If you turn in the scriptures
please to the passage we read from Isaiah in chapter 64, Isaiah
chapter 64. Read there from verse 1, Isaiah
64 verse 1. Oh that thou would rend the heavens,
that thou would come down, that the mountains might flow down
at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things
which we look not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down
at thy presence. For since the beginning of the
world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither
have the eyes seen, O God, beside thee, what he have prepared for
him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou art wrathful, we have sinned. In those is continuance,
and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean
thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that
calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.
For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because
of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are
the work of thy hand. Isaiah says, we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. Here Isaiah, with great emotion
flowing from his heart, calls out unto God that God would have
mercy, that he would rend the heavens, that he would come down
in power, that he would save. He's mindful of the state of
Zion. of the city of God, Jerusalem. He says later on, the holy cities
are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy
and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned
up with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou
refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace
and afflict us very sore? He's mindful too of the great
blessing in the gospel that God will bring. Since the beginning
of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
have the eyes seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waited for him. There's tremendous salvation,
tremendous riches and blessings that God will bring in for His
people. He will save them with an eternal
salvation. He will wash them from their
iniquities, He will cleanse them, He will make them in His Son
to be the righteousness of God. He will have them to dwell with
Him forevermore. And yet Isaiah knows just what
he and all men are by nature. He knows that we all are as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. We're dead, We're unclean, we're
unrighteous. And God's wrath is upon the wicked. He's mindful that if we are to
be saved, if we are to be delivered from this, it is entirely at
God's discretion. Now, O Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay, and thou our
potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. We're just the clay. God can take us up and make us
into a beautiful pot, or he can pick us up and smash us. We're
in his hands. We're nothing. We're of the earth,
earthy. And all men are but clay in the
hands of the potter. Clay. Made and created by God. Made in the beginning innocent. But as we've seen before, so
soon in the garden turning against our maker. rebelling against
him, seeking our own glory and our own ways and plunging ourselves
into sin and corruption and as a consequence we all are as an
unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Isaiah speaks to all aspects
of how we are here in verse 6. He speaks of what we are in ourselves,
our nature, we are unclean. Our hearts are unclean. It's
not just that we do unclean and wicked things, but we do wicked
things because we have a heart from which wicked things flow.
we are unclean we are sinful sin entered when adam rebelled
sin entered into his heart and defiled him and sin passed upon
all men and death by sin we are unclean as a consequence all
that we do is sinful. Every deed that flows from our
hearts is corrupted by sin. Whatever we say, do and think,
it is tainted by sin. Our deeds, our righteousnesses
even, are sinful. Isaiah speaks to what we are
and what we do. And not simply to the evil that
we do, not simply to that that we might describe as iniquitous. Not simply to those things which
we might own up to and say, yes, that was wrong of me. But those
things that we do that we call our good deeds, our righteousnesses. He says, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. and we all do fade as a leaf
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. He shows
us how bad our state is before a holy, a perfect, a majestic
God. How bad we are as a consequence
of the fall at the beginning. It's not just that we do sins. It's not just that we go our
own way. It's not just that we are impatient,
arrogant, selfish, angry, that we lose our temper with others,
that we say evil things, that we're mean and we're nasty at
times. But everything is sinful. Our good deeds, in God's eyes,
are corrupt. Corrupt. Is everything we do sinful? Is everything we do corrupt?
Is it really one of our best deeds? What of those things we
do to try to be kind to others? What of our religion? What of
our efforts to worship God, to pray? They are as filthy rags. Our best deeds are as filthy
rags. As I said, this came in at the
beginning. came in when Adam rebelled against his maker. He
was created in innocence. He had done no wrong. Yet when tempted by Satan, the
adversary, he could not stand the temptation. He did not have
that righteousness which Christ has, which could withstand. He was created innocent, yes,
but not perfect as God is perfect. In Genesis 1 we read that God
created man in his own image. In the image of God created he
him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them
and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. God made man in the beginning
and it's said he created him in his own image. Well if he
was created in God's image, was he not righteous as God is righteous? Well clearly the fall shows us
that he was not. God would not have fallen. Man
did. He's created in God's image in the
sense that he has a soul, a spirit, he thinks. He's not as the creatures. There
is life in him. And he was created in innocence.
