Now turn, if you will, to Luke
18. I want to read one verse of scripture.
This will serve as our text. Luke 18, 9, and he spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. A message on self-righteousness
is difficult to preach, especially for me, because I
feel like that rather than standing here preaching it, I should be
listening to it. Self-righteousness is no respecter
of persons. And when we talk about self-righteousness,
we're not talking about only the Pharisees, whom Christ called
hypocrites. You notice the scripture which
Brother Cecil read a moment ago, he said the scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites. He was calling them hypocrites,
because they did go to great lengths to appear righteous before
men. But self-righteousness is not
only found among the scribes and the Pharisees, It's even
found among believers, real believers, God's people. It's found in a
Job. It's found in an Isaiah. It's found in a Simon Peter.
And we must be there careful. And self-righteousness, as I
say, is no respect to a person. It's found in the rich and the
poor. It's found in the drunk as well as the moral person.
How often have you heard someone say, well, I may drink a little,
but I don't curse and swear. Or another person says, well,
I may talk filthy, but I don't drink liquor. Or another one
says, well, I may be this, that, and the
other, but I do treat my family good. Everybody justifies himself. We've all got something. It's
just a little fig leaf, but it's a fig leaf. It's just a thread
of self-righteousness, but it's a thread, and it soon develops
into a rope and then a cable and something we're hanging by
to keep from perishing. So I'm going to bring this message
in a little different fashion from the way I usually bring
messages. I'm like Brother E.W. Johnson. I've got three points
always, and then three points under those three points. But
tonight I'm going to have nine. And I'm going to give them these
points in such a way that if you wish, you can jot them down
with the Scripture and go back later and study them or think
about them. I want to think about them too.
The title of this message is Self-Righteousness Slain. But
here's the hard part. You never kill it. You never
effectually kill it. You just wound it. You just engage
it in battle. You don't slay it. So maybe I
ought to entitle the message, instead of Self-Righteousness
Claims, maybe I should entitle it Nine Charges Against Self-Righteousness. But here goes. First of all,
self-righteousness is a sin that's as old as the fall. I hear people
talk about prostitution being the oldest profession. That's
not so. Self-righteousness is the oldest profession. Self-righteousness
is as old as the fall. Ever since man's been a sinner,
he's been self-righteous. The very first time he opened
his mouth after the fall was in defense of himself. When man
had a righteousness of his own, he didn't rejoice in it, did
he? When he had a righteousness of
his own, he didn't rejoice in it. God created man holy and
upright. Adam was pure, without sin. But
he didn't rejoice in the righteousness that he had. But ever since man's
lost his righteousness, he pretended to have it. When the garden of Eden, when
he had a righteousness, he didn't rejoice in it. But as soon as
he lost it, he began to pretend that he had won. And when God
asked him, what hast thou done? He said, well, the woman. The
woman. When Adam was confronted with
his treason, he didn't say, I repent, I confess, I'm sorry. He said,
the woman. The woman which you gave me. He put the blame on Eve, but
indirectly he put the blame on God. It was not me, nor was it
my fault. Really God, it's your fault.
because you gave me the woman." And thereby lays man's first
claim to self-righteousness. Not I, but really the woman and
God himself. Oh, how we seek to justify ourselves. Luke 16, 15. How we seek to justify
ourselves. But it's a sin that's as old
as the fall. It's the oldest sin. As soon
as man fell, he began this defense of himself. He began to justify
himself, he began to lay claim to a self-righteousness. Secondly,
self-righteousness is not only a sin as old as the fall, but
let me tell you this, and this is true, self-righteousness is
the most difficult sin of all to stamp out. Martin Luther once
said, I never preach a sermon. without condemning man's self-righteousness. I never preach a sermon without
making some reference to man's self-righteousness, but I can't,
to save my life," he said, preach it down, even in my own heart. We can identify and deal with
anger. We can identify readily and deal
with hate. That's so glaring, so obvious.
