Psalm 27 for a scripture reading. And while you turn it, let me
mention Kathleen Burgess. She's back in the hospital. Took
her yesterday morning, I suppose. And they put her in ICU for a
little while. And she's got an awful infection
again in her pancreas. Got a blood clot on it now. And
she's going to have a group of doctors meet with her this afternoon,
hopefully come to some conclusion what's the matter with her and
how to treat her. But she throws up all the time,
and she's lost a lot of weight. She can't eat. And she's a very,
very sick woman. So you all please remember her.
And also, you know, we're going to have a picnic at our house
on October the 10th. And we'll try to have all the
meat there by 11.30, quarter to 12. So y'all come any time
around 12 and bring what you're going to bring. And you asked
Shirley about that. We'll probably eat around 12.30,
1 o'clock if we can. We'll have a good afternoon together.
We're going to eat a lot of that pig meat. A lot of pig meat coming. But please remember Kathleen,
bless her heart. All right, let's read the 27th
Psalm together. The Lord is my light. Why we
need light is because we is in darkness. People only need light
to dispel darkness. Well, the Lord's my light and
my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Oh my, what a statement. The
Lord's the strength of my life. If He's the strength of my life,
that means I don't have any of my own. You tell what that means? Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to
eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of
trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, In the secret of
his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. When thou saidst, seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger.
Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake
me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach me thy way,
O Lord. Lead me in a plain path because
of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the
will of mine enemies. For false witnesses are risen
up against me and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the
Lord. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Your blessed son, the son
of your love, the son that dwelt in your bosom, the son that you
daily delighted in, the son that you told us to hear, the son
you said that you was well pleased in, it's in his blessed, holy,
glorious name we approach you. It's by him we have access into
your holy presence, and we're thankful for that. And Lord,
we're thankful that your mercies are new every morning, and your
compassions never fail. We thank you, Lord, that you
will carry us even down to our old age. You'll
bear us up. Oh, Lord, are so thankful for
the promises you've given us in your word. And Lord, we bring
our dear sister before you. And others, Lord, we bring Janet's
sister, Brenda. We bring these saints before
you. We bring these people before you. God, they are sick, weak,
frail, in body. Lord, you know that their frame
is but dust. And Lord, you said that you'd
have pity upon them, even as a father pities his children.
So Lord, we ask that you'd be pitiful towards them. Be merciful. God bless their families and
strengthen and encourage their families that they may bear up
the burden of seeing them so sick. And oh Lord, I pray that
you'd Be her comfort and stay in strength through this great
fight of affliction you've called her to go through. Lord, we believe
with all our heart that you'll raise her up, that you'll save
her body, and that she'll be strong again, be able to stay
with her family, her husband, her kids. Lord, we thank you
for that. And we ask now for mercies towards
our children and grandchildren, Lord, that you would stir up
their nest. It's in great trouble. As one
preacher said yesterday, go and arrest them. Go and arrest them. Subdue them. Put them under arrest. Bring them to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And, oh, Father, I pray that the service here today would
have the presence and power of our Lord Jesus Christ in preaching
and hearing, singing and praying, for it's in his blessed name
we ask. Amen. Amen. Romans chapter 8. And I'm going to read three verses
of scripture. Romans 8, 16, 17, and 18. Romans
8, 16, 17, and 18. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs. The only people that inherit
anything is people that are children. And then we're heirs, heirs of
God and join heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. You see that
last line there in verse 18, the glory which shall be revealed
in us. This is an astounding statement
that God's glory is going to be revealed in us. Now, who is us? Well, he says
that we're the children of God, that we're the heirs of God.
