The Gospel of God's Grace

Q: What does the Bible say about salvation by grace?

The Bible teaches that salvation is entirely by God's grace, not based on human merit or works. The Apostle Paul, in Galatians 5:1-5, emphasizes that salvation is a matter of God's grace and not human effort. He warns against seeking justification through the law or religious rituals, stating that if one tries to attain God's favor through their own works, they are 'fallen from grace'. This highlights that human nature resists the concept of salvation by grace alone. Ultimately, all men are viewed as undeserving sinners and cannot demand anything from God; thus, salvation must rest solely on God's mercy and grace, ensuring that any blessing we receive is due to His goodness, not our own.

Q: How do we know faith is essential for salvation?

Faith is essential for salvation because it is the means by which we receive God's promise of righteousness. Faith plays a crucial role in the believer's relationship with God, as emphasized in Galatians 5:5, which speaks of 'waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith'. This indicates that faith is not just an auxiliary but the very channel through which believers accept God's righteousness. Romans 5:1 reinforces this idea, stating that being justified by faith leads to peace with God. Faith is a result of being born of the Spirit, and true faith involves complete trust in Jesus Christ as the foundation of our righteousness. Thus, without faith, one cannot lay hold of the salvation offered through the grace of God.

Q: Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

Understanding grace is vital for Christians as it shapes their view of salvation, reliance on God's mercy, and relationship with Him. The concept of grace is at the heart of the Christian faith. It underscores that salvation is a gift from God, not something we can earn through our actions. The Apostle Paul highlights in Galatians 5:4 that if one seeks to be justified by the law, they fall away from grace. This teaches Christians that their relationship with God is based on unmerited favor rather than personal merit. Understanding grace allows individuals to acknowledge their weaknesses and relying on God's strength and merciful nature. It cultivates a spirit of humility and gratitude, reminding believers that all blessings stem from God's kindness rather than their achievements.

Q: What does the Bible say about the hope of righteousness?

The Bible states that the hope of righteousness is through faith in Jesus Christ, assuring believers of their standing before God. The hope of righteousness is a foundational idea in Christianity, particularly in the teachings of Paul. In Galatians 5:5, believers are reminded that through the Spirit, they await the hope of righteousness by faith. This hope is not merely a wish, but an assured expectation grounded in the finished work of Christ. Romans 4:24-25 expands on this by noting that righteousness is imputed to those who believe in Christ, showing that it is through faith that one receives rightful standing before God. This hope reassures Christians that they will be treated as righteous based not on their failures, but on Christ's accomplishments on their behalf.

