It's always a blessing to hear
them sing. I've been indeed blessed today
by the special music and by the congregational singing as well. And it's just good to be in a
place of worship with you again this evening. If you would go
back to the book of Mark and I want us to look at a couple
of verses here in Mark chapter 1. This morning I endeavored to
speak on Christ's mission from Isaiah 61. This evening my subject
is Christ's message. I know what His mission is now.
And so this evening, I want to see if I can deal with this subject,
Christ's message. Let's again petition God for
His mercy and grace and blessing. Lord, as with bended knee, we
come before You, recognizing our inability to do anything
apart from the spirit of grace. Lord, we would worship you this
evening. We would render all glory to
your name. But only if the spirit of grace
enables us and gives us the willingness to do it and the right attitude
to do it. Lord, we recognize our own inabilities,
but we also recognize and fully are confident in the might of
your grace. Lord, you have so often visited
with us as we have sought to worship you in spirit and in
truth. Again this evening, we ask that
you would enable us to render all glory and honor to that One
whose name is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus. We
thank You for His sacrificial death and His triumphant resurrection,
and we worship Him who ever lives to make intercession for us.
Lord, help us this evening. Bless your people. Lord, save
the lost. Restore the erring saints. And show mercy on all of us as
we seek to glorify your name through the preaching and through
the hearing of the word of the gospel. For Jesus' sake I pray,
amen. As we read the four gospel narratives,
those being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we readily see that
each one approaches their inspired topic in a different way as led
by the Spirit of God. Oftentimes you find that neither
Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John will actually present to us our
Lord's ministry in a chronological order. And the way they do present
it, though they may present it in different ways, is always
to fulfill the purpose of God. As we know Matthew, he sets out
by the leadership of the Spirit of God to show us that our Lord
Jesus is that seed promised to Abraham. He's the royal one. He is the king. So Matthew begins
his gospel narrative, his gospel book, by setting forth our Lord's
royal, royal genealogy. When we come to the book of Mark,
Mark sets forth no genealogy. He just jumps in first to the
ministry of John the Baptist and then into the ministry of
our Lord Jesus. He isn't going to set before
us our Lord's virgin birth as Matthew does and as Luke does
because that's not what the Holy Spirit intended for Mark to write. You can read about that in Matthew
and in Luke. That which Mark is setting before
us, and that's of course John Mark, who accompanied the Apostle
Paul on his first missionary journey, that which Mark sets
out to do is to present to us our Lord Jesus as that one who
is Jehovah's perfect servant. And as typical in Jewish writings
and even in contemporary writings, servants were not interested
in their genealogy. And so Mark just goes right into
the narrative of our Lord's earthly ministry as he was faithful to
serve the cause of God in truth. He is indeed Jehovah's righteous
servant as set forth in Isaiah chapter 52 and 53. And then we get to Luke, and
of course Luke does present our Lord's genealogy, but he's presenting
it in such a way not to show us that our Lord is royal, but
he's showing us that our Lord Jesus, he's the Son of Man. That's the reason when Luke in
Luke chapter 3 presents the genealogy of our Lord Jesus, he takes it
from our Lord's birth all the way back to Adam. Because here's
what Luke is showing us, that one who came to this earth to
save us by his substitutionary death, he was a real man. And our Lord loved to be called
the Son of Man. He often used that title. So he starts off with, he starts
his book off with, first of all, with the birth of John the Baptist,
who was the forerunner of our Lord Jesus. And then he sets
before us the virgin birth of our Savior in Luke chapter two,
and gives us the only, the only information regarding our Lord's
early years, and when our Lord was 12 years old and went to
the temple. And then we'll get to John. John
presents no genealogy. That's not his intention. Because
John is showing us that this one who is the king, who is the
servant, who is the son of man, is the son of God. That's what
John is doing. So of course he doesn't present
to us the lineage of our Lord's birth. He goes right from the
get-go from verse one, in the beginning was the Word. Because
He is establishing the eternality of that One who did come to this
earth to save us from our sins. Now, backing up now to Mark. Mark is showing us that our Lord
Jesus is God's faithful servant. And being the faithful servant
of God, He's the preacher. He's a preacher of the gospel.
