and fornications and Thefts and
and all of this this evil that's telling us brethren that our
nature is defiled our nature is depraved the nature we come
forth with from the womb and because that so all our Ways
are wicked and all our thoughts. You got to have a thought before
you can put it into action and it be a way. Our thoughts are
unrighteous. They're not according to God's
ways and God's thoughts. In Genesis 6, let's go there
again. We've seen this verse quite a
few times, but this shows us the same as it was before God
destroyed the world in Noah's day is how it is now. We're closer
to this time right here than we've ever been because it's
going to be this way again when God comes the second time and
destroys this world with fire. But the way it was then is how
it is now. This is how it's always been
in the heart of a man. Genesis 6, 5 says this, God saw
that the wickedness, that's what our text speaks of, wickedness.
God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts There's our thoughts. Every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart, in his heart now, just in his
heart, in his nature, was only evil continually. That's all
that comes from us, from our flesh. Only evil continually. That's so of me, that's so of
you. Job, if you want to look there in Job, in Job 15. Look at Job 15 and verse 14. This is throughout the Scriptures.
Every portion of Scripture declares this about us by nature. How
anybody could deny the depravity of man is beyond me, but this
is right in the Scripture, all through Scripture. Look at Job
15, 14. He says this, What is man that he should be clean?
And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous.
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints. Speaking of God,
he puts no trust in his saints. Yea, the heavens are not clean
in his sight. That's how holy God is. That's
how pure and righteous God is. How much more abominable, how
much more of a sulfurous stench and filthy is man which drinks
iniquity like water. And that's how we drink iniquity.
We drink it with as much thought as we do to drinking water, to
taking a sip of water. That's us by nature. Psalm 85
verse 1. He says this. Let's go there. Psalm 85 verse 1. This is what a man... A man doesn't
think this about himself by nature. And that's what... The first
thing we got to deal with is our thoughts on sin. God says,
we got to forsake what we think. We don't think sin is near as
evil as it really is. We don't think ourselves near
as ruined as we really are. Look here, Psalm 85 verse 1. Lord... Where is it? I had done this
in a long time, but I think I wrote down the wrong verse. Let me give it to you. Probably
it's Psalm 8. Let me see. Well, here's what it says. I'll
tell you what it says. I can't find it. Do you indeed
speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O ye
sons of men? This is what we think we do.
We think we think righteousness and we think we judge uprightly.
He says, Yea, in heart you work wickedness. You weigh the violence
of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison
of a serpent, like the poison of a snake. They're like the
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to
the voice of charmers, charming ever so wisely. When the gospel
goes forth and men hear the word and hear God say that we're defiled,
we're ruined by nature, man stops his ears to that. Man says, I
won't hear that. I just won't hear it. And the
word goes forth and Christ's voice speaks in the word. And
some by His grace hear and rejoice in what they're hearing. But
some stop up their ears and they will not hear it. They reject
the message. It's because man's mind by nature
is set on What can I do? What can I do? that I might make
myself acceptable to God, that I can earn a righteousness to
come to God. Because as Romans 8 says, the carnal mind is set
on the things of the flesh. He minds the things of the flesh. He's looking for what can I do?
What can I do? And therefore those that are
in the flesh cannot please God. As we come forth in the womb,
it doesn't matter how good a deed, and the deed might be good in
and of itself, but because we're in the flesh, It's not pleasing
to God at all. I'll give you an example of our
wicked and unrighteous thoughts. When you hear wickedness and
unrighteousness, what do we first think about? We think of lewd,
immoral sins. But that was not the first thing
Adam did when he fell in the garden. The first thing Adam
did when he fell in the garden was he tried to cover up his
own sin and he tried to make himself presentable to God. And
that's our chief sin. That's the chief sin. The Lord
said when the Holy Spirit's come, he will convince you of sin because
you believe not on me. And to believe on Christ just
says, I have to have somebody else to save me because all I
am is sin. If we don't believe, if we don't
say that we're ruined completely so that there's no merit in anything
in us, we haven't believed on Christ because that's what believing
on Christ is. It's saying I must be saved by
another because all I am is sin. that man's chief sin is trying
to make himself righteous. A man will say, well, I'm going
to reform my life. I'm going to, you know, come
to a point and say, well, I've been staying out in the bars,
I'm going to stop doing that, I'm going to stop drinking, and
I'm going to start going to church. Well, the scripture says this,
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. You and
I could reform our lives and look as spit-shiny as we could
on the outside, but the nature is still the same. Man will say,
well, I'm going to start keeping the law. The law was not given
for us to try to come to God by our works of the law. It was
not. Romans 3 tells us clearly the
law was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty. That's why the law was given
and therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. And then a man will say well
I'm going to join a church and I'm going to be baptized and
I'm going to do you know religious works. I'm going to go and start
giving and I'm going to go and start doing nice things for the
community and all that. Those things are fine in and
of themselves. But when a man is trying to do
this to make himself acceptable to God, it's great sin. It's horrendous sin. And it does
no good whatsoever. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you compass land and sea trying to make proselytes. And when
you make him a proselyte, you've made him twofold more the child
of hell than when you found him. And then a man, he'll go to these
scriptures and he'll search these scriptures. And what most folks
read these scriptures looking for is, how should I live? How should I clean up my act
and how should I live so as I can come to God by my good godly
living? And the Lord said this in John
5.39. He said, Search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. He said, You're
searching these Scriptures looking for works that you can do, and
in those works you think you have eternal life by those works.
