Turn now in our Bibles to Romans
chapter 10, Romans the tenth chapter. Brethren, my heart's desire,
my prayer to God, for Israel is that they might be saved. The Apostle Paul begins this
chapter with a sincere cry. He says from the depths of his
heart, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I want my friends and the people
of my nation to be saved. The apostle here is not interested
in making proselytes to a denomination. That's not his goal. He is not
the slightest bit interested in converting men to a doctrinal
system. He is not the slightest bit interested
in gaining personal fame or followers. or recognition. That's not his
goal. That's not his desire. That's
not his prayer. He wants people to be saved.
I prevail, he said, till Christ
be formed in you. Now what is it to be saved? That word has fallen into bad
company, I'm sorry to say. That word doesn't mean what it
used to mean. And I questioned whether, while
I was preparing this message, whether I ought to even use that
word in trying to define what I'm talking about. The average person thinks that
just getting religion is being saved. A man comes out on the job and
the crowd says, well, he got saved down at the revival. He
went down to the mourner's bench or down to the altar or down
to the front and shook the preacher's hand and had an experience. He got saved. He quit drinking. He joined the church. He quit
running around. He got saved. But I don't think
that's what Paul's talking about here. He's not just talking about
an experience. a reformation, a feeling, a turning
over a new leaf, a joining the church, a getting religion. And
that's what that word has degenerated into in this day, getting saved. What is it to be saved? What's
the Bible talking about when it talks about being saved? What's
Paul got in mind here when he says, burning desire, my fervent
desire, my prayer is that my friends might be saved. Well,
he's talking about being redeemed. He's talking about salvation
more than a heaven, hell proposition. Salvation is the life of God
in the soul. That's what salvation is. Salvation
is an intimate, personal, living union with God Almighty through
Christ the Salvation is the life of God as opposed to the life
of self. It's a life. It's not a profession.
It's a life. It's not association with an
organization. It's life. It's not practicing
religious ceremony. Salvation is life, life from
the dead. It is to be delivered. It is to be delivered from the
penalty of sin, to have the curse removed. It is to be delivered
from the punishment of sin, because there's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ. It's to be delivered from the
practice of sin, from the power of sin. It is to be not only
delivered from something, but it's to be delivered to something,
to a vital union with a living Lord, who becomes our wisdom
and our righteousness and our sanctification and our redemption. My heart's desire, my prayer
to God for my friends is that they might be saved, delivered,
redeemed, brought to knowledge of God. Now Paul, in seeking
the salvation of his heroes, presents six things that he knows,
and six things that every true God-called minister knows, and
there are God-called ministers. There are plenty of phonies,
but there are some who are genuine. There are plenty of impostors,
but there are some who are sincere. There are plenty of those who
run who have not been sent, but there are some who have been
sent. The Scripture says there was a man sent from God. His
name was John. There was a man sent from God.
His name was Isaiah. There was a man sent from God.
His name was Paul. He was sent from God. He had
God's message. And he had the courage and boldness
to deliver it. And there are six things that
every true God-called minister knows. He knows them beyond a
shadow of a doubt. And he reveals them not only
in his message, but in his methods. The first thing that every God-called
minister knows, and Paul knew this, verse 2 and 3, he knows
that most people, most religious people, are trying to be saved
by their own righteousness. He knows that. He's talking the
language of his generation. Now, I am upset. I am greatly
disturbed. that ministers today are not
talking in the language of the people. I don't know what we're
trying to do, whether we're trying to impress people with our intellectualism
or our wisdom or our piety or our holiness or our power or
what we're trying to impress them with, but we need to get
down here on the street where people are living and talk their
language and deal with the things that they're dealing with. And every God-called preacher,
the first thing he knows, he knows that most religious people,
not all of them, most of them are trying to be saved. They're
trying to be accepted of God by their own righteousness. Paul
said, look at verse 2, I bear them record. I bear them record. I know what I'm talking about.
They have a zeal of God. Most people in our town are interested
in God. Most people in our town have
some kind of interest in God. They have a zeal of God. But
it's not according to knowledge. They know there's a God, they
know there's a heaven, they know there's a hell. They're trying
to establish a relationship with God. They're trying to find acceptance
with God. And most of them, I believe,
are sincere. I really do. I believe that most
religious people are sincerely trying to find some ground upon
which to have dealing with God. They want to go to heaven when
they die. They don't want to go to hell.
