Righteous

read to you the 17th verse through
the 20th of Matthew chapter 5 for our text. Think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you till
heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. I want this morning to speak
primarily on the 20th verse uh... the scripture says for
us so you do you know that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes in the pharisees you shall in
no case inter into the kingdom of heaven i do not know that
i ever preach the message all this works i do not think that
i did in my life ever preach on this first but this morning
i felt inclined to speak on it and I was reading, of course,
the little message by Isaac Watts and I
thought to myself, I wonder how he could have had such soundness
of theology at such a young age. And of course I came to the conclusion,
and I guess you will too, that the reason was because he had
somebody around him that spoke to him often the truth of God. And he sat under the sound of
a sound message, under the sound of the truth of the gospel. And
my friend, there is no way to be sound without the revelation
of the Spirit of God to your heart, number one, and then without
you sitting under the sound of the gospel over and over again
and receiving the message of the gospel into your heart and
fixing it there so as that you would know the truth of God.
And so this morning if it seems elementary to you, well then
just ask God that he would fix it in your heart and that those
around you who may not be as deeply taught as you are by the
Spirit of God, that they also might hear and that they might
receive the truth of the gospel and might be strengthened and
blessed therein. Now the scribes and the Pharisees,
we read here in verse 20, that Jesus said, except that your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Of course
the subject this morning is righteousness. That's the subject. Now the scribes
and the Pharisees were in their day the most highly respected
and admired religious leaders in the world. Everyone stood
in awe of them, the scribes and the Pharisees that is, but our
Lord said to his disciples, This text here, in verse 20, "...except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Now these words must have been astounding to the people
who first heard them. Can you imagine? The scribes
were the religious scholars of the day. They were the men who
copied and expounded the scriptures. And they were the men who gave
their lives entirely to this one great work of interpreting
the scriptures and expounding the scriptures for God, they
thought, and for the benefit of his people. Now they consecrated
themselves to this one noble work. The Pharisees, of course,
they were the strictest sect of the Jews. No one exceeded
the Pharisees in outward morality, in obedience to the law, and
the saying of prayers, and tithing, and Sabbath keeping, and scripture
memory, and personal righteousness, and public approval. Yet our
Lord declares, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of these
two groups of people then you cannot be saved except your righteousness
exceed theirs. Now is the Lord telling us here
in this text that we must do more and that we must be better
than the scribes and the Pharisees? Is he saying that we must gain
a greater measure of personal holiness than these men had? Well, not at all as far as I'm
concerned. In fact, I think that he's saying
or telling us just the opposite. The Lord is telling us here that
it is utterly impossible for any man to gain favor with God
on the basis of his own personal righteousness. There never has
been a child of Adam upon the earth good enough, righteous
enough, holy enough to inhabit the kingdom of heaven and there
never shall be such an individual upon the face of this earth.
Now you and I must get every thought When we read a text like
this, when we're reading through the Word of God, I recognize
that there are some verses that deal with personal righteousness,
that deal with the human side of the gospel and the human side
of walking with God and living, walking as we all do in this
world. But for the most part, as far as men and women standing
before God and being accepted and received of God, we must
get every thought of personal righteousness out of our minds
and the very word good out of our vocabulary when we think
or speak of any human being in God's sight. It must be completely,
our vocabulary must be rid of the word good. because there
is none good, no, not one in the sight of God. We have no
righteousness of our own before God and no ability, and no ability
in our fallen state to produce a righteousness. Now who would
be saved, we must have the righteousness of Christ imputed, the righteousness
of God in Christ imputed and imparted to us. Now, it is this
righteousness, beloved, that exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and the Pharisees. It is this righteousness of God
in Christ which is imputed and imparted to the believing sinner. Now, do what you may, then, without
the righteousness of God in Christ, you cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now, I would like to begin here
this morning, and I've opened up this subject, I'd like to
say that we lost. Every one of us here have lost,
all men have lost, all righteousness in Adam. Now, we all suffered
a three-fold loss of righteousness, and until righteousness is recovered
