I want to repeat just a few verses
that were read a few moments ago by Brother Wimberly. Psalm
40, begin with verse 7. Psalm 47, verse 7. Then said,
I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God, yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached, I have
preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have
not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid
thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness,
thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. Now, we don't have
to wonder about the first and foremost application of these
words. Let's turn to Hebrews 10. We
don't have to wonder who's speaking here. And Jay, in his prayer,
mentioned this. Our Savior said, Lo, I come to
do thy will. That's exactly who's speaking
here. That's the first and foremost
application. In Hebrews 10, will you look
over there a moment? For the law, now that's talking
about the ceremonial law of Moses. That's talking about the prophets,
talking about the priests, talking about the tabernacle, talking
about the sacrifices, talking about the feast days, the Feast
of the Firstfruits and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread and the
Feast of the Passover and all of these ceremonies and rituals
and types that were given to God or from God to Moses and
consequently to the people. He says this law is a shadow,
a picture. a picture of good things to come,
not the image of those things, and can never, the law can never,
the ceremony law can never, never, never, never, with these sacrifices
which they offered year by year, same sacrifices over and over
again, continually, these sacrifices cannot make those who sacrifice
them or offer them perfect. Can't do it. Cannot make the
comers there and do perfect. For if they could, if you could
find any type or sacrifice or feast day or holy day back then
in the Old Testament under the law that could save a man's soul,
forgive his sin, pardon him before God, that'd be the end of that
sacrifice right there. It'd do the work and it'd be
over. No use having another one. If sin's put away, it's put away.
If it's purged, it's purged. If it's atoned for, it's atoned
for. If it's blotted out, it's blotted out. They'd have ceased
to be offered because the worshipers once purged. once purged would
have no more conscience of sin. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ if there's another sacrifice. There's
no condemnation to the man who's in there. But in those sacrifices
there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. Every year. The atonement was made every
year. And it's saying this. They still haven't been paid
for it. They still haven't been put away. They still haven't
been purged. Because Christ hasn't come, you
see. That's what he's saying. Christ hasn't come. There's a
remembrance. All right, verse 4. It's not
possible. It's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats
to put away a man's sin. How can justice be satisfied
killing a bull for a man? A man goes out and robs a store
and you put a bull in jail. That's silly. You see what I'm
saying? A man goes out and kidnaps a
person, or kills a person, and you put his dog in jail. The blood of an animal cannot
atone for the sin of a man. Man's sin, man's got to die,
and the man dead. You see what I'm saying? It's
not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away
sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, Almighty God's delight and pleasure
was not in Abel's sacrifice, but in Abel's Savior, whom the
sacrifice represented. See what Paul's teaching us? God's delight and pleasure is
not in the sacrifice, it's in the one to whom it points, the
one whom it typifies, the one whom it foreshadows, the one
whom it pictures. Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest
not but a body has thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I lo I come in the
volume of the book. It's written of me to do thy
will Oh God, you see Paul reaches back in in Psalm 40 and says
this is Christ speaking here This is our master speaking.
I come the body thou has prepared me for Our Lord is the fulfillment
of the tabernacle. The tabernacle, that tabernacle
sitting out in the wilderness is a picture of Christ. You see,
this tabernacle is where God met men and men met God. And
this tabernacle, on the outside it had that badger skin. If you
were a stranger walking down through the desert and looked
over there and saw that tabernacle, you couldn't see inside of it,
the eight or nine foot fence or whatever it was around that
tabernacle, And you looked at it, and there was an old tent,
only 15 feet wide and 45 feet long, and smaller than this auditorium,
half the size of this auditorium, less than half. And you saw that
badger skin. You'd say, my, that's just an
ordinary thing. He was despised, rejected of
men. There was no beauty about him that we should desire in
Christ. Looked ordinary. But if you could raise up that
badger skin and ram skin and white linen and look inside,
beauty like you've never beheld, beauty like this world's never
seen, the very glory of God, purity and power and presence
of God in that tabernacle. And that's Christ our Lord. In
the flesh, He dwelt among men. He was in the world. The world
didn't recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own
knew Him not. But that He tabernacled among
us, a body God prepared Him, and He preached not only preached,
but he was our priest and our king and our sacrifice, the sin
offering. But the holiness of God dwelt
in him, the power, the spirit without measure, the glory of
God in Christ. And it's only those in him who
can behold that. So the first and foremost application
of these words, this is a Messianic psalm, this is Christ speaking. But secondly, these words belong
to David. They're truly, too. They're truly. David says, I preached. David
was the chosen anointed king. David was the man after God's
own heart. David was the inspired prophet.
