If you would open your Bibles
with me to Job chapter 9. Job chapter 9. I'm kind of excited about this message. I believe the Lord's given me
something that's very good for us. It will be, Lord willing,
Gospel 101. Just the very bedrock of the
gospel, of the truth. Like my brother Chris Cunningham
has to say about that, he said, there isn't a gospel class 102.
If it's a gospel, it's class 101. This is gospel 101, the
Lord willing. I want to answer this question
this morning. How should man, how should you and I be just
with God? In Job chapter nine, verse one,
then Job answered and said, I know it's so of a truth, but how should
man be just with God? Now this is Job's reply to what
his friend Bildad had to say back in chapter eight, verse
20. Bildad says, behold, God will
not cast away a perfect man. Neither will he help the evildoers. And Job said, I know that's true.
I know that's true. I know God will not cast away
a perfect man. I know that. But Job says, can you tell me,
how should a man be just with God? Now to be just, The word
means without sin. It means to have never sinned,
not just as if I'd never sinned, but to have no sin, to have never
sinned. How can a man be made so that
he has never sinned? That's what Job's asking. Now
I'll tell you why the answer to that question is so difficult.
If it wasn't a difficult question, Job wouldn't ask it. God is holy. God is inflexibly holy. He will never call a sinful person
justified, never. The only way that the Holy God
can say that a person is justified is if they truly have no sin.
Well, then there's man. Man is sinful, inflexibly sinful. All we can do is sin. The nature
that we're born with is a sin nature. It can't do anything
but sin. So we can't justify ourselves, can we? Not by our
own actions, we can't. If all we can do is sin, we certainly
can never make ourselves without sin by what we do. That's why
Job's asking this question. How should man be justified before
God? I wanna give you the answer to
that question in three parts. Three ways that a sinner is justified. And if you're justified, you've
experienced all three of these things. First, look with me at
Romans chapter three. Number one, here's the first
thing. A sinner is justified by grace, by grace. Romans three, verse 19. Now we know. This is not something
that we doubt or something we speculate about. Now we know.
The one thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law. that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, you
know, we hear we have to be just to be accepted of God. We think,
well, I better start keeping the law, right? I better start
obeying the law. That's how a person's just. I better quit sinning that
way when I'm having sin. But like I said a moment ago,
we're all sinners. All we can do is sin. We don't
have the ability to keep God's law. We can't keep it. You know,
someone says, well, I'll just try harder and keep it. Brother,
that boat's already sailed. We're already guilty of sin.
God gave the law to show us how guilty we really are. He didn't
give us the law so we could keep it and earn a justification,
earn a righteousness before God. You know why God gave the law?
to show us how impossible it is for us to keep it so that
we'd see our need of Christ. That's why God gave the law.
Well, we can't justify ourselves by our deeds of the law. We're
guilty. We're already guilty. Well, is
there any hope for guilty sinners then? Yes, there is, but it's
only in Christ. Look at verse 21. But now the
righteousness of God without the law, without your obedience
to the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's
no difference, for we've all sinned to come short of the glory
of God, being justified freely by His grace. That's how we're
justified, by His grace, through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, through
faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Sinners are justified freely
by God's grace. By God's grace, through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. God made it so that when he justifies
a sinner, It's just. It's right for him to say that
they have no sin. And here's how God did that for
his people. The father sent his son to this earth to become a
man. He sent him to this earth as
a man. He sent him to do a job for his people. He sent him as
the representative of his people to do for his people what they
can never do for themselves. Christ came to obey God's law
perfectly. To obey that law for his people.
And Christ our Savior was faithful. He was faithful to obey God's
law. He was faithful to put away the sin of his people. He was
faithful to do everything that it took to save his people from
their sin. That's what Paul means when he
says, by the faith of Christ, we're justified, we're saved,
we're made righteous by the faith of Christ, by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. to do everything that it takes
to make his people without sin. See, this thing is done through
representation. All of Adam's race was made guilty
of sin when Adam sinned, because we were in Adam. He was our representative.
We did what he did. When Adam sinned, every last
one of us sinned. Well, all of God's elect are
made innocent. They're made justified by the Lord Jesus Christ, by
what he did. When he obeyed the law, so did
you if you're in him. He's the representative of his
people. All of God's elect obeyed the law when Christ obeyed the
law. We're in him as our representative.
