I am thankful that the Lord said, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. He didn't say sing beautifully and play the guitar, right? Because I didn't have notes in front of me because I had to put those down to read the words. So he looks at the heart, doesn't he? He looks at the heart of his people, not the one that we were born with, the one that he gave us when we're born again. And he's well pleased. He's well pleased to hear the praise of his people on behalf of his son.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter one again. Philippians chapter one. Now this hour, our topic is one that is very common in legalism. Legalism is what you do as part or evidence of your salvation or what you do not do because of salvation. Legalism. It's going to the law to try to establish righteousness. And we know that by the works of the law, none shall be justified. None shall be made righteous. But The thing that people preach the most is is do and do and do rather than done and done and done rather than it is finished.

There should be no reason at any time that I examine myself to try to determine if I if I have fruit if I have No, I should definitely look in internally. When Paul said, examine yourself, see if you'd be in the faith, what he was saying was, is you do examine yourself deep down to see if there'd be anything else inside of you or anything else that you're clinging to or hoping to as any part of your salvation. But there should not be a time where we examine ourself and we look at what we're doing and say, OK, well, there's evidence right there that I'm one of God's elect and I'm one of his children. That's evidence right there that I am I am saved.

You won't find it. You can find good morality. You can find changing a lifestyle, but you can't find the fruit of the spirit because it's the fruit of the spirit. And here in our text, it's the fruit of righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the topic this morning. The fruit of righteousness. That's what I've titled this message. Anything God requires of us, he must provide it. And he always does according to his grace and according to his mercy, according to his will, at his appointed time. Now let's read this together. It's the same text as last time. Philippians one verse eight through 11.

For this is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness."

Now notice this, he puts a comma and says, which are by Jesus Christ, comma. I love that. I absolutely love that because that gives us clarity of the origin of the fruits of righteousness. Being filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. If we miss those five words right there in verse 11, which are by Jesus Christ, we have missed the entire meaning behind the fruits of righteousness. We've missed everything. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Religion says to pursue the fruits of righteousness. They also call it, it's the same as the fruit of the spirit. We know that. That goes without saying. But they say to pursue it. And in order to pursue it, and I didn't have us turn it over to Galatians, because we just came out of Galatians. didn't realize we had went through Ephesians also, so it was back probably last September we finished it up.

The fruit of the spirit, we preached that message one time, and there's, it's love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, long-suffering, I don't think I'm missing one, but against such there is no law. It's to be in contrast with the fruit of the flesh or the works of the flesh that he gives there as well. It's saying, okay, here's the works of the flesh in being murder, strife, contentions, all those things. He says, but the fruit of the spirit is this.

And somehow along the line, somebody come up with the idea of, I need to start examining myself, making sure I have all these fruits in my life. I need to really work on this so I can get better and I can get better and I can get better. Now, should we work to love one another more? Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with that at all. but not as part of our salvation, not as any part of our salvation. We don't work to have salvation. Christ finished the work. The work was finished on the cross of Calvary. So what is he talking about here then when he's talking about the fruit of righteousness? What's he, what's he saying? Well, the first thing I'll say that's very important Is it is exactly what it says.

It is the fruit of the spirit. It's not the fruit of Caleb. It's the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of righteousness. I would remind us that the Lord's name is Jehovah sit. Can you, which is the Lord, our righteousness, that's his name. So the fruit of righteousness is the fruit of Jesus Christ. Now he says being filled. with these fruits, being filled with these fruits. I would sum that up by saying it's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Everything God requires, he's gonna have to provide. So if I am to bear fruit unto him, he's going to have to provide the ability to do so. The fruit is not by our will or by our power. Nothing about salvation is us exercising something. People said you need to exercise your faith. How do you exercise your faith? That doesn't even make sense. We don't exercise our faith.