That's who's going to, whose glory is going to be revealed
in them. And oh, there are going to be sufferings, those that
suffer with the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to be glorified
together with him. And anything that happens here, don't even
compare it to what the glory that's going to be revealed in
us when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. Now, I know this about
God. I do know this without a shadow
of a doubt, that God will not give his glory to another. And
everything he does in this world, whether in grace or in justice,
he does it for his glory. And I tell you what, I want him
to have all the glory, don't you? He deserves all the glory. He's worthy of all the glory. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory. And oh, when God, when Isaiah
saw him, he saw his glory. He saw his glory. And it was
the God of glory that appeared unto our father Abraham when
he dwelt in Mesopotamia. And oh, and our apostle called
him the father of glory. And so everything that God does,
He does for His own glory. And He does things for His glory
that no flesh, no human being will have any right to ever,
ever glory in anything but the Lord Jesus Christ. And God saves
such a sinner in such a way that there's no way in the world you
can boast in anything that you've ever done. You have to give God
all the glory. And here God says that He is
purposed. Purposed to reveal His glory
in us. Purposed to do it. And I tell
you, Peter says this, and I read it the other day in 1 Peter 5.1.
He says that Peter says, you know, that He is glory. When
His glory comes, He said His glory will be revealed in us. And we look for His glory. And
God's called us unto His eternal glory. Now when I read this thing
that His glory shall be revealed in us, it gives me such blessed,
blessed assurance. Blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. It gives me hope. It gives me
a blessed hope. For if I know, and I can't say
that I know my own heart, God does. God knows it. But I want
God to be glorified. I truly want God to be glorified. In me, in you, in this world,
in all that He does. If He has to keep me in the dirt
and the dust, if that's the way He brings glory to Himself through
me, that'll be alright. Whatever way He seeks and wills
to bring glory to Himself through me or you, it absolutely is okay. He's worthy of all the glory.
all to Him we owe. And I tell you what, and I tell
you this says here, when I see God in God's Holy Word, that
He's going to bring glory to Himself, going to bring glory
to Himself and that I'm included in that eternal purpose. You
talking about a strength for your heart and encouragement
for your soul. Now what, when He says His glory
is going to be revealed in us, what's He talking about? What's
he talking about? Now God brings glory to himself
in many, many ways, but it's always the glory to himself.
I believe that he's going to bring the glory of his electing
grace. It's revealed in us and it's
revealed in us now and shall be revealed in us in that last
day. The glory of his electing grace.
Look what he said over here in Romans chapter 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of who? God's elect. It's God that justifies. Oh my. You know, it's salvation. God loved us with an everlasting
love. It didn't just start in time.
And because he loved us in Christ before the world ever began,
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And He chose us when we were yet dead in trespasses and sins. He chose us before Adam even
committed a sin in the Garden of Eden. And I tell you this,
beloved, and Romans chapter 9 and verse 11, look what it says there.
You start talking to men and you start telling them about
election and they say, well, election isn't fair. It's not
fair to God to choose who He will. It's not fair. God doesn't
have the right to do that. He doesn't do things that way.