And the Lord said, And these Scriptures are they which speak
of me. That's what we should be looking for in the book, Christ
and how he's finished the work of making his people accepted
to God. And he says, and you will not
come to me that you might have, have freely given, have life
given to you apart from any of your works. You won't do that.
And a man won't do that by nature. A man can talk about faith in
Christ and grace while he's just feverishly trying to work his
way into heaven. Because until God gives a new
heart, a man doesn't know he's self-righteous and he's self-sanctifying
and he's self-redeeming and he's a hypocrite. And a man doesn't
know that until God gives you a heart to know it. All of these
things are vanity because here's the chief thing we don't get.
What we don't understand, what we don't think about is this.
The wages of sin is death. And the only thing that's going
to work to get rid of my sin and your sin is this. You have
to die and I have to die. And we will. We will. You will
either die in a substitute and be saved by God's grace or you'll
meet God and you will die eternally under the justice of God. We
die, we must. That's the only way our sin can
be dealt with. That's how bad it is before God.
Concerning sin, our way and our thoughts are not God's thoughts.
And so he says, let the wicked forsake his way and let the unrighteous
man forsake his thoughts and return to the Lord for my thoughts
are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, saith the
Lord. Now, here's the second thing. concerning God's mercy. Our way and our thoughts are
not God's way and God's thoughts. In verse 7 he says, Let him return
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. Mercy Is God withholding from us what we deserve? That's
mercy. But a sinner, when he begins
to see his sin, when God begins to work in it, and he begins
to make him see his sin, a sinner will think, I can't come to God. I'm such a sinner. I can't come
to Him. Because He won't have mercy on me. I'm too bad a sinner
to come to God. He won't have mercy on me. God
says, that's your thoughts. Forsake your thoughts. Usually,
we think of God and how God will receive us based on how we show
mercy to those who have sinned against us. That's our natural
thought. We think of God like we are and
like we receive others and like we show mercy to others who sinned
against us. And by nature, we won't show
mercy freely like God does. By nature, we say, you know,
well, I would have mercy on him, but he did this against my person.
He did this against my character. This was against me personally. We'll say, you know, I would
have mercy on him, but he did this willfully. This was malicious.
If he'd have just accidentally done this, I would have mercy
on him, but he did this willfully to me. We'll think things like
this. You know, his offense is just
too great. It's just too hurtful. This thing
is just... If it was a lesser thing, I'd
have forgiven him, but this is just too much that he's done
to me. We think things like this, well
I'd forgive him, but you know this is not the first time he's
done this. He's done this to me repeatedly. We think, well
I'd have mercy, but you know I didn't do anything to provoke
this. I didn't do anything to provoke the things he's done
to me. We'll think about showing somebody mercy and we'll say,
you know, I'd show him mercy, but he's going to have to first
make up for some of the things he's done. He's going to show
me that he's willing to not do this anymore. He's going to have
to do something first. And so then we take all of our
thoughts and we apply them to God's thoughts and think, you
know, that's how God thinks towards us. And God says, forsake those
thoughts. They're not God's thoughts. Forsake
them. Indeed, we have sinned against
God's holy character. That's what our sin is. It's
against the holy God. Indeed, we've sinned willfully
and maliciously against God. You and I have never sinned one
time that it wasn't willful sin. Not one. Not one. We've never... Our offenses are great and they
are hurtful. We have done so repeatedly. We've
had no regard for God's rights, no regard for God's authority.