And Mark, early on in his book, he tells us that here in Mark
chapter one and look at verse 14. Now, after that, the John was
put in prison. I mentioned to you this morning
that the first year of our Lord's ministry was spent pretty much
in Judea. And that's where our Lord was,
that's where he began preaching initially. Several things happened
in Judea, of course, but now when John is put in prison, this
is a year later. So that's the reason I say that
they're not The Scripture seems to jump around, but Mark is satisfying
the inspiration of the Spirit of God by taking us directly
into the ministry of our Lord Jesus in Galilee. So after that,
John was put in prison. That's very important to notice
when our Lord got to Galilee and preached the gospel. It was
when John the Baptist was put in prison. His ministry is over,
but never think that God has left Himself without a witness.
John has served His purpose. He has preached the gospel of
the kingdom of God. He has set forth our Lord Jesus
as that Lamb of God. He has done so faithfully, and
now God has finished with him as far as His public ministry
is concerned, and John is in prison. but not to fear. The kingdom of God is in safe
hands. There's another preacher coming.
Oh, John the Baptist, he was a bold preacher. He was a mighty
preacher. But there comes after John the
Baptist, one whose shoes latch it, John wasn't worthy to tie
or untie. And that preacher is our Lord
Jesus. So after that John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching. He was a preacher. And the reason we need to take
heed to the message that He preached is because those who would dare
to speak to us and say they're preachers of the gospel, their
message must fully line up with our Lord's message. If I'm a
preacher of the gospel, if you're a preacher of the gospel, if
you're a preacher of the gospel, If we're truly called by God
to set forth the gospel of the kingdom, then that which our
Lord Jesus preached, we will preach. And that's how you know
whether a man is truly a preacher of the gospel. He preaches the
same as Christ did. Now, indeed, all of God's preachers
have great infirmities. We have weaknesses, but we're
sinful men. But our message is identical
to that of the Savior. Now, what did He come preaching?
The gospel of the kingdom of God. He came preaching good news. And listen, He Himself is the
good news. He is the gospel. It's the good
news of salvation fully accomplished and finished by our Lord Jesus
through his substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary. By
his death, he satisfied God's justice, which demanded death
for sin. By His death upon the cross of
Calvary, He removed all of our indebtedness to God. He paid
for all of our sins. All of our sins are forgiven
by the bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus. And by His death, He established
righteousness for all of His people. He conquered all of our
foes and all of His foes. He came preaching the gospel
of the King, the good news. It's not good suggestion. It's
good news. It is finished. That's good news. It's the gospel of the kingdom
of God. This is God's kingdom now, not
man's kingdom. It's God's kingdom. And this
is what he said. Look at verse 15. He says that
the time is fulfilled. Right now. Christ came to fulfill
the time. He fulfilled the law of God.
He fulfilled all the Old Testament types and pictures and prophecies
of Him. He came to fulfill all that was
set forth concerning His death by all those Old Testament sacrifices. He says it's fulfilled. The time
is fulfilled. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly, the scripture says. He says the time is fulfilled
right now. He's fulfilling the everlasting
purpose of God. This is what God ordained. This
is what God had willed, that the Savior come into the world,
that he become a preacher. He's the ideal, perfect preacher. He says, the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. Well, how can he say that
the kingdom of God is at hand? Because the king had come. He's
the king of the kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of grace,
the kingdom of righteousness. And he says, now repent ye and
believe the gospel. Now, I'm going to go through
as quick as I can. I'm going to give you seven things
that our Lord preached. And I'm going to come back to
this in just a little bit, but I want to go first to Luke chapter
four. And in order for you to better
remember them or jot them down, I've alliterated all of them.
They all kind of start with the same letter. And he preached
royal grace. Royal grace, that is the grace
of the king. That's sovereign grace. Royal grace. Luke chapter four. Now, I read a few verses from
Luke chapter four this morning and you'll remember I read down
through verse 19 or 20 and 21. Isaiah 61 is fulfilled by our
Savior. Now look at verse 22. And all
bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, here's their first
mistake, is not this Joseph's son? This is an absolute denial
of his deity. Now, you need to understand something. He's not speaking to a bunch
of drunkards and harlots and whoremongers and people who have
no interest in religion. He's in church, as it were. He's in the synagogue. These
are Bible-carrying people. These are people who fasted.
They tithed. They said, is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, I know what you're thinking.
