I asked you a prayer. I asked
you a prayer. I asked you a prayer. She's in the hospital. I took her to
the emergency room last night and admitted her. Was she in
Selma? I sent her to Selma. OK. She died. Maybe gall bladder. We don't know. But she'll see
the surgeon this morning, I think. And we'll probably know something
a little later. But remember her in your prayer.
And Cynthia's cousin, because we didn't know his name, is Rinaldo. Ramon. Ramon. Ramon Corral is
his name. No word on Randy today. Also, Crow, remind me. Crow,
remind me. Crow. Crow, please tell me. Remind me to tell you about the
guy who checked on the well house. OK, so I don't forget. Would
you remind me about the wheelhouse? I'll remind you. I'll remind
you to remind me, OK? I probably ought to work out
the birthday to Harry Burke this week. Yes? I have a key friend of mine. Her name's Jeanette. And she has been feeling kind
of not great recently. and just thought it was something. And then she was feeling so bad,
she went to the doctor. They did a blood test, and I
think her white cell count was like through the roof. So they
said, go to the emergency room right now. And Hardy and Hendersonville
couldn't treat her. They thought that was leukemia.
That's what it sounds like. Yes. And then so they flew her. Helicoptered her to Charlotte,
to a hospital in Charlotte. And yes, leukemia, and she just
started chemo, but you know. That's called what kind it is.
Right. That's what she did. She's a good guy, and it can
be cured easily, like what Sarah had a long time ago. Right. So
I told her about you guys. What's her last name? Jeanette
Ronga, R-O-N-G-A. R-O-N-G-A. OK, we'll remember
her and pray for us. Can you add Bopper Johnson to
your list, Bradley? Say again? Bopper Johnson. Bopper? Like in the Big Bopper? Bopper, yeah. People probably
don't remember the Big Bopper. Johnson. Johnson, yes. What's
his situation? They took him in for gallbladder,
but they've been running tests. He's a cancer survivor, and they
found some other things wrong. He's not doing really well at
all. OK. How old is he? 60. He's a young man, so. It
was a time when I couldn't say that. But now, 60 sounds like
an awful young person. spring chicken. Those three names
are Jeanette Rongo, Bopper Johnson, and Ramon Corral. I have to think of horses to
think of his last name. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come to thee I come. Jesus, I come to Thee. I Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of myself, good will I come. Out of this barren, wretched
world. Open your eyes, O angels, I adore! Jesus, I come to Thee! Now and forever, here and ever,
too! Jesus, I come! Jesus, I come! Here to enjoy and find my home! Jesus, I come to Thee! Have a good day! Jesus, I come to Thee. The Bible's telling me in the
fourth chapter of Romans, verses one through eight. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh and the fowl. For if
Abraham were justified by works, he had whereof to glory, but
not before God. but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Even as they that also describe
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, the perfect righteousness of
Jesus Christ the Lord, who is our substitute and our intercessor,
who even now intercedes for us. We are thankful that he died
and rose again our dreams and ever lives to
make intercession for us. We are thankful for the great
grace and great mercy necessary to save great sinners in this
world. We pray for those who are sick,
those who have been added to the prairies, Mr. Corral, Mr. Johnson, Pray that the surgeons will be
able to find out exactly what's ailing her, bring her back safely
to us. Pray for those who are away from
us, traveling, that you bring them back home safely. We pray
for ourselves this hour as we sing and as we preach the gospel
and hear the gospel. And spend some time this afternoon
in fellowship around the table. Would you be pleased to give
us a sense of who you are and what we are. and ever give us
thankful hearts. For we know had you not intervened
in our careers, we would have perished in utter perdition and
hellfire. Take the Name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe, He will joyfully come with you,
Taking Him where He will go, Precious Name, Lord, as We. Lord of earth and joy of man,
Precious Lamb of our King! Lord of earth and joy of man,
Take my name, O Jesus, man! In temptation's wrath we gather,
bringing forth the holy name in prayer! Gracious name, O how
sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven! Precious name of our King! Oh, the earth and joy of heaven! Oh, the precious name of Jesus! How it fills my soul today! With His blood we are to sing,
but may You stop the times of war! Gracious name, God's will,
the worth and joy of His blood! the name of Jesus Oh Oh Let's pray. Father, we approach
in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is that blessed
and perfect gift, the unspeakable gift that you have given to all
your children. And with him, you have freely
given us all things. Give us thankful hearts as we
render to you that which is thine. We pray in Christ's name. I'm not afraid of the dark. you I should mention back to Romans
chapter 4. All is concluded in the first
three chapters of this book. And many times in the following
chapters of this book. That the flesh, our flesh can
never do anything that is of spiritual value. Our Lord does
not condemn the flesh and efforts of the flesh in general. That is to say, if you work hard,
and you're promoted for your hard work, God doesn't condemn
that. He condemns the flesh in this
sense, when if anything in the flesh that you do or do not do,
somehow recommends you to God, or you believe that something
you do in the flesh is actually something spiritual, when it's
not. Our Lord said that early on to Nicodemus, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Here in this passage of scripture it talks about what
Abraham gained in the flesh and it wasn't righteousness at all. In Romans chapter 8 It says,
there is therefore now no condemnation of them that are in Christ, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And we know
he goes on to explain what that means, but one of the things
he says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Cannot please God. He also says
in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 that the flesh and the spirit
are contrary to one another. You can't do what you would.