David wasn't a prophet, priest, and a king. David was a prophet
and a king. There's nobody in the Old Testament
who was ever all three. We have God's prophets, we have
God's priests, we have God's king. We have some men who were
prophets and kings. We have some men who acted as
priests and prophets. They spoke too. But we don't
have anybody, Jay, prophet, priest, and king, till he came who fulfilled
them all. But David was a preacher. He
wrote the Psalms. David was a king and David was
a preacher. God spoke through David too. David sent for the
prophets, I know that. But David was a prophet. Read
the book of Psalms. He preached. All right, these
words belong to Christ our Lord first and foremost. They belong
to David who wrote them by the power of the Holy Spirit, and
they belong to those whom God has called to preach His gospel,
me and you. They belong to us. Now look at
verse 9. I have preached. I have preached. I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. You say, Preacher, I've never
preached to a great congregation. Haven't you? I think back this
morning about, I preached to a great congregation. As I think back thirty, thirty-three
years ago, and I preached my first sermon over here at Pollard
Baptist Church, one Wednesday night. And I suppose fifty, sixty,
seventy people were there, and then I went to Chattanooga and
became pastor of a church. small group of people there for
almost three years. And then I came back up here
and started holding meetings in different places and preached
out Parallelmower, Kentucky, and Allen, Kentucky, and Martin,
Kentucky, and Jenkins, and Big Stone Gap, and Elkhorn City,
and there to J, to 30 people or 40 people, took the 10 out
and preached to 60 or 70 people, got on the radio for 20 years
and preached every day, Monday through Friday at 8.30 to who
knows how many. Let's put that crowd together. And you got yourself, on your
hands, a great congregation. Now you may preach to them a
few at a time, and I say you sitting right here, you've preached
to a great congregation too. You've spoken to a man where
you work, a person in your home. You put all these folks together,
Jacob, and you've got on your hands a great congregation, a
vast congregation, and I think in the And this preacher here, we may
be talking about a million people or more. Now, that impresses
us with our responsibility. He says, I preached. I preached
imperfectly, but sincerely. And I have preached thy righteousness. I have preached the gospel because
I believe it. I preach the gospel because I
believe it. If what I preach is not true, I'm a lost person.
I'll just be totally and perfectly honest with you. If what I'm
preaching here is not true, it's like Paul said, if Christ be
not risen, I'm a false prophet. That's what he said, that we're
false witnesses of God. If Christ be not risen, he said,
we're yet in our sins. If Christ be not risen, those
that sleep in Christ are perished, and we've lied on God. So if
what I'm preaching is not true, then I'm a lost man, and those
to whom I've preached are lost if they believe what I've preached.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 through 4. Now, this is what
we've preached. 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4, Brethren,
moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, the gospel. It's the gospel which I preached.
You see, I preached. And this is the gospel I preached,
and which you also have received, and wherein you stand, and by
which you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to
you, unless you believed in vain, unless you got a false faith,
You really haven't believed. You said you have, but you haven't.
But it's, for I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that Christ died for our sins. Now here's
one of the key phrases in this whole chapter, according to the
Scriptures. And that simply means this, that
he who tabernacled in the flesh did so according to that picture
back yonder. He who obeyed the law, Christ
the perfect man is fulfilling the law that God gave at Sinai.
