Solomon, whom the book calls
the wise man, who wrote the book of wisdom, speaks of this life,
not part of it, but all of it, as vanity. This vanity. This vanity. meaningless vanity God teach me to understand that
and to live for eternity oh eternity we can't even begin to think
of entering into eternity But we live in eternity. We exist here on this earth for
a very short space of time in this vanity. But we have within
us, created by God, immortal souls that live in eternity. Eternity. Should you take one bird who takes one grain
of sand off of this earth at a time until it's taken everything,
eternity has just commenced. This is vanity. Do you understand that? This
is vanity. How will it be for you for eternity? Eternity. That which God requires, if you
would live in the bliss of heaven's glory in eternity, is righteousness. God requires that you and I be
righteous. Turn to John 16 and verse 10. I want to talk to you, if God
will enable me, about righteousness. And I want to speak to you about
righteousness in such plain terms that you can't possibly misunderstand
what this book teaches. The title of my message this
morning is The Conviction of Righteousness. We're told in
John 16 verse 10, when the spirit of God comes in saving power
to a chosen redeemed sinner, he convinces that sinner of righteousness,
of righteousness Because I go to my father and you see me no
more. Do you know anything at all about
that? About righteousness? About what
righteousness is? In his mighty saving operations
of grace, God the Holy Spirit convinces sinners of righteousness. The basis of that conviction
is the fact that Jesus Christ has gone back to his father,
he's ascended back to heaven, and you see him on the earth
no more. He convinces men of righteousness
by showing what Christ has done as God's righteous servant. God
demands righteousness. Righteousness you can't produce. Righteousness I can't perform. Righteousness that only God himself
can give and God himself can accomplish. Blessed be God. He who is God, our Savior, wears
this name, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. The Lord, our righteousness. We have no righteousness at all,
except that which is ours in Jesus Christ, Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness. He who is our Redeemer is our
righteousness before God. I want you to hear that over
and over again, and I pray that God, the Holy Spirit, will enable
you before you leave here today to lift your heart to heaven,
look upon Jesus Christ, the Lord, with confident faith, and call
him Jehovah Sikkimu, the Lord, my righteousness. Righteousness, that's what God
requires. Let me show you. Turn back to
Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter 5, verse 48. This is right in the middle of
our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. In this fifth chapter of Matthew,
as our Lord teaches us concerning righteousness, he makes it plain
that by righteousness that God requires. He's not talking about
sincerity. He's not talking about sincere
efforts at doing good. He's not talking about a person
being genuinely concerned. He's talking about something
altogether beyond the reach of human performance. Matthew 5
verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect. Perfect. Perfect? Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. How good do you have
to be to go to heaven? The answer is given as plainly
as it could possibly be given. Perfect. Perfect. Be ye therefore perfect, Even
as your father, which is in heaven, is perfect. If you haven't read
it yet, I urge you to read the article in the back of today's
bulletin. It shall be perfect to be accepted. This requirement
of perfection, perfect holiness is given by God repeatedly through
the scriptures. You turn, if you will, to first
Peter. Let's just listen to these. Just listen to these while you
turn it. The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all
the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them,
Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Be ye
holy, for I am the Lord your God. Look here at 1 Peter 1,
verse 15. 1 Peter 1, verse 15. As he which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy. Now look at it. in all manner
of conversation. Larry Brown, that's be holy. God's called you. Now you be
holy in everything you do. In the totality of your life.