and restored to us, we can never be accepted in the presence of
God. Now, first of all, when Adam
sinned in the garden, man lost his righteous nature. Now, man before the fall was
much more, I believe, than just an innocent preacher. He was
holy, he was righteous, he was good, and he was well-pleasing
to God. But after the fall, man was guilty,
he was sinful, corrupt, repulsive to and condemned by the God of
the Bible. And that which was true of fallen
Adam is true also of the fallen sons of Adam. Every faculty of
man, of man's being, is corrupted, defiled, twisted, and deformed,
and this is the result of the fall. We lost all natural, moral,
spiritual goodness in the fall. Fallen man has a perverted heart,
he has a corrupt will, and he has a vile nature. And there
is no righteousness, goodness, or possibility of goodness in
any of us by nature. In our flesh, Paul said, dwelleth
no good thing. Now in the second place, in the
moment that Adam sinned, we also lost all legal righteousness
In God's sight because Adam sinned he was put out of the garden
He was separated from God and we being made sin are by nature
Separated from God man is so far separated from God by sin
that he cannot of his own Will and by his own works Return unto
the Lord he cannot come by his own works and will unto God now
unless God himself intervenes To bridge the gulf between unholy
man and himself, we must be eternally separated from him in hell. Now having broken the law by
sin, we have no legal righteousness, no legal grounds of acceptance
with God. Now the third way in which we
lost our righteousness is that fallen man has no understanding
of righteousness. He has no understanding of it.
He does not understand. I'll explain that. Now when man
had righteousness before the fall, when he had righteousness
before God, before the fall, he understood that he had it
only by the gift of God in creation. He understood that God had given
him this gift and that he had this righteousness because God
had given it to him when he made him. Now, and he never gloried
in his righteousness. Nowhere before the fall can we
find any evidence that man ever gloried in what he was. But ever
since man lost righteousness, Man has thought that he has righteousness,
he pretends that he has it, and he boasts of it as he boasts
of righteousness as a ground of acceptance with God. And he
even attempts to cover his nakedness in sin by the fig leaf apron
of his own works. and expects that God, the thrice
holy God of the Bible, is going to approve of him and will accept
his works. Now, fallen man is totally ignorant
of God's righteousness. Number one, he is ignorant of
God's character of righteousness. Where do you find a sinner that
is intelligent enough to be able to talk to you about the attributes
of the God of the Bible? I believe the chief attribute
of the God of the Bible is holiness. I believe that God is a holy
God, and one of the first things that God reveals to a sinner,
I think, when he regenerates him, is his holiness. God reveals
who he is. God reveals his righteous character.
And this generation don't know anything about righteousness
because they don't know He that is righteous. They know nothing
about Him. They've received no revelation
from Him concerning His righteousness and His holiness. Man is ignorant
of the character of God. His character is the character
of righteousness. And we must remember that. And
also I believe that man is ignorant of God's requirement of righteousness. He's ignorant of it. Find the
natural man. And he believes that he can do
the best he can and that God's going to accept it and God's
going to receive him into the kingdom. He doesn't realize God's
requirement of righteousness. He's ignorant of it. Well, I'm
here today to tell you that God demands a perfect righteousness
out of anybody that He associates with. That God won't associate
with any man that's not as righteous as He is. And this generation
of religious people are not going to the Kingdom of Heaven. They're
not in the Kingdom of Heaven. And they're not going to be with
God throughout eternity because they are not righteous enough
to be with Him. in eternity. He will not accept
them, approve of them, and receive them into His sight. He won't
do it. I say this generation is ignorant
of God's requirement of righteousness. Nobody's going to heaven unless
they're righteous. You can't stand in the presence
of God in your sin and you fall in nature. You've got to be righteous
before you can enter into God's kingdom. And then also this generation
is ignorant of God's accomplishment of righteousness in Christ. How many people do you know how
God, how many people that you meet knows how that God makes
a man righteous? How many people know what it
takes to get to heaven? How many people know how it is
that God makes a man so that he can be received and be accepted
by him? How many people know the message?
How many people know how God justifies and saves the sinner? How many people know that? Well,
the scripture talks about in Romans 10 about the Jews being
ignorant of God's righteousness and they go about to establish
their own righteousness and this is due to their ignorance. They
don't know anything about God establishing a righteousness.
They don't know anything about God making men righteous apart
from his law. They don't know anything about
God saving a man by pure grace. They know nothing about that.
