Our Only Hope Of Righteousness

Q: What does the Bible say about obedience to God's commandments?

Obedience to God's commandments reveals our understanding of His righteousness and our accountability before Him. The Bible teaches that God's commandments are serious and that disobedience to even one command renders an individual guilty of breaking the entire law. In James 2:10, it is stated, 'For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.' This illustrates that God's demands require total obedience, and any failure shows the impossibility of achieving righteousness through our own efforts. Pharaoh's persistent refusal to obey God's singular command to let the Israelites go exemplifies the hard-heartedness present in all humanity. The law serves to make us aware of our sinfulness and our need for divine mercy, revealing our desperate state in contrast to God's holiness.

Q: How do we know that the righteousness of Christ is sufficient for our salvation?

The righteousness of Christ is sufficient because it is perfect and through faith, we are clothed in His righteousness before God. The righteousness of Christ stands apart from any human effort. It is perfect and complete, accomplished through His obedience and sacrifice. Paul, in Philippians 3:9, expresses the desire to be found 'not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' This means that our only hope of standing before God is not based on our merits but entirely on Christ's work. When we place our faith in Him, we are covered by His righteousness, which is the only acceptable currency for salvation before a holy God. Without Christ, we remain exposed and under the wrath of God, but in Him, we find everything we need for our justification.

Q: Why is repentance important for Christians?

Repentance is vital as it turns our hearts away from sin and towards God, acknowledging our need for His grace. Repentance is central to the Christian faith because it signifies a profound change of heart and mind concerning sin. In John 1:9, we learn, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' This confession and acknowledgment of sin reflect our understanding of our unworthiness and need for God's mercy. Biblical repentance involves not just sorrow for sin but a turning away from it towards faith in Christ. It reshapes our lives, aligning them more closely with the will of God and fosters a deep reliance on His grace. A heart that is continually repenting is one that is sensitive to sin and eager to pursue holiness, thus reflecting the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life.

Q: What does it mean to be poor in spirit according to the Bible?

Being poor in spirit means recognizing our spiritual bankruptcy and dependence on God's grace for salvation. To be poor in spirit, as described in Matthew 5:3, captures a posture of humility where we acknowledge our utter need for God. It recognizes that in ourselves, we have nothing to offer and that all our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). This humility is a prerequisite for entering the kingdom of heaven because it is by recognizing our need that we seek God and His provision. Those who are poor in spirit do not rely on their works but on the grace of God through faith in Christ. This truth transforms our understanding of spiritual wealth, teaching us that true riches come from embracing our inadequacy and resting in the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness.

Exodus chapter nine, let's go there. Exodus nine, we're gonna be just looking at a few verses this morning from this chapter, verses 13 through 17. Six plagues have taken place and these verses occur before the seventh one begins. Our Lord sends Moses to confront Pharaoh again. In verse 13, the Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. And here the Lord gives Moses to give to Pharaoh one commandment. Think about that.

One commandment is all that Pharaoh is given to obey. That commandment is, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go that they may serve me. One commandment. And yet that one single commandment stands as a representative of all the commandments. That's everything right there.

That one commandment given to Pharaoh and in refusing that commandment and denying it and not obeying that commandment, he breaks all the commands. Think about that. He broke every single command in disobeying God's command to let his people go. James says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

One commandment, as all the Lord gave him, And by that single command given to him, it's been repeated to Pharaoh numerous times, right? The Lord has said this by Moses. He's come to him and said it numerous times, let my people go, let my people go. And so Pharaoh's without excuse. He's without excuse.

What do the scriptures teach us about the commandments of the Lord? Well, in Romans 3, verse 19 and 20, we read that, We know, we who have heard the gospel, we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Pharaoh's under the law there. God gave him commandment, and he's not obeying it, he's not listening. And it's given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before the Lord. Pharaoh knows he's being, he's guilty of disobedience, right?

It keeps being repeated and he keeps not letting the people go. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so when the Lord destroys Pharaoh, he's left without excuse. He has no excuse. This was repeated to him over and over again, this one command, one commandment to let God's people go. And he refused to believe the Lord. Now we'll look at that a little bit more, but what's amazing to me about this display of God in Egypt, right? He's brought forth six plagues. as well as the sign of the serpent, right?