To the book of Galatians chapter
5 the book of Galatians chapter 5 I'd like to read here the first
five verses using the fifth verse primarily as our text this morning. Galatians 5, beginning with verse
1, stand fast. This is the Apostle Paul writing
to the church at Galata, and he says, stand fast therefore
in the liberty of wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast in that
liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been made
free through faith in him, not being entangled again with that
yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, as
Peter described it in the 15th chapter of the book of Acts.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. If you be circumcised, hoping
to bring yourself into favor with God, hoping that God will
recognize you as a child of His because you have adhered to this
outward ritual in the flesh, then He says that you Christ
shall profit you nothing. Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man," Paul was faithful to testify
the truth of the gospel to those to whom he preached. He said,
for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that
he's a debtor to do the whole law. Other words, if he would
be saved by keeping the law, then not only circumcision, not
only circumcision, but he must continue in all the things that
are written in the law to do them. And no man outside the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, has ever accomplished that. No man has
ever performed all the duties and deeds of the law except the
God-man, the Lord Jesus. This leaves us all in debt to
God. This leaves us all in that place
where the Bible says that we have sinned and come short of
God's glory. And if you've broken one point,
of the law, then we're guilty of all, and shall be judged as
guilty sinners before God when we come before him." Now, in
verse 4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever
of you are justified by the law. In other words, if you are justified
by your law-keeping, if you think that that's the way that God
is going to account you righteous, Then he said Christ is become
of no effect. In other words, the death of
the Lord Jesus, the life of the Lord Jesus, the intercessory
of the Lord Jesus Christ is of no effect unto you. In other
words, you stand on your own. You stand on your own before
God, and your own doing, and your own faithfulness is what
you're going to be judged on. Do you want to be judged on what
you've thought? Do you want to be judged on what you've done?
Do you want to be judged on your performance? If you're going
to be judged on that, then Christ has become of no effect unto
you. Believers are going to be judged on the Lord Jesus, upon
His mind, His works, His faithfulness, His death, His intercessory work. What He is before God is what
they are before God. They stand in Him and shall be
judged, and certainly Christ has become of effect unto us.
He is effect unto all those who believe on him. Now, whosoever
of you are justified by the law, you're fallen from grace. Meaning
that you're fallen from the grace of God, you're outside of that
realm where God saves sinners, where God has mercy on sinners,
the unmerited favor of God, you don't have any part nor lot in
it, you're fallen from grace. And that's what it means to fall
from grace, it means that we have come to the place where
we want to be justified on the basis of what we are in the flesh,
upon our merit, upon our standing as we see it before God. Well, we're fallen from grace.
Only as we stand in Christ are we in the grace of God. And when
you're in the grace of God, it is because you're in Christ Jesus. Now listen to this fifth verse.
For we through the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. For we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Now let me, if I can,
introduce our subject to you this morning. I wanted to read
just a comment made by J.C. Philpott on the gospel of God's
grace. Listen carefully to what we have
to say. The gospel of God's grace in
Christ Jesus is not a thing to be proved, but truth to be believed. It is not submitted to our reasoning
powers as a subject for critical examination. But the gospel is
a message from God addressed to the conscience and to the
affections. For this reason, men that are
fond of argument and proving everything by strictly logical
argument and deduction generally make very poor preachers. In
the scripture, God does not argue, He proclaims. God does not argue,
He proclaims. So this morning, in this gospel
message, We're seeing that God through the Apostle Paul, holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit to write
what we have before us. We see that God is proclaiming,
and he says, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. Human nature was always against
salvation by grace alone, and it always will be. human nature
kicks at salvation being entirely by the free sovereign grace of
God. Now no man has any claim upon
God whatever in this world. All men, they're undeserving,
ill-deserving, and hell-deserving sinners. And that's you and I
as we stand here this morning if we're outside the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're undeserving, ill-deserving,
and hell-deserving sinners. If any good thing comes to us,
it must be entirely upon the goodness freely given to the
undeserving, pardon extended to the guilty, infinite compassion
