It says in 1 Peter 1, 17, and
if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth
according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear. All right, so I don't know how
you read the Bible, but when I'm reading scripture, especially
when I'm looking at it for the service, I always turn it over
and over in my mind and read it several times and think about
how God has spoken of the same things elsewhere in scripture.
First thing he says here, if you call on the Father, or really
since you call on the Father, because he's speaking to the
saints, and the saints call on God as their Father. So since
you call on the Father, he says, who without respect of persons,
judges according to every man's work. God, our Father, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, actually, God the Father
has committed all judgment to the Son. You find that in John
chapter five, in verse 22 and 23. He has committed all judgment
to the Son. So when God the Father is said
to judge, it's really the Son who's doing the judging. But
He judges without respect of persons. That means He doesn't
consider a person's birth, their ancestors. He doesn't consider
their situation in life. He doesn't consider how much
money they have. He doesn't consider their size,
He doesn't consider their strength, He doesn't consider all these
things. God looks at the heart and He judges according to truth.
So he says here, who judges without respect of persons, he judges
every man's work. God will judge, and no one will
influence him, and he will judge precisely according to his own
character in justice. That is not what is happening
in the world today as far as we can see it. It seems that
wrong is ever on the throne. It seems that the wrong is ever
on the throne, and the truth is on the scaffold in our present
day. We see that in our lives, throughout
the history of our lives. And it seems to always, every
year, get worse and worse. That truth is on the scaffolds
and wrong is on the throne. But that's not the way it is.
God is on the throne. And so there is a day coming
when he's going to judge. And he's going to judge every
person according to their work. That's what it says here. But
he says, in light of this, since you call on the Father, he says,
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Now I want to also
add another text of scripture to this. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter five. We'll put all these together
before us and then we will try to address them. 2 Corinthians
chapter five. I will pick it up in verse 10.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore,
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, and we are made manifest
to God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences."
That last part, made manifest to God, and I trust also are
made manifest in your consciences. The Apostle Paul is asking the
Corinthians to consider his ministry. that he has been faithful to
his master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and has not perverted the truth,
but has told it plainly, and that there has been fruit, because
God has blessed his own word. And so it goes on to talk about
that. But I just wanted to read this part here, that we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone
may receive of the things, or the things done in his body,
according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. What
God is saying here is that we're all going to receive, according
to strict justice, what we've done in our body. And back in
1 Peter 1, 17, he says that God judges according to every man's
work, without respect of persons. He's fair. Even when sin was
found on his son, he judged him. God is absolutely fair. Look at Romans chapter 14. He says in Romans chapter 14,
verse 9, for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived. Romans 14, 9. To this end, for
this purpose, Christ both died and rose and revived, that he
might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. But why dost
thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy
brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. Now what does that do to you?
What do these verses do to you when you read them? I don't know
about you, but it tends to make me sober, doesn't it? Now, this
is the way the Bible is written. He says back in 2 Corinthians
5, I'm reminding you now what we just read in verse 11, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. The terror of
the Lord. Look at Matthew chapter 7. The
Lord Jesus is telling us about what will happen in the future.
This is going to happen, no deviation from it. In Matthew 7 and verse
21, not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then I will profess to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. All right, one more text of scripture
along these same lines. Look at Revelation, Revelation
chapter 20 and verse 11. And I saw a great white throne
and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. Who is sitting
on the throne? The Lord Jesus Christ. He said
that many will come to him in that day and say, Lord, Lord.
And these are the ones who are standing before him. It says
there was found no place for them, no place to hide. And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. and the books
were opened. And another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, And death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they
were judged every man according to their works. That's exactly
what we read from 1 Peter 1.17 and 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans
14 and Matthew 7. Everyone was judged according
to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever, notice this most of all, whosoever was not found
written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. You see that? Knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter five. And in first Peter, he says,
if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judges
according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear. Now, I've entitled today's message,
Fear Not, Only Fear the Lord. Now, that's quoted from scripture,
and I wanna read that scripture to you in the book of 1 Samuel,
chapter 12. You turn back to 1 Samuel, chapter 12. When we
read about standing before God in judgment, there's nothing
I know of that gives me greater sense of sobriety than that. But look at 1 Samuel chapter
12. In 1 Samuel chapter 12, I've
got to give you the background here. The people had asked for
a king. There was a long history that
led up to them asking for a king. Samuel was a prophet. There were
no kings in Israel up to this point in history. In their history,
they had no king. But when they asked for a king,
Samuel protested, and he protested really also to the Lord. But
the Lord said, you give him a king. And you know the first king was
King Saul. And so what's happening in chapter
12 is that Samuel is going to show the people that he gave
them their request. He's going to ask them to verify
that he didn't do anything underhanded in all of his service to them,
that the fault wasn't with him. And then he's going to tell them
all that God has done for them. And he's going to remind them
how the Lord delivered them from their enemies. And he's going
to then tell them to consider the king that they've chosen
and desired. And then he's going to place
conditions on them and tell the people that they had done wickedly. And he's going to show them what
God thinks by asking the Lord for a sign. And the people are
going to see that sign, and they're going to be terribly afraid.