They don't want to perish. They don't want to face God at
the judgment unprepared. Paul said, I bear them record,
the people for whom I pray and the people I want to see saved.
They have a knowledge of God. They have a zeal for God. They
have an interest in God. But this zeal and this enthusiasm
and this search for acceptance with God is not according to
knowledge. It's not according to the revealed
will of God. They are, verse 3, they're ignorant. They're ignorant of the true
God and His righteousness. And they're going about, their
efforts are in this direction, they're going about to establish,
to build their own righteousness. They're ignorant concerning the
vital area, the most vital area of all, God's righteousness. the ground on which God will
do business with a sinner. That's where they're ignorant.
They're ignorant of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. And they're going about in their
ignorance to establish a basis on which to do business with
God. Most religious people hope to be accepted of God. They hope
to merit heaven by what they are doing. Look at Romans 9.31,
right across the page. Romans 9.31, But Israel, which
followed after the righteousness of the law, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith. but as it were by the works of
the law. That's how they sought righteousness. And I'm sure there are people,
even after hearing the gospel a thousand times, there are people
right here in this congregation who are trying to establish some
kind of communication with God by your prayers, or by your church
attendance, or by your giving, or by your work. or by your kindness
to your neighbors, or by your abstinence from certain sins,
or by your quitting this and quitting that, the cleaner you
are, the more holy you feel. And when you compromise or fail,
the more separated from God you feel. In other words, your relationship
with God is based entirely on what you're doing at that particular
time. Thank God our relationship with God is not based on that,
because our judgment of sin, our knowledge of sin, is a lot
different from God's judgment of sin. While we may feel at
our best in God's sight, we may be at our worst. And when we feel at our worst,
it may be in God's sight we're at our best. Paul said, when
I am weak, then am I strong. They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. It's
pride that goeth before a fall. It's a haughty spirit that God
rejecteth. It's to the proud that God will
pay no heed. It's to the guilty that he gives
grace. But in our day, let's face it,
even in our own minds, we're just, we're what we call Arminians
by nature. We're born that way. We're trying
to establish some form of communication with God, some sort of relationship
with God, some sort of acceptance with God by what we do. And that's what Paul is saying
right here. They have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of God's holiness. They're ignorant of God's judgment
of holiness. And they're going about a never-ending
process, always striving, I'm trying, I'm doing the best I
can, I'm keeping on, keeping on, to establish for themselves
a righteousness and they have not submitted to the righteousness
of God. Now look, the second thing that
every God-called preacher knows, verse 4, he knows that Jesus
Christ is the only righteousness that God will accept. Now every
preacher who is sent of God knows that. He knows that God will
never accept any man, either religious or non-religious, on
the basis of what he does. God will never accept any man
either saved or lost on the basis of what he does. God will never
accept a man either moral or immoral on the basis of what
he does. All who are accepted are accepted
in the beloved. Christ is the goal of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Christ is my righteousness. How did he become my righteousness?
Well, first of all, he became my surety. He identified with
me. He became my representative.
And this God made him from the foundations of the world. He
was the covenant head. He was the surety of the everlasting
covenant. He is a priest forever, having
no beginning and no ending. His is an eternal priesthood. He stood for me before I had
a being. He stood for me before I ever
had a body. He stood for me before I ever
had a sin. He stood for me before I ever
had any guilt. He was my covenant head, my surety. And then he had to become flesh.
The Scripture says, in the fullness of time, God has sent his Son,
made of a woman, made under this law, in subjection to this law,
that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. Thirdly,
he had to be tried and tested in all points as I am, and meet
him without sin. Fourthly, he had to be perfect.
