I want you to listen prayerfully
and carefully and patiently and with an open mind to some introductory
comments for my message this morning. I'm speaking on the
subject, removing hindrances from the sinner's way, the sinner's
way to Christ. Let's remove the hindrances.
The things that we can remove, that's what we're talking about.
Now only a man or woman who is totally spiritually blind, only
a person who's totally spiritually blind can fail to see how fleshly,
materialistic, and shallow is today's religion. You don't have
to be a theologian. You don't have to be a preacher.
You don't even have to be a Christian to listen to what's being preached
and what's being said and know that it's just shallow, materialistic,
it's fleshly, it does not honor God. Now, this is no new condition. This is no new condition. I'm
not magnifying something that's new. I'm just revealing something
that's always existed. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
on this earth, he said, he addressed the preachers and the teachers
and the religious leaders of his day and said, you don't know
me nor my father. That's exactly what he said to
those Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes and lawyers. He said,
you do not know me and you don't know my father. Now these were
men who were theologians. They were teachers, they were
men who ministered about the temple, the synagogue. They were men to whom the people
looked, in whom the people believed, in whom the people had great
confidence. And our Lord said, you don't know me nor my father.
He said, you call me Lord with your lips, but your hearts are
far from me. He said, you know the letter
of the law, but not the Spirit. Paul said they were ever learning
and never coming to knowledge of the truth. And again the Master
said, you or they must justify yourselves before men. But God
looks on your heart. Now those are charges he brought
against the religious leaders of his day. And this is a charge
I'm bringing today. I hear this so often. I was down
in Florida visiting with Paul and Ginny Williams last week.
And Paul was telling me how that he'd gone from church to church
to church to church, not being, like you said in your article,
Jay, not being critical, not being a sermon-taster. He said,
I just wanted to hear the Word. That's all. Just wanted to sit
down on Sunday morning and Sunday night and hear the gospel while
I'm down here in Florida. He said, Pastor, you can't find
it. You go from one to the other, you can't find it. Finally, he
said, I think I've found a place. where we can go on Sunday, a
man named Bryant, 62 years old, retired mailman who pastors a
church now, and he said, that man's preaching the gospel. That
man, and he's the only one I've found. Now, this story's repeated
dozens and dozens of times. Eddie, you've looked all over
where you go down there, and others have looked in Lexington
and other places. Where do you go to hear the Word?
We've got a famine of the Word of God today. I'm not saying
something's not so, it's just so. And what we've done, we've
left the Word of God, and this generation has left the Word
of God. And they've invented all kind of nice little religious
clichés, little religious clichés which appeal to the flesh. They
don't appeal to the Spirit. They don't edify God's people.
They don't feed the sheep. They don't glorify God. They're
little religious clichés that appeal to the flesh, something
like this. It's fun being saved. That really appeals to the flesh.
Come and join our gang. It's fun being saved. You want
fun and food and fellowship and a fantastic fundamental time. Join us. It's fun. Well, I tell
you, there is the joy of the Lord now. I'm not denying that.
Even at Merle's funeral, I had joy, I had sadness, but joy of
the Lord. And Our Beauty said to me after the service, she
said, I can't even cry. I may cry later, but I can't
cry now. There's too much joy because he's with the Lord. There's
joy, there's rejoicing in the Lord. Our Lord said that your
joy may be full. But I'm telling you this, the
people of God know sorrow and trouble and tribulation and heartache.
And our Lord said in this world you'll have tribulation, you'll
have suffering, you'll have trials. And don't you let anybody tell
you that it's always fun being a Christian. It's satisfying.
It's a peace and a rest and a joy in Christ. But tell John Bunyan
he's having fun down there in prison for 12 years on bread
and water. John? John said, tell me what a good
time I've had. One more time, I'm beginning to doubt it. Maybe
you could tell some of these people suffering over behind
the Iron Curtain what fun they're having being saved. Well, it's
just once saved, always saved. This type of thinking has made
repentance and faith to be isolated experiences. and isolated acts. You come down, join the church,
you make a profession, a decision, and it fixes you up for heaven
with no perseverance and no pursuit of holiness and no pursuit of
God and no prayer life. That's not Scripture. Scripture
teaches that we come to Christ but we continue in Christ. We
look to Christ and we keep looking to Christ. We persevere in the
faith. Another one is this, something good is going to happen to you.
