Tonight we're going to be in
the book of Proverbs. Chapter 3. We're going to close
out. Chapter 3 tonight if the Lord.
Doesn't give another message, this will be it. Here in. Proverbs Chapter 3 and
out all throughout thus far, we've seen the parallel of the
wise and the fool, the believer in the nonbeliever. And you see
the word in the text, the word just. I've titled this message
the just and the unjust. Now there's only one truth. There's
only one truth. There's not many versions of
the truth. If somebody, you hear stories
from people all the time and you'll get one version of the
story from this person or one version from the story from that
person. And that's not the way it is with the gospel. The gospel
remains constant because it's a person. The truth remains constant
because of who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the truth. He is the truth. There are those
who despise the truth, and there's those who have been made to love
it all by his grace. The Lord warned the disciples
of this. He told them in Luke chapter 16, no servant can serve
two masters. for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Now I always was
told mammon means money, but that's not what it means. I'm
sure that's one definition, but the actual definition is treasure.
Treasure. Now that's different because
what you treasure, the scripture tells us, For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. Treasure could be power.
Treasure could be popularity. Treasure could be money. Treasure
could be many things. And so many people would rather
hold onto their treasure rather than coming to Christ. Now the
truth is this. Only those who are enabled come
to Christ. And only those who are able want
to come to Christ. Anybody that wants to come to
Christ can. because God's given them the
ability to do so. He said, come unto me. If we
come to him, he has to give the faith to do that. He has to give
the repentance to do that. So if we want to, he said, I
wouldn't know why I cast you out. Lord never turned away a
mercy beggar, did he? But they're those who despise
the truth. On the other hand, those that do not come, they're
unwilling to come because they hate the truth. Because where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In order
to come to Christ, We have to renounce ourself. We have to
renounce our treasure. See, we value self. We value
what we think. We value what we want. We value
what, you ask somebody, I've used this analogy before, but
we ask, if I ask everybody in the congregation, what do you
think the temperature would be set to in this room, you're gonna tell
me what temperature you think is best. And that's the temperature
you're most comfortable with. But maybe this lady over here,
or this fellow over there, maybe they like a different temperature
than you do. Well, it doesn't matter, I like this temperature. And
that's how we are by nature, isn't it? When it comes to the
Lord, the things of the Lord, we come to him by completely
relinquishing He makes us do it. We completely relinquish
our desire of self, our desire of what we want. He becomes the
object that we are infatuated with, that we love, that we must
have. We no longer are thinking of
ourself, we're thinking of him. I see myself now as the center. I see him as the savior, and
that's why we come to him. We're talking about just or unjust. Only the just come to the Lord.
Now ask yourself this. Don't ask yourself, are you just?
Ask yourself, do you love the truth? Do you love the truth
in your heart? Or do you love yourself? Because
truly, it's one or the other. This is all black and white.
There's no gray area with God. This is all his way or the highway.
Actually, it's his way or hell, truly. That's more of a direct
way to put it. With him, we have no power. We
have no ability to choose spiritual things. We're in the flesh, and
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Only those who love the truth
despise themselves. We no longer love ourself. We
no longer love ourself. Those who love themselves, on
the other hand, hate the truth. First Corinthians 4.7 says, who
maketh thee to differ? If you love yourself, it's because
God did it. It's not because you did it,
not because, if you love the Lord, rather, if you love the
Lord, it's because God did it. And if you hate the truth, it's
because the Lord's left you to yourself. He's the one that makes
us to differ. That verse goes on to talk about
what have you received that you have not been given? Where's
boasting then? It's excluded. There is no boasting
in this. God's the one that gets all the
glory. There is only one now, and ever have been, There's only
now and ever have been the righteous and the unrighteous. Those washed
in the blood of Christ and those that have not been. They're called
the just and the unjust. The just and the unjust. Let's
read our text here. Proverbs three, last three verses,
33 through 35. The curse of the Lord is in the
house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just. Surely
he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion
of fools. There are two parallels here
in these three verses. You have the just and the wicked. Now the wicked is the unjust.