I've been told that so many times. But look what it said here in
Romans 9, 11. For the children being not yet born, neither have
any done any good or evil that the purpose of God, according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
And oh, in verse 13 it says, as it is written, Jacob have
a love, but he shall have a hated. And people say, well, that's
not right, that's not fair. God don't give us a chance, and
so if you're going to be one of his elected, it doesn't make
any difference what happens or what goes on in this world. Well,
I tell you what, one thing about the election, I'll get to it
in a minute, but I know one thing about the elect, that if they're
elected, God did it, they didn't choose God, because God chose
them, and nobody in this world would have ever chose God had
not God first chosen them. You're the chosen religion, You
would have bragged on your free will. You would have bragged
on your rights and your choice. You would have bragged on how
good a person you are and how good your mom and daddy was and
how good you was raised. But you would have never ever
come to God in Christ. You'd have been a good fellow,
you'd have been a good person, you'd have been a church member,
you'd have even read a Bible and prayed and joined a church
and went to an altar and prayed through. But one thing you'd
have never done had not God chosen you, you'd have never chosen
Him. Now ain't that right? You'd have been a legalist, lived
a legalist and died a legalist. You know this week they the free
grace broadcaster came out and I know some of you get it and
this this month It was everything was on keeping the Sabbath everything
about it was keeping the Sabbath keeping one day holy and not
doing anything at all, but going to worship and spend your whole
day reading the Bible and praying and living a holy life for one
day out of the week, not doing anything at all. Go to church,
go home, read your Bible, sit and meditate on holy things all
day, and then come back and do it all over again. And don't
do anything until you get up in the morning, on Monday morning. Now boy, wouldn't that put you
in a mess if you had to do that? But oh, listen, and so they say,
and this is what people say, if I, Jacob, have a love, but
he shall have a hate, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is God unrighteous to choose
whom He will? Is God unrighteous to love whom
He will? Is God unrighteous to have mercy
on whom He'll have mercy? And have compassion on whom He'll
have compassion? But all men don't want God to
have this right of choosing whom he will, but man wants the right
to choose his wife. They want the right to choose
where they'll work. They want the right to choose
how they'll live. They want the right to have how
many children they want to have. And yet they'll say, God does
not have the right to impose his will on me. Well, you've proved God's right,
but let them say what they will. His glory of electing grace is
going to be revealed in us. And that's what, look at what
we were, dead in trespasses and sin. And look who it was that
elected us. It's God that did it. And I know,
you know, people say, well, God made a vote and the devil made
a vote. And no, listen, when that one fellow said, when you
get to election, your lad won't know you won't have elected.
You look back over the door and said, I'm one of God's elect
after you get. Devil cast a vote, God cast a
vote, and you one cast a dividing vote. Well, you know what would
be wrong with that? You'd be the one to get the glory.
Your vote made the right, made the right decision. Your vote
was the one that made your election sure. Instead of God making your
election sure, instead of Christ dying for you. And oh, listen,
and how he elected us, he chose us in Christ. And that's what's
so blessed about the gospel, that everything we have, we have
in Christ. God did everything, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And why did he do this? Why did he do it? Why did he
choose us? Ephesians 1 and 9 says it like
this, according to the good pleasure of his will. He just willed to
do it. He just willed to do it. It was
His good pleasure to do it. Would you think that God would
be pleased in what He did for you? But He said, according to
His good pleasure, He chose us in Christ, according to His good
pleasure. And not only is the glory of
His electing grace going to be revealed in us, And this is what
folks are going to really get a shock on when our Lord Jesus
Christ judges this whole world, and He sets us up to judge the
world. And all the things that people's gonna accuse us of,
and the things they said they saw us do, and the things that
they say that, you know, and I saw him do this, and I saw
him do that, and he never did do this, and he never did do
that, and he wasn't this, and he wasn't that. And I tell you
what, you know what God'll say? He'll look at them and say, they're
trophies of my grace. I chose them in my son before
the world ever began. And everything they've got, I
gave it to them. They're saved because I saved
them. They're holy because I made them holy. They love me because
I first loved them. And anything that they have against
them said, who shall lay anything to the God charge of God's elect? Who's going to do it? It says it's God that justified
them, and when we stand before this world, God's going to say,
there's my people, and I loved them, I chose them, and I loved
them before the world began, and your problem is that you
didn't want me or desire me and got mad at me because I will
to do what I will for whom I will to do it. And I'll tell you something else
that's going to be revealed to us. Look over in Galatians 4
with me for just a moment. The glory of His redemption.
The glory of God's redemption is going to be revealed in us.
In Galatians chapter 4. The glory of God's redemption.
Now I'll tell you something about redemption. Redemption is by
blood and by power. When God brought Israel up out
of Egypt, the first thing that had to be done, God had to manifest
some power to make Egypt let Israel go. But He had to really
manifest some power to bring them out of Egypt, and how He
done it was, the first thing He done before He brought them
out of Egypt was, He says, you slay a lamb, And you put that
blood on those doorposts and across the little of that door.