And this generation of religious people know nothing about it
either. They know nothing about God's accomplishment of righteousness
in Christ. And that's why it behooves those
who know the gospel to preach the gospel and to make that message
very clear, very plain to all that sit under the sound of their
voice. Now being ignorant of both the
righteousness of God and a man being both of God's righteousness
and his own sinfulness for all the man he ever goes about like
these Jews to establish his own righteousness. Fallen Adam, as
we mentioned, made an apron of fig leaves by which he hoped
to meet with God's approval. His firstborn son followed his
example and followed his nature that he received from his father. And Cain offered God, you remember,
a bloodless sacrifice which he had produced by the works of
his own hands. But God despised it. God would
not accept it. God would not receive it. He
would have nothing to do with Adam's fig leaves, and he would
have nothing to do with Cain's bloodless offering. He wouldn't have anything to
do with it. God despised them both and set out to provide a
covering. As you remember, it was typified
in Abel's offering, in Abel's sacrifice. God provided also
for Adam, you remember, killing the innocent animals and providing
a covering for Adam and Eve. And this is a picture of salvation,
a picture of the garments of salvation, the picture of the
innocent suffering, that the guilty might be clothed and covered
and that the guilt might be hid before God. Now then, no one,
and listen to me carefully, no one can or ever will trust Christ
until he sees that it's utterly impossible for him to produce
any righteous work that is acceptable to God. Yet fallen man, ignorant,
sinful man, and men and women continue the vain and the futile
work of trying to establish their own righteousness before God. They take the bricks from the
kiln of their corrupt hearts and the slime of their defiled
hands for mortar and try to build a tower of Babel that will bring
them to heaven by works of legal obedience. Moral reformation,
personal sacrifice, self-denial, devotion, sacramentalism, pittance,
and religious zeal. Foolish man hopes to establish
righteousness for himself. But when he has done the very
best, when he has done the very best, He can do, and he offers
it up to God. Giving God his righteousness
is like throwing a vile, discarded, loathsome, minstreless cloth
into the face of a thrice holy God. Because Isaiah 64 and verse
6 says that all of our righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of
God. And so when a man has done all
that he can to try to establish a righteousness for himself,
and he throws it in God's face, I say to you, it's like throwing
this filthy rag into the face of God, and God will not have
it. Well, the question comes to me, how good does a person
have to be to get to heaven? Really, how good does a person
have to be? Does he have to be sincerely
good? Does it have to be outwardly good? No, my friend, let me tell
you how good that a man has to be to get to heaven. He has to
be perfectly good. Perfectly good. He's got to be,
and I said something about this a little bit before, but let
me say it again because many, many people do not understand
it. And when you come to see what I'm saying to you, I mean
when you get the wax out of your ears and when you hear what I'm
saying to you, I think it'll make a difference in your heart
attitude toward the gospel and toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let me tell you how good you have to be to get to heaven. You've got to be as good as God
himself. That's how good you have to be.
As good as God himself. Now you can forget about all
of this stuff that you've been trying to do to get to heaven.
You can forget it. You're out of business. You're
not able to comply. You're not able to come up to.
You cannot meet the standard. You've got to come down, don't
you see, to the recognition that it's hopeless. That you cannot
go to heaven. There's no way. You're a bankrupt
sinner and there's nothing about you to commend you to God but
your sin. And that's the only thing that
will. And Christ is for sinners. He's for sinners. And anytime
you bring anything in your hand unto the Lord Jesus Christ, you
un-Christ Christ, because Christ is the total Savior for sinners. And you cannot be saved any other
way except by Him. Now, man's definition of righteousness
depends entirely upon his definition and his understanding of God.
Now if a man or a woman, they don't know God. They've never
had the revelation of God to their heart. They never read
this book and God's never been pleased to reveal himself in
his perfection and attributes unto them. Then their understanding
and their definition of righteousness, you know, they can pay their
bills and they can do a little something for the various charitable
organizations in the land. And they can, you know, once
in a while maybe give a little something here and there to different
people. And they really think they're
righteous. And they can live a good life
outwardly. Morally, they can live a good life. And they think
they're somebody. They really do. But that's only
because they think they're somebody. Only because they're ignorant
of the character of God and they do not know. Their definition
of righteousness is based upon their definition and their understanding
of God. And it's a warped understanding.
