Well, good morning, everyone. If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 122. Psalm 122. And as you're turning a few announcements, I'm afraid that our brother Chris Kermes is probably at the emergency room right now. He's woke up with pain in his abdomen and his lower back. And so they're going to go find out what's going on there. Happy to report that my mom seems to be recovering very well.

Lord willing, I'll be preaching in Danville, Kentucky on Tuesday. I covered your prayers for that trip. And also, this will be in the bulletin next week. But if you want to jot it down, I have conference dates set up for May 8 through the 10th. And Lord willing, by next Sunday, I'll have a list, the complete list of preachers for that. But it'll be May 8 through the 10th will be our conference this year. All right, Psalm 122. Woke up this morning thinking about this first one.

I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions sake, I will now say peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. ♪ Glory to the Heavenly Father ♪ ♪ Fountain of eternal love ♪ ♪ Who His wandering sheep to gather ♪ ♪ Sent the Savior from above ♪ ♪ To the Son all praise be given ♪ Who with love unknown before Left the bright abode of heaven And our sins and sorrows bore Equal strains of warm devotion, let the Spirit's praise employ. Author of each holy motion, source of wisdom, peace and joy. Thus while our glad hearts ascending glorify Jehovah's name, heavenly songs with ours are blending.

There the theme is still the same. Okay, if you would, now turn in your hymnal to song number 323, More Love to Thee. 323. More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee. Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to thee. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest. Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best. This all my prayer shall be, more love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee. more love to thee. Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain.

Sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain. when they can sing with me. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. More love to Thee. Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise. This be the parting cry. My heart shall raise. This still its prayer shall be. More love, O Christ, to Thee. More love to Thee. more love to thee. Let's open our Bibles now to Acts chapter 10. We're going to begin our reading in verse 24 of Acts chapter 10.

This is after Cornelius is sent for Peter to come and preach to them. Verse 24, and the morrow after they entered into Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter took him up saying, stand up. I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together.

And he said unto them, you know how that is unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for. I ask therefore for what intent you have sent for me.

And Cornelius said four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send, therefore, to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon, a tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. Immediately, therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast done well, that thou art come.

Now, therefore, are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent under the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. That word I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins.

And we'll end our reading there. Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we bow in your presence this morning. Father, we bow in worship. We bow in humility. We bow in reverence at coming into the presence of the God of all the earth, the creator of the worlds, The God who has ordained salvation to his people through the obedience and the sacrifice of his precious son. Father, we bow. We bow before you as mercy beggars, begging Father that you might be pleased to bless us this morning as we look into your word.

Father, cause the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be exalted in everything that is said and done here today. Father, through the preaching of your word, let each one of us here see Christ lifted up on high. Let us see him as our all and in all. Let us see him as all of our salvation, all of our righteousness, all of our wisdom, all of our sanctification. Father, cause us to flee to him. and find in Christ everything that we need. Don't let us, Father, I beg of you, hear the Gospels, just the same old story that we've heard so many times, but Father, make it new and fresh and bless our hearts with the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what we ask for ourselves, Father, we ask for your people, wherever they're meeting together today, Father, bless your word. for your great namesake and for the good of your people. Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his sake and his glory we pray, amen.

I titled the message this morning, Commanded to Speak and Hear. The Lord had told Cornelius, now you sent for this man, Peter, to come and preached to you, and he did. And Peter arrived, and this is what Cornelius tells him in verse 33 of Acts chapter 10. Immediately, therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come.

Now, therefore, are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. I can't think of a greater blessing than a group of people all gathered here together before God to hear, to hear a word from the Lord, to hear the gospel, to hear what it is that God has commanded the preacher to preach. He said, I want to hear the things that God has commanded you to speak. And those things that God has commanded us to speak, that's the gospel.

