Another great old hymn written
by Isaac Watts, taken from Scripture, Relations 6.14, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not
that piece of wood, but rather what the Lord did on that cross. When I survey the wondrous cross,
that is the redemption that Christ accomplished on Calvary. Christ
crucified. All right, go back to Philippians
3 with me. This is God's Word. No scriptures
of any private interpretation or personal writing. No man just decided to write
this, but holy men spake as they were moved. And Paul and the
apostles were given the Word of God to write down for us. This was written by God. and
through Paul to the church, to believers. The church at Philippi
and the church at Rocky Mount. Every church, every body of believers
written to them. Paul was in prison, they wrote
to him. In prison. All things work together for
good, don't they? He and Silas were put in prison one time,
You know they were out preaching and you know they wondered why
they were put in prison there at Philippi. And why are we here? And they thought, well, God has
a purpose. And so they just started singing
and worshiping and you know what happened, don't you? The church
at Philippi was born. The jailer sprang in. And all
the prisoners heard them. And Lydia was saved there at
Philippi. And on and on it goes. The Lord
put him in prison to accomplish that, to write the Word of God. And how wonderful is God's providence. And he begins by saying, Rejoice.
Finally, my brethren, in conclusion, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Nine times
he says that in this epistle. Rejoice, the word means be cheerful. Does that sound familiar? Cheer
up, be cheerful, be of good cheer. The Lord is the one that said
that first, who had Calvary hanging over his head all his life, but
to be made sin for us, for his people. From the cradle to the
grave, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and he tells us,
you be cheerful. Be cheerful. Cheer up. Your redemption draws
nigh. Be of good cheer. Be calmly glad. That's what that means. Calmly
happy. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord, who He is. He is Lord. He is Lord. Reigning and ruling. Rejoice
in what He did. What He did. He obtained redemption. He put away the sins of God's
people. He did. He accomplished it. Redemption
is accomplished. It's finished, he said. Cheer
up. Be of good cheer. Rejoice in
the Lord, your Lord and Savior. Rejoice in the Lord where He
is now. He's seated and all things are
under His feet and in His hands. He's the Lord of lords. The King's heart's in the hands
of the Lord. Don't worry about any petty king sitting on a throne
or president. Don't even worry about anything.
The Lord reigns. Tell the people, thy God reigneth. His name is Jesus Christ. Rejoice
in the Lord. Cheer up, because everything
is good for God's people in the Lord. And then he says to write
the same things to you. to me is not grievous, but for
you it's safe. Write the same thing. Paul wrote
the same things to this church as he did to Corinth, as he did
to Colossae, as he did to Ephesus, as he did to all the churches.
Write the same thing. And every time he wrote, every
letter that was written, we don't have it. The Lord didn't see
fit to give them to us, but we have enough. Okay? But apparently,
wrote others, and he wrote the same things. What things? The things of God. The things
of Christ. To take the things of Christ
and show them to you, he said, is not grievous to me. Who you
love. Who you adore. You never get
tired of talking about me. And Paul said, oh, it's not grievous
to me. He said to the Corinthians one
time, He said, I'm determined not to know anything among you.
He came to that place of learning, that seat of learning, of culture,
of class, of politics and all that. And everybody wanted to
discuss this, wanted to discuss that like they do now, today.
Every wind of doctrine, the telling of hearing of some new thing.
Look at this. Look at that. What do you think about this?
Paul said, I don't care about any of that. It's all going to
perish. I'm determined not to know anything among you. Say,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And this is my message every
time. Why? Because these things the angels
desire to look into. This is the mystery of God that
the world is hid from, but revealed unto us and our children. This
is the glory of God. This is what the whole universe
is about. This is why the sun hangs in
the sky. There's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. So write the same things. It's not grievous to me. And
for you, it's safe, he said. Salvation. It'll save you. Save
you. Salvation. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. It'll keep you. Save you. You're
kept by the power of God. It's safe. Why? It'll keep you
looking to Christ. And you look unto Me, he said,
and you'll be saved, all the ends of the earth. Keep your
look unto Christ. So, you know, preachers like that pole that
Moses held up in the wilderness. It's just a stick, just a piece
of wood, an earthen vessel. It's only good for one thing.
