Tonight our text is found in
the book of Proverbs, if you'd like to turn there. Proverbs
chapter 10. Solomon continues his contrast
that we have seen in this entire chapter thus far of those that
they are called the righteous and the wicked. those who have
been called out of darkness into light and those who are left
in darkness, those who are made to believe and those who are
left to themselves. Upon this understanding, We must
always ask, who maketh thee to differ? At no point in time do
we ever gather together and think I've really arrived at something,
I've really figured out something, I've really discovered something,
giving glory to the flesh. It was the Lord that came to
us. It was the Lord that called us, it was the Lord that saved
us, it was the Lord that taught us. Otherwise we wouldn't have
been called, we wouldn't have been saved, we wouldn't have
been taught. And so we must say, who maketh thee to differ? The
Lord gets all the glory. If we're chosen in Christ, it's Him that
did the choosing. If we're saved by grace, it's
Christ that did the saving. It's God that did the saving.
And if we're called out of darkness into His light, it's because
He is the light we were called to by His grace. John 1 tells
us to confirm that whoever is born from above is not born by
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, nor the will of
blood. but of God. It's God's will that births somebody
into his family. It's the Lord that makes nobody
a somebody. I wanna repeat that. It's the
Lord that makes nobody into a somebody. You know, I'm just a nobody telling
others about a somebody that can save anybody. That's the
truth of the matter, isn't it? Only the Lord can make a nobody
into a somebody by his grace. And it's in the Lord Jesus Christ
according to his will. And in doing so, he creates a
need that only he can fill. Creates a need only he can fill.
He creates a thirst that only he can bring the fountain of
living water to and quench that thirst. He makes a hunger that
only he can fill. The Lord said, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled.
He creates a void that only he can make whole. He shows us how
broken we are and shows us that he's the potter and we're the
clay. He shows us that he can make us into a vessel of honor,
but it's all by grace. It's not what we do. What glory
does the clay have in the pot? It's all the potter's glory,
isn't it? The potter made that. Romans chapter nine tells us,
the potter hath power over the clay to make one lump of honor
and another to dishonor. That was right after he said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And the point of that
was, is that those who the Lord's purpose to predestinate, those
who the Lord purpose to save, they're called the vessels of
honor. And those who are not, they're called the vessels of
dishonor and it's all the Lord that does it. The Lord creates
a desire that only he can satisfy. He makes a necessity, he makes
himself a necessity that only he can supply. Now, I said all
that because what our title is tonight is the desire of the
righteous, the desire of the righteous. Let's read Proverbs
chapter 10, verse 24 through the end of the chapter says,
the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him. but the desire
of the righteous shall be granted. As the whirlwind passeth, so
is the wicked no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation. As vinegar to teeth and as smoke
to the eyes, so is the slugger to them that send him. The fear
of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall
be shortened. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness,
but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The way of the
Lord is strength to the upright, but destruction shall be to the
workers of iniquity. The righteous shall never be
removed, but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. The mouth
of the just bringeth forth wisdom, but the forward tongue shall
be cut off. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but
the mouth of the wicked speaketh forwardness. What does he mean,
the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable? What does
the believer say? Whatever the Lord has said, truth,
Lord, you're right and I'm wrong. You're the potter, I'm the clay.
You're holy, I'm full of sin, you're truth, I'm the lie. That's
what the righteous knows what to say. That's what the Lord's
done. Now I want tonight, if the Lord
be my help, our help, you to hear and me to speak, I want
to look at this two ways. Number one, I want you to notice
verse 24 again. the fear of the wicked, it shall
come upon him. But the desire of the righteous
shall be granted." Now, he didn't say the desire of the righteous
people. He said the. Righteous. There's only one righteous, and
that's God. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
first and foremost. And if I am to be righteous, I must be found
in him. So first, I want to look at what
it's saying here. What would be the Lord Jesus
Christ's desire? What is his desire? A lot of
men say that the Lord's desire is that all men would be saved,
and that's not true. If God wanted everybody saved,
they'd be saved. His desire was to do the will of the father. That was his desire, to please
the father, to honor his part in the covenant of grace, to
save his people from their sin. And that was all about honoring
his heavenly father out of love towards the father. That was
the Lord Jesus Christ's desire. Second thing I want to notice
is we are called Jehovah sit can you as well the Lord our
righteousness his bride is so we can apply this to us only
through the lens of the gospel being in Christ Jesus. We are
the Lord's righteous people he's made us the so what is our as
his chosen people, what is our desire that's the second thing
I want to look at. So what is the desire of Christ? Well, it
was to honor the Father, as I've already said. His desire was
to redeem God's elect, to lay his life down for the sheep,
to offer up himself the sacrifice that would bring about the joyous
and triumphant salvation that we enjoy freely by the Lord's
grace. That was his desire. That was his desire. And it was
all to honor his father. See, the covenant of grace wasn't,
we are the benefactors of the covenant of grace, but it was
for the Lord's glory. Covenant of grace was entirely
for the Lord's glory. So you and I didn't get any of
it, but it required the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
required obedience, perfect obedience that you and I can't do. We can't
obey God's law. We can't obey God perfectly,
can we? Not in ourself, not in our flesh.