looking upon our misery and determined to reveal itself in a free gift. not to be won by merit or effort,
not to be deserved nor purchased, but bestowed solely because he
will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have
compassion on whom he will have compassion. Our hope stands on
pure grace, sovereign grace, grace unqualified. God blesses
us because he is good, not because we are. God's blessing, and we
look sometimes and we wonder why God should be so gracious.
Why was God so gracious as to give us the gift of his only
begotten son? Well, we must look not to ourselves
and not to men and women around us, but we must look to the heart
of God, the great heart of God. We have such mercy, such comfort,
such grace, such salvation, because the heart of God is so large,
so loving, so merciful toward those that God has given to Him,
or that Christ stood for and represented when He was in this
world. God blesses us because He's good,
not because we are, and saves us because He is gracious, and
not because of any inherent grace in us. It's because God is gracious. He blesses us according to his
great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins. And therefore, grace must ever
be the subject of our praise and of our preaching. Grace must
be the subject. Now, beloved, when we begin to
preach the gospel, we hear from various corners, various various
things spoken as to what we should say to prepare individuals for
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, we must be very
careful that we do not depart from the simplicity of the gospel
when we are preaching the gospel. The very essence of the simplicity
of the gospel lies in the words, believe and live. The very essence
of the simplicity of the gospel lies in these words, believe
and live. Now some professing Christians
object. They object. They say that the
preaching of Jesus Christ and preaching him as saving men immediately
upon their believing in him ignores some of the Spirit's work. They
say that a great deal more ought to be said about the preparation
of the heart, the humbling, the abasing of the soul, the law
work, and the inward sense of the need of man, and so on and
so forth. Well, I believe that possibly
there is room for maybe that kind of criticism. Possibly we
do need to speak more about soul humbling and about men and women
being stripped before they're clothed and about them getting
lost before they get saved. I'm in agreement with that, but
there's a danger of meaning here when people begin to talk about
a preparatory work, when people begin to talk about people being
in a certain mood or a certain frame of mind or having certain
feelings and all of that, there's a danger I think, of meaning
of salvation but worse. And while we use the phrase all
the time, it's the work of the Spirit, we're talking actually
about a man trying to psych himself up into a certain frame of mind
to where he can agree with what the Word of God says. Now zeal
for this position may only be a convenient method of covering
up pure legalism. It's what it is. That's what
I'm trying to say, is that a man or a woman who objects to a man
preaching that if a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, come
in out of the rain, come in out of the elements, and sit down,
hear the gospel, proclaim, and believe it, God saves him. People
say, well, he didn't have time enough. to get prepared before
the Lord saved him. Well, I remember reading about
Saul of Tarsus and how God struck him down on the road to Damascus
and he hadn't had any time where he had went through some catechism
class or something where some strict Baptist got a hold of
him and led him down the pathway to where he could get to the
place where he could believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No,
The Lord struck him down, and Christ spoke to him, and immediately
when he heard the voice of the Son of God, he knew he was living,
he knew he had to be God, and he believed on him, and he trusted
him by God-given faith, and he was saved immediately. And so
the work was done. So I say it boldly, that salvation
by feeling is as unscriptural as salvation by works. I say
it very boldly that salvation by a man or a woman or boy or
girl getting to a certain position where they're all prepared and
just ready, I say that that can be mistrued and it can be termed
as salvation by works. Now Jesus Christ alone is a complete
and all-sufficient foundation for faith. Do you believe that? Jesus Christ alone is a complete,
all-sufficient foundation for faith, and it is by believing
in Him that men are justified, and in no degree, by anything
else. It's by believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now faith is not opposed to the
Spirit. but it is a child of the Spirit. True faith is not opposed to
the Holy Spirit. No man can call Jesus Lord except
by the Holy Spirit. No man can savingly believe on
Christ Here in this fifth verse that
I want us to look at this morning. We've tried to open up the subject For that hope of righteousness
by faith now observe if you will first of all the really the Father chose an individual
to salvation. If God the Son represented that
soul and died for that soul on Calvary's cross, then the Holy
Spirit is at work to any contradiction in the work
of the members of the Godhead. We don't see them warring against
one another or the Spirit refusing to do what the Father willed