And he says, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And
so God brought them out with blood and power. He went through
the Egypt that night at midnight, and everyone ever firstborn,
who were that blood wasn't put, died that night. God went through
there and punished, and every firstborn of every creature died
that night. So redemption's by blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And then
not only blood, but there's gotta be power to bring us out. There's
gotta be power to take us through the wilderness. There's gotta
be power to take us across the Red Sea. There's gotta be power. And look what he said here in
Galatians 4 in verse 4. But when the fullness of time
was come, and oh, God's time's always gonna come. When God's
fullness comes, we're leaving here. When the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son. And He sent Him forth made
of a woman through the womb of a virgin. And He came forth made
under the law. They circumcised Him the eighth
day. They dedicated Him to the Lord. They done everything according
to the law. And our Lord lived under that
law. And He did this that He might redeem might shed the blood,
pay the price, pay the debt, pay everything that was against
us to redeem, to buy, to ransom, to pay for all that was against
them, to redeem them that were under that law. that we might
receive the adoptions of sons. And I tell you, how do we know
we're sons? He sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And
now we cry, Father, Father, our Father, our Father. And oh, beloved,
and let me show you, look over here at 1 Peter 1. Oh, without the shedding of blood.
Look in 1 Peter 1. Talking about the glory of His
redemption revealed in us. I tell you what, to think that Christ would shed
His blood and not have whom He redeemed? When He redeemed Israel out of
Egypt, He brought the babies out, He brought Granny out, He
brought Mama out, He brought Daddy out, He brought everyone
and the only ones that came out of there were Israel. And the
only people that He shed His blood for is the spiritual Israel,
His people in this world. He didn't shed His blood for
everybody. No, no, no. For them that were under the
law. And He never sent forth the Spirit of His Son into everybody's
heart. But look what it said here in
1 Peter 1 too. Elect, there we are with election
again. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, set apart by the Spirit of God, and listen to
this, unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ. Now, whose obedience? Christ's
obedience. And He brought us to the obedience
of Christ and the blood of sprinkling. Under the law, they took the
blood. Moses did. You can read about it in Hebrews
9. He sprinkled the blood. He sprinkled the book He sprinkled
the people, He sprinkled the tabernacle, He sprinkled the
mercy seat, He sprinkled everything. Everything was purged with blood. And so what He's saying is the
Holy Spirit brings us to the obedience of Jesus Christ, not
our obedience to Jesus Christ. We're not saved by our obedience
to Christ, we're saved by Christ's obedience and he brought us to
Christ's obedience and the blood of sprinkling just like it was
under the law and now he takes the blood of sprinkling and sprinkles
our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And
oh, that's what happens. How does your guilt get gone? How does your sins get gone?
How do you feel that you're free from your sin and you're free
from your guilt and your sins are forgiven? Because the blood's
been applied. And where that blood's been applied,
it's gone. The blood washes it away. And
oh, and I tell you, not only is His glory of redemption revealed
in us, But oh, you think about the wonder of redemption. Oh,
redemption is an absolute marvel. It's a wondrous thing. First,
that there'd be any redemption at all. You know, there were
angels that God passed by. There were elect angels and there
were angels that God passed by and never lifted a finger to
save those angels. And there wouldn't be any redemption
at all for sinful race. I was talking to a preacher yesterday
and he says God could have, if he had will to do it, to just
destroy the whole human race in Adam and start it all over
again. But that's not the way he chose
to do it. And the first blood that was ever shed, God himself
shed it in Genesis 3 and he covered Adam's nakedness with that animal
that he slew. And that there was, oh, that
there would be any redemption at all. And who purposed this
redemption? Who purposed this shedding of
blood? And oh, and here's the greatest
wonder at all, was that it was who was redeemed? Who did God
redeem? Not angels, sinners, rebels,
people who didn't know God, didn't care for God. And I tell you
what, oh, who our Redeemer was, The Lord Jesus Christ, He shed
His own blood. He entered into heaven with His
own blood. And He came out and what did
He have for us? Eternal redemption for us. And you know what the
greatest wonder of all is? Is why? Why? Because He gets all the glory
in doing it. Gets all the glory. Let me tell
you another glory that he's going to reveal in us, the glory of
his effectual call. I said, you know, it takes blood
and power. Now, if Christ died, if we were
chosen of God, elected of God, and we were dead in trespasses
and sins, and Christ died for us, and shed his blood for us,
and redeemed us, and we were redeemed, before you and I was
ever born. Our sins were paid for on the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago. So how in the
world is this electing grace and this precious blood that
Christ our Lord shed, how is it going to be brought to bear
on us, how is it going to be brought to us, and how are we
going to be brought to believe? Well, I'll tell you how it happens.
