Our lecture tonight is actually on holiness and then if we have time we're going to touch on the righteousness of God and the justice of God. These are the subjects that we'll be looking at. Let me get this thing started here. So these five definitions are given to you, and in these five definitions, what you'll do is you'll read over them, be familiar with the definitions, and then the dark print at the very bottom, based on the above five definitions, write out five complete sentences that use the word holy as defined by each definition. So while a word is defined based on its usage, We're given five different ways that the word holy could be used. So you just write a sentence to match each definition. That's all it is, a complete sentence. Try not to fall into the trap of using just lines straight out of the definition. Become creative, if you will. If you're using part of the college here as a Your homeschool credits in your school, Mandy, you're welcome to grade it and be as diligent as you want to with that. So anyway, that's what I want you to do. So you read those definitions. The first one is holy. It says properly, whole, entire, perfect in a moral sense. And the second one is hallowed, consecrated, or set apart for sacred use. Third one, holy as proceeding from pious principles. The fourth one, perfectly just and good as the holy law of God. And then the last one of course would be sacred such as a holy witness. And so think about those and think about how they might be used and see if you can come up with sentences that would match that. That will be your assignment. Alright, we left off on holiness, but before we start, let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer tonight. Father, we are very grateful to gather together in this new semester and thankful for the chance to get to finish these characteristic traits that are so evident throughout Your Word in a description of You. And Lord, we The only way we can describe you is with the language that we've been given and the comparable scriptures that describe you, which were given by you. So Father, help us not to try to veer off into some twisted definition, but to stay close to Bible narratives in our way of describing you. I pray that you would help us to be sober about this study tonight and at the conclusion of it, that we would look at your holiness and your character in a much more reverent way. I pray now that you would bless our study in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we left off, if you were taking notes, if you still got your notes, we were at the scriptural fact of God's holiness is where we left off. So we know it is a scriptural fact. The Bible declares that God is holy. In fact, I told you a few weeks ago, God is more often styled holy in the scripture than he is almighty. You'll find the declaration of His holiness in that aspect. And He is described as a Holy Trinity by virtue of various scriptures, but we're only going to look at a few. If you want to turn there, you can, but if you just want to listen, I'm going to read these verses to you. But in the Holy Trinity, there's the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. And here are the verses. In John 17 11, We read this, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. And then Jesus says this in his prayer, Holy Father. keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are. So he calls his father the Holy Father. Then there's in Acts 3.14 we see where the son is referred to as holy. And this is the description. It says, but ye denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. So Jesus here is declared specifically as the holy one and not just just but the just. And then of course the Holy Spirit There's many instances of the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost mentioned in the scripture, so this is just one place, but in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30, the Bible says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. Now we've gone over the scriptural fact of God's holiness. We went through a ton of verses a few weeks ago. Now we're going to look at the manifestations of God's holiness. How it manifests itself throughout the Bible. The way that it does manifest itself is in various forms. In fact, I think I've got at least six here in the way that They are manifested. One is in a hatred of sin. This is how His holiness is manifested. In His hatred of sin. Secondly, in a delight toward that which is holy. Thirdly, a separation from sinners. I'm going to go back over each one of these in detail with scripture verses. So if you don't get them all, don't panic. Just write down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and you can have them. Fourthly, in His works. Fifthly, in His law, and then they're manifested lastly in the cross of Christ. The holiness of God is manifested, it's seen. as it's described in scripture, his hatred of sin, his delight in that which is holy, separation from sinners, in his works, in his law, and in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the first verse would be Habakkuk chapter number 1 in verse 13 where it says this, and we're talking about his hatred of sin. The prophet says, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. And canst not look on iniquity? Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" He ends it in a question. So his eyes are purer than to behold evil. He cannot look on iniquity or he won't look on iniquity. In Job 34.10 it says, Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity. So it's far from God that he would do that. And sin is what it's talking about here. And then the last, turn there with me to Proverbs chapter 6. You're familiar with this probably. You've probably heard, maybe you've heard sermons on this. I remember part of my doctoral study was I had to break this down pretty intently. In fact, on these four verses I had well over 40 pages. So it was like 10 pages of verse when I broke this thing down. And we're not going to go that far into it tonight by any means. But in Proverbs chapter 6 we see his hatred of sin described this way. It says this, these six things, verse 16, these six things that the Lord hate, yea seven, are an abomination unto Him. First of all, a proud look. He said this is something that He hates. A lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood. Has anybody seen that YouTube video circulating around with a lady who's had abortion, is interviewing children? and she's telling them that she's had an abortion and wants their opinion on it. There's only one little boy, a little black fellow. He has a big old head of hair, looks kind of like Malachi. He has a big head of hair and he's sitting there and he's got a bow tie on and he's probably 12, 13 years old, maybe 12 years old. She asked him, she says, I had an abortion. And he said, when I was in the fifth grade, I wrote a paper on abortion. She goes, oh, you did? And she says, what do you think? He says, well, he says, I think that sometimes it's wrong. And she says, well, I disagree with you. And this whole video, they're interviewing these kids and putting them through this with this woman. It was so sad. But he stood his ground. I was real impressed with the little fella, at least in that aspect. But all the rest of them, man, just caved because this woman was manipulating them. It was going to ruin my life, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. And God hates hands that shed innocent blood. The Bible says this, He hates them. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. It's just the mind that comes up with these Hollywood soap opera stories and the wicked literature that's out there, these wicked imaginations. And I don't believe that's actually what's even being talked about here, but that's just another manifestation in our culture of wicked imaginations, how they go further and further down the road. Feet that be swift in running to mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies. And then the last one is he that soweth discord among the brethren. You know, I'll tell you what. Years ago, there was a time that I was not pastoring and I was a member of a church. I had been a pastor and I wasn't a pastor and I was a member of a church and I had told my wife, our goal when we go to this church is to be the pastor's right hand. Our goal is going to be to be his eyes. We're going to be his support. We're going to do everything we can to back this guy up, unless he just openly and willfully sins. And I said, we're going to do what we can. And I said, and the number one way we're going to do it is we're not going to sow discord. I said, we will not be the problem maker. As soon as people begin to find out that I used to pastor, what do you think they would do? They would pit me against the pastor at the conclusion of his sermon or a decision he may have made in a business meeting or something. They would come to me. You used to pastor. I'd say, yes, I did. And I also used to slap people that caused discord. So what were you about to ask me? No, I didn't say that. I really didn't. I just, yes, I did. I used to pastor. Well, you heard what the pastor said. What do you think? immediately. So my goal was not to cause discord. And so all my answers, I weighed them carefully and gave them the best, safest answer that I possibly could. And you can tell when somebody is attempting to sow discord and when they're just genuinely wanting to talk about a biblical topic. You can tell that most of the time. You can pretty well figure it out. And so it's tricky. It's tricky when people I want to kind of get you in on the slide there about something that's going to cause problem among people. I'm thankful. I don't think we have... I don't think we have people in our church that's just going around looking to stir up a problem. If they are, it's been such little of a problem, I've not been made aware of it, which I'm so thankful for. And so the Lord's been merciful. So these are the things that God hates. It's a manifestation of His holiness that He hates these things. You can say God is holy by what He hates. The manifestation, the thing that is produced by His holiness is a hatred of these things. And so that's what we mean when we talk about a manifestation of His holiness, a hatred of sin. But on the flip side then, you say, well I know what God doesn't like. That kind of tells me what He does like. If He doesn't like discord, he must like peacemakers. If he doesn't like false witnesses, he must love truth. And you can go backwards in that verse and flesh all that out. But another manifestation of his holy would be that thing that he delights in. And in Proverbs 15, just a few chapters over in verse number 9, it says this, Now the way of the wicked is an abomination of the Lord, but here's the flip side of it, but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness." So the one that is following after righteousness, He loves. We're going to look at a much more detailed definition of the word righteousness as we get to that section here, maybe tonight. I don't know if we'll get there tonight or not. So the Lord loves him that follows righteousness and He hates them that don't follow righteousness. I mean, you see the flip side of it. That's how it manifests itself. In fact, if I never went to a Mexican restaurant, and one day you said, hey let's go to a Mexican restaurant, and I said, now I'm going to go to an Italian restaurant. I don't go to Mexican restaurants. Then you might say to me, as people normally would say in a situation, oh you don't like Mexican? I go, well, no, I like Mexican food, but I'd prefer Italian food. Now that's actually not true. I'd prefer Mexican food, but this is just the way my example is running. Okay. Oh, you don't like Mexican food. No, I