and the Son purposed and the Son accomplished on the cross. We see them in complete there, verses 6 through 8. Now
in 1 Peter 1, 23 through 25, you have the same thing. In 1
Peter, we read where Peter said, being born again not of corruptible And all the glory of man is the
flower of the grass, and the grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. That's a quotation out of Isaiah
chapter 40 verses 6 through 8. And so we see that the comeliness
of the natural man is to be destroyed by the Holy Spirit. And there's
nothing that can do it effectually but the Holy Spirit. And we know
that all men are proud Pharisees by nature, that all men need
to be humbled, and I believe that God is able to do that.
I believe that God by the Spirit will humble a man and will break
a man and bring him down and strip a man. And I believe God
does that in various ways. And he can do it hurriedly or
he can take a measure of time to do it if he pleases to do
it. But God can do it and many, many times a person is not humbled
before the new birth, he's humbled after the new birth. The Spirit's
work can It continues in the life of the believer. And this
is, we all, you know, we want to petition it off, and we want
to say, all this has got to take place before conversion, and
all this has got to take place after conversion. We don't know
a thing on earth about it. We know that the Spirit bloweth
where it listeth. And thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whether it goeth.
And so is every one that is born of the Spirit. But the Spirit
of God does strip, humble, and give men and women the proper
attitude. I thought about that proud Pharisee,
which I often mention, that went up to the temple to pray. Now
that proud Pharisee, he did not see any chaff in his week, none
whatsoever. But beloved, listen, let me tell
you something. That poor publican, he saw no wheat in his chap.
And that's what I'm talking about. When God humbles a man, when
God breaks a man, when God brings a man down, he sees no worth,
no good in himself. And then he clings evermore to
the Lord Jesus Christ and embraces him and trusts Christ with all
of his heart because he knows there is no goodness in himself. So the Holy Spirit, the relationship
that the Spirit of God has to the hope of righteousness is
that the Holy Spirit, that he destroys the pride of man. Now another office of the Holy
Spirit is to exalt Christ. We read in John 16, if you'd
want to turn there with me, I'd like to read here a few verses
to you. John chapter 16. And let's notice
here, beginning with verse 13. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak, and he will show you things to come. This verse of scripture
tells us that the Holy Spirit is not original in that he guides
the Lord's people into truth. He does not speak of himself.
But whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak. Now, somebody
might say, well, he was a plagiarist, because he only spoke what he
would hear from another. But the Holy Spirit is God, and
the Holy Spirit speaks what he hears from the Lord, and he takes
the things of God, he shows them unto us. And there's no sin in
that. There's very little that hasn't
been said in the history of the world. We coin no new phrases. We have nothing new to say. Nothing
new under the sun. There isn't anything that I can
say that some other preacher hadn't already said numerous
times over and over back through the years, back through the history
of Christianity. These things have been said over
and over again. We coin no new phrases. And so
the Holy Spirit only takes those things that he hears, and that
shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me. I like that. The Holy Spirit's
not out pumping up people to glorify himself. And we see that
all over the land. We see people getting all excited
and all puffed up about the Holy Spirit this and the Holy Spirit
that. They're speaking in tongues and they're doing this and that
and all the glory to themselves and they say to the Holy Spirit.
But the Bible said, Jesus said, He, the Spirit of God, will glorify
me. So if you find somebody exalting
Christ, somebody preaching Christ, somebody lifting Him up, somebody
declaring His glory, the glory of His person, and the wonderful
things that He accomplished when He was here in this world, and
what He's doing now where He's seated at the right hand of God,
then you know the Spirit of God is at work. The Spirit of God
is moving. The Spirit of God is accomplishing
that which He purposed from old time. And He says, He shall take
of mine, He shall receive of mine, and He'll show it unto
you. And that's how we're being tutored
now in this world, by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God takes
the things of Christ, and He shows them unto us. And every once in a while, Something
happens, we read a scripture, and it comes forth with meaning
to our hearts. The Word is made flesh, and we're
able to receive it. It speaks to us, and that's the
work of the Holy Spirit. All things that the Father hath
are mine, Jesus said, therefore said I. that he shall take of
mine and shall show it unto you." Therefore, we see again that
the Lord Jesus claims no special insight himself. The things he
speaks, he said, the things that I give to you, those are the
things the Father has given to me and they're mine. All things
that the Father hath are mine, they've been given to me, therefore
