Let's go ahead and turn to my
text, if you will, in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. It has been
a blessing to me. I was anticipating being over
here. And it's been such a joy to see you, the church here,
and you that are visiting here and driving so far to come here.
And I thank God for you, all of you. Thank God for what he's
doing here, what he's doing in his churches and other places.
The Lord is working. He is blessed in his gospel.
He's promised to, and he has, and he will. Long as this world
stands, there will be a church in this world. You'll see to
that. Upon this rock I'll build my
church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
And that's a blessing just to think about in this sorry Persian
world. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his 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 of them
that believe. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of
works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. This little phrase here is one
of Paul's phrases that he uses often in this book and in other
places too, the righteousness of God. Luther used to read that
little phrase. And it would scare him to death. He said that he looked upon this
as being the essential righteousness of God. Those eternal attributes
that's found in God of holiness and justice and righteousness
and perfection. And he was reading Augustine. And Augustine made a statement
that when we see this little phrase, the righteousness of
God, that we must not think that this is what we find in God. We must not look at this righteousness
of God and see what's in him, his eternal attributes. But Augustine
said, when we look at this little phrase, the righteousness of
God, we must know and remember that it is that righteousness
which God hath provided for sinners in Jesus Christ His Son. So when Paul uses this word this
morning, the righteousness of God, that's the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein in the
gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. Now what is this? When we see the righteousness
of God, what is it? I want you to turn over to the
fifth chapter of Romans. And verse 18 and verse 19. The fifth chapter in verse 18
and verse 19. Look what Paul says in verse
18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, Adam sinned against God. And when he did, he offended
God. How drastic was the fall? How
drastic was Adam's willful sin? He offended God. He offended
justice. He offended the law that he was
under. And by that offense, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, Jesus Christ, The free gift came upon all men, all that
are in him, all that believe in him, unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." What is this righteousness of God? It's the
obedience of one person. The perfect obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, brothers and sisters, when
we think of obedience, we must think that that's not only what
God requires, it's what He demands and what He will accept. Nothing
short of perfect obedience. You remember when the Lord sent
King Saul down to slay the Amalekites. And he saved certain animals,
he saved the finest of the sheep, and he didn't kill the king and
brought them all back to Jerusalem. And Samuel asked him, have you
done what the Lord told you to do? And he said, I have. Samuel said, what's the bleeding
of these sheep? Who's that man standing over
there that you were supposed to hack in pieces? And Saul said,
I brought these sheep back to offer in a sacrifice to the Lord. And remember what Samuel said
to him? Does the Lord delight in sacrifices? Is that what he
asked of you? The Lord takes pleasure in obedience. That's what he told him, wasn't
it? And not Sacrifices. There is no substitute for obedience. That's what God requires and
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ renders. Old Scott Richardson
used to say, this righteousness of God is the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you and I may differ on some
indifferent things. And I preach quite a bit on practical
things, and somebody may disagree with me on that. But brothers
and sisters, this is one place this morning where all of us
must see eye to eye. This is the gospel. It's the
essential gospel. And what is it? It's the perfect
obedience of Jesus Christ the Lord, rendered to His Father
in the days of His flesh. How many times did he make this
statement? I came down from heaven to do. I came to do, to do the will
of my Father. A body hast thou prepared me,
lo, I come to do thy will. And that's what he did. And I
love when he said, lo, I come to do thy will. He went right
on in the next line to say, thy law is in my heart. He brought the law down from
heaven with him in his divine nature. It was in his human heart
to keep the law. And I love what the father says
about him. When he had finished his life
and the father looked down upon him, he said, you have magnified
my law and you have made it honorable. We can't be saved apart from
the law being fulfilled, can we? And who fulfilled it? The Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, we've got
to remember that God will not accept anything less than perfection,
and Jesus Christ rendered that in the days of His flesh. Two
times He made this statement, that it was finished. Remember
in John chapter 17, He was praying that high priestly prayer to
His Father, and He said, Father, I've finished the work that You've
given Me to do. Well, the very next day he prayed
the same prayer, hanging on a cross. And he says it's finished. If
it was finished in John 17, why did he say it's finished in John
19? He was talking about two different
things. In John chapter 17, when the
Lord Jesus said, Father, I've finished the work. It simply
means that in His life, He rendered perfect obedience to the law
of God. He loved God with all His heart,
all His mind, and all of His strength. Boy, that takes some understanding
to do that, doesn't it? He understood the Father's will.