You have the ones that are the scorners and the ones that are
given grace to believe. You're the ones that are blessed
of the Lord. You have those that are considered wise. The wise
shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
So we have parallels, fool and wise. Well, who maketh thee to
differ? It's the Lord. It's the Lord that makes us different.
The parallel here between the just and the unjust. Those that
are cursed, the unjust, they're brought to shame. He tells us
that, they're brought to shame. But to the just, we're given
grace. We're brought to wisdom. That's a person, isn't it? We've
learned that. Wisdom is a person. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then it says our inheritance is glory if we're wise. Well,
why are we wise? Because we were given grace to
see Christ. How can glory be our inheritance?
Because we were given grace to see Christ. You know, the blessing he mentions
here, so many men preach about getting blessed of the Lord.
And I'll say this, if you ever heard somebody, after you sneeze,
they say, bless you. That was an old superstition, that your
soul was leaving your body when you'd sneeze, and they had to
say, God bless you, or the demons could grab your soul, or something
like that. I looked it up. That's what they came up with.
Happened in the medieval times. Everybody was paranoid. But did
you know you cannot bless anybody? Only God can do that. Only God
can do that. The blessing is the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he says he blesses the habitation
of the just, he is the blessing. That's why they're just, is because
he is the blessing that's been given to them. This hour I want to look at who
is the just, when were they justified, Why were they justified and how
were they justified? And that's four. I hope to get
through that pretty quickly, but who are the just? The just are the chosen of God. The just are the ones that are
in the justifier. The just are the ones whom God
purposed to save before time ever began, before time ever
began. If we look at this, if we look
at these four things, the who, what, how, and why, if we look
at that, we'll know by the end of this whether we love the truth
or we hate the truth, whether we love it or not, and that's
one or the other. Somebody says, well, I'm indifferent to it.
Either you haven't heard it yet, or you don't understand it. I don't know. You either love
it or hate it. Ain't that true? It's how it is. If you've heard
it, truly heard it, you either love it or hate it. Only the just love the truth
because of this reason. Christ said, you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. And if the spirit hath
made you free, you're free indeed. What am I free from? If I know
the truth, what am I free from? Well, I'm free from sin. I'm free from the law. We're
not completely free of sin yet. We're still in these bodies,
but we're free from the penalty of sin. One day we'll be free
from the presence of sin, won't we? We're free from the power
of sin. The power of sin is unto death,
isn't it? The flesh is going to die, but
we're not going to spend eternal judgment. Why? Because Christ
put the sin away. We're free from the law. We're
free from self-righteous thinking. We're free from working, thinking
that we have to do more and more in order to be approved by God.
We're free. We're free to love our Savior. We're free to look
at His beauty and worship Him in spirit and truth. We're free
to do that. That's why we love the truth. That's why we love
the truth. We don't just love just the truth,
we love every attribute of God. We love everything about our
Lord, His sovereignty, His power, Him having all power, His dominion,
everything about Him, we love Him. Who are the just? They're those
who are elected by God, ordained unto eternal life. These are
the just. These are the just. These are
the elect. The second thing is, when were
they justified? When were the just justified? Turn with me. I know we looked
at Ephesians 1, but let's go back to Ephesians 1. Sunday and
Wednesday, it'll be all right, won't it? Ephesians 1. We'll look at five verses. Verses 3
through 7. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glory, of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In
whom we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. Who are the just? The just are the chosen of God,
the elect of God, the predestinated ones, the predestinated ones. When were they justified? Before
the world began, the Lord chose them. And in that choice, the
Lord saw them in Christ, who is our justification. So you
could say you justified us in time and in eternity. Both, both,
always have been. If there was a time, When we
were not seen in Christ, God would have hated us during that
time. And then when Christ died, if we were in Christ then and
he loved us then, God changed, didn't he? No, that's not what
happened. God has always loved his chosen people because they've
always been in Christ. That is our justification. Who
are the just? The ones that are in Christ Jesus.
