Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you have your Bibles today,
turn with me to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, and I'm
gonna read one verse, verse 31. Acts 17, verse 31. Excuse me. Because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained. whereof he hath given assurance
unto all, in that he hath raised him from the dead. We have in
this passage one that is spoken of as being ordained of God.
Paul was speaking to those at Athens when he saw an altar or
a statue which had the inscription that said, to the unknown God. These Athenians, just as most
religious and even irreligious today, were very superstitious. We have those that go through
certain activities, certain motions or certain sayings, just in case
they want to make sure they cover all their bases. Some may come
down an aisle to a hump in the floor. Others may say certain
words that they repeat after another person. Others may even
confess to someone things they have done or all of the above. I know this to be true because
I've done them all myself. We think if we rub the lucky
rabbit foot of religion for salvation, we are sure to get lucky enough
to get saved. If one thing does not work, a
new thing will come along and all will start trying to do this.
After a while passes, once we have done these things, the same
guilty feeling comes back, and most times it is worse than before.
So we have to start all over again. Maybe we did not do something
right the right way. Maybe we did not think the right
way when we did it. This is the kind of thoughts
that we have. We are always stuck in doing
this or doing that, just doing, doing, doing. What are we always
left with? Guilt. Nothing ever really makes
it go away. Nothing we do will ever make
it go away. We never have any assurance at
all, and for good reason. There is only one thing, yea,
one person that can take that away. That man whom he, that
is God, hath ordained. One day it says he will judge
the world in righteousness, And knowing there is none righteous,
no not one, tells us all that if we stand in that day before
him, his judgment will be our eternal damnation. So how can
we be justified, or that is right, in that day if we have no righteousness? Since he will judge in righteousness.
Today I want to talk about these two things. God's righteousness,
our assurance. In Matthew 6 in verse 33, we
read this. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. So knowing the righteousness
of God seems to me to be an important thing to know. How do I know
what the righteousness of God is? And how do I get it, one
might ask. First of all, our own righteousness
will not cut it. Our righteousness is not righteous
enough. Hear what Christ told some in
Matthew 5 and verse 20. For I say unto you, that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. In other words, Christ is saying
you cannot attain the righteousness needed by what you do. Paul tells
us, being inspired by the Spirit of God, he says, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, and that
is God's sight. So the righteousness required
by God will not be found in us. So where do we find God's righteousness?
We have to start with Scripture. Romans 1 and verses 16 and 17
says this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein,
that is in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. So we read here in the gospel
of Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed. Oh may God
send us the gospel today. If that is where the righteousness
of God is revealed, then I need to hear the gospel. So what is
the gospel? Let me start with 1 Thessalonians
1 and verse 5, because just hearing the gospel is not enough, as
we will see. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5
says, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. So first
of all, what is the gospel? The word means good news. What
is good news to a sinner? I spent a big portion of my life
trying to figure out what I had to do to be saved. At least at
the time, it felt like a big portion of my life. I thought
I would just do better, thinking that this is what would gain
me favor before God. And him showing me favor towards
me for it. I kept doing and doing. I was
never satisfied. Guilt always pursued. Oh, I may
have thought for a time I was doing okay, and that this is
what was needed, but nothing deep down ever satisfied my soul.
It would keep coming back, and I would have to either try and
stifle the thoughts or try to do something else to make the
thoughts go away. Thank God it never worked. I thank him that
the guilt never quit. It does work for some, and oh,
what a place to be in to have a false hope. A hope based on
anything that you do is a false hope. I was like those whom scripture
speaks about in 2 Timothy 3, verse 7. Ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. It was always do,
do, do with me. Just as it says in Scripture,
Romans 10 and verse 3 says, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
I tried repenting of those things I was doing, but that, just as
it was for Esau, never worked. I sought repentance with tears
at times, but it never came. I was not hearing the gospel,
and if I was, it came to me in word only. So what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news of
God's righteousness, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus Christ,
who is he? It means that message that declares
who Jesus Christ is, and that is God, God Almighty himself. But not that only. He is God
the Son. The one who condescended to do
the will of the Father. Why is that significant if he
is God? And he is God. Because he submitted
himself as one being in subjection to another. He did without and
became a man. He had nothing. The Lord of glory
I'm talking about. This one came down and walked
on this earth. He was a bona fide man walking
on this earth. He came and made himself of no
reputation. He was not one that after seeing
him, you would recognize him later. He didn't stick out in
a crowd, in other words, by his looks, that is. He was of the
Holy Ghost of God and born to Mary and Joseph, a family that
had very little. They called him the son of a
carpenter. and this was not a high calling in that day. He says
he had no place to lay his head, meaning he had no real home to
go to or stay in, especially after he left his mother and
father, you might say, when he was older. He worked with his
own hands. Do not think our Lord did not
work with his own hands. Everything he did, he did by
the work of his own hands. But then we have him crucified.