And therefore they think they're alright. Okay, now listen. The problem is Most have never
seen God in His glorious holiness. Once a sinner sees God in His
holiness, he will cease forever to speak. of his own goodness,
his personal holiness, and his self-righteousness, and he will
cry like Isaiah did in Isaiah chapter six, verses one through
six, woe is me, because he said, I am undone. Woe is me, I'm undone. I've seen God lifted up. I've
seen the king and his righteousness and his beauty. I've seen him
in all of his holiness, and I am undone. Woe is me. And then with
Job he will say, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear,
but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself. He would go on to say, behold,
I am thou. This is Job speaking. Why? Because He said, mine eye seeth
thee, mine eye seeth thee. Now who can stand then in the
presence of the holy Lord God? Who can stand in his presence?
Well, if you turn back to Psalm chapter 24, let me read to you
a couple of verses here. Psalm chapter 24, and listen
to these words in this Psalm. In verse three it says, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. Then, if you would,
look in the book of Matthew, chapter 17, and I want you to
look at verse 5. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Now this is a tremendous verse
of scripture here. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. I'm talking about who can stand
in the presence of the Holy Lord God. There isn't anyone here
who is pure enough, who is clean enough, who is righteous enough,
holy enough to stand in the presence of the Lord God. but Jesus Christ
can stand in God's presence and he, the scripture says, that
he is well-pleasing unto God and that he's the beloved one
of the Lord, well-pleasing unto God and that God does accept
him. Now then, no son of Adam can
ever stand in the presence of God in his own dear son that
he forsook him and killed him. That's what he did. Now are we
better than the angels? Are we purer than the heavens?
Dare we imagine that God will accept us with our polluted works
when he killed his own son for sin? Dare we believe that God's
going to accept us or accept our righteousness or our personal
works? Do we believe that? Well, certainly
we do not. Only one, listen to me now, I'm
going to close, I'm not going to keep you very long, only one
who is himself equal to God can stand in the presence of God
and please Him. Only one who's equal with God.
can stand in the presence of God and please Him. That righteousness
which God requires, only God can give. The righteousness,
listen to me now, the righteousness which God requires, God only
can supply. God only can give. Now if you ever get to heaven,
you've got to believe what I'm telling you. I'm here this morning
as God's spokesman to you, and I'm telling you that if you ever
go to heaven, you've got to believe what I'm telling you. And that
is that God requires a perfect righteousness, and what God requires,
only God can provide. You cannot provide it. And you'd
rest better. You would sleep better. You could
quit taking your tranquilizers if you just simply believe that
God provides what He demands. And that's the message of grace.
That's what grace is about. God provides all He demands. And sinner you can rest in this
because this is the truth. This is the gospel truth. This
is the good news that the righteousness that he requires, he provides. And that's the truth this generation
is ignorant of. And that's the truth, that these
workmongers, that they will not tell anybody about, number one,
because they don't know it to begin with, and number two, they
just simply would not want to put themselves out of business,
and they wouldn't want to make anybody feel that this was all
free grass. It's all free gratis, my friend.
It's all by grace. If any poor sinner gets out of
this life and goes into eternal glory and walks the streets of
a pure heaven, it'll be only by the pure grace of God because
God provided everything for him that he demanded of him. That's
the only way he'll get there. I don't know if anybody around
here's got any ability to do anything else than trust Christ. What, does anyone here think
that they can do better than the angels? That they're purer
in the sight of God than the heavens themselves? What about
God's son? God killed him when he made him
sin. And you're nothing but sin. And
unless God provides all for you, you'll never enter into heaven.