He's demonstrated that he is God, but Pharaoh, we never hear Pharaoh desiring, or he never seems to be entertaining this thought that why is the God of the Hebrews their God, and why isn't he my God? He that can do all these things, why is he their God and not my God?

There was no desire of Pharaoh to know that the God of the Hebrews even though the Lord was making it very clear who he was, that he was their God. And he says there that he is the God of the Hebrews. And that's not the first time he said that. He's the God of the Hebrews, let my, my, my people go, that they may serve me. Why is he their God and not his God?

And whether he entertained that briefly or not, I don't know, but I would imagine when he thought of it, he thought of the Hebrews. And the Hebrews were his slaves. They were a lowly people. They were beneath him as far as he was concerned. He's Pharaoh, he's the ruler of the world, right? The known world. And yet God is the God of the Hebrews.

And we see nothing from him but a proud, arrogant heart, a hard heart, unbending, unyielding, unhearing, unwilling, to obey God, to believe Him. And when you think about that, though, Pharaoh in that state, and then realize, you know, Pharaoh's not unique. All men and women are like Pharaoh. We all have that pride, that arrogance, that willful disobedience to the command of the Lord. That same proud heart is witnessed in all men and all women born of Adam.

All right, Adam was given how many commands? One command. One command the Lord gave to Adam, and Adam disobeyed God, right? Reading in Genesis 2, verse 16 and 17, the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. I'm not holding anything back from you, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. That's the one command, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

And then we're told in chapter three that Adam hearkened unto the voice of his wife, which he should never have done because she was deceived. And he's listening to her that was deceived and he did eat, we're told. And then he died. The eyes of them both, when he ate, the eyes of them both were open and they knew they were naked. They knew their sin, the knowledge of sin. It's just like Paul tells us in Romans 3, by the laws of knowledge of sin, now they know. Now they knew.

And so, that same corrupt, sinful disobedience to God's word, to God's command, is seen in all men, for that all have sinned. Paul writing in Romans 5, 12, as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And so all of us had this nature that we saw in Pharaoh, that we see in Pharaoh, this hard-heartedness, this rebellion against the truth. We see it in Pharaoh. And all it was was one commandment, and it revealed the hardness, the disobedience of his heart.

And we can think, well, there's a lot that I do. There's a lot of religion I do. There's a lot of good things that I do in the world, and I'm not so bad. But the reality is, maybe you do something okay, and you do a number of things, but there's something that you keep for yourself, and you rebel against God, and you have a hard heart toward Him. about things, and that's just true of every one of us.

We all know that it's true. It's true of me, and it's true of each and every one of us. And so, that's where we'll remain, especially to the gospel, unless God gives us a new heart, except the Lord give us His spirit and a new birth whereby we hear the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see Him, and we believe Him, and cry out to him for grace and mercy. If God does that for us, otherwise we'll disobey the gospel.

Let me just give you three scriptures real fast that touch on this. Romans 10, 16 says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. All right, they haven't obeyed the gospel. They didn't obey the command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

1 Peter 4.17 For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? They don't believe. They don't trust Christ. They don't believe that He is able to save them and that it must be salvation by Him alone because they don't see their sin. They don't obey it.

2 Thessalonians 1.8 in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Right? Faith, obedience to the gospel is faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Christ of God. that he is the Son of God who came in the flesh, being sent to the Father to redeem me, to put away my sin, to deliver me from death and destruction and the wrath of God, and to give me life. And he accomplished it. He did it faithfully, perfectly. And he's able, able to save me, a sinner like me. That's obedience to the gospel, is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But this world doesn't believe that Christ and Christ alone is able to save them. They don't have a need for him. They don't see the perfection of him. They don't understand or believe why God sent him or what it means.

And if anything, they might take a little bit of him and just add it to their religion and go off doing religious dead letter things. and thinking that it's their salvation. And so they refuse the gospel, they disobey the truth of God, and would rather die in their sins and face God in wrath, in their own works, rather than bow to Christ. And so to this world of sinners, they look at the people of God and say, what a poor bunch.

What a poor bunch of people. They just use their religion, it's just a crutch for them. You know, they're just weak. They're poor. They can't do it. And so that's why they need religion. And you can see that just thinking of looking at Pharaoh and how Pharaoh looked at the Hebrews. They were just slaves to him. They were just people to mistreat and misuse. And he thought nothing of it. And so that's what this world is filled with.

