I want to talk about Jehovah's
Akinu, the Lord our righteousness. When man, God created him and
put him in the Garden of Eden, he failed. He failed from his
standing before God. God gave him one commandment,
made him Lord over creation, gave him one commandment, He
said, don't you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, for in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. In dying, you shall die. And when he did that, he sustained
an infinite loss in the matter of righteousness. An infinite
loss in the matter of righteousness. Man became ruined, absolutely
ruined in nature, in character, in person, in heart, in soul,
in mind, in will, in understanding, everything about him become utterly,
utterly ruined. Ruined. He lost a righteous nature. And not only did he lose a righteous
nature, but he lost the understanding of what righteousness really
is. And how do I know that he lost the understanding of what
righteousness is? He put on a fig leaf and thought
that would be enough righteousness to cover his nakedness in the
sight of God. And people are still, got lots
of fig leaf religion. Get them a cross, put it around
their neck, get them a picture of Jesus, hang it on the wall,
get you a Bible and go to church every once in a while. You know, be as good as you can
to your neighbor and your dog and you'll be alright. That's
all it takes. But I tell you, the Lord Jesus
Christ told us, and He said there's four nones in Romans 3. He said
there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that doeth
good, no not one. There's none that understandeth,
no not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. None, no not one. And so, you
see, and Adam, when he fell and he ruined all of us, made us
to be what we are by nature. We inherited not only what he
did, but we inherited the nature that he lost, that legal righteousness. But he suffered a two-fold loss
of righteousness in the sight of God. He lost a legal righteousness,
and that means he has access. You've got to have a righteousness
before the law. And he lost that righteousness
because he, God gave him that commandment and when he failed
to do that commandment he had the sin of omission. He did not
do what God told him to do. And then, so he lost that righteousness.
And then he lost this righteousness in the standing before God in
that he sinned and transgressed the law against God. And tried
to un-God God himself. And so he actually sinned, committed
a sin. He didn't do what God told him
to and then he did just exactly the opposite of what God told
him to do. So his character of uprightness
was completely wrecked and ruined. And God drove him, God drove
him out of the garden. And I tell you what, the scriptures
tells us, you know, that Paul told the Romans, he said, I bear
witness, I bear record to this, that Israel Israel, I desire
for them to be saved. Oh, how I desire for Israel to
be saved. He says, because they're ignorant
of the righteousness of God, they're going about to establish
their own righteousness. Now, the only way in the world
that a man is going to ever get rid of that righteousness that
he has for God to take it away from him. You'll hold on to that
thing. You'll hold on to your own righteousness.
You'll hold on to your goodness. You'll hold on to your merit.
You'll hold on to what you got until God actually takes to take
it away from you. You'll let, and I'll tell you
what, He keeps taking it away from us. We still got plenty
of it left in us. Don't we? But the Lord Jesus
Christ, bless His name, He came to undo what Adam did. He came to undo our ruin. He came to undo the sins that
we inherited. He came to undo our ruined nature
that we inherited from our father. And the Lord Jesus by His precious,
precious blood come and put His people's sins away. He took the
consequences of their sin away from all believers. He bore the
penalty of their sin in his own flesh is what the scripture said.
He once in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Peter said it this way, He Himself
bare our sins in His own body on the tree. When our Lord Jesus
was on that cross, our sin was on His body. And still, I want to tell you
this, this is not enough for a man to be pardoned. to have
all of his sins paid for. Because in the sight of God,
in the eyes of God, a man may be without sin, but yet God actually
requires that man to actually keep the law himself. He must
continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
them from Genesis to Revelation. And if you offend in one point,
you're guilty of all of it. So where is that righteousness? It's one thing to have our sins
gone, but then you've got to have a righteousness according
to the law and the Word of God. Now where is that righteousness
where the pardoned sinner can be completely covered so that
God Almighty Himself regards him as righteous as God Himself? Where are you going to get that
righteousness? Huh? Where is that righteousness?
Well, look here in Jeremiah 23 and I'll tell you. Look what
it says. In his days, verse 6, shall Judah
be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name.