I said that he'll take of mine and shall show it unto you. So
the office of the Holy Spirit is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. And does this doctrine glorify
Jesus? This doctrine that there's a
hope? of righteousness that is had
by faith, that the people of God, believers, are waiting upon?
Does this doctrine glorify Jesus, since it makes him the head and
the front, the all in all of a sinner's hope? It certainly
does. And we're here this morning to preach Christ, the all in
all of a sinner's hope, the front and the head of a believer's
hope. Now thirdly, the faith which
brings this righteousness is never exercised by any but those
who are born of the Spirit. Now we believe that faith and
love toward Christ is the fruit of the Spirit, yes, but it's
the fruit of the new birth. It's the effects of the new birth. That a man is born of the Spirit
of God, therefore he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Man
is born of the Spirit, therefore he loves Christ. and wants to
walk with Christ, and wants to live for Christ, wants to live
for His glory. He has that in His heart. And
this is never exercised by any who are not born of the Spirit.
Sinful flesh, which is barren of all real excellence, always
clings to merit. Mark it down. You'll never get
a man separated from his worth and his merit until he is regenerated
by the Spirit of God. He'll go on talking about it,
and he may try to conceal that he's talking about it, but he'll
always come back to what he is and what he's been and what he
expects from God because of who he is or what he's done. He'll
always come back to that. But you get a man who's been
separated by the new birth from all of his worth and merit, and
he'll cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. "'Til to Jesus Christ
you cling,' the poet said, "'by simple faith. "'Doing is a deadly
thing. "'Doing ends in death.'" Now,
the newborn life in every man runs instinctively to grace and
lives by faith, and you'll never find simple faith in Jesus exercised
by any life except the life that is born of God's seed in the
new birth. Now, that's a big statement. But what it simply
means is this, that no life believes in the Lord Jesus Christ except
the life of God, which is put into the soul of one who is born
again. And everybody else is out here
believing and fooling with something else. Everybody else is involved
in something else. But you get a man truly born
of the Spirit of God, and that man is feeding on Christ, he's
living on Christ, he's coming every day to Christ, He's walking
with Christ. Christ is all in all to that
individual. And I'm here to tell you this
morning that if you can say in your heart, Christ is indeed
my all in all. He is the front, the center,
the head. He's my hope. Then, beloved, you know that
you've been born of the Spirit of God. Now then, I want us to
look a little further here to something that I believe that
is very important for us to see in this text, and that is faithful
righteousness is based upon the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Now in 2 Peter 1, 19 through 21, it tells us here that basically
what it tells us is that no prophecy is a private interpretation,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit
to write the Scriptures. And then in 2 Timothy 3 and 16,
it talks about how that every word, every Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be mature and thoroughly furnished into
every good work. In 1 Corinthians 2 and 13, it talks about how
that we have received wisdom, not the wisdom of the flesh,
but the wisdom of even words by the Holy Spirit. And the apostles
spoke with this wisdom. And so, whenever a man comes
to faith, He believes, and what he believes is what is testified
of in the Holy Scriptures. He believes what the Bible says
about what the Word of God has to say about Christ and His finished
work, about Christ and His righteousness and His holiness and His standing
before God. He believes what the Scripture
has revealed about the Lord Jesus. And so I want to establish this
in your mind. I'm trying to show you that the
Spirit has got something to do with this new birth, with salvation. And we're not minimizing that,
but we're saying here that salvation is by believing and living and
coming to life in Christ. And then, fifthly, it is by the
Spirit that we continue to exercise faith. Notice in the text here
in Galatians chapter five, it says that we're waiting, for
we through the Spirit wait. Well, this means that we continue
as God would have his people. I have a little more to say about
this at the end of the message, but I want us to see that we're
continuing as we ought to be continuing as believers, walking
in the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit being present in
our lives and the lust of the flesh being mortified in us,
and this is all by the work of God's Spirit. Now then, I wanna
say a little bit about the hope here that is declared in our
text. The hope here that is declared,
and this is said to be, in verse five here, the hope of righteousness. The hope of righteousness. Now,
the Christian's hope, The believer's hope is not the hope that the
Jews had in the days of Abraham and in the days of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the hope that the Jews had,
and you can read about it in John chapter 8, in verse 33,