The law was fulfilled in us by Christ. Fifthly, he had to die
under my transgression. Sixthly, he had to rise again
as my victorious justifier, and in the next place he has to intercede
at God's right hand. He is my righteous. When Jesus
Christ lived on this earth, I lived on this earth in Him. When He
went to the cross and died, that was my cross. I am crucified
with Christ. When He rose again, that was
my resurrection. I'm risen with Christ. When He
ascended to the right hand of the Father, I ascended, and I'm
seated with Him in the heavenly. And I have a perfect holiness,
a perfect righteousness, and it does not consist in any shape,
form, or fashion in what I'm doing right now." Now, that's
so. You say, that'll lead people
to licentiousness. It'll lead fools to licentiousness. It'll lead religious professors
who know not God to a licentious life. But it will not lead a
believer. to a licentious life. But what
men do with something that's true, I can't help. I just know
it's true. I know that Christ is our righteousness. I know that I'm not under the
law as a righteousness. I'm not in subjection to the
law to try to provide some sort of righteousness. And I know
the law is not my master. Christ is my master. Christ is
my Master. He is the end of the law, the
goal of the law, the consummation of the law to everyone that believe
it. And He's the only righteousness
the Father will have any dealings with. Outside of Christ is wrath
and judgment and condemnation. We're accepted in the Beloved.
There are two There's the first Adam who is of the earth, earthy.
There's the second Adam who's the Lord from heaven. And as
in the first Adam I died, in the second Adam I'm made alive.
In the second Adam I have a perfect standing. I am as holy as God
in Christ Jesus. Now that's so. But the world is rejecting that
righteousness. They don't understand it. They
can't comprehend it, they can't enter into it, they can't rejoice
in it, they can't give God the glory for it, so they're going
about, even church members, even so-called believers, they're
trying to establish some sort of pattern that God will look
upon and pat them on the head and say, you're a good boy. That's
exactly right. You're a good boy. Now you're
doing right. I'm proud of you. You're doing wrong, I'm not proud
of you. Won't pronounce judgment on you,
won't visit you in affliction. My righteousness is Christ. It
always has been, it is now, it always will be. Now the third
thing that every preacher knows is this, he knows what the law
demands. He knows what law righteousness
is. Now, if you're going to set out
to establish your righteousness on the foundation of law obedience,
Paul said, you better take another look at it. You better take a
hard look at it. Verse 5, For Moses described
the righteousness which is of the law. What Moses said about
it, he says, it takes more than knowing, it takes more than agreeing,
It takes more than believing, it takes d-o-i-n-g doing. Boy, I'm glad, oh, how glad I am that
I didn't live under that dispensation. How glad I am that I didn't live
under that law. Why, you that would be under
the law, don't you hear the law? God's holy law. God's holy law,
those Jews back there, if they sat on the wrong seat, they were
defiled. If they took one more step than
they're supposed to, they were defiled. If they touched a leper,
they were defiled. If they ate the wrong meat, they
were defiled. If they did this, if they did
that, if they did the other, they were constantly on their
toes, constantly afraid of being defiled. God's law says to us,
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. If a man slaps your face, turn
the other cheek. If a man demands that you walk
a mile, walk two with him. If a man snatches your coat off
your back, give him your vest, too. If a fellow builds his fence
two feet over on your line, give him four more. If a man curses you, pray for
him. If a man despitefully uses you,
pray for him. If your enemy who's made war
on you is hungry. Fix him breakfast and take it
to him." Now, if you're going to present, if you're going to
present your merit and your obedience to God for acceptance, it better
be without flaw. It better be according to his
holiness. Now, you hadn't started doing business yet in the area
where God examines people. I know you don't drink anymore,
and that's fine. And I know you don't do this,
that, and the other anymore, and that's good. But you hadn't even commenced
to begin to get started yet to do business in the area where
God's doing business. And that is to rid your heart
of all pride, to rid your heart of all anger. to rid your heart
of all selfishness, to rid your heart of every thought of impurity,
to rid your heart of every jot and tittle of any selfish personal
glory. We haven't even started yet.
We talk about being holy. I wish I could preach to this
holiness crowd a little while. I'd sure like to preach to them.
But they wouldn't hear me, they won't hear God. Every God-called
preacher knows the area where holiness is, where godliness
is. And he knows that he knows nobody
that's there. He's not there. He's not there. And God Almighty can be satisfied
with nothing less than perfection. When they drive that nail in
your hand, when they raise you up on the cross, when they drop
the cross in the hole and rip the flesh and tear the very soul
out of your body, when they spit on you and mock you and ridicule
you and walk around your cross and make fun of you, look down
through compassionate, sincere eyes and say, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're doing. Now you're holy. Now you're
holy. The fourth thing that every God-called
preacher knows, he knows that folks are interested in God. He knows they're interested in
heaven. He knows that. But he knows they're going the
wrong way to try to get it. He knows they're going the wrong
direction. He knows they're building on
the wrong foundation. They're ignorant. He knows they're
trying to establish some communication between them and God on the basis
of what they're doing. I got up four o'clock this morning
and prayed, God ought to really like me today. God ought to really bless me
today. I wrote out a good check for the church this morning.
