to sort of divert from our studying
in the book of Revelation, which I'll get back to, Lord willing,
next week, unless the Lord decides to change my mind again. But
I've enjoyed that. It's been a comforting study
for me. I hope it's helpful to you, too. But tonight I want
you to turn back to the passage that our brother read in Luke
chapter 18. This is one that I preached on quite a bit over
the years of preaching the gospel. known as the parable of the Pharisee
and the Publican, and I'm sure you've heard many messages on
this subject. But this question comes to mind
and has been asked concerning the issue of a sinner's justification
before God. I've entitled tonight's message
in the form of a question, and it's an important question. And
it's one that each and every person here tonight needs to
consider. And that's this, where is your
righteousness? Where is your righteousness? Now, the usual question that
we ask is, what is your righteousness? But I'm asking tonight, where
is your righteousness? And I hope in this message you'll
understand what I'm trying to communicate here, that the Spirit
of God will make it effectual. to your heart. First of all,
I always learned from the very beginning in studying the scripture
that if you're going to know what this passage is teaching,
then find out who is speaking, find out who he is speaking to,
and find out what the subject is. Because so many people disregard
those things when they look at the scriptures and when they
try to interpret scriptures. They just jerk it out of its
context and planted in their minds and make it say anything
they want. Well, we obviously know it says, and he spake in
verse nine, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. This is speaking his
parables, speaking to his disciples. He just finished up one about
an unjust person and the subject of prayer. And here he presents
in this parable, two men praying. So this is something about prayer. And prayer is an awesome, awesome
thing. It's a privilege of a child of
God coming to the Father. Usually our prayers will reveal
the state of our hearts. Usually. Because upon what basis
do we come to God in prayer? Somebody made the statement one
time that a man was so humble that he was so aware of his sin
that he was afraid to come to God in prayer. Does that sound
good? Not at all. Not at all. Because, you see, that's just
nothing but unbelief, and that reveals that his heart's not
where it should be. But these issues of prayer, these
issues of worship, these issues of communion with God, being
accepted with God, These are things that we need to understand
from Scripture. So who's speaking here? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. But you know what? He speaks
in Genesis. He spoke in Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, all the way through Malachi. Whenever
you read the Scripture, it's our Lord speaking. Even when
He reveals the sinfulness and the error and the false doctrine
of false professors. He's telling us about it. This
Bible, this Bible from cover to cover is the word of Christ.
And you may have an edition that has red letters in it. Well,
that's all right. I mean, I'm not going to make
waves over that, but I want you to know the red letters have
no more authority than the black letters. It's all the word of
Christ. You see that? I've heard people
say that, say, well, now you're telling me what Paul said. Tell
me what Jesus said. No, wait a minute now. Paul spoke
as an ambassador of Christ. He spoke the word of God. If
he was speaking the word of Paul, then you can disregard it totally.
And that's the way it is with any preacher of the gospel. If
a man stands up and he's preaching his own word, his own thoughts,
his own mind, you can disregard it. I don't care how good it
sounds. If we're not speaking according to the word of God,
then we have no life. Well, it is the Lord speaking
here. Well, who's he speaking to? Look at verse 9. It says,
And he spake this parable unto certain. Now, this parable was
aimed at certain people. This wasn't just a general thing,
even though it is revealing truth that applies to everybody in
some way or another at some time or another. He's aiming at certain
people. after they hear a message, may
get upset and ask, were you preaching to me? Well, the stock answer
I give is, were you here? Were you here? I'm preaching
to everybody here today. But he spoke to certain ones,
and here's what the problem is. It says, which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. So this parable
is written. to those who trusted in themselves."
Now, what that means is this. It means they had a self-assessment
here. They judged that they were righteous, that they were saved,
that they were justified. And they looked down on others.
Now, the subject of this prayer is found in verse 14, the last
verse of it. What is he talking about? Now,
we know who is speaking. Christ is speaking. He is speaking to
to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and despised others." Now, what's his subject in this prayer or
in this parable? He says in verse 14, he says,
I tell you, this man, now that's referring to a publican, went
down to his house justified. Now, he's talking about justification.