So God made his people righteous in Christ. He made them righteous
even though they never did anything but sin. Isn't that gracious? That's grace, isn't it? You and
I could never earn a righteousness for God, we can't justify our
own selves. The only way a sinful man or
woman can ever be justified is by God's grace, that he gives
that to us freely. Almighty God, in the trinity
of his persons, did something so wonderful for people who are
so wretched. That's grace, we're justified
by God's grace. And Paul goes on in verse 26,
or yeah, we already read this, to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth, believeth in Jesus. That brings me to my
second point. A sinner is justified by faith,
by faith in Christ. Now four different times in the
scripture, it makes this statement, the just shall live by faith. And each one of those four statements
shows us how the justified ones, how they live by faith. Now,
the first time this phrase, the just shall live by faith, is
used in Habakkuk chapter two. If you want to turn over there,
Habakkuk chapter two, it's right before the book of Nahum. Brother Charlie Payne used to
say, if you have the authorized version, page 1162. Now, during this time that Habakkuk
was the prophet in Israel, the Chaldeans came and they utterly
destroyed Israel, just utterly destroyed them. I mean, they
just, they leveled all the buildings, they burned all the crops, what
crops they didn't take with them to feed their army, I mean, they
just burned it to the ground. I mean, utter desolation. And
Habakkuk, he's the prophet in Israel. And he knows that Israel
is not sinless. He knows Israel deserves to be
punished for their sin. He understands that he's not
saying we didn't deserve this. He never, Habakkuk never goes
to God and said, no, we don't deserve this. No, he said, we
deserve it. Here's the thing that had Habakkuk
so confused. He wondered, why would God allow
a nation that's more wicked than Israel to come and destroy him? This nation is more wicked than
Israel. Why is God blessing them this
way? Why is he letting them get away with this? They're more
wicked than Israel. And Habakkuk asked God that,
and you know what God's answer to Habakkuk was? The just should
live by faith. Look at verse four if you found
it there, Habakkuk chapter two. Behold, his soul, which is lifted
up, is not upright any, but the just shall live by his faith. Now this is the truth that's
being taught here. This phrase is used, the just
should live by faith. Don't judge what the Lord's doing
with his people. Don't judge the Lord, don't judge
his intents, don't judge his purpose by looking at what his
people are going through. Don't look at the present earthly
circumstances of his people to determine what the Lord's doing
with you. The just should live by faith. Now, no matter, no matter how
dark the night, no matter how painful the trial is, no matter
how desolate the landscape looks, no matter how much it looks like
we're a lost cause, no matter, the Lord is still gonna save
his people. He's still gonna bring them to
be with him. Our earthly circumstances never change the purpose of God. I don't care how bad it gets
in this world. I don't care how evil our rulers
may be. I don't care how evil society
becomes. Nothing, are you listening to me? Nothing
in this earth will ever be so bad that God's gonna stop saving
his people. Nothing's ever gonna become so
bad that you're gonna lose your salvation. Nothing. The earthly
circumstances have nothing to do with that. And when our journey
through this veil of tears is done, you know where God's people
are gonna end up? They're gonna end up with him.
That's how it's gonna, I don't care what happens in this earth.
That's how this story is gonna end. And that's what Habakkuk
finally learned. Look at Habakkuk chapter three,
verse 17. That's pretty bad, isn't it? Fruit trees aren't
blossoming. We don't have any fruit on the
vines. We don't have any olive trees. The fields, they're not
growing nothing. We don't have any flocks. We
don't have any herds. I mean, that's pretty bad, isn't it?
That's pretty desolate. Yet, yet Habakkuk says, I will
rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength. All
these other things are not my strength. The Lord is my strength.
And he'll make my feet like hinds feet. and he'll make me to walk
upon mine high places to the chief singer on my stringed instruments."
Habakkuk says, this is what I've learned, now sing that. He sent
that to the chief of his string, let's sing that song. I don't
care how bad it looks, God's my salvation. God's my salvation. The just shall live by faith. Salvation, the salvation of our
souls. It's not in what we think or
what we feel or what we see with our physical eyes. Like I said
a minute ago, I don't care how bad it gets. I don't care how
bad it gets. And I'm pretty certain it's going
to get worse. You just remember this. The Lord's still the one
running this show. He's still the one running this
show. And he hadn't made a mistake. He's not made a mistake. The
Lord is working all things after the counsel of his own will.
to accomplish his eternal purpose. All these things we don't, we
can't begin to understand what God's doing. I mean, we're like,
it seems so wicked to us and the wicked prosper all these
things. The Lord's working these things we don't understand together
to accomplish the redemption and the glorification of his
people. Now how does a believer live
through the trials and heartaches and difficulty of this life.