He who took our sins in his body and died on that tree is dying
as Moses lifted up the serpent, as Moses smote the rock, as they
slew the lamb and put the blood on the door. He's fulfilling
the scriptures. He's dying for our sins according
to the scriptures, according to its prophecies, promises,
and pictures. In the same way, If you have
a Messiah, whether his name is Jim Jones, or Mohammed something,
or whether Mary, or the church, or a priest, or a poet, if you
have a Messiah, that Messiah better fulfill every promise
concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament. Now that's what
it is. That's what he's saying. Died
according to the Scriptures. He arose again according to the
Scriptures. According to the Scriptures,
right back to it. That's the reason when Paul Pictured Christ,
sacrifice and offering, thou wouldest not, had no pleasure
therein, but a body thou hast prepared me. Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book is written of me. He taketh away the first
and establisheth the second. He reached back here and got
the scriptures and showed Christ. Do that, you preachers that are
here. You always go back to the scriptures because he died according
to the scriptures. The best proof you have that
Christ did what he said he did, And he is the person whom he
claimed to be. The best proof you've got is
not what Dr. Archibald Alexander said, but
what Dr. Isaac has said. That's your best
proof. Reach back there and pick up Scripture. Paul said, this
is so because he said it back here. This is so because he said
it back here. That's the key right there. All
right, let's look back at our text. He said, I preached. I
preached. The first application is to Christ.
It's also to David. God's prophet and king, it's
also to me. He said, I preached. Now watch
this. I have not hid, verse 10. See that? I have not hid. Verse
10 again. I have declared. Verse 10 again. I have not concealed. I have
not hid. I have not concealed. I have not refrained my lips.
Over here in verse 9. I have not refrained my lips.
I have not hid. I have not concealed. either
for man's favor or man's support or man's blessing. Now, we don't
want to pick a fight here. Preachers don't want to preach
with a chip on their shoulder. I'm going to tell you the truth
whether you like it or not, that sort of thing. But what the Prophet
is saying, I have not hid or concealed or refrained my lips
to gain men's favor, support, or blessings. I speak those things
which I've seen. I speak those things which I've
heard. I speak those things which I have felt in my heart. I'm
preaching sometimes ineffective but sincere, sometimes most imperfect
but sincere, sometimes ineffectual but always sincere. I tell you
what I've seen. I tell you what I've heard. Charles
Spurgeon said, all that's behind me and all that's before me and
all that's above me and all that's beneath me compels me to say
with the deepest conviction, I believe, therefore I speak. I believe, therefore I speak. All right, what do we say? He
said, I preached. I preached. And he said, I haven't
hid or concealed. Your truth. I have not refrained
my lips to avoid persecution or trouble or to gain men's applause
or favor or possessions. I have preached. What did you
preach? Five things. Underscore these
five words right here in verse 10. I have not hid thy righteousness. The word righteousness. I have
declared thy faithfulness. Faithfulness. Thy salvation? Salvation. Thy lovingkindness? Lovingkindness. Thy truth? Truth. There's a summary of the whole
thing right there. That's what our Lord said, that's
what David said talking about our Lord, and that's what I wish
to say to you this morning. That's what I declare. Righteousness,
faithfulness, lovingkindness, salvation, truth. Thy righteousness? Now, what are we saying? When
the preacher stands up here and he says, I have preached, I have
not refrained my lips, I have preached to the great congregation,
I have not hid thy righteousness. Now, first of all, we're talking
about the positive righteousness of God in himself. God is holy.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this right here now,
but Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, holy. My
friends, the thing that troubles me about modern religion is not
only the error they preach, but the small conception they have
of the character and attributes of God. This troubles me. Their
God is too small. They're too familiar with Him.
You know, God said to David, will you build me a house? The
heavens won't contain me. The heaven of heaven won't contain
me. And somebody said, we're in just in the Milky Way, and
out beyond that there's a whole lot more. And that won't, the
earth is his footstool. Where's the house? The thing
that troubles me about today's God is they're just too familiar
with Him, Hal. They're just too much familiar.