There was no sin in him when God created him. But that innocence
could not stand the temptation that came his way, which took
him over and set him on a pathway of self-glory. In reality, Genesis
chapter one, and it's description of the creation of man there.
It's figurative of the second man, the last Adam. There are
actually two accounts of the creation recorded in Genesis.
We have the account in chapter 1 where it repetitively says,
and God did this and God saw and God said. And then as we
get to chapter 2 and verse 4, A second account begins where
it says, the Lord God. In the day that Lord God made
the earth and the heavens, for the Lord God had caused it not
to rain upon the earth, and the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in
Eden. The term for God changes from
one word in the Hebrew to another word. And there is a repeat as
it were. of some of the account of creation
in chapter 2, which then goes on to describe the fall. Chapter 1 makes no mention of
the fall or of the entrance of sin. And the reason for this
is that chapter 1 is not only a description of that actual
creation that God created at that time, but it is figurative
of his thoughts for eternity, of his thoughts in Christ, the
second man, the last Adam. He who would be without sin,
He who would be the Saviour of all His people, He in whom His
people would be the righteousness of God without blemish. But in
the second account of creation we read of the entrance of sin.
And our focus is taken away from the eternal thoughts and glory
and ultimate purpose of God, which would come in in eternity
when this world and time comes to a conclusion. And when the
people of God are separated from those who were sent forth to
destruction, the sheep from the goats, and when the eternal heavens,
the new heaven and the new earth are brought into being, that's
the eternal thoughts of God and the eternal purpose which is
prefigured in chapter one, where God speaks of creating man in
his image. Ultimately, he will be perfectly
in God's image in Christ. He will have the righteousness
of God in Christ. But in the second chapter and
third chapter of Genesis, we come back to the earth and the
historical reality of what happened with Adam, where in innocence,
he was able to be tempted by the tempter. And in this temptation,
he fell. And in falling, sin entered and
death by sin. And he became an unclean thing.
and even his righteousnesses were as filthy rags. Sin entered. That's where it
began. Sin entered and it entered us.
It entered Adam. It entered all humanity. It passed
by him, by natural generation, through the ages unto all men.
And that's how we're born, full of sin, unclean. All we do, think
and say is full of sin. even our good deeds, even those
things which we do which appear good to us and to others, even
our kindnesses to others, even our attempts to put the thoughts
and the thinking and the feeling of others before our thoughts,
even our religion, even our worship, our prayer, our Bible reading,
all these things are as filthy rags. What of them? What does God say of them? They
are as filthy rags. Not our evils, but our righteousnesses. How unaware we are of this in
reality. We can read it on the page of
scripture. We can hear it said to us many
times. We can hear this verse quoted
many times. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. But in our hearts we're so blind to it. We all accept that we're not
perfect. We all accept that we do wrong. But we do think there's good
in us. And we do think there are things
we do which are good, which are worthy of merit, with which God
and others ought to be pleased. We're so blind to how bad we
are by nature. Ignorant of what the true state
of man really is. We're blind. We like to think
of ourselves far better than we are. But the reality is, is
that man is totally depraved. Totally. It goes to the core
and it affects even our righteousnesses. Israel of old was blind to this.
Israel, despite all the blessing of God, and despite all God's
leading of them as a people, and all the things he had said
unto them, and all the great battles and victories he had
wrought for this people. Despite the priesthood and the
law and the oracles of God, the scriptures which he'd given to
them, they were blind to just how bad they were. As Paul says in Romans chapter
9, What shall we say then? The Gentiles which followed not
after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith. But Israel which followed after
the law of righteousness have not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore, why? Because they sought it not by
faith. But as it were by the works of
the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone, as it is
written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of
offence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Israel was ignorant
of God's righteousness. They went about trying to establish
their own righteousness. and they did not submit themselves
unto the righteousness of God. They never truly came into the
understanding that Isaiah presents before us here in chapter 64. that they're entirely in God's
hands and that they are entirely unclean and that even their righteousness
is those things that they sought to establish they went about
seeking to establish their own righteousness by God's law seeking
to live right as God had commanded them they would do these things
they would worship They would refrain from this. They would
not do that. They would keep the Sabbath.