And he explains also in that chapter that nothing done in
the spirit involves the flesh at all. And nothing done in the
flesh involves the spirit at all. This creates a dilemma for
the child of God. He ends up saying something like
Paul said in Romans chapter 7. I don't know what I'm doing.
When I would do good, I don't do it. When I would do evil,
I don't do that either. There's a principle in me. We
can't point to anything we do as spiritual in reality. We can say this is a spiritual
act because that's a fleshly statement. The two are never together on
anything. We do not mortify the deeds of
the flesh by applying to the flesh. We mortify the deeds of
the flesh by applying to the spirit. That's the only way it's
done. Yet our tendency is to mortify
the deeds of the flesh by coming up with some kind of plan to
undo our problem. And that's the flesh and it will
never work. What Paul is dealing with here is this matter of righteousness
before God. There is only righteous, one
righteousness that is the scepter of God, only one, and that is
Jesus Christ. Thankfully, God has made Him
to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
His name shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. We have but one righteousness.
Just one. And it is in no way achieved
by anything we do in the flesh. This righteousness is a gift
of God, born of the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ, wherein
He justified us by His grace and by His blood and by His death,
and thereby making us stand before God in perfect righteousness. This is what is explained to
us in Romans chapter 4 here. It's a further illumination of
the truth of God. By the works of the flesh no
man is justified before God. Do what you will. I pray you
will do the right things in the flesh. I pray you will, but never
look at any of those things as having to do with anything that
would justify you before God. It's a hard thing to do because
we are by nature legalists. That's how we're born. We're
by nature. People who believe that if we
do right, it's somehow acceptable for God. It's not. It's a good thing to do right.
It's a good thing to be a kind person and try to be a good person. That's a reasonable good thing.
It matters in this world. It does. I'd much rather meet
a kind person than an unkind person, wouldn't you? And I'd
rather be a kind person than an unkind person. But listen,
that matters in this world, but it does not count at all in the
matter of salvation before God. It does not matter. That salvation
was accomplished 2,000 years ago before God Almighty and God
was satisfied with all for whom Christ died. And that is just
the case. You had nothing to do with it.
It was given to us according to 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, in Christ
before the world began. We didn't even know we had it.
It took God to send somebody along to stand up on their hind
legs and preach the gospel to us, the good news of our salvation. That's when we found out not
that we could be anything, not that we could be saved. We found
out that something had happened 2,000 years ago that absolutely
secured our salvation before God Almighty. And that's a wondrous
thing. That's a wondrous thing. I was redeemed before I knew
it. I was bought with a price before I knew it. I belonged
to God before I knew it. took the gospel to tell me that.