God sends the Spirit, sends the Gospel, sends the power of God
through the Gospel to us and effectually calls us. And what
that effectual call means is that blood He calls you where
you can't resist the call. You can't do it. In the day of
His power, what happens? His people, His people are made
willing. Huh? And our Lord Jesus Christ
says this, he says, you know, my sheep hear my voice. And there's
a time that his sheep hear their voice. And I, you know, it don't
happen all at once. Most of the time it don't happen
all at once. Most of the time you don't come
to a service and all of a sudden you hear the voice of Christ.
No, no, you come and you hear the gospel and you hear the things
and you think, well, I've never heard that before. I said, it's
altogether different than what I ever believed. And then you
start hearing this gospel. And all of a sudden that ear
starts hearing things it never heard before. That heart starts
seeing and hearing things it's never had revealed to it before.
And so Christ begins to bombard that ear gate, begins to bombard
that mind of yours. And the next thing you know,
you say, Oh, listen, I never heard something like that in
my life. Oh my, finally I heard it. I heard it. You hear it for years and years
and years, and then all of a sudden, you really hear it. You know, I say that almost everybody
in this building went to church most of their lives. Somewhere under some form of
denomination or something. And I say this that it's a rare,
rare thing. Now there's some here. There's
Houston here and Seth here and that they, they, and, and, and
Jenna and Obie, all they've ever heard is the gospel. But the
most of us, we never heard the gospel. until God sent somebody
to us and called us out of our darkness and called us out of
our religion and called us out of our self-righteousness and
called us from our false hope and false refuges and called
us to Christ. And we heard His voice one day
and when we heard that voice our ears perked up and we really
started listening. You see, we were dead alien sinners
without God, without hope, and without Christ in this world.
And we desperately needed life, not just waking up. And the effectual
call is so powerful that it quickens dead sinners and brings dead
men to life. It brings dead men to righteousness. It brings dark men, blind men,
to sight where they can see. He's dead. He caked. But he did. Why? Because Christ called him. With
this call, with this effectual call, comes life. And with this
life comes ability and will and desire and freedom. I read it
to you just a little while ago. David said, Thou said seek my
face. Lord, I sought your face. When
God says, sink my face, you know what's going to happen? You're
going to start sinking his face. That's an effectual call. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. And oh my, that thief on the
cross, you're talking about an effectual calling. Here's two
men, one on either side of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both of them,
robbers, thieves, murderers, malevolent men, evil men, both
of them railed on the Lord Jesus Christ. One of them said, oh,
if you're the King, if you're the Savior, save yourself and
us. And all of a sudden, that one
started saying, Lord, first thing he said out of his mouth, Lord.
That other is still cussing. That one of them said, Lord,
that's the first word I said, Lord. How did he go from cursing Christ
and wanting him to come off that cross and save him and railing
on him to all of a sudden, in a moment in time, turn around
and call him Lord? How did that happen? Did he make
the difference? Did he change his own heart?
