Sermon Transcript:
I think a lot of you know, a lot of you know me, but one of the things that before I came into the ministry many, many years ago now, I think, and I've shared with this before, I had a, I had a really bad fear of public speaking and everything was going along good. Lord made me, came into my life and about a year or so later, the rumbling started that.
I should be a minister. And I just, I said, I just don't think I can do that. Okay. And looked for every, every excuse in the world. This congregation really, really helped me get over it. I, I had no, no fear at all. You know, when I was talking to you. So, pray for me today, because when I woke up this morning, there was just a little bit of that old feeling back, because I'm not quite used to being in the saddle here, you know what I mean? So, hang with me, all right?
And there's a prayer that I came across within the last couple of weeks that I'd like to share with you before we get going. Lord, your word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path. It shows us where to walk, not to the right or the left, but the way you have appointed to live and please you. Your law is perfect and undefiled. It turns souls, gives wisdom, even to children. Your ways are right.
And cause the heart to rejoice. Your commands are pure and give light to our eyes. Your word heals all. Through the word you have left for us, we are made clean. It is the power of God for. Salvation to everyone who believes it is sweeter than honey and more precious than gold. May your preacher now teach nothing but your pure word and the glorious gospel of your son.
And may we note with diligence and keep in our memory whatever is truly spoken about the Lord. And since neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. We pray that the seed of your word planted here will fall into good ground in our hearts. May it not be choked by thorns, dried up for lack of moisture or carried off by birds. But through the working of the Holy Spirit, may it take root in our hearts and bring forth plenty of good fruit for your glory and the health of our souls.
Amen. Pastor Jacob asked me. to preach, I would say about a month ago, and I don't know, I said, well, I don't have anything to preach on in particular, I've been used to going right through the Bible, you know, and now I've got to write a sermon about I don't know what yet, you know, but what,
what, I don't know if you recall, but the last two Sundays, the prayer of confession, I'm going to read part of them. In your great love, O Lord, you made me alive, though previously dead in my sins. You destroyed the grip that sin had on my heart and transformed me so that I may bear good fruit. Why, then, do I go back to the evils?
Which once held me. Does that resonate with anybody? Why do I embrace the disobedient things that put you on the cross? Transform my eyes to see evil for evil and good for good. And I won't take the time to read the other one, but I think you get the drift. Okay. Why? And I'm going to say this loosely.
Why? I mean, I saw a lot of heads nodding yes. Why are most of us, if not all of us, in that boat? You know, ask yourself, why am I in that boat? The title of today's message is just plain and simple, The Lord Our Righteousness. I just wanted to, I wanted to try to make it simple, but. It's got a little more complicated, but hang with me. Jeremiah, there's the word righteousness is all throughout the Bible.
Jeremiah 23, 6, it says just a flat statement, the Lord, our righteousness. And many, many, many scriptures tell us that. The theological definition of righteousness is right standing with God. As opposed to what? Wrong standing with God, okay?
Do you see any middle ground in there? Let's have a couple of head shakes anyhow. See, you remember how I did it, remember? But we want that middle ground for some reason. You know, that's why we have these prayers of confession. Most of us know about the corruption and depravity of our hearts and the innate evil of our souls.
In and of ourselves, we know we are not righteous. I wear a hat almost every day. Some of you have seen it and expounded on it. It says, do not follow your heart. Why? Well, it goes on to say, because it's evil. We don't like that. Okay? But I've had numerous people want to talk about that. And we just read in our scripture reading, none is righteous, no, not one.
We know that. We've had it pounded into our heads, but still have to be reminded almost constantly of that. That's why we have these prayers of confession. But, praise God for the buts, a little louder now, but we have the promises of God all over.
scripture to inform us of the solution to this problem. Again, in my preaching, I'll say it two or three times a message probably, but I'm not trying to insult anybody's intelligence, but I just like to get to the root of things. You know, what are promises? What, you know, we have the promises of God. What is a promise? If we really want to make it really stern, we call it a vow, right?
You know, Pastor Jacob is at a wedding right now. If we really, I couldn't remember the whole thing, but when I was a kid, crossed my heart, If we really meant it, in other words, you know, beforehand, I might have been lying about it, you know. How did the rest of that go? Cross my heart, hope to die. Say what? Okay.