Yet, let me say this. While God must provide and give
it to us, yet it must be the work of a man. or it is of no
value to men. Blessed be God, there is a man. There is a man who is himself
God, who has magnified the law and made it honorable. He's brought
in an everlasting righteousness by his perfect obedience to the
laws of man. Even the very righteousness of
God he's brought in. He has satisfied the law's justice
by dying under the curse of the law. You know these verses here
in Matthew chapter five, I love these verses. Jesus said, think
not that I'm come to destroy, I'm not come to destroy. He said,
I've come to fulfill the law. I've come to obey it. I've come
to satisfy the demands of it. I've come to fulfill it on the
behalf of my people. so that those that believe in
me have a perfect law righteousness that the law cannot touch them
because they're guiltless under the law because they have my
life, they have my righteousness. I live vicariously for them and
my righteousness is theirs before the law. The law can't touch
them anymore. The law can't lay a hand on them
anymore. For he said, for verily I say
to you, till heaven and earth pass away, One jot tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now, beloved, it's wonderful
to be able to talk about a law fulfilled, to talk about a God
satisfied to talk about full justification through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glorious message
of gospel preachers, the glorious message of New Testament churches,
is that the law is fulfilled and that Christ was obedient
unto the Father, and that He satisfied God on the behalf of
all the elect, and that all of the sins of God's elect had been
imputed unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and He died under the wrath of
God and vengeance of God on the gory tree, and that now all of
the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto those who believe
upon Him. and those who have given faith
to believe on Him and they're righteous in God's sight because
He satisfied God by His dying under the curse of the law and
He lives forever, the Lord Jesus does. He lives forever to give
righteousness and eternal life to sinners. The man The man God
is Jesus Christ the Lord. That's who he is. Jesus Christ
the Lord. He's the one that's provided
us full redemption in the Lord Jesus. So we have imputed righteousness
unto the account of the believer. And then we have imparted righteousness. We have imparted righteousness. Now listen to me. When man fell
in sin, he lost his righteous nature. And in regeneration,
in regeneration, God has been pleased to impart the principle
of righteousness into the soul of his people. And the only difference
between a child of God, and I'm not saying a child of God is
sinless, No, I'm not saying we still have the same old Adamic
nature. We've still got a body of flesh
that is sinful and weak. But listen to me. Listen to me.
The only difference between a child of grace, a child of God, a member
of the living family of God, and a whirling sinner is that
in the new birth, in regeneration, that God imparted unto them a
principle of righteousness. And they don't hate sin because
they are different. They don't stand and oppose sin
because there's something different about them. They hate sin. They stand and oppose sin. They
love righteousness. They love holiness. They're seeking
after holiness and seeking after the right way in this world because
they have had righteousness imparted unto them. Now my friend, that's
all the sanctification you'll ever have as long as you live
in this world. In the body of flesh is that
principle of righteousness which God implanted in you when he
saved you, when you were born of the Spirit. And all this business
about some people getting better than others, there isn't any
truth to that. You're only as good as the righteousness
that's been imparted to you. That's as good as you are. And
you're never gonna be any better than that. And that's what makes
a person a child of God. That's what makes him want. That's
what makes him have a single eye to the glory of Christ. And
he looks at things and he doesn't say, well, is there any bad in
this? He doesn't do that. He says, will it honor Christ? Will it glorify Christ? Will
it be for his honor if I do it? Will it honor him? Listen, a
true child of God is interested in how his life affects Christ. and the reflection that it brings
upon him in the world, what he does, how he acts, his attitude,
and his walk. How does it speak of Christ? There's something in a man that
makes him, I mean a believer, in a child of God, there's something
in him that makes him concerned about that. and that's imparted
righteousness and you get it when you're born of the spirit
and all this other stuff just so much farther we hear about
you know people say well i i believe that there's such a thing as
a as super spiritual people i believe there's such a thing as people
over here you know that they're just they're high they're they're
just great they're just godly people and they're different
than than other christians well no It's not really that they're
different. There's not that much difference
in them. You see, the difference that
is made is the imparted righteousness, and that's where it all begins.
That's where every bit begins. And you get an individual, he
has no concern whatsoever for the glory of Christ. He has no
concern for the word of God. He has no appetite for it, no
desire toward it. And everything that you get him
to do, you got to push him and shove him. And you got to trick
him into it. You got to slip him in like you
slip a shoe, just like you slip your foot into a shoe with a
shoe spoon. And you always gotta be trying to tempt him and get
him, you know, somewhere or another keep him attracted to this thing.