Paul has spent these first three chapters proving the fact, this
fact, that the flesh cannot please God, that no man is justified
before God by the flesh. And he brings to the reader the
only hope of humanity before God, the righteous death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Unless someone thinks that there
is an acceptable righteousness to be obtained by the flesh,
or that faith is somehow a work of the flesh, Paul adds this
chapter to put forth a question, a rhetorical question, that contains
the obvious answer within the question itself. What shall we
say then? He said, that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to
the flesh, hath found. What did Abraham get in the flesh? What did he obtain by the works
of the flesh? What did he obtain? through this
fact, that there is no capability of righteousness in the flesh,
politics of the believer, to Abraham. Abraham is a central
figure of most religions today in the world. He's a central
figure in Judaism, he's a central figure in Islam, and he's a central
figure in the gospel of Christianity. To the Jew, this man represented
all that was right about humanity. Even though by his own admission,
Abraham said he was nothing but dust and ashes. To the believing
Gentile, Abraham is likewise his father. Other than Christ, Abraham is
the most central figure in the Word of God. If there's any man
who by some stretch of the imagination might achieve righteousness in
the flesh, Abraham would certainly have to be considered as that
man. So Paul's questioning, did Abraham
attain righteousness by something that he accomplished? Did he
find in his flesh the wherewithal and the ability to bring himself
from nature to spirituality? Since he is considered the most
likely to achieve this noble status, if he cannot, then every
other man is without hope in obtaining righteousness by his
flesh. You know, Paul has already declared
this to be absolutely so. In verse 20 of chapter 3, he
says, Therefore by the deeds of the law there no flesh shall
be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I read
a good article the other day. Debbie actually read it to me. About what a plumb line does. Lord says twice in scripture
he's going to hang a plumb line in Israel. And a plumb line doesn't
do anything but it does tell you something. When you hang
a plumb line it will reveal that either the wall is straight or
it's not. But it doesn't make the wall
crooked. And it doesn't make the wall
straight if it's straight. It just reveals. And that's what
the law does. That's what the law does. So
by the deeds of the law, no flesh should be justified in its sight.
And he continues to press the truth in order to do two things.
First, using Abraham as an example. He would utterly discount the
possibility of attaining righteousness by the flesh if Abraham couldn't
do it. Nobody can do it. If Abraham
couldn't do it. Abraham was chosen of God. Abraham did many wonderful things. Many wonderful things. He left
his hometown and took his family with him because God said I'm
going to take you to a place that he never saw. But he believed
God and he went. And God said offer up your son
on Mount Moriah. He did. He was getting ready
to plunge the knife in the chest of his son as a sacrifice to
God, his only beloved son. And he wasn't a boy, he was about
21 years old at the time. So he was willing to. And God
said, an angel stopped the thrust of his hand down into his son's
bosom and said, the Lord has provided a lamb, provided himself
a lamb. And then he believed God on that
mount concerning the sea. Secondly, he is revealing the
singular way in which a man is righteous before God. And further,
he is introducing the principle that will occupy his words in
the next two chapters, imputed righteousness. What is that?
Imputed means to be charged with, be accounted as if you have it.
That's what imputation does. So God imputes righteousness
to you. He's charging you with righteousness
or saying that you are righteous. Now, did that come from you? Did that righteousness exude
from you? Did you put yourself in a place
where God would look at you and say, there's a righteous fellow?
Or did God look at you in your sinful state and ruined state
and look at you in Jesus Christ and say, there's a righteous
fellow? If he looks at you in Christ, you're righteous. If
he looks at you in yourself, you're going to hell. And me
too? Me too. What if a man could be
justified by works? Look at verse 2. It says, for
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory,
but not before God. So if you could be justified
by works, you could glory in it. I mean, if you did it, why
wouldn't you glory in it? I mean, when you do something
in the flesh, like Stan, he went to college and got his degree
in surveying, and then went and took those tests, those hard
tests, and got it. And we're so proud of him, and he's proud
of himself, and that's okay. That's fine. But he's also thankful
to God, because I can't tell you how many times he asked me
to pray for him about the test he was going to take. But nonetheless,
that's an accomplishment. And so it's right for him to
say, I've done that. It's right. But if he can achieve
righteousness in that way, if he could, by his own merit, stand
before God as a righteous man, then he has a right to say, I
stand before God as a righteous man. I did it. If he did it,
he has a right to say he did it. Does he? Of course not. That justification could only
take place in the realm of nature if a man did it himself. His
justification would consist of boasting of men on his behalf. His righteousness would be for
men because what he did would not only be done so men could
see him, If you have achieved a righteousness before men, then
you have a right to glory in your achievement before men.