They're going to be terrified. And then he's going to tell the
people, fear not. And he's going to go on to tell
them, only fear the Lord. Now this is the pattern of scripture.
God has written this for our consolation. If you call on the
Father, That's what we want to do. We want to call on God, our
Father. And we're gonna understand something
here about the fear of the Lord. Paul says, knowing the terror
of the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 5.11, we persuade
men. And he describes the terror of
the Lord. What is it? Standing before him in judgment,
who doesn't waver in justice, one iota. But our natural inclination is
to have only that terror of the Lord in response to that severe
and awesome warning, isn't it? When the Bible speaks of eternal
judgment, men want to put it out of the Bible. Men want to put it out of the
Bible. And I've told you this story before. And in some way,
I feel bad about it. because I feel for the man. But
a man came to my door preaching a false gospel, the Jehovah's
Witnesses, and he was by himself. And after listening to his introduction,
I asked him, I want to ask you a question. And my question is
simply this. How will you stand before the
Lord Jesus Christ in judgment? How will you answer him? And
he said, I suppose that God will consider my good works to outweigh
my bad works. And I looked at him with all
of the tenderness and yet unwavering, I wanted him to understand this.
I said, if you believe that, if you stand before God believing
that, you will go to hell. And I remember the response that
he had to that. He didn't do what we would normally
expect people to do, to, in pride, put up his fists, so to speak,
and start arguing about, well, there is no eternal damnation,
and so on. I think it hit him. But he didn't
stick around to wait for the answer. The Lord Jesus Christ
gives us this severe warning in scripture. Knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. And to persuade means to present
words that they might believe. That's what it means. That was
what Paul tried to do, or that's what he did in 2 Corinthians
5. And that's what I want to do today. Let's read this together
in 1 Samuel 12, to persuade you with words to believe. Verse
1. And Samuel said to all Israel,
behold, I have hearkened unto your voice and all that you have
said unto me and have made a king over you. And now behold, the
king walketh before you. And I am old and gray headed.
And behold, my sons are with you. And I have walked before
you from my childhood unto this day. You know the story of Samuel.
Behold, here I am. Witness against me before the
Lord and before his anointed, whose ox have I taken, or whose
ass have I taken, or whom have I defrauded, whom have I oppressed,
or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes therewith,
and I will restore it to you." What he's saying here, have I
done anything to twist or distort the truth? Could you buy me? Could you change the truth that
I spoke from God to you by enticing me with bribes? No. Is there
anyone here who can find anything that I've done wrong in this
way? No. And they said, thou hast not
defrauded us nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought
of any man's hand. And he said to them, the Lord
is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day
that you have not found ought in my hand. The anointed in this
case was King Saul, the king. And they answered, he is witness.
So they're agreeing, they're agreeing before God that what
Samuel is saying to them about his uprightness before them is
true. Just like Paul said to the Corinthians
there, he says that we were manifest to you. I'm commending myself
to you. Verse six, and Samuel said to
the people, it is the Lord, now notice, it is the Lord that advanced
Moses and Aaron and that brought your fathers up out of the land
of Egypt. The Lord did that. Now therefore
stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord of all
the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your
fathers." And now he's going to do what? He's going to recall
what God did in all of his righteous acts, the blessings and his righteousness. He said, when Jacob came into
Egypt and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord
sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt
and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgot, or forgot
the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain
of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines,
and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against
them. And they cried to the Lord. These people cried because God
delivered them into the hands of their enemies. They cried
to the Lord. Just like the children of Israel and Egypt, they cried
to the Lord. They said, we have sinned because we have forsaken
the Lord and have served Balaam and Ashtoreth. Now deliver us
out of the hand of our enemies and we will serve thee. So they
asked the Lord, deliver us and we will serve you. And the Lord
sent Gideon, whose name was Jeroboam, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and
Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on
every side, and you dwelt safe. And when you saw that Nahash,
the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, you said, no,
but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your
king. Now therefore, Behold, the king whom you have chosen
and whom you have desired, and behold, the Lord has set a king
over you. He gave you what you wanted.