We can identify and deal with lust and lying and envy, but
oh, that deceitful sin of self-righteousness, that deceitful sin of pride that's
born in us and rises up in our hearts to think we're something
when we're nothing, to think that we're rich and increased
with goods when God says we're naked and poor and miserable
and blind. It's the most powerful force
of all. I think sometimes when we study
the priest, Joe and Bruce and Charlie and Cecil and these other
men here, Darwin can attest to this fact. We get in our studies
and we study. And we ask God to give us a message.
And we prepare that message and we preach it. And then we walk
off and say, I wonder how I did. I wonder how I did. I wonder
how they liked it tonight. Self-righteousness. Someone has
a nice voice and they get up to sing. They have every intention
of singing for the glory of God. They have every intention of
bringing a message and song that will be a blessing. And while
they're singing, I wonder how this is going across. I wonder
if they're impressed with my voice. Maybe they're impressed
with the song I've selected. It has a good message and they
they'll be impressed with the fact that I chose this one instead
of another. Or I wonder if they think I sing better than somebody
else. Or I wonder, you know, all these
are going through your mind while you're singing for the glory
of God, and with every intention of singing for the glory of God.
We're going to read a scripture or pray, we're going to pray.
Public prayer is one of the most difficult things any man's ever
done without self-righteousness. You hadn't tackled anything.
Some of you men, I recognize that we have different gifts
and talents. Some of you cannot pray publicly.
That's all right. You can do other things. I can't
do some of the things you can do. I don't expect everybody
to preach, everybody to teach, everybody to pray, everybody
to sing. Not so. No, sir. Each one has
his own gift. But let me tell you something.
Be thankful you're not led to pray in public. I often, somebody
said when I was up in Michigan, they got on the pastor and said,
you haven't called on Brother Kent to lead in prayer. Kent
said, I hope you don't either. I hope you don't. Oh, we have
every intention of talking to God, but brother, before it's
over, we're talking to somebody else. We have every intention
of bearing up our souls and laying bare our souls and taking that
congregation and laying whole on the horns of the altar. And
before we know it, our minds are thinking, how'd that sound?
Wonder if that moved heaven, at least I hope it moved earth,
huh? Oh, I know what I'm talking about.
I've been there a lot of times. Ten thousand, thousand, thousand
servers. had been preached against this
awful demon of self-righteousness, but it's still the greatest sin
of all. And you push it down, and you
press it down, and you try to stomp it down, you try to obliterate
it, and omit it, and erase it, and it wiggles right out, right
at the most terrible time. And if God, I tell you, if we
didn't have Christ, God would spew us out of his mouth. And
I mean when we're in the process of doing what we think is something
religious. because of self-righteousness.
Oh my, it's the most difficult sin to stamp out of all sins. I'm not having any trouble with
some of these things that folks call sin. That's not my problem. My problem's me, with a capital
M. That's the inner man, huh? Third thing about
self-righteousness It flourishes and it grows. It flourishes and
grows among religious people. Self-righteousness is not the
sin of the outside world, for most of them don't profess any
righteousness. They don't lay any claim to righteousness. It's most prevalent among religious
people. It's prevalent among religious
people, and I say unto you, it's prevalent among God's people.
I've often said that we have four areas of pride that are
damnable. Pride of face. We're proud of
our beauty or our strength. Proud of race. This brings out
the ethnic jokes and so forth because we're proud of our race.
We're proud of our place. I've got a better job, a better
income than somebody else. I've got more influence and more
honor. And I'm somebody you know, and
I want everybody to know I'm somebody. Look, see my name in
the paper. Somebody say, if you don't think
you're self-righteous, get a group picture and see whose face you
look far first in the picture. If you're in a picture, and they
show you the picture, see who you look far first. I know who
we look far first, me. Proud of place, and the worst
of all is proud of grace. In Romans chapter 10, Paul said
this, he said, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. I bear them record. They have
a zeal for God. They are zealous people. They
are zealous for God, but it's not according to knowledge, and
they're going about to establish their own righteousness. Religious
people are going about to establish their own righteousness. Let
me ask you this. Often I have people say to me,
They say, brother man, sometimes I just don't think I'm safe.