This is not an optional thing for a man who's been called of God to preach his gospel. It's not optional for him, to choose what it is he's gonna preach. To say one thing and to withhold something else, we're to preach the whole gospel, the whole counsel of God. Everything that God has commanded us to preach is the gospel.

That's what verse 42 says, that Peter said the Lord had commanded him, and he commanded us. This wasn't optional. He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he. He's commanded us to preach Christ. It's He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and the dead. Now, whatever it is that God has commanded us to preach, He's also commanded us to hear and to believe.

These things that you hear in the gospel are commandment from God Almighty to hear and to believe these things, to hear of Christ and to believe on Him. And this is what I really want us to get this morning. What John said in 1 John 5 verse 3, his commandments are not grievous. I'm going to tell you some of these commandments. These things were commanded to preach and commanded to believe. And these commandments are a joy to every sinner. If you're a real sinner, these commandments will be a joy to you. It's not putting a burden on you. It's to take the burden off. and give you the joy of Christ. This is what God's commanded us to preach and to believe. And the first thing God's commanded us to preach and to believe is Christ our righteousness.

Now you'll notice I didn't say the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is the obedience. that he worked out under the law, made as a man, made under the law, and he obeyed God's law perfectly. And that's the righteousness that he earned as a man. But to preach the gospel, we have to preach a whole lot more than the righteousness of Christ, like the righteousness of Christ that's imputed to us like it's a thing. As I've told you so many times, righteousness is a person. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption. We're to preach, this is what we're commanded to preach, Christ our righteousness.

Peter says in verse 35, but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Now righteousness is obeying the law perfectly. And the only one who ever obeyed God's law perfectly was the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 38, here's how Peter describes him. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, with power, and he went about doing good. Everything he did was good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. The only man who ever obeyed God's law perfectly, who ever deserved for God to be with him, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he did pleased his Father. Everything he did in thought, in word, in deed, in motive, was all obeying God's law perfectly.

That's how he established righteousness, and that's the only righteousness that's ever existed on this planet. That's the righteousness of Christ. Now I'm going to try to show you the difference between preaching the righteousness of Christ and Christ our righteousness.

What does that mean? What does it mean when Peter says, those who work righteousness? What does it mean to work righteousness? Well, the scriptures tell us. And it doesn't mean to earn a righteousness, work out a righteousness by your own obedience, and your own morality, and your own orthodoxy. It means the righteousness of Christ. Let me show you that, Psalm 15. Now here's righteousness. Here's the righteousness that Christ established, his own personal righteousness.

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who should dwell in thy holy hill? Who is it that's able to dwell in the presence of God? Well, it's he that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, He that putteth not out his money to usury, but taketh reward, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. He that doeth these things can stand in the presence of God.

Well, that Psalm can only be describing the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one. He's the only one who could ever do the work to establish righteousness. He putteth not his money to usury, He didn't charge you interest on his blessings to you, does he? He gives it all to you by grace, all by grace. And everything that he did was to please his father perfectly. It's the only righteousness that ever existed.

Now, what does it mean then for when Peter says that people can work righteousness? He, whoever it is that worketh righteousness is accepted of God. What does that mean to work righteousness? Well, it simply means this. Here's how you and I work righteousness. By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. By trusting Him to be our righteousness. I'll show you that in John chapter six. John chapter six.

Now, isn't that a whole lot better than saying, y'all, you got this week, you gotta do better. I know you hadn't done very good this week. You gotta do better. You wanted to tell a lie, or you did tell a lie, or you did something a little shady in business. You guys better pick it up here. You better pick up your giving. You better pick up your love. You better pick up your kindness to one another.

That's just putting a burden on you, isn't it? But isn't it a joy to hear, we work righteousness. We have righteousness simply by believing Christ our righteousness. Oh, it's a joy, isn't it? Look here at John 6, verse 28. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Now, do you wanna work the work of God? You wanna get to work working the work of God? Here's the work of God, verse 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. That's the work of God.