This is his name. You want to know one of the names
of our Lord Jesus? This is His name. That name that God gave
Him that's above every name. That name that God gave Him that
said every knee is going to bow one of these days. This is His
name whereby He shall be called. What does it say? The Lord our
righteousness. This is what He has, righteousness. This is what He is, the Lord
our righteousness. This is what He shall be called
by all of God's people, the Lord our righteousness. Now what does
it mean, the Lord our righteousness? It means the Lord Jehovah Himself
is our righteousness, that's what it means. It means that
the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Sustainer and
Giver of Life, the Eternal God Himself and Perfect Man, that's
who our righteousness is. He who by all things that were
made were made by Him. He's before all things. And everything
that was made was made for Him, by Him, because of Him. And all
things by Him consist And so that's the person, that's the
God, and that's man. And this person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Creator, Upholder of Life, Giver of Life, Eternal
God, and a sinless, perfect man. That's who He says this is who
He shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And I've told
you this and I'll keep on telling you and God help me I hope I
do this as long as I got my right mind. It is in Christ alone,
in Christ alone that the Father is pleased and satisfied with. He's never ever looked at any
man of the human race, not a one soul on the top side of this
earth and said I'm well pleased with that person. I can look
at that person with approval. The only man who's ever lived
on this earth that God looked at and says, I'm well pleased
with that man. This is my beloved son. I want
you to hear what he's got to say. This is my beloved son and
whom I'm well pleased. He never said that about... He
didn't say it about Noah. He didn't say it about Adam.
He didn't say it about Daniel. He didn't say it about Joseph.
He didn't say it about Moses. He said it about our Lord Jesus
Christ. This is my son. This is my beloved
son! And our Lord Jesus Himself said,
I do always the things that pleases Him. And I tell you, beloved,
that not only with whom, but in whom God is well pleased.
In Christ alone is God well pleased. And that means that God alone
is pacified, satisfied, propitiated. And I say this, you know, we
say Christ is our all in all. Christ is God's all in all. In
Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And I'll tell
you, look in Isaiah 42, just a moment with me, just a moment
here. Look at what God said about His Son over here. Oh, the Father is only well pleased
in Him. You know, people say, well, And
used to sing that song, I wonder if my Lord's satisfied with me.
And if anybody makes it, surely I will. Listen, God ain't never
ever. And there's the thing about it,
if He ever views a man outside of Christ, He's a gold Jesse,
I'll tell you that. If He don't view us in Christ,
there's no hope for us. And look what He said about His
Son in Isaiah 42. Behold, this is God speaking now, behold my
servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delights. I put my spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judgments to the Gentiles. And look what I
said down in verse 4. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till everything's been set in the earth just exactly right,
and this new heaven and new earth of ours that he's going to create,
they're going to wait on the law, and we're going to rejoice
in it. That's what he said. That's what
he said. Behold my elect, Oh beloved, it's by Him, through
Him, and Him alone that we're justified. And you know what
it means to be justified? It means to be acquitted of all
guilt. All of us are guilty. All have
sinned and we're all guilty. God said every mouth must be
stopped and the whole world guilty before God. And what are we guilty
of? We're guilty of treason, guilty
of rebellion, guilty of everything, everything that I can have. If
you haven't done it, you thought it. You know, I don't like to
deal with myself. I certainly don't want to deal
with you. You know what we are in ourselves, what we see in
ourselves, what we feel in ourselves. And all around the world and
this guilt is going to be gone. All this sin that we commit,
all this guilt, all this shame, all this rebellion, this treason,
all the things that went on in our minds. Where in the world
are we going to be justified and acquitted from our guilt? Jehovah secure you, the Lord,
our righteousness. Look in Acts 13 just a minute.
In Acts 13. I love to preach from this verse
over here. I've preached a lot from it. Oh, this is some of
my favorite. Acts 13, 38. It's by Him and
through Him alone that we're justified. Being justified freely
by His grace. Without any cause found to justify
the acquitted of guilt. When a man stands before a judge
and he's being put on trial, been accused of certain crimes
and then the law comes up and they find out that this man was
justified in what he did and the law cannot find any fault
in him and the judge can't condemn him and the law says well he
is justified in what he did. He's acquitted. Walk out of this
room free. No, the law ain't going to come
after you. The judge ain't going to come after you. Nobody's going
to come to get you. This current has set you free.