How do you do it? By looking to Christ. By looking
and by depending on him, that he will not make a mistake. All
right, the second time this phrase, the just shall live by faith
is used in Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. Verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein,
in this gospel of Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it's written, the just shall
live by faith. Now here's what Paul is teaching
us here. Throughout the whole book of Romans, this is the theme
of the book of Romans, sinners cannot be justified by our works
of the law. Paul says in Romans 3 verse 28,
he said, this is what we conclude. A man is justified by faith,
by faith in Christ without the deeds of the law. You and I can't
earn a righteousness by our works of the law. We can't do it. Righteousness
is received It's received. As a free gift of God, it's received
by faith in Christ. By trusting Christ. Sinners are
justified by trusting Christ. By trusting that the Lord Jesus
Christ is everything I need. Everything God requires of me
is in Christ. It's all Him. I trust Christ
to be all the obedience to God's law that I need. And you know
how I know if I really trust Christ that way? How do I know? I really trust Christ to be all
my obedience. How do I know? If I don't feel
the need to add some of my own works to Christ to make it a
little better, then I'm trusting Christ. If I feel like I've got
to add something myself to make it better, make myself more savable,
to make God more happy with me, then I'm not trusting Christ.
But if I feel no need to add my works to Christ, I'm trusting
Christ. If I'm justified, I trust that
the sacrifice of Christ is all I need to pay for my sin. I don't
have to sacrifice something to help reduce my sin debt. If I'm justified, I know this,
I believe this, I trust this, the sacrifice of Christ is all
I need. His blood paid the debt for my sin. I trust that Christ
is enough to make me accepted of the father. I'm accepted in
the beloved. Not in the beloved plus my morality,
in the beloved. In Christ and Christ alone. I
just, I love that. I love that. Yeah, we want to be good citizens,
don't we? We want to be moral, upright,
law-abiding citizens. We want to be kind and helpful
to people. I don't want to go through my life making life harder
for everybody around me, right? You don't either. But you know
what? And I want to be very involved
in this ministry, preaching the gospel to our community and pointing
you to Christ and being helpful to you by having a message that
points your hearts to Christ and comforts your hearts and
teaches you something, you know. But all my religious activity
will not justify me. Christ does. All my morality,
we want to be moral people, but all our morality is not going
to justify us. Christ does. I have many believing ancestors.
parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters. I have many friends
who are believers. But knowing all those people
who are justified doesn't make me justified. Christ does. Christ does. All my knowledge
of scripture, all my knowledge of right doctrine, that's not
going to justify me. Christ does. I don't want to
have a head full of knowledge and a heart empty of Christ,
do you? No, Christ justifies. Even my faith doesn't make me
justified. Christ does, Christ does. Now faith receives righteousness,
faith receives justification, but Christ is the one who accomplished
it. So how's a sinner justified?
By faith in Christ, by faith. Now right where you sit, trust
him. That's the commandment of scripture,
trust him. That's how sinners are justified, by believing Christ.
All right, the third time this phrase is used, Galatians chapter
three, the just should live by faith. In Galatians chapter three. Now the subject of the book of
Galatians, and specifically Galatians chapter three, is that both justification
and sanctification are received by faith in Christ. We can't
obey the law to justify ourselves, and we can't obey the law to
make ourselves holy. Paul talks to him about this
in Galatians chapter three, verse one. O foolish Galatians, who
hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently, clearly set forth, crucified
among you? This only will I learn of you.
Received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? I'll tell
you what happened in Galatia. False prophets had come in. Paul
had come in, and the church had been established there. And now,
you know, Paul's a missionary. He's gone on, you know, to the
next place the Lord sent him. And once Paul was gone, false
prophets came into Galatia. And they started preaching a
mixture of God's grace and man's works. Grace and works. And they
told the people, oh yes, what Paul told you is true. Yes, yes,
yes, yes. You're justified by Christ. You're
redeemed by Christ. Absolutely. We wouldn't deny
that. Paul told you right there. He said, but now, now we've got
to grow. That's gospel 101, they said.
