Add a few. I left a little off. Good evening. We're going to
begin this evening service by standing and singing, Be Still
My Soul, 290. Be Still My Soul. Be still my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, ? Be faithful,
will remain ? ? Be still, my soul ? ? Thy best, thy heavenly
friend ? ? Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end ? ? Be
still, my soul ? thy God doth undertake, to guide the future
as he has the past. I hope thy confidence let nothing
shake, All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored be
still my soul when change and tears are past all safe and blessed
we shall meet Take your Bibles and turn to
Matthew chapter 5. I'll be reading Matthew chapter
5 in verse 43 to the end. Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. That ye may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace, your mercy that you show to us even when
we were enemies and hated you and rebelled against you. Lord,
you were merciful and gracious. and You gave Your Son to put
away the sin of Your people. Lord, we thank You for this. Lord, we thank You for how patient
You are with us, how long-suffering You are toward us. Your wisdom in how You teach
us and grow us and make us to see Your great love to know the glories of our God,
to know our God, to learn you in heart and in this
life, to be taught of you and kept by you, to be brought to nothing in ourselves
and in such a way so that we see just how wonderful, how all-encompassing
You are and how You do everything for Your people. You do it in
such a way, Lord, that it truly is a walk of faith,
but it's so brilliant, it's so wonderful what You do. Lord,
we just stand amazed to behold the light and the life
and the glory that is in your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you
for, for Him. We thank you for all that you've
done for us. This great inheritance that you've
given to us in delivering us from death, from the strength
of sin and death, Lord, you delivered us from it. And you've brought
us into the body of Christ. and made us partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, to know what you have
done for us, to open our eyes to the light of Christ and to worship you with understanding
that is given by your spirit. And Lord, we see how you've done
all this for us. how many times You've delivered
us from death and from going astray and from lies and vanity
and falsehood time and time again. And Lord, help us to remember
that when someone speaks ill of us, or does some harm to us,
seeks to hurt us, Lord, help us to remember your love and
patience and kindness toward us that we might minister the
same grace to them that you've ministered to us. Help us in this, Lord, because
it's all of your grace, it's all in your Son, it's all by
the Son that we live and move and have our being. And Lord, we pray that you bless
this work We pray that you bless the people here, that you open
our ear. We pray that you bless the preaching
from this pulpit, Lord, that you help me and use me to preach
the gospel of your son, Jesus Christ, with clarity and simplicity
and boldness in a manner that is worthy of the name of Christ. And Lord, we thank you for your
work. We thank you for each and every
individual here, those that are supporting the work and doing
all they can to see this work established in this part of the
world. We thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your kindness and love toward
us. Lord, we pray for those that are sick and aren't doing well
and aren't healthy. We pray for Joanne, just that
you would put your hand upon her and heal her, keep her, strengthen
her. We pray for Scott, Lord, that
you would give him good rest when he needs it and help him
to do the things that he can do, Lord, but we pray that you
would give success to all the treatments, that he would be
strengthened and his body made stronger. Lord, the many other
ailments and sicknesses and diseases that we have that we don't even
know about or haven't been expressed by anyone, Lord, you know our
problems, you know our troubles, you know our fears and worries,
Lord. Minister peace. and grace to your people, to
your saints. Keep showing them Christ. Keep
feeding us with the bread of life. And in him we have all. We pray that you do this for
us here and for all your people in this country and around the
world. All those who have no righteousness of their own, but
look to the righteousness of Christ. Lord, bless them. Call
out your sheep, your lost sheep out of darkness. and bless all
your people. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our second hymn is gonna be 356,
Near to the Heart of God, 356. There is a place of quiet rest
near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest, near
to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God. ? There is a place of comfort
sweet ? ? Near to the heart of God ? ? A place where we our
Savior meet ? ? Near to the heart of God ? ? O Jesus, blessed Redeemer
? said from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before thee,
near to the heart of God. ? There is a place of full release
? ? Near to the heart of God ? ? A place where all is joy
and peace ? ? Near to the heart of God ? ? Oh, Jesus, blessed
Redeemer ? said from the heart of God, hold
us who wait before thee near to the heart of God. That ain't working. Now it's
our, the personal thing. If it pops up at some point,
just maybe go live, but I don't know if it matters now. Let's turn to Isaiah 51. Isaiah
51, and I want to look at Verses 7 and 8, Isaiah 51, 7
and 8. Why don't we read them? Hearken unto
me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall
eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like
wool. But my righteousness shall be
forever, and my salvation from generation to generation." This passage is really speaking
about two things mainly. It's the Lord speaking to his
people, a people who know righteousness, a people who Know that our righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are righteous by Him. And we stay upon Him. We abide in Christ. We abide in His Word. We continue
in the Word. We continue in the doctrine of
Christ. That doctrine that declares,
I have no righteousness of my own. My righteousness is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he is my righteousness. He
is my hope. And he abides with me. And I'm
kept by him. And we walk by faith in Christ. That's the righteousness that
we know. And there's another people spoken
of in this text who know nothing of that righteousness. They only
know of a righteousness by this flesh. And the Lord in grace
has taken us from that because that's where we were. We all
were among those who thought that righteousness was in the
things that we do and something that we do, typically in religion. and religious things. We were
laboring and striving and working hard and working diligently to
make a righteousness for ourselves. But that wasn't true righteousness.
And the Lord in grace brought us to know righteousness. And that's who he's speaking
to in this passage, and he's telling those who know righteousness,
those who continue in Christ, there's going to be opposition.
There's going to be trouble from these who think they are righteous
and who work a righteousness by their own flesh. They think
that that's what justifies them, and they're going to persecute
you that know righteousness. They're going to give you trouble,
is what he's saying. But what the Lord says to us
here is, don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of them. They've
been around since Cain and Abel. And they'll persecute you, but
you're mine. Don't you fear them. Don't you
worry about them. You trust me. and you declare
the truth, you speak the truth according to what the Lord has
shown you, you walk in that light, the light of Christ, and don't
you fear them, don't you be worried about them because they're gonna
pass away. They're gonna pass away and stand
before me and they'll have no garment of righteousness. It'll
all be eaten away by a worm and a moth. It'll be taken away and
they'll stand there naked before God, but you, You know righteousness
and you come before me covered in the righteousness of Christ
because that's what God has purposed for his people. And so this enemy
here is spoken of as reproaching and reviling the people of God. There in verse 7, at the end,
he says, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid
of their revilings. And to reproach someone is to
speak to them in such a way that you count them as shameful, a
disgraceful person. And so you speak to them as someone
deserving of shame and disgrace. And in its usage, you think the
things that they have to say are so awful that they should
be censored. They should be silenced. Put
them to silence. Nobody should hear from them.
And to revile them is to verbally abuse them. It's to treat them
as the villain, the great enemy. And so that's what These people
who think they are righteous, that's how they treat those that
know righteousness. That's what the Lord is saying
here. So there's two kinds of people being distinguished in
this passage. One are the Lord's people, and
the other is not the Lord's people. Both believe themselves to be
justified by God. Both have a righteousness that
they believe God justifies. One is looking to the righteousness
of Christ, the other is looking to the righteousness of their
own works and their own flesh. And when you think about it,
what an awful thing to get wrong. What an awful thing to get wrong. To think that you're doing God's
service, and in the end you find that it wasn't righteousness
at all, but unrighteousness. It wasn't good works, but filthy
works. And so the children of God are
justified by faith, and the other seeks to be justified by their
works. And the scriptures declare to
us who is justified, who is justified by God. And Paul says in Romans
3.28, Romans 3, 28, he says, Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And so while we have the same
scriptures, while we claim to be trusting the same God, one
is trusting Christ and His righteousness. We're trusting our Lord to do
everything for us, just as he says in his word, and the other
is trusting a righteousness being wrought by their own hands under
the law and or religion. And so the Lord here, he's speaking
comfortably to his people. He speaks comfortably to you
that know righteousness. You might be afraid about many
things. But one thing the Lord does here in his word is he speaks
very comfortably to you that know righteousness. You that
know in this flesh is no good thing. In this flesh, there's
nothing that I have to boast of. Every one of us is a sinner. Every one of us is guilty of
sin and trespasses and iniquities and doing vile things. But our
God, who has called us to look away from self and to look to
Christ He speaks comfortably to his people. He speaks peacefully
to his people. And so he tells us, you righteous
that live by faith, who are looking to the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, he repeats this often in his word. Another place is
Galatians 3, 11 and 12. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith, and the law is not of faith." The law is not
of faith. That's not how we're justified.