That's what God requires of his people to believe on the son that God sent to be the savior. of sinners. Believe on him. Believe on him for all your salvation. You know, whom he has sent, after that, there's a period. It's not believe Christ and do this. It's not believe on Christ and be circumcised. It's not believe on Christ and keep parts of the law. It's not believe on Christ and be the most moral person on the block. It's believe on Christ, period.

That's working righteousness for all your salvation. Let me show you that, Romans chapter four. Don't ever fall for this trap. It's like, well, you know, the Lord saves you by his grace, and then you gotta get to work. If God saves you by his grace, you're gonna get to work serving him and serving his people, but not to work out of righteousness. It'll be out of thanksgiving, because God gave you the righteousness of Christ.

Look here, Romans four, verse three. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, whoever is working, trying to earn a righteousness under the law, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How is it reckoned? When was it reckoned? When he was circumcised or in uncircumcision?

Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, the seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had, being yet uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised. So they've never kept that part of the law, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, not just Jews only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised before he did that work, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

That's how you work righteousness. It's the righteousness of faith by believing on Christ. That's God's commandment to you and me to right now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on Christ our righteousness. That's why David said in Psalm 71 verse 16, I'll make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine alone. Christ is all of my righteousness.

Isn't that a blessed commandment? What a blessed commandment. Quit your works, quit your works. and rest in Christ. That's a blessed commandment. And if you can't trust Christ, you find that you can't believe him, I tell you what to do. Beg God to give you the faith to trust Christ, to quit working and trust Christ. Human beings are willing to quit work for anything. I mean, people go to work.

I was talking with my college roommate. I hadn't talked to him in a while. I was talking to him last week and he said, I've got the date set. It's like two years from now. He's got the exact date, March the 30th. I mean, he knows the exact date he's going to retire. He just can't wait.

I'm going to quit working. I'm going to start enjoying life. And everybody works all their life to get to the point where I can retire. Oh, we look forward to quitting work. Dan, you're loving the life of a gentleman farmer now, aren't you? Dan's retired. This is his loving life. We'll quit working. Every kind of work except working, trying to work our way to God. And God commands us, quit that working. Quit working and failing to keep my law, to establish righteousness, and make me happy with you, and just trust my son.

That's a blessed commandment. Now the second thing we're commanded to preach, back in our text, verse 36, we're to preach Christ our peace. Verse 36. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. Now this thing of peace with God is so necessary, and we've made it necessary.

You and I have declared war on God. We declared war on God in our father Adam. Whatever Adam did, you and I did in him. He was our representative, and when Adam sinned, you and I sinned in him. Adam, with his eyes wide open, knowing exactly what he was doing, rebelled against God. And when he did, he declared war on God. Adam wasn't just breaking the rules. When Adam took that fruit that God had forbidden him to eat, and he ate it, you know what he was doing?

He wanted to be God. That's what Satan told Eve. You eat this fruit, you'll be as God, knowing good and evil. And it's not just knowing good and evil, it's saying what is good and what is evil. Adam wanted to be God. He wanted to put himself on the throne, and you and I are born into this world thinking we're on the throne. Have you ever yet met a toddler that didn't think he was on the throne?

We've got to be taught otherwise our whole lives, don't we? We've declared war on God and Adam, and we've continued that war with our own sin. And we continue that war most violently, if that's the right word. by refusing to beg God for mercy. By refusing to beg God for the forgiveness of our sins, by our refusal to do what God commanded us to do, to quit working and rest in Christ, we refuse to quit our works.

I mean, we're gonna have something. We're gonna have some work that we can present to God. And yes, I'll be saved 99.9% by grace, but not this 0.1. I got that to present to God. We refuse to give up our rags of righteousness and trust Christ. That's the most heinous sin that there is. That's our war on God. By nature, that's our war on God. We're just having this battle with God to see whose way is going to be the way. Is it God's way of salvation in Christ? Is it God's way of mercy and grace through the blood of Christ? Or is it my way through my works?