Now we have in our courtrooms, you know, the guy stands there with the Bible. You put your hand on it, and you say, do you solemnly swear? Well, do we unsolemmly swear somewhere, you know? You know, what's the difference? There's an emphasis that seems to have left the word promise, okay? Do you, I'll ask this question, having said that, I could expound on that a little bit more,
but do you really think, deep down in your hearts, that God is going to break a promise and or a vow? No. Okay, I'd like to read some promises to you this morning. Okay. Do you have Philippians up there? Yeah. This is Paul. Well, we'll just go with it. This is Paul writing about himself. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. For those of you that have remembered,
I have kind of a, I don't know what it's called, but I write the word faith out, F-A-I-T-H. And to help us remember what that means is, now remember what it says down here at the bottom. This righteousness that Paul is talking about comes from what? Faith, F-A-I-T-H. Look at this, if you can picture it in your mind, this anagram or whatever, F, forsaking, A, all, I, I, forsaking all, I-T, trust him.
And the H is him, okay? I rest in him, my point today is this. I rest in him entirely, entirely for my salvation and believe that no matter how unworthy I feel and or really am, I am still saved in Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen.
So do we just sit back and coast? No, with an attitude of gratitude, with gratitude, we endeavor to grow in the fruits of the Spirit. You know, one of my favorite scriptures, and folks, I could probably stop and every one of these points preach a whole sermon on them, so I'm going through this kind of fast. But at the tail end of Romans chapter 5, one of my favorite verses that I remind myself of constantly is where sin abounds, grace much more.
Amen. Do we have anybody here, you know, feel free to raise your hand that abounds in sin? A couple, all right. I want to tell you, grace much more abounds. Grace is bigger. God's mercy, God's forgiveness is bigger than your abounding sins. But what he wants us to do, so let me just say this again. So do we just sit back and coast?
No. With an attitude of gratitude, thank you, Lord, we endeavor to grow in the fruits of the Spirit. We try to grow in the fruits of the Spirit. Not all of us are doing too well there, okay? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
You look at that list and you say, well, I'm not doing very good. Let me remind you that this is a fruit that starts as a seed, grows into a little twig, then a tree, then a bud, then a flower, then a fruit. It's growth, folks. We are to endeavor to grow. We just don't become all of a sudden an apple. Somebody say amen again, okay? Okay, so if you're endeavoring to grow, and that's what it says, you're saved, okay?
But I, you know, every one of this list right here, folks, I'm almost a failure at, okay? Love isn't real high on my list. Most of you know that I'm not that joyful of a person. Peace right now, folks, I'll tell you what, my whole life, right? now is in turmoil. I've never had patience. My prayer for patience is, Lord, I need patience.
and give it to me right now. Did anybody get that? Okay. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And I want to go back to promise number one. Okay, we're growing, and the whole thing here is I'm going through the promises of God. Promise number one, folks, we are in right standing with God, no matter where we are on the fruit growing spectrum.
Okay. Promise number two that I'd like to share with you. It is finished. Who said that? Jesus on the cross. I don't think any of us in this room could watch a real crucifixion without getting sick.
I mean, it's horrible. It's terrible. And in the middle of all that, he says, it is finished. And in that terrible, horrible situation, Jesus says it is finished. We are complete in him and can rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
See, this one doesn't get talked a whole lot about as a promise. OK, but I think it is finished as kind of a promise. You know, I think we could consider that a promise. It's a flat-out statement. There's no two ways about that, which can very definitely be translated a promise. Folks, I'm not trying to be funny here, but what does finished mean? I've written down a few words here.
Entirely done, complete, concluded, done, ended, over, terminated. I fought saying this, but I have to go on a little bit of a rabbit trail. I've got ten minutes left, right? Let me do it again here.
Entirely done, complete, concluded, done, ended, over, terminated. I'm sure glad that Bob... Brought Fran up this morning. Gosh, folks, she needs prayer. Okay? I need prayer. It's so hard watching this and trying to do this. I never thought I'd be in this position in my life, but the woman that I've been married to for 60 years is almost gone.