He's only good for one thing. As he holds up and lifts up Christ. And Christ said, if I be lifted
up, not the church, Men, not this and that. If I be lifted
up, I will draw men. I'll draw my people. Christ's
people. God's people given here unto
myself. Look unto me. Keep you looking
to Christ. It's safe to keep you looking
to Christ. You look anywhere else and you're a goner. He said, look unto me. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and founder. It's safe because it will keep
us from false teachers. It'll keep us from false prophets
that say they preach the Word of God, but don't. That say they
preach the Word of God, but those of you who have an eye to Christ,
those of you who know the message of the Scripture, Scripture says
to the law, Isaiah 820, to the law and to the testimony, if
they speak not according to my Word, there's no light in them.
What's the law? What is the law? It's a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. The law speaks of Christ. Yes, it does. Every jot and tittle
of it speaks of Christ. The testimony. What's the testimony?
Testimony of God. This is my Son. Hear Him. You want saved? He's it. There's no light in them. What's
light? Christ is alive. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. To keep you
from these false preachers who preach this, they sound good,
but I'm not hearing middle C. It's like a piano is tuned to
one key. You know that? A piano is tuned
to one key. Why did man just come up with
C in God's providence? Somebody, I don't know who it
was years ago, Mozart, I don't know who it was, some pagan fellow
said, Let's name these keys and we'll tune it all to one key.
C. Well, God did that. This whole universe. It's everything. And every message, you must hear
that or it's out of tune. You hear these preachers, I hear
them too, and I think, I'm not hearing Christ, I'm hearing man.
I'm hearing man's duties. I'm hearing, you know, what we're
to do. And I'm hearing man's glory and
man's will and man's this and man's that. I'm not hearing of
the God man. And when you hear him, you recognize it, don't
you? Now, that's music to my ears. Christ, music to God's
ears. The angels, safe, keeping. Keep you from false teachers.
Keep you from yourself. If you look to Christ, He will
keep you from despair. Don't look within. Look to Christ. I've got a lot more verses to
cover. Let's go on. It's safe. Beware of dogs. Beware
of dogs. We'll go quickly to Isaiah 56.
Isaiah 56. Go over there. Beware of dogs. evil worker, beware of the concision. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about pit bulls and rottweilers. No, he's talking about preachers. He's talking about religious
leaders. Look at this. This is surely where it came
from. And Psalm 22, you remember? Psalm 22 is the psalm of the
cross, where Christ is hanging on the cross. He quoted it. He
said it. And in one verse, it says, dogs
encompassed their bear. It's the Pharisees and the scribes. They were mostly around the cross
taunting religious people. But look at Isaiah 56, verse
10, speaking of these prophets, so-called. These watchmen are
blind. They're ignorant. They're all
dumb dogs. One old writer said, if you see
D.D. behind a man's name, that's where it came from. I like that. I say fiddle, D.D., when you
hear about doctor of divinity. Come on now. You have God's master,
a doctor of divinity. There's one great physician.
Holy and reverent is his name. I hate to hear it, to see the
name reverent in front of a man or a woman. They're dumb dogs. Dumb dog. Hemp bark, sleeping,
lying down, loving the slumber. Verse select, greedy dog, can
never get enough. Shepherds that cannot understand. Look to their
own way. Everyone for gain, for money,
for his own praise. See that? Dumb dogs. Beware of
them. Especially the ones wearing collars.
Beware of them. Any man, any person who wears
any religious garb to let you know that he is religious is
a false prophet. Our Lord said it. He said, They
make broad their phylacteries. Why? So that they may be seen
of men. He says, you beware of. Didn't
our Lord say that? Beware of the scribe, the Pharisee. They're
a bunch of hypocrites. They're playing a game. I see
their hearts. On the outside, they're white.
Why did set the curse on the inside full of extortion and
excess and greed? It's for gain. It's for their
glory. Beware of them. Read on. Go back to our text.
Beware of the concision. Beware of the evil workers. Our
Lord called them that in Matthew chapter 7, didn't He? The Sermon
on the Mount, he said, many will say unto me on that day. Many. Lord, Lord. Not everybody says,
Lord, Lord. But many will say, Lord, Lord,
have we not? Now, here's what they plead. Here's their acceptance with
Him, hoping for a crown. Have we not preached in thy name,
prophesied in thy name, in the name of Jesus? Have we not cast
out devils in thy name? Have we not done many wonderful
works? Have we not done many wonderful works? And he said,
depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Find a hand and foot in the Testament.
