Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 31. The title of the message is The Work
and Effect of Righteousness. We took that title from verse
17. The work of righteousness shall
be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. Now, before we can get a blessing
from the effect of righteousness, we have to understand the work
of righteousness, what it is. The work of righteousness, and
we have to start here, human nature being what it is, the
work of righteousness is not something that we do. Sinners
cannot make themselves righteous. It's impossible for a sinner
to make themselves righteous. So righteousness, the work of
righteousness is a work someone else has to do for us. You look
over a few pages, Isaiah 57. This is taught all through scripture.
The work of righteousness is the work someone else must do
for us. And in chapter 57, Isaiah is
talking to the wicked. He says in verse three, he's
talking to the sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and
whore. And he says to them in verse 12, I will declare thy
righteousness, what he means is thy so-called righteousness
and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. And when our
works are revealed for what they really are, our works will be
seen as something that's not righteous, but unrighteous. They're sinful works, and there's
never any profit in sin. And sin's all we do, there's
no profit in anything we do. We can't do the work of righteousness
if all we do is sin. The work of righteousness is
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I look over in Titus chapter
three, the work of righteousness is the work of Christ, our representative. The work of righteousness is
the work of the King who's come into flesh to reign in righteousness
that we looked at last week in Titus three, verse five, not
by works of righteousness, which we've done. but according to
his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. The work of righteousness is
a work that's done by Jesus Christ our Savior alone. So that's who
does the work of righteousness. Well, what is the work of righteousness?
Well, first of all, the work of righteousness is the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ did as a man. It's his obedience
to the law. It's his obedience to the law
that he worked out as a man, as a representative of his people.
Now look over in Isaiah chapter 60. Second, the work of righteousness
is the work of Christ when he makes his people righteous. In
Isaiah chapter 60, verse 21, Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I may be
glorified. Thy people shall be all righteous
because this is the work of Christ for His people." Look over in
Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah 51 verse 10. The Lord hath brought forth our
righteousness. Come, let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God. The Lord hath brought forth our
righteousness. This is the work of the Lord
our God. This work of righteousness is
Christ, both imputing and imparting his righteousness to his people.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to the count of God's
elect because Christ died for our sin. He took the sin of his
people away and his blood cleanses us from all sin and we're made
righteous. That righteousness is imputed
to our count. And the righteousness of Christ
is imparted into his people in the new birth. When there's a
new man born with a new nature, that's Christ's righteousness
imparted to us. All of us here, One day we're
born and when we were born, there's a cute baby born. I mean, everybody just saw this
cute baby, but I'm telling you from the very moment that that
cute baby was conceived and from the very first breath that cute
baby drew, that baby had an unrighteous nature. It had to. Where did that baby get its nature?
got its nature from his daddy. He got his nature from his daddy,
from his daddy, from his daddy, all the way back to Adam. We're
born with the nature of our father Adam. We're born from his sinful
seed. So that's all the flesh will ever be, is unrighteous.
But when a believer's born again, we're born with a new nature,
because we've got a new father. We bear his nature. His pure
seed produces perfect righteousness, a righteous nature, that's given
to us at the new birth. Now third, look in Romans chapter
three. The work of righteousness is
the work of Christ as a man made under the law. The work of righteousness
is the work of Christ when he makes his people righteous. And
third, the work of righteousness is received by faith in Christ. We don't do something to make
ourselves righteous. Righteousness is received by
believing Christ and trusting Christ, relying on Christ. Romans
3, verse 20. 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. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law, without our obedience to the law, is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. even
the righteousness of God, which is what? By faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. For there's no difference
for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely 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." Now look over in chapter
4, verse 4. This is received, the righteousness
of Christ is received by faith. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth, believeth, has faith on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Now, what
a blessing. The blessing of God's grace that
sinners are made righteous in Christ. Human words can't do that. Well,
I just said justice. Now we hear this all the time
about being made righteous in Christ, but I'm telling you this
is a miracle that's beyond human comprehension. A sinner being
made righteous. The work of righteousness is
the whole work of salvation that Christ has accomplished for his
people. And the work of salvation he's accomplished in his people.
