Weekend
Gospel message to follow for All Hands (27-29JUL18)
Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in "SO GREAT SALVATION" by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace -God's unmerited favor- from their sins and from Hell. For your serious and prayerful consideration UDT/SEAL Team-mates, neighbors and friends:
Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in "SO GREAT SALVATION" by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace -God's unmerited favor- from their sins and from Hell. For your serious and prayerful consideration UDT/SEAL Team-mates, neighbors and friends:
"THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"
-Jeremiah
23:6 [KJV]
While
believers always trust Christ and submit to His righteousness as the
sole basis for our acceptance before God, there are four times when
we must be especially certain that we are looking to Him Who is "THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
1. When we have sinned and experience feelings of shame, conviction, remorse and despair we must look to Christ and His righteousness. The life of a child of God is lived with the realization of personal guilt, but remember, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Our record before God is perfect for He sees us in "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." God has never looked to us, but to our Surety and Substitute, His Son, for satisfaction to His just demands. We are "made the righteousness of God" in that One "Who loved us and gave Himself for us."
2. When we feel like we have done a good work and conducted ourselves in a way that we believe pleases God we must look to Christ and His righteousness because a good feeling about self is really pride rising up in the heart. We must never look to our obedience or any work that we have done for comfort or assurance. "...All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Our best deeds have the foul stench of sin upon them. Christ alone is our righteousness. We are never accepted because of our obedience, for our obedience falls woefully short of perfection. We are accepted for His "obedience unto death, even the death of the cross." He is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
3. When we approach God with any request, we must look to Christ and His righteousness. We make our petitions to the Lord and ask Him to grant them, not because of our goodness, but because of the righteousness of our Mediator. To request anything of God in our name and because of our works would be foolish. We make our petitions known unto the Lord in the Name of that One Who is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
4. When we face death, which will be followed by meeting the Lord, we must still be looking to Christ and His righteousness for all our salvation. In that day when we depart this life to stand before the Lord, the only righteousness which will avail with God is the righteousness established by Jesus Christ and freely imputed to His chosen people. Then, even as now, every true believer will stand perfect, spotless and without blemish in that One who lived, died and arose for us. What is His name? The children of God know His Name quite well. In fact, the Father’s name for His church is the same as our Savior’s, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 33:16).
1. When we have sinned and experience feelings of shame, conviction, remorse and despair we must look to Christ and His righteousness. The life of a child of God is lived with the realization of personal guilt, but remember, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Our record before God is perfect for He sees us in "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." God has never looked to us, but to our Surety and Substitute, His Son, for satisfaction to His just demands. We are "made the righteousness of God" in that One "Who loved us and gave Himself for us."
2. When we feel like we have done a good work and conducted ourselves in a way that we believe pleases God we must look to Christ and His righteousness because a good feeling about self is really pride rising up in the heart. We must never look to our obedience or any work that we have done for comfort or assurance. "...All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Our best deeds have the foul stench of sin upon them. Christ alone is our righteousness. We are never accepted because of our obedience, for our obedience falls woefully short of perfection. We are accepted for His "obedience unto death, even the death of the cross." He is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
3. When we approach God with any request, we must look to Christ and His righteousness. We make our petitions to the Lord and ask Him to grant them, not because of our goodness, but because of the righteousness of our Mediator. To request anything of God in our name and because of our works would be foolish. We make our petitions known unto the Lord in the Name of that One Who is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
4. When we face death, which will be followed by meeting the Lord, we must still be looking to Christ and His righteousness for all our salvation. In that day when we depart this life to stand before the Lord, the only righteousness which will avail with God is the righteousness established by Jesus Christ and freely imputed to His chosen people. Then, even as now, every true believer will stand perfect, spotless and without blemish in that One who lived, died and arose for us. What is His name? The children of God know His Name quite well. In fact, the Father’s name for His church is the same as our Savior’s, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 33:16).
-Gospel
report by preacher Jim Byrd
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