But our Lord says some very blessed things for you that believe, you that are poor, you that are weak, you that need him. And I'm gonna look at that for a bit this morning. Turn over to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five. This is what is typically called the Sermon on the Mount when our Lord preached to the people that were gathered to him as he sat on the hill and taught the people. Matthew five, let's pick up in verse three.

Here he says, blessed, right? Happy, you are blessed of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now we know that by nature all men and all women are poor in spirit. By nature we're all poor in spirit and yet the natural man thinks, I'm not poor. I'm rich. I have a great life. Things are going well for me. I have much, many things. And I love the world, right? That's the natural, man, I'm not naked. I'm clothed in rich apparel and good works, right? That's how the natural man sees himself.

But when the Lord does a work, on his child to gather them to himself, they are made poor in spirit." And that's the ones of whom the Lord speaks of here, the poor in spirit who are humbled and ashamed of what they see in themselves, right? Their thoughts, their struggles, their difficulties, grieve their mind, right? There's seasons, especially when we are accused and reminded in our own hearts of our own works and how insufficient we are, right?

And we're brought low in ourselves and we can look and examine and nothing we ever did before amounts to anything. As Paul said, I count it dung. I don't have any confidence in those things. That's being brought to see what we are in ourselves and are made poor in spirit. We see our sin, the infirmity of it, and it plagues our heart and it troubles us.

It puts us out on the street, not as a happy guy that has everything going for him, but as a beggar, a mercy beggar. knocking at the door of God's grace, begging him, Lord, please open to me. Lord, please give me bread. Lord, I have nothing. Have mercy on me. The Lord does that for his people. He makes us poor in spirit. And the Lord says, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord affirmed when John the Baptist asked, Are you the Christ or is there another to come? And what did he say?

The poor have the gospel preached unto them. What a mercy, what a mercy that God should feed us with his gospel. Undeserving sinners who are poor, weak, rejected in this world. And then in this sermon, our Lord adds verse four, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Such mourn for their sins. They mourn because of their sin nature.

Like Paul, they're brought to see that in me, I know in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And I see this law at work, that when I would do good, evil is right there with me, troubling me, just corrupting everything I would do. Even when I think I've done a good work, it just turns out it's just sinful. And I could see nothing good, nothing good in it. And so it's a continual grief of mind to be regularly reminded of my infirmities, my failures, my shortcomings, and just the shame that we feel in that.

And find no relief. And so we're distressed and full of sorrows because of sin. And especially in those seasons when it's just brought back and brought back and brought back and brought back again and again. And our Lord assures us, He says, these shall be comforted. Comforted how? In Christ.

In Christ, because the gospel is preached to you. and you hear it, and that's the only comfort you find in this world, because you can't find it anywhere else. You're not finding it in self. You're not finding it in religion. You're not finding it in the world. You find it only in Christ, only in him.

Oh, Lord, make these blessed words of what you've done and accomplished for your people, make it so in my heart, right? The Lord does that. That's where we're comforted. And so he says in verse five, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now this is not a character, a moral character that we have. This is speaking of fruit of the spirit, right? Which is given to us, wrought in us, born in us as an ornament of his grace, right?

An ornament of his grace to you that profess all my hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in him and the meek, They patiently bear the reproaches of others. They patiently bear the fact that they see what we are in self and our weaknesses. And we trust the Lord in his providences, which put us in certain circumstances and shut us up to finding any joy or peace in this world, that we would find that joy and peace alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. That the Lord does that.

And so we're made weak because we saw that our Lord did it, right? He came as the servant of God, God robed in the flesh, right? The fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily among us, right? And yet he submitted himself to the will of the Father who sent him in order to accomplish the redemption of his people who were before them lost in the world. and full of sin and darkness and not doing anything of profit to the Lord.

And yet, as our Lord was made willing and submitted, that's the spirit he gives to his people, who endure the sufferings, who endure the reproaches, trusting, Lord, you know, you know. and I trust you, Lord, and I believe you, right? He gives that grace born in the hearts of his people. And the Lord says, these shall inherit the earth, which here means not this broken, ruined world, but that eternal inheritance which is given to us. To see it there, this is our inheritance wherein dwells righteousness and peace with the Lord.