I put it in an envelope. I feel so holy. God ought to
sure bless me today. I paid my tithe. I know how they're
trying to get to God. I gave a nice offering to the
United Fund and the Community Chest and as a family in need,
and I took them a basket of groceries. God ought to look on that and
pat me on the back. You know that. That's what the
world believes. But then the preacher who's called
of God comes along and says, we're not, that's not the area
we're talking about. We're talking about this, where
sin has its roots. We're talking about that old
tap root. We're talking about that which defiles a man, that
which comes from within. We're talking about the law of
God demands not only perfect action, but perfect thought.
And then he knows that Christ is the only righteousness God
will be happy with. And then next of all, he knows
this. He knows that the righteousness of Christ is ours only by faith. Look at verse 9. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and shall believe
in thine heart, God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. For with the heart man believeth under righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." You
say, Preacher, I want to be accepted of God. I want to be in communion
with God. I want to be redeemed, delivered. I want that righteousness with
which God will be God will be satisfied. How do I get it? I'll
tell you how. You believe on Christ, who is
our righteousness. You trust Him, who is our sanctification. You receive Him, who is our wisdom. That's how you get it. Now listen
to me. Paul was in prison, and this jailer had beaten him, laid
stripes on his back. cut him to the bone, left him
in the prison there, shut the door, went outside and sat down
in a chair and went to sleep. Paul began to sing and to pray
to God. And the power of God came upon
that place and shook that prison and opened the doors and dropped the shackles from
their feet and their hands. The fetters fell off. And that
jailer jumped up. It woke him up, the earthquake
did. He jumped up and he saw those doors open. And he grabbed
his sword. And he was going to kill himself.
He took that sword and going to ram it right into his belly.
Because he knew that he was responsible for those prisoners. And if they
were gone, he'd have to pay the price. And he was going to kill
himself. And Paul hollered out and said,
Don't do that. Do thyself no harm. You're the
fellow that beat me and mistreated me and cursed me and threw me
in here, but I'm not mad at you. Don't do yourself any harm. We're
all right here. We haven't gone in play." And
this man was astounded. This man was amazed. This man
saw those heavy iron doors shaking off their hinges. He saw that
this man Paul was of God, the mighty miracle that had been
performed, and he saw this man Paul was not interested in his
own safety, but in God's glory. And he was sitting right there
in that prison, the shackles, those iron chains about Paul's
arms and legs had dropped off on the floor, and there he sat.
And this man came in there trembling and fell on his face and looked
up at Paul and said, Sir, what must I do to be saved? All right, Paul, if it's necessary
for this man to grieve and mourn for eleven or twelve months,
tell him so. This is the time. Paul is there
at your feet. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be redeemed,
to have a righteousness, to be accepted of God? What must I
do? Now come on, tell him. All right,
Paul, if baptism is necessary for salvation, tell him. If he
has to come down to a mourner's bench and pray through, tell
him. This is the time he's asking you. If he has to be a Catholic,
tell him. If he has to be a Baptist, tell
him. If he has to be a Nazarene, tell him. If he has to be baptized,
tell him. If he has to have the wafer and
the wine, tell him. That's what people are telling
him now. What must I do to be saved? All right, Paul, tell
him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He told him. He told him. God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish but have eternal life. He told him.
He that believeth on the Son hath life and he that believeth
not the Son shall never see life. He told him. He told him. This is our message. Look at
verse 12. There's no difference. There's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call on him. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Every God-called
preacher knows that. This is the message for Jew and
Gentile. This is the message for the first
century and the twentieth century. It's believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ! And it's to believe with a heart.