You rejected God as your king. If you will fear the Lord and
serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandments
of the Lord, here's the condition, then shall both you and also
the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your
God. Just keep his commandments, and you're king, and you will
both follow the Lord. But if you will not obey the
voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandments of the
Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it
was against your fathers when they turned, and God brought
their enemies against them. Verse 16, now therefore, stand
and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your
eyes. Is not wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord. He shall
send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your
wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the
Lord in asking you a king." So he's convincing them of God's
righteousness and their wickedness, and he's about to show them God's
own testimony against them. Notice, he's gonna strike terror
into their hearts. So Samuel called to the Lord,
and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day in the middle of
wheat harvest, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. That sounds like a good thing,
right? All the people said to Samuel, pray for thy servants
to the Lord thy God, that we die not. But we have added unto
all our sins this evil to ask us a king. And Samuel said to
the people, fear not. I thought it was a good thing.
You see, this is called the fear that has torment. This is called
the fear of terror. This is called the fear of one
who acts out of a fear of punishment or in order to obtain a blessing
by what they do, but really in their heart, they're not truly
doing anything out of love or thanksgiving. So he says, fear
not. We cannot obey God with this
kind of fear. But it is necessary for us to
understand and know the terror of the Lord in order that we
might be persuaded to believe on the Lord. And so it goes on. Samuel said to the people, fear
not. You have done all this wickedness. Now here's grace. You have done
all this wickedness, and yet fear not. Yet turn not aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Not your
outward, I'm going to do this in order to escape God's judgment,
but with your heart. That's where the true fear of
God comes. And turn ye not aside, for then
should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver,
for they are vain. Vain things are false religion. And like in 1 Peter 1, verse
18, you're not redeemed by corruptible things from your vain conversation
and traditions from your fathers. Vain things. They can't profit,
they can't deliver. They're vain. What can deliver? What can profit? according to
the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 22, for the Lord will not
forsake his people for his great namesake. Oh, there's the grace,
isn't it? Notice, the people had done wickedly. The people admitted that they
had done wickedly. They had not only desired a king,
but chosen a king for themselves. God gave them what they wanted.
They were following the same pattern that their fathers had.
And God had delivered them to the hand of their enemies. And
when they cried to the Lord, God delivered them. And yet they
didn't fulfill the commitment they had made to follow the Lord.
But he says, don't fear, don't turn aside, serve the Lord with
all your heart. The Lord will not forsake his
people for his great name's sake. Remember the argument that Moses
made in Numbers chapter 14. He says, if you destroy all these
people, if you destroy all these people, then what will your enemies
say? Well, they'll say that you must not have considered what
these people were truly like. You didn't realize what it was
going to take to really save them. Or that you couldn't do
what you wanted to do. You couldn't fulfill your will.
You didn't see far enough in advance. You didn't consider
all the circumstances. You didn't consider the people.
You didn't count the cost. You weren't able to fulfill your
will. That's what they'll say. No, the Lord will not forsake
his people for his namesake. He'll do it for His name's sake.
Because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Now there's
comfort, isn't there? Fear not. Why? The Lord will
not forsake His people. You have, but the Lord won't.
It pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, Samuel
says, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord
in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and
the right way. Only fear the Lord. and serve
him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things
he has done for you." Now that shows you that the spring of
true fear of God that causes us from our heart to serve him
comes from a consideration of the great things he's done for
us. Now, when we consider all these things, we have to think
about this subject. What does it mean to walk in
fear, as it says in 1 Peter 1 and 17? What does it mean to walk
in fear? And how can we escape the terror
of the Lord? How can we stand before God in
judgment, and be judged everyone according to his works, and survive
that scrutiny? How can we possibly survive that
scrutiny of God? That's an issue, isn't it? That's
a real issue with us. Well, first of all, it says in
Romans chapter 3, let me read this to you. Well, let me look
at Psalm 14, this is where it's also spoken. Psalm 14, in verse
1 of Psalm 14, the fool has said in his heart, no God, no God,
no, no God for me, no God over me. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works.
There's none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. None believed, none understood,
none sought after God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And then back in Romans 3, in
verse 18, he says, there is no fear of God before their eyes. No fear of God. So this is spoken
of, and since it's quoted in Romans 3, it's clear here that
what God says in Psalm 14, and what he says here in Romans 3,
is true of every person. Because he goes on in verse 19,
we know that what things soever the law says, it says to them
that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world become guilty before God. All right. How are we going
to survive judgment if God judges every man according to his works?
Because he says in 2 Corinthians 5 that we may receive the things
done in the body, whether good or bad. How are we going to survive
that? How are we going to survive the
judgment in Revelation 20? where the books were open and
every man was judged according to his works there. The dead
were judged out of the things that were written in the books.