That's the work of righteousness. Now in our text, Isaiah gives
us some effects of the work of Christ's righteousness in his
people. The first effect of righteousness,
the work of righteousness, is eyes that see Christ. Verse 3
of Isaiah chapter 32, and the eyes of them that see shall not
be dimmed. Now when a person's born again,
there's a new man born. He never existed before, he's
newly born. And that new man, everything
about him is new. He's got a new nature, he's got
a new father, he's got a new family, and he's got new senses. In the flesh, he was born blind. He was born spiritually blind.
Now we say someone's spiritually blind, I'll tell you what that
means. You cannot see. You can't see Christ. You can't understand who he is.
You can't love him. You can't believe him because
you're spiritually blind. You can't see him. But when a
man's born again, he is born seeing Christ. He is born understanding
who Christ is. And he's born, when we say someone
sees, they understand. Oh, I see. That means I understand. When a man's born again, he understands
how it is that Christ can save someone as sinful as me. He's
born seeing, he's born understanding that Christ is my only hope.
That is a man who's born loving Christ, has faith in Christ,
and his eyes shall not be dim. He sees Christ crystal clear. Now when I say that, I don't
mean he understands everything there is to know about the Lord
Jesus Christ. How can you do that? What man
can understand God? None. We don't know anything
unless God reveals it to us. But that new man sees Christ
and he knows to look to Christ and won't look anywhere else
for his salvation. That new man has eyes that see. He sees Christ and he follows
Christ. The second effect of righteousness
is ears that hear. Verse three, and the ears of
them that hear shall hearken. Now, just like being born spiritually
blind, we're all born spiritually deaf. We can't hear the word. Now, physically we can hear.
Every one of y'all hear me. But when I say we're born spiritually
deaf, what I mean is we can't understand God's Word. And here's
the proof of it. Almost everybody, I reckon, in
the United States, certainly anybody that wants one in the
United States can own a Bible. If they've got a third grade
education, they can open it up and read it. But here's the proof
we're spiritually deaf. We think the Word, when we read
the Bible, we think by nature that the Word is telling us to
obey the law. When in fact, what is God's word
really telling us? It's telling us to look to Christ.
Why don't we understand that? Why don't we know that? Because
we can't hear the message of the word. We're spiritually deaf.
But when a person's born again, they're born with those new senses.
So they hear. Now they hear from God's word.
They hear Christ speak. They quit hearing just the preacher.
They quit hearing just the voice of a man. They hear Christ speak.
and they hear Christ saying, come to me. Come unto me all
ye that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. What did
our Lord say about his sheep? How did he describe his sheep?
My sheep hear my voice. I say come and they come. They
follow me. Well, am I one of God's sheep?
Can I leave here tonight knowing whether I'm one of God's sheep?
Well, when you hear the scripture speak, what do you hear? Do you
hear Christ speak? Do you hear the scriptures and
hear the scriptures all point you to Christ? If you answer
yes to that, then you're one of God's sheep, because the only
people that can hear that are people that have been born again,
given ears to hear. That's the effect of righteousness.
The third effect of righteousness is in verse four. It's understanding. The heart also of the rash shall
understand knowledge. and the tongue of the stammerer
shall be ready to speak plainly. Now the rash, that means those
people who are too busy to take the time and stop and think about
what they've heard from a false prophet. They just, they're too
busy to think. They just go through the motions.
They go through the ceremonies. They're too busy to think about
what God's word really teaches. So they just swallow whole everything
the false prophet says to them. But the work of righteousness
is going to stop that rash sinner. That rash sinner, he's on a fast,
mad dash to hell. And the work of righteousness
is to stop him in his tracks, just like God stopped old Saul
of Tarsus one day in his tracks. We stopped him, put him in the
dust, so he stopped and finally listened. That's the work of
righteousness. The work of righteousness gives
God's people understanding so that they start to think about
what it is they've just heard from that false prophet. And
they think, that's not what the Bible says. He's not saying what
that says. What happened? What happened? How did that fellow finally realize
that? The Lord gave him understanding. The Lord gives his people an
understanding of who I am. I understand who I am. I understand
who God is. And I understand how God forgives
sin, how God saves his people through the sacrifice of his
son. And we understand Christ Jesus came into this world to
save sinners. Now, when you understand that,
you've got something to tell people. I know by nature, this
is not something, a gift that we're born with. We're born with
a stammering tongue. We're not born with a gift to
witness and to tell people who the Lord is. But when the Lord
reveals himself to you, you've got something to tell others.