Well, that's what happened when we said Jehovah's akin you. We've
been set free. We're not guilty. We've been
set free from our sin. Look what he said in Acts 13,
38. Paul preaching here. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, This man, go through Hebrews
how many times you say this man, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. Now watch this, and by him all
that believe are justified, cleared of all guilt, standing before
God in himself says, who is he that condemns? It's God that
justifies. And be justified from all things
which you could not be justified by anything else, by the law
or anything else. And so you see, that's what our
Lord Jesus Christ came to undo. And He's called Jehovah our righteousness
and this is what it means. It's by Him God owes well-pleased.
It's only by Him that we're justified. And I'll tell you another thing
about Him undoing our room. We're only accepted in favor
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that word accepted in the
Beloved, in Ephesians 1, 6 it said, where he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved, that word accepted means graced in the Beloved. Graced in the Beloved. And that
word means charity. I love charity. I like charity. Ain't that what it said in Acts
13 about charity? Christ gives us charity, love,
and He gives us all of Him. We accept it, graced in the Beloved,
pressed with honor. And I tell you, He makes us accept
it only in the Beloved. He makes us graced only in the
Beloved. He gives us charity, love, only
in His Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He made peace through
the blood of His cross. And here's the only place, only
place that God can accept a sinner. The only place where God will
be a friend and have fellowship with a man is only in Christ. And He must be our righteousness. Right now. Not gonna be. Right now. And I tell you, beloved,
it's by His merit. By his merit and his merit alone,
that what we are and what we have and what we do is made acceptable. We ain't never ever done anything
acceptable to God. If anything's ever made acceptable,
it's only because Christ is our righteousness. It's his merit
alone. You know these boy scouts and
that, they get these merit badges. They earn them. They have to
do that to meet certain qualifications. Then you get a badge for this
thing, you get another thing, you get a badge for that thing.
When I was in the military, you got a badge for this, and you
got a badge for that, and you got a badge for this other thing.
But you had to earn those things. They didn't just give them to
you. You had to earn them. You know who earned everything
for us? You know, in fact, he earned,
his merit is so glorious and so worthy before God, we had
no merit, that God himself gives us all the merit of Christ and
covers us with all the merit of Christ. We've never earned
anything from God, but everything we have, our Lord Jesus Christ,
by cause of His merit, everything we say or do or what we do or
act is made acceptable only through Him. Our worship today is not
acceptable only through Him. Our prayers are not acceptable
only through Him. Our desires are only acceptable
only through Him. Oh, that's why it says you're
complete in Him. complete in Him. Our Lord Jesus
Christ in His life was so righteous that He is righteousness itself.
He was the law incarnate. That law that was written on
Sinai was written in His flesh. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. And our Lord
Jesus Christ not only did He fulfill all the law's precepts,
The Jews themselves, you ask the average Jew, you go to New
York City or go to Israel. Find you one of them Jews with
his big black hat and his black suit and his beard and his little
ring that's hanging out from under his thing with his prayer
shawl around his shoulders. And you ask him how many laws
he has to believe and how many of the things he has to keep
in order to be accepted of God. He'll tell you 630 something
laws that he has to keep. And that's why they stand with
their prayer shawls and just bounce all the time. Because
they cannot pray enough. They cannot work enough. They
cannot dress right enough. They're constantly, constantly,
constantly trying to keep a law that's jotted down for them that
they must be accepted and be righteous. But our Lord Jesus Christ came
in his flesh and he kept every precept of everything written
in the book of the Lord to do them. I delight to do thy will,
O God, thy delight, thy will to do. And not only did he fulfill
his precepts, but then he went under his curse. He said, curse
it is everyone who continues not in all things written in
the book of the Lord to do. So our Lord Jesus Christ Since
you and I did not keep the law, you and I sinned and transgressed
the law. Since you and I was guilty, our
Lord Jesus Christ, he fulfilled it for us. And then he went under
his curse and penalty to bear the penalty, which was death
for us, to establish a righteousness before God. Bless his holy name. Oh my, that's why it says Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
There's nothing like getting to the end of something. Nothing like getting to the,
you know, said I'm done with that, I'm through with that,
I'm at the end of it, don't have to do it no more. You get to
the end of your journey and say this is as far as I can go, but
I ain't going no further. Well, I tell you what, I'm at
the end of the law. I can't go no further. And who's
the end of it? Christ is. The fulfillment of
it, the goal of it, the finish of it. Everything that was against
me, He took it out of the way, nailed it to His cross, and now
He is our righteousness. And Christ is the end of it.