And in Romans 14, that we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ. As it says in Matthew 7, how are we going to
survive that judgment? God's going to act according
to truth. He's not going to twist his justice. He doesn't have
a respect of persons. It doesn't matter what your place
is, whether you're young or old, rich or poor, black or white,
or anything in between. God is just gonna judge. He doesn't
have a bias. He just looks at what He says.
He judges according to what's in the books, what you did. But notice back in 1 Peter 1
here. Notice what he says here. He
says, if you call on the Father, if you call on the Father. How can we call on the Father?
What does it mean to call on the Father? How do we call on
the Father? We call on the Father by calling
on the Son. We come to the Father through
the Son, don't we? Jesus said in John 14, six, I
am the way, and no man comes to the Father but by me. And
then in Romans 10 he says, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And he's talking about the Lord
Jesus in Romans chapter 10. So we call on the Father by calling
on the Son, and we call on the Son to be received for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We call on the Father that He
would receive us for Christ's sake, don't we? We come to the
Father by Him. We come to God by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We do call on the Father, but
we always come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here
in 1 Peter 1.17, those who call on the Father are exhorted in light of the fact that God
judges every man according to his work to pass the time of
your sojourning here in fear. First of all, we don't have long
in this world. We're strangers. We're just here
for a short time. God has given us a life. It's
a short life. He's given this life that we
might learn and know the Lord Jesus Christ and to honor and
glorify him. And so that Calling on the Father
is the result of that. No one will call on the Lord
unless He first calls us. Isn't that the truth? Can we
call on God if He hasn't called on us? No, it doesn't happen. No man seeks after God. Isn't
that what we just read in Romans 3? No one understands. No one
seeketh after God. They're all gone aside. The only
ones who call are those whom the Lord calls. And this is seen
throughout scripture. In one place is Acts 15, where
James, to convince the people then that God had called the
Gentiles, he said, and the Gentiles on whom my name is called, He's
talking about those who came to believe because of the gospel
being preached, and he's convincing them that these people were called
by God. So you can't speak against this
in Acts 15. He says in verse 14, James says,
Peter has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles
to take out of them a people for his name, and to this agree
the words of the prophets. As it is written, Acts 15, 16,
after this, I will return and will build again the tabernacle
of David, which has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins
thereof, and I will set it up, verse 17, that the residue of
men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom
my name is called saith the Lord who does all these things, known
to God are all his works from the foundation of the world.
These are the people the Lord was pleased to call his people.
Those he called, those he put his name upon, though they were
not his people, He called them his people, though they were
not called beloved, he called them beloved, and he did it when,
and he made it known to them through the preaching of the
gospel. And the result of that is that they call on the Lord.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 2, it says it this way,
to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, God set them apart in Christ, called
saints with all that in every place call on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They call because they're the
called. In Acts 2.39, he says that everyone
whom the Lord our God shall call. So this is the way it works,
God calls and then we call. We don't do anything, we don't
do anything in a gospel sense that God doesn't work in us.
We don't believe, we don't repent, we don't call, we don't continue,
we don't pray, we don't do anything. It all is only the response of
God's grace in us. But what does he do when he is
going to convince us, when he's going to persuade us of the terror
of the Lord, to believe? What does he do? Well, he directs
us to the proper fear of the Lord. And what is that? It's
not the terror that comes under the threat of eternal damnation. That doesn't put love in the
heart of anyone. What happens is that God convinces
us of what He's done for us in Christ, though we are under the
wrath of God, and justly so, just like Samuel convinced the
people in 1 Samuel 12, he tells us in the gospel, fear not, and
he tells us only fear the Lord, only look to Christ. Look at
1 John 4 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. How do we know love? Well, God
is love. We don't know love apart from
God. How did God make known His love? This is how. And this was
manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his
only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.
But we were sinners. We were under the curse of the
law, under the wages of sin, which is death, the eternal damnation. God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. That means, as the blood
was sprinkled on the mercy seat and the cherubim looked down,
reflecting God's justice, looking upon the blood sprinkled on that
mercy seat, and God was satisfied and his wrath was turned away
from the people, he was absolutely pleased with that blood sprinkled
on that mercy seat. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
not only made, but is the propitiation for our sins. And this is something
to observe here, that everything we need is found in Christ. So he goes on, and we have known
and believed the love that God hath to us. What love? The love of propitiation in Christ. He sent his son into the world
to be the propitiation for our sins. God is love, and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is
our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. You
see, here's the answer to all these threatenings and fears
and terror that rises in our heart, considering we know we're
sinners, like the people in 1 Samuel 12. We have done wickedly. Everything you said is right.