We look to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ and he's the one that strengthens faith or not. He's the one that gives that which he sees fit and allows us to seek his face, allows us to see him. He's the one that does all that. It's all by his will and his power. Now as everything else pertaining to God's salvation, they're given to God's elect all by grace alone.

There's nothing that we do to earn fruits of righteousness, nothing. It was earned by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was earned by His accomplished salvation, His finished work, His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. It was earned by His sacrifice, His blood for His people on the cross of Calvary. We didn't merit anything. We didn't earn anything. We didn't choose anything. God did all the choosing, all the saving, all the calling, and all the keeping.

That's how salvation works. So he's not saying now that we've established how the Lord is in salvation, well these fruits, now that means that we have to do something now. That's where men go wrong. They say, okay, now it's up to us to do something with this information. At some point we have to strive more, we have to work more, we have to do more.

But what does the scripture say about resting? He said, you have entered into his rest because God did rest on the Sabbath. The Lord has called his people to rest on the Sabbath. And so if you want this fruit of righteousness, rest in Christ. There's the message. If you want fruit of righteousness, rest in Christ alone. Look to him alone because he's the only one that can produce it. It's by his spirit, it's by his will and his purpose. Notice the word righteousness, that's very important.

The fruits of righteousness in verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. I'm reminded of that word because the scripture's clear, my righteousness is as filthy rags. So he can't be talking about me bringing forth fruit of righteousness because in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. These verses we hear often because they're so true. They're so contrary. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. So you have all these people that are working and trying to get to heaven or trying to get better and they believe they're progressively getting sanctified. It's not true. No, the Lord is our sanctification. Lord is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption. Can't be my righteousness. My righteousness is filthy rag. I can't produce righteousness that God would accept.

Cain's a perfect example of this. He disobeyed whenever he knew what God required in sacrifice. Lord said, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Adam would have told him that you have to bring a lamb. They watched the Lord make them a covering of a lamb. Cain brought forth the fruit of his hands. He did his very best. He did his very, very best. It's not like he brought garbage vegetables. He brought the very best. And yet the Lord had no respect unto him or his offering.

Why? Because it was the works of his hands. If I am going to do something in service unto the Lord, I better not be doing it for recognition from the Lord. I better not be doing it for the self. People can serve their God in self-service, if that makes sense. The Pharisee was a great example of that when he said, Lord, I thank thee that I'm not like this person, not like this person.

So he's saying I'm serving God, but really I'm exalting myself. Now here's the problem with you and I and our sin, our sinful nature, is that we are prone to believing the lie. We are prone to believing the lie. Now the Lord's people are kept by His power, I want to be clear.

But most people believe the lie, that they're doing something that pleases God, but the Lord's not going to have respect for their sacrifice. The Lord's not going to have respect for their covenant. There's only one covenant that the Lord is pleased with and that is the covenant of grace. There's only one sacrifice that the Lord looks to for the salvation of his people and that's the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cain brought forth the works of his hands and the Lord said, no, no, if you do well, you'll be accepted. Meaning if you do as you're told or believe as you've been told, then you'll, you'll be accepted.

But he didn't do it, did he? The difference was, as Abel was looking to the righteousness of Christ alone, he wasn't looking to the works of his hands. He wasn't looking to what he did do or did not do. He brought what God required. Because God had provided it for him. God had provided it for him. The only way that Abel would have brought anything to God is if God had given him faith to believe. The only way Abel could have obeyed God, I should say, is because God gave him faith to believe in this.

So it is with you and I. If we're going to come to Christ, if we're gonna believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if we're gonna look to Him as all of our righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, He's gonna have to give us faith to do so. And that's exactly what He does for His people. Brethren, the truth is this.

We're either Cain or Abel. It's plain and simple. We're either Cain or Abel. We're either Jacob or we're Esau. We're either a sheep or a goat. There is no other option. A goat cannot become a sheep and a sheep cannot become a goat. Um, that's the good news about it. If I'm a sheep, I've always been a sheep. I'll never not be a sheep. And if, if you're a goat, then, uh, you always be a goat. It's just how it is.