He knew the Father's will perfectly. And He had a will to do it. He
continued in it from His birth up until the cross. And He had
a will to do it. He said, My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent Me. And He did it perfectly. And
on the cross, when He says it's finished, it means that He suffered
He suffered the penalty of that broken law. He fulfilled its
demands in the days of His flesh, and on the cross, He suffered
the penalty of that broken law. He says, it's finished. I've
done it. I've come to do the will of my
Father. I love that passage. It's found
over in Isaiah 42, 21, if you want to keep that in mind sometime.
But here's exactly what the father said about him. The Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness sake. And that's the same word
that we find in our text, the righteousness of God. And God
the Father is well pleased for the obedience of His Son. Because of what He did perfectly
and the merit and worth of His humanity and His divinity upon
the cross of Calvary, His death is full of merit, full of worth
for poor believing sinners. What is the righteousness of
God? It's the perfect obedience of
the Lord Jesus Christ unto death. Unto death. Daniel called it
an everlasting righteousness, didn't he? The Messiah is going
to bring in an everlasting righteousness. Now why is that important? Well,
there were some holy angels in heaven. and had a created righteousness
and they sinned and lost it. And now they've been consigned
to eternal ruin and misery. Our fathers were holy and our
first father and mother were holy and they were happy in the
Garden of Eden until they sinned and they lost their righteousness.
And you and I lost everything in them. But this is a righteousness
that will never be diminished. This is an everlasting righteousness. The one who brought in this righteousness
finished this righteousness and he's now in heaven safe and sound. Listen to this in Psalm Isaiah
51 and listen to verse 5 and 6. My righteousness is near. My salvation is gone forth and
my arm shall judge the people. The islands shall wait upon me,
and my arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to heaven.
Look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But, but,
everything you're looking at's fading away. You and I are fading
away, but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness
shall never be abolished. That's this righteousness of
God. It's the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what the Apostle Paul
said about it here in our text in chapter 3. He said in verse 22, even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe. What a far reaching righteousness
this is. Unto all. That means it reaches
unto all who believe on Him for it. You and I, brothers and sisters,
are a long way from God. We have strayed a long way, haven't
we? But thank God, Jesus Christ our
Lord has provided a righteousness that will reach the farthest
center from God. And when it reaches Him, it clothes
Him. It covers the shame of His nakedness. Could you want anything more
than that? And that's this righteousness.
that the Apostle Paul is talking about. Perfect obedience of the
Son of God rendered to the law. Never to be abolished. Never
to be diminished. And it's this righteousness that
saves us. That delivers us. That remits
our sins. That clothes the shame of our
nakedness. And gives to us a perfect standing
before the Eternal God. The righteousness. of God. John Bunyan used to say, I stand
amazed that I'm a poor sinner upon this earth and I have the
righteousness of a man in heaven. That's wonderful, isn't it? The
righteousness of God. Secondly, why do we need this
righteousness? Paul tells us, doesn't he? I
read it there in verse 10, there is none righteous No, not one. Really no sense to read the rest
of that because if you're not righteous, then no sense talking
about doing good, is there? If a man ain't righteous, he
don't fear God. If a man ain't righteous, he
can't do the will of God. If a man is not righteous, if
he don't have that righteousness which God requires of him, he
can't do anything to please God. Somebody made the statement that
they thought, when Paul wrote this, that he must have been
upset about something. And he was mad at everybody.
So he just took it out in his writings. There's none of you
fellows any good. He saw the Jews persecuting him.
He was so upset with them, he said, you unrighteous bunch of
people. You don't fear God. And he saw all the corruption
in society. And he got mad and upset. So
he wrote all of this down, condemning humanity. But this wasn't Paul's
estimation of humanity, as it is written. That came right out
of Psalms chapter 14, and God Himself, Jehovah, looked down
from heaven upon the children of man to see if there were any. Is there any good down there?