That's not how we're sanctified. because we walk by faith. We
that are just continue in faith. We continue in Christ, believing
him. So we're not looking away from
Christ to anything. We're not looking to religion.
We're not looking to the law. We're not looking to this flesh
for any of our righteousness or to keep us righteous. So,
because the law is not a faith, so we don't look there. But the
man that doeth them, it says, shall live in them. Meaning that
man who says, well, I was justified by Christ, but now I'm looking
to the law for my sanctification. Paul says, well, wait a minute.
The scriptures say that the man that looks to the law must live
by the law. You've got to continue in it
now. We don't look away from Christ, we continue in Christ.
And so we repeat this and we repeat it often because this
flesh is that weak, that corrupt, that defiled. And there's many
who have heard of Christ and made a profession of Christ and
yet even they turn back to the things of religion. and dead
letter things and the things of the law. So we repeat it because
men all over stumble over Christ. They stumble over Christ, they
fall over him, and they look back to the law of Moses and
use it as a measuring stick to measure how well they're doing
in religious things and how well their righteousness is measuring
up in the word of God. And they do that rather than
at the expense of believe in Christ and the peace of God in
His Son. And we that believe on Christ,
it's not that we're walking in sin and walking in rebellion
and seeking to sin against the light that our God has given
to us in Christ. It's that we continue in Christ,
looking to Christ, believing our Savior, that His blood washes
us from all iniquity. all guilt, all shame. And if
my heart's gonna be turned and if my heart's gonna be kept,
it's gonna be by the power and glory of my God. And so we repeat
it often because people all over stumble over Christ. They stumbled
over Christ back in the day of Christ and in the flesh here.
The Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the scribes, and the lawyers,
and the doctors, they all stumbled over Christ, and men are still
stumbling over Christ to this day. But know this, that the
law can't make you righteous. The law can say whether a person
is righteous or not, but the law can't make you righteous,
but Christ will. He does. The law can't make you
love your God. But Christ does. The law can't
make you love your brethren. But Christ does. The law can't
make you be kind, gracious, tender-hearted, forgiving to anyone. But Christ
does. What do we read in Ephesians
4.32? Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. The law can't help you there.
The law may help you to command down fire from heaven upon your
enemies, sure, that they be consumed, but it won't help you to be gracious
and kind, because the law is strict justice, and it demands
strict justice. But remember, even what we read
earlier in Matthew 5, verse 43 and 44, ye have heard that it
hath been said that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy. That's what they got from looking in the law. But I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. And ye may be the children of
your Father in heaven. And so our Lord, He shows us
great love, great mercy, great forgiveness. And He shows us
and brings us to see it again and again as we have need of
seeing it, that we remember. This is how, this is the same
tenderness. and love and forgiveness that
others need, just as I need it repeatedly. And so our Lord calls
us to faith in Him and looking to Him. So I've titled this,
Who Are the Righteous? Who Are the Righteous? And we'll begin here as the Lord
describes who the righteous are in his word. And then we'll look
at his word, which says, don't be afraid of those that don't
like that. There's a lot of people that
don't want to hear of grace. And we'll see why they don't
want to hear of grace. So our Lord, he calls the attention
of his people here again. We've been seeing this pattern
in Isaiah 51. And here we are the third time.