Well, let me ask you, when is the time that you don't think
you're safe? Now, when is the time? Now, I think I know when
that time is. You have a day in which you start
the day off by losing your temper with your wife or husband. And
then you go down to the office or the place where you work,
and on the way, you think some lustful thoughts. You look out
the window, and there's some attractive things that you shouldn't
think about, and so forth, and you think that, and that bogs
you down. And you go to work, and the boss says something,
and you get angry with him, and things go wrong, and you come
home, and one of the children's done something, and you bawl
him out and say things you shouldn't have said. That's when you think
you're not saved. That's exactly the time. When
do you think you are saved? When do you have peace? When
is it that you feel like you are saved? Well, I'll tell you
when that is. That's when you get up and come to church on
Sunday morning and you read and study in the Sunday school class.
Y'all have a good Sunday dinner and you have prayer and everybody's
happy and the family's around, you know, and take you in the
house and then get up and go Sunday night. It's been a good
day. I feel real saved. You know what that is? Self-righteousness. That's what it is. That's what
it is. Christ intercedes for me when
I'm mad or glad. Christ is my righteousness when
I'm upset or down sitting. It doesn't matter. Christ is
my righteousness whether I feel good or feel bad. Christ is my
righteousness in whatever state I'm in. Christ is my hope. You see what I'm saying? And
when I come to faith in him, and rest in him, and trust in
him, and believe in him, I may have a bad day, but thank God
I have a mediator. And I may have a good day, but
I tell you this, there's no goodness in my good days, it's Christ.
There's enough sin in my best deeds to send me to hell. Why
would I find any comfort? Why would I find any joy? Why
would I find any peace? Oh, I just can't pray. Sometimes
I can't pray. You can't ever pray. Isn't that
a fact? One, for the Holy Spirit making
intercessions, we bumble and fumble our way clear to the judgment.
We know not the things for which we should pray, except He should
reveal them, make intercession for us. Oh, my, my, my. Self-righteousness
flourishes and it grows in religious people. Our righteousness is
not ourself, it's another, it's Christ. And let me tell you this,
all came to this conclusion. When I'm weak, then am I strong.
Actually, when I feel the most unrighteous in myself, that's
when I lean the heaviest on Christ. And that's when I ought to have
the greatest assurance. Actually, it seems like when
the clouds are heaviest and the way is the darkest, that's when
I grab his hand. And that's when I'm really secure.
Not when I'm trusting myself. When I'm strong and when I feel
spiritual, that's when I'm in trouble. That's when I'm in trouble,
because God's angry with me then. All right, let's move on. Self-righteousness
is the most deadly. and fearful sin of all. Brother
Jeff Thornberry said this to me back when I was a very, very
young preacher. He may not even remember it.
But I remember things and I chew on them and bring them like the
old cow. They tell me a cow fills its
stomach and then chews it later. You know, I don't know how that
works. But I remember things and And I remember this, he said
to me way back, John, when I was about 25, 26 years old, he said,
Brother Henry, I'll tell you this, and I never heard this
kind of preaching. He said, I'd a whole lot rather
stand before God at the judgment charged with murder than with
self-righteousness. I'd never heard that in my life.
And I thought about that and said, okay, now murder's pretty
bad. Murder's pretty bad, I think. Brother Jeff, what are you talking
about? Murder's pretty bad. Huh? Take a man's life? You'd
stand a whole lot better chance of being saved if you was a murderer
than you are a self-righteous man. That's right, isn't it Jeff?