Workers of iniquity in the name of Jesus are preaching. He sees
right through it. They're doing it for their glory,
for their name. You look at religion. You watch these fellows, and
you tell me who's getting the glory. Jesus Christ? Huh? Who do you go away with? Who
do men and women go away impressed with? Jesus Christ? No. Meaner. Beware of them. Go back to verse
3 now. He says, Beware of the concision,
the orthodox, the seemingly fundamental. They're the most dangerous. Fundamental. Satan used scripture. He quoted
it. He says, now, we are the circumcision. We are the circumcision. God
gave this thing of circumcision to Abraham and his seed. You
know that. And he gave it as an outward sign, the only one in the flesh
to identify his people from the rest of the world, Jews and then
Gentile dogs. The Lord gave them. This still
wasn't seen by the eye, still covered up, but nevertheless,
all Jewish boys had this done to them. And it was a mark to distinguish,
to identify his people from the world, even though it was still
hidden. Look at Romans chapter 2 with me. But the true circumcision
of God is for both male and female. And it's not in the flesh. It's
not an outward sign. It's not something you can see.
It's not something that someone has in the flesh that they can
prove that they're one of God's people. It never was, really.
Though men were circumcised, it didn't mean they belonged,
that they were saved. Right? It was a remnant, even
of them. But look at Romans 2, verse 28
and 29. He's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
but he is a Jew that is the people of God, the chosen people of
God, the loved people of God, the sons of Jacob, which is one
Edward. And circumcision is that of the
heart, male and female, a new creature in Christ. The flesh
is cut away. That's significant. Not in the
letter. whose praise is not of men, that
is, men don't sing it, God does. God looks on the heart. And He's
the One that does the circumcision. He's the One that gives the new
heart. He's the One that does His operation. It's not made
with hands, but of God. So He says, now here are the
three marks. Three marks, like circumcision
back in Philippians 3. just like circumcision was one
mark, but was just a symbol. But here are the true marks of
God's people. That's the title of this message,
the true people of God. He says, We are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. We worship God. God's people
worship God. We know, they know He is God.
We don't let Him be God. Anybody that says, let God be,
doesn't know God. They just don't know God. It's
the first thing that God reveals to all His people. I am God. I am that I am. I'm God. You're not. It's my will. It's not yours. You're in my
hands, not vice versa. Right? We worship God for who
He is. And not just what we get out
of Him, but for who He is. That's what Paul said, rejoice
in the Lord. We worship God. We worship. We
worship. Why do we meet here today? And
we're here out of habit, out of duty. Because it's a thing
to do. Because it's Sunday. That's what
good Christian people do. And we want to see our brethren.
It's a social organization. We love to fellowship. We love
to sing. We love to worship. Worship is praise of God. Worship is thanksgiving to God. Let everything give thanks to
God. Worship is adoration. Worship is to describe all glory
to God. That's why we're here. To God
be the glory. Great things He hath done. So
loved He the world that He gave us His Son. Worship God in spirit. From the heart, see that's a
small s. God has not worshipped a man's
hands. What do you see going on today? Huh? And you see it,
you turn on your TV and it nauseates you, doesn't it? You see all
this going on. And it looks like a ball game.
It looks like a football game, you know, the wave. They're doing
the wave. God has not worshipped men's hands. Someone said the less you have
on the inside, the more you have to have up in the outside. An
empty drum beats a lattice. We worship God in spirit. I think
it involves more of a broken than a contrite heart. A grieving
over sin and a rejoicing in the mercy of God in Christ. That's what worship is. None
of this superficial stuff that goes on. That fools a lot of
people. It doesn't fool God. Worship God in spirit. And our Lord said, in truth,
they that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and
in truth. What's true? You can't worship God apart from
His Word. You can't know God apart from
His Word, which is true. What is His Word? Christ. He
is the truth. You can't know God. You can't
speak to God. You can't be spoken to by God
except through Christ. and truth. And you know the truth,
it will set you free from all this fleshly religion. Look at
the next thing. Well, let me say this before
I go on. This thing of worship. True worshipers worship the Father
and Spirit in truth. True worshipers worship God.