And even scripture talks about the Lord dividing the goats from the sheep. The point that I'm making is, is that it's the Lord that maketh us to differ. The Lord didn't make this glorious salvation. And then after we are saved, leave the rest of up, leave the rest of it up to us by saying, okay, you're on your own. And he promised to come back and get us. No, he keeps his people and everything he requires. He produces in his people by his spirit, according to his grace.

Mankind has a problem, a problem with God being either alpha or omega. That's the problem. God's alpha means he started salvation. He's the first cause of all things. Some people say, well, I don't have a problem with that. You know, that doesn't bother me. Other people might have a problem with that. Maybe they started it. Maybe they weren't initiated by choosing God or praying a prayer. Maybe they're the ones that still know that salvation started before time ever began. Salvation, the covenant of grace far exceeds time.

They don't have a problem with him being the Alpha, they'll have a problem with him being the Omega. The Omega means he's the finisher. And the scripture's clear, he's the author and finisher of a faith. He's author and finisher. Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished on the cross of Calvary. It's very clear that it is finished.

There's nothing else to be done. Only the Lord's people love the fact that he started it and he finished it and we didn't have anything to do with it. We're just the recipients by grace alone. That's our hope. Because if we start looking to ourself, like so many do, having a problem with God being the finisher of it, they're trying to go about serving the law again, which is what Paul dealt with with the Galatians and so many other places. He's saying, no, don't do that. Stop trying to serve and do in order to obtain something. Don't do that. The Lord requires this fruit of righteousness in us.

He'll provide that. How do you know? Look to Christ. Look to Christ, everything he provides, he provides in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're either looking to self, our works, our fruit, as part or evidence of salvation, or we are completely, entirely, totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work. We're totally dependent upon His blood alone. We're totally dependent on His works, because we look at our own works, even after the Lord has given us faith to see Him, we can examine our works right now and say, my righteousness is still filthy rags in me, that is in my flesh, right now dwelleth no good thing. And yet the most glorious news is that the Lord says, no, all that sin has been put away.

All I see is righteousness, the righteousness of my son. All I see is his love and joy and peace and gentleness and meekness and temperance and faith. I don't see the works of the flesh. Why? Because we're new creatures in Christ, created in holiness and in truth. That's a that's a hard It's a hard thing to comprehend, isn't it? Because all we see is the sin that we are. All we see is that we're producing nothing but vanity, nothing but wickedness, nothing but evil, nothing but sin. That's all we can see that we can produce.

But in the eyes of God, he sees his son. So he sees perfection, and he sees every fruit that he requires, the fruit of righteousness. He looks at his people. I told you before about the Lord's name being Jehovah's sith, can you? The church is called Jehovah's sick, can you, the Lord, our righteousness. He looks at his people as perfectly righteous. A verse we quote often is second Corinthians, where it says, for he, God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We've been made righteous, not going to be, not might be, we're the very righteousness of God right now. Right now, can you see that? No. Do you believe that? Yes. Yes, absolutely. God said it. I believe it. He made me believe that.

You're telling me I'm perfect right now sitting here? My thoughts and your thoughts right now, I could be distracted thinking of other things. You could be distracted thinking of other things. You mean I'm perfect in Christ? Yes, right now. The only thing that we're awaiting to experience, if you will, is glorification. That's it. That's the last thing. When we are changed, when we see him as he is, we be made like him. That's the only thing that we're waiting on. Everything else, and that's finished too, by the way. We just haven't experienced it yet. We're in Christ, seated in the heavenly.

The scripture's clear on this. That's another thing where you say, I don't understand that, but I believe it because he said it. When it comes to anything in this scripture, if the Lord is telling us, giving us a, there'll be things that he says, don't do this and do this. There's nothing wrong with that. Just don't do it as part of salvation. That's the problem.