Physician, heal yourself. You did all those miracles over
there in Judea. Now we want you to entertain
us now by doing miracles. whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country." And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
You're not interested in anything I really have to say. You're
not going to believe me. But I got a truth to tell you,
he says in verse 25, and here's royal grace. He illustrates it. He illustrates sovereign grace,
sovereign mercy. But I'll tell you a truth. Many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah. when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But none of them was Elijah sent,
save unto Sarepta, city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow."
Now, these Jews knew exactly what he was talking about. They
remembered they'd been taught that in their Bible classes. Lots of widows in Israel due
to the wars that Israel fought in. Many of them hungry. The widows were hungry. The children
were hungry. Many of them died of malnutrition
and of hunger. But the Lord didn't send the
preacher, the prophet, Elijah, to any of those Jewish widows. Instead he sent his preacher
to a Gentile widow And he made sure she was fed And then he said now don't you
know you could hear a pin drop in that synagogue After all Gentiles
are dogs He fed a dog God sent his preacher
to meet the needs of a dog in their minds. And then he said, he's got something
else to say now. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Eliseus, that is, El-Hasha, who's the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. He's the only one. They had a
real problem with leprosy, and people loved to be cured of leprosy,
but the Lord didn't send His preacher, His prophet, to any
of the Jewish lepers. He sent His preacher to a Gentile
dog who was a leper, and that one was cleansed. And then a riot broke out in the church
building, in the synagogue. Watch this, verse 28. And all
they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, they were
filled with wrath. Well, what did he say? Did he
call them a bunch of wretches? He could have, that'd been true,
but he didn't do that. Did he ridicule them? Did he
speak ill of them? No. All he did was set forth
royal grace, regal mercy. That is sovereign grace, sovereign
mercy. The scripture says, the Lord
says, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and whom I will,
I'll harden. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious. Out of all the widows of Israel,
the Lord was not merciful to them in sending to them a preacher,
a prophet, who would make provision for her by His very presence
and by the gift of the miracle that God bestowed upon him and
therefore her. Just one. That's all. and then of all the lepers in
Israel and in other countries as well. Only one man received
healing of his leprosy, and that's a Gentile man. That's God showing
mercy to whom He will. You say, well, that's unfair.
No, it's not unfair. You see, it's like this. Mercy,
salvation, saving grace is not deserved by anybody. And if God has shown mercy to
you, if He has saved you by His mighty grace, that was an act
of the royal purpose of God. This is royal grace. I have four
things you need to hear. Number one, this salvation is
all of God. I mean from His eternal purpose
to the perfection of that salvation in everlasting glory. Salvations of the Lord. He chose
the people that He would save. And you read Romans chapter 9,
He chose a people unto salvation before we had done anything either
good or bad. And He has always loved these
people. He has always chose these people.
Well, what about people who perish? He didn't choose them. And I'm
not going to say like I've heard preachers say, He didn't choose
them, I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry. I'm not going
to apologize for God. This is His earth. He owns all
the people who will ever live on this earth, and it is His
royal, regal right to show grace to whom He will. It's a gift
that God gives. Salvation is of the Lord, totally. Now, number two, God is sovereign
in the great work of salvation. You can't force Him. You can't manipulate Him. There
is no manipulating God. I hear sometimes people say,
well, you know, we have a prayer chain. They think they're all
gonna gang up on God. And if enough people gang up
on Him, then He'll give them what they want. I tell you what
James says, if somebody's sick, call for the elders of the church.
Call for them to pray. You go ahead and give me a call.
If you're sick, I'll pray for you. Ronald will pray for you. Others in the congregation will
pray for you. But for goodness sakes, don't
be calling every religious cow pasture around, goat pasture
around, saying, would you pray for me? I got cancer. Well, if
you've got cancer, number one, God gave it to you. And number
two, God has provided men who will pray for you and will ask
His will, if it's His will, to heal you. But God is totally sovereign
in the work of salvation. You can't push Him. Ask Him. Pray for those who are
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. But now this is His
work. This is His work. He'll save
whom He will. There's no question about that.