Is there any that seek my face? Not a one, he said. That's God's
estimation of humanity. We look at some people, and I'll
be honest with you, according to the way we judge things, they
don't seem to be as depraved as the Bible says they are. They're
friendly people. They're generous people. They
make good neighbors. They're good citizens. But our
problem is that we don't see what God sees. When God sees,
He doesn't look on the outward. He looks down into the utter
recesses of a man's soul and He sees the heart. And He says
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's why we need this righteousness,
brothers and sisters. We are desperately wicked. The essential part of a man is
wickedness. He's evil. He's in this awful,
awful perishing state of enmity against God. Isn't this the missing
link in our day? Men run right to the love of
God. They even run quickly to the
gospel without taking any time to explain to us how fallen you
and I are and how guilty we are before God. It's a missing link
in our day, isn't it? Has your life upon this earth
been perfect and complete? If not, we stand condemned of
God. And that's what Paul tells us
here in verse 19. Whatsoever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. and all the world become guilty
before God. Everybody is guilty before God. Society, everybody in society,
every man, woman, boy and girl and child is guilty before God. When we do not live up to the
standard of God's rule He is holy and just Lord. And we sin
and come short of that standard. We are guilty before God. If you ever read anything on
Martin Luther, I love Martin Luther. He's one of my favorite
preachers and one of my favorite writers. And that man suffered
guilt in his conscience all the time. He was eat up by guilt. It was said of him that sometime
he lived in a monastery when him and the other monks were
in the monastery. He would go to confession and
sometimes he would stay in confession for six hours, confessing sin. He wore the priest out. They
sometimes have to change the priest just to hear his whole
confession. He confessed everything. And
then he'd leave the confessional and walk away and he'd remember
another sin that he'd committed and down he would go in his guilt. See, you and I are not like Martin
Luther. We read the law of God and we
say nobody can keep that and we just brush it off. Luther
could not do that. When that lawyer came to the
Lord Jesus and said, what is the great commandment in the
law? And the lawyer said, love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your mind and all your strength. And he said, this
is the first and great commandment. And Luther said, if that's the
first and great commandment to love God with all your heart,
mind, soul and strength and not to do that. For a man not to
do that, he is guilty before God and worthy of the judgment
of God. Luther believed that. And the
Lord said, the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as
yourself. Luther said, I love myself. And he could not rid
himself of this guilt. Brothers and sisters, we all,
by nature, as we come into this world, We have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We're guilty. I know society
don't realize that. And society don't realize it
because their heart has deceived them. Sin has deceived them.
Satan has deceived them. If society ever woke up and realized
it's guilt before God, it would not sleep as easily as it does. We're guilty before God. And
the only thing that can alleviate our guilt is this righteousness
of God. And nothing else can do it. Thirdly, this brings me to this
point. Why can't a sinner, one that
we've just read about, One that was made a sinner fell in Adam. Why can't such a sinner establish
the righteousness by his own obedience that God will accept? Why can't he do that? Why is
he not capable of doing that? Well, the Apostle Paul tells
us here in verse 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. The more he looks to the law
to keep the law, the more he tries to obey it, the deeper
in sin he goes. When we talk about man's depravity,
we talk about two things. We talk about what we do. That's
bad. That's really bad. We can do
some awful bad things. But it's also what we can't do. We cannot, we cannot render to
God perfect obedience to His law. Sin is mixed with everything
we do. That's why there's this warfare
in the hearts of the believers. You want to please God perfectly. You'd love to love Him with all
your heart. You'd love to love your neighbor
as yourself. And yet when you do, and when
you try, and when you pray, and when you labor, you find this
sin being mixed with everything you do. And if a believer is
there, And he so sins and comes short, how much more an unregenerated
man. Look over what Paul says in the
fourth chapter of Romans. Look what he says in verse 4
and in verse 5. Speaking about Abraham believing
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. In verse 5
and verse 4, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned
of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith in Christ
is counted for righteousness. Notice how Paul said that. If
we're working, to establish a righteousness before God, if we're working
to clear our debt, then we're just getting deeper in debt. Luther talked about those monks,
and he said they would sleep all night naked on cold floors
to try to subdue the guilt of their conscience. They would
fast themselves almost to death They would go out and sit on
sharp sticks, punishing their body to alleviate the guilt. And he said the more we did,
the more guilty we became. And he said some of those monks
went stark raving crazy. They had nervous breakdowns.
Some of them committed suicide. And it's because they were attempting
by their own obedience to fulfill the demands of God's law. And
the harder they tried, the more desperate they became. Brothers
and sisters, there's only one obedience that will justify us
and remit our sins and save us and deliver us, and that's the
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's good news, isn't it? If you and I could keep one commandment,
What about the other 11? And if we could keep one, how
long could we keep it? A year? A minute? A moment? But
when you're talking about from the cradle to the grave, what's
different, isn't it? By the deeds of the law shall
no man be justified in his sight. The Jews replaced the law of
God with their traditions and the commandments of men. And
they thought, well, we're doing pretty good. We tithe. We fast
twice a week. We abstain from all these open
sins and we do good things. But when it comes to keeping
the law of God, they could not. Its demands are too just and
too strict. Therefore, they're guilty before
God. And if a man rejects this righteousness,
and like the Jews, will not submit to this righteousness of God,
and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, then a
man's stuck in doing for himself. He's stuck in doing for himself,
and not keeping man's commandments, but keeping God's, and keeping
it perfectly. If it's impossible then for you
and I, in and of ourselves, to establish this obedience and
this righteousness before God, and we're all guilty, how then
can we obtain this righteousness? I want to know. I want to know
how I can have this righteousness that will save me and cover my
shame and remit my sins and give me a perfect standing before
God. I want it, don't you? more than anything in this world.