like it just fine. I like it. Well, you said you didn't want to go to a Mexican restaurant. We offered to take you to a Mexican restaurant. You want to go to an Italian restaurant. Oh, okay. Well, it happens in our house all the time with barbecue. I like barbecue just fine. I'll eat barbecue. But if you ever say to me, hey, where do you want to go eat, I will never tell you Rick's. It's not because Rick's has got bad food. In fact, I think their food is magnificent. Their tater fries are really good. They close on Sunday. I mean they just got everything going for them. But I wouldn't pick it because barbecue is not at the top of my favorite list. But I don't hate barbecue. Now, if I was burning down barbecue restaurants, you might say, I think he hates barbecue. And that would be more manifest, wouldn't it? So, when you see what God loves, just put the opposite in there and you can pretty well guess He doesn't love that, He hates it. And that's what we're looking at when we talk about this. So, a hatred of sin, a delight toward that which is holy, and then you see His manifestation of His holiness in His separation from sinners. There's a great chasm between God and the unsaved man. In fact, we're considered dead in trespasses and sin. There's this huge, vast difference. He is life and we are dead. And there's so many verses that show the division with the Lord Jesus Christ and His judgments and things of that nature, but we just are going to use one verse, or actually two verses, but one place in the Bible in Isaiah 59. And this is the picture of the separation between God and sinners. It says, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. The problem is not that God's unable to save. It's not that somehow God's hand just wants to save you, but He can't. He almost can, but maybe your will is actually sovereign and God's not. That's not the problem. That's not the way it is at all. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear." It's not the problem. Here's the separation. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear. Now there's a big difference, isn't it? And this is God's manifestation of His holiness is that He withdraws Himself in that aspect from the sinner. We see another manifestation of His holiness in His works. Now, the book of Psalms is one of those glorious places that you see the declaration of God's majesty and His power in creation. It's just like... And since Psalms is a song book, It's just a songbook in many places of them just singing about the power and control of God over His creation. But His holiness is seen in His works, in particular in Psalm 145. And in this song, in verse 17, it says, The Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. So if God works something, you can see a manifestation of His holiness in His works, in the things that He does. Then we see God's manifestation of His holiness in His law, actually in His law itself. So we have the Word of God and it is manifest that He is holy just in that alone. In fact, it is in Romans 7-12 where we are told the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. So there's the declaration of it right there. People talk about the Old Testament is the Old Testament. We don't need it anymore. It's not important. And Paul declared right the opposite of that. He said it is holy. The commandments are holy. They're just and they're good. So we see that displayed in his law. The last one, well, let me read this little statement to you. The law of God forbids sin in all of its modifications. So when sin starts being modified by culture, let's do it this way, crack cocaine was not available in Moses' day, best we know. But what happens is addiction was in Moses day. So a modification of that addiction might be the substance that men choose to abuse. The substances themselves, while they are not sinful, aren't the problem. The problem is the sinful man who is now using other things to modify his addiction. Maybe he's not using wine or strong drink, but now he's using crack cocaine. And he still is addicted. He is still a slave to it and his passions. So that's what we mean when we talk about modification. So listen to this one more time. The law of God forbids sin in all of its modifications. So, just because the Bible says don't be a drunkard doesn't mean that that cannot be applied to someone who is addicted to crack cocaine. Do you understand what I'm talking about? The Bible is not a cultural book that's left behind because it doesn't mention something that's modern in our culture. In its most refined as well as its grossest forms, the intent of the mind as well as the pollution of the body is meant, the secret desires as well as the overt act." So that is what the law of God forbids. The intents of the heart, the secret desires, even the overt acts. Exactly. Which was foreign to them because they were keeping the law to its ridiculousness. They were keeping the letter in their minds and we haven't murdered anybody. Well, you hate your brothers. Even the story of the Good Samaritan was evident of that, how horrible that was. Lastly, in the cross of Christ, we see the holiness of God manifest. The writer here points out, wondrously yet most solemnly does the atonement display the infinite holiness and atonement of God. In A.W. Pink's work, The Attributes of God, this is a statement that he makes. He said, Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against the rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned creatures give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin as the wrath of God let loose upon His Son. Never did divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Savior's countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans. This Himself acknowledges in Psalm 22. So Jesus Christ acknowledged in Psalm 22 the great weight of the wrath of God. When God had turned His smiling face from him, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. and thrust his sharp knife into his heart, which forced a terrible cry from him, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He adores this perfection, and cries, Thou art holy." Boy, Pink had a way with words. And I always enjoy reading his stuff. It's always amazing. Alright, now we're going to look at the applications of God's holiness. We looked at the manifestations. Here's the applications of His holiness. And the first one, I will give you the ones, there's three of them. The first one is because God is holy, the utmost reverence becomes our approach to Him. So we need to approach God with the utmost reverence. This is an application of it. Secondly, because He's holy, acceptance with Him on the grounds of creature doings is utterly impossible. In other words, things that we could do to be accepted in Him, it's impossible because of God's holiness for us to do something that would make us accepted in the Beloved. Think about that for a minute. You had to meet some standard of an absolutely perfect and holy God and you had to do something to do that and you're an imperfect creature and you have every limitation imaginable. How can you in any way match up to the standards? Well, you can't. There's no way. That's why the substitutionary death of Lord Jesus Christ is such an absolutely vital doctrine. And then in number three, because God is holy, our utmost desire should be to be conformed to Him. We should be willing to say, we want to be just like you in every way that we possibly can. So let's look at some verses that will go with this application of God's holiness. Because God is holy, the utmost reverence becomes our approach to Him. Hebrews chapter number 12 and verse number 28 and 29, here's what we read. Wherefore we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire." So, utmost reverence becomes our approach to Him. We have a very lax ecclesiology most of the time in our mindset. We wheel into church and we're back-slapping and howdy buddies and everything's all happy-go-lucky and there's very little consideration about a holy approach to our worship. in our time before God. I've seen people pray and almost make a mockery of prayer when they're praying because they're so trivial and light-hearted and even to the point of just near blasphemy in the way that they speak and they pray. Sadly, I've seen Hollywood movies have better prayers than I've heard some preachers pray from their own pulpits, which is an embarrassment. Exodus chapter 3 verse 5 talks about an approach to God, and this is when he told Moses, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Literally, the symbology there is so great, Take your dirty shoes off before you step into my room. into the very presence of God, take off the thing that are defiled and stand before me barren." And another place is in Joshua, we're familiar with this one as well, in Joshua 5.13, And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And, behold, there stood a man over against him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Aren't thou for us or for our adversaries? I don't know what kind of guy Joshua was, but I am always impressed when I read things in Scripture about him. I've not read anything in the Scriptures that made me go, Joshua was such a doof. He was such a goofball. I've never read anything that even made me come close to saying that. This is one of the things that just, I guess, takes my breath away. This guy is standing over there with a sword and Joshua just marches right up to him and says, which side are you on, buddy? I mean, we're about to fight a war and I need to know where you're standing because if you're on the wrong side, you're about to be cut down. I mean, this is the attitude of this soldier of the Lord. And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Okay. The guy he's talking to is actually the captain of the host of the Lord. So what does Joshua do? Fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? Change of attitude. And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, the place whereon thou standest. is holy and Joshua did so. So same reaction to him that happened to Moses Take those dirty shoes off your feet. You're standing in my place. You're standing in my house now. You're in my territory. And then the last one would be in Psalm 89. Actually, maybe not the last one. Psalm 89 and Psalm 99. Psalm 89 and verse number 7 says this right here. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. Maybe that's the verse we should put over the door before we walk into our auditorium. Maybe we should have that verse inscribed across there. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints. So that it's just a reminder when we assemble, this is not a time for a party, it's not a time for foolish antics, it's not a time for the preacher to try out his latest jokes on the crowd to get them warmed up. It's not a time for our music director to put on a performance and try to get the crowd pumped up. and ready to go like you'd see at a concert. Psalm 99 and verse number 5, exalt ye the Lord our God and worship, and I love this part here, several commentators have done magnificent work on this verse and I wouldn't do it justice but I'll just give you a little brief snippet. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at His footstool, for he is holy." One writer points out that the earth is oftentimes described as the footstool of God. As he sits in heaven, he puts his feet on the earth, giving just the most graphic representation of a couple of things. The size and awesomeness of God, which is compared in that manner, though even that's limited in its description of God. But secondarily, the idea is, what is a footstool? It's a place where we put our dirty feet. It's a place where we put our dirty shoes. It's the thing in the throne room that is probably not the cleanest place. We don't know where his shoes have been. We don't know what they've stepped on. Here he is putting them on a footstool. And he says, guess what? When you worship, worship at his footstool. Bow down there. Start there. And one writer pointed out, the only place we can presently worship is on this earth. So worship at His footstool. Don't wait to get to heaven to properly worship Him. Don't wait. Don't say, well, you know, once we're in heaven we'll all be around the throne worshiping Him and praising His name. But we're to be doing that even at His footstool. And so, those were really good verses. I enjoyed those. The second one is the application of His holiness is acceptance with Him on the grounds of creature doings is utterly impossible. We cannot be accepted by this holy God based on something we do or could possibly even do. Isaiah 64 and verse number 6 says this, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The plural of that, the righteousnesses, if you were to stack all your righteousnesses up, if you were to tabulate all of your righteousnesses, They're all as filthy rags. There's none stacked on top of another one that makes it better. In our society, if I stack $100 bills on top of one another, the stack I've got determines my wealth. If I only have $100, that's not much. If I stack three or four hundred dollars, I'm doing a little better. If I can stack a thousand hundred dollar bills, I'm doing very well. If I could stack a million hundred dollar bills on top of one another, do you see how I'm building myself, my worth? Well, he said if you stacked all your righteousnesses, if you put them on, they don't get any better in value. Because I did this deed and this deed and this deed is not any better than if I just did this deed or I did a million good deeds. None of those are spectacular enough to make me right with God. So we don't get value by stacking our righteous deeds. So all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And isn't it true how today I may be so strong in the Lord, I may have had my devotions this morning, I may have prayed with my wife, and had my private prayer time, and have walked with the Lord, and avoided the sins of the world, and have tried to keep myself pure, and tomorrow I'm like that faded leaf. I just fall off the wagon. I don't pray, I don't read my Bible, I don't do anything that might be considered manifestly righteous. and I may overtly sin. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee." Now pay attention to that verse. That's a very important verse. There's none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. Nobody He sits there and says, you know what? I've decided of my own free will that I'm going to call in the name of the Lord. I've stirred my own self up. I've within myself realized my own need. I am wise enough in my own conceits, really is what it is. I'm wise enough in my own mind and ideology that I'm going to just turn around and serve the Lord. I'm just going to start serving Him. I think that's the most productive and best thing I can do. He says, there's nobody that does that. If you come to God, you come to Him because you're drawn. It isn't because you in and of yourself figured it out. And He's telling us that. Nobody does that. He says you don't come to Him that way. For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. A clear declaration. You're the potter, we're the clay. We're just a clump of clay laying there. There's nothing to us, no form. And if you expect us to be in any shape whatsoever, you're going to have to put your hand to us. And you're going to have to make us what it is that you want us to be. Because we can't even call on you with our own power. Can't do it. This whole Arminian mindset that floats around out there that You know, it's all up to man. Man's got to make the decision. Man has to, you know, man will just reach up to God, then God will reach down to him. Look, you can't reach to God with withered hands. It's impossible. You don't even know where to reach. And verses like this just drive that truth home over and over. In Hebrews 9.22 it says, "...and almost all things by the law are purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood is no remission." So there were things, there were times, there were certain things in the law that they would use other than blood to do purgings and cleansings and things like this. And that's the phrase, almost all things are by the law purged with blood. But the finality of the statement is, if you're expecting remission, it only happens with the blood. Have you ever seen somebody clean up a little bit by obeying the laws of God? If you consider John Calvin's three uses of the law, one of the uses of the law is civil restraint. That the law restrains the civil authority. The civil authority uses the law to restrain men. They say thou shalt not kill. It's illegal to murder your neighbor. So the law of God in a civil way restrains, and we understand that. That's almost all things about the law of purgeable blood. But if everybody follows the civil law to the best of their abilities, if they follow the law of God to the best of their abilities, they still don't have their sins remitted. So they haven't received remission, though they may have been purged from some of the earthly dirt. They don't steal anymore because They've been purged by that civil law that's following God's law. They don't murder anymore because they've been purged by that civil law. But none of them have had their sins remitted without the shedding of blood. So men can be relatively good, decent men. They can live on this earth and not cause too many problems and go through their whole life and die and have someone declare at their funeral. They were good men. They took good care of their family. They were faithful at their job. They were always, you know, they even went to church on Sundays. They did all sorts of really good