Let's turn in our Bibles to the
book of Psalms again. Psalms 40, verse 9 and 10. I'd like to read my text from
Psalms 40, verse 9 and 10. I have preached. This is the
thing that attracted my attention to this passage of Scripture.
First of all, I saw these words, I have preached. And of course
you know why I'd be interested in what is to follow. 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 or I have preached
thy righteousness. I have declared thy faithfulness. I have preached thy salvation.
I have not concealed. I have preached thy lovingkindness.
I have preached thy truth, thy truth to the great congregation."
Now, who's the speaker here? The speaker First of all is David,
David the Chosen. Samuel was sent to the house
of Jesse to anoint a king to rule over Israel. When all the
sons of Jesse had passed in review, God said, My king is not here. Samuel turned to the father Jesse
and he said, Are these all the sons that you have? Jesse said,
No, I have one other son. But I didn't think you'd be interested
in him. These are my oldest sons, and
these are my mature sons, and these are my sons who have been
successful and accomplished great things. The only one I have left
is but a lad. His name is David, and I sent
him to take care of the sheep while we went through this important
business of selecting a king to reign over Israel. Samuel
said, well, we'll not sit down and eat until David has been
fetched. So they sent for David and brought
him in, and God said, Samuel, arise, anoint him, for God seeth
not as man seeth. Man looketh on the outward countenance,
but God looks on the heart. And the heart of David, according
to the word of God, and the heart of God were one. God said, David
is a man after my own heart, and the one who is speaking here
is David, the man after God's own heart. David, the chosen
one. David, the spiritual leader.
The man speaking here is David, the hymn writer. These songs
were used by the early church as the hymns of the church. They
sang these songs in the early church. And the one who is writing
here is David, the tried one. David endured severe and heavy
trials as king of Israel and as the spiritual leader of God's
people. And the message David said that
he preached was fivefold. He said, I have preached thy
righteousness, I have preached thy faithfulness, I have preached
thy salvation, I have preached thy lovingkindness, I have preached
thy truth." But David is not writing of himself. Now, this
is difficult to understand. I realize that. It's hard for
me to understand. But while David is, in a sense,
writing about himself and writing of his own experiences, he is
writing of Christ our Lord. Now, we know that from the book
of Hebrews. Will you turn to Hebrews 10?
Now, what David says here of himself He is saying, under the
leadership of God's Holy Spirit, he is saying as a type of Christ,
as a picture of Christ, as one who has gone before, as a shadow
of Christ. Now, in Hebrews 10, verse 7,
you see the same words. Hold your Bibles so you can look
at Psalms 40, verse 7, and Hebrews 10, verse 7. Hold your Bible
so that you can look at both of them at the same time. You
see, Psalms 40, verse 7, says this, Then said I, Lo, I come,
and the volume of the book is written of me. In Hebrews 10,
7, look at it. Then said I, Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, verse 8
of Hebrews 10, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings,
and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither had his pleasure
therein which are offered by the law. Then said he," this
is Christ here, "'Lo, I come to do thy will.' The law could
not accomplish the will of God. The will of God was to redeem
sinners. Christ came to accomplish that will. He taketh away the
first," that is the Mosaic law, the Mosaic economy. "'He taketh
that away,' that's been done away, that's been fulfilled in
Christ, "'that he may establish the second.' Christ is the second,
by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. So Psalm 40, when David writes
about himself, he is primarily writing about Christ. This is
one of the messianic psalms. This is one of those psalms that
prophesies and foretells the work of Christ our Lord. So this
is Christ's message. Our Lord says in Psalms 40, verse
8, I delight to do thy will, O God. Thy law is within my heart. I have preached thy righteousness. That's what Christ preached.
That was his message. That was his sermon. I have preached
thy righteousness. I have preached thy faithfulness. I have preached thy salvation.
I have preached thy lovingkindness. I have preached thy truth. We
who say that we're called of God to preach, that we are ambassadors
of Christ, that we beseech you in Christ's stead, if we want
the message that is in the will of God, if we want the message
that is the message which Christ preached and David, the man after
God's own heart, here it is. Here is what our Lord preached.
I have preached thy righteousness, I have preached thy faithfulness,
I have preached thy salvation, thy lovingkindness, and thy truth. This is our message. Here is
the message which Christ preached. Here is the eternal message.