Did He see something that nobody else saw that day? He did on
that cross, He did. You know what happened? The Holy
Spirit in a moment in time quickened that man, brought him from death
to life, and the minute He done that, He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
to be who He really is. And He knew that if He is ever
going to be saved, He's going to have to die. He's on that
cross and He knows He's going to die. But He knows that if
He's ever going to be saved, And that if God ever does anything
for him, this man that's hanging on this cross right beside him,
bleeding from his wounds and his broken body, and everybody
around him cussing and blaspheming and scorning him, and ridiculing
him, and he knows there with all that's going on around him
that this man right here is the Lord, and he has the kingdom. And he's gonna come into that
kingdom one of these days. And he said, Lord, remember me. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And our Lord looked over to him
and says, today, today, not next year, not a thousand years from
now, not when you're in your grave, today, you're going to
paradise with me. You're going to glory with me
today. I wish today was how you know,
I wish you'd say that to me. Today, you're going to be in
paradise with me. Oh, what a blessed thing, what
a hope we got to do. And oh, he must bring his sheep
because they ain't going to come. They're lost. They're lost sheep. They're off in the wilderness
and he's got to go find them. And when he finds them, he has
to carry them and put them on his shoulder. They ain't even
got the strength to walk. I read it to you. The Lord is
the strength of my life. And oh, it's like a valley of
dry bones. Son of man, go down there, that
valley. There's a valley down there. What do you see down there? Oh, a valley of bones, dry bones. And those bones were just scattered
all over that valley. They're not all connected, they're
just bones. And he said, I want you to preach
to them valley of dry bones. And he said, okay, all right. I want you to say, bone, come
to bone. I want you to tell them bones
to live. And those bones began to live.
And he said, I want you to tell them to stand on their feet.
And they stood up on their feet. And he said, you tell them flesh
come upon them. Flesh came upon them. He says,
now tell the wind to blow. And the wind blowed. And every
one of those dry bones that became living beings, the wind blew
on them. And guess what? Every one of
them lived. If salvation was up to you or
me, we just will go to the house, but because salvation's of the
Lord, and He will cause life to enter into dead, dry bones,
He will, He will. And let me tell you this, the
glory of His imputed righteousness, the glory of His imputed righteousness,
the glory of Christ's righteousness being given to us, Oh, the sweetest
thing I ever heard in my life was that I did not have to face
God in myself, that I could face God in the righteousness of the
only righteous person who ever lived on topside of God. and
that he had such virtue and such merit and such glory and such
power and satisfied God in such a way when God made him to be
sin. And he got our sin and we got
his obedience. He got our disobedience and we
got his obedience. He got our sin, we got his righteousness. He got our death, we got his
life. A perfect exchange. Everything
that we were, He became. That everything we were not,
He made us to be. To have a righteousness that's
God's righteousness. He said it's the righteousness
of God that's ours. And that's the most blessed words
I've ever heard. That God Himself gives us the
righteousness of His own Son. And it's not a righteousness,
it's just like putting on your suit of clothes. It's a righteousness
that covers you from head to toe, inside and outside. That
when God looks, God said, I find no fault, they're without spot,
they're without blemish. Before me, right now. Not gonna
be right now. You know, our Lord says, except
a man deny himself, deny himself. And what it means to deny, deny
your ego. And I tell you, you know who
the hardest person to deny is? Is your righteous self. Men will
deny the bad things that they, you know, they'll admit the bad
things that they've done. They'll say, oh, I did this thing
and I did that thing. But one thing a man will not
deny, he will not deny his own righteousness or his own goodness
unless God causes him to do it. God has to take it away from
him. And I tell you, it's not man's
sin that keeps him from coming to Christ, it's his righteousness.
And you know there was an apostle who said, according to the righteousness
of the law, he said, when everybody looked at me, And according to
the righteousness of the law, the way it was written, and all
the rules, and all the things that the Pharisees believed,
he said, and all the things that the law required of me with my
washings, and my fastings, and my holy days, and all the Passovers,
and all the feasts, and all the things that I was called to do,
he said, according to that righteousness, the law that I was living under,
everybody said, That man is blameless. If anybody's going to heaven,
he is. And you know what he said later when God gave him an effectual
call? You know what he said? All my
righteousnesses are done. All my righteousnesses is done.