they said they were never in bondage to any man, but they
were born free. The Jews had a hope founded upon
their descent. founded upon their relationship
to Abraham. That was their hope. We have
Abraham for our father. The temple of the Lord. The temple
of the Lord are we, they would say. They, we, are the people
of God. These Jews, they believed they
were. They looked down upon the Gentiles
as uncircumcised and they despised them. We do not expect, beloved,
to be saved by virtue of our parentage. We do not expect to
be. Now, hear me, even if from generation
to generation saintly names occur in our pedigree, we're not moved
by that that's not our salvation that's not in any way shape or
form just because grandpa spookendike believed and he was this and
he was that or because uncle great uncle so-and-so believed
and preached and and on and on we're not persuaded to that that
which is born of the flesh is flesh and no more however pure
the flesh is or may be and I don't even like to use those two words
together pure and flesh I don't like to do it, because there
is no purity in flesh, whatever you might want to think. Now,
the children of God are born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. That's what
the Bible says in John chapter 1 in verse 13. Carnal deceit. descent leaves us heirs of wrath
even as others, does it not? Did your parents contribute to
your salvation? Not one iota. And if they did,
it's flawed, my friend. It's flawed. And you're not saved
this morning if your parents had anything to do with it other
than they prayed to the God of heaven for you that you'd be
saved. Now then, carnal descent leaves
us heirs of wrath, even as others, and we have no reliance upon
anything that comes to us by the way of the natural birth,
or we would be like the son of the bondwoman, would we not,
if it came to us by natural birth. No, beloved,
we are not, our hope is not like the hope that the Jews had. The
ground of our hope, now you listen very carefully to me, I'm not
gonna keep you much longer, but you listen carefully to what
we have to say right here, this is so important. The ground of
our hope is righteousness. It is righteousness. Now listen
to me, the wicked go to hell, the righteous go to heaven. Is
that a true statement? It absolutely is a true statement.
The wicked go to hell, the righteous go to heaven. The hope that the
believer has is upon, it is a hope of righteousness. And this, beloved,
is a solid basis for hope and it is the only scriptural basis
for hope. We reckon that by faith, now
hear me, we are saved by a method which as much vindicates the
justice of God as if he had cast us into hell. Can you follow
that? We believe and we reckon that
by faith we are as much saved, we are saved by a method which
as much vindicates the justice of God as if he cast us into
hell. Now, what I'm saying is this,
that Christ went to hell for us. Christ went to hell for us. And I'm saved by a method that
vindicates God, as much as if he'd sent me to hell, because
I went to hell in my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that
right? I went to hell in Christ. When
he died on that cross, I went to hell in him. And so, beloved,
the justice of God has been vindicated on my behalf. And God can have
mercy on me. God can forgive my sin. He can
pardon me. He can deliver me. He can do
this. Because my substitute died in
my place. Our hope is the hope of righteousness.
That is to say, a hope arising out of the fact that we are righteous
and therefore God will treat us as such. Now, by faith we
are as righteous as if we had not sinned. By faith we are as
righteous as if we had not sinned, as if we'd never, never sinned. Romans 5.1, therefore, being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Romans 8.1, there's therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, Those who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. Romans 4, in verses 3 through
6, where it says that Abraham staggered not at the promises
of God, but was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was able to perform, and so it was imputed to him for righteousness. because he believed God. And
a little later on in that chapter, Paul said that it's not to Abraham
only, but unto us who believe on him that raised Jesus Christ
from the dead. When we believe on him, it's
imputed to us for righteousness. So by faith, we're as righteous
as if we had not sinned. This hope that we have rises
out of the fact that we're righteous in Christ. You see, that's the
only basis for true hope. My friend, you have no hope if
you're not righteous in the Lord Jesus or perfectly righteous
after the law. And none are perfectly righteous
after the law. When we put our trust in the
Lord Jesus, His blood, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin, and you cannot be cleaner than that. A-double-L, all sin.
And when you put trust, when you believe on the Lord Jesus,
our Redeemer finished transgression, Daniel 9 says, and made an end
of sin. made an end of it. As far as
God is concerned, on the behalf of his people, when the Lord
Jesus Christ answered to him for their sin, that was the end
of it. And God no longer imputes sin to
their account. He made an end of it in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He finished it. And God reckons
now only with his people as a righteous people. we actually stand more
righteous than what we would have if we had never committed