I see what he's talking about. I had a whole lot for us. Stand
before God. Charged with murder. Turn to
1 Corinthians 6, and let's see what Paul says about this over
here. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. He names some pretty sorry sins
over here. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, in
verse 6, verse 9, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, old Paul names some
pretty sorry sins. He says, no ye not, verse 9,
1 Corinthians 6, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, idolaters,
adulterers, infeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves,
covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you." You
were those things, but God's washed you, God's forgiven you,
God's cleansed you, God saved you, you're sanctified, you're
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of God. But in one sin he didn't name
that, self-righteousness. Oh no, they're not washed, they're
not sanctified. Self-righteousness would rob
Christ of his redemptive glory. Did you know that? Self-righteousness
would add my merit to his, my works to his, my goodness to
his. And that can't be. That can't
be. Self-righteousness is blasphemy. The holy cherubims and seraphims
of glory cry, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts, and cover
their feet and their faces and their hands over their mouths
and their eyes. They cry, holy, holy. And I say,
well, I'm holy too. I'm holy too. No, Isaiah didn't
say that. He said, woe is me. Self-righteousness
is idolatry. The man who exalts himself to
be righteous, praises himself, worships himself, and robs Christ
of worship. Self-righteousness gives God
the lie. God said, there's none righteous,
no, not one. We say, I am. There's none good,
no, not one. I am. Oh, what a deadly, fearful sin,
self-righteousness, the most fearful, deadly sin of all. Hate
it! Turn from it! Abhor it! When you see it raise its head
in your heart, you're so keen on cutting down lust. One preacher
I heard on tape said his wife goes through all the magazines
that comes to his house and cuts out the pictures so he won't
look at them and he reads them later. I bet when he's turning
through those pages and sees one missing, he thinks, I wonder
what was on that page, you know. But we're so keen that we're
going to deal with this, that, and the other. We'd better deal
with self-righteousness. That's what we'd better deal
with. We'd better work it over. We'd better deal with us as a
deadly sin, as a fearful sin, because it's the most deadly
of all. I was thinking about that old
boy. You know, somebody said, well,
he might be in good shape, but think of that poor girl. She
has to censor all those things. Here's the next point, A, B,
C, D, E, 5. Turn to Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, verse 5. Watch now,
I got a hold of this. Joe and I were talking about
this yesterday in the study. And I got a hold of this. Hold
Isaiah 65 and then two scriptures I want you to look at at the
same time. Luke 18, my text again. Here's the fifth point. Self-righteousness
leads us to despise other people. It leads us to despise other
people. Now, here are the two verses.
Luke 18, 9 first. Luke 18, 9. He spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and despised others. Now, Isaiah 65, 5. Isaiah 65,
5. You say, stand by yourself, come
not near to me. I'm holier than thou. Huh? Don't come near me. I'm so holy. I'm so good. I'm not fit company
for you, you know, I'm so good. If you want to meet a full-fledged
gossip, I mean a full-fledged professional gossip, If you want
to meet a person that really delights in gossiping, he'll
be a self-righteous person every time. I guarantee that. That
person, that self-righteous person, feels that his character is unquestionable
so he can work over yours. He feels that his reputation
is safe so he can work over yours. If he didn't feel that way, he'd
leave yours alone. That's right. The person who
is a full-fledged gossip and a real professional at it is
always a person who feels that there can be no charge brought
against them, that good and holy and righteous in their character
cannot be attacked. That's right. Or secondly, if
you want to find a dial-in-the-wool persecutor, a persecutor of others,
A person who is out to hunt down the weak and inflict sorrow and
heartache upon the infirm, he finds you a self-righteous man
or woman. They love to inflict hurt. They love to inflict wounds upon
those who are beneath them. They really do. They enjoy it.