Him crucified was more than just being nailed to the tree. He
was nailed to the tree for sure, but it was not just being nailed
to a tree for Him. If it was just about Jesus Christ
dying, then God the Father would or could have killed Him in His
sleep. I know this because God the Father loved the Son. He
would not have subjected His Son to needless torture. No,
Jesus Christ had to suffer the shame of the cross as well. He
was cursed, spat upon, beat, had his beard plucked out, and
had a crown of thorns put upon his head. He was ridiculed and
mocked. But yet, that was not the ultimate
thing that he had to suffer before his death. This man, this one
man was forsaken of God the Father. I don't know how to explain that.
God forsaking God? Is there anything about that
that rings salvation to your ears? He did something that was
absolutely something I do not want to experience, something
I do not want to work out with my own hands. But then being
forsaken of God, he died after that. He was in the grave three
days and three nights, but the grave could not hold him. He
arose from the grave victorious, ascended to the Father to present
himself the perfect spotless lamb on our behalf. and he was
accepted of the Father. He saved his people to the uttermost,
fully and completely by his work and his work alone. I just know
that what he did was something I could never do to pay for my
sins. First of all, a spotless sacrifice was needed, and I know
I am not spotless. When this finally came to me
in the gospel, it was good news to me. What I was required to
pay fully, Jesus Christ my Lord did in my place. This is good
news to me. Maybe it's not good news to you.
I know that is the case for some, but I have a few thoughts that
come from that. I first feel pity for those who have never
been brought to feel that this is good news to them. At the same time, I feel anger
that there are so many that reject the work that Jesus Christ the
Lord did on Calvary. If you try to add one thing to
what Jesus Christ the Lord did on that tree, you are trying
to add to his work. But even still, my hope is that
some, even yet, will come to love what he did. Because whether
anyone knows it or not, this was a glorious thing that Jesus
Christ the Lord did on his people's behalf. He was flesh and bones
just like you and I. Yet he did this without opening
his mouth in opposition or rejection of doing any of this. Does that
not make you want to bow down your face to the ground in shame? Bow down your face in the dust
in honor to the one man that did what was required to satisfy
his own justice, him being God. This is the gospel, and Him being
the perfect spotless Lamb crucified on that tree, and then ascending
to the right hand of the Father, being accepted, He is the righteousness
of God, having obeyed the law of God perfectly. Simply put,
Jesus Christ is God's righteousness. If we are chosen in Him, then
God will in time place us in Christ, Him giving us life, And
in doing this, he will give us the gift of faith. And having
faith, we will then receive the faith of the gospel when the
gospel comes to us. Faith is not something you work
up. It is the gift of God. It is a gift that God must give
or you will not have it. Otherwise, any faith you have
is dead faith, James tells us. But not everyone has faith. Paul
tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3 in verse 2, all men have not faith. So this gospel comes to us. It
does not just come to us in word only, but in power, and that
is God's power and of the Holy Ghost. So just to go over it
again, this gospel, the one I spoke of, comes to us not in word only. If all you do is hear words and
it comes in no other way, whatever you get from it will not last.
Now you must hear it in word, but not word only. God must be
in it. In other words, it must be his
power that it comes to you by his Holy Spirit. You will not
hear the gospel or come to know God through a vision in the sky
or in a dream. It will come to you in word,
but not just word only. That which comes to you will
be the gospel. If it is not the gospel, then
the words do not matter to begin with, no matter how they come.
God sends men, and the men he sends is up to him. Those he
sends will proclaim the gospel. But it will come to you in power.
What power, or whose power? What does scripture say about
power? Well, we read in Matthew chapter 28, verses 17 and 18,
we read this. And when they saw him, they worshiped
him, that's Christ. But some doubted. And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. The power I am talking about
is the only power there is. Any perceived power anywhere
else is just that, perceived power. Jesus Christ is where
all power comes from, so this gospel comes to us in power,
the power of God. Is it the power of the preacher? How much power does the scripture
say Jesus Christ has? All power. The power that I am
talking about is not of this world. Should I have the power
of a pilot or a king or a president, I would not have enough power
to bring the gospel to someone in this way. The weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, Paul the apostle tells us. There is nothing in
this world that I can do or say that would be enough power to
do this. My only weapon is the word of God, and it is he that
gives the increase. He has told us that his word
will not return unto him void. It will accomplish that for which
he sent it to do. So we have power, and what else? The Holy Ghost. That which Jesus
Christ said he would send to convince men of sin. So God Almighty
comes in power in the Holy Ghost, convincing men of sin. This Holy
Ghost which comes having the fruit of the Spirit, and a part
of that fruit is the faith of Jesus Christ, it will always
point you to Jesus Christ the Lord, always. But this fruit
not only has faith, but love. So you will believe Jesus Christ
and you will love his truth, the gospel. Then there is one
other thing of how it comes to us. It comes to us with much
assurance, which leads me to my next point, our assurance. My heading for this point is
our assurance, but I want to be clear. When I say our, I am
not including all men. God does not love everybody.