God is my co-pilot. Now, your God's awful small if
He's just going to be a co-pilot. God is my partner. God is my
buddy. Me and Jesus, we got a good thing
going. You know, that troubles me. When
we talk about God's righteousness, we're talking about the essence
of God's very being. He's righteous, holy, high, lifted
up, almighty. My words are just so poor when
it comes to this subject. Who can describe God as holy? God is in His holy temple. God
is everywhere, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. God is holy. And I found throughout the Old
Testament that when people met the God of the universe, it had
a tremendous effect upon them in shutting their mouths, in
humbling them, in bringing them to the dust, in causing them
to see their weakness and infirmity and sin. The presence of God
revealed to a man in the Old Testament brought him low at
his feet. God's holiness. Secondly, when
we preach God's righteousness, we're preaching not only the
righteousness of God in himself, but the righteousness of his
holy law. And we carelessly handle that. This rich young man came
to Christ, and Christ said, I shall not kill, I shall not steal,
I shall not commit adultery, and jayflippantly he said, all
these have I kept from my youth up. That was a small idea of
the law, was it? Do you hear the law? Do you hear
the law? Our Lord says the law is summed
up in these two. I shall love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. And thou shalt
love thy pitiful, contemptible, misunderstood, failing, afflicted
neighbor as thyself. Ah, the awesomeness of his law!
When Israel met the law at the Mount Sinai, they turned and
ran. We print it up on a wall somewhere. We put it on a wall somewhere.
When Israel met the holy, awesome, immaculate, infinite, eternal
law of God, it shut their mouths, it whittled them down, it sent
them skedaddled in the opposite direction. They said, Moses,
you speak to God, we don't want him speaking to us. Too many
discrepancies here, me and the law. I worry about all these
modern preachers today who've got such a small idea of the
law of God. I'm concerned about them. When I look into the law of God,
I don't see anything good in me. I don't know about you. I
mean the law. I'm not talking about some rules
and statutes and little standards. They say the church with a standard.
That's so nauseating. When I look into God's holy law,
I can't see anything but rottenness in every one of us. Total failure,
total failure, total, complete disaster from the sole of our
feet to the top of our head. God looked down from heaven to
see if there was any that did do good, and He said they're
all gone aside. Now compared to the law, I know
compared to our so-called principles of today, We measure you up fairly
good. We're decent, law-abiding people. But we're not talking about our
laws. We're talking about God's law. I'm not talking about our
righteousness or our laws or our precepts. I'm talking about
God's. And before God's holy law, We're
wiggling maggots. That's bad, isn't it? But that's
what we are. That's what we are. The best
of man, man in his best taint, God says, altogether ban it.
He remembereth our frame, he knoweth that we're dust. I've
declared God's righteousness, His immaculate, personal, positive
righteousness, the righteousness of His holy law, and man's unrighteousness
comparatively. But here's what he's talking
about, when I've got here, thy righteousness, he's talking about
something that's written in Romans 3, turn over there. He's really
saying, I preach the righteousness of Christ. This is what he's
talking about, thy righteousness, God's righteousness, without
which no man will see the Lord. God's holiness, we're talking,
look at Romans 3. We'll take a lesson in theology
here. Romans 3, 19, now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that's every one
of us, that's boys and girls, you too, that every mouth may
be stopped, let's quit talking about how good we are now, just
shut your mouth, that's what it is, just shut your mouth,
no alibi, no excuse, no self praise, no goody goody, I'm holier
than thou, stuff like that, just shut your mouth, and all the
world become guilty, guilty before God, guilty. Because your mouth
stopped and your whole world was guilty by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh, that being you, no flesh be justified
in God's sight. There shall no flesh be pardoned,
forgiven, justified, accepted in God's sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Just forget it. Forget it. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, by doing the law, by obeying precepts,
statutes, standards, principles, convictions, commandments, or
anything else, no flesh, no son of Adam, no flesh will be justified
in God's sight. By the law is not the forgiveness,
but the knowledge of sin, not the pardon, but the knowledge
of sin. But now, hold on, don't everybody despair, don't commit
suicide yet, hold on, but now, the righteousness of God, the
holiness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Watch
this now, by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. unto all, and
upon all them that believe. There is no difference, no difference
in the Jew and the Greek, male or female, old or young, 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 has set forth to be of propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare God's righteousness. for the
remission of sins that have passed as Old Testament saints through
the forbearance, patience of God, long-suffering of God, purpose
of God, to declare at this time His righteousness, God's righteousness,
that's what we're preaching, God's righteousness, which can
be mine through Christ, which must be mine. Because he said,
if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the
best man on this earth, you're not going to see the kingdom
of God. If your righteousness, I don't pick out Saint Francis
of wherever he was from, pick out Saint Patrick, Saint anybody
else, just pick out the best Pharisee that ever lived. And
if your righteousness, holiness, is not better than his, Pick
out the man who has taken the vow, separated himself from wife
and family and children, home and mother, and sat up there
in a monastery and done nothing but dole out alms to the poor
and pray for the sick. And the best man, the man who's
lived isolated, separated, dedicated, consecrated, and all these things,
if your righteousness is not better than his, you're going
to miss the kingdom of God. Because God, you see, can be
satisfied with nothing short of perfection. The religionist
goes about to establish his own righteousness and God rejects
him. I hope you understand what I'm saying. God has sent Christ
into the world not only to declare his righteousness, not only to
perfect his righteousness, but to bestow his righteousness.