With a heart, man believeth unto righteousness. It's not in regimentation
to march down this aisle. It's not to fulfill some ordinance
or ceremony. It's in your heart, in your soul,
in your innermost being, in that place where you and God do business. It's to believe. The mourner's
bench is my heart. The altar is my heart. That's
where it all is. It's in here. It's not to be
seen of men, to be judged of men, to be accepted of men. It's
me and God. That's where it all takes place.
With the heart man believeth under righteousness. Now with
my mouth I confess Christ. Confession is made unto salvation,
but the whole is in the heart. It's in the heart. That's where
I believe. I believe in my heart. I believe I'm a sinner. I know
it. No use lying about it. It's not going to do me any good. God looks on the heart. Man looks
on the outward countenance. And I think we ought to have
some kind of appearance. We ought to avoid every appearance
of evil. We ought to walk in such a way that people will be
influenced by our walk, and talk in such a way that people will
be helped and influenced by our talk. We ought to live in such
a way that people will be influenced for the glory of God. But I'm
doing business with God in here. And God knows I'm a sinner. And
God knows I need a Savior. And God knows that Christ is
my only hope. And God knows I love Him. God
knows I love Him. That's what Peter said to the
master. He said, you know everything. You know I love you. Whether
or not you love Christ doesn't make any difference whether the
preacher knows it or not. If God knows it, it doesn't make
any difference whether folks round about you believe you're
saved or not. That's all right. God knows it. God knows it. He said, I found
David to be a man after my own heart. A lot of folks didn't
like him, but God liked him because God knew he loved him. God knew
he loved him. All right, the fifth thing. The
preacher who's called of God, he knows the fifth thing. He
knows the preaching of the gospel is necessary to this kind of
faith. Look at verse 14, 15. How they going to call on him
in whom they've not believed? How they going to believe in
him of whom they've not heard, and how they going to hear without
a preacher? He knows the importance of his task. How can a man call
on Christ for mercy if he does not believe in the saving merits
of Christ? How can a man believe in the
saving merits of Christ if he's never heard of Christ? How can
a man hear of Christ unless somebody what? The Ethiopian eunuch was
riding along looking at that scripture and Philip came by
and he said, do you understand what you're reading? And the
man said, how can I unless somebody shows me? That's the reason God
sends preachers. Tonight I'm preaching on the
three necessary people in this salvation. How can I except some
man show me? Now the sixth thing that every
God-called preacher knows, he knows that this saving faith
comes by hearing the Word of God. We are, unfortunately, we are
plagued with a generation of preachers who are not preaching
the word of God. That's so. They take a text and
depart from it, away, away from it. Most preachers use very little
scripture in their messages, very little scripture. And I
don't believe God will bless that. God blesses the Word, not
my words, His Word. Your faith in Christ is going
to have to come, it's going to have to be founded, grounded,
established, not on what I say, but what you see right here in
this book for yourself. My Word, God said, will not return
unto me void. It shall accomplish that whereunto
I have sent it. Now, I don't see any use in your
bringing the Bible to church as a ritual, as a form, in order
to look religious. To come and sit with a Bible
in your lap, you don't have to, that's your business. That's
your business. You don't ever have to carry
a Bible, I don't care, that's your business. You don't ever
have to open one when I'm preaching, that's your business too. You
want to go to hell, that's your business. If you don't want to
know what this book says, that's your business. That's all right
by me. But I'm telling you this, the
people who look into this book with sincerity and earnestness
and care, they want to know what God says. God will bless that
word to their hearts. He certainly will. And as you
look at it, that's the reason I ask you to turn to certain
scripture and look at certain scripture. I want you to see,
I don't My soul, why in the world would anybody want to build a
denomination on his name? Why would any preacher have any
desire at all to get up here and have people believe what
he says? I want these boys and girls to
know what God says. I want men and women to know
what God says here, that we're sinners. God says here that we
don't have any ability at all to please Him. God says that
the preacher, it's not his word, it's God's word. It's not Baptist
doctrine or Baptist catechism or Baptist confession. Who cares? But God says here, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. We're going to have to know something
about this book. Faith doesn't come by dreams
and visions. Faith comes through the Word.
Faith doesn't come by a good feeling. It comes from the Word. Faith doesn't come through a
good Holy Ghost happy meeting. It comes because God said it.