I want it. Paul tells us here that this
righteousness of God is obtained only one way, and that's by faith
in Jesus Christ. Look what he says in verse 21, chapter 3 of Romans. 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 is no difference. And he said in verse 27, or verse
26, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that
he might be just in the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Verse 28, Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's the most wonderful passage
I've ever read in my life. Without the deeds of the law. Justified by believing in Jesus
Christ without my obedience to the law of God. Believing in
His obedience on my behalf. What we can't have by doing,
we can have by believing. A perfect righteousness, perfect
acceptance, perfect salvation with God. We conclude that a
man is justified by faith right now before God and before the
law of God. by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I grew up, some of you know this,
I've talked to you about it, I grew up as a Free Will Baptist.
My dad was a Free Will Baptist preacher. And I know Free Will
Baptists. I know what they believe. I've
got one way I often approach them. And I say, do you believe that
God is holy? Everybody believes that. Yeah,
God's holy. God is holy. Do you believe you're
a sinner? Yeah, everybody's sinned. They've
come short of God's glory. I say, how then can you, being
a sinner, be justified with a holy God? How can you stand and be
accepted of Him and They always say this, I believe
in Jesus Christ. I believe that he was born a
virgin, did all of these miracles, that he died upon the cross,
and that he was buried and rose again. I believe that with all
my heart. And I believe that you have to be baptized. And
I believe that you've got to walk the walk. And on and on they go. Brothers
and sisters, when it comes to being justified with God, when
it comes to having this righteousness given to you, you and I must
not lift a finger. We must sit still and do nothing
and look out of ourselves to Jesus Christ and believe in Him
for this righteousness. There's a time to work. But until this righteousness
is put on your account, until you're washed in the Savior's
blood, doing is a deadly thing. Doing will end in death. When
we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, immediately this righteousness
becomes ours. It covers our shame. And then,
out of that principle of faith, We serve God out of a principle
of love for what He's done for us. We serve Him and we worship
Him out of appreciation and admiration. But it's only after we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness. With the heart,
men believe unto righteousness. You don't lift a finger to work.
You believe in Him and it's given to you. That's the gospel. And we've
got to have one mind here, brothers and sisters. If any man believes any other
gospel than this gospel, he's cursed. He's cursed. Luther was walking up those steps
there in Rome. trying to do something to be
accepted with God. And while he was going up those
steps, that Scripture came to him, that just shall live by
faith. And it's a naked faith, the old
Puritans used to call it. A naked faith. That means you
can't put anything else on it. By naked faith, look, believe,
trust the Son of God. who stood in your stead in every
sense of the word, and rendered to his Father all the Father
required on your behalf. And I love how the Apostle Paul
said this, and there's a reason he put this in here. In verse
21, now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. I was listening
to a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi, and he called Paul a renegade. He was a renegade. He was a renegade
against God. He was the only man, he said,
this rabbi said, he was the only man that talked about being justified
by faith. He's the only man that talked
about this imputed righteousness. And he said nobody else talked
about that. He said he was a renegade against
Christ. Christ didn't talk about that.
The other apostles, only Paul. And he said this is Pauline doctrine
and it's deceitful and wrong. That's what that Jewish rabbi
said. This was Paul's doctrine. But where did he get it? He got it out of the Bible. This
righteousness is manifested in the prophets. They wrote about
it. They talked about it. Look at
chapter 10 right quickly. Look in chapter 10 and look in
verse 5. Romans chapter 10 and verse 5. Paul had just said in verse 4,
Christ is the end of the righteous, for righteousness to everyone
that believes is the end of the law. In verse 5, for Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them, by doing them. You find that
in Leviticus 18.5. Leviticus 18.5, Moses said that. But listen, who said this in
verse 6? But the righteousness of faith
speaketh on this wise. Say not in your heart, who shall
ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from heaven. Or who shall ascend into the deep? That is to bring
Christ up from the deep. But what saith it? The word is
near you, even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach. Who said that? Moses said that
too. He talked about faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in Deuteronomy chapter 30. He witnessed to this righteousness
which the Apostle Paul spoke of. Paul read about it this morning
in Psalms 85, didn't he? David said, deliver me in thy
righteousness and cause me to escape. This is not just Paul's
doctrine. This is Moses' doctrine. This
is David's doctrine. This is Jeremiah's doctrine.