a sin. Now this, I'm talking about the
hope that believers have, and that is based on righteousness,
and I'm here to tell you this morning that we actually stand
more righteous in Christ than what we would have if we had
never sinned. Had we never sinned, we could
only have stood in the righteousness of a man, Adam. But this day,
by faith, we stand in the righteousness of God himself. The doing and
dying of our Lord Jesus Christ makes up for us a wedding dress
more glorious than human merit could have spun, even if unfallen
Adam had been the spinner. Now is that a true statement?
I tell you it is. I tell you you and I are more
righteous than what we would have been if we'd never committed
a sin and if Adam had never committed a sin. You and I are in Christ
and we're as righteous as God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is glorious, glorious
truth. Now the substance of this whole,
let's think about this just a little bit. Suppose you were all perfectly
righteous, what would you expect from God? Suppose you had all
kept the law perfectly. From the day you were, from the
first breath you drew into your lungs until this very hour, you
had kept the law of God absolutely perfectly as the Lord Jesus Christ
had. Suppose you were that righteous. What would you expect from God?
What would you expect? What would be due you and your
righteousness? Well, let me tell you what a
believer expects. You see, a believer is just that righteous. He's
just that righteous. He is just as righteous as if
he had lived under the law and obeyed it perfectly, and God's
favor was shining in huge beams out of heaven upon his soul.
That's where he stands. He's in Christ. Now we would
expect, would we not, to die triumphantly? Would we not expect
to die the death of the righteous? Well, we would. We'd expect to
die in peace, faith, rest, we would expect that all would be
well with us in that dying hour. We would expect as soon as our
breath has left our bodies to be with him, where he is, that
we may behold his glory. We would expect that, would we
not? Would everybody say, yes, I think that that would be due
a perfect righteousness. It would be due that. We expect
then again to rise again at the blast of the archangel's trumpet.
Would you not expect to take part in the resurrection if you're
perfectly righteous? If there's no sin charged to
you and you're clean before God, every wick clean, would you not
expect to be in that glorious resurrection? Praise God. You
walk out to them cemeteries and you see where your loved ones
are buried and you look there and it looks so permanent. My
soul don't it look permanent? It does. But one of these days,
the trump of the archangel, the blast on that horn, And I tell
you them graves are coming open and God's people are coming out.
And this is because they're righteous. They're righteous. Now we expect
to share in all the glories of his eternal purpose in the Lord
Jesus. Expect to. We don't expect there gonna be
any gathering, secret gathering over here of some super Christians
in heaven that we ain't gonna have no part in. We got no ticket
for it. We don't expect that. No sirree. I challenge all heaven. I'm as righteous as anybody there.
I'm as righteous as the God who brought me there. I am righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a hope due righteousness. So I expect that there won't
be any secret gatherings over here for the super elite Christians
and those who were, you know, just had a little, you know,
just, you've seen them, you've met them, and they would expect
that they would have the, you know, the limelight and the focus
would be on them. I've been to preacher's meetings,
I know what I'm talking about. But it's not so. It's not so. And when cometh the end, and
he delivers up the kingdom to the Father, we expect to be there.
And for ever and ever in the perfection of bliss and glory,
and to dwell with him, singing worthy as the Lamb, I believe
there will be a seat up there in that huge choir, and every
child of God will file through and find their name and their
seat. to join in those courses and
those anthems to the King and to His Son, the Lord Jesus, through
whom, by whom we have arrived at this glorious place. We reckon
upon this. We reckon upon it because why? We're righteous. We're righteous. No man has a right to expect
these things if he's not righteous. If he doesn't have the righteousness
to which it is due. See what I'm saying? It's due! Perfect righteousness. Well, lastly, let's talk a little,
now that's the hope of the believer. That's our hope. The hope of
righteousness. That's it. Now, lastly, the posture
which our hope takes up. I mentioned that we'd talk a
little bit about this weighting. I'd like, before I get into that,
let me read this poem. And I think this pretty well
sets forth what I've been trying to say, not what these hands
have done, can save this guilty soul. Not what this toiling flesh
is born can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give
me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs
and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can
ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within. And so it is that we have this
hope. Now, lastly, the posture which
our hope takes up. We're waiting. And somebody said,
wouldn't it have been better if he said we're working? I mean,