In all manner of conversation. That's not just talking about
your speech. That's talking about the totality of your life. Be
ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye
holy, for I am holy. Follow peace with all being and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. We read earlier
in Revelation 20 and 21. If you want to read it again,
you can turn over to chapter 22 and read there. Nothing shall enter
into heaven that is an abomination or makes a lie or is deceitful. but only that which is pure and
holy. He that is holy, let him be holy
still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. Nothing's going to change when
you leave this world about whether you're righteous or unrighteous,
holy or unholy. And however you leave here, that's
how you shall be for all eternity, either in heaven's glory or in
hell's torment. One of the two. All who are holy
will enter into the holy heaven. All who are abominable shall
enter into the abominations of the pit of the damned, and there's
no in between. This is God's word to you and
me. Ye shall be holy, for I, the
Lord your God, am holy. Because our God is holy, he requires
that we be holy. All right, look back just halfway
up the page here, Matthew 5, verse 20. Matthew 5, 20. I think I quoted this to you
last week before last. Our Lord says, I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Except your righteousness. exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Now, the Jews
had a saying about the scribes and Pharisees. The Jews said,
if but two of all the world were to go to heaven, the one would
be a scribe, the other a Pharisee. It's just two. And all the world
went to heaven. One would be a scribe, the other
a Pharisee. Because the scribes and Pharisees
were the good people who walked on earth. They were the good
folks who walked on earth. I mean good in the eyes of men,
so good that men expected them to go to heaven. In works of
piety, They made long public prayers on the street corners
so that all could see and hear as they prayed. And works of
charity, they gave alms, they blowed the trumpet, and they'd
say, look here what I'm doing, and they'd lead the way. 10% of everything we do goes to charity. I listened to that O'Reilly fella
on television. I wish you'd hear this. I'd like
for him to get stung a little bit. I listened to him just because
I want to know a little bit about what's going on around me. And
he's all the time advertising his stuff. Don't ever buy any
of it for me. I don't wear that junk. But everything we make
goes to charity. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? Well, don't you think fellas
ought to do good? Yeah. Just don't tell me about it. Folks get more to give. I've
seen preachers receive an offering, take an offering, a better word,
preach in a wallet, pop it out, lay their gift in a plate. So
you can see, I'm showing you what to do. Pharisees, they gave
alms and they blew the trumpet loud and everybody knew they
gave alms in works of equity. They paid their tithes. They
didn't pay it on the net. They paid it on the gross, 10%
of everything, even their chickens. In works of courtesy, in hospitality,
the Pharisees would not be outdone by anyone. They made great feasts
and even invited the Lord Jesus and his disciples to sit at their
table. They did it often. And our Lord
says, accept your righteousness. It's better than that. You've got to be better than
that. Better than that. Our Savior clearly teaches us
something here. There is no admission to heaven
without righteousness, a legal pharisaic righteousness, a righteousness
that impresses men, a righteousness that you look at and say, wow,
look what I've done good. A righteousness that someone
else looks at and says, would you see how good they've done?
There's no righteousness at all. The only hope anyone has of being
saved is through the righteousness of a divinely appointed substitute,
a representative, a mediator. And that substitute, that representative,
that mediator is God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The only
way a guilty sinner can be saved. The only way a guilty sinner
can obtain righteousness. The only way you can live for
eternity with God, the righteous one, is for you to have Jesus
Christ, who alone is righteous. For you to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, to believe on the Son of God, And I want to make five
or six statements with regard to righteousness. And I want
to be clear. God, help me. God, help me to
speak plainly and clearly to your souls. First, understand
this. I've already said it. Let me
say it again. God requires righteousness. Perfect righteousness. Absolute
righteousness. He won't accept anything else.
Righteousness is demanded by Him because He's righteous. Holiness
is demanded by Him because He's holy. The prophet Habakkuk said,
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. God won't look
at sin. God won't tolerate iniquity.
God demands holiness. It shall be perfect to be accepted. I am the almighty God. Walk before
me and be thou perfect, he says. Be ye holy for I am holy. Now let me talk to you about
the kind of holiness I'm talking about. People like to think there's
all kinds of different kinds of holiness and that you can
have a partial holiness and a perfect holiness. You can have a righteousness
that your personal works of righteousness and a righteousness that God
gives. You can't have both. You can't have both. You either
have perfect righteousness or no righteousness. Perfect holiness
or no holiness. Perfect sanctification or no
sanctification. God demands Character holiness. Character holiness. We're required
to be holy on the inside. On the inside. The Lord looketh
on the heart. He didn't pay any attention to
what you say. He didn't pay any attention to what you do. He
doesn't pay any attention to the things that impress me. He
doesn't pay any attention to the things that impress you.
The Lord looketh on the heart. God requires that you be holy
on the inside. On the inside. Not only that,
God demands conduct holiness. We've got to be holy on the outside
as well. He says, walk before me and be ye holy. Be ye holy
in all manner of conversation. So that not only are we holy
within, but holy in our walks of obedience, in our walk of
obedience, in our works of obedience as well. He demands not only
that we have a holy nature, but that we have a holy behavior. And he demands complete holiness. The soul that senteth It shall
die. God demands that Bob Duff be
holy on the inside. He demands that from your first
breath to your last, you do nothing except what's holy. And he demands
that holiness be complete. If there's any spot of sin, you're
going to hell. Is that plain enough? Is that
what we've read in the book? Is that what God requires? God
demands holiness, but we can't produce it. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. The whole purpose of the law
is not that we might walk by obedience to the law and establish
holiness, but the law was given to show us that we cannot perform
holiness. The law is given to show us that
we cannot do that which is right before God. The law is given
to show us that we must have Jesus Christ as our representative
and our mediator. A man's definition of righteousness
depends entirely on his understanding of God. The problem is man doesn't
know who God is. This religious generation in
which we live, like all religious generations that have gone before,
has no knowledge of God. Doesn't understand God, doesn't
know who God is, and therefore cannot know what righteousness
and holiness is. Because they've never seen the
Lord. They've never seen God in His holiness. Isaiah did. Isaiah did. Let's see what Isaiah said. Isaiah
chapter 6. When he saw the Lord in his holiness, Isaiah chapter
six. In the year that King Uzziah
died, Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord sitting upon his throne
high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Where did
Isaiah see him? Sitting on his throne. But what
is that throne? Where was it? The only place
in all the world where God said, I'll meet you. He said, I'll
meet you on the mercy seat between the cherubim. The mercy seat
where atonement is made, the mercy seat where justice is satisfied,
the mercy seat where the law of God that we have broken is
covered, the mercy seat. God said, I'll meet you there.