And God did nothing to provoke us to sin against Him. We did
this without any provocation whatsoever. And you and I will
sin again and again. We'll sin again and again. Because
the old man is going to be with us until the day we die. But
God requires nothing of you and nothing of me to clean up and
make a change before God will have mercy on you. He requires
nothing. He says forsake those thoughts
for I will have mercy on him. I will have mercy on him God
says because my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways
are not your ways. You see to come to God for mercy
you have to be a sinner. There's no other way to seek
mercy. If I could somehow make myself righteous I wouldn't need
mercy. You gotta be a sinner to need
mercy. And the thing is, is everything
God has done to that sinner that comes to God seeking mercy, everything
God has done, God has done for that sinner while he was yet
a sinner. while he was a sinner. God chose
a people in Christ before the foundation of the world knowing
the end from the beginning. And it's not as the free will
works religionist says, God elected the people because he foresaw
we would believe on him. That's making yourself a little
god. Ephesians 2 says faith is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So God didn't look down through
time and say, well, he's going to believe, so I'll choose him.
God chose a man, and God's choosing the man results in eventually
God's going to give him faith to believe. But God, knowing
the beginning, there's a scripture that says God looked down from
heaven to see if there was any that did righteousness, and there
was none. And yet God chose a people knowing
we would fall in Adam, knowing we would fall into sin. He chose
a people in Christ. I'm trying to show you that everything
God's ever done for the man that comes to Christ, God did for
him while he was a sinner. So being a sinner is not going
to prevent God from showing you mercy. That's the prerequisite
for God showing you mercy. Christ came into this world and
laid down His life for His people while we were sinners. God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And for you to come to Christ
asking mercy, you've got to be regenerated. There's got to be
a new man put in you, because as long as you're in that old
man of flesh, you might come to church and you might call
the name of Christ and speak of grace and speak of doctrine
and all that stuff, but it's just an old dead sinner trying
to do it. God's got to put a new man in
you, new life in you, a new heart in you, give you faith, give
you repentance, so that when you come to Him in mercy, it's
because He's already drawn you in mercy. And so sin's not going
to keep God from receiving us. Everything He's done for us,
He's done for us while we were sinners. God's mercy. God's mercy is to sinners. All
to sinners. But when a sinner's first made
to see is sin, that's his thought, you think, I remember thinking,
I remember thinking, I would just think of the worst sinners
that I could think of in history. And I would think, I'm worse
than they are. I'm a worse sinner than that person. And you think,
God won't receive me. There was an orphan boy walking
down the street one day. And he's homeless, he's got no
food, he's got no money, he's dirty, he's in rags, and he walks
along and there was a window. And he looks in off the street
into that window, and there's a big lunch counter in there,
big buffet line in there, full of food, steam coming up off
of it, hot butter biscuits and turkey and dressing and gravy
and mashed potatoes and just lined up with food. And his stomach's
grumbling and growling, and he's hungry. And he's sitting there
thinking, oh, I wish I could go in there and eat that. I would
love to go in there and eat some of that. And a man walked up
from inside that room and he walked outside and he said, son,
go in and eat. And he said, sir, I can't go
in there and eat. He said, I don't have any money. I can't buy it. He said, I'm dirty. My clothes
are all filthy. They won't receive me in there.
He said, I got nothing. And the man said, son, are you
an orphan? And he said, yes, sir, I'm an orphan. I'm homeless.
He said, Son, this feast was prepared just for the homeless.
It's prepared just for the orphan. It's free. You meet every requirement
to come in and eat. Come on in and eat. And that's
what Christ said. That's what He said right here
in this verse. Look back at verse 1. Ho, everyone that's thirsty,
come to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. How did I come to Christ? How
do I come to Christ? Look at verse 2. He says, Where
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which satisfies not? Here's how you come to Christ.
Hearken diligently unto Me and eat ye that which is good. You
ever heard of eating with your ear? That's what He's saying.
