Well we started looking at the
letter to the Philippians last week and focused on verse 6,
Paul's confidence in the fact that God had started a work of
salvation in the Philippian congregation, that he would continue it and
that he would finish it, he would perform it until the end. This is typical of the Bible,
but the Bible is God's declaration of his qualification of a multitude
of those who are his natural enemies, and that's all of us
by nature as we're born, his qualification of a multitude
of his natural enemies for citizenship of his eternal kingdom. And that
kingdom is a kingdom Unlike so many of the kingdoms of this
world, it's a kingdom of peace and of righteousness in His Son. And how does He do it? How does
He accomplish that qualification? By redeeming them from the curse
of sin, by redeeming them from the curse of the law, the law
which the breaking of it would separate us for eternity from
the living God who is our creator and sustainer. and he has redeemed
by the propitiation, Stephen was reading about it in the passage
just before, the propitiation made in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that in him is all the righteousness of his
people, is all of the forgiveness of the sins, is the removal of
everything that would separate a sinner from his holy God, that
the two might be reconciled, that the two might be brought
together, that the two might be made fitting for each other
for eternity. This is what God says again and
again. You read this book from cover to cover, you keep reading,
I will be their God and they shall be my people. And that
message comes across in history. in poetry, in prophecy, and in
the epistles in the New Testament. And it's written by diverse authors,
many different authors, and they didn't all collude together in
some conference and decide what to write. No, spread over literally
thousands of years, until about 1900 years ago, when it was completed. But Diverse authors, such a long
period of time, one consistent message of redemption from the
curse of the law in the blood of the Lamb, who is the Lord
Jesus Christ. This letter to the Philippians
was written by Paul, Saul of Tarsus made Paul, it was written
by him in about AD 59 or 60 from Rome. And it was written to this place
where he'd visited, the account of it is in Acts chapter 16. And in Acts chapter 16, he was
called across from Turkey into Greece. He tried to go on in
Turkey, but he was forbidden in Asia Minor, he was forbidden.
And the Holy Spirit gave him a vision of a man of Macedonia
saying, come over to us. So Paul went across into Greece. This is how the gospel spread
into the mainland of Europe. And there, as was his custom,
he found people who were seeking the truth of God. And they would
meet down by the riverside in Philippi. And one was a lady
called Lydia, who was a seller of purple precious cloth. So
she was clearly a woman of substance, a businesswoman of means. She
had a household, she had a significant house. It says there that as
Paul and Silas preached the Gospel, the Lord opened Lydia's heart,
that she might believe the truth. And a church was formed. It was
formed because the the rulers of Philippi got upset at the
preaching of Paul and Silas, that it was going to disturb
their business. So they put them in jail, and they beat them,
and they did terrible things to them. And in the night they
were in the stocks in the prison, and there was an earthquake.
And that jailer, the rough jailer, cried out, suddenly aware of
his immortal soul, suddenly aware of his state before eternity,
before the God of the universe, and he cried out, what must I
do to be saved? To which Paul and Silas responded,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And
not only you, Mr Jailer, anybody else in your house. And that
night, many of them were baptised, and a church was formed. And
it was a significant church because we can see in verse 1 of chapter
1 that there were the saints there. That doesn't mean especially
holy people. It means people made separate,
holy, made separate in that sense by God, by his spirit. There
were members, significant numbers of them, enough. for them to
be bishops and deacons, not bishops as in Church of England or Catholic
bishops, but elders, presbyters, those who had the oversight and
the teaching ministry of the church. Those were the people
that were there in this significant community, and Paul gives them
his greetings, and then he's confident because he's had such
warm fellowship with them, where he taught them the gospel, and
he continued to communicate with them, and then this letter is
a furtherance of that communication between Paul and this church,
and he says that he's confident that they're the people of God,
they're people that God has saved. He's confident of it, because
of that fellowship, that fellowship communicated shared doctrine
between them. Being confident of this very
thing, he says in verse 6, that he, God, which hath begun a good
work in you, the work of salvation. When did he begin it? Before
the beginning of time. When was it worked out? When they believed
the gospel. Foolishness of preaching. How
was it confirmed? The Holy Spirit gave life, gave
quickening to see and to believe the truth of it, and it will
go on until the day of Jesus Christ, when this world is brought
to an end. And he goes on, even as it is meet for me to think