The Lord Jesus didn't say, I've preached against the Roman Empire.
I have brought out in the open all the social ills of my day.
I have righted all the civil wrongs." That's not what he preached.
He says, I have preached thy righteousness, I have preached
thy faithfulness, thy salvation, thy lovingkindness, and thy truth.
I have not preached the dignity of men. I have preached thy righteousness. Now let's notice these things
one at a time. Now will you look at them with
me? First of all, David said, prophesying of Christ, Christ
said, And this is what, by God's grace, I want to say. I have
preached thy righteousness. Now then, we're not true to God
if we do not preach the righteousness of God's law. The law of God
says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. That's
what God's law, that's the righteousness of God's law. Now, if I love
God as I should, then I'll worship Him only. If I love God as I
should, I will not take His name in vain. I will reverence His
name. If I love God as I should, I
will not make or bow down to any idol or any image, whether
it's of clay or whether it's of flesh or whether it's an invisible
power. if I love God as I should. That's
the righteousness of God's law. And we are not true to God if
we do not proclaim the righteousness of His holy law. His holy law
says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now, if I love my
neighbor as I should, I will not hate him, I will not take
his life, I will not covet what he has, I will not take what
he has, I will not bear false witness on him, if I love my
neighbor as I should. And on these two commandments
hang all the law of God, and all the law of God is fulfilled
in these two commandments. And our inability to keep the
law does not lessen the law's righteousness, the law's demands,
nor repeal the law's authority. It is still the law of God. Whether
the flesh be weak or strong, it's still the law of God. Whether
we're able to obey or not able to obey, it's still the law of
God. And that righteous, holy law
of God reaches not only the outward man, but reaches the inward man. And with all of its holiness
and righteousness and authority and strictness, it's loved by
the believer. Every believer can say, I love
thy law, O Lord." And the man who does not love the law of
God is not a child of God. David said, I hide thy word in
my heart, thy word is thy law, that I might not sin against
thee. Now when we preach righteousness,
we are not true to God if we do not preach the righteousness
of his holy law. We have a twofold message as
servants of God. We preach not only the gospel,
but we preach the law, the law of God. And comprehended in these
two laws, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and thy neighbor as thyself. Now, religion today has confused
the law of God. Preachers today have confused
the law of God. They have put obedience to the
law of God in things and taken it out of principle. The law
of God is not in things, it's in principle, it's in the heart,
it's obeyed from the heart. Now secondly, we're not true
to God if we do not preach the failure of man's righteousness.
We must preach the law's righteousness and we must preach the failure
of man's righteousness. Turn to Matthew 5 verse 20. Now
this is very important here. I wish that I could have the
ability to preach it like it ought to be preached. I wish
I could impress you with the importance of this particular
point, but just try to stay with me and maybe we'll come out with
something. First of all, man's best righteousness, the best
righteousness that he has, if I try to love God, if I try to
love my neighbor, If I try to walk in holiness and righteousness
and truth and honesty and beauty, the best righteousness that my
flesh can produce will not gain me entrance into the kingdom
of God. It says here in Matthew 5 verse 20, For I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed, except your holiness
shall exceed the holiness, the righteousness of the scribes
and pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God."
Who were the scribes and pharisees? The scribes and pharisees were
the very best religious people of that day. They were men who
stood on the street corner and prayed long prayers. They were
men who stood on the street corner and read the scriptures. They
were men who lived in the temple They were men who served about
the ceremonies of the law. They were men who were translators
of the Scripture. They were protectors of the Scripture. They were separated and set apart. They sat around and read the
law constantly. They were men who enforced the
law of God. They were the most moral, the
most righteous, outwardly, people of their day. And Christ said
to his disciples, if your righteousness doesn't exceed theirs, you won't
enter the kingdom of heaven. Now then, ignorance of God's
righteousness, ignorance of sin, makes a man trust his own righteousness. Turn to Romans chapter ten. In
the tenth chapter of Romans, Verse 3, Paul said this, he starts
out the tenth chapter saying that his heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge,
it's ignorance. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
of God's holiness, being ignorant of their of their own sins and
of God's holiness and God's righteousness, going about to establish their
own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Now, man's best righteousness
is not good enough. The best works that man can produce,
the best holiness that he can produce, is not good enough to
gain entrance into the kingdom of God. But ignorance of sin
and ignorance of God's holiness makes a man keep on trying and
keep on trusting in his own righteousness. You know what Isaiah said about
our righteousness? I can sit in my study all day
long, every day, and study the Word of God and pray. I can put
on a pious look and walk from this place to my home, smile
and greet everybody, give money to beggars along the way, knock
on doors and visit people. Be faithful to services every
Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night.