That's not what these messengers told Job. Something bad happened
to you. I've been hearing this talk all
week about why bad things happen to good people. Why don't we
ask the question, why do good things happen to bad people?
That's what David asked in Psalm 73. Why is all this good happening
to that fellow that's such a reprobate? I know why bad things happen
to people. We fell in the Garden of Eden.
We're sinners. We've got death in us and around
us and upon us. And it's going to be that way
till we go to be with Christ. Our Lord said, in this world
you'll have tribulation. Why do good things happen to
bad people? Well, here's another one. You're saved to serve Jesus.
I could go on and on. We're saved for the glory of
His grace. The Bible tells us that over and over. We're saved
for the glory of His grace. Our Lord said, I didn't come
to be ministered unto, but to minister. God said, if I was
hungry, I wouldn't ask you. You're not saved as if God needed
a servant. You're saved for His glory, you
serve Him by His grace because you love Him. You could just
go on, we go on with this type of smile, God loves you. A preacher
told me this morning on television, I was listening to him, and he
said, God loves everybody, saint, sinner, unbeliever, believer,
every son of Adam. Well, all these songs will be
left out because the Bible says God aided him. Only one, only
one. God's love's in Christ. And I'll
tell you this, if God loves everybody the same, saint and sinner, believer
and unbeliever, then His love ain't worth much to me. Because
it's people in hell that have the same privilege. I don't believe
that. God's love's in Christ. We've
just come up front, I guarantee you God will save you. Somebody
up there likes me. See, we've left the Word. And
our Lord told us this. He said, There shall arise false
Christs and false prophets, and there shall be great signs and
wonders, insomuch as if it were possible they deceive the very
elect. But God, don't let us be deceived. Don't let us follow
this perverse generation of religionists. Deliver us from religion. Deliver
us into the arms of Christ. Deliver us out of the refuge
of lies into the refuge of His Word. That's what I want. That's
what I want for you. Now the religionist of today,
now I want you to listen to this. This is something that will help
me and you both. Listen carefully and you'll see
what I'm saying. The religionist of today, just
like the religionist of old, is trying to put God in a box.
They're trying to case God in a box. They're trying to simplify
God, systematize God, and bring the living God down from heaven
to the dimensions of our own brains and our own understanding. And in doing that, the religionist
has adopted the mechanics of religion and missed the spirit.
They've adopted the former. You see, we're trying to bring
God down. We're trying to simplify God, systematize God, bring God
down to the dimensions of our own thinking. Can you, by searching,
find God? Why, the writer said it's higher
than the heavens. What can you know? It's deeper
than hell. What can you know? It's broader than the sea. What
can you know? All the riches, all the mystery of the riches,
of the character and glory of God, we can't get it in this
small brain. But in doing so, we've adopted
the mechanics, we've adopted the form, we've adopted the duties,
we've adopted the letter, we've adopted the doctrines, we've
adopted all these ceremonies and rituals of religion, and
we got God in a nice little box. Now listen to this carefully.
I want you to hear this for you're nothing else. Man got his Sabbath day all fixed
up, Saturday, the seventh day. That's what it says. He got it
all fixed up. He had just so far to walk. He
had just certain things to do. He had certain things that he
was supposed to fulfill. He got it all fixed up. The Sabbath
day with its rules and regulations, took great pride in observing
it, great pride in teaching it, great pride in enforcing it.
And then the Lord Himself came down here, Jay, and walked through
a field of corn and picked corn on the Sabbath day and handed
it to His disciples. Desecrated their Sabbath. He desecrated
him. They were horrified. The Master. Now this is where God operates. This is how God operates. We've
got a Sabbath day, we've got a certain way to do, and a certain
way to walk, and a certain distance to go, and a certain thing to
do, nothing else. The Lord Jesus came down, just put a little
bit of it aside, walked over and picked corn, gave it to His
disciples, said, eat that. And not only that, but He healed
a man on a Sabbath day. Let me show you in John. Turn
to John 5. You talk about upsetting these fellas. He just operated
outside the realm of their mechanics, outside the realm of their ritual,
outside the realm of their form and their rules. That's right. Look at John 5. And he healed
this fella. Verse 8, listen to this. And
Jesus said to him, take up your bed and walk. You got it? John 5, 8. And immediately the
man was made whole and took up his bed and walked, and the same
day was the Sabbath day. The Jews therefore said unto
him that was cured. Boy, we're sure glad he made
you well. Those religious fellows, those religious leaders saw this
man. He'd been lying on that bed. They'd seen him before.