this of you all, because I have you in my heart. You know, they
were close. They were close. You know, he's
writing a letter to people that he loves. If he met them, he'd
put his arms around them. They're close. In as much as
both in my bonds, he's in prison in Rome. He's under house arrest
in Rome in the last two years of his life. He'd appealed to
Caesar, so there he is, locked up in Rome. but allowed to have
visitors, and allowed to minister, and allowed to write many of
the epistles of the New Testament. He's in his bonds, and in his
defense and confirmation of the Gospel, because that's what he's
doing. He's appealed to Caesar, and he's being tried, and he
meets people, and he's constantly in confirmation and defense of
the Gospel. But he says, I count you Philippians,
although I don't see you face to face every day, I count you
all as partakers with me in what he's doing. For God is my record,
he says. How greatly I love, you know,
God who sees everything. You know, I'm confident enough
to say this, I have you in my heart. I long after you all in
the bowels of Jesus Christ. God is my record that that's
the truth. So there it is, very, very strong fellowship between
them. And so, He prays to God, who he is prayer. And that's in verses 9 to 11,
and that's what I want to focus on this morning. This I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, and that you may approve things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. It's to the God
who hears prayer, who is sovereign over all, that he prays, whose
purposes are certain. God who will be prayed to. God says elsewhere in the Scriptures,
He said, I will be inquired of by my people. I will have my
people pray to me. Why will you have your people
pray to you, you might ask the Lord. And He tells us, so that
I will do it for them. I will have them pray to me because
I intend to do it for them. God put it in David's heart to
pray. God put it there to pray. You
know, it didn't come from the from the honest motives of a
sinner, no, it came from God putting it in his heart to pray. For them, at that time, this
applied, but it applies to us equally today. Anyone who believes
the Gospel, that first of all, let's break this down, that your
love may abound. This is what Paul prays for these
that he has so much close fellowship with, that their love may abound. You know, love, the true love,
The love of God for His people and of His people for their God
is the first fruit of the Spirit. When you read the list of the
fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, the first one is love, love. Saints have this love. Saints
set-apart ones, ones who've been set apart by the Spirit of God
to believe the truth of the Gospel. It's proof of the spiritual birth
within. We read it in 1 John chapter
4. It's proof of that spiritual birth within. Love to God and
Christ is proof of the spiritual birth. Proof of a new man inside
shows itself in love to our brethren, love to one another. In 1 John
chapter 5 and verse 1, which is one verse on from the passage
Stephen read earlier, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth
him also that is begotten of him." Everyone that loves God,
who does the begetting in terms of salvation, also loves those
who are also likewise saved, likewise become the children
of God in Christ. Believers ought to evidence this
love of God and one another. Love of God and love of one another. The two go together. Look again
in 1st John and chapter 3. Let me show you a few verses
here. In 1st John chapter 3 and beginning at verse 11. For this
is the message that ye heard from the beginning. What message?
That ye should love one another. Verse 23. And this is the commandment,
his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. Chapter
four and verse seven, beloved, let us love one another, for
love is of God, and everyone that knoweth is born of God,
sorry, everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Verse 11 of chapter four, beloved, If God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another. Verse 19 of chapter 4, we love
him, we love God, why do we, why does a sinner love God? Answer
is just this, because he, God, first loved us. But it isn't
in a vacuum. This is not in a vacuum. It abounds. Let's go back to verses in 9
to 11. That your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. It abounds in
knowledge and in judgment. In knowledge, because you can't
love what or who you do not know. You know the novels of Jane Austen,
and it's nearly always romantic novels about some girl who's
longing to be married to some kind-hearted aristocrat, but
there are a lot of not very kind-hearted aristocrats, and she has to get
to know them first. And at first she thinks Mr. Darcy
is a dreadful man, until she gets to know him, and then she
falls in love with him, and they're married. You know, this is the
story. The point I'm making and trying to illustrate is, you
cannot truly love what you don't know. So it's in knowledge that
your love may abound, yet more and more in knowledge. Knowledge
of what? Knowledge of God. of his truth, of his doctrine,
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What sort of knowledge? Head
or heart? Yes, you can fill your head with
doctrine. You can pass exams on the scriptures. You can know texts in your head. but there be enmity in your heart."