Go to the hospital and visit the sick. Spend time in fasting
and prayer. Give my tithes, my offerings
to the church. Pay my debts. Treat my neighbor
right. Do all these things. And you
know what Isaiah says about my righteousness? Turn to Isaiah
64. He sums it all up. And this is
what he said. Now, I may offend some of you
now, but this is what he said. I can stay out of the places
of the world. I can hold and contain my temper.
I can never lose it. Do these things you know. Just
live an exemplary, outstanding, moral life." And all men said,
Isn't he good? Isn't he moral? Isn't he honest?
Isn't he religious? And then Isaiah comes along and
says, Isaiah 64, 6, But we're all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That's what they
are. If I'm trusting these things
to make me acceptable to God, if I am trusting and depending
upon these deeds and these works and these moral charitable enterprises
to make me acceptable to God, If I am trusting in my righteousness
in any way, then I am damned and doomed and condemned because
Isaiah said, your righteousnesses are filthy, filthy rags. Now, I know that many of you,
when you lose your temper, you grieve over it, and you cry before
the Lord, and you say, Lord, I ought not have done that, and
I'm sorry, I repent. And then when you say something
you shouldn't have said, or when you think something you shouldn't
have thought, and you grieve over it, and you mourn over it,
and you're sorry, and you repent of it, and that's what we should
do, and that's what a Christian will do. And if you go to a place
you feel out of place, you're around people you feel out of
place around them. Somebody takes God's name in
vain. and you come away feeling dirty, you feel like that you've
been offended, and all of these things, and you grieve over the
sins of the world and the sins of your own life. But you know
when I began to get, when I began to have a lot of hope for a man
who says he's a Christian, I began to have a great hope for a man
or woman who says they're a Christian when they began not just to grieve
over these things, But when they start grieving over their righteousnesses,
that's when I have hope for them. When they start grieving over
their prayers, when they say, Lord, I wish I could pray, when
they try to pray and when they say, Lord, that was a selfish
prayer, that was a sinful prayer, when they start grieving, when
they start wondering, when they come to the house of God and
start grieving over their failure to worship and their lack of
ability to worship, and their lack of ability to maintain real
fellowship and communion with God. When they bring their offerings
and when they start examining their hearts, now, Lord, am I
giving this in the spirit of grace? Am I giving this in a
generous spirit? Or am I giving it to attract
attention? Am I giving it because that's
what the preacher said do? Am I giving it because the law
says do this? Am I giving it hoping that you
won't take it away from me some other way? when a man starts
grieving over his prayer life, and grieving over his morality,
and grieving over his righteousness, and grieving over his worship,
and grieving over his giving, and grieving over his charity,
I got a little hope for him. Because our righteousness, we,
we have a, the drunk grieves over getting drunk, Even the
fellow that doesn't know God will grieve over losing his temper.
There's nothing to that. Even the man that doesn't know
God and never heard of God and has no knowledge of God will
grieve over some of the filth of this world. But a man who
knows God, a man who has seen God's righteousness, who has
seen God's holiness, He sees sin in everything he does, whether
it be praying or giving or worshiping or preaching. He sees sin in
it. And he sees enough sin in it
to send him to hell. Now I know a lot of folks don't
know what I'm talking about, but that's so anyway. That's
so. That's what Paul, oh wretched
man that I am. I'm the chief of sin. Why would
this, you take this man Paul, who was the greatest preacher
of his day. who wrote 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament,
whom God took to the third heaven and let him see things it wasn't
lawful for a man to utter. This man who spent all of his
time in the Bible or in the Prophets, why would he say, I'm the chief
of sinners? He said it because as righteous
as a man can be, as moral as a man can be, as holy as a man
can be, he's still an unclean thing in the sight of God. That brings me to this point
here in Isaiah 40, where David said, and Christ said, and I
must say, I have preached thy righteousness. Now that's the
key to this whole thing. When we go to preach righteousness,
we're not preaching the righteousness of the law here. We must not
neglect it. We must remind men of it. We
are not preaching man's lack of righteousness, though we must
preach that, but what we're preaching here is the good news of God's
righteousness. Who shall stand in his presence?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. I don't have it,
the law can't give it, but there's a place I can get it, and it's
right here, thy righteousness. Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
Now this is very important right here to sum up this first poem. Philippians 3. Look at it. Philippians
3, verse 9. Paul said he talked about what
he had done, talked about his own religious experience, and
he said in verse 8, I count these things but done, that I may win
Christ and be found standing in him. That I may be found in him, standing
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith." My friend, God's holiness, God's righteousness
is Christ. That's it. I look at the law
and the law reveals the dirt, not only without but within.
