If you would, open your Bibles
with me first to Luke chapter 1. Our text this morning is going
to be found in Romans 14. I want us to look first at Luke
chapter 1. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter
14 spoke to us about the kingdom of God. And that's the title
of our message this morning. What is the kingdom of God? Now
there's no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ has a kingdom. But
what is it? He spoke of this kingdom. Luke
1 verse 30. An angel said unto her, fear
not Mary, for thou has found favor with God and behold, thou
shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call
his name Jesus. He should be great. It should
be called the son of the highest and the Lord God should give
unto him the throne of his father, David, and he shall reign forever
and ever over the house of Jacob forever. He shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. He spoke here, the angel spoke
here of the Lord's kingdom at his conception. Before he was
even born, he had a kingdom. He was going to be born as a
king. Do you remember some years later what was said of his death?
The accusation nailed to the top of his cross. What they nailed
to the top of the cross, this is the reason the state had to
put him to death. He's the king of the Jews. He
has a kingdom. He told Pilate, Oh, I've got
a kingdom, but it's not an earthly kingdom. It's not of this world. And that accusation, Jesus of
Nazareth, king of the Jews, it was written in three languages
so everybody could read it. It was written in Hebrew, the
language of religion. It was written in Greek, the
language of the common man. It was written in Latin, the
language of the educated man. It's not just the Jew that the
Lord Jesus is kingdom, king of. He's king over everything in
all the world. Christ is king. And he is the
sovereign in his kingdom. He rules everything. He's the
sovereign. And Christ has a people who live
in his kingdom. They're citizens of his kingdom
and they serve Christ the king. I'm interested to know how can
I get in that kingdom? Are you? Look here, Romans chapter
14. Let's start. with what the kingdom
of God is not. Here's how we do not get into
the kingdom of God. We do not get into the kingdom
of God by what we do. Romans 14 verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not.
Here's what it's not. It's not meat and drink. I'll
tell you what that's telling us is we don't get into the kingdom
of God by what we do, what we do or don't eat, what we do or
don't drink. You know, it's not. This is what the natural mind
thinks. Oh, it's my sin that keeps me out of the kingdom of
God. No, sir. It's not our sin that keeps us out of the kingdom
of God. What keeps us out of the kingdom of God is our doing,
our righteous doing, trying to earn our way into the kingdom
of God by observing this touch, not taste, not handle, not meet
and drink. Now, in context here, remember,
we looked at this chapter a few weeks ago. Paul has been telling
us not to judge our brethren about things that are indifferent,
things that don't matter to salvation, what they do or don't do in those
matters. Don't look down on them. Don't judge them for those things.
It's things like whether or not somebody drinks alcohol, whether
or not they put up a Christmas tree or whether or not they hunt
Easter eggs. Those things do not matter to
salvation. I know man have made them a religious
thing, but now they don't matter to salvation any more than to
the Jew, whether or not they pork or not. Now I feel compelled
to remind us what we're not talking about. It matters. We're only
talking about matters that are indifferent. We're not talking
about somebody that's going around saying Christ died for everybody.
Oh no. Now we're going to judge that.
We're going to judge that as an error of doctrine. We won't
make allowances for that, that Christ died for everybody. You
know, Jesus loves you and so do I. That's not something that's
indifferent. That's a matter of salvation.
That's a matter of redemption. The truth of the scripture is
Christ died for his elect, for people that God gave him. And
those people shall be saved because the sacrifice of Christ is effectual. They put their sin away. Those
people are saved by what Christ did for them. and what God does
in them, not by what they do or don't do. And we will not
make any allowance for any other doctrine. But these things that
are indifferent, we make allowances for those things. Who really
cares about those things? The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. We don't get into the kingdom
of God by what we do or don't do. All right, here's how we
do get into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, Paul says
here, is righteousness and peace and joy. in the Holy Ghost. We
get into this kingdom. Look at Mark chapter one. First
of all, by what Christ has done for his people. Verse 14 of Mark chapter one. Now, after the John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God. There is a gospel of the kingdom
of God saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Here's when the savior
began his public ministry and he began his public ministry
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And it's very clear. He tells us we don't get into
the kingdom by what we do. He says, you must repent of everything
you do. You must repent of everything you are. Turn away from trusting
in those things. and turn to Christ and trust
Him. We enter into the kingdom of
God by faith in Christ, by believing Him, not by what we do or we
don't do. If I would enter the kingdom
of God, I must believe the gospel of the kingdom. If you look in
Acts chapter 28, when the apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome,
he explained to us what is the gospel of the kingdom of God.