It's every time the Lord gave a law in the Old Testament, everything was done in order to try to obtain salvation. But the law was given to show that we can't keep the law. Trying to go back to the law is just condemning ourself because even in our best state, we're altogether vanity. Everything that I would do, I just add more iniquity to the mountain of sin that I already have.

That's why we needed to substitute the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says that when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That's what he did for his people. Christ alone pleased the Father. He alone was worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof.

He alone has the name faithful and true. Do you believe that you're faithful? Do you believe that you're faithful? We sing that song, false and full of sin I am, thou art full of truth and grace. You know what the Lord sees in his people? Truth and grace. He sees them as faithful because they were in Christ. That's glorious substitution. Jesus is faithful right now. I'm faithful. If I'm in Christ, I'm faithful. He's never seen me not be faithful. David said it best. He said, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain to that. But Lord, I say truth, Lord, with a Seraphim woman. Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, I am a dog. Can I be your dog?

So ask yourself this, am I looking to myself? Am I examining myself trying to figure out if I got fruit? Or am I looking to the fruit bearer, the Lord Jesus Christ? I love the thought of the vine. He says to his people, I am the vine, ye are the branches. And we're going to turn here in a minute to some other places to see how the union that we have with Christ, if we You could sit here and just talk about the union that we have with Christ for message after message, just because how glorious it is to be one with Him, truly one with Him. The best example I can give you would be a husband and wife. They twain shall be one flesh, the scripture says.

My wife took my name when we got married. She became Mrs. Caleb Andrew Hickman. She no longer had, she lost her name. She died to the person, the former person that she was in so much that, uh, that's how the Lord sees it. Now he sees us as one flesh. That's the same with Christ, the union with Christ, the marriage that we have with him is we are one with him. We died to self. We died to sin. We died to the law. We died to works, the works of darkness on the cross of Calvary. and we have been united in oneness with the King of glory. So ask yourself this, brethren, who am I looking to? Myself or the King of glory? That's what salvation comes down to. If you wanna, they call it boiling it down or water, yeah, boiling it down. Whatever's left after you boil something down, that's really what's in it. If you were to boil it down, that's what it comes down to.

Who am I looking to? Am I looking to myself or is God by grace alone giving me faith to look to him? Who are you looking to? Don't look for faith. Faith looks to Christ. Look to him. Mankind will always look to self unless God in mercy does something. All he has to do is nothing for us to end up in hell. That's it, nothing. If he does nothing, we're in trouble. We are powerless. He has all power. He's completely sovereign.

He must be first and last in salvation. Men believe, they believe Men say they believe and therefore they are saved when in reality we're saved and therefore we believe. Faith is given as evidence of salvation. Faith is given as evidence of salvation. It is, without faith it's impossible to please God. He gives repentance. He says live to the dead dog sinner. We're given repentance and faith simultaneously.

And I've said this before, faith is like taking a breath. The baby's born, not breathing. And the doctor picks it up and smacks it on the bottom and the baby takes that first breath. Well, that's evidence of life. If you're looking to Christ, that's evidence of life in him.

Do we see that? But we don't look to faith. We don't look to faith. We look to Christ. We look to Christ alone. This faith and looking to him is how he causes his people to produce the fruits of righteousness. Christ in you, the hope of glory, the hope of glory. Anytime we examine self as having part or evidence of our salvation, meaning if we contributed anything, or if we have evidences now that we've been saved, it's unbelief, that's all that it is. It's unbelief to look to self. Faith looks to Christ.

Faith always looks to the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Romans chapter eight. The scripture tells us, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But the rest of that says, but you're not in the flesh, but you're in the spirit. And that's what we're turning to right now. I love this first verse. I love all of them. I love this first verse.

There is now there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Now, if we were to take that right there, that verse, we could make that say if we chose to because we're walking after the Spirit we have fulfilled the righteousness of the law. That's not true.