That's evident in scripture. But the Lord Jesus Christ could
because he had a nature, the nature of God, not just on the
inside, but on the outside. He was the God man. He was 100% man and 100% God. and thus he could not sin. Somebody said that whenever Satan
came to him, it was attempted. He tempted him to sin. And that's
true. Scripture says he came to tempt him, but he couldn't
sin. If he could have sinned, he wouldn't
be God. He wouldn't have. God can't sin. That's one thing
in scripture that's clear. Remember the seven things I preached
on. You know, it's probably a year ago now, time flies so fast,
but the seven things God cannot do, he can't lie, he can't sin,
was another one. I mean, it's just, he can't do
that because he said he can't, and he can't lie, so that's evident. The Lord's desire was to resume
his people, even if it meant drinking of the cup. The cup
of the fuel, fury, and wrath of God. Even if it meant being
made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Even if it meant complete separation
from the Father. On the cross he said, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Even if it meant being forsaken
of his Father, he wanted to obey, his desire was to obey his Father,
to honor his Father, to redeem his people. He knew that he would have to
shed his blood. Now we think about death and we have no idea
the gruesome agony that the Lord endeared on the cross. But a
lot of men put emphasis on the external portion of that crucifixion. His soul was made an offering
for sin. I can't enter into that, neither
can you. But we believe it by faith, by grace. We believe that
his, that's our only hope. His perfect soul was made an
offering for sin. The torments were not just external, it was
internal as well. The Lord's soul was offered up
to the Father. He knew what had to be done. And as he prayed in the garden,
his desire was the Father's will. He said, Father, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. Why did he pray the first part
if he's one of the Lord's will to be done? To show us, to make
our petitions known unto God, to teach us, to teach us. Whenever you think, should I
pray that? Absolutely, but make sure to finish it with not my
will, but thine be done. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
prayed. And that's a good example for
us, isn't it? He was forsaken of his father
so that you and I wouldn't be forsaken. His soul was made an
offering for sin. His soul endured the full wrath and fury
of God so that we would never have to endure the wrath and
the fury of God. His blood was shed for the remission
of sin so that our sin would be put away, cast as far as east
is from the west, they're gone. He knew that he had to do all
these things and yet that was his desire to please the Father. It wasn't some kind of Well,
it's certainly a dread, but it wasn't a dread like a sinful
dread like you and I. He talks about in Psalm, prophetically,
how the terrors passed him about. I mean, there's no way anybody
would look forward to the torment that he endured. He was God,
I understand that, but he prayed, let this cup pass from me. But
yet he set his eyes like a flint to the cross and he would not
waver and he would not deter. He would not take a detour. He
went straight there knowing what was going to have to happen to
him and he laid his life down gladly. Why? To please his father,
to redeem your soul, to redeem your soul. This was his desire. Now, why did he do that? Did
he do that to make a way? No, he is the way. He is the way. Did he do that
so if you make a choice, you can have him? No, he made the
choice to save whom he chose to on the cross. He saved these
people from their sin. How do you know? Because he was
raised because we'd been justified freely by his grace. Father was
satisfied with that. He died so that we would be made
one with him and one with the Father. Now when he sees you
and he sees me, his elect people, he sees the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He doesn't see you as unworthy
anymore. Matter of fact, he's never seen
you as unworthy. That's the glorious news of the gospel. He's always
seen his people in Christ. Never once has he seen sin upon
you. Is that not incredible to you?
Never once. He's seen you as the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was his desire. That was
his, and he accomplished it. By himself, he accomplished it.
He honored his father by saving his people from their sin. Now, I'm just gonna go ahead
and tell you what the righteous, the Lord's people's desire, it's
the second thing. Go ahead and tell you what that
is, it's him. He is the desire. His finished work is the desire.