That's what this war is all about. And brother, it's a war we can't win. It's a war we cannot win. I think back to World War II and the conflicts that's happened throughout the world since then. But the Japanese Empire sent a bunch of ships to bomb the U.S. military in Pearl Harbor. Now, Japan's that big and the United States is this big.

Where do you think that's gonna end? I mean, I always wonder that. Where do you think this thing's gonna end? Will you magnify that infinitely? Where do you think our war with God, with the Almighty, the one who has all might, where do you think that war's gonna end? Apart from God's grace in Christ Jesus, it's gonna end with our destruction. No matter what we do.

We cannot make peace with God. We cannot do it. I don't know who first coined the phrase, I made my peace with God. I mean, that's such a blasphemous statement. God sent word under the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, not by what we do or we don't do by Jesus Christ. The only way that a sinner can have peace with God is if our sin's gone. The holy God is angry with sin. He must punish sin, and the only way we can have peace with God is to take our sin away so that it does not exist.

Now, that's something you and I can never do. And see, this is the problem with men's works. We're trying to work to put some of the sin away. We're trying to work to offset some of our sin, But we can't put our sin away, because the more work we do to put our sin away, we're just adding more sin on top of sin. Does that make sense? If I try to take this sin away and I do this work to try to take it away, all I've done is just keep piling up the dead, just sin upon sin upon sin upon sin.

So you know what God did? God, the offended party, The one who we've sinned against, we can't put our sin away. We can't make peace with him. He sent his son into this world to make peace. To make peace with God for rebels like you and me. And he did it through the blood of the cross of his son. In order to make peace with his people, the father had to pour out his wrath upon their sin. So he made his son sin for his people. and he poured out his wrath upon his son. And the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ removed the sin that made God angry.

So God's at peace. God is at peace for everyone for whom Christ died. If Christ died for you, I want you to think about the enormity of this statement. If Christ died for you, God has no reason to be angry with you. No reason at all. Because the blood of Christ took your sin away. And the command of the gospel is this, God's at peace with his people, because the blood of Christ took their sin away. Now you be at peace with God.

You surrender. Right where you sit, you surrender. You surrender your works. You surrender your goodness. You surrender all those things that you think that might commend you to God, and you submit yourself to the righteousness of God. You submit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness, and you come begging God. You come begging God for mercy, begging God for peace, and pleading only this reason, the blood of Christ.

I don't plead peace with God because I cleaned up my act. I don't plead peace with God because I spend my days Studying God's Word and looking for Christ in the Word and trying to find messages to bring for His glory and your good. That's not why I'm seeking peace with God. I seek peace with God solely on this foundation.

It's the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ that has taken away my sin. And make no mistake, this is a commandment. This is a commandment of God. You surrender. I mean right where you sit, you surrender. You quit your fight with God. You surrender.

Peter said, he's Lord of all. The Lord of all is not offering you terms of surrender to see whether or not you'll accept him. He's not offering you terms of surrender, so let's negotiate on this and come to a middle ground. The Lord of all has made this commandment, you surrender.

You surrender and enjoy peace with God. Isn't that a commandment? What a blessed commandment. It would be such an awful commandment if I had to stand up here and tell you, do something you can't do. You make your peace with God. Start living better and you'll make peace with God. You'll start out with the best of intentions and fail before Monday morning before you get out of bed when the alarm goes off, won't you?

But to have this commandment, you surrender to Christ and enjoy peace with God. That's a blessed commandment. Then the third thing God's commanded us to preach and to believe is this, Christ crucified, verse 39. And we're witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree.

Now, here's the thing about man who's declared war on God. Man has declared war on God because man by nature hates God. That's all there is to it. Man by nature hates the God of this book. We hate, by nature, we hate God's way of salvation. We hate that God's Lord over all and nothing we can do to break his rule off of us. We hate that salvation must be on God's terms. We hate God. And so the first thing we did when we could get our hands on God's son is we slaughtered him. We caused him as much pain as we could possibly cause a person physically. And then we slaughtered him in the most humiliating way that we could think of.