No, it must be true love, the true love of God for His people. The great chapter in 1 Corinthians,
chapter 13, I can do all wonderful things in the name of religion,
but says Paul again and again, if I have not love, if I have
not the true love of God, I'm no more than a sounding cymbal. It makes an awful lot of noise,
but it soon fades away and he's gone, and it does nothing of
any use. No, that's what we're like if we do not have the love
of God in our hearts, love for God, and love for our fellow
brethren. It's, we might as well be nothing,
says Paul in that 1 Corinthians 13. But to know God is to love
him. in knowledge. The more knowledge,
the more love there is. It's heart knowledge, not just
head knowledge. And it comes by Holy Spirit revelation. You know, the natural man does
not like the idea of the revelation of the things of God to the human
heart. It's not out of anything in which
we can boast. It's not because of any better
situation than anybody else, not in the slightest. It's all,
as the Scriptures repeatedly tell us, it's the grace of God. It's because God is gracious.
It's because He is a God of love. We read it again and again, God
is love, God is love, in that one John chapter four. Coldness
in heart evidences lack of knowledge of God. True life is that new
man of the Spirit of God within that leads to the love of God,
and it's based on knowing Him. Jesus said this in His high priestly
prayer in John 17 and verse 3, this is life eternal. What is? What is? Don't we want that?
Life eternal? This is life eternal. What? That they might know Thee, that
they might know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent. This is life eternal. Knowing
Him, and in knowing Him, growing in knowledge, we might love him
more and more. We could look in Ephesians chapter
3, let's look there now at verses 18 and 19. Here we have another
prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3 and verse 18, that you may be able,
well we'll start in verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. that ye being rooted and grounded
in love, you know, that's knowledge, that's knowledge of doctrinal
truth, that being rooted and grounded in love you may be able
to comprehend, or you may be able to apprehend, you may be
able to grasp, get hold of, with all saints, what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God." You know, it's as he says, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They have a feeling of emptiness
caused by a lack of righteousness, and yet he says, and they shall
be filled Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
they shall be filled. And they constantly hunger and
they're constantly being filled. This is the experience in this
life in the flesh. In Jeremiah 31 and verse 34,
we read this, They shall teach no more every man his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall
all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them."
We don't need a priest dressed up in robes to approach the living
God, to know the living God, to get to the living God. No.
All who have the Spirit of God within by the regeneration of
the Holy Spirit, all of them shall know the Lord, he says,
from the least of them to the greatest, for I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. All of them,
exactly on the same level, sinners saved by grace, all God's people
shall know him. And Paul prays that you might
abound in knowledge, because it's that knowledge, that true
knowledge, not for the sake of just head knowledge, but heart
knowledge that leads to the love of God, deepening love for God. Paul prays for himself in this
same epistle in verse 10, chapter 3 verse 10. And he prays this, this is his
desire, that I may know him, that I may know God. Do you know
God? I want to know God, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection. Because it's that power of the
resurrection that will cause us to rise to eternal life in
eternal glory. And the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death, all achieved by what Christ
has accomplished. If we know that, nothing else
in a sense matters. That's the foundational thing. And he says that you may abound
more in knowledge and in all judgment, in judgment, in discernment. Many true Christians, I'm sure,
have poor discernment, poor judgment. They can't discern truth from
error. They are, as another bit of Scripture
says, tossed around by every wind of false teaching. You know,
if you go for a walk on a windy day here where we live now, if
you go down on the clifftop ten minutes down the road, The wind
just, it's lazy, it goes straight through you on a winter's day,
it doesn't swirl, it just blows consistently. But round here,
where there are houses and hedges, it swirls like mad all over the
place. And you will find a leaf picked
up, and it's tossed about by every wind of doctrine, this
is the idea. It doesn't know which way to
go, it's going one way, one way, and there are some who are true
Christians, I'm sure, and sincere, who have poor discernment, poor
judgment, They're tossed around by every wind of false teaching.