This is how you know God's people. They're still worshiping God
the way they did thousands of years ago. No different. It's not contemporary worship.
That means like the world. That means current. That means
modern. No, sir. We worship the old path, by the
old path, where it is a good way. We worship God the same
way Moses did. How? With a Bible and a preacher
and prayer and singing and that's it. Don't need all the trappings.
Don't need all the things that, you know, just drum up a feeling
of religion. It's not in feeling, it's in
the Word. It's in knowing God. These things
get in the way. And that's one of the next points
here. But, you know, we need to worship
in such a way, we need to conduct our worship services in such
a way that the Apostle Paul and Peter would walk in here and
say, no, that's the way it's supposed to be done. Reverence. Fear. Worship. Scriptural hymns. A man that
preaches the Word clearly. A people that are singing the
hymns that are scriptural. People that are calling on God
in prayer. Minimal amount of music. And if it is music, it
better be reverent. It better be not taken away from
the message. It better not go away talking
about the music. It better go away talking about
Christ. That's worship. That's the way it's to be done.
worship and spirit and truth. And look at this, the next thing,
they rejoice in Christ Jesus. The true people of God rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Oh, dear Lord give me words to
say. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Many
people rejoice in many things. Rejoice in their church. Rejoice
in their programs. Rejoice in the music. Rejoice
in themselves. Their new life or whatever. But
God's people rejoice in Him. They rejoice in Christ. That's
why you continue. The man can keep preaching Christ
and it's just fine with him. They love Him. Christ. I've given these. You've heard
every illustration I've had to give. But, you know, we do things
often in honor of people, birthdays and so forth, and anniversaries
that are in honor of the people that we love. Okay? Say a birthday. We celebrated Kelly's 50th birthday. Fifty. Wow. Anyway, 50th birthday. Who showed up? Not everybody
that wanted to or could, but those that loved Kelly. There
was nobody there that didn't love Kelly. Huh? Even Daisy and Abby were there.
Wow, they loved Kelly. Kelly was talking about that,
Melanie, how, why do they love me? That's what he was amazed
at that. But we loved Kelly and it was
all about Kelly. Not about me. And who loved Kelly
showed up to honor Kelly. Well, what do God's people do
every time they get together, huh? They worship Jesus Christ. It's not about me. If I take
any glory to myself, God's going to get angry with me. Get out
of there. This is about my son. This is all about my son. The
whole universe is about my son. God's not pleased with and in
love with human beings, per se. Those in Christ he is, but those
who don't honor his Son, those who don't glorify his Son, those
who don't worship his Son, God has no use for them. He's going
to destroy them. That's the story of the wedding
feast. The man comes in without the
wedding garment. He said, how did you get in here? Well, I
sewed me up a little coat. I think it's real pretty, you
know, that I'm pleased with this. I thought you'd be pleased with
it. That's man's righteousness. Everybody there has got a wedding
garment made by Christ Himself, the robe of His righteousness.
They're all covered with it. He did it. He gets the glory.
Anybody comes any other way, God says, get him out of here.
He's a thief and a robber, stealing my glory, stealing my Son's glory
for Himself. And religion is full of people
and their name, their name, their churches and this and that and
the other. This is all about Jesus Christ. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Jehovah
Sid Kennedy. Some Jehovah Witnesses so-called,
falsely so-called, came to my door one time, came to my barn. I was out there. And they said,
We've come in the name of Jehovah. And I said, Wait a minute. Hold
on. Who are you talking about? Jehovah. I said, Do you know
Jehovah Sid Kennedy? No, we've never heard that name.
I said, you haven't? It means the Lord our Righteousness.
And that's Jesus Christ. He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
the Lord our Righteousness. Romans 10.4, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
And all through the book, 500 times it talks about the righteousness
of God. Who is that? What is that? It's
a who. It's not a what. It's a person.
I said, I'm a Jehovah Witness, not you. Because Jesus Christ
is Jehovah. Jehovah said, Kenneth, Jehovah
Jireh. I said, who? You know Jehovah Jireh, surely.
No, we don't. Well, you don't. Well, that's
in Genesis 22, where Abraham took his son, his only begotten
son, whom he loved, up on the hill and offered him as a burnt
offering to God. Who's that? That's Jesus Christ.