In a word, it's Christ. The gospel of the kingdom of
God tells us who Christ is and what he's done for his people.
Acts 28 verse 30. And Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching
the kingdom of God. And here's what he was doing
as he preached the kingdom of God, teaching those things which
concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding
him. The gospel of the kingdom of
God concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him. That's how
we get into the kingdom of God through what Christ has done
for his people. Second, look at Colossians chapter one. We
get into the kingdom of God because God put us there. That's how
we get there. God put us there. Colossians 1 verse 12. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet, fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn,
the King of every creature. And the way we got into his kingdom
is the Father translated us. He took us out of the power of
darkness, He transferred us into the kingdom of His Son. That's
how we get into the kingdom. It's through faith in Christ.
It's by God putting us in Christ. And Paul in our text tells us
that the kingdom of God is righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy
Ghost. And I have three words that will
help us to understand this matter of righteousness. This matter
of righteousness brings peace and joy. I three words, three
points will help us understand this. They're imputed, imparted
and completed. The first word is imputed. This
righteousness, the kingdom of God, this righteousness is righteousness
that's imputed. There's a I think it's in this
week, but we had to cancel service. Yes, this week there is an outstanding
article. Be sure you read the article
on the back of the bulletin by Brother Clay Curtis, Imputation
According to the Scriptures. This matter of righteousness
imputed, justification, being made without sin, being made
righteous, that's the work of Christ for his people. Christ
made his people righteous. He made them without any sin
by his perfect obedience to the law. He had a perfect life and
he was perfectly obedient in death. He was always perfect.
He was obedient to every thou shalt of the law. He was obedient
to every thou shalt not. He never did one of them. He
always, everywhere he went, was obedient to his father, always
doing his father's will, never seeking to please himself, but
always doing the father's will. And when it came time for Calvary,
he was obedient, wasn't he? Obedient unto death, even the
death, even the cursed death of the cross to bear the sin
of his people away and make them righteous by his sacrifice. See,
we cannot be made righteous by what we do, can't we? Because
everything we do is sinful. God's elect are made righteous
by the obedience of Christ. It's all by the doing and the
dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have two terms I want us to
look at to see how is a sinner made righteous through the obedience
of Christ. Well, the first one is representation.
Now you know this, all men were made sinners by one representative
man. I didn't become a sinner the first time I told a lie.
No, I was made a sinner in Adam. We became sinners by what Adam,
our father, the representative man did. And when Adam sinned,
it's not that God charged his sin to us, even though we didn't
do it. That wouldn't be holy, would it? No, we sinned in Adam. When Adam sinned, we did too.
Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Literally translated, that is
all sinned in Adam. Guilt is charged to us because
we're actually guilty. Guilt is charged to us because
we actually sin in Adam. Well, God's elect are made righteous
the exact same way, just the opposite. We're made righteous
by the actions, the obedience of another representative. the
Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ obeyed the law, his
people obeyed the law in him because they are in Christ. Now,
God doesn't treat them like they obeyed the law. No, they actually
did obey the law because they're in Christ. They did everything
that he did. So everyone who believes Christ
is made actually righteous. We're righteous because our works
are the actual works of the Lord Jesus Christ, the work of our
representative. You're still there. Romans five
verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
and a justification of life. For it's by one man's disobedience.