And I tell you what, beloved, if righteousness come by the
law, by anything we do, Christ is dead in vain. And God's glory
is revealed in us by us disowning, disowning, turning against our
own righteousness, our own works, and anything we ever done. We
disown it. We count all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. We know we're complete in Christ
and Him alone, that Christ is our righteousness and His alone. And look in Romans 8, and let
me say a few things about this. In Romans 8 and verse 29. Let me say a few things about
this. Look in verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Everything
about predestination has to do with the conclusion that God's
going to do for us. bring us to, He predestinated
us to the adoption of sons. We adopted. He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son. And you know what
that means? That means that God's predestinating
purpose, His, He predestinated, from here to the end, He predestinated
the destination for us to be, an end for our lives. And you
know what the end of that life is? going to be conformed to
the image of His Son. The image of His Son. And I tell you why. The whole
of salvation of God's eternal purpose in our Lord Jesus Christ
is to bring glory to His Son in saving sinners through His
redeeming blood, His redeeming love, His redeeming grace, and
conforming us to the image of His Son, that's predestination. And one of these days, beloved,
bless His name, John said it this way, it doeth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we do know that when He appears, we shall
see Him as He is, and we shall be just like Him. Huh? We'll be just like Him. And that's
a wondrous thing to think about. Look in 2 Corinthians 3.18. Right now, in my own experience, in
my experience, I don't resemble Christ in any way. Not in any way. In my experience, the way I feel
right this minute, But God says that He's going
to take me and He's going to take you. And He ain't going
to be through with you until He takes you to glory and you're
in the image of His Son. That you're just like Him. You're standing in God's presence
in glory. And He's the firstborn among
all of His brethren. And we'll all stand there And
whatever body that our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead
in, that's the kind of body Christ's gonna give us. Sinless body,
sinless mind, sinless heart, sinless nature. A nature that
God, that will delight in God, can dwell in the very presence
of God in that light where Christ dwells and be just like Him. Without any sin, without any
fault, without any... We're righteous now, but there
it'll be perfect. Look what it said here in 2 Corinthians
3.18. But we all, all of God's elect,
all those that are redeemed by the blood, all those who have
been effectually called, but we all with open face, That
means, beloved, we don't have no veil over our face. We're
like looking in a mirror. Behold, as in a glass, we're
looking in a mirror. And what is that mirror we see?
The Gospel that we hear over and over and over. The Word of
God. That's the mirror we're looking into. That's the glass
we're looking into. And as we behold the glory of
the Lord, as we look into this right here, and we see the glory
of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see the
glory of our Lord Jesus, While we are looking at Him, and seeing
Him in His Word, and seeing Him in the Gospel, and seeing Him
as we look at the Scriptures, we are changed into the same
image from glory that God has in us now, until the glory that
shall be revealed in us in that day. And you know who is going
to do it? The Spirit of the Lord is going
to do it. And God in His eternal ages is going to show us off
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the ages to come, He's going
to show us exceeding riches and kindness of His grace. Now, I
do know this, beloved, in closing. It is not now nor shall it ever
be our glory revealed in us or to us or to the world. It's going
to be His glory and His glory alone. It's written that no flesh
should glory in His presence. If a man glories, he's going
to glory in the Lord. And it's His glory that's going
to be revealed in us. And when Christ shall appear,
Christ who is our life, Colossians 3, 4, when Christ who is our
life shall appear, you know what it says? Then shall we also appear
in glory with Him. In glory with Him. Oh, ain't you grateful that God's
not done? God's not through. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, take the words that's been said and
use them for your glory. Lord, I talked about your power.
Talked about everything has to be done by your power and for
your glory. So you send forth the power and
do it to your glory. Speaking to men's hearts and
minds. And we ask these things in our Lord Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to