In the margin, it says, sense, you know, if you have a Bible
with a margin, then it's a good thing to do, judgment or sense.
that they may abound more in all sense, sense or experience,
feelings, meaning, this is what it means, to possess a sweet
perception in the soul of the truth and love of God. That's
what he's talking about, that you might abound, that you might
grow in this knowledge of God. Romans 5, 4 and 5 talks about
patience and experience and hope being the believer's sense of
relationship with God, and the love of God being shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. These are
real spiritual senses. You know, we have touch and sense
and smell and hearing, but there are real spiritual senses. The
spiritual sense of faith, which is the sight of the soul. That
experience of the true love of God in the heart, as I was saying,
1 Corinthians chapter 13. Heartwarming knowledge. Taste
and see the goodness of God. And handling this knowledge,
handling it, as 1 John chapter 1 and verse 1 says. Here, and
you've heard, he says, let me turn to it and read it clearly. 1 John chapter 1. And verse one,
that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which, he's
talking about Christ, Jesus, the Lord, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled of the word of life. Right, there's Christ, the word
of life, but there's his written word as well, which we've handled,
that word of life. So, abounding in love, which
is based on truth, which grows with knowledge and experience,
real life in the soul, do you believe God's gospel of salvation
from sin and eternal life, if you are His? you will have love
for God and for the brethren. Then secondly, look, verse 10
of Philippians chapter one, that ye may approve things that are
excellent, or if you again look at the margin, that are different,
that are different, that ye may be sincere and without offense
till the day of Christ, things that differ, discernment of the
things of God from those of man. In Jeremiah chapter 15, and verse
19 we read this, Jeremiah 15 and 19. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord, if thou return, then will I bring thee again, and
thou shalt stand before me. And if thou take forth the precious
from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth, my mouthpiece, Let
them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. It's talking
about a separation from the thinking of the world, from the philosophy
of the world, from the religion of the world, from false religion,
to the truth, the precious truth of God, as it's declared in this
book. And let us be like the noble
Bereans. You know, that's what they, on
Paul's missionary journeys through Acts, he was treated terribly
in various places. Put in the prison, he was beaten
and whipped, and dreadful things were done to him. But the Bereans,
It says they were noble, the more noble Bereans, because why?
What did the Bereans do that the rest didn't? The Bereans
heard what Paul and Silas and Barnabas preached, and what did
they do? They searched the Scriptures
daily to see whether what Paul was telling them accorded with
what the Scriptures told them. They searched the Scriptures.
That's what we should be like. discerning the precious of God
from the vile of this world, from the common, the vile of
this world. You know, the doctrine of Tulip is the precious, it's
truly precious. Tulip is the doctrine of scripture,
of salvation. It's called the Five Points of
Calvinism, but I don't like that label particularly. It's the
truth of God. Total depravity, that's what
we are. Totally depraved by nature. Unconditional election, based
on no goodness in us whatsoever. Limited atonement that Christ
didn't die for the whole world, with that exception, but for
the people he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Entirely consistent with this. Irresistible grace that
the Holy Spirit will come. and make everyone to see the
truth of it, and p. Perseverance of the saints, he
which begun a good work will continue it until the end. This
is excellent, this is precious doctrine from the pernicious
error that is around in various sorts of religion. It's dressed
in the clothes of truth but it's wolves in sheep's clothing as
far as true doctrine is concerned. This is the excellent that he's
talking about, that you may approve things that are excellent. It's
those things that are so contrary to the world's thinking. As time
goes on in this world and in my life experience, this is becoming
more and more stark now. When I see the things in the
mainstream media news and the reports and all the rest of it,
It is just so contrary to the truth of God. The world, this
world, despises the things of God. It looks with a fleshly
eye, a carnal eye. But the saints of God who believe
him, how do we know that you're a saint of God? Paul tells the
Thessalonians, by sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Believing the truth. They have spiritual eyes, and
they approve excellent things. And they try and test the doctrines
that they are presented with against the Word of God, like
the noble Bereans. They test the preaching that
they hear against God's Word. They don't just say, yeah, but
you say that, and this other one says this, and so on. Test
it against the Word of God. Don Faulkner always used to say,
you read a scripture and nearly always what you originally, initially
think it means is what it means. It doesn't need complex theology
to turn it round into the philosophy of man. It doesn't need that
that turns it from the precious of God into the vile of man,
as we read in Jeremiah. No. We're encouraged in the scripture,
if you believe the gospel of grace, Paul writes to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians 14 verse 20, brethren, he says, be not children in understanding,
how be it in malice be ye children, you know, be immature, in malice
be immature, but in understanding be men, be mature, in understanding
be men. Then let's look at the next one.
that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Sincere and
without offence. Sincerity, you know, honesty
of heart, honesty of intention, Sincerity of motive is foundational
to true religion, to the true Christian gospel. The psalmist
asks this question, Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. The psalmist
cries out, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, test me, and know my
thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead
me in the way everlasting. Of course, as all of the Psalms,
that is the prayer of Christ the man. the God-man, but Christ
the man, that he might be the one without sin for his people.