things, but they never had their sins remitted. There was no remission because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and they aren't in heaven now. And so, very strong verse there. We can only be accepted in Christ, of course, we know, by this remission. The Bible says this in Ephesians 1, a few verses here, about 5 or 6 verses. Ephesians 1, starting in verse 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. And that's one of the things. We're made accepted in the Beloved. We don't become accepted in the Beloved because of something we do. We're made. accepted in the Beloved by Him. He hath made us accepted. That's a beautiful treatment of the sovereignty of God in that single verse. But he goes on. He doesn't stop there. In whom we have redemption, how through His blood. There's that redemption. Redeemed by His blood. The forgiveness of sins. I always want to go even. You may remember the tiger or the mountain lion, was it a mountain lion or a panther? And he would go, already, already. And every time I read that verse, I think these things, it's terrible, my cartoon days come back. And it's like he's emphasizing this when he says this, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. I mean, isn't that a magnificent way that that's put? And then he says, according to the riches of His grace. So, if I was going to pay Gladys' next month's bills, according to the richness of the lawn business that I own, none of her bills would get paid. because I don't own a lawn business. And if I did right now, I probably wouldn't be doing too much work. Maybe I'd be cleaning out some gutters, so I doubt your bills would get paid. But let's say that I was going to pay all your bills next month with the riches of the Queen of England. She happens to be on more land than any living human on the planet. She's ridiculously wealthy in the billions of dollars. And I said, I'm going to pay your bills based on her riches. You'd be like, then I ain't got no problems. My bills are paid. And so when you read this statement, think about it in that aspect. In whom we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins, how? According to the riches of His grace. How rich is His grace? Is it abounding? Is it enough? Is it overflowing? Yes, yes and yes. It's all of those things. So our forgiveness is based on this abundance of the riches of His grace. What a beautiful thing. Not anything we can do. So our acceptance with Him on the grounds of creature doings is impossible. But He goes on in Ephesians. So I just might as well read them because they're so good. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. I think those two verses together, the first line and verse number eight together make one of the most strongest arguments about God's foreknowledge as well as His predestination because He tells us this, wherein He's abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. And He has all wisdom and He has all prudence. And what was the result of His abounding toward us? He made known unto us the mystery of His will. What a gracious thing that God's done this for us. According to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. It was His good pleasure to do it. It wasn't because It wasn't my idea and it wasn't anything I provoked him to do. He purposed it in himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things out of the counsel of His own will. So, our acceptance with God can't be based on our creaturely doings. And then thirdly, the application of God's holiness is seen because God is holy, our utmost desires must be conformed to Him. And 1 Peter 1 verses 15 and 16 answer to this in a beautiful way. It says, but as He which hath called you is holy, there's our standard, because He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. in all manner of conversation. Why? Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. I think it's so interesting, the literary device that Peter uses in these two verses is one of those devices that tells you that Now, the one that's in charge made this decision, so you need to follow that decision in every way. Why should we do that? Because he wrote it down. He's this way, so you be that way. I mean, it's just this double emphasis on it is so strong. The one who called you is holy, so you be holy in all manner of your conduct. Because God wrote down, be ye holy for I am holy. That's the reason. So somebody says, why? In an instance like this, why? Be ye holy. Why? Because He wrote it down to be holy. It's a command. He's given it to us. So these are the applications of God's holiness. What time is it? Is it time for a break? No. Good. We're just going to go ahead and start on the next one. And just keep moving along. Now we're talking about the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. So we just talked about the holiness of God, and now we're going to talk about the righteousness of God. Now the meaning of God's righteousness is several little descriptions here. You may not want to get them all, but I'll tell you the one that's most important first. Righteousness of God is when he is just in accordance with His divine law. So when you talk about the righteousness of God, the only way we can understand it is God being just. in accordance with his divine law. So he's doing that which is just. Well, what do you mean when you say just, pastor? Well, just in its most basic sense means that which is lawful and right. But it goes further. Justness in the Bible also means orderliness. Being just also means exactly proportional. So if I'm going to exercise justice, we're going to make sure that we are proportionally exercising this justice. We're going to make sure that everything is fair and equitable and right. Also, it can mean complete to a common standard. If it is just as it should be, then it is as the common standard says it should be. If one foot is 12 inches, you can say that is a just