And brethren, let me tell you something. The man is a fool
who asks for pardon that would dishonor God and bring reproach
on His law and justice. I don't ask God to forgive my
sin without it being paid for. I don't ask God to accept me
without a perfect righteousness, for I ask for no pardon that
would dishonor God. And Christ came to perfect that
holiness, that righteousness, that would enable God to be just
and still justify me. What we're saying is that I have
declared thy righteousness, his essential righteousness, and
the righteousness of his law. Now here's man down here, the
best man, the very best that the flesh can produce, it still
comes short of God's glory, it still comes short of God's righteousness,
it still comes short of God's holiness. And being God, you
see, he cannot fellowship with, commune with, or have anything
to do with anything short of perfection. He requires perfection. So God in his mercy and grace
sent Christ down here as a man, where we were, in the flesh. And Christ in the flesh, tested
in every point, tempted in every point. He obeyed that law. He worked out that righteousness.
He not only declared it, but he fulfilled it. He perfected
it. And now, because of what Christ
did for us, God can accept us and still be righteous and still
be just. He can have fellowship with us.
He can accept us and still be God. And he's not giving a righteousness,
it's dishonoring to his righteousness. He's not doing anything dishonoring
to his law. He's honoring his law and satisfying
his justice. And our Lord says, that's what
I preach. Look at the next line, I have declared thy faithfulness.
Brethren, let's say something here, and I hope all of the ministers
in the congregation are listening. We haven't learned to preach
till we learn to preach Christ. And that's why we haven't learned
to preach till we learn to preach Christ. Most preaching is not
Christ. And I don't know exactly how to present this or how to
say it, but even a lot of what we call grace preaching is not
preaching Christ, it's preaching the doctrines of grace. It's
even preaching salvation by grace, but not Christ. We haven't learned
to preach till we learn to preach Christ. Most preaching is the
preaching of man's works, man's service, man's faith, man's response,
man's hope, or man's comfort. David says, I preach his righteousness
and his faithfulness. His faithfulness. Great is thy
faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
in thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions
they fail not, as thou hast been Thou forever shalt be." God's
faithfulness is God's immutability, His unchangeableness. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not concerned. What we have to
preach is His faithfulness. Not ours in response to his offer,
or in response to his invitation, or in response to his doctrine,
or in response to his word, but his faithfulness. He loved me. He chose me. He called me. He redeemed me. He keeps me. He sustains me. He enables me. It's his faithfulness, not mine.
His purposes and his counsel shall be done. He will make good
on every promise and prophecy. He is able. I am saved, yes,
by faith. But I am saved by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't have to explain
that to you, and I know I haven't done a good job of it. But I
listen to sermons a lot of times, and what they say is true. Doctrinally
speaking, what they say is true. Evangelically speaking, what
they say is true. Theologically speaking, what
they say is true. But they haven't preached Christ.
Men are urged to do things. Men are urged to respond to things. And there's a sense in which
Paul said, I persuade men. I'm an ambassador of Christ.