He was a common sight. They'd seen him hundreds of times,
lying there crippled and broken, unable to walk, just like you've
seen John Haslam sitting here, unable to walk. But when they
saw him that day carrying his bed, they didn't say, hallelujah,
God healed him. They said, what are you doing
carrying your bed on the Sabbath day? You see how far it goes? What are you doing carrying your
bed on the Sabbath day? I'll tell you something else.
Watch this. Man got his denominational lines all set. We're Abraham's
seed. It gets me upset about landmarkism,
Catholicism, this Dutch reformism, all these fellows that got it
all fixed up back to where the church started. They are the
church. They are the people. They are the way. No question
about it. The trail of blood is the blood
of our ancestors. We're all fixed up. Well, the
Jews got that all fixed up. We're Abraham's seed, God saves
the Jews, salvation of the Jews. What did the Master do? He came
in and healed a Syrian named Naaman and didn't heal one Jew. And he came in and fed a widow,
a Gentile, didn't feed one Jew. Let me show you something else.
Man got his dietary laws all fixed up. And this is for you
folks that got the Old Testament dietary laws. He got it all fixed
up. He didn't eat a certain kind
of meat, wouldn't eat pig or anything like that, wouldn't
eat, you know, just got it all fixed up. And the Lord came to him
and told him, kill and eat a pig. Peter was sitting up there on
top of that house, that's right. And the Lord let that pig down
in a sheet, pig or something else unclean, and said, eat it,
Peter. Rise, kill and eat. He said,
I ain't going to do it, even to God. He said, I've never eaten
anything unclean. He said, what I call clean, don't
you call unclean. We're going to put God in a box.
And I'll tell you what he's going to do when you attempt it in
your form and mechanics and ritual and you get it all fixed up.
God will be working over there while you're playing with your
sandbox and perishing. And then something else, man
got his praying, his fasting, and his tithing in his arms.
We boast about these things. Ever since I was a little boy,
I've tithed, strict tithing. All these things. A man told
me just yesterday, he said, I've never smoked, I've never drunk,
I've never tasted coffee, never taken an aspirin, never taken
a pill, never taken any kind of drug. And this Pharisee stood in the
temple and said, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like other men.
I pray, and I fast, and I tithe, and I don't do this, that, and
the other. And our Lord literally passed him by and saved a fellow
that had done every bit of it. and more, a publican. Is that
not a warning to us? The discipline committee of the
local Baptist church found a woman taking an adultery and they tried
her and found her guilty and they prepared to stone her according
to the law of Moses and they brought her to the master and
he personally forgave her and sent them away ashamed to lick
their wounds and plot his death. And then the Orthodox, watch
this. The Orthodox, I got a paper not long ago about how to baptize
people. And it kind of fit in right here. The Orthodox got this matter
of baptism all settled. A man must hear the gospel and
confess it, and then he has to come before the elders and satisfy
them. They have to hear his testimony
and question him and be satisfied, and then they wait so long a
period in baptizing. And our Lord Jesus Christ saved
a thief, unwashed, unconfirmed, untaught, uncatechized, and unenrolled. Preacher, what are you saying?
This is what I'm saying. And I'm saying it, I weep that
men may hear it. I pray that people might hear
it. Paul said that. He said, I travail to Christ
before men. This is what I'm saying. Anybody
here who is in search of the truth, the truth. He's not going to find it in
a law. He's not going to find it in a denomination. He's not
going to find it in a Sabbath day. He's not going to find it
in the rituals and ceremonies of religion. He's not even going
to find it in this house. Any man who is in search of the
truth is going to find the truth is a person, a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. I wish I could make that He said,
I am the way, I am the truth. The truth is a living person.