Okay? And it's hard. But anyhow, I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm looking for prayers. I've been through a lot of hard things before and have managed to get through them. God has got us through. But as I was writing this sermon, God bless her heart. She likes her steaks well done. And it just annoys me no end, you know.
You know, we go to... We go to the two steakhouses in Manhattan, Longhorn and the other one, Texas Roadhouse, and she'll always say, well done. And I'm saying, man, we're paying $50, $60 to burn a piece of meat now. But I don't know what it is, but God love her. And my point is this, entirely done, terminated. Jesus said it is finished. If it is finished, we are complete in him and can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of love and glory.
I rest in him entirely for my salvation and believe that no matter how unworthy I may feel or really am, folks, none of us are worthy, I am still saved in Jesus Christ. Real quickly, here are some other promises. And each one of them is a sermon. To renew your strength, Psalm 73, 26. To be with you, Isaiah 41, 10.
Peace, Isaiah 54, 10. That's another thing that happens when you get older. You can't turn pages anymore. To fight for you, Exodus 14, 14. To walk with you, Psalm 23, 4. The valley of the shadow of death. To guide you, Psalm 139. To hear you, 1 John 5. To save you, Psalm 91. On and on and on it goes.
To remove our sins, Psalm 103, 8. Which I used a lot when we did the prayer of confession and assurance of salvation. I'd like to take the time to read this. Can I go just a little longer? Huh? Okay. Because I'm... Boy, I... I thought I wrote a short one, but we're... The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. Listen to verse 10. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, transgressions from us are removed.
As the Father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. And you've heard people that have known me, have heard me talk about this, this east and west business. This really catches my eye, okay? If your sins only went from north to south, they'd end at a pole, and they'd still be there.
But if you start going east, you never stop going east. Have you ever noticed that? Your sins are still going, folks. They are out there and gone. Somebody say amen. But there's one more promise that I'd like to share with you and expound with you a little bit. See, I'm now getting to the meat of my sermon. I'm supposed to be done. John 6, 37.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Fran and I have that on our... Rock, out at Prospect Hill. That's engraved on it. I don't think rock is the right word. Stone, yeah. Folks, there's a mountain. There's a mountain of consoling theology packed into this single verse.
This is what Jesus is saying himself. Okay, Jesus spoke these words. Let me say it again. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Okay? I'm going to run through it real quickly. All, not most. Once the Father sets his loving gaze on a wandering sinner, that sinner's rescue is certain.
The Father. Our redemption is not a matter of a gracious son trying to calm down an uncontrollably angry father. The Father himself ordains our deliverance and takes the loving initiative. Look at the verse that follows this, verse 38. These are the words of Jesus again. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
Gives. That means doesn't haggle over. It is the Father's deep delight to freely entrust recalcitrant rebels into the gracious care of his Son. Will come. God's saving purpose for a sinner is never thwarted. He is never frustrated. He never runs out of resources. If the Father calls us, we will come. And whoever comes.
Yet we're not robots. While the Father is clearly the sovereign. Overseer of our redemption. We are not dragged kicking and screaming into Christ against our will. Divine grace is so radical that it reaches down and turns around our very desires. Our eyes are opened and anyone, whoever is welcome, comes to me.
We don't come to a set of doctrines. We don't come to a church. We don't even come to the gospel. And I hesitate to say that, but I'm going to clear it up a little bit. All these are vital, but most truly we come to a person, to Jesus Christ. Now, we're not going to praise God for these buts, but I'm agreeing.
I will never cast you out. But I'm an old sinner. I will never cast you out. But I'm a hard-hearted sinner. I will never cast you out. But I have served Satan all my days. I will never cast you out. But I have sinned against light. I will never cast you out. But I have sinned against mercy. I will never cast you out.
But I have no good thing to bring with me. I will never cast you out. This promise was provided to answer all objections, and does answer them. All right? But I know what you're thinking. Okay? Now wait just a minute. Pastor, because we say as I'm cautiously approaching Jesus, you don't really understand what's going on in my heart.