This is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will impute righteousness without works. And brothers and
sisters, how do we get it? By believing in Jesus Christ.
You're here this morning and you feel your guilt before God?
You're afraid? You're scared of eternity? You're
scared of dying in your sins? You don't want to face God like
you are? Then there's only one remedy for you. Only one remedy. Look outside yourself. Look away
from all your guilt to the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring your heart
to fully trust in Him. And the instant you do, you'll
see God's smiling face. Fifthly, two more short points
and I'm finished. Why in the world would God come
up with such a scheme to save Sarah? And why would the Lord
Jesus Christ execute this thing at the great herd of himself?
And why do we still preach it today? There's only one reason
that God would provide such a righteousness. His grace. His free and sovereign
grace. Verse 24 in our text. being justified freely by His
grace. His unmerited, unearned, undeserving
grace. God don't owe us anything, does
He? The judgment. He don't have any obligations
that He has to fulfill for us. We can't command anything from
Him. We've sent away any claims we've had on Him. He provided
this for believing sinners, for elect sinners, because He's so
good and He's so gracious and so merciful. Grace, grace, grace. This is why we have to hear this
over and over again, because we keep forgetting it. This is why we're so sad and
troubled, because we keep forgetting about God's grace. We begin to
look in ourselves for something and we forget about His grace.
I remember one time I was so down. Man, I was so down. I was
in a dark hole and could not get out of it. And it's because
I just wasn't thinking right. And there's a little plaque up
on the door of my office at that time and I looked up at that
little plaque and I was reminded of something. You know what that
plaque said? By grace are you saved. If I'm saved by grace,
why am I looking inside myself? If I'm saved by grace, why am
I standing in so much doubt of God? Why do I distrust Him so
much? Because I just can't believe
hardly that He's that good. Ain't that our trouble? I just can't believe hardly He's
who He says He is. He's good. He's gracious. And you see it this morning because
He sent this poor old dumb hillbilly here to preach these wonderful
things to you. That's how good He is. He's upheld
this good news for 2,000 years and it's because He's gracious. My last point is this. What's
the fruit of this? When we begin to see these things
and we come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, what's the
fruit of that? Well, He tells us that in verse
27 again. Where is boast in death? It is
excluded. By what law of works? No, but
by the law of faith. That's the fruit of this. Boy,
it'll strip you of your cockiness. God has designed to save His
people in such a way that they'll be saved, completely and finally
and eternally saved. That's why He provided such a
righteousness. And He does it in such a way
that He humbles us in the dust, forbids you to boast The gospel
is a wonderful thing. Somebody was talking last night
or yesterday morning about, did you ever have anything that stirs
up such emotions in you as setting under the gospel? It makes you
afraid and then dispels all of your fears. It kicks every pop
out from under you and then sets you on the rock, firm and sure. It fills you full of doubt and
then gives you full assurance. It just turns us upside down,
inside out. Stirs up all of these emotions. And I'm telling you what, He'll
keep you in the dust. Right where we ought to be. He's
designed it in such a way that no flesh will glory in His presence. That's why they're in heaven,
worthy as the Lamb. Those saints up in heaven, they
take off their crowns and they cast them before the Lamb. Why
would they do that? Those crowns were His. They got
there because of Him. He redeemed them by His blood.
He forgave all of their transgressions. He saved them. He kept them and
carried them through this world and brought them up to His Father's
house. And there they sat with these
crowns of glory and crowns of life. And they said it belongs
to Him. And they just take them off and
cast them at His feet. He is worthy. He is worthy. Oh, what a gospel we got to preach.
And the saints need to hear it. And the more they hear it, the
more it keeps them down, and the more it lifts them up. And
the better they love and serve the Lord, and love and serve
one another. The righteousness of God. You're so easy to preach to.
I wish I had another text and I'd preach again. You're like
a bunch of sponges just out there soaking everything. Oh, God bless
you. There's nobody like saints. There's
nobody like God's people. Lord bless you. I love you. I
love the pastor. I love this pastor's wife. Bless
you. God bless you. Wherever you go,
whatever you do, may he follow along with you and keep you for
his name's sake. Thank you, pastor.