They would not commit adultery. They would not covet. Oh, the
Lord God commanded these things. All that the Lord commanded,
we will do, they said. And they went about doing the
Lord's bidding. They were very religious, very
devout, full of zeal. They worshipped on the appointed
day at the appointed hour. They were full of prayer, full
of devotion. And yet in doing so, they sought
to establish their own righteousness. And they were blind to the fact,
as Isaiah told them, that our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. They're filthy rags. And you're
going about to establish your own righteousness before God
is an accruing of filthy rags. And you come before him with
your righteousnesses and your Lord Lords and you come to stand
before him saying, Lord, Lord, haven't I done this in thy name
and that in thy name? And he looks at what you've done
and it's putrefying, filthy, stinking rags that you hold out
as though they're full of glory. You lift them up, looking upon
them as though they're made of gold. and he just sees filth. They're an abhorrence. Oh, how blind we are by nature
to how things really are. We look on things and we see
one thing. God looks on them and sees an
entirely different thing. We look on our religion and see
something wonderful. God looks upon it and sees something
filthy and corrupt. We're blind. And it's this corruption of religion
and of our righteousness is which God most hates. It's this which
his wrath burns from heaven against. God hates the wicked. God hates
sin. and his wrath burns against all
unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. But it most burns against
those who hold the truth in unrighteousness, against those who come under
him, thinking well of themselves and how righteous they are and
how good they are, when inside they are unclean. and when to
him their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Is this which
his soul hates, the hypocrisy of man, the blindness of man
in seeking to worship God in his own strength, bringing his
own deeds and his own glory before God, that God should praise him?
Is the religion of Cain which God hates, not Abel? Cain brought
an offering unto God of his own making. He went into the fields
and he grew and he brought what he offered. Yet it was filthy
rags before God. Abel knew he had nothing to offer. And he knew that there must be
one who would die in his place to make him clean. Hence the
figure of the lamb slain. And in this, God is well pleased. We must come to the point of
knowing that we have nothing and we are nothing, but that
if we are to be made righteous, it will come through another,
not us. Not us and not our righteous
deeds. It's this which God most hates,
not the sin of blind based barbarians. but the sin of man in religion,
the self-righteous. This is why Christ in the gospel
said that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners unto
repentance. He came to his people. He came
to the Jews. He came to Jerusalem. He came
to the scribes and the Pharisees, the custodians of the religion
at that time. And it was they who rejected
him. they who cried out crucify him
crucify him ultimately it was the pharisees which burned with
hatred against this one that came undermining them against
this one that looked upon their righteousnesses and saw filthy
rags they hated him Oh, they were
so religious. They talked to the world and
everyone around about God and about leading them to God and
about salvation. And yet when salvation stood
before them, when the wisdom of God stood before them, when
the very Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ stood in their midst,
their hatred was so great they sought to stone him, they sought
to put him to death and ultimately they did. With wicked hands they
crucified the Prince of Glory. And so have they like ever since,
you and me included, in our wickedness, in our rebellion against Him
and in our seeking our own glory and our own ways. Our hearts
with wicked hands have taken the Lord Jesus Christ and have
slain Him. We've crucified the Prince of
Glory in our hearts. because we thought so well of
our righteousnesses which he says are filthy rags. And yet we are utterly unclean. We are like the woman who was
caught in the act of adultery and brought by the Pharisees
before Christ. making their accusation against
her. She had no plea. She was guilty. She was found guilty. And they
came thinking they were so good and she was so evil and shouldn't
he condemn her? Go on, Lord. We found a guilty
sinner for you. Condemn her. And yet his wrath was against
those who fought they saw when they were blind. His wrath was
against these religious who would judge others when in their hearts
they were dead. He said, which of you is without
sin? Lift up the first stone. And they all went out because
they knew that in their hearts they were not without sin. And he forgave her. Because he
looked upon her, not in the judgment of the self-righteous, but he
looked upon her in grace. He looked upon her in grace,
and that's how he looks upon all his people. He looks upon
them, he finds them wherever they are, he finds them as those
who are unclean. He finds them as those whose
righteousnesses are as filthy rags, but they haven't been brought
to see it. They haven't been broken by the
Spirit of God. They haven't been brought low,
fall down at his feet, guilty, helpless, without strength, and
they can do nothing else but cry out for his mercy. Lord,
forgive me. And in grace, in grace, in the
huge wondrous benevolence and love of grace, he looks upon
every guilty sinner that falls at his feet, convicted of sin,
crying out for mercy, and he turns none away. He turns none
away, he says, unto all that cry out for grace, cry out for
mercy, he says, thy faith have made thee whole. Neither do I
condemn thee. Go and sin no more. He looks
upon them in grace. Have you come there? Have you
come to stand before the Lord Jesus as that woman caught in
adultery? As one who is unclean? As one
who knows that even your righteousness is Our filthy rags, have you
come there without a plea? And cried out under him, Lord,
forgive me, wash me in thy blood, cleanse me, forgive me. Which are you like? Are you like
her? Or are you like one of them,
who when they find someone that's caught in sin, would judge and
condemn them? Whose deeds does God most hate?