But nevertheless, as with all the Psalms, you know, the application
is as well to his people. It's to his people. Search me,
O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
Am I sincere, or am I a hypocrite? Am I a play actor? Am I trying
to fool people with this sham parade? No, see if there be any
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting, not in
hypocritical play-acting, but sincere and honest in profession,
without offence, not causing offence, because you know, offence
in the eyes of scripture is to put a stumbling block, something
that will be tripped over by people coming by. In Leviticus
19 and verse 14, God says this to his people through Moses.
He says, thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling
block before the blind. Why? Because the blind man will
trip over it. But thou shalt fear thy God. In Matthew 18 and
verse 7, woe to the world because of offences. It must be that
offences will come, but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh. Don't put a stumbling block.
Christian, Don't put a stumbling block of inconsistent behaviour
in the way of people round about, so that they stumble at God's
truth and say, you expect me to believe this truth of God
and the gospel of grace, you expect me to seek this God, well
look at the way that you live. Look at the inconsistent behavior.
You talk about love in your heart, and yet you portray all of these
other negative characteristics. That's a stumbling block. Don't
put it in the way of other people. We're sinners in the flesh, and
that will be the case until we depart these bodies of flesh.
There's constant tension. As Paul writes to the Galatians
in Galatians chapter 5, the spirit and the flesh, they contrast
one another. As in Song of Solomon chapter
6 and verse 13, it says that, what is the Shulamite? As a camp
of two armies. one against the other, the flesh
and the spirit. But here is a prayer that we might avoid causing stumbling
blocks, because it's something that we're so prone to do. You
know we're told to be circumspect. You know that means not wandering
along blithely and about to fall off a cliff or fall down a hole,
but looking around. circumspect, that we might avoid
in our behavior and our attitudes and our speech, I speak to myself,
believe me, honestly, that we might be those who are consistent
with the gospel of grace, that we put not a stumbling block
in the way of another. And then, finally, verse 11,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. The fruits
of righteousness. That's what I've called this
message, the fruits of righteousness. It's the autumn season in this
country, in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the autumn season. The season,
as the poet said, of mists and mellow fruitfulness. And Paul
prays for a harvest of the Spirit's fruit. What's he talking about?
Harvest of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within
the believer is the life of God in the soul. And there's the
sap of that union with Christ. Jesus said in John's Gospel,
He said, I am the vine, the grape, and you are the branches. The
branches will not produce fruit, which is the objective of having
the vine, unless there is sap going up, and that comes from
the root. I am the vine, I am the rootstock,
you are the branches. Abide in me and I in you. This
is the life of God in the soul, and the sap of union with Christ
produces fruit. Let me remind you, what is the
fruit it produces? Galatians chapter 5 and verse
22. But the fruit of the Spirit,
you see he's talked about the works of the flesh, the things
that the flesh will do left to itself, envying's, well, idolatry,
witchcraft, adultery, fornication, the list is there in verses 19
to 21. But, verse 22, the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. There are fruits that are inward,
faith, hope and love, peace, humility, meekness, temperance
and patience. And these express themselves
externally, in self-denial, in love expressed in acts of charity. You know? Giving, what costs
us. Do you remember last week I mentioned
about David saying, somebody offered to give him animals that
he could sacrifice to God. He'd given them for free. And
David said, I can't accept it, I'm sorry. I cannot sacrifice
to God anything which costs me nothing. So this is what the
fruit of the Spirit is. Acts of charity. Acts which cost
me something, and I get nothing back from it other than the fact
that it displays the fruit of God's Spirit. Living to honour
God's name. Don't we want to do that? If
you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're glad of the
salvation that He's accomplished in saving your soul from eternal
condemnation, do we not want to live to the honour of God's
name? Fruit that results from righteousness. It's fruits of righteousness.