You have a right to it. Again, this is the only place
you may glory. But for the religious, it is
enough because the praise of men is rewarding itself. That's
what he said in Matthew chapter 6, in giving alms, in praying,
and in fasting. He says, if you do it, To be
seen of men, you got your reward. But if you do it in secret, you
give your arms, not letting your left hand know what your right
hand is doing, if you pray in a closet where nobody knows you
pray but you and God, if you fast and then after you fast
you clean yourself up and take a shower and shave and comb your
hair and come out looking good and nobody's known you fasted,
then the glory's with God and not with you. Glory is with God. Religion rewards
the flesh. Rewards the flesh. A good example
of that, when I was in, I only got one of these, but I had some
friends that had that sucker go all the way down to the floor.
They were Sunday school attendance pins. We got them in the Southern
Baptist Church, and I got one. I did it for three months, and
I said, well, that's enough. I had one little lapel pin that said
I'd attended Sunday school for three months. I'm sure some people
had, hanging and dangling. It was amazing how long they'd
been in Sunday school. They were rewarded for that. And men saw that. And men complimented
that on their steadfastness and things like that. That's rewarding
the flesh. And it was done to get there.
I went three months, didn't want to go. Didn't like Sunday school. I hated God. But I wanted one
of them pens. So I did it, and I got my pen. I was rewarded. Religion rewards
the flesh. There's a prayer warrior, they
say. Rewards old so-and-so for doing
this and doing that. Old so-and-so is a child of God.
He don't want to be noticed or recognized whatsoever. He practices
in the matter of spiritual things. He's the first to deny. If somebody
compliments on spirituality, he's the first to say, yet not
I, but Christ. Not me. I didn't do it. You remember
when you were a kid, your parents would catch you when you did
something. You know you did it. and people try to compliment
you in spiritual things you say. You don't know nothing. Who,
me? I'm not a spiritual man. I'm
so fleshly that somebody ought to just kill me for standing
here. The key to understanding the exactness of this language
is the disclaimer put forth in the last phrase of verse two.
Listen to this. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. He can glory before men if he
achieves that righteousness himself, but he can't glory before God. This is the blanket disclaimer
to any and all efforts of the flesh to establish righteousness.
It will never be accepted before God. Mark this well. There is
no exception to this divine rule. No matter the praise and the
applause of men, no matter the natural good deeds, the philanthropy,
the kindness or generosity that garner the recognition of men,
It means nothing to God in the matter of the salvation of yourself.
Nothing at all. That's hard. That's difficult. That will afflict the soul. That'll
make you upset down in your flesh when people tell you that what
you do don't matter. And it don't count before God.
It's a mockery of a person man to claim that he achieved
righteousness before God any other way. And it's such an assumed
righteousness as a rival to the righteousness of God, revealed
in the gospel from faith to faith, and that righteousness we know
is Jesus Christ. And such a thing will never be
allowed before God. Never. There were those in Matthew
7 who claimed they'd done a whole lot of stuff, and they had done
it. That's the thing. These were
fine, upstanding, Sunday-school-going, church-attending, giving folk.
They were religious people. They weren't out here in the
bars and the bordellos. They weren't at the movie houses.
They weren't doing vile things out here. They said, we have
done mighty works, We've cast out devils in thy name. We've
done wonders in thy name. And he said, depart from me ye
that work iniquity in my name. I never do. Iniquity? Those religious
efforts were iniquity. Iniquity means inequity or crookedness. They were crooked. And the Lord laid a straight
stick down beside them and saw how crooked they were. However, everyone who knows Abraham
knows that God accounted him righteous. It says it several
times in Scripture. Several times in Scripture. The
only way to find out how he came to this is to apply it to the
Word of God. There alone is the record of
how Abraham and any other person is righteous before God. Look
at verse 3. For it saith in Scripture, Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Pray
give me that something. That's all there is to it. Abraham
was justified and counted as righteous because he believed
God. The word is sometimes trips people
up because they see it to mean that their faith is the source
of their righteousness. It's not. The it does not refer
to faith, but not in any general sense. We must look to the place
where this imputation took place and on what was the basis of
the imputation. What was the circumstance that
surrounded Abraham being called righteous? He left the Ur of Chaldees. That was a great example of faith.