Justified by Christ. Now they said we've got to go
on to gospel 102. And told the people you've got
to keep yourself holy by your words. Remember what Chris said? Ain't no gospel 102. That's how
they confuse the people. They're mixing grace and works.
And you're justified by Christ, but now you gotta keep yourself
justified. You gotta make yourself holy
by keeping at least some of the law of Moses. I mean, boy, we've
had the law of Moses for 2,000 years. We can't throw this thing
out the window, you know. You gotta keep some of the law of
Moses. And Paul asks him, now, you fellas been listening to
this preaching. You tolerate it, this mixture
of grace and works. Paul says, let me ask you something.
Don't you see how foolish that is? That doesn't make even any
human sense. To think that you're saved by
grace, but you gotta keep that salvation by your works? Well,
so that's absurd. And these false prophets, they
came in, they had a pet law. They did have a pet law. They
could let a bunch of the law go. I bet they could let go not
working on Saturday, don't you reckon? I bet they could let
go having to tithe. I bet they could let go not being
able to lie. but they couldn't let circumcision go. They just
couldn't let it go. And they said, yes, Christ saves
his people. Yes, redemption is in Christ,
but now you've got to be circumcised in order to be in the covenant.
You've got to be circumcised in order to keep your salvation. Now that's a mixture of grace
and words. That's what that is. And I don't care how, what's
the right word? Can't think of the right word,
how great, how appealing, how religious some ceremony looks.
If you're adding it to Christ, it'll damn your soul. That's what it is. Mixing grace
and works will never justify or sanctify a sinner. Now it
doesn't have to be circumcision. In every age, in every generation,
people got their pet law that you gotta keep, right? It can
be any law. A law found in the word of God,
or a law men have made up, the tradition of the elders, you
know? It could be any religious deed. If it's added to Christ,
it's damning, it's soul damning. It's a mixture of grace and works.
You know, in our neck of the woods, circumcision's not an
issue, but boy, drinking alcohol, and smoking, and cussing, and
gambling, those are issues, aren't they? Each of those things, is deadly
to our souls if we add them to Christ. If we add them to Christ. All those things should be used
in moderation, but if you add it to Christ, even use them in
moderation, if you add that to Christ in order to be holy, your
soul will be damned. If we add just one thing that
a sinner has to do in order to be saved or in order to keep
their salvation. You know what we've done? We've
made salvation impossible for every guilty sinner. You know,
the Lord has given us commandment to call sinners to Christ. If we take one law, one rule,
one work that a sinner has to do and tell somebody, you've
got to do it in order to be saved. You know what we've done? We've
put something between the sinner and Christ. and that sinner can
never cross it, never. If we add one more, tell people,
oh, believe Christ, trust Christ, he's washed you from your sins,
he's atoned for your sin, he's obeyed the law for you, but you
gotta do this. If we do that, we've condemned a poor sinner
to a life of bondage, bondage under the law, and we've taken
away any hope of salvation, rest, or peace for their souls that
they can ever have. The gospel is the good news of
Christ. He done it, it's Christ. Come
to Him. He not telling you can't come,
come. Believe Him, rest in Him. It's the good news of Christ.
If you tell me I've got to do something, then you don't have
good news for me, you got bad news. But if you tell me it's
all in Christ, come rest in Him. That's good news. That's good
news from a far country, isn't it? The good news of the gospel
is this. The Lord Jesus Christ saves his
people, and he's the one that keeps them saved. He justifies
them, and he makes them holy. The sacrifice of Christ has taken
the law out of the way for his people. The believer. has absolutely
no relationship to the law whatsoever. None. Avoid the trap of looking
to the law to see how you're supposed to live. Don't do that,
don't do that. Look to Christ. He's all you need. Look to Him.
You'll know how to walk. You know where you're supposed
to go. Look to Christ. You don't have to obey the law
in order to be saved or in order to keep your salvation. The sacrifice
of Christ made an end to it. Now look to Christ. Verse 10,
Galatians 3. This is what Paul says, for as
many as are of the works of the law, if you're trying to earn
your salvation by the works of the law, Paul says you're under
the curse. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. If you're trying to earn your salvation,
earn your justification, earn your holiness by the works of
the law, you're under the curse because you can't keep it perfectly.