That's what he's saying there. Verse six, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And so that hunger and thirst in them suggests what? They're alive. They're alive because the dead don't hunger. They don't get hungry and they don't get thirsty. But you that are made alive, you feel and suffer hunger. You feel thirst.

And this is speaking specifically of a righteousness, which I can't produce. I can't manufacture it. I can't turn it on and just start doing things and make a righteousness for myself by the grace of God. He's shown me, no, this righteousness, the righteousness of God is much more precious than what this flesh could ever bring forth.

And so we hunger for that righteousness. We thirst after that righteousness, which is discovered to us is the righteousness of Christ. That is the righteousness that we sinners need, to stand before God and be accepted of Him, is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Like Paul, who had many things going for him as a Jew, right? As a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he had many things going for him. And he said, I want to be found in Christ. I want to be found not having my own righteousness, which is of the law and all the works and things I did and stored up for myself. I don't want, don't look at me, Lord, in those things. I want to be found in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you've sent the righteousness which is of God by faith. Our hope is not even in our faith, but in the faith of Christ. His faith, what he did, his obedience, his righteous obedience to the Father. Lord, I wanna be found covered in his righteousness. And when you see it in that light, you know that's precious righteousness. That's precious righteousness.

That's a righteousness you and I can't make, And so the discovery there of Christ being discovered to us through the gospel and the giving of his Holy Spirit so that we know that this is the prize righteousness I need. It's found in Christ, it's given by Christ, it only is through him. And that's living souls have that hunger and thirst. And those that are made alive, though they feel weak and poor and ruined in themselves, that hope, That faith in Christ and his perfect righteousness is not of the flesh. It is of the spirit of God. It's given by him. And in that light, he says, you that are hungering and thirsting for that righteousness, you'll be filled, filled, filled to overflowing with the righteousness of Christ. He's your righteousness.

Verse seven, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. These are merciful to others who need mercy when they fall, or even to those that are mean and harsh to them. They want to be merciful because why? We've seen over and over again how the Lord is merciful to me in my undeserving. times, all right, which is always, but especially more acutely at various times where we see, Lord, you've been merciful.

Lord, you've been faithful. Lord, you've not forsaken me, even though I deserve to be forsaken and destroyed, yet you kept me and preserved me and brought me out of the pit and gave me hope and life in the Lord Jesus Christ and continue to give me light and liberty and hope and joy in him, in him. specifically, right?

And so, you that receive that mercy, you show mercy to others. And the Lord says you'll obtain mercy. You'll also obtain mercy. It shall be shown to you in that day and as often as you need it. The Lord is merciful to you that are his people. Verse eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

It's amazing that the Pharisees who kept the law were so rigorous in their law keeping, and yet the Lord nailed it when he said, you are whitewashed supplicants. You look beautiful on the outside, so clean and pristine, but what's on the inside? Death, the smell of death, of rottenness, rotten flesh, which is what we are by nature, right? That stench and that filth and that ugliness, that's what we are by nature.

And yet the Lord gives to them a pure heart, to his people, to his people, who he calls himself, he gives his people a pure heart. A pure heart, which he gives. He gives a new heart and he gives a new spirit, which is the new birth whereby he regenerates us anew by his grace and power. And that's why it's all different because the heart isn't set on me and what I'm doing for my righteousness. Our heart is set on Christ and his righteousness. That's the pure in heart. They know I'm filthy within, but Christ has made me righteous and cleansed me with him and without and everything. I'm washed from head to foot, from head to foot by the Lord Jesus Christ, by his blood and righteousness.

All right, then verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Now, Christ Jesus is the only peacemaker between God and men. He is the peacemaker. And so I believe this speaks to the meek and the lowly in heart who have been made so by Christ that we would seek peace, right?

That we wouldn't whisper and backbite and tear one another down and separate very friends with whispers and rumors, but seek to edify our brethren, to seek to cover one another's faults and sins with the curtain of grace. right, that others would see only that which our Lord sees in Christ, a brother or sister in Christ, right, to edify and build them up, to seek peace with all men as much as it depends upon us as we're able, and trust the Lord to do it.

Verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And so this is not a persecution for the crimes and wicked things that we do, right? There's no glory in that, in suffering because you did wrong. Right, that's not what he's speaking of here. In fact, this is a suffering for doing what you believe is right in the eyes of the Lord, right? Seeking to do what is good and right.