We're walking in the spirit because Christ fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and we're looking unto Christ alone, therefore, therefore, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. So it goes back to the union that we have with him. You remember what I was talking about a moment ago with that? Where I said perfect union, perfect union. In order for me to fulfill the righteousness of the law, we walk in the spirit, walk after the spirit. Well, what does that mean? That means you're walking by faith, not by sight. It's that simple. God-given faith. Walking by faith means you're walking in the spirit.

It doesn't mean that you have some amazing spiritual lifestyle and things that you do that are spiritual. I was reading an article that was talking about the fruit of the spirit and how that these are given so that you can have a more spiritual life and you have to try to work to attain these. And we work harder on to get these more and more in our life becomes more and more spiritual. And I thought, I don't, I don't understand any of that because everything they described is what you see with these natural eyes.

No, God's a spirit and they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth, not by the, it's not that what we see brethren, It's not what we see, it's what's unseen. For what's seen is temporal, but what's not seen is eternal. The only way to believe this is if the Lord calls us to believe this.

The reason that Christ came and condemned sin in the flesh is that the law, is that the righteousness of the law would be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. He said, you don't walk after the flesh, you walk after the spirit. Why? Because Christ condemn sin in the flesh for his people. Let's read on, verse five.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things that are after the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things that are spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. That's hostile against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But, here's the glorious interjection of the gospel, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwell in you.

How is it that we don't walk by the flesh anymore, we walk after the spirit? Because the spirit of the Lord indwells his people. All by grace. This goes back to what God requires he must provide. You say, I'm walking by the spirit. Walking in the spirit means that you're not walking by sight. You're not walking by what you can see. You say, well, I walk every day. Well, that's accurate.

But who are you looking to as all of your righteousness? Who are you looking to as all of your hope for salvation? Who are you looking to to do everything that you can't do pertaining to salvation? Keeping the law, satisfying God's demands, living a perfect life.

What are we looking to? Who are we looking to? Are we looking to self? Because to be carnally minded is like Cain. We bring the fruits of our hands. We bring whatever we have done and present them as our righteousness to God. But to be spiritually minded is what? Looking to Christ alone. Pleading the blood alone. Desiring him alone. To be cornerly minded is like Esau. Esau didn't have need of the Messiah.

That's what he was saying whenever he refused the birthright. He sold it for a cup of, was it porridge or stew or whatever it was. That was a terrible price to pay, wasn't it? Jacob wanted the birthright, why? He needed Christ. He needed Christ, Esau didn't.

Who was the one that made the difference in that? They come out of the same womb. Who made the difference? It was God. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. It was Him. He made the decision. God chose Jacob before the foundation of the world. He left Esau to himself. To be carnally minded is to be like Esau and have no need of God or God's ways, but it's to walk after the flesh, do the things of the flesh, look at sight all around you.

And that's not talking about frivolous sin only. It is talking about that, but that's not all it's talking about. It's talking about trying to live a spiritual life whenever you're really just looking at physical things that we're seeing. Okay, my life is spiritual because I'm loving more now. I see this, I'm growing. My life is, I'm more forgiving than I used to be. I'm more, my temper don't get the best of me like it used to. That's what temperance is all about, self-control. I don't allow, you know, things to bother me. If somebody does something on the road, I mean, it doesn't bother me like it used to.

I can really see God working in my life. You ever heard things like that? That's carnally minded, brethren, and it's death. He just told us that, it's death. But to be spiritually minded, looking to Christ in all things, and if you have a temper you wanna work on, go for it. Don't do it as part of salvation or evidence of it. We don't, that's the whole point here. The fruit that we have is by the Son of God. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's faith in him. We don't look at evidences in our life. We don't look at things outwardly. We don't look at trinkets. We don't look at statues. We look to Christ alone.

Here's the scariest part, brethren, of this message. And I wanna be as clear as I can. If me, if you or I have succumbed to the lie, The lie of being carnally minded, looking at things for evidences. We don't know it. We don't know it. God has to be the one to point that out. God has to be the one to give repentance.