Many were made sinners, made actual centers. So by the obedience
of one, so many be made righteous, be made actually righteous because
they did everything Christ our representative did. Now, this
matter of imputation is not God just putting righteousness onto
our account, even though we never did anything righteous. That's
not imputation. God only imputes something that's
already true. The best example that I can think
of of that, impute is an accounting term. I used to work, did some
accounting work for a company I worked for, wholesale. We would
make large deposits, $300,000 and $400,000 deposits almost
every day. And the lady there, whose job
that was, she would count up all that deposit, and she would
mark all the accounts, you know, they're paid. And she put all
the money and all the checks and everything together, and
she'd add it all up, she'd make up a deposit ticket, and we'd
take it to the bank. She'd give me a copy of that
deposit ticket, $400,000. And I would impute that to the
accountant of the company. I would impute that, that this
is our money. I could impute that to our account
because the cash had been put in the bank. See, I can only
impute it after the cash was put in the bank. I could never
impute that $400,000 to my enchanted checking account. Ooh, that'd
be wonderful. If I'd have wrote it down, we
couldn't have done it. It wouldn't have done anything good, would it? Because it's
not there. It's not there. When God imputes righteousness
to a sinner, it's because he's already made him righteous. in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just calling it what it
already is, righteous in Christ. Because of what Christ has done,
because of what Christ, our representative, has done for us. All right, look
at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Here's the second word. To help
us understand this righteousness imputed, it's substitution. Sinners are made righteous by
substitution, by the obedience of Christ the sinner substitute.
Second Corinthians 5 verse 21. For he, God the father, hath
made him, God the son, Christ the savior, sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. See, sinners are made righteous
through the great exchange, through what our substitute did for us.
Christ took the sin of his people away from them and he became
our substitute. He suffered and died for that
sin. He suffered everything that sin deserved and put it away
by the blood of His sacrifice. And in exchange, He gave His
people His righteousness, made them as righteous as the Son
of God Himself because of our substitute. Now, that's the only
righteousness God will ever accept, this perfect righteousness of
His Son. Because we must remember God's
holy. You know, He can't just Sweep
sin under the rug and pretend like it's not there. No, no. Sin must be punished because
God's holy. It must be put away. God cannot
accept sin. And that's why his son died,
because he bore the sin of his people. And just like God's holy
and must punish sin, because God's holy, he must accept righteousness. He must. And that's why everyone
for whom Christ died is in the kingdom of God. because Christ
made them actually righteous. The only way that you and I can
be made righteous is by what Christ has done for us, by his
life and by his death. Look at Romans chapter 10. If we go back to judging one
another and estimating our righteousness by what we do and don't do by
these meets and drinks and holy days and religious ceremonies.
If we're doing that, we're trying to make ourselves righteous by
what we do. We're trying to add to Christ's
righteousness or something. And if we do that, all we're
showing is we don't know God. Romans chapter 10 verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now, these people are very religious
people. But they're not saved. I mean,
Paul wouldn't pray that they'd be saved if they were already
saved, would he? No, they're not. Every religious person is
not saved now. How did Paul know that? Verse
two, for I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God.
People who try to keep some laws and live a moral life so God
would be happy with them are ignorant of who God is. They're
ignorant of God's righteousness. They have not submitted themselves
and given up all their works and rested in Christ because
they still want some credit. But people who are righteous,
they submitted themselves to Christ, they surrender to him,
they give up all their works, they give up trusting in all
their works, and they trust Christ alone. to be all their righteousness. God is my witness. The only righteousness
I have before God is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody
who's been made righteous doesn't want anything to do with their
works. I don't want my righteousness to depend upon anything that
I do or don't do. Those people who've been made
righteous only want to be seen in Christ. And that's the only
way God sees them. That brings such peace and joy
to my heart. This Jew, that when God sees
me, He didn't see me in all my sin. He sees me in Christ. He sees me as perfectly righteous. Christ, my substitute, took all
of my sin away from me. You never give it back. Oh, that
gives me such joy and such peace. Christ has given me His righteousness,
and He'll never take it back. He'll never come tell me, you
don't deserve it, I'm taking it back. He'll never take it back. That
gives me such peace and joy. If my sin's gone, and Christ
has made me righteous, I've got nothing to worry about. Oh, what
peace and joy that brings. If I've got to keep working,
working, working, working, working, working in order to please God,
if I've always got to live this great moral Christian life in
order to enter into his kingdom, I'm never going to have any peace.