Peter spoke much about this, about this suffering in his first epistle. And there's a number of places to go, but I just brought in from chapter two, 1 Peter 2, verse 19 through 21, where Peter says, this is thankworthy If a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us."

He did the will of the Father. He did well in everything he did, and yet he was buffeted for it, and suffered for it, and accused for it, and hated for it, and rejected for it, and in so doing, he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. And so, trust him. Wait on the Lord, be patient, because that's what we're called unto in the Lord. And it does make us to feel the sufferings of Christ, to have some idea. Now, of course, when we suffer, usually, I think every time, I feel like I can look back and see how I did it to myself.

But I just trust the Lord that I just keep looking forward and not looking back. And just keep looking to Christ, keep looking to Christ, just trust Him. Don't have any confidence in the flesh because the flesh is deceitful, it lies, and it's wrong all the time. But Christ is perfect.

Now, let's continue in what our Lord says, verse 11 and 12, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

And so such are the people that suffer in this world because this world does not deal kindly with such who are meek and lowly and trusting the Lord and aren't getting what they can get for themselves and aren't in their, fighting back and doing the same thing that the world does to them, but waiting on the Lord. The world doesn't deal kindly with such, but they are loved of the Father, and the Father deals kindly with them, and the Father will arise for them when it pleases Him, and He'll make all things right. And the way He always does is blesses us in Christ, gives us a sight of Christ, gives us the gospel, makes us to see our Lord. and such are despised by this world, despised by the self-righteous, and hated by those who follow the way of this world. And these despisers and haters, well, we have a type of that.

We have a picture of it seen in Pharaoh here, who has one commandment of God and won't even do that, won't even keep that one commandment to let the Lord's people go. And so Pharaoh is a type of the natural man in this world, right? He's representative of every one of us by nature until the Lord plucks us out and delivers us from it and stands us in Christ.

And so the Lord tells Pharaoh now in verse 14, coming back to our text in Exodus 9, 14, The Lord says, I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart. I'm not gonna bless your heart, I'm gonna send plagues upon your heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. So while you are blessed of God, you that are poor and lowly and weak, like these Hebrew slaves who had nothing, But in a spiritual sense, these things are made so with you. The Lord says that he's now gonna deal with that.

He's gonna bring a plague upon their own heart. Because up till then, the things that were done were a nuisance. They were a pest to the flesh. They bothered and put them out, made them uncomfortable and whatnot, but he hadn't touched hadn't touched them, and they hadn't felt death yet. They hadn't felt that yet. But now the Lord's saying, I'm gonna do things that strike fear in your heart. I'm gonna bring this real near to you, and you're gonna know, you're gonna fear me in your heart, because the Lord's gonna bring death near to them. And the gospel speaks of this when those turn away from Christ, when they cast away their confidence in Christ.

Don't ever cast away your confidence in Christ. No matter how difficult or dark or trying it gets, don't turn from Christ because he's all. He's all the righteousness that a believer has. And Hebrews 10, 26 says, for if we sin willfully, right, after that you've cast off Christ and have no hope in him, that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth, he says, after that there's no more sacrifice for sins, right? And that describes those who have no covering for their sin, because they have no hope in Christ. Christ alone is the hope that we have.

He's all our confidence. But he says, all that's left, all that remains is a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. And so the Lord here shows us how Pharaoh willfully disobeyed God's command to let his people go. And God is now going to begin to take the life of the Egyptians.

They have nothing to protect them, nothing to to save them because they're disobedient, right? And that shows us there's no, there's not a possibility at all of us keeping the law of God and delivering ourselves by our obedience. There's not a chance of it. There's not a possibility of it.

The only hope of any sinner is found in Christ. Stay right there, stay in Him. Stay upon the Lord. Then he adds in verse 19, for now I will stretch out my hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. Now, if you read the Ten Commandments, the Lord never brought a pestilence upon the Egyptians. He didn't bring a pestilence in that sense. He never brought it upon them. He did bring it upon the cattle.

Back in the fifth plague there, he brought it upon the pestilence on the cattle, but I think there's two possible ways that I would consider that we see the meaning of this, what the Lord's saying here. First is, well, in the voice that the translators used when they translated this text.