Isaiah said, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. and lifted up. He's seated on the mercy seat,
the throne of grace. Above it stood the seraphims. Seraphims. Had a young boy just
this week asked me what those seraphims were. This is not just
a higher order of angelic beings, though I certainly have no question
there are angelic creatures, no question about that. These
seraphims, these symbolic seraphims made as they were called cherubs
most of the time in the Old Testament, as they're spoken of in connection
with the mercy seat. These symbolic pictures represent
God's servants, gospel preachers. Those four living creatures in
Revelation are the very same thing that Isaiah sees here.
Each one had wings, six wings. With two, he covered his face.
With two, he covered his feet. With two, he did fly. And one
cried to the other. Here are these seraphim. Try to picture the seraphim looking
toward the mercy seat. Over here is another one on the
other end, looking toward the mercy seat. And as they look,
on the mercy seat, looking on Christ, the Redeemer, whose blood
has brought in everlasting righteousness and perfect atonement and put
away sin. This is what they cry. God's
holy, God's holy, God's holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. The whole earth is full of his
glory. This this gospel we preach goes into all the world, declaring
God's glory. And the post of the door moved
and the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I. Oh, woe is me. God's holy. Look what God requires. Look what God demanded. God required
the incarnation, obedience, death, and ascension of his own son.
God's holy. I'm undone. And I'm a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of everything, the Lord of hosts. I've seen Christ crucified
sitting on his throne, the incarnate God, who accomplished redemption
by the sacrifice of himself. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away. and thy sin is purged. Oh, may God take the words that
this preacher speaks today and take for you the ever-burning
sacrifice of God's darling Son and lay it on your lips and take away your sin and purge
your iniquity in the sweet experience of His grace. God requires righteousness
and we have none. It's only to be found in Christ. Be sure you understand that.
You and I have no righteousness. But the wise man said in Ecclesiastes
7 and verse 29, God made man upright, but he sought out many
inventions. God made Adam in his own image,
made Adam like himself, made Adam upright and holy, righteous. Theologians like to argue fine points of theology
that nobody can answer. Well, was Adam righteous or just
holy? Yes. Adam was created perfect, whole,
upright. And then he sinned. and you and I sinned in him. See, Adam was not an individual
man, but a representative man. He
was not a man who just stood for himself. He was a man representing
all the human race. Well, I don't like that. I don't
like that fact. Take it up with God. That's the
way it is. But I don't like the idea of this idea of sinning
in Adam. Have you done any better on your
own? Adam was made as our representative
to be a representative and a type of Jesus Christ, the last Adam,
who would come as the representative of a chosen race. Thank God that's
the way we fail, was in a representative. The angels didn't. And the angels
that fail, each one, one by one, is kept in chains of darkness
with no hope and no mercy. But we fail by the deeds of a
representative. We fail through the unrighteousness
of a substitute. That means there's hope that
maybe we might be saved by the deeds of a representative, saved
by the obedience of a substitute. And that's exactly what the Apostle
Paul tells us in Romans, the fifth chapter. Paul tells us
in Romans five, Verse 12, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned. The fact is all men by nature
are sinners. God requires righteousness, but
we had none and we can produce none. There's nothing that comes
from you and me except corruption. Our best deeds are sin. The Lord willing, I'm going to
be preaching to you tonight from Genesis chapter 30 about Judah
and Tamar. Get ahead of myself a little
bit. Tamar believed God. She believed what Judah didn't
seem to understand at the time. She understood the promise that
God gave concerning the Messiah, and she was determined to have
it. She was determined to have him. She was the wife of Judah's
firstborn son. She was determined to have it.