I had a person tell me one time,
I don't understand election unto salvation. I can't grasp it. And I said, well, there's a difference
between I can't grasp it and I can't understand it, and then
somebody saying, I'm not gonna believe that. That's a big difference. And if you're one of those who
say in your own heart, I'm not gonna believe that, you'll believe
it or you'll perish in your sins. Because that's your point of
rebellion. That's the truth. Say, I'm not going to stand for
that kind of preaching. Maybe somebody watching tonight,
I don't want to listen to that. Well, you don't have to listen.
Go on and perish. Go on and die as a rebel. But it's still going to be true. God's totally sovereign in the
work of salvation, number three. God is no debtor to anybody. He doesn't owe you mercy. He doesn't owe you grace. He's no debtor. I tell you what we got coming
by nature. Death, judgment, hell. You want to say, I just want
what's coming to me. I don't. I don't. Unless you say, I want what's
coming to me because of the faithfulness and the merits and the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, my substitute. But he's no debtor. And he doesn't
owe you any explanation for as to the reason he does anything. We have two men in our congregation
who've got COVID. That germ, that bacteria, whatever
it is it causes, that virus, it can even find its way around
a mask. if you're appointed to get it. So God's supposed to take care
of me and keep me well. Where in the world do you ever
read that? I mean, God's supposed to do good things for us. Everything
He does for His people is good. But He's not your debtor. Don't
believe this stuff. Well, if you come to Jesus for
salvation, you won't have any more problems. Ask Paul, the
apostle, about that. He didn't seem to have any problems
as Saul of Tarsus until the Lord broke him, put him down in the
ground, and he said, Who are you, Lord? And boy, that's when
the trouble came. The trouble started there, persecution
began, trials began, and they didn't end till he lost his head. He's not your debtor. And number
four, let's just get to the bottom line. You don't deserve the grace
of God. If you did, it wouldn't be grace. It wouldn't be grace. Oh, this is what our Lord preached.
Royal grace. Secondly, go to Matthew 15. Now
I've got to move on. Okay, Matthew 15. Here's what
our Lord preached. Ruined by the fall. ruined by
the fall. The Pharisees came to our Lord,
or the disciples came to our Lord and said, you know, the
Pharisees, they're offended by what you preach. You've hurt
their feelings and you need to kind of soothe things over with
these false religionists. I hope none of you think that
way. Can't you make things a little,
take it a little easier? Don't talk about Catholicism
and all these false religions around here. Do you have to be
negative like that? Well, yeah, it's necessary. It's
necessary. They said, you've hurt their
feelings. And the Lord Jesus, and it was over this. They believe
the tradition of the elders that if you ate with unwashed hands,
then not hygienically, It's not a matter of hygiene. It was a
matter of breaking the tradition of the elders. And you were taking
wickedness or sin or filth into your body. And they said, you've
hurt their feelings. And our Lord said, leave them
alone. Just leave them alone. Don't
argue with them. Don't even preach to them anymore.
They aren't going to listen to you. Look what he says here in
verse 14. He said, leave them alone. Let
them alone. They'd be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the dish. And then Peter, he said, Lord
declared us the parable. He said, you mean you lack understanding
of this? He said, do you not yet understand
that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goes into the belly,
it's cast out in the draft. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth, they come forth from the heart. There's the problem. That's where the corruption is.
This is the root of the problem. They defile the man. I got to
have this little procedure Tuesday. This right here is not the problem.
You know what the problem is? The root. The root. Well, what's got to happen? The
root has got to be cut out. Don't sound like a Sunday school
picnic to me, but it's got to be done. It's got to be done. He's got to get to the root of
the problem. And you see our Lord Jesus, He
puts His finger on the root of the problem. It's not what's
going into your mouth, it's what's coming out of your heart. That's
where the wickedness is. That's where we're ruined. He
says, verse 19, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man. So,
these outward rituals of eating with unwashed hands, that's not
the problem. And therefore, Now pay attention
to this. Therefore, outward acts of religion
won't cure the problem. Because it's not an outward problem. See, you can live what people
think is the holiest of lives. The Pharisees, you know what
the word Pharisee means? Separatist. They were a separated
people. Oh, what a holy man. Oh, what
a godly woman she is. Well, she's got a wicked heart. But she reads her Bible every
day. But she's vile within. And that's
true of every son and daughter of Adam. We're ruined. We're ruined. Which brings me
to this third point. Go to Matthew chapter 26. Redemption
by the blood. This is the remedy. There's royal grace and there's
ruin by the fall, but thankfully there is a remedy. There's redemption
by the blood of our Savior. And this is what he preached
the night before his death. Matthew 26, excuse me, 26 verse
26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and
gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all of it, for
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. He preached redemption by the
blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Four things, he says, it's my
blood. It's my blood. It's infinitely
meritorious blood. It's the blood of the God man.