I look at my own righteousness. I look at my attempt to worship.
Now you stop and think. You've been in this house here
for about, most of you, almost an hour now. How much real communion
with God has been going on? I'm talking about me, too. I'm
not talking about you. As you sat there and out there, how
many of your total thoughts, your total communion, your total
fellowship has been with the living God? Well, you say, there's
been a lot of things through my mind this morning that I just
wouldn't care to reveal. Well, that's our righteousness. It's shot full of holes, isn't
it? The very best thing that we can bring to God, the very
best present we can present to God, our so-called faith. How
much faith do you got, huh? I don't have much. How much faith
do you have? It's just such a slim thing,
it's so small. How much prayer? How many times
have you really prayed today? I mean prayed! I don't mean said
words, I mean prayed. God loves us a hilarious giver. How many of us gave our offering
this morning in a hilarious fashion? Well, I think in our minds we
might say, well, I'm a pretty good guy to give this, or I could
have used it on something else, and that's shot full of holes
now, isn't it? Everything we do. And when we start grieving
over, when we see that we are nothing, we're less, we're sub-zero. We're not even up to zero yet.
We're sub-zero. And we just have to cry, God
be merciful to me of sin. I sin every step I take, every
breath I breathe. I need righteousness. And God
says, here it is, it's in Christ. Christ lived a perfect life as
a man. When our Lord walked this earth
in the flesh, he never thought anything but that which is holy.
Our Lord walked this earth in the flesh as a man. He never
said anything except that which glorified his Father. Think of
it. Our Lord prayed. His prayers
had not one atom of sin in them. His prayers had not one iota
of self in them. Total unselfishness. And that's
my righteousness. I don't want to stand in myself,
not for a second, not any particle. I want to stand in Christ, be
found in Him, in Him. That's what I'm trying to preach.
Come down the aisle, shake the preacher's hand, join the church,
get baptized, teach a Sunday school class, go through the
motions, do what you want to. It's all done. I want to be in
Christ. Now, that's salvation. That's
righteousness. I have preached thy righteousness.
You make your decision for Christ, make it a half a dozen times,
and I still wouldn't give you two cents for it. I want to be
found in Him, don't you? In Him, in Him, in Him. I count all these things Paul
said, but don't! Paul said, I've gone the religious
route. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Concerning the law, I was blameless. That is, the outward law. I went
through the motions. I count these things but dumb
that I may win Christ and be found in Him. and take all of
this evangelical fervor of this day and all this religious motion
through which men are going, and I've been there, and some
of you have been there, and I count it but dumb that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, standing in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God
through faith in Christ Jesus." That's it. And you haven't got
anywhere, you get there. Secondly, he said, Thy faithfulness. Now, we'll make this brief. Listen
to it. I preach thy righteousness. I preach thy faithfulness. What
does this mean? Well, it can only mean one thing.
It is the immutability of God. Thy faithfulness, not my faithfulness.
I preach thy faithfulness. That I hope you hold out. Well,
you won't. Because nothing and no one is
unchanging but God. You're not unchanging. God's
unchanging. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Scripture says the gifts and
calling of God are without change. It says Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. If there's any holding out done,
it won't be by me, it'll be by my Lord. If there's any keeping
to be done, it will not be done by me, it'll be done by my Lord.
Our God will be faithful in executing all his purposes, all his decrees,
and all his counsels. He said, My counsel shall stand,
I will do all my good pleasure. Our God was faithful in accomplishing
all that he prophesied and all that he typified concerning Christ. Our God will make good all his
promises in Christ relating to redemption and eternal life.