here we are and, you know, we're waiting for the Lord to come
back or waiting for the time when the Lord calls us out. Wouldn't
it be better if we were working? Some legalists would say, I think
they ought to change that wording there. But that would destroy
the sense, wouldn't it? That would destroy the whole
sense of the text. Not we're working, but we're waiting. God's
people are in the posture of waiting. We're not to add anything. We're not to add one thread to
the garment of salvation. Not one thread. You're not in
the business of adding a little to it, are you? Well, Jesus said,
it is finished. We're at rest, waiting. He said, my peace I give unto
you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We believe that
the meritorious work by which heaven is procured for us is
all done. And therefore we are waiting
in the name of Jesus to take the reward which as a matter
of justice is due to him and has been by his dying testament
transferred to us. That's what we're waiting on.
That's what we're waiting to do. Would you want me to read
that again? We believe that the meritorious
work by which heaven is procured for us is all done. Therefore we're waiting in the
name of Jesus to take the reward which as a matter of justice
that is due to him and has been by his dying testament transferred
to us. Waiting. Now you know the Galatians
wanted to be more sure than faith could make them. And so you know
that they ran off to get circumcised. Some of them observed days and
weeks, months, all sorts of carnal ordinances. But we through the
spirit wait, says Paul. And the poet said, all that remains
for me is but to love and sing, preach and worship, and wait
until the angels come to bear me to their king. That's what
we're waiting on. We're waiting on the Lord to
take us on to be with Him. Now there's a couple of more
little poems that I'd like to give you here before we close.
Your sin shall vanish quite away. Now you're here this morning
and I don't know where you stand. You may be outside of Christ.
And you may feel, well, I'm a black sinner. I don't have any such
hope as what you were talking about. Well, my friend, listen
to me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Somebody
said, well, I'd like to have something else to bring besides
just simple faith to Christ. You say, I've heard about people
that could speak in tongues. I've heard about people that
had the gifts of healing and these various gifts, and I'd
like to have something. My friend, listen. All you need
to bring is heart faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All you need
to bring. Let other people bring what they
will. whether it's genuine or whether it's not, just leave
them to themselves. You just bring what is in your
heart. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just simply believe that he died for me. I just simply believe
that I stood in him when he was on that cross, and I believe
he went to hell for me, and I believe he gave me his righteousness.
I just believe it, and that's where I stand. Now that, my friend,
is what you need to do this day. If you're outside of Christ,
if you're unsure about your standing with God, if you have no real
hope, no solid basis, oh, the Lord Jesus is the only solid
basis for hope. Now, your sin shall vanish quite
away, though black as hell before, shall be dissolved beneath the
sea, and it shall be found no more, if you believe on the Lord
Jesus. your sin will not be found anymore.
Come, guilty souls, and flee away like doves to Jesus' wounds. This is the accepted gospel day
wherein free grace abounds. Well, may the Lord own the message,
bless the message. I've had a kind of a hectic two
weeks and had a bad cold. But I will shut up to these verses
and shut up this message this morning. It's for somebody. It's
for me. It's for me. I rejoice in this.
And I tell you, the gospel, as J.C. Philpott said, is a proclamation. And it's been proclaimed here
this morning. I'll tell you, righteousness is through faith.
And once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're as righteous
as God is. And everything that's due a perfect
righteousness, everything due Christ, is due you. That's simple,
isn't it? But that's a proclamation that
if a man believes it, a boy believes it, a girl believes it, a woman
believes it, salvation is yours. Father, in the name of Jesus,
receive our glory and our praise. We offer it in his name. And
Lord, use the message. Save some poor sinner here. Bring
them out of death. Some believer here that is struggling
so hard, trying to be better, trying to do better, trying to
get the old nature under control. Might they rejoice today in a
full and complete salvation in the hope of righteousness by
faith. Might they rejoice in it. I pray it in Jesus' name
and for his sake. Amen.

The Gospel of God's Grace

What does the Bible say about salvation by grace?

How do we know faith is essential for salvation?

Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about the hope of righteousness?

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The Gospel of God's Grace

What does the Bible say about salvation by grace?

How do we know faith is essential for salvation?

Why is understanding grace important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about the hope of righteousness?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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