You're under the curse. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident, it's obvious. For
the just shall live by faith. For the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For
it's written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. See, the just shall live by faith. We receive this by faith. God's
elect are made holy by trusting Christ to be their holiness.
See, we can't keep the law, can we? But Christ did. He's already
kept it. Now trust him. How is a sinner
made holy? It's by faith, by trusting Christ. All right, now look over at Hebrews
chapter 10. Here's the fourth time this phrase, the just shall
live by faith. In Hebrews 10 verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we're not of them who
draw back into perdition, but of them that believe. Faith,
we're of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Now this sinful world is a tough,
tough, tough place to live in, tough. We've got to live in a
world of sin, in bodies of sin. We're treading through a dying
world and dying bodies. It's tough. It's tough. There's hatred, hypocrisy, there's
death and disease, there's sorrow and misery in almost every single
step we take. Solomon said we get older. You
know, when you're young, you have a storm. Then there's some
blue skies. Then there's no storm. He said,
when you get older, there are no blue skies, just clouds one
right after another, after another, after another. It's tough. I
mean, it's tough, isn't it? One thing on top of another is
tough. Now that's true for every son of Adam. On top of that,
the believer has to go through this world dragging a dead carcass
with us. The believer's got two natures. Every believer does.
We've got a new man who's been born of God, and that new man
has to drag that old dead man, that old dead carcass with us
everywhere we go. Just dragging him with us. And
that old man is loud. He's loud. He's being drug along
and he ain't going willingly. He's constantly trying to make
us quit. Trying to make us quit trusting
Christ. That old man is constantly, I've said before, whispering
in our ear. He ain't whispering, he's yelling in our ear. You
better straighten up. You gotta start following the
law of God. You gotta start living better for God to bless you,
you know. He ain't gonna quit. I've been around a little while.
Been around a little while. I think back from the time I
was a boy till now, how many people I've seen quit. And it's so, it's so disturbing.
It's just, it's, I just, my goodness. I just, I wouldn't, I didn't
think that was gonna happen. They quit. And you see that happen, you
know what you wonder? Am I gonna, will I be next? Am I gonna quit? Am I? Why won't the believer quit?
The just shall live by faith. That's how. If God Almighty has
given you faith in Christ, your old man would quit. He would.
But God won't let you. I got a lot of favorite sayings
from our brother Don Fortner. This is one of them. Don said
people asking, don't you ever want to quit? Aren't you ever
tempted to quit? Don said every day, every day. But God won't
let me. The just should live by faith. If God's giving you faith, you're
going to persevere. You're going to persevere through
every trial. You're going to persevere through every valley. You're going to persevere across
every dark river that's just white water raging. You're going
to persevere and keep trusting Christ because God won't let
you do anything else. See, God's caused a new man to be born in
you, and he can't trust anything else. That new man can't ever
believe God, and the new man can't believe anything else.
Anything but Christ. You see, God didn't save his
people. He's redeemed them. He took them out of the prison
house of sin. He took them out of the prison
of justice and tell them, all right now, run along, run along,
get to the finish line, do your best. He didn't do that. No, God keeps his people. And
he carries them all the way home. Christ is going to do it. You
depend on Christ. That's how you're going to persevere.
Christ is the one who saves His people, and He's the one that
makes them persevere. Because He said, when you go
through the waters, I'll be with you. When you go through the flame,
it won't kindle upon you. I'll be with you. When you go in that
dark valley, I'll be your shepherd. When you're out there lost in
the wilderness, I'll find you. I'll put you on my shoulder and
bring you home rejoicing. I'll do it for you. Now that's
a Savior you can trust. He didn't say maybe I will. He
didn't say sometimes I will. He didn't say I will if you do.
He said I will. I will and you shall. That's
the Savior we can trust. And I tell you again, trust him.
Trust him. All right, here's the third thing. Look back at the book of Job.
A sinner, justified by grace, justified by faith, And a sinner
is justified by the new birth. Look at Job 14. I wanna look at two other questions
they're asking in the book of Job here. They're closely tied
to this. How should a man be just with God? Job 14, verse
four. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Look over at chapter
15, verse 14. What is man? that he should be clean. And
he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous.