Hearken unto Me and eat that which is good. He says, let your
soul delight itself in fatness. Look, incline your ear and come
unto me. That's how you come to God through
the ear. Come to God through that word
going in through the ear, into the heart, giving you life. And
you come to Him in your heart. In your heart. He says, here
in your soul shall live. And I'll make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sheer mercies of David. So don't let
it into your mind that God's going to not receive you because
you're a sinner. That's who God receives. Christ
said, I did not come to call the righteous. I came to call
sinners to repentance. That's who he calls. So forsake
that. God's ways and God's thoughts
are not our thoughts. He said, let him return to the
Lord. He will have mercy upon him. Now here's the third thing,
lastly, concerning pardon. Free forgiveness from God. That's
what pardon is, free forgiveness. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts.
We think we've got to buy it. We think we've got to pay for
it. We think we've got to do something to get forgiveness. Look at Romans 6. Now, I told you the wages of
sin is death. So how can God kill you and give
you life? How can God kill me and give
me life? How can He be just and justify
me? How can He show me mercy and
yet remain just to His law? Remember when we saw Darius?
Darius walked the floor trying to figure out how to do that.
Daniel was guilty and he could not bend his law. He could not
change his law. And he walked the floor trying
to figure out how can I spare Daniel and yet be just? And he
could not figure out a way. He had to throw him to the line.
Well, look here. God found a way how he can spare
his children. How he can spare his children
and yet be just. The first way is this. The only
way is for God himself to do all the work. That's the only
way. And so he sent his son to do all the work. Now, here's
the first thing about this thing of God showing us mercy. Free
forgiveness. Pardon. The old man of sin And
every one of God's people has been crucified. He's been put
to death. He's been through the death sentence. He's been executed when Christ
laid down His life. Look here, Romans 6.1. What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Paul is speaking to
believers here. He's not suggesting to you and
me that we ought not to continue in sin. He's not saying that
we ought not to go on in sin that grace may abound. Read the
Word. Read what he says here. How is
it even possible for a dead man to continue in sin? It's not
possible. It's not possible. Well, preacher,
now you're saying we're without sin. No, that's not what I'm
saying. I'm saying before God, before God, before God, when
Christ died, every one of His elect died. The old man died. Look at verse 6. Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. What does it mean to be
dead to sin? It means that before the all-seeing
eye of God, when Christ died, all God's elect died to the guilt
and condemning power of sin. We're dead. We died. Justice
is satisfied. Believers are not dead to sin's
influence, we're not dead to sin's presence, and we're not
dead to sin's effects. He's not telling you you're going
to reach a place in your life where you're going to live above
sin. That's not what He's saying. at all. He's saying before God
we are dead to the guilt and condemnation of sin. Before God
we cannot continue in sin because before God, that's key, before
God the old man that does the sinning is dead. He's dead. He went into that tomb when Christ
went into the tomb but he didn't come out of there before God.
He's dead, buried. He's destroyed. He's destroyed.
God can freely pardon sinners and remain just because when
Christ laid down His life for His sheep, all God's elect died
to the law. Look at Romans 7. Not only is
our old man of sin dead, we died to the law. Look at Romans 7.1.
It says, I'm speaking to those that know the law. He says the
law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. Police officers
are not walking around out in the cemetery writing citations
because dead men don't sin. Dead men don't break the law.
They don't break the law. A law speaks to a man as long
as he lives. The best illustration I ever
heard given on this is when President Kennedy was shot and they arrested
Lee Harvey Oswald, this nation wanted to see justice carried
out on this man that assassinated the President. And when Jack
Ruby shot him and he died, we couldn't take him to court. We
couldn't do anything. The law had nothing else to say
to him. That's it. It's over. He's free from the
law. Well, he's saying here that before God, when Christ was made
a curse for his people and he died under the penalty of divine
justice, all God's people died to the law. Look at verse 4.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. Verse 6 says, verse 6 says, Now
we're delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were
held, that we serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness
of the latter. That we're dead to the law. The
law said, I demand they die. And when Christ died, Everybody
he represented died. The law can say nothing else
to them. If God punishes a man another time for whom Christ
died, God's not just anymore. That's double jeopardy. He's
punishing one for whom justice has already been satisfied. God
will never do that. That's why we preach limited
atonement, particular redemption. We preach it because Christ died
for a people. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And he looked at some men that
day and he said, the reason you don't believe is because you're
not my sheep. They said, I don't like that. He said, well, I didn't
expect you to. You're not my sheep. But when
Christ laid down His life, that old man of sin died and the law
was satisfied so that God's people are dead to the law. Now here's
the third thing. Here's how God can freely pardon
His people and be just to do it. Whenever He comes through
the Gospel in the Holy Spirit and gives you life inwardly,
we're alive forevermore. And the fact of the matter is
He brings you to see that when Christ came out of the grave
and went to the right hand of the Father, all His elect arose
in Him to newness of life. Look back at now Romans 6 and
verse 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth
no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that he died,
he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Now listen to what God says to
you, believer. Listen to this now. Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, the only thing God did
to our old man is kill him. and pour out the sentence of
death upon Him when Christ took the place of His people at Calvary.