His blood is the desire. And as we go back through, I'm
going to give us a couple of allegories in the scripture,
a couple of stories that happened. And I want us to see, not a couple,
there's several, but I'm not going to have us turn. I'm going
to have a see that every one of God's people desire the same
thing. They desire grace and they desire
mercy. And those both come from one
singular source. If you want mercy from God and
you want grace from God, like I do, you have to go to Christ
to get it. You cannot go to the law to get
it. We cannot go to our flesh to get it. It has to come through
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only source of grace
and mercy. He's the only source of faith.
I want faith. I got to go to him. I've got
to go to him. So the question is, what is the
desire of the righteous in Christ? We've already established who's
in Christ. It's his chosen people. What is their desire? I did something
that I thought I didn't know what would happen, but I don't
know if you notice AIs everywhere these days. They call them AIs.
You can type in something. It gives you long information.
I actually typed in a couple of passages, like John 5 and
different things. I said, what does John 5 mean?
And it literally said, only the ones that the Lord chose will
come to him. I'm like, well, the computer got it more than
a lot of people get it. That's kind of wild, isn't it?
But I typed this in. I typed in the question, what
is the desire of the righteous in Christ. And it said this,
and I'm going to go ahead and tell you this is not what we believe.
Okay, this is nowhere near what we believe. But I want you to
understand this is what most modern day religion, most man
made religions believe this is what they believe. The desire
of the righteous, they say, is to focus on good, Blessing others,
first of all, you can't bless anybody, neither can I, only
God can bless us, we know that. Focus on good, blessing others,
and seeking God while following religious traditions in order
to achieve spiritual fulfillment by living according to a moral
and divine principles. That's not it. That is not the
desire of the righteous. That is the desire of a man to
say, look at me living my moral and my divine principles. Look
at me keeping these traditions. Look at me. I have attained spiritual
fulfillment. I've attained spiritual fulfillment.
No, that's not true. They have attained a morality
whereby they see themselves as better than others and they call
it spiritual fulfillment, but it's not. If we see something
on the outside, it's not spiritual fulfillment that we're seeing.
It's fleshly desire that's been fulfilled. It's fleshly props
and look at me, look what I have done. I feel so fulfilled. I've
really been living a good life lately. I hadn't been doing those
things I used to do as often. I feel so much better about myself.
That's not spiritual fulfillment. No, no, no, that's not it. God's
elect have one desire and it's to be found in Christ. That's
it. That's my desire. That's your
desire. That's my one desire to be found in Christ. You want
to water everything down to the very bottom. You know how you
get water and you evaporate some of it and down at the very end
of the pot, you wanna water it all the way down, bubble it all
the way down, find out what's there at the bottom, that's the desire
to be found in Christ. That's the root, that's the very
start. Our seeking God and spiritual
fulfillment is our only hope, it's one and the same, it's that
we're found in Christ, it's not what we do. Spiritual fulfillment
is found in Him, not me. Spiritual fulfillment is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ, not me. I'm not gonna be spiritually
fulfilled looking at myself. To be spiritually fulfilled,
you could talk about being spiritually minded. Spiritually minded is
life, but the carnal mind is death. What does that spiritually
mind mean? You're looking to Christ. That's spiritually minded.
It's not looking at self whatsoever. No one has nor ever will achieve
spiritual fulfillment by what they do. No one ever has, nor
ever will, achieve spiritual fulfillment by what they do.
Ask King David, are you spiritually fulfilled, King David, by what
you do? What do you think the answer would be? He didn't get
spiritual fulfillment out of what he did. He got spiritual
fulfillment out of the peace that the Savior gave to him,
the joy that God gave to him. That's fulfilling, isn't it?
To be found in him, not having my righteousness, which is of
the law, but having his righteousness, which is given freely by his
grace. That's spiritual fulfillment. Men may lie to themselves and
feel accomplished with their morals or their sacrifice or
their service, but God looks at the heart, doesn't he? God
looks at the heart. He trials the reins. He looks
deep down. He told the Pharisees, you're
white sepulchers is all you are. You're full of dead man's bones.
The outside looks pretty, because you've bleached the outside.
So you don't have the mold on there anymore. You don't have
all the algae. And you ever seen a white, anybody have like a
white stepping stone or something in your garden? We had one. And
it didn't take it long. It got dirty. It got really dirty.