And he came down from that mountain and said, Jehovah Jireh! God
will provide. The Lord will provide. That's
Jesus Christ. Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Shalom. The Lord, our peace. Jehovah-Rapha. Ra-ah. On and on. You know those
names, don't you? They that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. Who's that? Jehovah. Who's that?
Jesus Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. The Lord,
our righteousness. The Lord, our sanctification,
our redemption. He's made us. The Lord our Shepherd.
The Lord our Shepherd. Jehovah Raya, I believe it is. Is that it? That's one I forgot. The Lord our Shepherd. And the
word, capital L, isn't it? Those of you who know it. Capital
L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That's Jehovah. Every time.
And in Psalm 23, the Lord our Shepherd. Who is our Shepherd?
Who is the shepherd of the sheep? And John 10 Christ said, I am
the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. Rejoice in the Lord our shepherd.
I rejoice because if the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. I shall not want for a righteousness
to cover me. I shall not want for a blood
to atone for my soul. I shall not want for anything
I need. I shall not want. And though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear
no evil. Why? He's with me. He said, I'll never leave you
for a second. Who? Jehovah. The Lord. Rejoice in
the Lord. Rejoice. Our Lord said, be of
good cheer. Rejoice. I've overcome the world. I am the Lord. Rejoice. And look at this third thing.
He said that we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence. The flesh. Anything to do with
the flesh. Anything you've ever done. Anything
you've ever felt. Forget it. Forget it. Feelings come. Martin Luther
wrote this. I think it was Martin Luther,
one of those old writers. Was it, feelings come, feelings
go. It doesn't matter. It's good.
Whoever said it, said feelings come and feelings go, but feelings
are deceiving. My hope, he said, is in the Son
of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Don't look to yourself. Don't look to feelings. You'll
be up one day and down the next. Don't look for evidences. One
day you think you have faith, the next day you think you don't
have any. One day you may be feeling pretty good about yourself,
and that's the worst thing of all that you need to feel. The
sacrifice of God is a broken heart. He won't despise that,
but He will despise a self-righteous one. But one day you feel pretty
good, the next day you feel rotten. You may be closer to God when
you feel rotten than you are. Don't trust feelings. No confidence
in the flesh. Evidences. Don't look for evidences
in yourself. Don't do it. Because when the
day you can't find any, what are you going to do? You look to Him. Look to Him. No confidence in the flesh. No
confidence in abstinence. No confidence in your devotions.
No confidence in your emotions. Tears. Some people cry at the drop of
a hat. That doesn't mean a thing. That doesn't mean their heart's
broken over sin. Don't put incompetence in the flesh. Anything to do
with the flesh. And again, like we said, religion
has to have all these things to try to drum up feelings in
people. It's not about feelings. It's
faith. And faith comes how? One way. Nobody's ever been saved by a
song. Nobody's ever been saved by a tune. Every person's ever
been saved and saved by the Word of God as it speaks of Christ. The gospel is the power of God
and salvation, not music. Feelings. Feelings. Don't trust
them. Don't have any confidence in
them. Confidence means to trust, depend upon, look to. That means
where you're standing on firm, solid ground, where do you stand?
On Christ the solid rock. That's going to be our closing
hymn today. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Alright, now, I've just got to
hurry through this, but those are the three marks. God's true
people. They worship God. and worshiping
the Spirit from the heart with the aid of the Holy Spirit and
rejoicing Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
That's who He points to. That's the Holy Spirit Christ
said in John 16 will convince of sin, righteousness and judgment.
All that's seen in Him. And He causes His people to rejoice
in Christ. Rejoice in who He is, what He's
done, where He is. He's coming back. And they're
in him. Rejoice. And they had no confidence
in the flesh. None. And Paul went on to tell
his story. He said, some had confidence
in the flesh. If any thinks he does, I had
more. He said, I circumcised the eighth
day, the stock of Israel, the child of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
Hebrews. You know, there are people that
like to trace their religious heritage way back, you know,
the Baptist in particular. I'm a Baptist, son of a Baptist,
son of a Baptist, son of a Baptist. Traced my baptism all the way
back to John the Baptist. Seriously. Or Catholicism. I've been in the church, my family. That's not salvation. You can be a Hebrew of Hebrews
and be lost. A fellow came one day and wanted
to argue with me. He was just breaking the Word
of God and tearing it to pieces. He was a Greek. He was some kind
of Greek scholar. I said, Bud, there are five-year-olds
over in Greece that know more Greek than you do. But they're
not saved. Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee. A doctor. Pharisees of the law. The Pharisees could quote the
Scriptures. That's what those phylacteries were. They could
quote whole books of it. They were proud of it. But they
knew the letter. They didn't know the Spirit.