And that wasn't even The worst of the cross, the worst of the cross was the soul sufferings of Christ, where he made his soul an offering to God. Now the cross is an act of God. The cross, I like what Brother Todd Niver says, the most God-like thing God ever did is the cross, crucifying his son to satisfy his justice so that he could have mercy on his people. Most God-like thing God ever did, it was an act of God, And yet, this is also true, man's still responsible for doing it.

And somebody says, reconcile that. How can this be God's will and man's responsible for it? I don't have to reconcile. That's just what God said. Isn't that what Peter told him early in the book of Acts? You took him, and by wicked hands has slain him. And when you did it, you know all you did? You took him and you did that by the foreordination of God.

This was God's eternal purpose But you're still guilty of doing it because you did it. And the whole human race is guilty. The whole human race was at the cross. The whole human race, believer and unbeliever alike. And you and I are just as guilty of driving those nails in the hands and the feet of our Savior as that Roman soldier did. You and I are just as guilty as shouting, crucify him, crucify him, destroy him, and give us, grab us, as that crowd of Jews that were shouting that to Pilate. We did it. We would have done it outwardly if we were there, and we've already done it in our heart.

You and I are guilty of this crime, of putting to death, slaughtering the Son of God. Now let me ask you. Sabrina, somebody took one of them precious babies sitting on your side of you and they killed him. What would you want done? What would you and Brent want done?

No matter what the law did to that murderer, Sabrina would never be satisfied. Never. They could spend the rest of their life in jail. It could be the most horrible surroundings ever. She'd never be satisfied. They could stick a needle in that murderer's arm and she could watch him die. She'd be one of them witnesses there watching. She wouldn't be satisfied.

God sacrificed his own son for the sin of his people. Sin that was against him, even the sin of crucifying and hating his own son, God put his son to death to pay for that sin. And it satisfied him. it satisfied his justice. And more than satisfying his justice, it satisfied his mercy. When the father put his son to death to satisfy his justice against the sin of his people, it also satisfied his mercy by enabling God to be just and still justify the ungodly by making it right for God to show mercy to sinners like you and me. That's Christ crucified. It's not just that Christ died on the cross, But what he accomplished through his death, through his death he satisfied God's justice against the sin of his people and magnified God's mercy and his grace to the likes of you and me. And that sacrifice was successful. Verse 40, him, God raised up. You notice how Peter said, they slew him and hanged him on a tree. God's the one that raised him up. God raised him up the third day and showed him openly.

Not to all people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. Christ died for sin, but he rose again. And the reason he rose again, just like we looked at in our lesson this morning, is because the blood of Christ's sacrifice put away all of the sin of all of his people. Christ had to die for sin, but when sin's gone, he must be raised from the dead.

There, when in the death of Christ, he justified all of his, he made all of his people to be without sin. And anytime any of the apostles, any of the preachers in scripture, any of the prophets, when they talk about the death of Christ, they never talk about it with even a hint of failure. Not even a hint. When Christ died on the cross, his people were eternally justified. made without sin, and the proof of it is God raised him from the dead.

He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now here's the commandment that comes along with this preaching of Christ crucified. You quit trying to put your own sin away. Just quit it and rest in Christ. There's no condemnation in him. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

The commandment of Christ crucified is you trust Christ to be the sacrifice that puts your sin away, so that you have no fear of condemnation, no fear of death, no fear of facing God. His blood took away all of your sin, and his resurrection from the dead, is the proof of it.

What a blessed commandment. Wouldn't it be awful for some preacher to give you the commandments that made you fear death, that made you fear displeasing God, that always has you looking out, God going to strike you with lightning, God going to strike you down, you know? What a blessed commandment. Come rest in Christ. There's no fear, no condemnation in Him.