That's the only remedy. You do all that you want to do,
This is too tough for you. This is way over our heads. This matter of redemption, that's
an impossibility with us. I mean, if possible, you could
pray from now to the day you die. That's not going to put
your sins away. What's it going to take? Blood.
But it's somebody special's blood. He said, my blood, my blood,
precious blood, pure blood, the blood of the God man, and blood
unto his death. So he shed some blood when he
was eight days old and was circumcised, but that didn't redeem us. It
is the shedding of His blood to His death. That's the sacrifice
that settled the issue. Number two, this is the blood
of the New Testament. That is the New Covenant. This
was blood ordained to be shed, and in the mind and purpose of
God was shed before the world ever began, because He's the
Lamb who was crucified, killed, slain in the purpose of God. It's the blood of the covenant,
a covenant that cannot be broken, a covenant that is sure, a covenant
that is perfect, a covenant that is all our salvation in that
covenant. Number three, he says his blood
was shed for many. For many. Not a few, but also
not all. But it was shed for many. The many who are the objects
of his mercy, and his love, and his grace. The many that the
Father chose unto salvation. And number four, His blood was
shed for the remission of sins. There was no other way in which
a holy, sovereign, just God could forgive us except through the
blood of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Oh, the question
always rings out, how can God be just and justify the ungodly? Here's how. his blood to his
death. Number four, go to John chapter
three. Tell you something else he preached.
Regeneration by the Spirit. Now he preached our ruin by the
fall that we're spiritually dead, but he's got a cure for that.
The new birth. The new birth. All are spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be
made alive. Every son and daughter of Adam
is born spiritually dead. You've got to be made alive.
You can't give yourself life. No physically dead person has
ever given himself life. And the life that God gave us
when we were formed in our mother's womb, that's a life that God
gave us. That's God-given life. That's the reason we're so opposed
to abortion. That's God-given life. That's
a precious life that God gave. It says of Adam that God breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life. And he's also got to
breathe in our hearts the breath of new life, spiritual life. He says to Nicodemus, look at
verse three, Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can't see the
kingdom of God. Now remember there in Mark chapter
one, Christ went forth preaching, what did he preach? The kingdom
of God. And now, he preaches, you can't even see the kingdom
of God. You can't comprehend the kingdom of God. You can't
perceive the kingdom of God, nor the king, nor the way in
which the king saves sinners, except you're born again. In fact, he says in verse 5, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, that's
the Word of God, and of the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom
of God. And so he says in verse 7, marvel not that I said unto
thee, ye must be born again. This is God's work. It's God's work. In this communication
of spiritual life, every man and woman who is regenerated
by the Spirit of God, in that regeneration, in that new birth,
we are passive. Only God is active. And if you're a believer, God
has been active in you. He's done his work in you to
give you life. Life. No wonder we read in James, of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth. In Ephesians
2, verse 1, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. All right, what then follows
this regeneration? Go back to Mark 1, repentance and the reception of Christ Jesus
by faith. Mark 1. And I've already talked about
it, the time is fulfilled. Paul says in Galatians 4, in
the fullness of time, in the fullness of the time, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Our Lord Jesus came preaching
the kingdom of God. And as he preached, he said,
and here are the two foundation stones of his preaching. Repent, believe. Repentance toward God, Paul preached
that. And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they always go together, though in some portions of Scripture
you'll only read about repentance, and in other portions of Scripture
you'll only read about faith. But it's because they're like
two sides of one coin. You can't have one without the
other. You know, the very first occurrence of the word repent
or a form of repent, repented, is concerning the Lord. It repented
the Lord that he had made man. Does that mean he's sorry about
it? Felt bad about it? No, it means that he willed a
different direction. And he wiped out the human race
except for eight souls. Think of repentance this way,
and I know it's a deep subject, but it's really a reversal of
course. It's a turning about. When I
was in high school, I was a drum major and I'd be leading in a
halftime program at the football game or maybe marching in a parade
or whatever. I had my big baton and all that
big hat and all that kind of stuff. I'd say, about face! That's what repentance is. It's
going a different direction. Well, what is this repentance
going in another direction, a reverse way? What does it involve? Well, in the Scriptures, two
things are mentioned, dead works and idolatry. Now, you're going
to have to turn away from those things. What are dead works? All religious works done by a
spiritually dead person are dead works. Do you know good? Say, well, I read my Bible, I
pray, I go to church, I give an offering, I do all of these
things. If you're unconverted, don't think that those things
have any merit. In fact, if you are converted,
don't think they have any merit. But before conversion, those
are just so many dead works. You know why they're called dead
works? Because they're done by dead people. Dead people do them. And dead people do it all over
this nation. And they think it counts for
something with God. The only thing that counts with
God is the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work
that did the job. And you know how repentance comes?