But brethren, let me tell you something. All that I am, have,
or ever shall be, is not because of anything that I've said, done,
or willed. It's His faithfulness. It's Christ
in you. He said, I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith,
the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I wonder how many of us here
this morning, starting behind this pulpit and going all the
way out, how many of us here this morning are totally dependent,
solely and completely dependent, upon the Lord Jesus Christ for
all spiritual blessing. Our rest and comfort and joy
and peace and everything is Christ. Our trials and afflictions and
difficulties and successes and favors are Christ. The length
of our days, the shortness of our days is Christ. Everything
is Christ, Christ, Christ. He said, I'll preach your faithfulness,
your faithfulness. And then next He said, I preach
your salvation, salvations of the Lord, the salvation of the
righteousness of the Lord. The prophet said, restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation. Paul said, by his mercy he saved
us. Now there may be people today
who are content to preach, sinner save thyself, but David says
here, I preach thy salvation, thy salvation. It's freely, purpose,
It's freely purchased and it's freely presented. And it's freely
perfected. It's all of God. Alpha Omega. It's freely purposed. It's freely
purchased. It's freely presented. And it's
freely perfected. It's of the Lord in its origination.
It's of the Lord in its execution. It pleased God to bruise him.
It's of the Lord in its application. He was pleased to reveal his
Son to me. It's of the Lord in its sustaining power. We're kept
by the power of God. It's of the Lord in its ultimate
perfection. Salvation is of the Lord. I have
preached thy salvation. You see the weakness of today's
preaching? Mr. Spurgeon said one time, you
don't have to prove a stick is crooked. Say you got a crooked
stick. to prove a stick is crooked. You don't have to lay the stick
down and point out the different angles or the degree of the angle. If you're smart, you'll just
take a straight stick and lay it right down beside the crooked
stick, and anybody with any brains at all will see this is crooked.
And what I'm saying we need to do in our preaching in this day
is preach His righteousness His faithfulness and His salvation,
and somebody's going to say, lo and behold, that's not what
I've been hearing. Lo and behold. And lo and behold,
I see a flaw in what I've been hearing, too. Thy salvation. I have preached Thy salvation.
Gloriously given. Thy salvation. The great gift of God's grace. And then he says, I've preached
thy lovingkindness. There are two things, I'm going
to quit. There are two things here that are important. The
Bible, the Word of God speaks about, and our Lord spoke about
the wrath of God and the love of God. And when the Bible speaks of
God's wrath, it is always against sin. God's wrath is always against
sin. God hated the workers of iniquity. God is angry with the wicked
every day. When you talk about God's wrath,
God's wrath is against sin. God's not angry with anything
but sin. Sin's in you, God's angry with
you. But God's angry with sin. And
then the Bible speaks of God's love. Now watch this. God's love
is always in his Son, or connected with his Son. Now you get your
Nave's topical Bible, this is interesting, and look up God,
the love of. God, the love of. It has the
love of God exemplified, and the love of God and so forth,
but God, the love of, and you notice how that the love of God
is in his Son. Let me give you a few verses.
John 3, 16, God so loved that he gave his Son. John 5, 20,
the Father loved the Son. and showeth him all things. John
14, 21. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. John 16,
27. The Father loveth you because
you love me. John 17, 23. Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Romans 5, 8. God committeth His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us. Romans 8, verse 39. Nothing can
separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
my Lord. John 3, 36, he that believeth
on the Son hath life, he that believeth not the Son, the wrath
of God. See, the Son, he that believeth
not the Son, the wrath of God. He that hath the Son hath the
Father. The love of God is always, God
commended His love toward us in the, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. It's always connected with Christ. All right, here's the fifth thing,
quickly. And I have preached, I have not hid thy righteousness.
Don't hide that righteousness. Declare it. Shout it from the
housetop. It's His righteousness. Let's quit bragging on sinners.
Let's quit making men feel good because they're religious. We're
not anything because we're religious. We're God's sons because in Christ
we're righteous. And outside of Christ, there's
no righteousness in us. Don't feel, please don't feel
any any righteousness of your own. We don't have any. Our righteousness is a filthy
rag. If you can possibly, don't take
any satisfaction in the fact that you've been here this morning.
Take satisfaction in the fact that he was here this morning
and spoke to your heart. Don't take any satisfaction that
you read your Bible this week, or you refrained from some temptation,
or you gave your offering, or you helped a neighbor, or any
of these things. Do these things. Do them. Fine.
Wonderful. Glad you're doing them. But in
the flesh, no man can please God. In my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. There's no way that God Almighty...