And then green algae was growing on it. And you had mud on it
and dirt on it and everything else. They're like, oh, we've got to
clean up our lives. Let's get the pressure washer out and clean it up. Now
everybody will think we're something special. No. Why did sepulchers? That's all that is. And what's
that a picture of? Well, a sepulcher, the Lord,
he looks all the way down to the heart. He's full of dead
men's bones. He sees that the heart's dead
still yet in his eyes. It's not spiritual fulfillment
at all. It's looking to self. Christ is our fulfillment. He is everything to the Lord's
people. We know that we cannot please
God in our flesh. But here's something, here's
some good news I'll read to you. God's told us that we are not
in the flesh, but we're in the spirit. Listen to this Romans
eight verse nine, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the
spirit. And if so, that the spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ,
he is none of his. You know what that means? We're
a new creature in Christ. We're in the spirit. We're in
the spirit. You say, well, I can't see it.
You're not supposed to. It's spiritual. This is the flesh. We can't see it. We just believe
it because he said it. That's our fulfillment. Everything
required by God, Christ provided. God provided in Christ. Christ
provided for us. The Lord provided it all. That's
spiritual fulfillment. We don't need to do anything
else. He is, if we have obtained him,
He's the fulfillment. There's nothing. Paul said, I
pressed toward the mark. What's the mark? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the mark. The prize. What's the prize?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's so simple, isn't it? That's
the theme all throughout. Scripture, Jacob was facing certain
death. His brother Esau was coming towards
him. He had his families. He didn't
have an army, but Jacob had several strong men with him. I'm sorry,
Esau had several strong men with him and he was coming. Well,
Jacob didn't know Esau's intention. And if I'll remind you, the last
time he saw Esau, he stole the birthright and ran. And that
had been 20 years ago or so. And so he didn't know what Esau
was going to do to him. He scared to death. And so he meets the
Lord meets with him. So I should say that Lord comes
to him that night. And he says to the Lord, bless
me. And the scripture says that he wrestled with the Lord all
night long. And he said, I will not let go
until you bless me. And I've heard men talk about
Such silly things regarding that. You probably heard me say this,
but they say, well, we need to really wrestle with God. We really,
you know, we need to start wrestling with God. How do you, how do
you, that doesn't make sense, does it? Now that word wrestle
means to cleave to. You've had children, some of
you, grandchildren, even the children here, you know how a
kid gets scared and they cleave, they grab ahold of you. uh, Jacob
was holding on for dear life. I mean, it was God, the Lord
Jesus Christ could have broke free of him anytime. You understand
what I'm saying? He, Jacob didn't restrain the
Lord's power because it's Christ. It's the Messiah. It's the savior.
Tell me, tell me my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. My
brother's coming to kill me. I'm going to die. Give me the
blessing. Tell me that I'm not going to
die and go to hell. I know that's what I deserve.
I'm the trickster. I'm the supplanter. Give me Christ. I've got to have
him. I've got to have him. It's the
same cry as all the other believers in the scripture. It's your cry
too, is it not? David, or Moses, what did Moses say? Lord, show
me your glory. Show me your glory. He desired to see the Lord's
glory. What is the Lord's glory? You won't see a better example
of the Lord's glory than what happened on the cross of Calvary.
Whenever the Lord put away the sin of his people once and for
all, satisfied the law's demand, satisfied justice, satisfied
wrath. And he sat down after he was resurrected because the
work's finished. That's the Lord's glory. But
Moses said, no man has looked upon my face and live. You can't
look on my face and live. And Moses said, or the Lord said,
but, but there is a place. There's a place nigh to me and
I will put you upon a rock and I will place you in the cleft
of the rock. And whenever my glory passes
by, I'll show you my hinder parts and you won't die. What did Moses
want? He needed to be hidden from the
fury of God's wrath. He needed to be covered. You
know, I love what the Lord said about, I'll hide you under the
shadow of my wing. That's what that cleft of the
rock is. It's the shadow of the wing. It's a place wherein the
Lord's people are placed secure by God alone to where we will
not endure wrath. We will not endure judgment.
Justice has already been satisfied. We don't have to worry about
death coming into us because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done. So what did Moses want? Same thing that Jacob wanted.
He wanted Christ. Let me see your glory. Let me
see your glory. Show me Christ. David, oh, he, David's, we can
relate to David in a lot of ways. He, he slew a giant and he ran
from a man named Saul. I mean, explain that to me. I
just, that's us, isn't it? One day you feel like you can,
Well, you feel happy, and peaceful, and joyous, and everything's
fine. And it might be 10 minutes later, you just feel like the
whole thing is going to go kaput. I mean, that's just how it is,
isn't it? It just seems like everything gets flipped upside
down. And you start murmuring, and complaining, and worrying,
and fretting, and anxiety sets in, and all these things. Well,
how do I know that? Because I do the same thing. We're in the
same mold. It's the mold of the flesh. It's
the sinful flesh that's upon our bodies. David. decided to take matters into
his own hand one night, because he saw a beautiful woman bathing.