As a gift from God. Our Lord Jesus has been exalted
for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sin. He's
got to give you repentance. Isn't that wonderful that he
gives that? And there must be the reception
of the gospel. And I'll tell you, if you turn
from your dead works and you turn from your idolatry, what's
idolatry? Worshipping anything or anybody
other than the God of the Bible. If the God you worship wants
to do things, but you keep Him in checkmate, you prevent Him,
let me tell you something, you're not worshipping God, you're worshipping
an idol. You're an idolater. And we all
are by nature. The Lord has to turn us. That's
the reason the psalmist says, turn us, O Lord, and we shall
be turned. And reception of the gospel.
We believe the truth concerning Christ and His work of redemption. We fully rely on Him. We fully
trust Him. We believe Him. He of God has
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And then what else did our Lord
preach? Look at Matthew 5. See if I can wrap this up, these
last two points. Righteousness demanded. Not your righteousness, because
that's his filthy rags. But you've got to have a righteousness
that will balance out with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Otherwise, it's going to be said
of you what was said of Belshazzar, thou art weighed in the balance
and found wanting. Here's what the Savior says.
Matthew 5 verse 20, For I say unto you that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well,
where is this righteousness to be found? In the Lord our righteousness. That's Christ Jesus who established
righteousness by His obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross. And as a result, that righteousness
is imputed to us. And we realize that when God
gives us faith to believe the Son of God. Because then our
names are the same as His. The Lord our righteousness. Righteousness
demanded. And then, one last one, John
5. John chapter 5. Resurrection
in the end. He preached the resurrection.
You surely don't believe what people say when you die, you
die like a dog. That's the end of you. That's
not the end of you. Actually, we're just barely into
the vestibule in this life. We're going to enter into an
eternal habitation somewhere. Our Lord says here in John chapter
5, look at verse 28. Marvel not
at this. For the hour is coming in which
all that are in the grave shall hear His voice, and shall come
forth they that have done good by the grace of God, by the gifts
of the Spirit. They shall come forth under the
resurrection of life." Oh, I want to be in that. That person who has part in the
first resurrection and the second resurrection. First resurrection
being spiritual regeneration. And the second resurrection being
the resurrection of these bodies. Accepted in Christ Jesus. But
they that have done evil. Our Lord says in Matthew chapter
11, of those religious folks who say, Lord, Lord, haven't
we done this, that, something else in thy name? He's going
to say, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. That's all you were. You thought you was doing good.
You're just evil. You're workers of iniquity. Depart
from me. I never knew you. I never loved
you. I never set my heart on you.
Depart from me. Well, this is our Savior's message. Now you've got to agree with
that because I've showed you these Scriptures. It took the
time to show you all these Scriptures. Royal grace. This is sovereign
grace. Regal grace. The grace of the
King. Ruined by the fall. We've got
a heart problem. But there is a remedy. Redemption
by the blood of the Savior. and He regenerates spiritually
dead sinners, and He gives us the gift of repentance and reception
of the gospel. He demands righteousness, and
bless His name, He gives it to us. You see, what He demands,
He will give. He's the only one who can. And
in the end, there'll be a blessed resurrection of the saints of
God and the wicked, but for the saints of God, body and soul,
perfect forever to dwell with the Savior and sing His praises
forever and ever. Oh, what a glorious time that's
gonna be for the children of God.