And I tell you this, a lot of people like to be the one talking.
But I tell you, this is a good piece of advice. It'd be a real
good idea to keep your mouth shut until the Lord gives you
some understanding. You really would. Who was it
said to take every opportunity to keep your mouth shut? Until
the Lord gives you understanding. And when he gives you understanding,
you've got something to say. Look at Luke chapter 24. Isn't
this what the Lord did for his disciples after he arose and
he appeared to them? This is exactly what he did for
them. It really is astonishing to me.
This is true believers. How often do we not hear? Well,
this is what I know to be true. At the end of my life, the end
of my ministry, you young people are going to look around and
say, did anybody listen to what he was saying? Well, don't be surprised. Here the disciples were with
our Lord every day for three years, and they didn't hear what
he said. People aren't going to hear what
I say either. The only way we're going to hear and remember and
understand this is the Lord opens our understanding. Look at verse
44, Luke 24. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.
I am telling you the same thing I told you for the past three
years, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures. and said unto them,
thus it's written, this is why it's written in the Old Testament
scriptures, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem. The Lord opened their understanding
of the law of Moses and all the prophets and all the Psalms and
they finally understood all those things were written of Christ.
They finally saw Christ in the law. They finally saw Christ
in the Psalms. They finally saw Christ in the
prophets. And they said, Oh, now I see. Now I understand. Because Christ
gave them understanding. Now you 11. Now you got something
to preach, verse 48. And he says, and you are witnesses
of these things. Now you go preach what I've just
given you an understanding of. Now, no believer feels qualified
to speak for the Lord, but the Lord has given his people, all
of them, he's given them an understanding of the scriptures. You understand
who the savior is, you understand who Christ is, how he saved sinners,
and you've got something to tell. Every believer has got something
to tell. Remember the Lord cast out that
legion, that demoniac, and that demoniac said, I'm going with
you. I'm not staying here. These people are crazy. I'm going
with you. And what'd the Lord tell him?
No, you go home. And you preach a good Calvinistic
message. You go home and you teach people
about how God elected a people and you teach them all the mysteries.
No. You go home and you tell them
what great things the Lord has done for you. Now that we can
tell. That we can, I was lost. I was
a rebel. I was vile. And God in his mercy
saved me. He sent his son to wash me from
his sin from my sin and his blood, and he's caused me to be born
again so that I see all how I love him, what he's done for me. Every
believer can tell that story, every one of us. And I tell you
this, this is about preaching. There'd never been a true preacher
of God who naturally has the ability to preach, who's naturally
got the ability to speak. Every one of us is born with
a stammering tongue. But if God calls a man to minister,
He's going to enable him. He might not be the most eloquent
fellow you've ever heard, but I promise you, he'll have the
ability to preach Christ plainly. The stammering tongue is going
to speak, and he's going to speak of Christ. That's the work, the
effect of righteousness, the effect of the work of righteousness.
Four, the work of righteousness, the effect of righteousness is
the new birth, a new nature and the new birth. Verse five, back
in our text. The vile person should be called
no more liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the
vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity
to practice hypocrisy and to utter error against the Lord,
to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he'll cause the drink
of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl
are evil. He diviseth wicked devices to
destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right. But the liberal diviseth liberal things, and by liberal
things shall he stand. Now, here the Lord, or Isaiah,
speaking through Isaiah, talking about this vile person. The vile
person is exactly what you think. He's a person who's vile in his
sin, but even worse, he's vile in his own righteousness. He's
vile in his self-righteousness. And what does the vile person
speak? He speaks villainy. I looked that word up. You know
what it means? Villainy. It means disgrace. He speaks
disgraceful things. He speaks disgrace. He speaks anti-grace. He speaks
against God's free and sovereign grace. He preaches self-righteousness. He preaches you go out and keep
the law. You do better. That's disgrace. That's anti-grace. And that vile person practices
hypocrisy. They pretend to be something
that they're not. Namely, they pretend to be righteous. They cover themselves with this
religious veneer of righteousness, but the heart's still vile. The
heart is controlled by vile, evil motives. And by nature,
men swallow that up. They call that vile person liberal. They call him good and generous
and gracious. But they preach this false gospel,
this disgrace. It doesn't fill the hungry soul.