They delight in it. They delight in charging men
and women with sin, or with error, or with heresy. They love to
because they're self-righteous. They're good! They're accepted
by God! And they just delight in torturing
those whom they feel are not as holy as they are. And then
thirdly, if you want to find a rumor spreader, it doesn't
have to be even the truth, but just, I hear or I heard or I've
been told, find you a self-righteous man. You know, love covers sin. Love hideth the matter. That's
right. Real love does. But self-righteousness
catches at every straw of suggestion and spreads the dirt far and
near. Because it gives them comfort
in their refuge of self-praise. I'm not like other men. That's
what the Pharisees said. If they can find a flaw in you,
it makes them feel better. If they can find error in you,
if they can find fault with you, it makes them feel better, it
gives them comfort, because they're resting in their self-righteousness.
And this is true. If you want to find a real, thorough,
pure-bred gossip, it'll always be a self-righteous person. Always,
without fail, it'll be a person who thinks they're pretty good.
And if you want to find a persecutor, It's a person who feels that
he's not worthy of persecution. And if you want to find a rumor
spreader who doesn't stop the rumor and who doesn't say, right
here, let's not let this go any further, let's cover it and hide
it for the glory of Christ and the good of the gospel. No, sir. The self-righteous make a contribution
to the error in the next place. Self-righteousness may not admit
it. You may not admit it, but self-righteousness
hates the doctrines of grace. And that's right, it hates the
doctrines of grace. You cannot find a self-righteous
man who does not, he may pretend to believe them. You know, you
often have a problem, I have people come to me and say, well,
a certain preacher says that he believes the doctrines of
grace, but he doesn't preach them. You'll probably find you there
a self-righteous man, because self-righteousness hates the
doctrines of grace. Now take them one at a time,
just the ones that we kind of sum it up. Total depravity. Self-righteousness
could never subscribe to total depravity. Total depravity would unmask
my self-deceit. I've got to have problems with
total depravity if I feel within me there's any good at all. I've
got to have trouble with total depravity, I've got to wrestle
with it, have a conflict with it, and really not be able to
really say what a fallen, wretched, corrupt, depraved creature I
am. I can't say that if I don't believe
it. And the self-righteous man, he
just cannot, he cannot, he'll bring man down, but not all the
way down. He'll put him low, but not all
the way down. He'll talk about his failures,
but he won't talk about his spiritual death. He can't do it. Because
he can't identify with it. That's the reason. Secondly,
unconditional erection. There's no way that a self-righteous
man can accept unconditional erection. Because that would
be saying this, I don't deserve God's mercy. No self-righteous man can accept
unconditional erection. Don't expect him to. He cannot
see himself ruined in the fall, he cannot see himself undeserving
of God's love, he cannot see himself worthy of God's wrath,
he cannot see himself judged and condemned to hell, and a
holy God being just in doing so. He can't see that. He thinks
somehow that he's different. That he, that God ought to love
him, that God ought to save him, that God's to be commended for
his wisdom in choosing him. He can't see that it's solely
by God's good pleasure that God could have passed him by, let
him alone, left him in his sins, and been perfectly just in doing
so. You believe that? I know that's
so. I know that's so. But a self-righteous
man, he can't preach that. He can't preach a death and an
atonement. that would rob him of some self-glory. He cannot
see a definite atonement. What are you talking about a
definite atonement? I'm talking about Christ, when he died on
that cross, redeemed us from our sins, paid the debt, and
secured our redemption in full. And the self-righteous man who
does not see the total ruin of the fall has got to contend that
the Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't be fair if he did not make available
his blood to every son of Adam. That's right. Self-righteousness
will not let him fall at the feet of Christ and say, Lord,
you did it all, you accomplished it in a sufficient, affectionate
atonement. The people, the angels who fell,
who kept not their first estate, deserve nothing, and men deserve
nothing, and I deserve nothing. And if Christ didn't die for
me, well, that's all right. That's all right. He didn't owe
me anything. He didn't owe me anything. And self-righteousness
cannot receive an invincible revelation of the Holy Spirit.