When were they justified? In time and in eternity. His
choice justified us. In time, upon the cross, he became
their sin-bearer, the elect's sin-bearer. He became our sin-bearer
upon the tree. The Lord's the only one that
can become a man, choose to become a man of flesh, robe himself
in flesh that he created to walk on dirt that he created. on a
world that he spoke into existence and feel the light that he spoke
into existence with the only substance that the father would
be pleased with whenever he offered it up to him. And then hang on
a tree that he grew from a seed. Think about that for that very
purpose. That's why that tree was there. He knew the tree,
he purposed it to be there. And then he's the only one that
could shed his blood and offer himself and the father be satisfied.
You and I could have done none of those things. We can plant
a seed, but the Lord's the one that has to give the increase
on the tree. No, he did it all. He's the only one that could
have done it. Third thing is why, why did he
do it? He tells us right here according
to the look verse 5 having predestinated us into the adoption of children
By Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will
he wanted to He chose to He chose to Somebody said salvation's a choice.
I say amen to that. It's just not your choice, it's
God's. It's God's choice. He chose according to the good
pleasure of his will. Somebody told me recently, I
can't see anything in myself, no reason, that God would save
me. No reason in myself. And I said,
well, there's no reason in anybody. That's not why we're saved, it's
because of something in us. That's the whole point. If we're looking
inside of ourself and think that we're a little better than somebody
else and that's why we should be saved, we've fooled ourself,
aren't we? No, it's the chief sinners that the Lord came to
save. It's not the self-righteous. No, the just look to Christ. They don't look to self. The
just look to Christ, not self. So why did he justify his people? According to the good pleasure
of his will. And it's a good thing he did because For you
and I, it's our only hope. It's our only hope. There's none
good, the Lord said. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that desires the
Lord. Isaiah 53, what did he say about
there's no beauty in Him that we should desire Him? I say this,
I've said this quite often, but men were with Him, walking with
Him, passing Him on the street, the Lord Jesus Christ, this is
God in the flesh walking, passing Him by, didn't even know who
He was, couldn't tell who He was. There's no beauty in Him.
He just looked like a common man to them. He wasn't something
special to them. But here's the Lamb of God, the
one that's going to take away the sins of His people. And they
couldn't even tell who it was. And nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. Men will not have Christ. What'd
they say? We will not have this man reign
over us. Away with him, let his blood
be upon us and on our children. Why? They hated the truth. The unjust hate the truth. They hate the truth. There's none that desire the
truth by nature. We are utterly sinful, aren't
we? But thank God he chose some unto eternal life. Do you believe
if God didn't do all the saving, you'll never be saved? Yes, that's
exactly what I believe. He did it for his glory, according
to the good pleasure of his will. Now the fourth thing And I've
gotten through the four points pretty quickly, but I'm only
about half done, so I thought I would let everybody know. Fourth
thing is how did he justify his chosen people? Well, 1 Peter
3, verse 18 tells us this. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. How did he justify his people?
He suffered for them. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Why did he suffer? Because it was the only way that
you and I could ever be saved, could ever be redeemed. It has
to be all of grace because we are bound by our nature. Men
will not naturally come to the Lord. A dog does not bark to
become a dog. A cat does not meow to become
a cat. That's how I explained nature to my daughter the other
day. That's exactly what it is. A dog is a dog because it barks. It's a dog. I mean, it doesn't
need to do it to become it. It does it because it's its natural
instinct to do it. You had animals before, you know
how frustrating they are with their instincts, going around,
using the bathroom on everything, how frustrating that can be.
You try to train them, don't do that. You try to break the
habit. Now that's what the law does. When men try to preach
that from the pulpit, we're just changing our habits, right? And
that makes us better before God. No, it's still a dog. I'm still
a dog. I'm still hopeless in my choices,
hopeless because of my nature. but God, who is rich in mercy. Wherein his great love hath he
loved us, hath quickened us, quickened us, made us alive.