That's what his subject is. That's how he closes it. Here's
a man who went down to his house justified before God, and there's
another man who wasn't justified before God. And he tells us,
what is it to be justified before God? You know, the book of Job
posed this question several times. Job 9 and verse 2 says, I know
it is so of a truth, but how should man be just with God? How should sinful man, depraved,
condemned, wretched, rotten man, that's what he means. How should
such a person of that be just with a holy, righteous God? How can that be, Job asked, or
one of his friends asked. And then in Job 25 and verse
4, the question is posed this way. How then can man be justified
before God or with God? Or it goes on to say in verse
4, how can he be clean? That is born of woman, born in
sin. How is that possible? What is
it to be justified before God? Well, the Bible tells us plainly
to be justified before God. Is to be not guilty. It's to
be not charged with sin. It's to be not condemned. It's
to be righteous before God. Righteous before God. Not before
men, but before God. God who sees all and knows all. God who is the judge of all,
who judges according to truth. God who is no respecter of persons. See, we pick and choose because
we're respecters of persons. But God is no respecter of persons. To be justified before God is
to be declared righteous by God. by God himself, declared righteous
by God himself, according to his holy law and his inflexible
justice. We, by nature and by practice,
in thought and word and in deed, we're guilty. Look over at Romans
chapter 3. This is a description of the
state of all men by nature here in Romans chapter 3, beginning
at verse 10. After Paul brought in Jew and
Gentile by nature, guilty before God, concluding that all are
under sin, verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous,
no, not one, to be found among men. There is none that understandeth. What is it we don't understand?
We don't understand how God can be just and justify sinners.
We don't understand the way of God, the way of grace. All we
know by nature is a way of salvation by works, salvation conditioned
on the sinner. That's all we know by nature.
There's none that seeketh after God. Now, you may stand up and
say, I sought after him. Did you? The Bible says there's
none that seeketh after him. Well, that's not talking about
me. Well, you better listen to the
parable that I'm going to preach tonight. You think you're better
than the rest of us? Is that what you're saying? Well,
I don't mean to say that. Well, that's what you're saying.
There's none that seeketh after God. Man by nature will seek
a God, but not the God. The God, the true and living
God, the God of grace. He seeks a God who's likened
to himself. And look here in verse 12, it
says, they are all gone out of the way. What way? Well, the
Bible says we're all like sheep. We've gone astray. Huh? That's where you were before
God found you, sought you. They're all together become unprofitable. That refers to man's religion
too. There's none that do us good. No, not one. And then he
goes on to describe it even in more graphic It comes to this
conclusion. Look at verse 19. He says, 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. That's man by nature. And here's the grand conclusion
there, verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, There shall no flesh be justified." Now here, the Lord
over in this parable is talking about one who went down to his
house justified. And Job asked that question,
how can a man be justified? What's wrong with man? He's a
sinner. He's born that way. And the problem is such that
we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners.
There's a difference. Like a wolf eats sheep because
he's a wolf. It's his nature. We sin because
it's our nature. Inwardly, outwardly. But now
it says here, no flesh shall be justified in his sight, in
God's sight now. So what we're concerned with
here is not the judgments of men. We're concerned with the
judgments of God. And there's a big difference
there, isn't there? For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Now, what he's simply saying there is this. For me to think
that salvation is conditioned on what I do for God only exposes
my sinfulness. That's all it can do. The law
of God. Look back at our parable in Luke
18. You know, the Bible says God
will by no means clear the guilty. What does that mean? That means
guilt must be removed. Or there's no clearing. Yet it
says God justifies the ungodly. Romans chapter four speaks of
Abraham as a grand example of how God justifies the ungodly. How? Well, the answer to that
is by grace. By his grace in Christ Jesus. You see, to be saved, you must
be declared not guilty. To be saved, you must be declared
righteous before God, justified. Now, my question is, where is
your righteousness before God? Where is it? God must be just
when he justifies now. He's not going to just look over
the matter and say, just forget it, boys. I feel sorry for you.