This would put to death man's wisdom and put to death man's
pride of intellect. You mean to tell me that I'm
a high school and college graduate and I'm a successful businessman
and I have men working under me and men working for me and
I handle millions of dollars a year and I can't read this
book and understand it? That's exactly what I mean. I
mean this book, whatever you read, you'll get the wrong answer
unless the Holy Spirit enlightens your mind and reveals to you
the mystery of the gospel. Self-righteousness won't let
us admit that. That we know nothing, are nothing,
have nothing, and deserve nothing. Huh? That's right. It won't do
it. Man can't preach that. He can't
preach invincible grace. He can't preach irresistible
grace. He can't preach a revelation
of God's Spirit. He can't do it. He can't do it. It starts out down here, free
grace, and comes out with works. He struggles. He cannot embrace
final perseverance by God's grace. That would destroy all dependents
upon the flesh. Oh, I believe God keeps us, but
we must keep ourselves. If keeping me in the faith depends
on anything I do, I'll never stay in the faith. It depends
on Christ. That's so. In the next place,
quickly, I have three more I'll give to you briefly. God hates
self-righteousness. Look, you've still got your Bible,
Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65, verse 5. I want to show you something
here that's just so beautiful. It'll be beautiful to some of
you. It may not be beautiful to all of you, but in Isaiah
65, verse 5, he says, Stand by thyself. Come not near me, I'm
holier than thou. That's what you say. Look at
the next line. Bees are smoking my nose. Have you ever burned trash? Sure
you have. You break all the leaves and
put all the old tires and all the old rubbish and pile up and
set it afire and then you stand back and watch it burn and the
wind start blowin' and that smoke comes right at you. Oh, just
choke you to death. Your eyes water and your nose
runs and you fight it off and you get over here and stand watchin'
the wind changin' and that smoke, that old rubbish burnin' comes
right in your face. You fight it off. That's what
God's sayin' here. You self-righteous people are
smokin' my nose. The burning of rubbish and trash. It makes my eyes water and my
nose smart. That's what God thinks about.
It's an abomination to God. He said that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Turn to Proverbs 6. So
I can sit and remember that whenever I feel like I'm righteous or
holy or good or holier than somebody else, I'm making God's nose smart. Just like the old smoke of rubbish
blowing in his face. Oh, how God hates that. He says
in Proverbs 6, 16, six things God hates, seven abomination
to him. What's number one? A proud look. You know, you would think if
God was going to list six things he hated, he'd start with something
worse than that. There ain't nothing worse than
that. Now, it seems so to us. Because
we're catalogers of sin. But there's nothing worse than
God. He said, God resisteth the proud. God hates the proud, Luke. And then in the next place, in
the eighth place, self-righteousness denies the wisdom of God's righteousness
in Christ. That's right, denies God's wisdom
of righteousness in Christ. Here's what the Bible teaches
us. that we have no righteousness, that when God chose sinners,
that having to choose sinners arose from the fact that they
could not and would not choose God. Now that's what that came
from. Election arose out of the truth
that man could not and would not choose God. The obedience
of Christ. Christ came down here, identified
with sinners, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and meant
the law and obeyed it perfectly, and that arose from the fact
that we couldn't. We couldn't. We had no righteousness. We had
no ability. We were totally unable to do
anything pleasing in God's sight. Christ did it for us. Christ
went to the cross and bore our sins and our transgressions to
justify us before the law of God because we had no power to
justify our sins. We had no strength at all before
God. None. Empty. Bankrupt. And Christ is at the right hand
of God now interceding for us because we still don't have any
righteousness except that which he gave. We still don't have
the strength to hold and the power to stay in the way. We
don't have that in ourselves. So he intercedes for us. We need
to mediate toward just as much now as we did when God saved
us. But self-righteousness says all
that. is a big blunder on the part
of God. He didn't really need to do all that. That was massive,
God, to do that, you know. I mean, after all, that was,
you know, that was big of God to send his only son, but he