The fourth thing that we're commanded to preach is Christ, the judge of the quick and the dead. Verse 42, and he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Now Christ is not the judge in the sense that we know of judges. You know, a judge comes and he listens to the arguments of the prosecution. He listens to the arguments of the defense and he puts it all together and he renders a decision Which one's right and which one's wrong? That's not Christ our judge. He's not going to be listening to arguments and that great day of judgment and then decide, well, which one's a sheep and which one's a goat?

Which one should I send to my right hand and which one should I send to my left hand? The decision's already been made. The decision's already been made. He already knows it. All the judgment is going to be is Christ pronouncing the judgment. to the world, that's all it is.

His people, he's going to announce them as completely innocent, completely righteous, tell them to enter into paradise that I prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And he's going to say to the sheep, to the goats, depart from me, I never knew you. And that judgment will be true. He'll never issue a verdict that's wrong because he's going to judge the world in righteousness.

And the verdict is completely up to the Sovereign. He is Lord of all. It's completely up to Him. There's no arguing with Him. There's no appealing His judgment. It's completely up to the Sovereign. The salvation of our souls is completely up to the Sovereign. He'll have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He'll show grace to whom He will show grace. and he'll pass by whom he will. It's completely up to the sovereign. And the standard by which we will be judged is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The standard by which we will be judged is perfection. The sheep are gonna be pronounced perfect. And how can that be? I haven't lived a moment of perfection in this life, have you? How can the Savior pronounce me righteous and innocent in that day of judgment? How can he say I'm perfect?

Well, this is the good news of the gospel. Christ has made his people perfect. He took their sin away, made them perfect. We're the righteousness of God in him. I mean, there's no standards of righteousness. You either are or you aren't. But Paul says you're made the righteousness of God in him, as righteous as the Son of God himself. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus, made holy in Christ Jesus. Now this is such a blessed commandment. Don't fear judgment. There is no reason for any believer to fear judgment.

I happen to be of the thought that believers aren't even gonna go through a judgment. It's not like God's gonna have a big screen TV and put all of our sins up and embarrass the life of us and show all of creation all of our sins. and then say, well, but my son died for him, so I'm gonna let him in anyway. The father doesn't see the sins of his people. They're gone. The believer's not even gonna go through judgment.

All the believer's gonna hear is the sheep on his right hand, enter ye, enter ye. You don't have to fear judgment. You don't have to fear condemnation. If Christ has already been judged for you, if Christ has already been condemned as your substitute, there's no reason to fear judgment. So rest from that fear. Don't go through all your life subject to the fear and bondage of death.

Listen, nobody knows better that you're righteous than the judge himself because he's the one that made you righteous. Nobody knows better than the judge himself that you're innocent because he's the one that made you innocent. Nobody knows better than the judge that you can't be condemned because the judge has already been condemned for you. He already knows. He just says, come rest. Now this is a blessed commandment. Come trust Christ and rest in him. And last is this. This is the thing that we're commanded to preach and to believe.

We're commanded to preach Christ in every verse of scripture. Verse 43, to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, Whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. This whole book is written to tell us who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The Old Testament gives us pictures, tells us what he looks like, tells us what he gives us pictures of what he's going to do when he comes here. The New Testament says here he is. The epistles tell us this is what he's done and he's coming back. Every verse of scripture is written of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's given us this blessed privilege of having this book. In the past, men have given their lives to translate this book into a language that the common man could read and understand and print it and give it to the people. They gave their lives to do that. They were tortured and killed for doing that. Now you can buy it in the dollar store for a dollar. We give one for free to all of our graduates. All you got to do is graduate. We're going to get you a Bible. Everybody's going to sign.

This is the Word of God. The Word of God written to instruct us in righteousness. Written to instruct us to point us to Christ who is our righteousness. Written to give peace. to our hearts that Christ has been condemned for us. The job of the preacher is to take any verse of scripture and to preach to his people.