He said, I'm not gonna change your nature, I'm gonna give you
a new one, a new nature, a new man that seeketh after the Lord,
that can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Christ
suffered in our place, becoming a man, living perfectly for his
people, for the Father's glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who could offer himself with a body that he prepared
upon a tree he created with the substance, his blood, the only
offering that would be accepted. He's the only one that could
have done that. That's why he had to die. That's why he justified,
he chose to. There was no other way. Scripture
says there's no other name given among men whereby we must be
sane but of the name of Jesus. No other name, no other way.
One of the glorious truths about
what the Lord did is he created both the spiritual place and
the physical place that he had to enter into in order to please
God, and he did. And when he had, by himself,
offered himself up to the Father, when he went into that spiritual
place, the presence of God, on the cross of Calvary, and he
offered the blood, the Father was satisfied, and the veil in
the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom, saying, it
is finished. Enter in. Come boldly to the
throne of grace. Come boldly, not with anything
you've done, not with anything you're gonna do, not because
you don't do something. Come to Christ because he is
the way. He is the way. Achieved. I like using words
like that. Accomplished, achieved. You don't
hear a lot of that in false religion, do you? Christ Jesus achieved
salvation for his people. He accomplished salvation, the
salvation of his people. It's done. It's finished. It's finished. He, by himself,
when he had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
God, indicating that his work's finished. He entered once with
his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for his people. for his chosen. Turn with me
to Romans chapter three. Let's read 19 through 26. is so important here because
we are talking about Christ being lifted up to justify His people.
But you and I what we offer up to God He sees as iniquity. It
cannot justify us. It condemns us more and more.
What men do is they use the law to try to justify themselves.
But the Lord is the one that made us just or we are not just.
He had to be the one. Look what, and Paul is dealing
with this in Romans chapter 3 verse 19, Verse 19, now we know that
what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. By the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, unto all and upon all
them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. We'll
stop right there. Being justified freely. How are
you justified freely? by his grace. How are you justified? Freely, by his grace. This is why his people are just. He justified them. He, by himself,
justified them. Being the just one, he died for
unjust sinners, chosen in the covenant of grace before time.
The just died for the unjust to make us just. That's exactly
what happened. We're no longer, in his eyes,
we're no longer sinners. We can see it, but he put it
away, been justified, been made perfect, been made righteous. You wanna know the difference
between the just and the unjust? You wanna know the difference?
Christ is the difference, that's it. That's it. You won't be able to look at
one that God's justified. You won't be able to see something
obvious in them that they do naturally. You're like, oh, he
must be a believer. He's something special. It don't
work that way, does it? We'll see love in each other.
We'll fellowship, sweet fellowship. You know how you know if you're
talking to a believer is because they don't talk about themselves.
They talk about their Savior. That's one sure evident. They
talk about their savior. I was talking to Brother Frank
Tate on the phone the other day, and we were talking about having
the possibilities of conflict between people want to debate,
they want to argue. I know something you don't know,
and you need to understand what I believe, and we need to know
where to do this and that. But if you get too True believers
together. They just want to brag on their
Savior. They don't want to talk about what they know. They don't
want to that. Me and Frank could get together and we would. That's
what we would talk about him. That's what we want to hear about.
That's who we need is him. Not to be just. But because we
believe he justified us. We believe he did. We believe
by faith he was successful and every person he died for. He
redeemed back to God. Christ is the difference between
the just and the unjust. He gives his faith to each person
he died for, therefore they believe. They don't believe to receive
faith. You're not saved because you believe. You believe because
the Lord saved you and called you. Romans 117, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live how? By faith. The just shall live by faith. Who are the just? The ones that
live by faith, not by sight, not by evidences around them.
Well, I know that I'm getting better and better. I'm progressing
more and more spiritually. No, you're not. The just live
by faith. Faith does one thing and only
one thing. It looks to Christ. It rests
in Christ. It believes Christ always over
self. always over self. If you have
sudden fear that comes over you because of circumstances and
things that may happen, that's not faith. That's not of the
Lord. Matter of fact, the Lord said, be not afraid of sudden
fear. Why? Because you have a heavenly father that's still seated on
the throne. He's still seated on the throne. He's not gotten
up. He's not shaking his head, worried about this. We worry.