He did not purpose to love everybody. Only a remnant. If you were a
part of that remnant, then when I say our assurance, I am talking
to you. One way to know is if you reject
what I am saying today, then you may not be one of his. I
do not say this to be mean or because I think I am better or
smarter than anyone else. I am no smarter or better than
anyone else when it comes to as we are born in Adam. We are
all born dead in trespasses and in sin. So if you reject what
I am saying, and the scriptures testify to this, but if you reject
this message, you are either not one of God's chosen or he
has not opened your eyes yet. that is giving you spiritual
life, which he must do. If you are one of his, he will
only when he is pleased to give you life, thereby imparting to
you faith so that you will begin to love this message. So now,
last of all, we have in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5, we have assurance. This is where I wanted to get
to. So since the gospel is where the righteousness of God is revealed,
then I must hear the gospel. If this gospel comes to me, not
in word only, but in power of God and of the Holy Ghost, I
will then have assurance. But much assurance of what? Assurance
that I have done all I can do and now it's up to me? There's
not much assurance in that, since I previously tried everything
I could to gain my salvation and failed. Trying to do better,
repent more, rededicate my life, believe God with all my heart.
But there's no assurance in that because that never happens for
a man in and of himself. We have already read that man's
righteousness is not enough. My assurance does not come from
me believing in my believing. My assurance comes when I believe
Jesus Christ and what he did. When I just rest and trust Christ
for what he has done, then oh, what a blessed assurance I have.
The gospel tells us his works. Faith given us allows us to believe
his works. What are his works? Well, everything
in short, but those things we've already specifically said, and
it is that which the gospel tells us that Christ has done. He has
judicially taken away my sins as far as the east is from the
west. There is no more work to be done
for salvation because he said there is none. He said, as I've
said many times before, he said, it is finished. He cried this on that tree. Faith
comes from Jesus Christ. Faith points to Jesus Christ.
So if God has given you faith and coming to you with the gospel,
it will be manifested in you believing the record God gave
of his son. That record specifically being
Jesus Christ and him crucified, the gospel. Oh, when you see
him and can totally rest in what he has accomplished, it will
give you blessed assurance. Acts 17 and verse 31 reads this
way. Because he hath appointed a day,
this is our text, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all in that he raised him from the dead. Christ being raised
from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father, assures
me that salvation for me has already been wrought out by Him. It is Jesus Christ the Lord who
is the ordained man that will assure us as us being raised
from the dead. We are assured by what He has
done. His faith is what assures us.
Hebrews 10 and verse 22 says, Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. If I
ever begin to look at anything I do or have done or think I
should do, then the much assurance will fade. But if by His power
and might you continue to look at Christ and what He has done,
I mean completely finish the work of salvation, you will be
much assured about salvation because it had nothing to do
with you. Your assurance, just as the salvation wrought for
you, your assurance comes from Jesus Christ the Lord. You do
this by the faith given you being a fruit of the Spirit and hearing
the faith of the gospel proclaimed to you. Oh, I like the rest. Right there, don't you? Right
there in the gospel where Jesus Christ has taken care of me by
taking my place. He's taken care of everything.
I hope that those hearing me will not be like those men in
Athens who told Paul, you're crazy, or we will hear you later
on this matter. There may never be another time.
God may kill you. He also may harden your heart,
just as Pharaoh did. He kept hardening his heart.
Pharaoh kept hardening his own heart against God. Until finally,
God hardened Pharaoh's heart. It was exactly what Pharaoh wanted. So if Christ's given you a new
heart in the imparting of life from God, you will have the ability
to believe. He will send you his gospel in
power and of the Holy Ghost, and you will believe Jesus Christ,
the righteousness of God, and you will confess him before men.
Romans 10.10 says, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You will
come to know that Christ is all to you in God's sight. 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 30 says, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. You will, by the gospel, know
this is so, because it took God himself to justify us. 2 Corinthians
verse 5 to 21 says this, For he, that is God, hath made him,
that is Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. Who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him? Knowing these
things, you will love Jesus Christ and his work. Submitting yourself
to him, knowing you have no righteousness of your own. Philippians 3 and
verses 8 and 9 reads this way. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do
count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Seeing that it pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, and
knowing he will send you that word by his choosing, and that
he will also bring you that gospel in more than word only, but also
in power and of the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. It is
a nice thing to think about getting to hear the gospel over and over
again, assuring my soul over and over again that salvation
is of the Lord. We will, when we first begin
to see this, we will say, as Job has said in Job 42 verses
five and six, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. As our text lets us know, this
is how we know our election. That we heard the gospel and
it came to us this way. Being blind, but now we see. This being done to us, it causes
us to do something. What does it go on to say in
1 Thessalonians 1? In verse 6, it says, and ye became
followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much
affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. You will join yourselves
to others that have had this power moved against them in much
affliction and joy of the Holy Ghost. Oh, I hope that it might
be that that man who he hath ordained will give you assurance
that salvation is accomplished in Jesus Christ the Lord, our
righteousness before God. Now, just a reminder, we have
at 12 noon, we have a portion of one of our Sunday messages
that you can listen to there. Otherwise, you know, come be
with us at 1030. We start at 1030, just past Little
Beaver State Park on Annabel Lane. come hear Jesus Christ
and Him crucified proclaim.