I am the way, I am the truth. It's not facts, it's not doctrines,
it's not ritualism. It's Christ. Christ in you the
hope of glory. Turn to Colossians chapter 2.
Colossians the second chapter. Listen to the Apostle Paul here.
In Colossians chapter 2. Listen to what he says here.
Verse 8, verse 6, let's start with verse 6. As you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and
built up in Him, established in the faith, as you have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, After the elements, the rules and regulations, that's
the feast and the ceremonies of the world and not after Christ.
For in Christ dwelleth all the fullness, all of the riches,
all of the blessings, all of the benefits, all of the mercy,
all of the love, all of the grace, all of the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And you are complete. And there's
no word in the human language that can describe perfection
like the word complete. You're complete in Him. In Him. John 17. Turn over there just a moment. John 17, 3. 17th chapter of John,
verse 3. Our Lord Jesus. I'm preaching
from this tonight in the evening service, the 17th chapter of
John. Our message is going to be taken from this chapter. But
listen to Christ here. And this is life eternal, that
they might know, not the rules of religion, not the laws of
religion, not the facts of religion or even the doctrines of the
religion, but that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying that to everyone in
search of truth, Thee truth, you're not going to find it anywhere
but in Christ. And you learn of Him, and you'll
learn the truth. Secondly, to those in search
of holiness, holiness. I'm telling you that holiness
is twofold. Now, these are big words, but
I'm going to try to deal with them, explain them, so that you
can enter into them and I can enter into them, that holiness
is twofold. It's imputed and it's imparted. Now, when we say that holiness
is in that through a person, the imputation of... And when
we say holiness, I'm talking about righteousness, righteousness
before God. holiness before God. True righteousness
and holiness. I'm not talking about a pattern
of life that you can carry on. I'm not talking about a way of
life that you live. I'm talking about the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God. That with which God is well pleased
is imputed in a person, through a person, and imparted through
a person. Now turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5. Let's go first of all to First
Corinthians 1. First Corinthians 1. First of all, this holiness,
this righteousness of God is imputed. It's charged to our
account. It's reckoned to us. It's not
something that we perform or work out or something that we
merit or something that we receive by what we do. It's given to
us by Christ in Christ and through Christ. First Corinthians 1.30.
Of God are you in Christ. who of God, Christ himself, is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, that's holiness,
and redemption. Christ is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, holiness, and redemption. It's in him. Now
look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21.
This holiness is twofold. First, it's imputed. It's a standing. As in Adam we die, in Christ
we're made alive. By one man's disobedience we
were made sinners, by another man's obedience we were made
righteous. We're totally passive in it. That holiness, that acceptance,
that righteousness before God which we have is not ours, it's
another, it's Christ. He worked it out, He performed
it, He perfected it and He gave it to me. In Him I am holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight. Look at II Corinthians 5.21,
"...for He hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Now secondly,
righteousness or holiness is imparted. Now take that same
chapter, chapter 5, II Corinthians, and go back to verse 14. Verse
14, and I'm saying that this imputed holiness is ours because
of a relationship with Christ. This imparted holiness is also
ours through a relationship with Christ. Also, it's not... I don't have a holiness of my
own. I'm the chief of sinners, less than the least of all the
saints. But my relationship with Him gives me not only a right
standing before God, but a right conduct before God. Look at 2
Corinthians 5.14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, restraineth us, motivates us. It's the love of Christ that
motivates us. Because we thus judge, if one
died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all,
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
for themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. You see what I'm saying? I'm
saying that my standing before God is in Christ. He is my righteousness
and holiness. I'm accepted in the Beloved.
And the life which I live right now is not motivated by rules
and laws, but motivated by a relationship with a person. I belong to Him.
I'm a son of the King. I'm a child of God. And my conduct
and my conversation must be a revelation or evidence of that relationship.