And he says, hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the
people in whose heart is my law, fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. And so this particular
people here is described as, ye that know righteousness, and
the people in whose heart is my law. But just who are the
righteous? Who are the righteous? Who are
these people that know righteousness? Because a man that looks to the
law of Moses, he claims to be righteous. That one who thinks
he's doing a good job before the law of Moses, he claims to
be righteous. And he would say that you that
look to Christ alone, whose hope is in grace, that you're not
righteous and that you're lawless. You're not righteous. You have no righteousness trusting
in Christ alone. What about the law? What about
the law? And so they would count you their
enemy, and they would reproach you and revile you, because you
trust the word of the Lord, who declares that our righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and that we have no righteousness
but him, and that we who would come to God and the law will
perish in our sins. But those who come to the Lord
in Christ shall have peace, mercy, and forgiveness. And so it's
the Lord who has brought this work in the hearts of his people
and divided them, separated them from the mass, the many that
look to religion and look to good works and look to their
own goodness for their peace before God and their justification
with God. But though they reproach us,
remember that our Lord bore this same reproach. He bore it more,
more so. He bore it all, all the reproach
and all the shame for his people in order to work our righteousness. Turn over to Psalm 69. Psalm 69, we'll just look at
a few verses. This is the prayer of our Lord,
and we'll begin in verse 19. This is his prayer when he was
going to the cross as the surety of his people to put away our
sin. Verse 19-20 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and
my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take
pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. Look at verse 4. They that hate
me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They
that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are
mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away." Our Lord himself bore that suffering and that
shame and the despising, the spitting, the punching, the reviling. He bore all that for his people. He went to the cross bearing
that shame, and He went to the cross bearing the sin of His
people before the Father to put it away by the sacrifice of Himself. He bore the punishment in his
people's place as their shorty, as their substitute. And it was
hard to suffer that. He cries out. And I can't even
enter in fully the shame and the reproach and the revilings
that he suffered for me. And he did it for all his people. He suffered for every one of
his children. And what's amazing is that in
Hebrews it tells us that He did this, who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down on the right hand of the throne of God. That means that
He's ruling and reigning right now, in control of all things,
even Even the revilings and the reproaches that we suffer because
of our hope in the grace of God, from those who have no hope in
the grace of God, but whose hope is in the law, they revile us
and persecute us. And though we suffer it, our
Lord is in control of all things. And we take comfort for that.
We take comfort knowing that it's not out of His control.
They're not gonna get out of hand and go any further than
what the Lord purposes and allows them to do, and that's in all
sufferings. That's in all our shame and our
discomfort and our trials and tribulations. In all of it, our
Lord is in control of everything. Believe Him. If it weighs on
your heart heavy, cry out to Him. Lay it before Him. Bring
it before the Lord and trust him through it because it's always
for our good. And so he tells us, don't be
afraid of their revilings. Don't be fearful of their reproaches. He bore that. He bore our sin
and shame for us. He bore it gladly in order to
work our righteousness. And so whatever we're called
to go through, it's for our good. The Lord's in it. He knows exactly
what he's doing. And so we read there that, well,
we continue. We continue in persevering, in
this, knowing, even when we're challenged by our own fears and
this flesh to doubt. and to think there's something
more I have to do. The Lord says, no, you persevere. You keep looking
to me. Don't be turned back to the law. Don't hear all the abuse of will worshipers
and will workers and those lawmongers. Don't listen to it. Trust Christ. He says in Galatians 2.16, Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We're justified by his faith,
his faithfulness in going to the cross for us. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ. See, we're justified by His faithfulness. We're justified by our Lord,
and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And so, you that seek to be justified
by God, you shall find what you seek in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the hope of salvation that
God has freely provided for His people. And that justification
that you seek before God will be found right there in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You don't go any further or look
anywhere else than in Christ. But he that despises Christ in
favor of his own works, he shall find nothing but wrath and judgment. He'll not find what he seeks
because he seeks righteousness by the work of his own hands. And the reason that is, Romans
10.3 Paul says, they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. A man may claim to be trying
to do what is right by saying, well, I believe Christ. I just
want to do a little more. I want to study the law and look
to the law and add to it and make sure that I'm doing my part. I'm not freeloading. I'm doing
my part. But that's despising the righteousness
of God. That's trusting your flesh to
do something that you're saying Christ cannot work in us, that
Christ can't do that, that he can't keep our hearts and deliver
us from the ways of death and sin and wickedness. Christ is
able. And so a lot of people, though,
will say, well, I'm justified. by Christ, but I look to the
law now for my sanctification. I've got to work at this thing
in such a way in the law so that I keep my body in check. And so they look to the law.