Surely he had faith when he left the Ur of Chaldees and went to
a land he would never see. Believing God he would get there
and travel all his life looking to get there. I never saw him. Was he accounted righteous? No.
Is that when God said he was accounted righteous? Was he righteous? When he believed
God, was his faith counted for righteousness when he believed
God? Concerning the fact that though he was dead and Sarah
was dead physically and had no ability to produce a child, when
he believed God, God said, I'm going to give you a son. There's
a little bit in the flesh. He said, let it be Ishmael. The
son I had by Amy and Hagar, the son I had by the power of the
flesh. Let it be her, let it be him. The Lord said, I'm going
to give you and Sarah a son. Sarah's going to conceive. Well,
she's an old woman. She don't have no more eggs.
She can't produce nothing. God said, she's going to have
a son. And he believed God. Him and Sarah
had a boy named Isaac. And the picture of that young
man is how we are counted in Isaac. He was born not by the
power of the flesh, but by the Spirit of God. Was he accounted righteous when
he exercised that faith? Was he accounted righteous when
21 years later he took that boy, Isaac? God had given him miraculously
and took him up on Mount Moriah and was going to shove a knife
in his bosom. Was he counted righteous then?
I mean, that was an active phase. He believed God would deliver
him. That's what it says in Hebrews. He believed God, if he did kill
him, he'd raise him up from the dead. Was that when he was counted
righteous? Turn to Genesis 15. Now hold your place there and
then turn over to Galatians chapter 3. Genesis chapter 15. It says this. In verse 6. verse 5 says he brought
Abraham forth abroad and said look now toward the heaven and
tell the stars if thou be able to number them and he said to
them so shall thy seed be thy seed shall be as the number of
the stars and look at verse 9 or verse 6 and he believed in the
Lord And he counted to him for righteousness. What did he believe
in the Lord for? To see. To see. Now look over at Galatians chapter
3. Verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture foreseeth that
God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations
be blessed. Then look at verse 16. Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not to
seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. There you go. When was his faith counted for
righteousness? When he believed God could serve
in Christ. when he believed God concerning
Christ. And Abraham believed God concerning the seed when
he believed the gospel that God preached to him concerning Jesus
Christ. God accounted to him for righteousness.
Now faith did not make Abraham righteous. It made him believe
God concerning righteousness, which is Jesus Christ. That's
what faith does. Faith does not believe you can
be saved. Faith believes that Christ saved
you. Christ redeemed you. God chose
you. Faith believes that. God chose
you from the foundations of the world. Faith believes that Christ
was made your surety, where you were never accounted responsible
for the debt you owed God. He had already taken that and
signed His name to it. Faith doesn't save anyone. Faith
believes it's been saved by Jesus Christ. He believed God concerning
the seed. He believed in God concerning
the seed and it was a category of righteousness. And righteousness
recognized and approved by God is that righteousness revealed
from faith to faith through the gospel according to Romans chapter
1 verse 16 and 17. And Christ is the end of the
law. The fulfillment and the purpose
of the law for righteousness to them that want to believe. This faith can never be attributed
to the works of the flesh. Verse 4, back in our text. It can never be attributed to
the power of the flesh. Verse 4 says, Now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned with grace, but of debt. If you
did it, you earned the right. You earned the right. but to him that worketh not."
Boy, that's so against religion. So against the religion I was
raised. So to him that worketh not, but believer on him that
justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. How does a person get faith?
You're not born with it. Scripture clearly says all men
have not faith. How do you get faith? By grace. By the unmerited favor
of God. One day you weren't a believer.
During that day sometime, one second you weren't a believer.
The next second you were. How did that happen? Well, I
changed my mind. You didn't change your mind. How did it happen? By grace, you are saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself. That
faith is not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should know it. For you are his workmanship,
his workmanship, his poet. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that you should walk
in them. You're going to have good work? Yeah, God has ordained
it. What are they? You don't know. But whenever
they show up, you'll do it without even thinking about whether it's
a good work or not. You'll do it because you've been
equipped to do it and the work has been prepared for you from
all eternity to do. Ordained unto good works. Faith.
How do you get faith? Faith is a gift of God. Well, how does it come to you?