You haven't done wrong. We've done wrong. We brought
it all upon ourselves. And then we see the sign of God's
terror, thunder and rain in the wheat harvest, and they're terrified
of the Lord and Samuel. And Samuel says, fear not. We
have believed the love that God has to us. Herein is our love
made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
How can we have boldness in judgment? Confidence, assurance, because
as he is, so are we in this world. How is he? He's seated in glory. He's risen. He was delivered
for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Verse
18, there's no fear in love. You know how it is when someone
says they love you, but they try to get you to do things by
intimidating you. That shows that they don't understand
what love is. There's no fear in love. God
doesn't get us to do things by intimidating us. What does he
do? When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. When we were sinners, God commended
His love toward us. For a righteous man, some might
die, but for an ungodly, hell-bound sinner, who would die? God commended
His love toward us, Christ died for us. When we were yet enemies,
God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son.
Verse 18, 1 John 4, 18, there's no fear in love, But perfect love casts out fear
because fear has torment. Fear itself is torment. And the
fear that we have in unbelief actually brings the repercussion
of unbelief, which is more fear and torment. But it's mostly
tormenting in our conscience because we have no relief, there's
no covering, there's no hiding place. He that feareth is not
made perfect in love, Okay, so what's the answer? We love Him
because He first loved us. You see how God comes along,
the Father now coming along to His people, speaking to them
of Christ, and Him crucified, and the satisfaction He made,
and the righteousness He established, and the justification He obtained
for them in His own resurrection. And he says, now, you see, God
sheds abroad, as it says in Romans 5, the love of God in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us to teach us what Christ
has done for us. So what do we say then when we
stand before the Lord? In our conscience and in glory,
we say what we look to, what God has said. He says in Romans
5, verse 9, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. Isn't that what he says? Romans
5, 9, being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, This is
what happened. We were enemies. If, when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
God did this, Christ did this, much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life. God doesn't stop. He doesn't
take back His gifts. He doesn't start a project and
not finish it. He brought it to conclusion.
And he tells us the terror of the Lord that we must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ to instill within us this necessity,
the greatest necessity that we must be found in Christ. Isn't that what it said in Revelation
20? Those who were judged out of the books were cast into the
lake of fire. But everyone who was found written
in the book of life, the Lamb's book of life, was not. Only those
who were not found in the Lamb's book of life were cast in. We
have to be found in Him, don't we? That's why Samuel told the
people, fear not. Not with this servile fear where
you do things in order to persuade God that you're not all that
you are. No, you are all that God says
you are. There's no good in you, none
righteous, not any, not any good, none whatsoever, only bad. And what are we left with? The
only one good is Christ. I need to be found in Him. And
then we call. We don't call like those in Matthew
7 who say, Lord, consider me. Consider my works. Look upon
me. No, we say, Lord, look upon Christ. Consider Him. Cover me. Isn't that what we say? We come
to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We pass the time of our
sojourn here with a godly fear, which is given out of grace alone. And that fear causes us to cry
what? Abba, Father. Abba Father. It says in Psalm chapter 2 verse
12, he says, kiss the son lest he be angry with you when his
wrath is kindled but a little. And then he goes on to say, blessed
are all they who put their trust in him. That's it, isn't it? Those who fear the Lord trust
Christ. Who fear him, as Samuel said,
only fear the Lord. Don't fear like the midwives
in Egypt. They didn't fear Pharaoh because
they feared the Lord. In Psalm 27, he says, the Lord
is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? If the Lord
is our fear, we need not fear any other. We have no cause to
fear if the Lord is our fear, because then we trust Christ.
We have been driven by God's own operation in our heart to
seek salvation, and the only place that salvation is, is in
the answer of Christ that he gave of himself for his people.
Let's pray. Lord, we pray that when we stand
before you in glory, that we would be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, not having our own righteousness, but his. What he worked out,
what he did, and the cleansing that his blood has performed
for his people, the propitiation that he made with God, that reconciliation
he made, and that justification he made, that redemption he obtained,
that remission that He made by His precious blood, and that
sanctification, all that He is in His wisdom. Oh, let us see
that our all is in Christ. Let us come to Him and call upon
You through Him in His name. And let us pass this short time
of our life by walking in faith, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we pray, Lord, that you would receive us according to your
good will and pleasure to save sinners by your grace because
of Christ for his sake alone. We have nothing we can boast
in, nothing to defend ourselves with. We have nothing we can
say. Our mouths must be stopped. and
we have only one plea, that Christ would plead himself for us, as
he did at the cross, so now in our conscience, so then in judgment,
we ask these things in his name, in Jesus' name, amen.