But if you look at Galatians 3, Galatians 3, 3, Paul asks it
this way. He says, I'll give you a moment
to get there. Galatians 3, 3. He says, are you so foolish,
having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Are we going to be turned away
from Christ and turned back now to the law? That's what the Galatians
were doing. They confessed Christ, and then
they were turned away from Christ. They were being circumcised because
of some people that came from Jerusalem. telling them that
they needed to be circumcised if they were to be saved. And
Paul's just saying, wait a minute, you were justified by Christ.
Christ was your life. You began in the spirit. Are
you now going to be turned back to the flesh? Is that how the
Lord's gonna grow you and keep you and perfect you is by the
flesh? And that's what people are doing
under the law. Look what it says in verse 11
and 12. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith. That means we continue in faith. We don't turn back to the flesh.
And he says in verse 12, the law is not of faith. And so, you that trust Christ,
continue in Christ. Keep believing Him. When you
see sin, and you're troubled by this flesh, and your sin,
look to Christ. Cry out to Christ. Cry out to
Him. Seek Him. Look to Him. Believe
Him. Seek Him for grace, and mercy,
and help, in your time of need. Look to Him. Don't look back
to the law and beat yourself with the law and say, well, wait
a minute. The law says I ought not do this. So does Christ in
your heart say not do this. Look to Him. Believe Him. Trust Him. Because even though
it's talking about the just, those who are justified, it says
they live by faith. That means at no point do we
cease to live by faith. When you were birthed and that
first breath you took, That first breath you took, it wasn't a
one and done kind of thing. You continue to breathe. You
continue to need that oxygen. You continue to need to breathe.
It's the same thing. We that are justified and want
to be sanctified, we continue to breathe. We continue to walk
in faith. We continue to live upon Christ. He's our breath. He's our food. Christ is our drink. Christ is
all. And he never ceases to be all.
That's how we live. That's exactly how we live. And that message is just not
popular with those in religion. That hope of the grace of God
in Christ is just not appreciated by religion. Paul says in Romans
3, verse 20-23, he says, Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in a sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there's
no difference, Jew or Gentile, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And so you that look to Christ,
who believe God, you're honoring the Son. That's honoring to the
Son. And those who honor the Son,
the Father will honor. He's called us to look to Christ,
to believe on Him. And so that child knows righteousness. They have life in Christ. They
know, oh, everything I have is in Christ. It never changes. I always need Him, and I'm happy,
happy in Him. And I don't ever want to I don't
ever want to leave. And we know that righteousness
because of the spirit that he has sent that makes us born again,
that gives us spiritual life. Because we had none in Adam,
and now in Christ, we're born again, whereby we have the spirit
and understand these things, that he's all the hope and the
joy, the peace that God has provided for his people in his son. And so we have our inheritance
in Christ. And so our God, the covenant
that we're in is a covenant of grace. Turn to Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31.