He's holy. He's just. He must be both a
righteous judge as well as a loving father. You see, preachers are
real keen on preaching what they call the love of God and the
mercy of God and the grace of God. And I am too. But they do
it at the expense of God's justice, at the expense of God's holiness. And that is a lie. That's not
the God of this body. He must be holy as well as merciful. He must be just as well as loving
and gracious. And there's not but one way given
among men, whereby we must be saved, whereby he can be both
a righteous judge and a loving, merciful father." And that's
the way of Christ crucified. The blood and righteousness of
Christ. Now, where is your righteousness? Now, look at our parable here.
First of all, here's the problem of self-righteousness is issued
here in verse 9. What's the problem of self-righteousness?
He spake the parable unto certain which trusted in themselves,
that they were righteous, or they trusted in themselves as
being righteous, and they despised others. The problem of self-righteousness
is it is a judgment that they made of themselves apart from
the word of God. This is not God's judgment of
them. This is their own judgment. In
other words, it's not based upon what God has revealed. It's a
judgment that they made of themselves that they were inwardly righteous. They trusted in themselves. And
they show contempt for others. They looked down on others. They
judged others to be lost. It was a self-righteous judgment.
That's what the Bible forbids in Matthew chapter 7. In verse
1, when it says, Judge not that you be not judged. But look over
at Romans chapter 2. Let me show you what the scripture
says about such such self-righteous judgment. In Romans chapter 2,
the Apostle Paul had spent quite a bit of time in chapter 1 bringing
in the Gentiles guilty before God. Well, the Jews who were
religious, their religion was part and parcel of their economy,
their government, their way of life, they would have looked
up and said, well, I thank God I'm not one of those old dirty
rotten Gentiles. I'm not a sinner of the Gentiles.
Well, look what he says in verse 1 of Romans 2. Therefore thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. Now, what's
the problem here? It's not just judging. You know,
we're commanded to judge. The Bible says that. Christ told
his disciples in John chapter 7, he said, don't judge by outward
appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Well, how can I do
that? God's word. Go by God's Word, but he says,
he says, O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest
doeth the same things. You look upon that person, you
say, well, he's a setter. Well, my friend, I got news for
you. You are too. You are too. You say, well, he
doesn't keep the law of God. Neither do you. Perfectly. You say, well, I'm trying. Well,
not hard enough. And not well enough. Somebody
asked me one time, what does God require? And I told him,
I said, God requires perfection. And he looked at me with eyes
that big, like a deer in the headlights. And he said, well,
nobody can do that. I said, that's right. That's
why salvation is by grace through Christ who is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth and not by works.
That's why we need a substitute. That's why we need grace. That's
why we need mercy. And you know what? I'm going
to tell you something now. That applies just as much to a believer
as it does an unbeliever. Right now, today. I still need
grace and mercy. I'm still just as much accepted
in the Beloved as I ever was or ever will be. But look here,
he says in Romans 2, but we are sure that the judgment of God
is according to truth against them which commit such things.
God's judgment is no lie. He said, And thinkest thou this,
O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the
same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? You know,
the Bible says to be guilty of breaking one of the commandments
is to be guilty of how many? All. So you look at that guy
and you say, Well, I know he's not a Christian because he is
such and such. Is that your judgment? You just
condemned yourself. He doesn't do enough. He doesn't
work enough. He didn't act right enough. Is
that your judgment? You say, well, I'm better than
he is. Doesn't make any difference. He's not the standard. God's
not going to compare you to him at the judgment, but I'll tell
you who God's going to compare you to. Turn to Acts 17. Who's the standard at judgment
when you stand before God? Who are you going to be compared
to? Who am I going to be compared to? Acts chapter 17, verse 31,
where it says that God hath commanded all men everywhere to repent
because God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in what? Righteousness. Now, there's what
you've got to have. That's what I've got to have
to stand the test of judgment. Well, how righteous do I have
to be? Well, here's the standard. He's
going to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Now, God has appointed a man
to be the standard, to compare you with and me with and everybody
else with. And who is that man? Whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead, as Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, there's your
standard. He's our standard. And those who trust in themselves,
that they are righteous in themselves and look down upon others, that's
the problem of self-righteousness. Despise others. Look back at
the parable now, Luke 18. Here's the second thing. Here's
the boast of self-righteousness. I want you to listen to this.