God said it. How do you know God will save
sinners? He said it. I can quote it to you. How do
you know God Almighty sent Christ down here in the flesh as a man
to be our representative? He said it. I can read it to
you. How do you know He went to the cross and died for your
sins? He said it. I know it. I've memorized it.
I've read it. I can read it to you. How do
you know He'll save you? Because He said so. And He cannot lie. God will keep
his word. God is faithful. He will keep
his word. And you know, what if, let me
ask you this, what if they came tomorrow and took all the Bibles
away from you? Huh? What if they did that? I'd still have me a Bible. I
got it right up here and right down here. I can quote it. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. and the Word was God, and all
things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He came unto His own,
His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God." I'm persuaded neither
death, nor life, nor height, nor death, nor principalities,
nor anything can separate me from the love of God. For by
grace, so you say, have you committed the word to your heart, to your
memory, and to your mind, and to your life? If you have, nobody
can ever take it away from you. Because our faith's built on
this right here. He said it. They came to an old
man, they said, old man, you're Christian? Yes, sir, I'm a Christian.
Believe you're going to heaven? Yes, I do. What if after all
these years of trusting the Lord, you died, and you wound up in
hell? The old man said, Well, son,
I'll tell you. He said, God would lose more than I lost. God would
lose more than I lost. They said, What do you mean by
that? He said, Well, I'd lose my soul, but God would lose his
throne. God would lose his throne, because
he said in his word, He that believeth on the Son hath life. And son, I believe on him. I
believe on him. And if God doesn't keep his word,
God will cease to be God. Oh, I'd lose my soul, but he'd
lose his throne. And let me tell you this, the
word of God is as sure as the throne of God. But don't you
believe anything because I say it. I don't want you to. Don't
you believe anything because it's Baptist doctrine? That's
the poorest reason in the world to believe anything. You believe
it because God said it. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. May the word of God lead you
away from self to the Savior, away from that foundation of
flesh to that sure foundation. No other foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid Christ the Lord. And when he becomes
the beat of your heart and the step of your feet and the thought
of your mind and the love of your soul, he's being formed
in here. And your relationship with the
living God is based, and that'll give you some comfort. That'll
give you the rest. Christ said, My peace I give
unto you. You're not going to find any
peace in your conscience. Your works and your goodness
are not going to give you any peace. Christ is your peace. Come unto me and I'll give you
rest. The soul of the unbeliever is like the troubled sea. Every
rock causes a wave down there in that little old creek, that
creek flowing down through there. And every time it hits a rock,
it jumps up. And every time you have a bad thought, you go like
this. Every time you have a bad deed,
it's like this. And every time you have a bad
word, it's like this. And you're like that all the
time. Well, there's supposed to be
a certain repentance and grieving over sin, but we grieve not as
those with no hope. not as those with no hope. We
rest in Christ. He's my peace. He's my acceptance. He's my righteousness. He's my
rest. And I want to be like Him, and
I want my life to be lived for the glory of God, and for the
good of others, and for my own good. But Christ is my rest. Christ is my... I'm leaving it
in His hands. Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind.
Oh, Paul looked back and thought, I took that mother away from
her children and put her in jail. I took that father, that preacher
of the gospel, and I had him beheaded. I took those people
and I put them in jail. Oh, my soul, what am I going
to do? Oh, I think back. No, he didn't. He said, I forget those things.
I forget them. I forget them, and I press forward
towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of Christ
my Lord. I was a blasphemer, but I obtained
mercy. I was a persecutor, I was injurious,
but I obtained mercy. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my peace. You better come to that. You
may be there, but I tell you this, you're robbing yourself
of a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, a lot of rest, because you won't
rest in Him. Huh? Our Father in Heaven, bless
the Word. Thank Thee for Christ the Lord.
Thank Thee that we don't stand in our own strength. Thank Thee
that we're not chargeable and accountable and responsible. Thank Thee that none can lay
anything to our charge and none can condemn, that our sins have
been cast behind our back to be remembered no more. Our sins
are separated from us as far as the East is from the West.
They don't even exist. They're not even there. Christ
is our righteousness. In Him we are accepted in the
Beloved. Right now in Christ holy, blameless,
without fault, without guilt. Thank you, Father. Abba, Father,
we have a perfect standing in Him. All glory and praise be
to Him. How grateful we are for Him.
In His name we pray. Amen.