Behold, he, God, put no trust in his saints. The heavens aren't
even clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man who is drinketh iniquity like water? Who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean? How can we drink iniquity
like water? We're filthy. How can we ever
be clean? Now, don't be mistaken. About
what the scriptures have been teaching. Well, I told you so
far. Sinners are justified. God's
people are justified. They're made holy in Christ. But that does not mean this flesh
is going to get any better. It can't, it can't. The flesh, it can never be anything
but dead, sinful flesh. Christ has justified us, Christ
has made us holy, but don't ever think that means our flesh is
gonna start sinning less, or we're gonna start doing something
holy, because we won't. Matter of fact, once God saves
you, you'll think you're sinning more than you ever did. You're
gonna see yourself as more guilty and more vile than you ever did
before you ever met Christ. You know why? Now you got a new
man to see sin. Now you got a new man who knows
what sin is. Our Lord told Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That's all it can ever be. Dead,
stinking, rotten flesh. Our flesh is ruined in sin. But you know what ruined is?
Ruined is something that can't be repaired. It's ruined. That's our flesh. It can't be
repaired. It can't be made righteous. It can't be made holy again.
So you know what God does? he causes a new man to be born
in the hearts of his people. Peter tells us that new man,
he's born of incorruptible seed, the word of God. And since the
new man is born from sinless seed, the nature of that man
is sinless. You know, we get our nature from
the seed that conceived us, right? I was born a sinner because that's
the only seed my father had to pass on to me. But that new man,
Born of God, born of the holy seed of the word of God. He can
never sin. Never. He can never not trust
Christ. The flesh is still the same as
it ever was. The flesh can't trust Christ. It hates him. It
hates the gospel. It hates God. It can never trust
Christ. But the new man, he can't do
anything but trust Christ. He can't do anything but believe
the gospel. He can't. And he can never leave Christ.
Because that's his nature. And we got to go through this
life with those two opposite natures warring against one another.
Pretty miserable, ain't it? Now, Joe Bass. Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Want me to tell you who? God. God does. See, when that new
man is born, he's got to live in this body of flesh. They got
to live in this clay prison. Sinful clay prison. That new
man is forced to live in an unclean vessel, this flesh. But when
the believer finally dies, you know what we're going to do with
that flesh? We're going to bury it out of sight real soon. Because
right quick, it's going to start smelling like and looking like
what it is, dead, decaying, sinful flesh. But the new man, he's
not going to be there. We're going to bury that flesh
out of sight, but the new man's not going to be buried. When
this body dies, this corruptible, unclean, filthy flesh dies, God
Almighty takes that new man out of the unclean thing. It takes
him to be with Him. That new man is fit. He's qualified
to go straight into the presence of the thrice holy God. Because
he is born holy. He was born just I'd say, I'm like you all, this
is probably a common thought, most believers, I don't care
to die. A lot of me looks forward to the
day. I don't want to go through the pain and the suffering and
the, you know, but it'd be all right. That'd
be all right when that happens. Go Frank Tate, you remember this.
You remember that verse? God took the clean thing out
of the unclean. That'd be all right, wouldn't it? See, when
God saves a sinner, he makes that sinner to be innocent, righteous,
and holy. And he's gonna keep that sinner.
He's gonna keep him righteous. He's gonna keep him holy. And
in the end, he's gonna glorify him. He's gonna glorify him together
with Him, that we may be with Him, be with Him where He is,
see Him as He is and behold His glory. That's the Savior I want to trust. That's the Savior I want to declare
to you so you'll trust Him. So you'll trust Him. I pray God
will make it so. Let's bow together. Our Father, How we beg of you
that you take your word, and Father, that you'd apply it to
the hearts of your people, that you would be our teacher. Father,
that you'd cause us to see the Lord Jesus Christ, that you'd
cause us to see ourselves in the light of his glory, his holiness,
his perfection, and that you'd cause us to run to him. Father, you promised that your
word would not return unto you void, and it will accomplish
the purpose whereunto you sin. And Father, I beg every to this
morning that your purpose has been a purpose of mercy and grace,
that you'd call your people to yourself. Father, get glory to
your name by saving, keeping and preserving your people, we
pray. For it's in Christ's name, for
his sake, we pray, amen. All right, Sean, come lead us
in a closing hymn, if you will,