Repentance is a changed mind. Okay, Lord, it's not what I see on the outside anymore. I understand that now. I understand that what I see on the outside, that's carnally minded. But to be spiritually minded is to look to Christ by faith. And I often say this towards the end of messages, and we are getting close, but it's a good example. If you desire to come to Christ, and the Lord's people always desire to come to Christ.

That's not a one-time thing. We're coming to Christ is now, and now, and now. Lord save me is now, and now. We're constantly praying, Lord save me, don't leave me to myself. But if you desire that, if the Lord's given you that desire, come to Christ, but don't move a muscle. Don't, because if you move a muscle, that's carnally minded.

But looking to Him alone and all that He did and all that He provides, that's spiritually minded. And in doing so, you know what fruit you have? The fruit of righteousness. Do we see that? We have His Spirit indwelling in us because we are His. He says, if you don't have the Spirit, you're none of His, but if you have the Spirit, you're His. So we have the fruit of the Spirit. And we can't see it. But he can.

I was gonna say this a minute ago, and I didn't get around to it, but the thought of him being the vine and us being the branches, the branches do have fruit coming from them, but where do they get their nutrients from? You cut off the branch, it dies. It comes from the vine, doesn't it? It comes from the trunk. And that's what brings the nutrients. That's what causes the tree to bring forth fruit. And it just amazes me that by his grace, everything he has required in us, he provided and he continues to provide. If he desires to have fruit in me, he's going to do that by his grace.

He's going to cause us to look to Christ. Sad part of our sinful nature. Brethren, as we cannot be honest. We cannot be honest about who we are and about who God is. Men see God differently than who he is until God gives faith to believe. We don't see him as puny and as weak. We don't see him as incompetent or incapable. We don't see him as trying to do something. We don't see him as hopeful and wishful. Because faith has shown us that he's sovereign and he doesn't do anything wrong. He's right and I'm wrong. He's truth, I'm the lie. This is what the Lord gives to his people. We look to Christ to fulfill everything that God requires, because we can't fulfill anything God requires.

I will say this, we cannot be honest until the Lord, that's the best way to say it, we cannot be honest until the Lord causes us to be honest, that's true. And in saying that, I would say this, there's no honest people in hell. There's no honest people in hell. If the Lord causes you to be honest, and you see yourself as the sinner, that means he's given you repentance. That means he's given you faith to see the Savior. There's no honest people in hell. But most believe the lie, and do you know why? Well, the devil made them do it, didn't he? No. No, I heard that this week. Somebody said, the devil made me do it. I said, no, it didn't in my mind. I thought, that's just your own depravity.

Scripture tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things. What does that mean to you and I? The heart is deceitful above all things. It means what it says. It means there's nothing else as deceitful as the heart. The heart that we have been born with, it's deceitful. And would deceive us now had it not been for the grace of God giving us a new heart, giving us faith to believe. But man's deceitful heart will lead them away from God because they want to be their own God. That was the first sin and that's always the sin of man, whether it be for power, popularity, or pleasure. Man desires to sit on the throne of God.

Most men and women are living their life like the woman at the well. Do you remember the Samaritan woman? She's sitting there, she's getting some water and the Lord comes to her. And that's a picture of how he comes to his people, where we are. She weren't looking for him. He comes to her, and he says unto her, go fetch your husband. And I'm skipping a little bit there, but he says, go fetch your husband. And she said, sir, I don't, I have not a husband. He said, that's well-spoken. You've had five. And the one you have now is not your husband. Oh, I perceive you're a prophet. And as soon as she perceived that she gave her righteousness right then.