And our Lord made them so mad often, He said, you do err not
knowing the Scriptures. That made them frightened mad.
Not knowing the Scriptures. And another time, He'd say, have
you never read? Oh, my. And they got angry. except we converted and become
as little children. We know nothing. We don't know
the law. Paul thought he did. He said,
oh, I didn't know the law. I knew the letter of the law.
I was a Pharisee of the law. When the law, the spirituality
of it came, oh, it showed me I know nothing as I ought to
know. I didn't know Christ. And he
said in verse 6, I persecute, I zeal, That's what he wrote
in Romans 10. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. They're ignorant of what? Righteousness. Righteousness. How can he be claimed as born
of a woman? How can man be just with God?
How can God, who is holy, have anything to do with the sinner?
Hmm? God be righteous. How? You can't
do it. You don't have any. You can try
to produce it. He said it's filthy rags. One. One person. And I do want
you to turn here to Romans chapter 5. I do want you to see this. I had so many scriptures I wanted
to quote or read, but I'm already out of time. But look at this.
Righteousness. Righteousness. Righteousness.
In verse 17 of Romans 5. And this is, oh my. Look at it. Romans 5, 17. By
one man's offense, death reigned. By one. Much more. They which
receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment, that's Adam, came upon all men to condemnation,
and Adam all died. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, who? Jesus Christ. The free gift,
you see that? Not earned. given, bestowed upon
all men, all human beings, all His people, and the justification
of life. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. By the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous." See that? Righteousness. And this
is what Paul went on to say. He said, all my religious past,
and I'm going to paraphrase it and quit. All my religious past,
all my religious attainment, There's fame, there's fortune
in religion, and Paul got that. Well known. Someone thought he
would be the next high priest. But he said all of that was loss,
a waste of time. Gain, fleshly gain, but spiritual
loss. He said, I count it loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And
I've suffered the loss of all things. He said, I have. I've
lost everything but Him. But it's all done. It's all manure. Christ is the great pearl. And
he said, I want to win Christ and be found in Him. Verse 9,
not having mine own righteousness of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ. You see that? That's not a misprint. It's said that five or six times,
Galatians and other places, the faith of Christ. Righteousness,
which is of God by faith, of Christ. Faith of Christ. What does that mean? Did it say
faith in Christ? How do we do? It's the faithfulness
of Christ. Our hope of heaven. Our entrance
into heaven, our acceptance with God is not by us doing anything. It's by Jesus Christ coming down
here. God giving His people to Christ
to do this work for them, to establish righteousness. The
second Adam who came to glorify God, to keep the law. We can't
keep the law. We don't even know the law. tells us, you're just a sinner.
That's all the law says. And it points us to Christ. Now
there's your hope. Not me, the law says. Right there.
Jesus Christ. You run to Him. He's the Keeper
of the Law. And He did this as a substitute, as a covenant head,
as a representative, as the Lord our righteousness. He fulfilled
it. And God looked down and said,
I'm very pleased for His righteousness sake. And then God in amazing
grace transferred that made him to be sinned. Took all the sins
of all of God's people and laid them on Christ. And God killed him. The soul
that sinned surely died. And God made his soul an offering
for sin. But God took his righteousness
and laid it on his people. Covered them. And he sees them
as wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's name. Why? Anything
they did? Nope. Christ did. Their faith,
that's the result of this righteousness. It's because of this righteousness,
not the effect. I mean, not the cause, it's the
effect. OK, well, three marks. You haven't? Worship God. Rejoice
in Christ. You rejoice in Christ, your righteousness?
No confidence in your flesh or anybody else's? Well, he must
be a Jew. He must be one of God's true
faithful. Alright, John, let's sing in
closing. 272. 272. I dare not trust the
sweetest frame of holy land on that beloved name, on Christ
the solid rock. 272. Let's sing. Bye!