And now we rose in Christ when He came from the dead and then
God comes and forms Christ in you and puts a new man in you
that is united with Christ and will be with Christ forevermore.
Our old man of sin will die. God hasn't used our old man.
in any way, for anything. It's sin. That's all we did.
We sinned. He killed the old man, poured
out justice on the old man, and He raised a new man and creates
a new man within us so that the new creation is all of God. It's righteousness and holiness
completely made by Christ Jesus, by God Himself, so that we had
nothing whatsoever to do with it. And the only reason men hate
that message is man wants to have a part. And God's not going
to give him a part. No, sir. God saved His people. Our old man of flesh will die
because it's dead and it's dying and that's all it will ever be.
So you're going to die in your flesh. But when we die, you and
I who believe, immediately there's a new man that's going to go
to glory to be with God forever. And nothing's going to be done
to that man. He's made me to be a partaker of the inheritance
of the saints in light right this minute. He's as holy as
that thief on the cross was who hadn't even known Christ for
just a few short hours before he met death. And if a man lives
to be as old as Methuselah, he's not any more holy than that thief
on the cross was. That's right. Just like if a
man dies when he's an infant or he dies when he's an aged
old man, he's not any more of a man than he was when he was
first born. And so is a man that's made holy by God. He's not any
more holy than when the first hour he's saved. We grow in that
state of holiness, just like you grow in that state of being
a man, but you don't grow more holy. You're made fit to be a
partaker with the saints and glory right from the beginning.
Now, for the believer that he's done this for and revealed this
to, look at... Well, let me just give it to you. Hebrews 10, 17,
God says, There are sins and there are iniquities, I will
remember no more. That's pardon. That's free forgiveness. There are sins and iniquities,
I'll remember no more. But I see my sin. I see the sins
ever before me. God says, I don't. What sin? It's gone. Christ put it away. Hebrews 1.3 said, When He had
by Himself purged our sin, He sat down at the right hand of
the Father. He put it away. Now look at Romans 10, and I'm
going to end with this. Romans 10. God says, Put away
your thoughts, put away your ways, and come to God. He'll
have mercy. And He'll freely forgive you.
Now look at Romans 10 and look at verse 4. Now let's begin in
verse 2. Paul's talking about Israel.
He's talking about how they don't know God. But now they're really
religious. And this is the problem with
99% of folks in this world today. Right here, verse 2. I bear them
record, they have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge.
These men were dead. They were lost sinners. He said,
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's the end. He's the end purpose for which
it was given. He's the end of it, period, for
everybody that believes. If you have Christ, you're righteous. If you have Christ, you've made
the righteousness of the law. So you don't have to go back
to the law and try to make yourself righteous. You've got the righteousness
of the law. Christ is that righteousness.
Now read on. Moses described the righteousness
which is of the law. The man which doeth those things. That means in your nature being
holy, in your thoughts being holy, in your actions being holy,
in your words being holy, you got to do the law every bit of
it perfectly. And the man that does that, he'll
live by them. The only man that ever did that
was Christ. He's the only man that ever lived that way. But
what does the righteousness which is of faith say? Look down at
verse 9. It says this, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For, now read this, with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. Do you see that? Righteousness
is not going to be accomplished by you doing something. Righteousness
is accomplished by believing on Christ. Then the righteousness
of Christ is given to you. It's given to you. And the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. So God said whatever other thoughts
you have, whatever other ways you've got, forsake them. Because
his ways and thoughts are not ours. He says, return to the
Lord. He will have mercy on you. And
he will freely pardon you, freely forgive you. Scripture says,
by Christ all that believe are justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. And if you're
justified before the law, you're righteous before the law, that
means, brethren, before God, We've kept the law
fully. Before God, the believer has
kept the law past, present, and future all the time. He's kept
the law because Christ did and He put away our sin. Oh, the
fleet of Christ. All right.