There's no more law for a believer. None for Him to keep. Not a one. There's not a law in this universe
that God requires me to keep that Christ ain't already done. There ain't a holiness that God
looked at His Son and requires from me and you that He didn't
give us in His Son. There's not a thing that God
could possibly ask any more from me and you that Christ ain't
already done it. And that's why He's called Jehovah's
to kid you, the Lord our righteousness. Huh? Oh, and I'll tell you something,
beloved. Our bad works Don't keep us from
the Lord and our good works don't impress the Lord. The only thing
that impresses Him is the Lord, our righteousness. My bad works,
they ain't gonna keep me from Him. Cause as far as He's concerned,
I don't have any. And my good works, they're all
gone cause He took care of them too. So I just come to Him, good
or bad. Good or bad. Oh, and I tell you,
not only that, the merit of Israel alone makes us accept to what
we say or do. Made acceptable that the merit
of His blood put away sin. Oh, my. He entered once into
the holy place with His own blood and obtained eternal redemption
for us. And look in Galatians with me
just a moment. Galatians chapter 2. I want you
to see something about this merit of His blood that put away sin.
In Galatians, just a moment. You see, by faith we receive
this justification. Christ is our justification.
And we believe that he's our justification. He was raised,
delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification. Faith
is not what makes us justified. Christ justifies us. But faith
goes outside itself and believes what Christ did. Not in its own
faith, but it goes outside of itself. When you understand what
I've been preaching and you understand that Christ is here and he accomplished
everything and he's your justification before God, then what you do,
your faith goes outside you and goes to something that was already
accomplished 2,000 years ago. Christ was raised from the dead
2000 years ago and he was raised for our justification. Now what
we do is when we hear that and God teaches us that and makes
us understand that, then our heart goes out. We don't start
looking at ourselves, we go out toward that. We go out to Him. We go out and embrace Him. We
go and look to Him. And say, that's my justification
right there. What is it? The Lord Jesus Christ.
How do you know? Because He bore my sins away.
And He was raised again for my justification. So when I stand
before God... If God asks me today, and I have
to face the Lord today, and He says, Donnie Bell, what's your
justification to be able to come into my presence? I say, your
son, send it your right hand. What's your justification to
call on me? Your son, send it your own right
hand. What's your justification that you don't have no sin, that
you have a righteousness? Your son, send it your own right
hand. That'll work on it. So you see I ain't never said
nothing about me right now. If God says I want your justification
why you think you can come into my presence. Right there he says.
That's my justification. And when the devil comes along
and says boy you're a mess. Yes I am. But there God says
I ain't because right there is my justification that I'm not.
When my own heart tells me, oh, you're just a miserable wretch.
I say, no, well, you're right about that heart. But right up
there is my justification. And wouldn't it be awful if Christ
did not bear all of our sins? If he left one sin unatoned for,
one sin that would keep us in the presence of God, that one
sin would damn us. Oh my, what a wonderful Savior
is Jesus, our Lord. And look what it said here. Now
I'm talking about faith now. And the merit of his blood that
puts away sin. And we come to Christ. Now look
what it said here in Galatians 2.16. Knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law. Now listen to this. Just
being justified now. When we go to the works of the
law, nobody's going to be justified by that. But how's a man going
to be justified? But by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now it don't say by our faith
in Jesus Christ, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. What's the distinction? Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified. Now listen, he says exactly the
same thing, by the faith of Jesus Christ. He says, now just forget these
works over here. Well, how do you justify them?
By the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we which have believed in
Jesus Christ, even we are justified by the faith of Christ. Now what
does that mean? Does that mean my faith? No, no. Christ is said
by the faith of Christ. That means that our Lord Jesus
Christ, by His faithfulness, by His obedience, by His merit,
by His doing, we're justified by the faith that He Himself
obeyed His Father in. And we have to have perfect faith
to be accepted, and we ain't got it, but Christ does. We have
to have perfect repentance, and we don't have it, but Christ
does. And that's why we're justified
by the faith of Christ. And I like it. I just like it
like that. I love it like that. That means I don't have to look
to my faith. When I come time to leave this world, I don't
have to say, do I have enough faith? I don't have to say that.