And it will be. I'll be generous because He's
been generous to me. I'll forgive because He's forgiven
me. I'll love because He loves me. I'll walk in holiness for
His glory because I belong to Him. See, that's because of relationship
with Christ. All right, thirdly, what are
you saying, preacher? I'm saying those in search of truth will
find truth in a person. Those in search of holiness will
find that holiness in a person. Both acceptance with God and
conduct in the world. Motivated by that alone. For
those in search of eternal life in heaven, turn to 1 John 5. Our lives are drawn to a close,
some of us. We're getting older. And Job
said, one day I'll go the way of all flesh, I'll go the way
from which I shall not return. What is our hope? What is our
hope of eternal life? What is our hope of heaven? I'm
telling you this, my only hope is Christ. It's not affiliation
with a church, it's not because I've preached or done these things
religiously, it's because Christ loved me and gave Himself for
me. In 1 John 5 verse 11, this is the record that God hath given
us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He that hath the
Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Let me give you this in closing. I was at, some of you were at
the funeral the other day, Merle Luther's funeral, and God was
pleased to take from our midst a very faithful and loyal and dedicated servant when he was
pleased to call Brother Luther. He'd been here ever since this
church has been here, worshiping the Lord, supporting it, and
just a faithful friend of the Gospel. But I thought while he
was lying there in the casket, I looked there, there he is in
the casket. Merle was a man. It's like you, me, everybody
else. It's a man, a human being. And now he's gone and they have
to put him in the grave and you go back to ashes. What hope does
a man have? What hope does a man, a person,
you, what hope do I have? What hope did he have? The hope
of acceptance with God. The hope of leaving the grave
someday and going right into the presence of God. Right into
the presence of God. What is our hope for that? Now some preachers say, come
get in this water and that'll do it. Well, I don't believe
that. Some say come and we dip a wafer
in wine and slap it on your tongue and that, you know, that fixes
this human carcass, this human nature, this human being. That
fixes him up for entrance into the holy presence of glory of
God. You believe that? I don't believe
that. Another says you come down, you get on an altar here. And
you beat on that altar and you cry and shed tears and go through
all the gyrations and motions of feeling sorry and you get
up and tell the people and they come shake hands, everybody hugs
and he goes out all fixed up. Now I can walk right into God's
presence. Well, I don't believe that. And the Baptist say and
Billy Graham and all these fellas, they stand and tell these stories
and preach a little sermon Everybody's all fixed up to go to heaven,
raise your hand. Everybody's not, raise your hand.
Now, I'll pray for you. God bless you, God bless you. Now, if you
meant that, come down here and pray this prayer. Lord, be merciful
to me, sinner, and save me for Jesus' sake. Now, that fixes
those people. That fixes this human carcass
up. And all this human, this human
being that tried to throw God off His throne, this human being
born in sin, born of a woman, unclean in God's sight, leprosy
of the soul, this rotten, wretched, no good human being that's never
thought a good thought or done a good deed or walked a straight
trail, this human being that's flesh and flesh and blood and
not inherit the Kingdom of God, that little handshake and little
sinner's prayer is supposed to fix him up and take him to glory.
I don't believe that. I just don't believe it. God's
too holy, God's too righteous, God's too just to take that in
return for justice. You say, well, what hope does
a man have lying in a casket? All right, I'll tell you. He
was born of a woman. Well, 2,000 years ago, God's
Son, that man's representative, was born of a woman. Born of
a woman. That man one time was a little
bitty baby, 20 inches long, 7 pounds and 14 ounces or so. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, as our substitute, And representative was a little
baby, 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 inches long. And that man sat
on a mother's lap, so did my Lord. That man knew poverty and
depression and want and need and so did my Lord. And that
man was born under a law, a holy, immaculate, infinite, everlasting
law of God. And God said, Keep it! And that
man didn't do it. But my Lord did. He did. He kept it, David. In every jot
and tittle, he was obedient to his parents. He never sashed
his daddy. I did. He never stole an apple.
I did. He never stole a watermelon.
I did. He never looked with hate. I did. He never held a grudge.
I did. He never violated the laws of
man or the laws of God or the laws of the kingdom or the Levitical
law or anything. He did everything exactly perfect. Perfect. That man did. That man, Jesus Christ. He walked
on this earth. That man was tempted and yielded.