I'm never going to have any joy because I've always got to be
working. But if Christ is all of my righteousness, I've got
peace. I've got joy. The work's done
and it's done perfectly. And I can just rest in Christ
and not have to add anything to it. Now this peace and joy. We'd all like to have peace and
joy, wouldn't we? But it comes by faith. This
is where the Holy Ghost comes in. It comes by faith. The Holy
Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. And he
gives us faith to believe Christ. The Holy Spirit gives joy and
peace by giving us faith to see that Christ is all I need. He's
all of my righteousness. And it has to be by faith. I
can't go into heaven and see the record, my record of righteousness
and obedience. I can't go into heaven and see
that. And if I try to see it myself, I'm sorely disappointed.
I don't see a hint of righteousness in anything I've ever done. I
can't see that righteous record before God. But the Holy Ghost
gives me faith to believe it. I don't have to see it to believe
it. I just believe it. God gave me
faith to believe Christ. See that? And I tell you how
he does it. Look at Romans 1. I tell you
how he gives this joy and peace, how he gives this faith. It's
by giving us faith to believe the gospel. Romans 1, verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. 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, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it's written, the just to live by faith. That's how
we know that we're righteous before God. God has given us
faith to believe it. That brings us joy and peace.
So now listen, Christ is our righteousness. Then God forbid
that we judge one another about these matters that are indifferent.
It just doesn't matter. We're made righteous by Christ. We receive that righteousness
through faith in Christ. It's not our works. then let's
not destroy this peace and this joy by means. Let's not destroy
the peace and the joy we have in Christ by judging each other
about what somebody eats or doesn't eat, what they drink or what
they don't drink, how they celebrate different holidays. Our peace
is not found in doing those things. Our peace is knowing that God
is satisfied with us in Christ. That's our peace. That's our
joy. Our joy is believing the gospel. We hear a priest that
tells us Not only do you not have to work. Just quit whatever
it is you think you can do to make yourself savable. Quit,
just quit. Rest in that brings peace and
joy. That's righteousness imputed.
So here's a second word imparted. This righteousness that brings
joy and peace and holy ghost is righteousness that's imparted.
Now, this is it. Righteousness imputed is we say
it's a legal term, but it's a whole lot more than a legal term. You
never, ever, ever have righteousness imputed where it's not imparted.
We kind of think of it as a legal term. This is, this is the record.
The law has been kept. There's no guilt on our account.
That's why God imputes righteousness to us because he removed all
the guilt in our account. Well, righteousness or imparted
is receiving new holy nature, a new righteous nature in the
new birth. It's righteousness applied in
the soul when God the Holy Spirit gives a new nature. This this
righteousness imparted is not just a legal thing. It's not
just a legal standing before God. Yes, the legality has been
taken care of, but it's much, much, much richer than a legal
document. True righteousness is a nature
that cannot seem that will never sin. The new nature born in the
new birth is a brand new man, a brand new nature that never
existed before. And every saved person has those
two natures in them. It's the old man and new man,
the flesh and the spirit. When God saves a sinner, he doesn't
do anything about flesh. He doesn't try to fix up the
old man because he can't be fixed up. He can't be repaired. He
can't be propped up. God just leaves him alone. And
he causes a new man to be born and he's born in righteousness.
Let's look at some scriptures. First Peter chapter one. I want you to see this from the
word of God, the old man who was born of the flesh is fleshly. And what that means is this.
He's just like the flesh. He's sinful because he's born
from sinful seed. But that new man, he's righteous
because he's born from spiritual righteous seed. 1 Peter 1, verse
23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever for all flesh is his grass and all the glory
of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. And that's the word that God
uses as the seed to give life to his people. So that new man
is born from this perfect seed. So he's perfect. He's righteous.
He can never sin. Look at 1 John 2. 1 John 2, verse 29. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous. Why? How? Because he's been given
a righteous nature. Born in the new birth, he's been
given the nature of Christ. And that man cannot, cannot ever
sin because he is righteous. It's the opposite of his nature.
1 John 3, verse 5. And ye know that he was manifested
to take away our sin, and in him is no sin. Now whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not, for whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He doeth righteous because he's
been made just like Christ. Verse nine, whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. And
he cannot sin because he's born of God. He cannot sin because
his nature is born of God. It is a righteous nature and
he cannot sin. Just like our flesh cannot do
anything righteous because our flesh is sinful. It's a sin nature. It's all it can do is sin. Well,
this nature, this new man born of God can never sin. It can
only do righteousness because it's a righteous nature. Now,
That does not mean that any believer can honestly say, I do holy works. We can't say that, because everything
we do is mixed with sin. I've never looked, been able
to look at anything that I do and say, oh, that was a holy
work, that was a good one, that was a holy work. I can never
say, oh, the new man did that. Now, the new man did it. I mean,
if I pray, if I believe, if I love, That's the new man, isn't it?
