March 26, 2006

 

Take away the absolute certainty of God’s providence mirroring and fulfilling his purpose, and faith in God is an absolute impossibility. The Word of God and its countless promises could not be trusted. It would become as useless as wastepaper!

 

 

·         Bro. Larry Criss is preaching today for the Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Princeton, New Jersey.

·         I am scheduled to preach Wednesday for Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, where Bro. Todd Nibert is pastor. I am scheduled to preach Saturday and Sunday for Shiloh Baptist Church in Huntersville, NC, where Bro. Ralph Dale is pastor.

·         Bro. Maurice Montgomery, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY, will preach here next Sunday.

 

Praise the Lord, the King of Heaven — Don Fortner

 

(Tune: #374 Jesus Calls Us — 87.87)

 

1.        Praise the Lord, the King of heaven!

Praise Him for the gift of faith;

Praise Him sinners now forgiven,

Saved by grace from sin and death.

 

2.        Praise the Father for election!

He chose you to be His own!

Sov’reign in predestination,

God placed you among his sons!

 

3.        Praise the Son for His atonement!

He redeemed you with His blood,

By His just and righteous payment

Cancelled all your debt to God!

 

4.        Praise the blessed Holy Spirit

For regenerating grace!

By His grace, not by your merit,

You are saved and kept in grace!

 

5.        Praise the triune God of glory!

Praise the mighty Three-in-One!

Praise the Lord for He is worthy,

Father, Spirit, and the Son!

 

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“The Lord our Righteousness”

 

“In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”                                                              (Jeremiah 23:6)

 

Oh, may God the Holy Spirit give us grace to know the Lord Jesus Christ and ever look upon him in confident faith as “The Lord our Righteousness!” Nothing is sweeter, more comforting, or more beneficial to our souls than that which is here revealed in the Book of God. If God grants a sinner grace to worship his dear Son as “The Lord our Righteousness,” that sinner, knowing that he is made the righteousness of God in Christ, shall find everlasting contentment and satisfaction for his soul.

 

“The Lord”

 

He who is our righteousness is the Lord himself, Jehovah-Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. “In the glories of his essence,” Robert Hawker wrote, “he is One with the Father. In his Personal glories, he is the Lord thy Mediator. And in his relative glories, he is thy righteousness.” Having assumed our nature, by virtue of our union with him and his union with us, all that he is as our Mediator and Surety, he is for us and we are in him. It is written, “As he is, so are we in this world.”

 

“Our Righteousness”

 

Is Jesus Christ the righteousness of God? Then we are the righteousness of God in him. And that is exactly what God the Holy Spirit tells us here, that he is “The Lord our Righteousness.” And in 1 Corinthians 1:30 he tells us that Christ is made of God unto us righteousness. By virtue of his eternal Godhead he is our righteousness. He is our righteousness in such a sure way, and with such everlasting value and efficacy, as no creature could be. Being redeemed by the blood of the incarnate God, we have his righteousness by right and title as the purchased possession he obtained for us, when he obtained eternal redemption for us. It is a righteousness that can never be lost, or even lessened. It is everlastingly perfect.

 

        This is the righteousness for which we shall be fully and everlastingly rewarded in heavenly glory. What a blessed thought! It seems too great to be believed. Indeed, it could not be believed were it not written here in the Book of God. Even though it is plainly written in Holy Scripture by the finger of inspiration, it can never be believed by any man until it is inscribed in his own soul by the experience of grace. Yet, when God the Holy Spirit grants a sinner the grace of life, giving him faith in Christ, this is the first and most blessed article of saving faith. — As God has made him sin for us who knew no sin, so he has made us the righteousness of God in him, though we are nothing but sin!

 

 “Be Called”

 

We  are  expressly  told, “This  is the name whereby he shall be called, “The Lord

 

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our Righteousness.” In that day when Christ comes to save, every saved sinner is graciously enabled and irresistibly compelled to call Christ his righteousness. As soon as a sinner finds himself altogether without any righteousness of his own, he gladly calls Christ, “The Lord our Righteousness.” He confesses to God and to all men that Christ alone is his righteousness. — “Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” The redeemed on earth and the redeemed in heaven, all the church of the firstborn, call the Lord Jesus Christ, “The Lord our Righteousness.” All the patriarchs, all the prophets, and all the apostles, all the Old Testament saints, all the New Testament saints, and all the saints in every age worship Christ alone as “The Lord our Righteousness.”

 

God Himself

 

Not only do we call our Savior, “The Lord our Righteousness,” God himself, our heavenly Father, calls his dear Son by this glorious name. It was God our Father who appointed him, approved of him, and accepted him as “The Lord our Righteousness” in old eternity. And it was God the Father who accepted us in him, “The Lord our Righteousness,” before the worlds were made (Eph. 1:3-6). It was God the Father who made him sin for us, and God the Father who made us the righteousness of God in him. — “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.”

 

        Being convinced by my God that all my righteousnesses are but filthy rags, casting them off as that which is more loathsome than dung, the sweetest, most precious thing in all the world to my soul is this blessed assurance, — Christ my Savior is The Lord My Righteousness! Truly, his name is as “ointment poured forth.” — “Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.”

 

        All personal righteousness I renounce forever. — “I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” — “And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.”

 

 

 

 

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