Does he hate the adulterous woman? Or does he hate the deeds of
these self-righteous that sought salvation by their own strength
and their own glory? Don't fool yourself. Your good
deeds are of nothing worth. They're not simply not good enough,
but they are the worst of deeds. They are the most evil that you
can do before a holy God. Your righteousnesses are what
he hates the most. They're filled with pride, filled
with self-glory. They're contemptible. Nothing we do is good. Nothing. Not ultimately. On the outside, perhaps. Before
other men, perhaps. They appear good. But always
in the best of deeds, in the heart, what is the motive? Always
there is a self-righteous and self-glorifying motive. Always
in the best of deeds, there is that which accompanies it. The
pride which walks hand in hand with the kindness. The pride,
the glory. How good we have been. How well
we think of ourselves because of what good things we have done
today. How filthy it is, because how
hypocritical it is. How rotten is the carnal man
in religion. How he corrupts it, how he can
take even the very things of God and utterly corrupt it. that's what the jews did with
those things that god gave them he gave them the scriptures he
gave them the law he gave them the priesthood he instructed
them in these things and they took these things they took zion
they took jerusalem and they made zion into a wilderness and
jerusalem a desolation They took his beautiful house and burned
it with fire. They took his pleasant things
and laid them waste. They took these things and defiled
them. They corrupted them. Like the
money changers in the temple when Christ entered the temple
in Jerusalem and found money changers there. And all these
people in the temple supposedly doing religious wonderful things
in the very place where God was to be worshipped. They had utterly
corrupted it. They put their hands to the fingers
of God and blackened it. Man does the same today. He takes
the church, and the congregations, and the Bible, and the worship
of God. He takes the name of Jesus, and
he takes the gospel, and he corrupts the whole thing. And he delivers
it and sounds it out before all men as though he does a wonderful
thing. And God looks upon it and says, it's filthy rags. It's
filthy rags. Man comes along to the gospel
and picks it up and adds to it and subtracts from it with his
free will and his universal atonement, his universal charity. He's bringing
Almighty God down to man's level. He's bringing the world into
the worship of God. He's bringing in of worldly music
attitudes and conduct into the things of God. He's brought it down and he's
made the house of God into a den of thieves. the dumbing down of the gospel
which we see all around, the making it palatable to the modern
man, the using of easy street English, the attempts to take
everything offensive away and make everything so welcoming
and entertaining to the world to get the people in. The ripping
apart of the Bible and of the true translation of the Word
of God. The adding and subtracting from
it all. The entertainment and money-making
that's come into the things of religion. All the books, all
the products, all the things that they make. which supposedly
are for the worship of God, supposedly are to help Christians learn
and to worship, all the multitude of different translations of
the Bible, it's all for filthy lucre, it's all money making,
it's corrupt and it's all done as though it's righteous. What
corruption has come into the church is a professional college-trained
hierarchy of power which has taken over in such an extent
that no one can gain the ears of the people of God if they
are amongst these congregations. No one can gain their ears because
this professional hierarchy rules over it all and shuts in those
who have no sending of God and shuts out those who would preach
the truth. the methods and the systems taken
from business and marketing, the pragmatism, you name it,
it's there, it's throughout. It's happened throughout the
ages, it's happening today, and it will continue to happen. And
it's all done in the name of God, in the name of Christ, in
the name of Jesus, it's all done supposedly as being righteous. And it's all filthy rags. It has an appearance of godliness,
but it utterly denies the power thereof because it says that
unless we do these things, then there will be no progress. Unless
we take on these schemes, no one will come into our meetings.