didn't have to go to all that trouble. We could have, you know,
somehow made it. No, sir. Christ came because
it was impossible for God to be God and save sinners any other
way. That's right. And in the last
place, and I say this, And I say it with all of the strength and
conviction that I have in regard to any matter that I preach to
you. I believe that if self-righteousness
is permitted to continue in a man's heart, I believe if self-righteousness
is permitted to have the upper hand, I believe it bars a man
from all hope of salvation. I believe that something is done
about this sin, as the brother just said, I don't want to take
this sin to the judgment. I want it dealt with, I want
it stamped out, I want it driven out, I want it like the son of
the born woman, get out of here, you can't live with the son of
the pre-woman. Because if I continue in my self-righteousness,
it will keep my heart from true repentance. How can I truly repent
if I do not see my sins? How can I truly repent if I do
not acknowledge my sins? How can I truly repent if I do
not look upon even my righteousness as filthy race? How can I truly
repent if I still with these eyes of mine see anything good
in me? I can't truly repent. I can repent
in a fashion. I can repent to a point, but
I can't Totally repent. I can't totally weep and mourn
before God if I do not see my sins. Lord, show me myself. Don't spare me. Let me see me
as I am. It wouldn't be pleasant, but
it would be good for us. It wouldn't encourage you too
much, but it would encourage you to look to Christ. It encourages
you to lay hold on Christ. I don't know if people say, well,
I just mourn over my... God just shows me my sins and
it bothers me. Be thankful that he showed them
to you now, not at the judgment. I hope you don't see them for
the first time then. Now, if you wait until you get
before the judgment and God then opens the books and shows you
what you are, you're in trouble because it's too late to look
to Christ. Show me myself. How can I truly repent if I do
not know myself? Secondly, self-righteousness
keeps my heart from faith in Christ. How can I look to Christ
alone and hold to anything good in myself? Anything. My experience, my feeling, my
profession, my preaching, my giving, my praying, anything.
How can I hold to anything, just a thread, and cling only to Christ? Some of us want to hold to Christ
the life preserver while we have our feet on the sandy bottom
just a little bit, you know. Self-righteousness. Well, you
know, I'm not bad as some folks. Well, you better wish you were
then, because Christ died for the ungodly. He died for sinners. And then thirdly, it keeps me
from being holy. or having the righteousness of
Christ. For Paul said in our Sunday School lesson, to you
that would be circumcised or to you that would seek acceptance
by God on any point of religious obedience, you are obligated
to keep the whole law. Now, if you're going to look
for acceptance with God by doing something, you're obligated to
do the whole law of Christ's prophets united. I'd rather,
I'd rather, and there's no question about this, I'd rather just turn
the law over to Christ, just completely over to Him, to rest
in Him as my righteousness, my sanctification, my obedience,
my acceptance, my salvation, my wisdom, my redemption, everything's
in Christ. I am nothing, and I want to continue
to be nothing. I don't want God to show me my
gifts, I want Him to show me my failures. Don't be discouraged
when you're In a dark valley of trouble and
heartache and mourning and weeping over your sins, rejoice! Rejoice that God showed them
to you, because in that way you can look to Christ and cling
to Him. He delights to show mercy, mercy,
mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. Oh,
that it might be stamped out, self-righteousness. And as the
old man said, there are thousands of sermons been preached against
it, and here tonight we really worked it over, but you'll meet
it before the service is over. Isn't that right? I guarantee
you. You'll meet it before the service
is over. See if you can't identify it.
See if you can't recognize it. Not in others, but in myself. See if you can begin to start
watching for it. That old saying of self-righteousness,
see if you can say it. Because when you can say it,
you can deal with it. You can deal with it. Well, let's sing
a closing hymn. You've got one already picked
out, haven't you? Just announced the number for us. Let's sing hymn number 474, please.
Let's stand, please. Not have I gotten, but what I've
received. Grace has bestowed it, since
I have delivered. This is my story, to God be the
glory, the hope will be there, saved by grace