It shall be done. The promises of life in glory
through Jesus Christ will be done. The decrees of God in judgment
and eternal death will be done. I have preached thy faithfulness. God will keep his word. God will
keep his covenant. God will keep his promises. God
will accomplish his purpose. He will not fail. You see that? That's what we're
preaching. I'm preaching this. I'm preaching
that any man who, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus
Christ, comes to that saving interest in Christ, he will never
perish. God will keep his word. That
soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will
not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Now this is, you say, what's
the difference in this message and the message being preached
today? The message being preached today in most circles is that
you, if you can, come to faith and make a profession and join
the Church and say you believe on Jesus. Now you do all within
your power. to hold on to that experience,
hold on to that decision, and rest in it. And when you die,
you'll go to heaven. My message is this. My message
is the salvations of the Lord. And he quickens a sinner and
brings that sinner to see himself as he is, and reveals to that
sinner the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he grants repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That sinner rests
in Christ. And the same God who quickened
him will keep him. And the same God who awakened
him will sustain him. And the same God who brought
him to faith in Christ will strengthen that faith and deepen that faith
and confirm that faith. And that person will grow in
grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is not him keeping
himself, but his God who is also his Father keeping him by his
mercy. And I'm not going to get to glory
for a believing in Christ, and I'm not going to get the glory
for staying in Christ. He's going to get the glory.
And David said, I have preached thy righteousness, I have preached
thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness. What do we preachers today? We
pat a fellow on the back and we say, well, we're just proud
of your faithfulness. You're so faithful. You know,
we preach the faithfulness of men. David and Christ said, we
preach the faithfulness of God. We pat a fellow on the back and
say, praise God. If it wasn't for the Lord, you'd
be in the hog pen. You wonder how that'd encourage him, but
that's so. Praise God. If it wasn't for
the Lord's mercy, you'd be the worst hypocrite out of hell.
But we just don't talk that way. We brag on the flesh, and the
flesh loves it. And they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. That'll brag on them some more.
But David bragged on God. What's the next thing? He said,
I preach thy righteousness, I preach thy faithfulness, I preach thy
salvation. That's rightly called thy salvation. I'm not preaching this morning
your salvation or my salvation, I'm preaching God's salvation.
You know why? Because salvation's of the Lord.
The whole program of redemption is of God. He's the author and
the finisher of faith. He's the Alpha and Omega. He's
the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last.
David said, the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.
Paul said, by His mercy He has saved us. Whom He hath foreknown,
He predestinated. to be conformed to the image
of his Son, whom he predestinated, he called, whom he called, he
justified, whom he justified, he glorified. We all love the
23rd Psalm, and I love the 23rd Psalm, but I think we don't read
the 23rd Psalm like we ought to. We don't get out of it what
we ought to get out of. Listen to David. The Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. Not because of my faithfulness,
because of his mercy. He's my shepherd, that's why
I shall not walk. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me by the still waters. He restoreth my soul. You see
that? David is praising God for his
mercy. I preach thy salvation. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origin. Salvation is of the Lord in its
accomplishment. He sent His Son into the world.
It pleased God that in Him should all fullness dwell. It pleased
God to bruise Him. God raised Him from the dead.
God hath exalted Him. God hath accepted us in the Beloved. Salvation is of the Lord in its
application. You didn't seek Him. He sought
you. It was an effectual seeking.
You didn't love Him. No, you didn't. He loved you.
We love Him because He first loved us. You didn't call to
Him. He called to you. That's so.
This salvation is of the Lord. I challenge any individual who
knows anything about the Bible to deny that the whole of the
work whereby a lost sinner is brought from the cesspool of
sin to the throne of glory is of the Lord and of Him only.
from the finding of the sinner to the exaltation of the saint. It's all of the Lord. That's
what David says, I preach thy salvation, thy salvation. That's what I preach to the great
congregation. I've declared it. What's the
next thing? I preach thy lovingkindness. Now I'm going to make a statement
here that that you haven't heard from a
pulpit in a long time. You ask me the difference? I'll
show you. The first thing when we speak
of the love of the Father, what's the first thing you hear? God
so loved the world. That's not the beginning. That's
not where we're supposed to start. That's not where Christ started.