Forget it. Forget it. That individual don't
have the first principle, he doesn't have the righteousness
of Christ imputed and imparted. And when he gets it imparted
to his soul, then you won't have to beg him. You won't be somebody
have to around to watch him when he's on that side of town. Don't have to pay much attention
to him over here because there's people around here he knows.
And he's not that type person. He's the type person, same everywhere,
same everywhere where you meet him, he's the same. He's got
one concern, one desire, and that is the glory of Christ.
How's this thing gonna affect Christ and his name and his honor? imparted righteousness. Now you
see, that's what I believe. This is exactly what I believe
as a child of God. This is what I believe. And if
you're different, it's because there's righteousness been imparted.
You haven't generated any. You've not become a bit better
in the flesh, you're just as bad in the flesh as you was.
You've got still the appetites for flesh that you had all along. The only difference is something
in us that God imparts that makes us to look at things differently
and to see things out of a different eye. and makes us want to do
and to be what he would have us to do and what he would have
us to be. There's just something in there.
We're not, we don't measure up all the time, but it's there.
And that's the difference. Imparted righteousness. Well,
I just don't believe that God's gonna save a man and say, now
it's up to you. You started in the spirit, now
you're gonna be made perfect in the flesh and by the flesh. No way, no way, no way shall
you perform. And when there is holiness, unto
the Lord, and when there is victory, and when there is praise, it'd
be wonderful if God so deals with you, so that whenever you
do enjoy a little victory, a little praise, and out from all of the
old corruption and vileness of your heart, once in a while,
you feel this desire toward the Lord. You feel a little something
in your soul toward Him. And you've been wayward. You've been walking contrary
and in a rebellious state to some degree. And you've been
murmuring and complaining. And you've been having a difficult
time trying to maintain a walk with God. And every once in a
while there's a little something there toward the Lord that draws
you up and keeps pulling you up. Listen, you can just give
the glory to God, can't you? You can praise the Lord. You
can praise the Lord. Listen, I've been down so far that I
didn't think I'd ever get up. and the Lord brings just a glimmer
of, there's a desire toward him, there's something in here that
makes a man want to get closer to God, even when God is chasing
him with a rod. There's something in his soul
that makes him want to just bow down before God, even though
God is whipping him, and bow before him. And that's this imparted
righteousness that I'm talking about. And it's the only thing
that keeps you on the track. It's the only thing that keeps
you coming back. It's the Lord continuing to draw you toward
Him, and that's what He's put in you. That's what He planted
in you when He saved you, and that's the difference. Well,
I hope this morning that the Lord will use this to some degree
in all of our hearts, all of our lives. And if you're here
this morning and you're not a child of God, I don't know whether
you are or whether you're not. I wouldn't even hazard a guess.
But if you're here this morning, you're not a child of God. Remember this, that your righteousness
is gonna have to be better than all them scribes and Pharisees,
and ain't nobody I ever met could beat them. Now, I've met some
pretty legal-minded people, but you couldn't beat that bunch.
They had it down. I mean, they had her down pat.
And Jesus said, well, that'll never do. There's a righteousness
that's required that's more than what they had. And that righteousness
is the righteousness that God has manifest, that's been manifest
apart from the law. It's that righteousness which
comes through faith in the perfect one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you this morning
for your word and for the truth of the gospel. Lord, enable us
to believe this truth and to have peace thereby. The kingdom
of God is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.
Grant us, our Father, we may rejoice at the righteousness
that you've imputed, accredited to our account, and the righteousness
which you have imparted into our souls. We thank you for what
you've done for us and in us, and we ask that you'd continue
that work that the book of Philippians, Paul mentioned it. He said, do
all things without murmuring and disputing, For it is God
which worketh in you both the will and do of his good pleasure. So continue the work, O God,
in us, and strengthen us, Lord, even unto the day of the coming
of the Son of Man from glory. Grant us, our Father, that we
may be comforted by the hope of the gospel, and that we should
be stayed in these testing and trying days, and that our hearts
may be filled with faith toward Thee. Help us to believe Thee,
our Father, in spite of all of the afflictions of life, and
the tests, and the trials, and the struggles of soul. Grant
us to believe You and be established. We pray it for Christ's sake,
in His name, amen.

Righteous

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Righteous

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