Jeremiah 31, and we'll go to verse 31. And so he says, Jeremiah 31,
verse 31, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah. Verse 33, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be my people. He's put this law of righteousness
in our hearts, the law that is the law of faith, the law of
Christ, the law of liberty, the law of righteousness, that He's
my all. Christ is all. He is my righteousness,
and He leads me and keeps and constrains me with his love. And so it's by Christ in our
hearts. Just as Paul prayed when he wrote
to the Ephesians, Ephesians 3, 17, that Christ dwell in your
hearts by faith. Faith. Because that's the law
that God writes in our hearts. So that Christ is made all to
the people of God. And so This is, as the text describes,
the people in whose heart is my law. It's there because he
put it there. And it's that law of faith, that
law of righteousness, that law of liberty, that law of Christ. It's the hope that we have in
him. This is our life. And so it's not there by the
flesh. It's not there by looking to
the law. It's not there by trusting in
just doing religious ceremonies and religious things and being
consistent in those things. It's no, it's looking to Christ.
It's believing Him. And so that's We look to Christ knowing God's
judgment upon. He's given his judgment upon
Christ. He's declared who he's pleased
with. He's justified Christ. And he
makes him just in our eyes so that he appears continually before
us as a rest for the light of the people. He continues to appear
before us as our light. And so don't put down, well,
Don't trust in the works of the flesh, put down the works of
the flesh and trust Christ. Look to him, cry out to him for
mercy. Ask him for forgiveness for trusting
in those things and seek him for mercy and grace and the heart
that does may have peace and joy with God because it's God
that works that in us, that works that hope and that grace in us.
He's a gracious Savior to all who come to Him. And so we see
there that there are people that are righteous and the people
who are not. One is beloved of God, the other
is not. The one who's beloved of God
has hung all their hopes, all their confidence on Christ. If Christ isn't sufficient, then
we perish. But we've laid everything on
Him. We're trusting him wholly, entirely,
completely, because this is God's word. He's declared that he is
salvation, and there's not another. And so he says, hearken unto
me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid
of their revilements. they'll revile the people of
God because of the hope we have in Christ. It's a truth that
they cannot bear because it renders all their work, all their hope,
all their years of labor, all that they had confidence in,
it renders it worthless. It makes it garbage. And they
don't know Christ. They simply don't hear what the
Lord is declaring. And so to declare the works of
men as unable to work a righteousness with God, they don't know where
to turn. They don't know what to believe. They don't know what
to do then, because they cannot simply look to the Savior, the
simplicity of looking to Christ and trusting Him. But if they
despise you because of your hope and grace, know that they despised
Christ first. They despised Him. They despised
the father who sent them, and they despised Christ for speaking
the truth to them. He said in John 8, 40, Now ye
seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have
heard of God. While they despise Christ, they'll
despise you too for trusting Christ. If you speak to someone
who loves the law and thinks that we're yet under the law,
even though the law is not of faith, they'll despise you for
resting in Christ. And the more content you are
in Christ, the more they'll hate him, and the more they'll speak
against you for trusting in him. So our Lord says, don't fear
them, verse 8, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and
the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall
be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Don't fear the arrogant boaster. who despises you. They're not
despising you. They're despising your God. They're despising your Lord and
your Savior, and He'll take up the case against them. He'll
deal with them. When we're being attacked, we
don't even have to defend ourselves. The Lord will defend His people.
He'll raise up people to to defend his people. He told Jeremiah,
he said, be not afraid of their faces. And he said to Ezekiel,
fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks. And when you
read these verses, you can see this is about righteousness.
This is about the hope of our righteousness, because he compares
it to a garment. He compares it to a garment. We see here in the scriptures
how that the Lord often will compare our righteousness to
a garment. He speaks of it in Revelation
that those who had been persecuted and martyred for Christ, they
were given a white robe, signifying our righteousness by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in Isaiah 118, if you turn
there, Isaiah 118, We see him use these words there.
Notice the description of how the Lord speaks of us being made
righteous by him. He says, come now and let us
reason together. Sayeth the Lord, though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Men made garments out of wool
and it was being compared to snow white and to being white
as snow and to garments that were made white. And so we use
garments for what purpose? I mean, the most base purpose
of it is to cover our nakedness. It's to cover our nakedness.