Unless we change the gospel like this, then no one in this modern
world will hear it. Unless we reduce the preaching
and increase the amount of music, no one will be interested in
our meetings. It all says unless we do these things, nothing will
happen. That's a denial of the power
of God and a denial of the gospel. It says that the preaching of
the gospel will not save. The preaching of the gospel is
for a former age. It is not for today. The preaching
of the gospel will not build up the church. It's a denial,
an utter denial. And yet it's all claimed to be
righteous. What is your religion? when laid
against this, when compared with this. It's blind. Man does not need improving. He is not partially good. It
is not that he is sinful, but he can do righteous deeds. It's
not simply that God needs to cleanse the sins. and accept
the righteousnesses. But we are all filthy. Everything we do and say is filthy. We're corrupt, it's through and
through. And we need to be totally cleansed. We need another righteousness,
not ours, another. Oh, let us not like Israel be
ignorant of the righteousness of God. That's what we need,
the righteousness of God. Not ours, not our adding to his
righteousness, but entirely his. We've got none. We're destitute,
blind, dead and barren. We need the righteousness of
God. Well what is it? And where is it and how may we
attain to it? It's his wonderful perfection,
which we will only find in Christ and in his gospel, which we will
only have ears for. when God opens our ears and leads
us unto him. Only when we come in our experience
to know that we are an unclean thing, to know that we are dead,
to know that we are but clay in his hands, only when we're
brought to cry out for his mercy and grace will he make this known. But that's where we need to be.
Is that where you are? Have you heard his gospel? Have
you heard the voice of Christ? Have you beheld His glory and
His righteousness? Do you know something of the
power in that gospel? Because the power of that gospel
to save, the power of that gospel to transform you, the power of
that gospel to take you who are an unclean thing and to make
you righteous and clean, the power of that gospel to take
your filthy rags and throw them aside and clothe you in righteousness
is in the fact that in that gospel the righteousness of God is revealed
in Christ. in Him alone. We need Him. We need Him to clothe us in righteousness. We need Him to take all that
we are and blot it out. We need Him to take all that
we are and to judge it and slay it and destroy it. And that's
what He did at the cross. In righteousness He took His
people and He nailed them to the tree with Him and He slew
all that they are. He slew the old man Adam. He destroyed that heart of sin,
and He took all their iniquities upon Him. He bore them, and God
judged every last one of them. Even their filthy rags of self-righteousness,
He judged every last one of them, washed them away, washed them
away. His blood was shed as that which
flowed from His perfect heart. to wash away the sins that flowed
from our corrupt hearts. He has a heart to put in us where
our hearts were filthy. And He has blood to wash us where
our deeds which flowed from our hearts were filthy. He has a
sure and a certain and a full salvation. He brings righteousness
and righteousnesses aplenty. He clothes us with righteousness. And He puts righteousness in
the inward parts. The righteousness of God. in
Christ. Only in Him may we have this,
only through Him and only by Him. It has nothing to do with
self and everything to do with Christ. and His grace and His
eternal loving purpose to come into this world to save sinners,
to come to where they are, to come to save them, to come as
He, their Creator, in whose hands they are but clay, and to come
and to take that clay. which was so corrupt and so dead,
and to fashion it as a beautiful pot, a beautiful vessel, He comes
to save His own. Have you been brought to look
for His coming and His righteousness? Oh, His righteousness is one
without beginning and without end. He brings a righteousness
which is everlasting, eternal, It's eternal. It's the righteousness
of God. Of God. The very righteousness
that God himself, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit,
the righteousness of God in himself has had from everlasting to everlasting. That is what Christ clothes his
people with when he washes them in his blood. He makes them in
him to be the righteousness of God, as God is perfect, without
blemish. This is pictured by that garment
of Christ's. which the soldiers, when they
crucified him, took and divided between themselves. John 19 verse
23 records, Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,
took his garments and made four parts to every soldier a part,
and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam,
woven from the top throughout. Christ had a very unusual coat,
it did not have a seam. It was like a circle. It went
round and round and round. It was not like two pieces of
material sewed up at each side, but it was seamless. And this
was a picture of that which he clothes us in. His seamless eternal
righteousness. A righteousness which is like
a circle. It's eternal. It has no beginning
and no end. You can circuit around it and
you go round and round and round. There's no starting point and
no ending point. That's what he clothes his people
with. An eternal righteousness. everlasting
as Christ is everlasting as God is everlasting, not something
wrought in time, not simply that which Christ did in his lifetime
but that which he brought as he is as God, which he brought
for his people and which at the cross he made theirs. It was
wrought at the cross in the sense that he took that which is God's,
that which is eternal, and took them who were so corrupt and
brought them together. He brought the righteousness
of God, that eternal righteousness, to meet with the corruption and
evil in his people. and that righteousness in judgment
rained down upon their unrighteousness and judged it to the uttermost
and when it was judged and when it was destroyed and when it
was blotted out as it was compared with the righteousness of God
as it was judged according to that eternal standard when it
was destroyed and blotted out and washed away all that was
left in them was a righteousness identical to that righteousness
against which it was judged because all that was left in them was
the very righteousness of God in Christ with whom they were
made one. They were united with him and
in being united they had his righteousness. That's what is
ours in Christ if we are his. That's what he gives his people
and it is only theirs in him. It is as they are one with him.