Our Lord was tempted and never did. They said evil things against
him and he responded. They said evil things against
my Lord and he loved them. Everything God required of me
was met at the hands of my master as my representative and federal
head. He walked on this earth. And the law of God was honored,
exalted, and upheld. And then one day the justice
of God walked in and says, I have a demand. The justice of God
walked in. The love was satisfied, law was
honored, truth was obeyed, all of these attributes of God. And
then the justice of God walked in and the justice of God says,
old Merle and Henry and Richard and Jim and all the rest of them,
Cecil, are sinners. And if their debt is not paid,
they're going to hell. That's all there is to it. You
can shake hands and dip in the water and put wafers on tongues
and sob and cry at the mourner's bench, but Justice stands there
with his sword and he says, I've got a requirement, death. Somebody's going to die. Somebody's
going to die. My sword is going to be dipped
in somebody's blood for sin. Well, my Lord Jesus Christ walked
in front of Justice and He said, I'm numbered with I'm one of
them. I'm their head. I'm their representative. They're guilty and I'm guilty
being identified with them. Take me." And justice took him
and plunged the sword of God's wrath clear down to his soul.
His body wept and agonized and bled and died and his soul was
made an orphan for sin and he hung naked, forsaken, deserted
of God. He endured hell on that cross
and he died. And when he died, old Merle died.
And I died. That's right. And they put him
in a grave. And Merle, yesterday, they put him in a grave. Put
him in a grave. Well, is Christ still in the grave? No, sir.
And that's the only reason Merle ain't going to stay there. And
you can wafer and wine and you can baptize and you can pronounce
all these things, you can sprinkle water on them, you can call them
saints, you can make them deacons and preachers, but they're going
to hell if Christ didn't die for them and rise from the grave
for them. And they're going to stay there.
And he ascended, he said, I'll send, you go tell my brethren
that I'll send to my father and their father. And when he walked
into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God, I walked in
there with him. He's my forerunner. within the veil. And you want
to know my hope? You want to know my confidence
and refuge? You can't take it away because God ordained it
and Christ purchased it and the Holy Spirit applied it. And I'll
have it whether I'm on a mountain or in the valley. I'll have it
whether I'm in the rain or the sunshine. I'll have it whether
I'm young or old. I'll have it whether I can still
think or can't think. I like what that old fellow said
on his deathbed. When I can think, I think of Christ. When I can't
think, I know he thinks of me. It's association. It's identification. It's a relationship. It's a union. And I'm free because He has done
everything God required. And He said, because I live,
you live. Now Bradley, let me tell you something. If that's
your hope, you have a good hope. If Christ is your hope, you have
a good hope. If that's not your hope, you've got a bunch of foolishness. It won't do you any good. You
go on, carry on this charade. And carry on this little silly
religious game, go on playing games, and Almighty God, you'll
hear Him say someday, I never knew you. Now that's what this
is all about, that's what this book is about. It's about a person
who was given by the Father of people, and we'll talk about
it tonight, and who came down here and redeemed them. And that's
grace, that's substitution, that's satisfaction, and that's our
hope. Christ is our hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And that's the only hope any man can have. Our Father in heaven, teach us
the gospel. We're living in a day of famine. We're walking in a wilderness,
a parched and a barren and a dry land. How refreshing it'd be
to hear somebody, somewhere, declare this glorious good news.
that Jesus Christ our Lord paid it all, all the debt we owe,
that we're accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have forgiveness,
redemption, pardon of all our sins, that we're cleansed by
the blood, that if any man sins, we have an advocate with the
Father who is Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the one mediator.
We live because He lives. We're righteous because He's
righteous. We're free because He's free. We have no sin, because
He has no sin. In Him there is no sin. We thank
You. You've taught us this, and it's
our hope. And we would not insult You, O Lord. We would not insult
Your holiness by bringing anything that we are or have said or done
or ever shall do, and say, Lord, these be my righteousness and
merit. Oh, no. Our righteousness is of filthy
rags, and we know it, and Lord, You've said it, and we believe
it. But Christ is holy, and in Him we're as holy as He is. We
thank You for Your Word and for Your Gospel and for this blessed
Good News. Make it a real reality to everybody
here, for Your glory, for Christ's sake. Amen.