It doesn't quench the thirst of the sinner who hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. Their false gospel just makes
sinners more hungry and makes them more thirsty because their
message is get to work. I don't care how hungry you are,
get to work. I don't care how thirsty you are, get to work.
And it just makes us more hungry and more thirsty. That's the
vile person. And the churl, that word means
scoundrel. Now the word has something to
do with hiding yourself. It's kind of like a hypocrite,
hiding your true intentions so you can come in and destroy,
do a great deal of hurt. That's the false prophet. He's
dealing with people in hypocrisy. His goal, his aim is not for
the good of their souls, it's for his good, the good of his
pocketbook, the good of his following and fame or whatever. He's not
being honest about what his true motives are. And he's certainly
not telling people how to be righteous. They tell you to be
righteous by what you do. They don't preach Christ our
righteousness, they preach your own righteousness. And if he
finds somebody who does speak right, who does speak righteous
things, he speaks against him. If they speak of Christ our righteousness,
the churl, he speaks against him. Now that's all of us by
nature. And that's who all of us by nature
are impressed with. These televangelists who just,
I mean, boy, they put on a show and we're impressed by nature.
We call them liberal. The word there means a generous
or good person. But they're not. We just don't
see it because we're blind or deaf. But when a person is born
again, Now you see what you couldn't see before. You're delivered
from the hold of that false gospel. You're delivered from that other
Jesus. I used to think I was good. I was the liberal. I was
a good and generous person by nature. Not only do I see that's
what they're not, more importantly, that's why I see what I'm not
by nature. But that's not what I've been made in Christ. I see
what I am in Adam, but I see what I've been made in Christ.
I've been made righteous in him. The only man who can see that
he's that scoundrel by nature, that he's that vile person by
nature, it's the person who's been born again. Because only
the person who's been born again has got eyes that see. The effect
of righteousness is the new birth. Then fifth, the effect of righteousness
is complete deliverance from the curse of sin. Look at verse
nine. Rise up, ye women that are at
ease. Hear my voice, ye careless daughters. Give ear unto my speech.
Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women,
for the vintage shall fail. The gathering shall not come
in. There's not going to be a harvest. This is the result of the fall
of Adam. This is the result of the curse of sin. Adam's fall
put the whole human race under the curse, under all this trouble
for many years. That's all the trouble of sin. Adam's fall made it so everything
we try to do spiritually fails and won't bring forth any harvest.
That's the effect of the curse. Go read on verse 12. I'm sorry,
verse 11. Tremble ye women that are at
ease. Be troubled, ye careless ones. Strip you and make you
bare and gird sackcloth upon your loins. They shall lament
for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
Adam's fall stripped us all naked, naked before God, made us so
all we can do is mourn. And Adam's fall made everything
about us spiritually to be unfruitful. There's no life in us. There's
nothing to sustain life in us. That's the effect of the curse
of sin. Read on verse 13. Upon the land of my people shall
come up thorns and briars. Yea, upon all the houses of joy
and the joyous city. All of our works, what do they
produce? Thorns and thistles, thorns and
briars. That's the effect of the curse
of sin. All of our works, what we want
to call our works of righteousness, what does it produce? Hurtful
things, thistles, thorns and briars. That's the effect of
the curse. Verse 14, because the palaces should be forsaken,
the multitude of the city should be left. The forts and towers
shall be for dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture
of flocks." There's no escaping the results of the fall of Adam.