But I can never say it's holy because what's done in this body
and flesh is sinful. And I point that out to say this.
I think this is very important. We say here the new man cannot
sin. So if we start looking and say, well, do I sin? And you
know, that'll ruin all of our hope and joy and peace. I cannot
look to my works to see whether or not I've been born again.
Can't do it. The only way I can know if I've
been born again is just one way. Do I trust Christ? Is He all
of my righteousness? Do I look to Him and Him alone,
not anything that I've done? That's the only way I can know
that I've been born again. And the perfect example of what
I'm talking about is Lot. Go read the life of Lot in the
Old Testament. All you'll see is Lot's sin,
his weakness, his failure. He's such a weak, weak, weak
man. Sinful man. But then just look
up in your concordance Lot's name. read about him in the New
Testament, not one hint of all that sin, all that everything
that he is. All you read about him is what
Peter calls him, just Lot. Lot, Peter said, is a just man,
justified, made without sin. Now, the only way that's possible
for old brother Lot is if Christ made him righteous by his obedience.
God caused him to be born again with a new righteous nature.
And that's the only way you and me will ever be righteous too.
Christ made us righteous and God caused a new righteous nature
to be born in us. Now that brings me peace and
joy. I said this Wednesday night, Jan and I were talking last week
about Brother Henry's influence on us and just our everyday life. And you know, one of those things
is that You know, I don't hoot and holler and jump around and
yell and just do, I mean, I don't even walk around hardly. I just
kind of stay, John said, I just stay right here. You can put
my handprints here, you know, just hang on until, you know. But if we really saw the joy
and the peace that we have, Christ has made us righteous. That put
us in the kingdom of God. I believe we jump for joy. I
believe we shout. for joy. God has accepted me
and he'll never cast me out because Christ has made me righteous.
The Holy Spirit has made me so in the new birth. I'm in the
kingdom of God. Yeah, I got to live here in this
poor body in this sinful world for a while more. I'm in the
kingdom of God that gives me such joy and peace. And the only
way I can have that joy and peace is by the Holy Ghost showing
me Christ, constantly showing me Christ, constantly telling
me, quit looking at yourself, look away from yourself and look
to Christ. That's the only way I have this
joy and peace. And that's what the Holy Ghost does. See, if
I look at myself, I'll just be perfectly honest with you. I
see absolutely no hint of a righteous nature in me. I just I can't
see. All I can see about myself is
sin. So the only way I can know I've
got this holy nature is by faith. 1 John 4, verse 17. Faith that the Holy Ghost gives. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. Now the only way that I can know
while I'm in this world that I'm just like Christ is faith. You can't see it in me. I can't
see it in you. The only way we know it is by
faith. Now that brings me such joy.
There's such peace. I've been made just like Christ.
Then I've got nothing to fear, just joy and peace. God's going
to accept me. Here's the third word, imputed,
imparted. And the third word, this righteousness
is completed. Righteousness has been established.
It's been worked out by the obedience of Christ for his people. God,
the Holy Spirit, has applied that righteousness in the new
birth, giving a holy nature. You know, you who believe, if
you believe Christ, sitting right here today, you're as righteous
as you ever will be. You'll never be any more righteous,
even in glory. You will not be more righteous
than you are right now. Now, the only way that I can
know that, the only way I can see that, is by faith. I do believe it. I believe that. That's why I preach. I believe
that. But let's just be real honest
with each other. Often I don't see it very well.
Often I don't. But one day, one day, faith is
going to give way to sight. And I'm going to see it with
perfect 20-20 vision. I'm going to see with these eyes
my redemption. That's what Job said. Faith will
have given way to sight and righteousness will be completed. See, by faith,
I believe I'm righteous, even though I still live in this body
of sin. And we have peace and joy in that, don't we? You're
not going to find it anywhere else. If you're trying to make
yourself happy by what you're doing, you're never going to
be happy. You're just always going to be
disappointed. The only way we can ever have any joy and peace
is in Christ. And we have that peace. We do. If you believe Christ, you do.