And he said, I want her to be my wife, not Uriah. And did you
know that Uriah was one of his best men? After the act had happened,
Uriah came back. And Uriah wouldn't even go down
to his house. He stayed at the King's Inn. He said, well, I
got to still serve. I can't just go down there and
be with my wife, because I got to serve you. I got my brothers
out there still fighting. And there's no way. That's dishonorable
for me to go home. I mean, think about that. And
so David sends a charge back with him to give to, is it Josiah,
I believe was the captain, and put him on the furthest, hottest,
most forefront of the battle and he'll die. And that was the,
so that he died. That's what David murdered him.
I mean, he obviously not by his own hand, but by his own word
and therefore was guilty. Well, we might not be guilty
of all of those things, but we, in this sinful flesh that we
have, the Lord says, if you look upon a woman with a lust after
you've already committed adultery, you hate your brother without
a cause, You've already committed murder. The Lord's ways are not
our ways. He's much higher than ours. People justify themselves
based upon what they do, and they condemn others based upon
what they do. They justify themselves based upon their intentions and
condemn others based upon what they do. So what happened? Well,
time went on. Nathan came to David and told him, you are the
man. You're the man that did this. And David confessed, I
have sinned. Now, the glorious thing is in
Psalm 51 is his repentance prayer unto the Lord. He says, I was
born in sin and I would shape it iniquity. But what was his
hope? What was his hope? The very first part of that entire
chapter, Psalm 51, have mercy upon me. according to the multitude of
thy tender mercies blot out my transgression. Purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be made whiter
than snow. For I have sinned in thy presence. I have sinned in thy sight. He
went on to say, restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Restore the bones that thou hast
broken. What was his hope? Mercy. Where does mercy come
from? You want mercy from God. It comes from the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's it. It comes from nowhere else. Nowhere
else. Just the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. Solomon, David's son, he got
to the point. where all, he saw everything
as vanity. He had gardens, he had buildings,
he had singers, he had instrument players, I guess orchestra, if
you wanna call it that, whatever. He ate the finest food, he drank
the best wine, he had everything that your mind could fathom. And you know what his conclusion
was to all that? It's all vanity and vexation of spirit. It's
all vanity. And that wasn't a woe is me attitude,
that was like, this isn't it. I need something else. What was
that something else? Well, the Lord said to him, Solomon,
ask anything of my hand, it'll be given to you, anything. He
said, I want wisdom. Whose wisdom? Whose wisdom? He wanted Christ. He wanted Christ,
who is the wisdom of God. See, it's the same request for
every single believer. The desire of the believer, the
desire of the righteous, the Lord's chosen people, is Christ
alone. He is the one thing needful.
What about, told you there's several of these. What about
Jonah, the belly of the whale? What was his desire? Well, first
his desire was to rebel, then when he figured out that wasn't
gonna work, he wanted to get out of the belly of the whale,
the Lord gave him repentance. I find it amazing that it took him three
days and three nights to pray and ask the Lord for mercy. You
find that interesting? Well, you talk about stubborn.
I mean, that's the only thing I can, unless he was unconscious, I
don't know, but that's us. You know it is, that's us by
nature. What did he cry out? He said, Out of the belly of hell I have
cried. And his hope was grace. Lord, give me what I don't deserve. And Lord, give me mercy. Don't
give me what I deserve. For salvation is of the Lord. Where does mercy and grace come
from? Who is the Lord's salvation? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
wanted the same thing. Micah says, I will wait on the
Lord to show mercy. Habakkuk said, in wrath, remember
mercy. Malachi said, peace comes from
God. How does the Lord make peace
with you and I? The Lord Jesus Christ had to
do that. Where does mercy come from? It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Countleth the others prayed for a child. And I thought, it was
interesting, because I was thinking of all the prayers of people
like Hannah and different ones. Some of the prophets prayed that
their spouses would have children. I found it interesting they grieved
so heavily over wanting these children. And I realized the
covenant promised that the Messiah would come through one of the
Jewish women. So their desire was Christ. They wanted to have
the Messiah. That was their hope is that,
well, maybe if I have a baby, this will be the one, this will
be the one that will redeem us back to God. That was their hope.
Everyone that wanted a baby, they just didn't want a baby.