And Judah put her off, put her off, put her off. Finally, Tamar
seduced Judah, acting like a harlot, sitting by the side of the road
and got the promise to see. How can that be? Now, you hang
on for a little bit, and I'll try to show you some things about
it tonight, but hear this now. Tamar believed God, and believing
God played a prostitute in incest. That's just about how meritorious
Skip Gladfelter's faith is before God. Your faith and mine is not our
righteousness. If God based our acceptance with
him on our faith, our faith is nothing. Our faith is nothing. The object of our faith is everything. Do you know the difference? Do you know the difference? Oh,
I just don't believe enough. I don't believe like I should.
No, you don't. And I hope you never get to imagining that you
do. No, it is not your faith that gives us hope with God.
It's the object of faith. It's not the quality of faith,
but the object of faith. And the object of our faith is
Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer. You can't produce righteousness
And if your faith isn't righteous, you can count on it. Your prayers
aren't. Your giving's not. Your reading your Bible's not.
Your church going's not. Your almsgiving is not. Your
charity is not. Your benevolence is not. What
you do, everything you do is polluted with these filthy hands.
Now take it to God if you dare. Take it to God if you dare. is
what our Lord says to that religious generation in which he lived,
just like the religious age in which we live. That which is
an abomination in the sight of God, you highly esteem. That's just nature of us. That's
just our nature. We brag on And we give rewards
for and we set in high places all those things that are an
abomination to God. Most of you have been in churches.
I don't know that anybody does except bad. You know, I recall. When I first went to look at
West Virginia. You know they gave out Sunday
school pins? Did y'all ever see those things?
Sunday school pins. And there were folks, I'm not
joking, that dragged the grail. Poor fellas that wouldn't be
near as hot back then if they didn't wear the Sunday school
pins. But all got to wear those Sunday school pins. Because I've
been in Sunday school this many years, never missed a Sunday.
Isn't that wonderful? Look at me. Look, you don't have
any Sunday school pins my granddaddy had. Give awards for how many times
you read your Bible this year. Keep a chart on prayer. How much
time do you spend in prayer? Oh, does that make you feel good? I'm not proud. I'm not proud of it. I'll tell
you, I've read my Bible through three times already this year.
Aren't you proud of it, though? It's an abomination before God. Even if I ought not go to church
every Sunday? Yes, sir. Even if I ought not
give freely and cheerfully of all that he has in the cause
of Christ by all means? Even a person ought not read
his Bible two or three times a year. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Do it if you can. Even a person
ought not spend so much time in prayer. The more the better. But don't tell me about it. Don't tell your wife about it
either. When you start to brag about
it, you made an abomination to God. An abomination. When you lifted up, you've You've
declared that this is not what I was doing at all. I was simply
making a show for you to see. All right, here's the third thing. Man can't produce righteousness,
man can't please God. But God can. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
God, by his obedience unto death, has brought in and established
an everlasting righteousness for chosen sinners. That righteousness
he has brought in and established is so thoroughly ours, so really
and truly the righteousness of his people, that the name God
himself gives to his son. Jehovah Sidkenia, God gives to
his people in his son. Jeremiah 33 16 we're told that
the name of God's Church is Jehovah's in Kenya. Are you still in Romans
chapter 5? This is the message that set
before us in the book of God Romans 5 verse 12 wherefore as
by one man sin entered into the world and Death by sin and so
death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Now look
at verse 18 Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign, watch it now, through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Now look back at Romans chapter
3. Here's the fourth thing. The righteousness of Christ is
imputed to all who believe on the Son of God. Imputed to us
for exactly the same reason and exactly the same way and to exactly
the same degree as our sins were imputed to Jesus Christ when
he was made sin for us. When Christ was made sin, our
sins were imputed, charged to him because he was made sin before
God. And God poured out on him the
just reward of our sins. He cried, Awake, O sword, against
one that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd.
That's what sin deserves. And the scripture tells us that
Christ was made sin for us. Once and for all, with finality,
he was made sin. And he was actively involved
in the work of being made sin for us. And the scripture says
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That word made
is totally different. It's a totally different word.
It's in the present tense and it's a passive verb. That means
that David and Don. Are made righteous. without us
doing anything. Passively made righteous. Made
righteous freely by the grace of God. Continually made righteous. Look at Romans chapter three,
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. That's all the law does. The
law just shows you what sin is. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. That is, you take the book of God, and what I'm
telling you now, I'm telling you that this righteousness of
God that I'm proclaiming to you, this free righteousness for sinners
is witnessed by the law and the prophets. Open the book up and
see. If you can find anything in this
book contrary to what I'm saying, don't you ever hear me again.