I have really messed up. I know he responds. Well, you know, most of it. Sure, certainly more than others see. But there's a perversity down inside me that is hidden from everyone. I know it all. Well, the thing is, it isn't just my past, it's my present too. I understand. But I don't know if I can break free anytime soon.
That's the type of person I'm here to help. The burden is heavy and getting heavier all the time. Then let me carry it. It's too much to bear, not for me.
And folks, I'm just going to tell you this last section that I've just shared with you is from the book called Gentle and Lowly, Titus and Myself. We went through it several years ago. I remember it's one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend it to you. The last name of the author is Ortland, and you can find it on Amazon. But I highly recommend this book. It's available in hardback, paperback, and Kindle.
And we really, I believe that the church society right now in our country and around the world, we need to get those principles down into our innermost being that I've just shared with you. But pastor, well, I'm not a pastor anymore, but preacher. What about scriptures like Matthew 7, 13, 14 that talk about entering through a narrow gate?
And the path to destruction being wide. Yike. Okay. This is why I prayed that little prayer about the preacher. Okay. The night before Jesus died, he made a statement saying that the only way to the father was by him. The night before he died, he was in the upper room. I am the way, the truth, and the light.
Nobody goes to the Father but by me. Pretty narrow, isn't it? Pretty exclusive. How many people have you heard say that, well, we're just all trying to get to the same place anyhow.
It doesn't matter how we get there. What's the difference? Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad. Muhammad, you know, what's the difference? Our society, for the most part, people down through, and people down through the ages, are very, and have been very, inclusive in their interpretation on how to get to heaven, okay? Well, we're all just trying to get to the same place anyhow. We're all trying, you know, everybody's way is okay, okay?
Now, what I've done, folks, is I've narrowed down the broad and the narrow to two different words, inclusive and exclusive, okay? Okay, the term inclusive in Webster's Dictionary means broad. I hope that answers the question, okay? And let me add this.
I wrote here, Webster literally defines inclusive as broad in orientation or scope. You know, I don't want to step on anybody's toes, but I'm just going to say, And well, you don't pay me anymore. So that's what you did, too. So all other false religions are satanic.
That includes Islam. And I'm going to say all the cults, folks, Satan, satanic. OK, Satan knows scripture, knows it very well and knows it better than most of us. And we'll try to mess with your minds. Not very eloquent, but true. OK, so why do we still feel guilty after everything that I've said? Why do we still feel guilty? Why do these pastoral prayers that Jacob has been putting in?
Why? Why do they hit home? Why do we need to be reminded continually? Because we all still sin. All right. Some of us. Some of us won't like this, but most of us have what the Bible calls a besetting sin. Not us. Well, Pastor, I don't think I really fall into that category. And I've shared this with this congregation before. Well, if you think you don't have a besetting sin or are really kind of a bad sinner,
if you think you're doing okay, I'm getting by, let me ask a general question. Question, how many of you would like a movie, made of your every thought, word, and deed and action of this last week displayed up here for everybody to see? Don't tell me you don't have a besetting sin.
Okay. And for those of you who have a tendency to go in the other direction, where you've got yourself to the point that you'd think that you're unforgivable, Jesus would never forgive me of the things I've thought and said and done. I'm just going to remind you. My time has passed, okay, so I've got to wrap this up. I will remind you. How many of you have ever heard of King David?
How many of you have ever heard of Samson? Listen, both of those men were murderers and adulterers, and they are listed in the hero's hall of faith, all right? You're not going to out-sin them, okay? So what is the answer? Ephesians 2, verses 9 through 10. Leah, do you have that one? Okay.
I'll read it. For by grace have you been saved through faith. We talked about that. And this is not your doing. It is a gift of God. Not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, the fruit of the Spirit.
OK, that we're we're growing on. OK, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's rest in the Lord and what he says he's doing and going to do. OK. All right. And I'll just. I'll close with this. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.
So whenever you find yourself in a bit of turmoil about the situations that I've shared with you today, go to these last two verses, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. You should have these memorized in Hebrews 9.22. We're saved by, and again, I could preach a sermon on all these verses that I've shared with you, but we're saved by grace and faith. Both those words are right there, okay, for good works.
And remind yourself daily that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And I will close. With this last thought, Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Amen.