I don't have to worry about it. I don't worry about whether I
have enough faith now or not, because I know I don't. Because
my faith is not what justifies me, Christ justifies me. And
I look outside myself and I look to Christ. And when my faith is so weak
that I can't even hold up my head, I still know that I'm justified
by the faith of Christ. Y'all get it? We're talking about His merit
and the merit of His obedience is given to us for righteousness. Given to us. God made Christ
unto us wisdom and righteousness. We failed by a man's sin. And so we're saved by another
man's obedience. We died by one man's disobedience. We lived by another man's obedience.
We became sinners by doing nothing but being united to another man. And we're made righteous by doing
nothing but another man's obedience and righteousness. And let me
tell you this, boy. If I never hear anything else
I've said today, listen to this right here. It was who it was
before God that made what he did of such worth. God had to
have a life and a righteousness and a sacrifice equal to himself. He could not have anything less
than what he himself is. He had to have a sacrifice that
had to be eternal because he's eternal. He had to have a sacrifice
as righteous as he is. He had to have a life that was
as holy and as righteous and eternal as God himself is. And where did he get that life?
Since there was nobody here to do it. He had to be himself in
the person of his own son. You know when God, when Abraham
took Isaac up on the mountain and Isaac said, Father, you got
the wood, you got the fire, you got the knife in your belt, but
where in the world's the lamb? Where's the sacrifice? And Abraham
turned around and said, Son, God, God will provide Himself
the lamb. And one day, John said, Behold
the lamb. And God said, that's my lamb.
That's me and my son. And oh, God had to have something
equal to himself in every single way. And he had to become that
in his own son. And the works of Christ is our
works. The life of Christ is our life.
The death of Christ is our death. And we believe that because God
gave us this faith. And then he brought in an everlasting
righteousness. An everlasting righteousness.
It's not a righteousness that you can't lose. It's not a righteousness
pasted on. It's not a righteousness painted
on. It's not a righteousness like putting a stamp on an envelope.
It's an everlasting righteousness. It's a righteousness that as
far as God's concerned we are righteous in the top of our head
to the sole of our feet inside and outside. And God made him
so to be said. This is my Son. He said, He shall
be your righteousness. I made Him righteous to you.
I ordained Him to be your righteousness. I constituted Him to be your
righteousness. I appointed Him to be your righteousness.
I appointed Him to be your atonement. I appointed Him to be your propitiation,
your advocate, your security, your mediator. This is our only
plea before God. And oh my, this is how He did
it. God made Him. Made Him. The Son of His love. The Son
of His bosom. The Son in whom He delighted
every day in eternity. And the Son in whom He delights
right now. God made Him to be sin. And if we can ever find out what
that is, But God made His soul an offering
for sin. God made Him a curse for us. And all this, everything that
was, He did for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And why is He called the righteousness
of God? Jehovah secured you. Why is He
called the righteousness of God? Why is Christ our righteousness?
Because God Himself provided it. God Himself from eternity
said, there's only one way in the world I can accept a people.
They have to be as righteous as myself. Well, how are they
going to be as righteous as myself? I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll
send my Son. And I'll make Him to be what
they were so that I can make them to be what He is. I'll make
Him to be sin like they are. And then I'll turn around and
give Him the righteousness that they didn't have. Perfect exchange, absolute exchange. And oh my, because Christ is
in God who worked it out and brought it in for us, It's not
man's right. It's not a poor, weak, miserable,
insufficient. But it's the very righteousness
of God Himself. He's Jehovah, our righteousness. And you know what His righteousness
in the Scriptures is compared to? Fine linen. Spotless white, glorious white
linen. You see these colors, they say
bright white. There's so many different colors of white, but
there is a bright, bright white. I mean, it's a white, it almost
urges you to look at it. Well, that's the kind of white
we are in Christ. You know, they said they saw
all those people in glory, and they said they were in fine linen. And you know what they called
it? The righteousness of the saints. And you know it's also called
raw gold. The king's daughter shall be
dressed in raw gold. And when that prodigal come home,
the father said, give him a robe and let him put it on. No, no. That prodigal had been gone. And I'll tell you something else.