He's not. He's not. Just live by faith. by faith. The only difference between the
just and unjust is the just have been justified freely by his
grace and given faith to believe him. The unjust were not justified,
not giving saving faith, not given grace, Well, they have
some kind of grace. I'll explain that. The Lord allows
it to rain on the just as well as the unjust, doesn't he? That's
grace. They don't deserve that. Think about that. The Lord allows
it to rain on the just. That's what he told, that's what
the Lord said, the Lord Jesus said. He said he lets it rain
on the just as well as the unjust. Why does he do that? Because
all the benefits of the unjust All that they're getting is because
of the just, because the Lord's people. It rains because we are
his people and the sheep of his pasture. The sun's gonna come
up tomorrow, unless he purposes it not to, for one reason, for
his glory, for his people. That's why. That's why the earth
was created. And the very moment that the
trumpet sounds and the Lord calls his people home, this thing's
over. It's over. There'll be no more grace. There'll
be no more mercy. Only wrath. Only wrath. The unjust still hate the truth. And all of this is by God just
leaving them to themselves. You know what scares most believers
that I speak to the most? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
We don't look back and say, well, I've believed this for 15 years.
I'm good now. No. You won't hear a believer
saying that. You won't hear one that the Lord's
justified say that. You will hear them say, Lord, have mercy
on me, the sinner. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. That doesn't stop, does it? That's
not a one-time thing. Well, I got saved. Well, no,
you didn't. Not if you feel like it's all finished because of
what you did. No, you didn't. Salvation is
a daily thing. Lord, save me today. Lord, keep
me today. Don't leave me to myself today.
That's how the just live by faith. We look to him. Some say that God leaving some
to themselves and choosing others unto salvation is not fair. But
if the Lord ever makes you a sinner, you'll know. that truly, I say
this reverently, and I hope this is the right way to say this,
but if we want to talk about something that was not fair,
the Lord having to execute his darling son for a wretched, vile
creature such as us, you want to talk about fair, that's, oh,
that's not, was it, it was fair because God said it was, but
you understand what I'm saying. If you want to compare apples
to apples, That's why Paul said in Romans
9, who are thou to reply against God, O man? You're thinking too
highly of yourself. You're just a man. We're just
a walking dust pile, aren't we? That's all we are. And yet the
Lord chose to become one of us to save some of us. Isn't that
amazing? He chose to become the very dust that we are. Who art thou, O man, that replies
against God? In Exodus chapter four, I'll
say this, I'll say this first. Who are the just? Well, they're
the ones that have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. If God
would have left Noah to himself, he would have never known a flood
was coming and never built an ark and he would have drowned with
the rest of them. But because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord,
God had justified him. He said, Noah, build an ark.
Moses would not have sought after God. He was on the backside of
a desert. He was herding sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro.
He wasn't interested in going back to Egypt. He was perfectly
content, married with his sons. And then he saw a burning bush.
God came to him. And you want to know the amazing
part of everybody in the scripture that is born again, is called,
they didn't do the calling, God did. He came exactly to where
they were, arrested them where they were, and he said, believe,
and they believed. The burning bush got Moses' attention. He went up on the mountain. He
said, I got to turn to see this site. And the Lord says, take
off thy shoes from off thy feet. The place whereon thou stand
is holy ground. And the Lord tells Moses, go down to Egypt
and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Well, Moses immediately,
he's talking to a burning bush. He's talking to the voice of
God that just told him to go down to Egypt. And I want you
to think about his response here. He says to the Lord, you've got
the wrong guy. I'm slow of speech. I'm not eloquent. I'm not an eloquent speaker.
I can't do it. I just can't do it. And you know
what the Lord told him? The Lord said unto him, who hath
made man's mouth? I love that. Who do you think
made your mouth, Moses? Who made the deaf? Who made the
dumb? Who made the seeing or the blind?