When we speak of the love of God, we must first speak of the
Father's love for the Son. That's so. And I'll issue another
challenge there, too. The Father loves the Son. That's
where it all started. That's where his love for you
came from, his love for the Son. That's so. Turn to John chapter
5, verse 20. Listen. The Father loveth the
Son! That's what this thing's all
about. Before this world had a being,
before there were any stars out yonder, moon or sun, or universe
at all. Glorify me with the glory which
I had with thee, Christ said before the world was. The Father
loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth,"
John 5.20, and he'll show him greater works than these that
you may marvel. Look at verse 23, that all men
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. That's
what this is all about. And these little silly sentimental
preachers of this day keep talking about how God loves the world.
Smile! God loves you! We need to put
on these bumper stickers, God loves the Son. God loveth the
Son. But the poor wouldn't know what
you're talking about. They don't anyway. They didn't know what
Christ was talking about. They wouldn't have nailed Him
to a cross. They didn't know what John the Baptist was talking
about. They wouldn't have cut His head off. They didn't know
what Paul was talking about, or they wouldn't have amputated
his head. They didn't know what John was talking about, or they
wouldn't have put him over on an isle of Patmos. They didn't
know what Thrust was talking about, or they wouldn't have
burned him at the stake. And they don't know what we're talking
about either, but so. John 10, 17, Christ said, Therefore doth
my Father love me. John 17, 24, He said, Thou lovest
me before the foundation of this world. Romans 8, you've got to
look at this one now in your Bible, Romans 8, the last verse
in Romans 8. Paul's been talking about neither
height, nor depth, nor life, nor angels, principalities, nor
any other creature could separate us from the love of God. Underscore
these last few words. The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. That's where it is. That's where
it all is. It's in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth
on him. Now, what Scripture says? You
go talking about God's love, you better start where it starts,
and that's in the Son. If there's any start to the love
of God, how can it have a beginning or an end? God's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He never learns anything nor
forgets anything. He loves his Son. The covenant
of grace was made with his Son. All things were made by his Son,
through his Son, and for his Son. God loves the Son. And thank God in the Son God
loves sinners. For he says in Ephesians 2, 4,
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us
together with Christ. I think you will always find
in the Bible the love of God for sinners connected with the
Son. For God so loved the world that he gave his Son. No one can separate us from the
love of God which is in his Son. Yes, God loves sinners. Here
in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. You run a reference
on that sometimes. And you'll find that God's mercy
and God's love is always consistent with God's righteousness. Always
consistent. And only in Christ can he be
righteous and love a sinner. God's love is unchangeable. God
doesn't love you today and send you to hell tomorrow. Something wrong with that. God's
love is unchangeable. God's love is infinite. God's
love is unlimited. It's sane. It's sane. And it's invariably connected
and united with Christ here in his love. Not that we love God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son. And then last of all,
David said in Psalms 40, I've preached thy truth. Don't look
for the love of God out of Christ. Look for judgment. And then he
said, I've preached thy truth. And I close with this. What does
he mean by thy truth? Thy truth. This is the gospel
in general. Paul summed it up, and here's
the faithful servant's attitude. Here are the words of Paul. God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ. Woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. If we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed.
I have kept back nothing profitable unto you. I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. And let this
be the words for this generation. If I please men, I am not the
servant of Christ. And I tell you, whatever may
entice a man to withhold the truth of God, and that's the
gospel in general, whatever may entice him to hold the truth
of God from his heroes, whether it be for filthy lucre, whether
it be for fame or popularity, whether it be to hold a denomination
or church together, whether it be to keep a friendship. But
whatever may entice a man to withhold the truth, all the truth
of God, as he knows it from his hearers, it will come home to
him, it will come home to him in this life, for his work shall
be burned, wood, hay, and stubble, and it will come home to him
in the judgment. The scripture says, for us to
break the law is bad enough. But to break the law and to teach
men so, it be better for him than a millstone be hanged about
his neck, and he cast into the deepest sea. Now whatever may
entice men, I don't know what does it, whoever it may be, he'll
come home. David said, I have preached thy
truth, thy truth. Our Father, bless the Word, let
us enable us to say with David, and we dare not compare ourselves
with thy son. But all that we might preach
the message Christ preached, I have preached thy righteousness,
thy faithfulness, thy salvation, thy lovingkindness, and thy truth
to the great congregation. O God, anoint it with thy Spirit,
and let it not be just words. We're not proving anything. It's
already established the truth is in thee. But we want to make
it known and we want thee to anoint it and set it on fire
with our Holy Spirit and make it a living experience for all
who hear it. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.