When he was gone, away from home, spending everything he had, living
a miserable, wretched life, eating with the hogs and sleeping with
the hogs, he was always the son. There was a time he wasn't the
son. In fact, the father was watching for him to come home
one day. When he got home, he said, Oh,
there he is! He don't look good. He don't
look good. Looks like he needs to eat. Looks
like he needs to have some clothes. Bring the best robe. Put it on him. Go get these beautiful
shoes of the gospel of peace. Put them on his feet. And you
take that eternal ring of love and covenant and put that on
his finger. And then I want you to go get
the best cash and the best food and the best bread and everything
we got. And I want you to sit right in front of him and we'll
feed him the rest of his life. And ain't that the way the Lord's
been doing us? We eating a little of the fatted cash this morning. It's better than any robed angels
ever wore. And it's an ever, ever lasting
righteousness. And we must We must before God,
we must before our conscience, we must before God's law, we
must before justice call Christ the Lord our righteousness. Before
our own conscience, before God's law, before God's holiness, before
God's righteousness, we got to call the Lord Jesus Christ our
righteousness. And until He is our righteousness,
We're naked. We may be rich and increased
with goods, but God said, I see you naked. And until we have
Christ as our righteousness, we're under the wrath and condemnation
of an infinitely holy God. And until He becomes our righteousness,
consider there's no possibility of ever being pardoned, justified,
accepted, or saved. apart from the Lord Jesus Christ
being your righteousness and your justification. You see, everything that we have
must be accepted, must be perfect. And that's why Paul says, you
know, if you're going to be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. He said, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And consider this, if
he's not our righteousness, it is impossible that our righteousness
or the righteousness of another man or an angel could bring us
and make us acceptable to God. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Now I tell you what, Thomas Aquinas,
I tell you to give you a little history lesson. Thomas Aquinas,
he was the first man who come up with this concept, this idea
that a man could live righteous enough in this world that he
could have enough righteousness to give another man some of his. And that's why Catholics ended
up calling all saints. Got a saint for everything. You
need some righteousness? We'll go to this saint. You need
safe travels? We'll go to that saint. You know? But he's the first man that says
that he can have enough merit that he can give somebody. That's
why the Pope thinks that all he's got to do is wave his hands
over folks and they get all they need. And then folks just stand
there and cry and just think the greatest thing in the world
has ever happened because the Pope just waves his hands. Oh, we have a righteousness not
of a man. It says, the Lord, Jehovah, our
righteousness. And nobody has to wave their
hand. We don't have to wave our hands to the Lord, and nobody
has to wave their hand over us. It's done. And there's two reasons. Let me close
with this. There's two reasons. While men
won't have the Lord our righteousness, don't believe on Christ for his
righteousness. The first reason is his ignorance.
Paul says they being ignorant of the righteousness of God go
about to establish their own. And the second reason would be
pride. Pride would keep a man from saying
Jehovah's a kid in you, the Lord our righteousness. That rich
young ruler, that's what he said. He said, I kept all these from
my youth up. And he walked away. He said,
God can't require no more than me from that. But he was ignorant
of the righteousness of God, and he is also proud and walked
away. Are you too proud to have somebody else to be your righteousness? Oh, my. Well, I'll tell you something. I hope this has been strength
for your faith. Because right now, right now
if God lets us live to tomorrow and lets us live every day, the
only righteousness we have is the Lord our righteousness. Huh? Oh my. Be thankful. What a wonder of
grace to behold. What a wonder of grace to behold.
You say, well, poor preacher, you're just, man, you're just
a man. But you are too. But He gets with all of our faults
and all of our infirmities and all of our weaknesses and all
of our ups and downs. One thing is constant. The Lord
our righteousness. And you know when we get into
eternity it will still be the same thing. We're just enjoying
it a heapsight better. It's good here, but oh what it
will be there. Our blessed, blessed Savior.
Oh gracious God in heaven. Thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for the gospel. Oh,
thank you, thank you, thank you. Bless you for the gospel. Gives
us such comfort, gives us such assurance, gives us such blessed
hope. Oh, strengthens our faith, encourages
us so much. We thank you for it. Thank you
for the saints of God. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for the worship. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for your love and your mercy and your grace given us in Christ.
We bless you. Amen. Amen. 272. 272. Now stand
together. Righteousness, I cannot trust
the sweetest rain But I know it will rain on Jesus' name On
Christ the Son of Man Rock I stand on other ground It's sinking
sand on other ground It's sinking sand When darkness fails His
lovely face I rest on His unchanging grace Every high and storm This is my favorite verse right
here. Support me. He's my When he shall come away from
his cell, O may I in him be found, dressed in his righteousness