And that was the first work that man did in sin was to go off
and make a garment to cover his nakedness. And that's what is
at the root of this. What's my righteousness? What's
my garment? What's gonna cover my nakedness? And that's really what's at the
heart here of what's being spoken of. And the Lord says, those
that seek to spin up their own garment of righteousness, he
says, verse eight, the moth shall eat them up like a garment and
the worm shall eat them like wool. That's Isaiah 51, eight
again. And he's saying, The works of man are so corrupt, so vile,
so empty, so incapable of making a covering, they'll fall apart.
And anyone who comes before holy God in that day will find that
they appear before him naked, their garment will be tattered
and worn and shameful, and because they're naked will be exposed
before their nakedness will be exposed before the Lord. In other
words, their works, our works, will be plain for the Lord to
see. And if we come in our own confidence,
in our own works by the law, or by religion, or by this flesh,
we're gonna perish in our sins. It'll be a shameful, terrifying,
awful day. But that one who has no righteousness,
but looks only to Christ, trusting Him and His righteousness shall
not be ashamed. For they shall appear righteous,
righteous as the stars. They shall appear gloriously,
beautifully decked in a white righteous robe wrought for them
by their husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. All your nakedness is
covered in Christ. You that have nothing, that have
nothing to give to God, you rest right there in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You keep looking to Him, stay
upon Him, declare the hope that you have in Christ, regardless
of what people say, you just keep trusting in the Lord. And
Paul and Barnabas said in Acts 13, 39 through 41, that by Christ
all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye
could not be justified by the law of Moses. But those who trust
in the strength of their own hand and turn back to the law
for some part of their salvation, or all of it, he says, beware,
therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the
prophets. Behold, ye despisers in wonder and perish, for I work
a work in your days. work which ye shall in no wise
believe, though man declare it unto you." Our Lord is the salvation
of his people. He is their Savior. When the
Pharisees had him on trial and they asked him, tell us, tell
us whether you be the Christ. And he said, if I tell you, you
will not believe me. You will not believe me. And
that is the case with man. left to ourselves, we despise
the true and living God, and we will not believe Him. But what a mercy, what a kindness,
that He should make us to know righteousness, to know that Christ
is all, that He is all I need and God has given Him. He held
back nothing from us, spared him not, and shed his blood to
put away our sins, to cover our sins and our guilt and our shame,
that we might stand before our God in that day, fall before
his throne, and hear those words, well done thou good and faithful
servant, enter thou into thy rest. And what a glorious day
that'll be, all thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray
that he rejoice your heart and comfort you in Christ and that
just keep rejoicing in him and looking to him, brethren. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your mercy and
grace in making us to know righteousness. Lord, that you should so kindly,
so patiently, so tenderly remove us from that false way when we
were running around in religion, confused and in darkness and
knowing nothing. Lord, thank you for your grace
in revealing your son, Jesus Christ, to us and making us to
know him. Lord, keep us walking and abiding
in him. Keep us in the way. Lord, bless
this word to our heart. Comfort us in Christ. Keep us
looking to him and help us to speak these words of comfort
to others. And that you would draw out your
lost sheep from the dungeon and from death, cause them to rejoice
in that which you've made our hearts to rejoice in, in Christ
alone. It's in his name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Okay, brother. Did I cough once? I don't think
I coughed when I was preaching. I don't think I did once. Finally,
the Lord helped me get through. Bye, Johnny. Our closing hymn is going to
be 296, All the Way My Savior Leads Me, 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercies,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divine
is comfort, here my faith in Him to dwell. For I know what
e'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what
e'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Saviour
leads me, cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace
for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary
steps may falter, And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from
the rock before me, Low a spring of joy I see. ? Gushing from
the rock before me ? ? Blow a spring of joy I see ? ? All the way
my Savior leads me ? ? O the fullness of His love ? ? Perfect
rest to me is promised ? ? In my Father's house above ? When
my spirit clothed immortal Wings its flight to realms of day This
my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way This
my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way Thank
you.