There's hope for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a good hope. There's a good hope by grace. There's salvation for sinners in Christ. There's righteousness for the unrighteous. There's sanctification for the unholy. There's mercy. The purpose of God in Christ is salvation for his people.

And as mysterious as the Lord Jesus Christ is, as mysterious as God is, he's not hard to find if you know where to look. He's found in this book. And the job of the preacher is to take a passage of scripture and preach Christ from it. To take that scripture and hold Christ up and say, here he is. Do you see him? I mean, I know I can't describe all of his glory, but do you get a hint of his glory? Do you get a hint of his grace? Do you get a hint of his mercy? Do you get a hint of his perfection? Do you get a hint of him? Run to him.

The job of the preacher is not to take the scripture and tell us how to live. You already know how to live. We're born knowing not to lie to our mom and daddy. You're born knowing that. The law of God is written on our hearts. We're not to take the scripture and teach people how to have more friends and how to influence people and how to live a better, happier life in this earth. In this life, you're gonna have tribulation. The comfort is, look to Christ. He's the one that's overcome the world. He's the one that's put the sin of his people away. And every scripture you read, I promise you this, Christ is the subject of it.

And if you don't see it, Beg God to show it to you. I love what Brother Tom Harding says. He says, when you're studying the scripture, don't take a whole chapter and read it and try to understand it. Take a verse. Take a phrase in a verse and beg God, show me Christ from that.

And that'll be a blessing to you. See, we're commanded to hear of Christ, to believe Christ. I'm not commanding you to believe a set of Some set of doctrines that men have put together and say, this is what you're supposed to believe. Like I've distilled the Bible down to these five statements, and this is what you got to believe, and this is what you got to do in order to be saved.

All you've got to know to be saved is the Lord Jesus Christ. Know Him. Trust Him. Believe Him. Him. Him, Him, Him, Him, Him. If you know and love the person of the gospel, your doctrine, will be right because you see how that doctrine all points you to Christ. The key is knowing and loving the person, believing the person. Salvation is a whole lot more than a legal status. Salvation is a living, loving relationship with a person, the person who loved you and gave himself for you, that you might be redeemed and that you might be brought to God. Yes, I love the gospel. I do. I love the gospel. But it's because I love Christ. I love the gospel because the gospel tells me of the person, the person that I love. Does that make sense?

And that's the person that we're to look to. That's the person that we're to believe. I say with the songwriter, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Turn your eyes on Him. Everything will make sense. Everything will be in its proper perspective when we're looking at Him.

What a commandment. What a blessed, soul-thrilling commandment of God that we're not to look within. We're not to look to each other. We're not to find some Pharisee that's better than me and try to copy Him. The commandment of Scripture is simply this, look to Christ. look and live.

All right. I hope, hope the Lord enables to do it and hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our father, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for a savior who completely saves his people from their sin. How we thank you for your love and your mercy and your pity to sinful men and women such as we are that you continually forgive our sin because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would turn each heart and each eye, each affection here this morning, that you turn us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him to cast our souls upon him to be found in him and him alone. And Father, we ask you do this great blessing for sinful men and women such as we are, that Christ would be glorified. Surely, if you, Father, would be pleased to save sinful men and women like us right here this morning, you'd get all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory for it. Father, it's in Christ's name. For his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your hymnals to song number 511 and stand as we sing face to face. 511. Face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face what will it be, when with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ, who died for me.

Face to face I shall behold him, far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory, I shall see him by and by. Only faintly now I see him, with the darkling veil between. but a blessed day is coming when his glory be seen face to face i shall behold him far beyond the starry sky face to face in all his glory I shall see him by and by. What rejoicing in his presence when our banished grief and pain. When the crooked ways are straightened and the dark things shall be plain, face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky.

Face to face in all his glory, I shall see him by and by. Face to face, O blissful moment. Face to face, to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold Him Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory I shall see him by and by.