This has come upon all men. There's no escaping it. Even
the best of men, those who live on the palaces and the big houses
on the top of the hill, they're gone. They're lost in sin and
death. and it will stay that way. This
is the effect of the curse and it will never be removed until
God comes in grace to remove it. The only way the curse of
sin can be removed is if sin itself is actually removed and
righteousness reigns in its place. Verse 15, this is the way the
curse is going to remain until the Spirit be poured upon us
from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the
fruitful field be counted for a forest." Christ's work, His
work of righteousness, the effect of His work of righteousness
is poured out on His people because the wrath of God was poured out
upon Christ our substitute for our sin. Christ took the sin
of His people into His body on the tree And he put it away through
the blood of his sacrifice. The sin of God's elect is gone.
Then the curse must be gone too. And God pours out his grace on
his people. Verse 16. Then judgment shall
dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. Christ, our substitute, had to
be judged for the sin of his people. God's not going to just
ignore sin. It's got to be judged. Christ,
our substitute, was judged for the sin of His people. And when
Christ was judged by His Father as our substitute, He went to
the wilderness. He suffered alone in the wilderness,
separated from His Father. And that sacrifice, the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ, was successful. It got the job done. The sacrifice of Christ completely
removed the sin of God's elect So the righteousness of Christ
is poured out upon his people. And they're made righteous. They're
made fruitful. The curse is removed. The thorns
and the thistles and the briars are removed. So now God makes
his people fruitful in Christ. That's what he says in verse
20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters and send forth thither
the feed of the ox and the ass. You're plowing and you're planting
in well water places. You're going to be fruitful.
You're going to have a harvest because you've been made fruitful
in Christ. The curse of sin completely removed. Once the spirit of grace has
been poured upon us and the fact of righteousness has been poured
upon us, Sin can no longer cause us all this trouble and all this
mourning. Christ has removed the sin of his people and made
us righteous. There's no sin to cause us trouble.
There's no sin to cause us mourning. Christ took it away. Sin can
no longer strip us naked before God because we're clothed in
the righteousness of Christ. All of our fear of God are trembling
before him and fear is gone. It's been turned to acceptance
in Christ. God accepts those who've been
made righteous in his son. And sin can no longer make our
soul a field full of thorns and thistles and briars because the
curse has been removed. We've been made righteous in
Christ, so we're fruitful in his righteousness. He took away
our barrenness in Adam and gave us fruitfulness in Christ. He
took away the curse of the law and replaced it with the blessings
of his grace. That's the effect of the work
of righteousness. Sixth, and this is what drew
me to all this chapter in the first place. The effect of righteousness
is peace and quiet. Verse 17, and the work of righteousness
shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. Now, because the sacrifice of
Christ removed the sin of his elect, He made them righteous
in Him. There's peace. There's peace
with God. Everything that made God angry
has been removed by the blood of Christ. Everything that separated
us from God has been removed in the sacrifice of Christ. So
there's peace. God's not angry anymore. There's
peace in the blood. And when the blood of Christ
is applied to a sinner's heart in the new birth, Brethren, there's
peace. You're not angry with God anymore,
either. The effect of the work of righteousness
is peace. And when sin is forgiven. And
we're made righteous in Christ. The effect of that work of righteousness. Is quietness. Quietness. How I long for quiet life. The effect of the work of righteousness
is a conscience that's quiet. Now the flesh, you're still lugging
that fellow around. He's going to bring every accusation
against you under the sun. Satan is going to keep accusing
you. He's called accuser of the brethren for a reason. He's going
to keep accusing you. The world is going to accuse
you. But the conscience of those who've been made righteous is
quiet. When is your conscience quiet?
When you're not guilty. If you've been made righteous
in Christ, you're not guilty. So your conscience is quiet.