They wanted the Messiah. That's why they would make fun of the
women that couldn't have children. They would say, There's no way
that the Messiah can come through your lineage because you're not
able to have children. And then the ones that could have children,
they all found out they didn't have the Messiah. But you understand
what I'm saying. Luke 18, what was the publicans
plea? Pharisee said, Lord, I thank
you. I'm not like other men are. Pharisee said, I'm not like this
person. I'm not like Tim, I'm not like John, I'm not like all
these other people, I'm not like that publican back there. I tithe,
I fast, I pray, I'm a good guy. Publican would lift up his head
to the sky, beat upon his breast and said, Lord, have mercy on
me, the sinner. Where does mercy come from? Where
does his everlasting mercy flow from? Who does it emanate from? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
I'm the sinner. Have mercy and give me Christ.
That was the prayer. That was the prayer. I got one
more for us. I'm gonna run out of time. Thief
on the cross. What was his desire? Lord, remember
me. I wrote an article for Sunday
and it says he didn't know doctrine, he didn't know theology, he couldn't
be baptized. He wasn't able to walk an aisle. He wasn't able to pray a prayer.
He didn't pray the sinner's prayer. He said a few simple words out
of the midst of everything that was there. You saw the horrible
state of our Lord, physically speaking, and how he was marred
and beyond recognition. And yet, you know what that man
saw by the faith God gave him? He saw the King of glory. He
saw Jesus Christ. He saw God on the cross. He said,
this man's done nothing amiss, Lord. He acknowledged who he
was. Lord, remember me when thou come
into thy kingdom. Six words. You know what the
Lord said? Today, you'll be with me in paradise. Why? He desired the Lord. He desired mercy from the Lord. All these people had one desire,
it was the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the peace of God. He is
the wisdom of God. He is the mercy and the grace.
That's where it comes from. He is the righteousness of God.
He is our sanctification. He is our justification. We have
one desire as the Lord's people. One desire, and it's nothing
we see with these eyes. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our desire. He told us,
I am the way, I am the truth and I am the life. No man cometh
to the Father but by me. Understand something, these are
not just characteristics of Christ or descriptions of things that
he is. It's literally his titles, it's
his name. He is the way, capital W. He
is the truth, capital T. He is the life, capital L. To
desire Him is to desire life eternal. It's to desire His truth
and it's to desire the only way to God. Is He your desire? The desire
of the righteous? I love the fact that the desire
of the righteous comes from the Lord our righteousness. The only
reason you desire Him is because He first loved you and I. That's the only reason I love
Him. That's what He told us. The only reason I desire him
is because he first chose to save us by his grace. The desire is not to be, I heard
somebody say this week, trying to remember verbatim so I don't
mess it up, told me, he said, I used to attend church to become
closer to Jesus and more like him, and that way God would be
pleased, but he says now, He's like, I kind of quit doing that
because that was really hard. He said, so now I go because I'm
afraid of going to hell. And I feel like if I keep doing
this, that God will be pleased with my faithfulness to come
to church. I preached the gospel to that man. I did. And he received
it very well. I pray he comes and hears. He's
a Catholic. 65 years Catholic. And we don't
desire to be like Jesus Christ. We desire to be found in Jesus
Christ. We desire to be found robed in
his righteousness. We desire to be like that maniac,
when the Lord came to him, he was seated, he was clothed, and
he was in his right mind. He was in his right mind. And
that's our desire, isn't it? To be seated at the feet of our
Savior, to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and
be in our right mind, not having our own righteousness, but having
his, having our right mind. The desire of the righteous is
to be made like him, isn't it? It's to see him as he is and
speak in form to his image. To not be seen out of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's our desire to not ever
be seen out of him. I don't want to be seen in myself. I don't want the Lord to see
me in my putrid state of sin. I want him to see me in Christ.
being perfectly righteous because of what Christ has done. That's
my desire. That's the desire of the righteous,
isn't it? The desire of the righteous is simple. Have mercy on me,
the sinner. Save me by thy grace. Wash me
in thy blood. All my sins erase. Make me clean
from every sin and stain. Cause thy spirit to make me born
again. May I be found in Christ and
his righteousness, not by what I do, but by what he accomplished. Lord, save me. Lord, keep me. Lord, bring me home to you. That, give me Christ. That is the desire of the righteous. Save me from Satan. Save me from
my sin. Most of all, save me from myself. That's the desire of the righteous.
Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would
bless this to our understanding, that you would get all the glory
for it. Thank you for giving us you as our desire. In Christ's
name, amen.