But this is also true. That peace is often marred. Often
marred. Because there's a civil war going
on inside my soul. I'll have peace, but I've got
war too. That civil war going on in me just marrs my peace
and my joy and my happiness. But brother, one day that war
is going to be over. Christ's work of righteousness is going
to be completed. And I'll be righteous body and
soul. 1 John 3 verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Oh, what joy and peace there
is. And we are the sons and daughters of God. Now, it does not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him. But we shall see him as he is. There's the day coming. We're
going to see him as he is. No more through a glass darkly.
See him as he is. And when we do, we'll be like
him. That brings us joy and peace.
There's such joy in knowing this life is not all that there is. Now I do love Christ now. You
do too if you like him. If you believe him, you love
him. You believe him. You're righteous right now. But
our sin constantly mars our peace and our joy, doesn't it? But
when I think of Christ, I don't think of myself. I have peace
and I have joy. I've got stuff to do in this
life. I'm not going to have to do it for long. Pretty soon it's
going to be over. I'm going to see the Savior face
to face. That gives me such joy and peace. There's going to be dark days
ahead. We were sitting at a, I don't
know, Janet, how long we've been married. We were sitting at a
funeral home, funeral visitation one day. Janet's dad told me,
he said, now, Frank, we're getting ready to do this a lot. We're
going to be doing this a lot. He's right. And that's not stopping. We're going to keep doing that
a lot. There's going to be dark days. We're going to have to
say goodbye and it's going to hurt. There's going to be sickness
and pain and sorrow in this life. But nothing gives the believer
more peace and more joy than knowing it's going to be over
soon. One day soon, I'm going to be
like Christ. I'm going to be with Him. This
righteousness will be completed and there's going to be no more
sin. There's going to be no more unbelief. Why don't I believe more? How
often do you ask yourself that question? One day I'm not going
to ask that question anymore. One day there's going to be no
more weakness. There's going to be no more fear. We're going to be
with Christ forever. Just like what joy and peace
there is in that. And we know it's coming because
Christ the Savior had begun a good work, hadn't he? He'd begun the
work of righteousness. Well, you can rest assured of
this. He's going to complete it. I've started some jobs I haven't completed.
Hopefully I will sometime. But I haven't completed them
yet. He will. He's going to complete this work.
What joy and peace there is in knowing, it's all up to Him. I don't have to complete it by
what I do or what I don't do. He's going to complete it. Then
let's serve the Lord by faith. Back to Romans 14 again. Let's
serve the Lord by faith. Romans 14, verse 18. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let's serve
the Lord by faith. Let's not judge one another in
these matters indifferently. Let's serve the Lord by faith
in Christ. The Father will always accept
that service. As weak and as frail and as full
of holes as it may be, He will accept that service done in faith.
And God's people will approve it too. They'll approve it. Their spirit will bear witness
with your spirit. That's faith. Faith in Christ. That's the kingdom
of Almighty God. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you that you revealed to us in your
word you have a kingdom. You have a people that you will
populate. Fill that kingdom with a people.
made just like Your darling Son. If You hadn't revealed it to
us in Your Word, You hadn't given us faith to believe it, we'd
never know it, we'd never believe it, we'd never look forward to
it. But You told us in Your Word how we thank You for Your mercy
and Your grace, Your pity to sinners who could never do anything
to deserve to be in Your kingdom. But by Your mercy and Your grace,
You took the worst of the worst. You washed them in the blood
of Your Son. You caused them to be born again, you cleanse
them from all sin, cause them to be born again through the
seed of your word, giving them a righteous nature, made them
fit to dwell in your kingdom. And how we thank you that one
day you're going to wrap this thing up and your kingdom will
be perfect. It'll be complete, will be forever
with the Lord and his kingdom. Father, we thank you. This is
what your word declares. Father, I beg of thee, that you
give us each heart here this morning, that you give us faith
to believe it. Faith to believe Christ and cling
to Him who is all of our salvation. It's in His precious name, for
the glory of His name we pray.