Don't miss this. I want you to notice this here
in verse 10. It says, two men went up into the temple to pray,
the one a Pharisee, Luke 18, 10. Now, that's a religious man.
That's one who everybody looked up to. That's one who was strict
in his morals, in his outward character and conduct, who went
above and beyond the duty, call of duty, and the other a publican. A publican was a despised, hated
traitor. He's one who collected taxes
for the foreign invaders from his people, and usually skimmed
a lot off the top for himself. That's the way the publicans
were known. So here's your two men. One is one whom everybody
would consider is saved. The other is one whom everybody,
who's anybody, would consider as lost. And it says in verse
11, now it starts off with the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself. It means that really he didn't
pray out loud, but he prayed with himself. He wasn't praying
to himself now. I've heard people say that. That's
not what he was doing. He wasn't praying. He was praying
to God. Notice the first words of his prayer. Don't miss this.
Now look at it. He says, God, I thank Thee. Now whatever he's going to say
after this, he's attributing it to who? Not to himself, but
to God. God, I thank thee. And he says,
look here, he says, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are.
Extortioners, that's a thief. Unjust, that's a lawbreaker.
Adulterers, that's an unfaithful person to a wife or husband.
Or even as this publican, I thank you, God, that I'm not this way.
That's what he's saying. Now he starts off with what he
wasn't. Now he goes on to what he does. He says, I thank you,
God, that I fast twice in the week. That's more than what was
required. He says, I thank you, God, that
I give tithes of all that I possess. He didn't tithe just on the net. He gave tithes of all that he
possessed. I thank you, God. Now, what's
the problem? Let me tell you about the Pharisee's righteousness.
Let me give you these three things about his righteousness. Number
one, his righteousness was inward in himself. Number two, his righteousness
was moral, what he did not do and what he did do. That's what
it was wrapped up in. And thirdly, his righteousness,
he claimed, was the gift of God. God, I thank thee. He proclaimed
that this righteousness was not of himself, but of God. What
God had done for him, in him, and what God had enabled him
to do and not to do. That's what this Pharisee is
saying. He gloried in a righteousness within. People speculate over
this. They say, well, he wasn't sincere. You don't know that. In fact,
if we go by Scripture, Paul said of the Pharisees in Romans chapter
10 that they had a zeal of God, that they were zealous and sincere.
And Paul said of himself, as a lost religious Pharisee, he
said, if you think that you had done enough to be saved, I could
boast of more than you could ever boast of. He was very sincere. He said he was so zealous that
he sought to persecute the Church, what he saw as You see, this Pharisee is not
trusting in himself that he has made himself righteous by his
works. He's trusting that he is righteous
with the righteousness that God had given him and worked in him.
That's what he's saying. Don't miss that. But let's go on. Look at verse
13, now here's the other man, here's the public, and here's
the prayer of mercy. And I want you to notice this,
and you notice it's shorter than the prayer of self-righteousness.
You know why I believe? If you pray the prayer of self-righteousness,
you can never not do or do enough. And you've got to keep going
on and on. I'm sure he probably thought of things after he finished
that he didn't mention. But the prayer of mercy, it's
not very long. It doesn't have to be very long.
And here it is. Now look at him. And the publicans
standing afar off. Now that is a signification of
his heart. That he didn't believe himself
to be worthy. Am I right? I'm a sinner. And
he would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. This
is the prayer of a man with a broken and a contrite heart. broken
over sin. He knows his sinfulness. He's
not looking inward and finding himself worthy in himself. He's hanging his head in shame. That's what he's doing. And then
he's smote upon his breast. And the tense of the word there
is a continual thing. It's not just It's not sticking
his chest out. It's he's beaten. The source
of my problem is the heart. It's an inward problem. And listen
to his prayer. Not very long at all. God, be
merciful to me. Brother Dan, I believe you read
it right in the original language. That's a definite article there.