You have a good conscience. The effect of righteousness is
quiet, quietness, because the noise of sin is taken away. When I talk about the noise of
sin, I mean the noise and the confusion of sin. The best illustration I can think
of is this. When I was a boy, I thought my mom was plum nuts. If traffic, we're in the car
and traffic got bad, you know what she'd do? She'd turn her
radio down. I was listening to that. She's
like, I can't concentrate on this while the radio's on. I
think that's crazy. You know what I do now with traffic
is turn the radio down. It's the noise of confusion. That's what's sin. brings to
the hearts of men and women the noise of confusion. But when sin is taken away, there's
quietness. Now, we still sin. The sin's
all we do. That doesn't change. But the
confusion of sin is taken away because we see Christ. When we're
looking at Christ, there's no confusion about anything. We're
looking at Him. The effect of righteousness is
quietness of rest. Everyone who's been made righteous
in Christ, just quit your worrying. Quit your worrying. What do you
got to worry about? If Christ took your sin away,
you've got nothing to worry about. You're righteous in him. Your
soul is at rest. There's no need to worry. Those
who've been made righteous in Christ, rest. from all their
works of religion. You quit trying to earn God's
favor by what you do and just rest in Christ because you already
know God's well pleased with him. You rest in him. The righteousness
of Christ answers every charge that God's justice can bring
against us. So there's peace and quiet, peace and quiet. And with that peace comes assurance. The effect of Christ's work of
righteousness is quiet assurance. If somebody's got to scream and
yell and jump up and down and thump their chest to make a big
commotion, will everybody know how much assurance they have?
They probably don't. The effect of the work of Christ's
righteousness is a quiet assurance. Now, we don't have any assurance
of anything we've done. We know all of our so-called works of
righteousness, they'll just damn us. but the perfect righteousness
of Christ gives complete assurance because of whose righteousness
it is. We have complete assurance because of who is our righteousness,
because of who our Savior is. The effect of Christ's work of
righteousness is peace, quiet, and assurance. And last, the
effect of righteousness is eternal security. Verse 18, and my people
shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in
quiet dwelling places. When it shall hail, coming down
on the forest and the city, shall be low in a low place. Christ
is our habitation. If we've been made righteous
in Him, He is our habitation. In Him we live and move and have
our being. And He is our sure hiding place,
our sure dwelling place. We dwell under the shadow of
His wings. And everyone that Christ died
for will dwell in him. Now, my friend, if you're in
Christ, you dwell in absolute security, eternal security that
can never be damaged. When that day of judgment comes,
when God's wrath against sin is sweeping through like that
hailstorm we studied about there in chapter 28, everyone in Christ
is going to be resting in eternal security. because Christ already
suffered for our sins. Christ already died for the sins
of His people, so God's wrath is not looking for you. If Christ
died for you, God's wrath is not looking for you. Christ already
satisfied the law's last demand, and you are eternally secure
in Him because Christ cannot fail. Now look over Romans chapter
5 in closing. We read this to open the service,
but I want to read Verse 21 again. Christ's work of righteousness
is perfect. It gives us, and because it's
perfect, it gives us eternal security. This is why Paul said,
verse 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now, sin reigns. Sin reigns in this flesh unto
death. Sin must bring forth death because
sin reigns over the flesh. I don't care what anybody does.
Nobody is ever going to find a way to keep this flesh alive
forever. I don't care how much money they
spend at it, how much brilliance men throw at it. They cannot
keep this flesh alive because sin reigns over this flesh. You can't defeat it. It reigns. Sin, when it's finished, brings
forth The flesh is always going to die because sin reigns. But there is one greater. In
Christ, grace reigns unto eternal life through righteousness. God's
grace reigns in righteousness and nobody can defeat that reign.
Nobody. No one who's been made righteous
in Christ can ever die. If Christ is your righteousness,
your life cannot be taken from you because grace reigns through
righteousness. Your life cannot be lost. The
effect of Christ's work of righteousness is eternal security. Thank God
for both his work of righteousness and the effect of righteousness
on his people. All right, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow before
you with hearts that are full of thanksgiving, full of awe,
full of wonder, but full of thanksgiving. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, our righteousness. How we thank you for him who
is our righteousness and that grace reigns through that righteousness
unto eternal life. How we thank you for the effect
of righteousness. How we thank you for the new
birth. Eyes that see, ears that hear, a heart that loves Christ,
that pants after Him. How we thank you that you've
completely removed the curse of sin in Adam. You're the only
one that ever could completely remove the curse. And how we
thank you for the peace and quietness and assurance that comes in Christ
our righteousness. Father, I thank you. And I pray
that you cause each soul here this evening to leave here tonight,
looking to, resting in, having faith in Christ our righteousness. It's in his precious name and
for the glory of his name we pray and give thanks.