Does God tap you on the shoulder one day and give you faith? Is
it written in the clouds? Does a bluebird land on the wind
and still give you faith? How do you get faith? God gives
it by His grace, but He does it in a particular way. He does
it through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And how
shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe on Him in whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? So, faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. That's how it happens. Faith
is the gift of gains freely given and entirely unmerited. Abraham
was not a good man when he received faith. He was simply God's man.
God graced him. He did not work for it because
then he would have receded his wages. He was graced and therefore
he believed God and counted it for righteousness. And God counted
it for righteousness. Though faith worketh by love,
there's no work in believing. It is resting from the labors
and believing on him that justifies the ungodly, whose faith is counted
for righteousness. He does not justify the worker
or the godly. He only justifies, according
to Romans 5, the ungodly. Justifies the ungodly. To have this righteousness imputed
to you by the grace of God. to declare you to be righteous
because He's made Christ to be that to you is the blessing of
blessings. No sweeter thing could ever happen
to a mortal man or woman in this world than for God to bless them
this way. It's true blessedness. Look at
verse 6 and 7 and 8. Even as David described in Psalm
38, the blessedness of the man whom God imbued with righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they, fortunate, that's what blessed
means, happy, are they whose iniquities are forgiven. Edward Martin Luther, who in
a dream said, and told me he was a sinner and
Martin Luther said, yes, I am. And he just called him all kinds
of things and Martin sat down and started writing out. Well,
the devil sat down and started writing out Martin Luther's sins,
pride, arrogance, all these sins that broke down. Handed the paper
to Martin Luther and Martin Luther looked at it and said, yeah,
that's true. And then he took up his pen and marked this at
the bottom of the page, P-A-I-N. Blessed is the man or woman whose
sins are forgiven, or whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins
are covered. This is an Old Testament language.
Covered means atoned for. It means to cover. The ark that
Noah and his family were saved in was covered with pitch, within
and without, to keep the water out and to keep it floating.
That word is the same word, covered or atoned. This is the only time that this
word is actually suggested in the New Testament, the word covering.
Every other time that sins are talked about, according to what
Christ did on behalf of His people, is that the sins are put away.
Not merely atoned for, not merely covered, but propitiated. put away, cast to the back of
God, cast to the bottom of the sea, separated as far as from
us as the east is from the west. But if your sins are covered
by the blood of Jesus Christ, you're blessed. You're blessed. Blessed is the man, in verse
8, and you read this, and you think of what you are, and I
read this on occasion. I have to turn and open it up
and read this 8th verse. Because it's an astounding documentation
of the fact of imputation of righteousness. It means that
no matter what you do, you know what you are. And you know that
you're seeing better than anybody else, but even God knows more
of it than you do. That ought to make you jump up
and down. It ought to make you happy and full of joy to know
this. Know what I am. Know what goes
through my mind. Know my doubts, my fears, my
frailty, my sin, my wickedness. The wickedness and darkness of
my own heart. God doesn't see it. He doesn't
remember it. He looks at me in Jesus Christ
and says of this old maggot on a dumb hill, There's my righteous
child. I'll never, ever charge him with
sin. Bless him. Bless him. He has blessed his people with
all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ as according as he's chosen
him for the foundation of the world. If you have righteousness that
is accepted before God, it's because God has blessed you and
given to you that righteousness and given you faith to believe
it. The evidence is that you have it is not by works, but
because you have faith to believe it. Faith is a wondrous thing. To me, it's the most mysterious
thing of all. I mean, I can understand the
logic of Christ's reverence, offering to God, I can understand
the logic and the mathematics, the equation, if you will, of
how when God required a certain debt to be paid, that debt was
paid by Jesus Christ, and that debt was fully remitted, that
sin was fully remitted. I can understand that. But I'm
telling you, I have trouble with faith sometimes. I have trouble
with faith. I mean, not that I don't believe
it, but I have trouble understanding this miracle of believing God. Because in the world, says there
must be some evidence. When religion says you've got
to show me something about it to prove that you're a child
of God. And the only thing you can say that's true in scripture
is, I believe you. That's a wonder. And if God has
given you faith, rejoice, dear child. God will never charge you with
sin. Like that old fellow said, it
just won't get no better than that. Father, bless us to understand
that.