Not a sinner, but the sinner. The sinner. You see, that indicates
he wasn't concerned with your sins and your sins and your sins
and yours. He's concerned with his sins. I'm the problem. That's what
he said. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh, the condition of his heart
broken over sin, convicted of sin, slain by the law. He knows
he has no hope by his works or within himself. He knows his
condition. He's a sinner in need of mercy. And here's the appeal of his
heart. God, be merciful. Now, that word merciful, that's
a good word there. It tells us a lot. That word
merciful is the word used in the New Testament for reconciliation,
for sin. And what he's actually praying
in his prayer is this, God be merciful to me through your sacrifice
for sins because I'm a sinner. It's translated in other places
as the word propitiation. Now, we don't normally use that
word today much. It's found three times in the
New Testament in that form, in our English translation, and
it means Reconciliation, satisfaction before God. He's saying, God,
I need a substitute. That's what he's saying. Look
over at Hebrews chapter two with me. In Hebrews chapter two. It's
translated this way, look at verse. I can find it here, Hebrews
chapter two, look at verse. Sixteen. Speaking of Christ here,
he says, for verily he, Christ, took not on him the nature of
angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. God was made
flesh and dwelt among us. That's speaking of the humanity
of Christ. And it says in verse 17, wherefore
in all things it behooved him, or it became him, it was befitting
to him. to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
That word, reconciliation, is the same thing that the publican
said when he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. You see, he wasn't praying, God,
just forget my sins. I'm only human. He wasn't saying,
God, I've made a few mistakes and you ought to put up with
me a little more. He was saying, God, if there's
any hope for me to be justified before you to have righteousness,
it must come from you by way of a substitute who can satisfy
justice. I need I need one greater than
myself. You find the word. Propitiation,
look at Romans 3. Write these down and look at
them. What is this propitiation? You know, it's a derivative of
an Old Testament word that's translated what? Mercy seat. Mercy seat. You know what that
mercy seat was? That was the lid on the Ark of
the Covenant that covered the broken law upon which the high
priest went one time a year into the holiest of all. and sprinkled
the blood. And what was that? That was a
picture of what? Christ crucified. Christ, who
died for the sins of His people, charged to Him, and who charged
His righteousness to them. And look here in Romans 3 and
verse 21. He said that by deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified, but now, verse 21, the righteousness of God Without
the law, that is, without my obedience to the law. That's
what Romans 3.19 says. Romans 3.20. It says, in other
words, this is the righteousness of God without my works. My works
have to be excluded. And he said it's manifested.
That is, it's made known. And it was witnessed by the law
and the prophets. This is what the law of Moses pointed sinners
to, not to their own righteousness, not to their own works, not to
something within, but to Christ. It was a schoolmaster to lead
sinners to Christ. And it's what the prophets taught.
It's what Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Malachi, all of them
taught. He says in verse 22, even the righteousness of God,
now listen to this, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. This righteousness of God is
by the faithfulness of Christ to do what the Father sent Him
to do. That's what that's talking about.
In other words, salvation is not conditioned on me. It's conditioned
on Christ. Everything that God requires
of me, Christ finished in His obedience and death. And everything
that God gives me by way of life, And grace and fruit is the effect
of what Christ accomplished. You see? You know how I know
that? We have spiritual life. We who
have been born again, we have spiritual life, don't we? We've
been raised from the dead spiritually. You know why? Well, the book
of Romans, chapter 8, tells us the Spirit is life because of
what? Righteousness. Whose? Christ. That's right. And he goes on,
he said, it's unto all, that is, it's to be preached to everybody.
And it's upon all them that believe. It's imputed to those who believe.
It's put on them like a robe. It's the declaration of God.
For there's no difference for all sin that comes short of the
glory of God, verse 24, being justified freely, being declared
righteous, not guilty, freely by His grace. How? Through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth. literally foreordained to be
a propitiation, a mercy seat, through faith in his what? His
blood, his death, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Look
over at 1 John chapter 2, the passage Brother Danny read at
the beginning. And what I'm telling you now,
here's this publican standing there praying, God be merciful,
God be propitious to me, the sinner. I need a substitute.
I need a righteousness I cannot produce. An old publican. You know what? Even now, as a
regenerated, believing person, I'm still just an old publican
begging for mercy. You know that? Look at it, 1 John 2 and verse
1. My little children, these things write I unto you that
you sin not. That's our goal. We should have as our goal, sin
no more. But here we've got a problem.
And if any man sin, now there's our problem. If we sin every day. But here's
the comfort. We have an advocate with the
Father. We've got a defense attorney.