Did not I, the Lord? Now go, now go. You and I, we
don't reply against God. If we are the just, if we are
the ones the Lord's justified, we do not reply against God,
we say, truth, Lord, I am a dog. Truth, Lord, I am a sinner. Have
mercy upon me, the sinner. That's the difference between
the just and the unjust, isn't it? The unjust will reply, they
will grumble, complain about this and that. You and I look
to the Lord's, now sometimes we murmur, I know we do. I'm
not saying we don't. But when, at the end of the day,
when the Lord reveals his face to us, is it not true we fall
flat on our face again like we have so many times and say, have
mercy on me, the sinner? Lord, I'm murmuring again. I'm
murmuring. I'm just complaining again. You
know, that word murmur came from It's describing a flock of birds
that are, we had them recently, the white birds that were all
over in the field over there, and the noise that they're making.
It's a really loud noise, and that's all that it is, just a
bunch of noise. It's not accomplishing anything. That's what murmuring
is. It's not accomplishing anything, is it? Faith looks to Christ,
and if you're one of his, he's given you faith, and you believe
him, and you put all your hope and salvation All your hope of
justification before the throne of God, you're looking to Christ
as your substitute, as your only hope. The Lord makes one vessel of
honor for his glory and another unto honor according to his will,
according to his purpose. Only God's people love that truth. We see him as God and say, Lord,
it's yours to do with what you want to. A believer really believes this.
If the Lord was to send us, if the Lord was to send us to hell,
we would deserve it. We would deserve it. If we're
not in Christ, we would deserve it. Our only hope is that we're
in Christ. But because, because, We've been justified
by his blood. We rest in the finished work
of Christ. We don't look at our, we do sometimes,
I suppose, but we shouldn't. Every time we, is it not true
we grieve when we look at our sin? It doesn't do us any good.
Look to Christ. Look to, confess. The Lord says,
if any man sin, we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. If you confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now, back to closing, I wanna go back to our text, Proverbs
3, and just look at these verses just briefly. Verse 33, the curse of the wicked,
I'm sorry, the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked,
but he blesseth the habitation of the just. What is the curse
of the wicked? Well, their sin remains. Their
sin remains. They don't have an advocate,
that's curse. That's a curse because God left them to themselves,
but look what the rest of it says. But the bless, he blessed
the habitation of the just. Well, what's the blessing? The
blessing to the just. And you know, this is, this is
it. This is the blessing. After David had sinned with Bathsheba,
Nathan came to him. And after he told him a parable,
David made a harsh response. He's like, well, whoever did
that, we're going to kill him. And Nathan said, well, you're the
man that did it. You are the man. Well, that's us, isn't it?
That's us. You know what David said? I have
sinned against the Lord. Oh, my. It takes grace to say
that. I have sinned against the Lord.
I have been made the man that sinned against the Lord. And
you know the glorious part, what the Lord says to his people?
Fear not. I've put away your sin. You shall
not die. You shall not die. The Lord hath
put away thy sin. What is our habitation? I said
habitation, didn't I? The blessing. The blessing is
fear not. I've put away your sin. You shall
not die. What's our habitation? It's in
him. We live, we move, and we have our being. He's our habitation.
He's our habitation. Christ is our hiding place. He
said he's our high tower. The righteous run into it and
is saved. That's continual. Did you know
that? The righteous run into it and is saved. And he says, surely he scorneth
the scorners but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Why do we receive
his grace? Because we're lowly? Because
we chose to become lowly? No, we're lowly because we've
received his grace. We're lowly because we received
his grace and we receive his grace because we're lowly. He's
done both. He's done both. He humbles his people to the
highest degree that Christ may be lifted up. He must increase
and I must decrease. Why do we receive his grace?
Because of his grace being given to us. Why are we lowly? Because
his grace causing us to. The wise shall inherit glory,
but shame shall be the promotion of fools. Who are the wise? Those
who have Christ as all their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Those are the wise. Those are
the wise. And if we do, we are the just,
all by his doing. We have Christ as our wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We're the just,
because we've been freely justified, By his grace, all by his doing,
everyone else he leaves to themselves. This is the difference. Christ
is the difference between the just and the unjust. God makes
us to differ. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and you would bless them according
to your will. In Christ's name.