They have a seamless righteousness. Do you know this? Do you know
in your experience the poverty of your heart and how corrupt
your deeds are? And do you know how wonderful
the righteousness of God in Christ is which he makes known in his
gospel? Oh, what he did to bring it to us. Oh, what he did. He died. He went through eternal
wrath. He waded through the judgment
of God, the fires of God's wrath to bring this to us. Oh, what
he did. And oh, how near this is to us. If we know it not, how near it
is. We don't need to go and perfect
ourselves. We don't need to live a life
of devotion. We don't need to climb up hundreds
of steps. We don't need to work and work. This righteousness is in the
gospel, as Paul says in Romans 10. It's not about descending
into heaven to bring Christ down. It's not about ascending into
heaven to bring Christ down. It's not about descending into
the deep to bring him back up again. It's about believing. What sayeth this word? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation for the scriptures say if whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved this righteousness is ours when
we believe There's nothing to be wrought, nothing to be done.
All our doing is filthy rags. But when God the Spirit quickens
us unto life by this gospel and causes us to look unto Christ
and call upon him and believe upon him, then this righteousness
is ours. You simply have to call. But
of course, you can't call by nature. and you won't call by
nature because by nature you're dead you're an unclean thing
and by nature you refuse and you shut your ears and in apathy
you go your own way you come to the meeting you shut your
ears you go out again and you're as dead after hearing this gospel
as you are before because you refuse to hear you shut your
ears you shut your ears you shut your ears you will not believe
because you're dead but there comes a time when the alarm has begun to sound
in the heart and when the spirit has begun to chip away at your
hard heart and soften it and break it and where you become
fearful of that which is to come, where you become fearful of the
judgment to come, when you begin to wonder what happens when your
life draws to a close and when you must stand before Almighty
God and you come to the point of knowing that you are unclean
and knowing that your righteousnesses are not good enough, and you
come to a point of fearing the wrath to come, and you come to
that point of beginning to cry out and to call and to call unto
God not to slay you, not to judge you, not to destroy you. You
know what you are, you know you deserve it, but Lord have mercy
upon me. You begin to desire Him, desire
Christ, to long to hear His word, to long to hear His voice, you
begin to see your need of Him and from there you call. Because God has put in your heart
the need to call. You didn't do it, He did it,
He brought you there. Well has He brought you there?
Has He brought you there today? Do you see your need of Christ
and the righteousness of God in Him? Have you called? Because with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Oh the power of
the gospel that brings the hard-hearted to this point. The power. Oh that the power of the gospel
might take you this day and bring you to this point. O that the
righteousness of God revealed therein might sound out in your
heart, and you might no longer be blind to it, be dead to it,
but long for it and hear it and cry out for it. O the power! May God in power. May God in
grace. bring you who are clothed in
filthy rags to throw them aside and to fall down at the foot
of Christ and to cry out for His grace. to cry out to be washed
in his blood. And may he in grace hear that
cry and that call. And may he in grace take your
rags and throw them aside and clothe you with that seamless
robe of righteousness, the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Amen.