Who is he? Me and Jesus got a good thing
going. No, no, that's not. Who's my Jesus Christ, the righteous? And he is the propitiation, the
mercy seat for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins
of the whole world. That's the sins of his elect
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. I'll tell
you what, if he's the propitiation for your sins, you're going to
enter heaven. Because you have a righteousness. The law of God
cannot condemn you. You can't even be charged. And
then one more, look at 1 John 4. Look at verse 10. here in His love. Not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Same word. You see, that's what
this publicum was praying for. And look back at the parable
now. Look at verse 14. Luke chapter 18. Christ said,
I tell you, this man, this publicum, this mercy beggar, This old wretched,
rotten person that nobody wanted to be associated with. In fact,
they criticized our Lord for eating with such people. This
is the man who went down to his house justified rather than the
other. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
To glory, listen to me, to glory in a righteousness within is
to exalt ourselves. But the glory in Christ. The
Lord, our righteousness. Is to be humble. Paul wrote,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let me say something I said
this morning in conclusion here. Here's this public and you know
what this public and was he's a miracle grace, I said that
this morning, you know, when you look at a believer. That's a miracle grace. Lord,
that's what you are. You're a miracle grace. You're
going to confess your faith in Christ from your heart. That's a miracle grace. Man by
nature doesn't do that. Man by nature is like the Pharisee.
God, I thank you what you've enabled me to do. Here's old
publican beating on his breath. God be merciful. A believer is
a true miracle of grace. He's been enabled to do things
that are totally impossible to the natural man. Natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he
know them. They're spiritually discerned.
No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. That's what he said. Here's a person who's been enabled
to see his sinfulness in a way that he'd never seen it before.
That takes the Spirit of God. That takes light, knowledge,
life. And yet he still doesn't see them in their absolute, utter
depth. Here's a person who's seen the
holiness of God. That takes the spirit of Christ.
Yet he still doesn't see it as perfectly as he will. The closest
we'll come to it is by looking at the cross, isn't it? Here's
a person who's seen the glory of Christ, but he still hasn't
seen that glory like he will see it. That's what John was
saying. Love it. Then we'll see him as he is.
We'll see him perfectly. Here's a person who's been brought
to faith in Christ. What a miracle. He believes,
yet he still has to deal with unbelief. Still doesn't have
perfect faith. He's been brought to love Christ
and his people. And yet he has to pray so often,
Lord, forgive me for my self-love. He's been brought to know Christ,
but we know no partially. We see through a glass darkly,
the scripture says. He's been brought to obey Christ. That's what John said in 1 John
2. We keep his commandments. We know we're not perfect in
ourselves. We know we don't keep the law perfectly, but we have
Jesus Christ, the righteous, who stands in our place. How
then do we know that we have any of these blessings of grace
by the Spirit of God? I'll tell you how. Fall on your
face, sinner. Beat on your breast. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. That's how you know. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
and I dare not trust the sweetest frame. but holy lean on Jesus
name on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking
sand for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe it and all the work of the Holy Spirit
in us now listen to me as great and as miraculous as the things
that we've been enabled to do Nothing that the Holy Spirit
does within us and enables us to do makes up our righteousness
before God. Christ crucified is our righteousness
before God. You want me to prove that to
you? Well, when you get to heaven, or when you get before the judgment
seat, plead your faith. Plead your love. Plead your obedience. Plead your inner holiness and
see how far it gets you. It won't do, will it? There was
a group of men who stood before Christ at the judgment seat.
And they said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast out demons in
your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works in your name? Now, you know what? There's nothing
wrong with preaching in his name. That's not evil in and of itself.
Peter preached in his name. Paul preached in his name. Jeremiah
preached in his name. There's nothing wrong with casting
out demons. Paul cast out demons in his name.
Peter cast out demons in his name. There's nothing wrong with
doing many wonderful works in his name. But here's the problem. None of those things make up
my righteousness before God. You see what I'm saying? My righteousness
is Christ and Him crucified. Now that's right. Where is your
righteousness? Mine's on the throne in glory.
And He's imputed it to me. And He's given me life as a result.
And one day I will be perfectly holy within. And I go to be within. But not before.