Ah, well you better keep the law of Moses to make yourself
more righteous and then you'll bear more fruit. No, where does
that righteousness come from? Where does that righteousness
come from? Don't you remember the gospel? This book declares
the gospel. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and
verse 21. For he made him who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the sinless Lamb of God, the perfect Passover Lamb. He made
Him who knew no sin. He made Him to be sin for us. He who was sinless never committed
a sin, yet was made sin. How did it happen? What's the
mechanism? I haven't got the faintest idea, but I believe
what God's Word says, that all the sins of all His people were
loaded onto Christ at Calvary. He sweat as it were drops of
blood, great drops of blood, that anguish that this cup might
pass from me, but nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
And he drank it down to the dregs. He drank the full cup of the
wrath of God against sin. The character, the nature, the
person of God demands that sin be punished. and he punished
it in the Lord Jesus Christ for all that believe on him, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's this great
transaction, the sin of his people exchanged for the righteousness
of God. Where does that righteousness
come which produces the fruits of righteousness? It's the righteousness
of God. that is imputed and imparted
to his people by the work of Christ at the cross. What is
it that proves a tree to be an apple tree? Oh, this apple tree,
you know, I'm getting really annoyed with this apple tree.
I've had it in the ground years and years and years and I haven't
had one apple from it. Maybe it's not an apple tree. That's
what proves an apple tree to be an apple tree, is that it
bears apples. Peter sent me a picture yesterday, he's got a new grapevine,
and even in its first year, there's tiny little grapes on it. Ah,
proves that they didn't sell him anything duff, it's a proper
grapevine, isn't it? Herein is my Father glorified,
said Jesus, that ye bear much fruit. Only true faith produces
what God will judge as the fruit of righteousness. Only true faith
produces that. And it's not An aspect of boasting,
you know, oh, look at how righteous I've been. You know, like the
Pharisee before the temple, well, I thank you, God, that I'm not
like other men. I do this and I do that, and I bear all these.
No, no, that was just fleshly boasting, no. When Jesus said,
when it comes to that day, and he says to his people, when I
was hungry, you fed me. And when I was in prison, you
visited me. And they say to him, When did we do that? We've got
no recollection of doing that. He said, whenever you did it,
sort of almost unconsciously, to the very least of my brethren,
when you did it to them, when you gave just a cup of cold water,
This is it, this is the fruit of God's righteousness. Oh, we
remain sinners in the flesh. Read Romans 7, Paul says, I would
do that which is right and I always end up doing that which is wrong,
and I would avoid that which is wrong and I always end up
doing it. You know, that's the Romans 7 experience of the true
believer, but True believers are not antinomians. We're not
against the law and justice and righteousness of God. We're not. Acceptance with God is in Christ
alone, with no contribution from us whatsoever. But our Gospel
God's gospel does not lead people to lawless living. We don't,
as Paul asks in Romans chapter 3, we don't make the law of God,
the justice, the righteousness of God. We don't make that standard
void through faith, rather we establish the law. It's in Christ,
looking to Christ, believing in Him, that we fulfill the requirements
of God's justice and righteousness by faith in Christ. And what
has achieved it is the faith of Christ, who came and accomplished
that which was necessary to redeem from the curse of the law. Fruit
is, verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are the fruits, plural, are by Jesus Christ. What for? Unto the glory and praise of
God. Do you profess faith? Do you
anticipate heaven? I think we do. What should I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, on that TV program,
I've mentioned it before, the Antiques Roadshow, and one of
its spinoffs, there's a thing called fake or fortune. So they
get something that purports to be a valuable antique. And the
question is, let's examine it. Now, at first look, The average
person would say, oh yes, that's an antique and it must be worth
thousands, but they get experts in and they delve into its history
and the records about it. And they try to determine by
the end of the program, is this thing real? Is it a fortune or
is it fake? Is it fake? God's word clearly
declares the way of salvation from sin and hell in Christ. But the mark of authenticity
of it It's the Spirit's fruit. Read the articles I've put in
the bulletin, one by Don Fortner about this, from James. Is your
faith real? Is your faith real? It's a fair
question. Beware of judging others. Oh yes, beware. Judge not that
you be not judged, but examine yourself, whether you be in the
faith. Is there any resonance in your soul with these glorious
things? Because they are, they're the
things of the gospel of God. If you are God's child, there
will be. So let us, together, as believers,
like Paul, pray for one another, and encourage one another, that
this fruit of gospel righteousness might be in us, that it might
grow, and it might abound.