In other words, if that's so, the way it's just written out here, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, well, then he's talking about the pestilence of sin. will smite them. The pestilence of sin and death that follows. All that rebellion is gonna break forth, you're gonna remain hard in your heart, and the Lord will bring his judgments upon you, these plagues upon you. And so it's a pestilence of sin, it's a pestilence of iniquity, and continuing in that disease of sickness, of death, and sin, so that the man will not repent, He won't hear, he continues to remain hard hearted and despising the Lord.

And so what that teaches us here is that if you continue to disobey the command of God, meaning that you will not bow to Christ, that you will not believe him, there's no hope for you, right? To the one who thinks that they're fine and that they have a righteousness of their own and that they can do this and everything will work out just fine for them, But what he's saying here is you have no covering, you're naked and you're exposed to all the wrath of God. That's what I'm saying about obedience to the command is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the obedience that God will have in his people and what he gives, what he works in our hearts and gives to us, right? So that you who believe Christ rejoice and stay right there in him.

Now the other way to hear this is in what's called the imperfect tense, and I'm not that good, I don't really understand that, but apparently what he's saying there is, I could have. I could have brought this pestilence. You saw it touch your cattle, and I stopped it right there. I could have brought that pestilence upon you. I could have brought death right to your doorstep. and I hadn't done it until now, but it's coming. It's gonna come nearer to you.

And so that thought would enter Pharaoh's heart and strike him with fear, right? Have you ever had a time where you think you anchored somebody that has power in this world and you think they're coming for me, they're gonna get me now and you're afraid, right? Well, imagine that the thought that God, who knows all and can do all, has everything at his disposal, that he's coming after you. And this is gonna, Pharaoh now, this is going to root in his heart and trouble him, trouble him greatly.

And then the Lord tells him that the only reason he's still alive and in the position that he's even in is because God will glorify his name in this wicked man. He's gonna glorify his name. Look at verse 16 and 17. And in very deed for this cause, have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth, as yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go. And so Pharaoh's being made an object lesson for the ages here. Knowing how God used Pharaoh, therefore, why would you continue in your own works? Now I know the people of God tender, right?

And so you hear these words and you're looking at fire and you're thinking that's me. I'm a dead man. I deserve death and the Lord's coming for me. You who hear that, you who have by the grace of God been shown your sin, shown your folly, been troubled and stripped of these things so that you see and know all my hope and righteousness is Christ. That's a blessing.

You're not the Pharaoh that he's speaking of here. He's talking about those who do not bow to Christ, who have no hope or care for Christ, who don't see their sin. are indifferent to these things. That's who Pharaoh represents here. And the Lord declares these things to say, why would you trust in your own works? It's folly. We have example after example throughout the scriptures of how those who oppose God willfully, rebelling, not submitting to Christ, not bowing to Christ, not crying out to the Lord for grace and mercy, but trusting themselves It never works out for them. It never turns out good for them.

And so he declares these things to drive you to Christ. You that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. You that do mourn for your sin. You that are troubled by these things and are made weak and tender before the Lord. It's to encourage you in Christ.

But Pharaoh is an example of those who will not, who won't hear. And Paul says that the reason why some believe, I'll quote it from Romans 9, 15 through 18, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

You that hope in Christ and believe him, that's because God has shown you mercy. though you didn't deserve it, he plucked you out of the fire, he delivered you from death. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. And so is the Lord having mercy on your soul, or has he hardened your heart to Christ? Those to whom God is merciful, they show forth that mercy and grace through faith in Christ alone.

That's his testimony to you that you are his, that he is your God and you are his child. And that's his mercy and testimony to you, because we can't save ourselves. We need his grace in Christ. Hence those blessings that are declared to you that are meek and broken and hungry and thirsting for his righteousness, whose only hope is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray the Lord bless that word to our

Our Only Hope Of Righteousness

What does the Bible say about obedience to God's commandments?

How do we know that the righteousness of Christ is sufficient for our salvation?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean to be poor in spirit according to the Bible?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Our Only Hope Of Righteousness

What does the Bible say about obedience to God's commandments?

How do we know that the righteousness of Christ is sufficient for our salvation?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean to be poor in spirit according to the Bible?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from Eric Lutter

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Eric Lutter

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book