Well, we worship in this mountain, but you say Jerusalem is where we ought to worship. Now I would remind you that the Samaritans worship God and they called him Jehovah, but he was in the form of a cat, the form of a dog, the form of the sun, the moon, and a donkey. But they called him Jehovah. What had happened was is whenever they mixed, when they intermingled back during the time of Balaam, that's how they declared their God. They said, okay, well, we see your worship in Jehovah. All right, well, we have Jehovah here already. And they just named him Jehovah.

Isn't that amazing? So who are they worshiping? Self, false idols, graven images, anything that you can see that is supposed to represent something that God is a graven image, it's plain and simple, plain and simple. But she was worshiping God in the form of all these other, it wasn't God, that's who she thought it, that's who she pretended like it was. And so we see, she said to the Lord, we worship in Jerusalem, or you worship in Jerusalem, but we worship in this mountain. And I love what our Lord said. You worship, you know not what. You worship, you know not what. God is a spirit, and they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth.

And it's funny, because her reply to that was, well, when Messiah comes, he'll tell us right. He'll straighten you out. That's what she was saying. And I love what he said to her. He that speaketh to thee, I am. And she left her water pot and said, come see a man that showed me all things that ever I did.

Is this not Christ? See, she was living carnally minded. She wasn't producing any fruit because she was dead. But when the Lord came to her and saved her by his grace, then what does she do? She confesses Christ. She confesses Christ, come see a man, the Lord Jesus Christ. She believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord was a doer of that. The Lord was a doer of that. Now she's spiritually minded because she's been born again. She's been born again. God looks at the heart. This is his fruit, which is all by Christ.

Men and women look at things around them to give themselves comfort spiritually. No, don't do that. Look to Christ. Men and women look to self. Look to self and examine self. Don't do that. Look to Christ. They may see external things that they do and believe they're saved. Don't do that. That's carnally minded. Look to Christ. God looks at the heart.

This is his fruit, which is by Christ alone. Now let's go back to Philippians 1. Look at verse 11, being filled with the fruits. of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. These fruits of righteousness are by the faithfulness of Christ unto his father. These fruits of righteousness are for the redemption or they were wrought by Christ because of his redemption for his elect.

This is not something that you will see yourself. If you want to work righteousness, look to Christ. It's that simple. It's that simple. If you look into Christ by faith alone, you've been made the very righteousness of God in him. These fruits are what he produces, brethren, perfect righteousness that we cannot. Here's the glorious part. If we're in him, God sees his people producing the same thing. Is that your hope? That's my hope that he would see me producing that which he requires because it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's my only hope. That's my only hope.

We bear the fruit of Christ because we're in Christ. When he lived, we lived. When he died, we died. When he was resurrected, we were resurrected. When he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, we're seated in the heavenlies with him. This is our hope. This is all because of his glorious substitution. Now look here, in closing, Look at this, why was all this accomplished for his people? We have the why. See those last words after Jesus Christ? Unto the glory and praise of God. Not the praise of man, not the praise of the flesh, the praise of God. That's why it was done. I was debating on turning, I think we will just turn to Ephesians chapter two quickly and we'll come to a close.

Somebody said, how do I know I have good works? How do I know I have fruit? I can't see it. I tell you right here, look at verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God sees it because he ordained it.

Now let's read. Let's go back to the beginning of that chapter. Verse one, we'll read all the way down to that point. Here's how it all started, and you hath he quickened. It all started right there. Who were dead and trespassed in sin, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, there's the interjection of the gospel again, But God who is rich in mercy for his great love were it that he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Well, how did that happen?

By grace you are saved. By grace you are saved. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. And this is what I quote often, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Brethren were ordained. to the fruit because the Lord said so. The Lord did it. Isn't that?

It's too hard to understand. You can't understand it. You just believe it by faith. That's all. You believe what God has said. He's made us look to Christ and made us produce the fruit of righteousness in doing so. We're looking to Christ's righteousness alone. Don't dare look for it. You won't see it. Look to Christ. Look to Christ as all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In him, in him is all the fruit of righteousness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, bless us to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.