But the law and the prophets witnessed everything I'm telling
you, witnessed by the law and prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith in. That what it says. Is that what it
says? Is that what it says? By faith
of Jesus Christ, by his faithful obedience to God as our representative,
Unto all and upon all them that believe for there's no difference
No difference between Jew and Gentile black and white male
and female learned and unlearned For all have sinned and missed
the glory of God being justified freely Do you remember what our Lord
Jesus said about those who hated him brother Emmett He said they
hated me without a call You know what that word freely is? Without
a cause. Being justified without a cause. With no cause in ourselves. Freely,
by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,
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 it this time, is righteousness, that God might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in him. Believers are made righteous
by God freely. We were made righteous in eternity. And I don't understand that.
Do you understand this? Merrill Hart, were you accepted
in the beloved before the world began? Were he accepted as a
sinner or as righteous, you reckon? Well, God would accept me if
I wasn't righteous, would he? He would accept me if I wasn't holy,
would he? We were made righteous in Christ the lamb in eternity
by the decree of God. Made righteous judicially when
Jesus Christ himself personally died as our representative, fulfilling
all the demands of God's law as our substitute. made righteous
by his obedience being made ours, God giving us what he had earned
and him being made what we had earned, made sin for us and put
to death for us and made righteous experimentally in the experience
of grace. When God the Holy Spirit comes
in mighty saving power, makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus,
giving us faith in Christ, sprinkles the blood of Christ on our conscience,
and declares that we're righteous. This is what Isaiah experienced
when he saw the Lord. God sent an angel from the throne. with the word from God himself
for Isaiah. And the word was free grace in
Christ the Lord. And God put it on his lips. And that man who said, I'm a
cursed man, understood he was a righteous man. That man who
understood that he was unclean, understood that he was clean.
That man understood that he had no righteousness. now understood
that he was perfectly righteous in Christ to substitute. And
God's people made righteous experimentally are made righteous by him. Absolutely. Absolutely. How can I say this? Absolutely. Will you, will you
look, look, come, come look me over. Look me over from head
to toe. You too, from head to toe. She knows me better than anybody.
She knows my fits of ungodliness. She knows my fits of ill temper.
She knows my discontent. My unbelief, my fretting, my
clinging to vanity. She knows me better than anybody
here. Look me over from head to toe, inside out. Before God,
I'm righteous. Absolutely righteous. Christ is my righteousness. Have you got that? Christ is
my righteousness. This righteousness is imparted
to us in regeneration, imparted to
us so that not only are we declared righteous, but righteousness is put in us
so that now we have in the new birth There sits Christ Jesus. God requires character righteousness,
remember? You can't get it. You were born
without it. But you who are born of God have
been born with it. And that new man in you, God
says, is created in righteousness and true holiness. so that the
believer lives with this constant warfare between flesh and spirit. The real man, the real man, the man who's going
to live forever with God. That's not the one that was born
in Bladen County, North Carolina, nearly 61 years ago. Oh, no,
that real man. That real man stood before God
from everlasting as my mediator, Jesus Christ, the Lord, accepted
of God. And I am accepted of God unto
everlasting in him, in union with him, just, holy, righteous,
sanctified. One more thing. Turn to Jeremiah
chapter 50. There's righteousness. freely imparted to every person
who believes on the son of God, freely imparted to all who are
born of God's spirit. This righteousness imputed to
us in free justification. This righteousness that God has
given us shall be rewarded in complete justice as righteousness
should be. with everlasting life, with everlasting glory. And in
that day, when we stand before our God and we're made to be
possessors of all that Jesus Christ is and all he possesses,
it will be because of what we read here in Jeremiah, chapter
50, verse 20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Don Fortner shall be sought
for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Don Ranere, and they shall not be found. Because I pardoned him. And God Almighty doesn't pardon
sin like you do. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful? God doesn't pardon sin like you
do. Well, men might say, Brother Don offended me, but I forgive
him. Yeah, but if I do it again tomorrow,
you'll remember it. That's just the way it is. And we can't do any better. We
can't do any better. But that's not how God pardons
sin. God pardons sin by taking it away. I look for them. There should
be none. Gone. Taking it away. Blotting it out. I heard somebody recently say,
He that blotteth out thy transgressions, that's like putting a towel over
them. Oh, no! No, no. No. When he blots them out, they're
gone. They're gone. Forever. Because Christ took them away. Did you hear? What Jesus said
to me, they're all taken away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. Oh, may God now lay the finished
work of Christ on your heart, effectually give you faith to
believe and make you, in the sweet experience of his grace,
righteous before him. Amen.