Let me tell you something. Now, if you can be perfect, God
will look with favor on you. If you have a perfect beginning,
That's a perfect birth. You're not born in sin. And if
you're a member of the human race, that lets you out right
there. Now, in case we've got somebody here that ain't a member
of the human race, let me address you next. But you've not only
got to have a perfect beginning, but you've got to have a perfect
continuance. All the days of your life in
perfection—thought, word, deed, dreams, imagination, motive,
attitude, spirit. Well, that dropped all of us,
didn't it? You see, God, the Lord God, now this little peanut
God they preach today can say, well, he brought his ten percent,
pat him on the head. This little peanut God they're
preaching today, he won a soul, take him home. He can fool with
that stuff, but the God of creation, the God of eternity, the God
of the universe, the perfect holy God, righteous God, He can't
even have any dealings with us. on the basis of what we've done
or are, because we're filth. We're filth. He finds us in the
dunghill. We're filth. You don't play in
the dunghill. We don't expect God to mess around
there. Not the God of the Bible. But now, if we can be cleansed
in the blood of his Son, if we can be robed in the spotless
righteousness of his Son, if we can be enrolled in the family
of his Son, if we can be a part of the covenant of grace in his
Son, God can have something to do with us. God can. Wouldn't that be something? Blessed
is the man. Oh, happy is the man. Holy is the man. Blessed
is the man to whom God will not charge sin. Not one sin. With
his spotless righteousness on, I don't have a sin. I'm as holy
as God's Son. That's right, His righteousness.
I preach His faithfulness. He did it all. I didn't do anything.
He did it all. He gave it to me. He gave it
to you in Christ. His salvation, He saved us. By
His mercy, He saved us! Not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy. He saved us! You didn't get saved. You didn't
get saved. God saved you! Sounded like an
accident. So I went to church and got saved,
Jay. We preached to him and he got saved. I hate that term. My uncle got saved last week. Well, your uncle got religion
is what he got. He's in a two-fold more of the
child of hell than the fellow that talked him into that mess.
But I tell you, when God saves a man, it's a miracle of His
grace. He lifts him and loves him and
makes him a new creature. His loving kindness, his loving
kindness, not mine, and his truth. Look at that last word. I preached
his truth. Now, brethren, I don't care for
speculation. I don't know about you, but I
just don't care for speculation. I don't care for new ideas and
new revelation. You can call me an old, middle-aged,
medieval fogey. I go further back than that.
A lot further back than that. My theology goes clear back to
the garden. That's where my theology goes.
What happened in the garden, who God promised would come,
and what He would do. Bruce, the serpent sealer. It
starts just far. My theology is old as man. It's
older than that. It's old as God, however old
that is. I don't want any new ideas. I
don't want any new ideas. I tell you this, it will be seen
one day. whose thoughts shall stand, God's
or man's. I've not gone beyond. I don't
want to go beyond what's revealed in the Scripture. May God blot
out everything we say except that which is written in the
Scripture. Everything. Believe nothing, nothing that
comes from this pulpit is not taught in the Bible. Now you
can, you take your watchtower, your upper room, your What's
that thing Southern Valleys put out, that home something? Take that. Home life, take that. Take everything and throw it
in the garbage can, if it contradicts this right here. You take Mayor
Baker Eddy, Jehovah Witness, that Mormon trash, and the Quora,
and every bit of it, and throw it in the garbage can. And take
all the books on my shelf and throw them in there too, if it
disputes this book right here. That's the truth. I don't expect
you, I don't require you, I don't command of you to believe anything
I say if I can't turn and read it out of this book. Isn't that
right, Jeff? I believe that by your Bible. I'm content, somebody
said one time, I'm content to live and die as the mere repeater
of what God has written. That's all I want to do, I just
want to repeat. And you, alright, take your other literature, and
read it along with this Word, and if it says something that's
clear here, I don't mean even twist around, but something clear,
then receive it. If not, throw it away. Just brush
it off, because this is the truth right here, the Word of God. I'm glad it was written, Bill,
aren't you? I thank God. I'm glad it was written. I'm
glad He gave it to us to preach.