measure. So if you've got a ruler and it's 12 inches, it's a just measure. It is according to a common standard. Now my dad has tape measures abounding. He has 5 or 6 tape measures hanging on the wall down there. And he did something real interesting one time. He popped them all out, about 6 or 8 inches, and locked them and set them there. And he said, now I want you to put all those tape measures together and line them up perfectly on the ends and then look at where the five inch mark is. What do you think I discovered? Only about two of them matched. All the rest of them were off by about one and eighth of an inch. One was sixteenth of an inch. One was somewhere in between there. They were all off. I said, how do you build a house like that? He said, you're a quarter of an inch. You're a master carpenter. I said, really? He said, yes sir. A quarter of an inch on a house? You'll never see a quarter of an inch problem unless your house is 500 feet long. He said, then you might have a problem with it if you keep being a quarter of an inch off. But he said, no, this is close enough. That's the common standard. I thought, wow, that's not God's common standard. God's common standard is 12 inches is 12 inches. God's common standard is, if He says it's one way, it's not one way a little bit and not exact. So when we talk about how a man gets to heaven, it's not within an eighth of an inch. It's an exact measure. So when we talk about the righteousness of God and we say He is just in all of His determinations and someone goes to hell and someone goes to heaven, there isn't a little variance in there that could have made any difference. There's not, well, Here's a good reason this happened, but it could have been different. God doesn't make those kind of mistakes. His legislative holiness is always perfectly in line with His law. So don't ever think about that. Somebody asked me one time about my son who's outside of Christ, and you know what? Doesn't it bother you that he may end up in hell?" And I said, it kills me actually. In fact, when I think about my son being outside of Christ, I said, I can't begin to tell you the number of tears that I've wept on his behalf. I've wept how many times I've laid awake at night and nothing bothers my sleep. But that's bothered my sleep. and to see my wife and her grieving over him and just all that goes on with it. And we put on a good hard surface when we're talking to people about it and things of that nature how horrible it is. Well, what am I going to do when I am standing there in heaven and God declares that he's to be cast into hell? Am I going to some way describe God as being unjust? Or will I rejoice in His justice? Because that's what we will do in heaven. As bad as it hurts here, because we can't even begin to imagine. But we will thank Him for His justice. Because it will be perfect. Won't be an eighth of an inch off. It'll be exactly right in whatever His determination is. And we'll be able to praise Him for all eternity in that. Now, I can say that now because I'm doing okay right now, but catch me later. I might not be so happy about saying statements like that. Okay, the righteousness of God is a manifestation of His holiness. God's righteousness has been termed, as I said, a legislative holiness. And because all of his attributes, all the attributes of his love reveal his holiness, even in his imposing his justice on the unconverted. It's easy to talk about the unconverted going to hell, but when you start thinking the unconverted as your spouse, Or the unconverted as your child? Or the unconverted as your grandchild? Now it gets personal. Does it mean that God is any less righteous? No. None at all. Nothing's changed. The standard hasn't changed. All of God's requirements of man are absolutely righteous. Here are the scriptural facts of God's righteousness. In Psalm 116 and verse number 5, the Bible declares this. This is a declaration of His righteousness. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. So this is a declaration of His righteousness. The Bible tells us this. In fact, it's in Psalm 116.5. Some of the things that are in the Psalms are there by the perfections of God, but I think it's very emphatic that we understand some of them are in song form so that we are forced to sing them over and over and over and over. Where we might not read the verse, but once a year, if we've got a yearly Bible reading, But if it's in the form of a song, we'll sing the song more often. And one of the declarations in a song is, Gracious is the Lord and righteous. So that we remember He's always just. So they always remember when He makes a judgment, it was exact justice. It was what it should be. God is righteous. Psalm 145 and verse 17 says again, another song, the Lord is righteous in all His ways and holy. in all his works. It's Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 1. Here's the declaration. Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? He's asking a question. Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Is that not man? God, I'm going to go on record saying you're righteous. I got a question. Isn't that how it seems sometimes? Lord, you are perfectly righteous. In other words, you are always just in accordance with your divine law. But I got a question for you. Why do the wicked seem to prosper and why are the people who deal treacherously happy? Why does it look like the sinners are just whooping it up and having such a good time. And that's a challenge. Jeremiah saw that. It kind of bugged him because he was doing exactly what God said to do. He was telling these folks that doom was at the door. And yet they didn't seem to be too bothered by it. In fact, they tried to silence Jeremiah and shut him up. It's in John chapter 17 and verse 25 that we see where Jesus said, Oh righteous Father. Remember earlier we saw that Jesus prayed, Holy Father. Now in John 17, 25, we see Him pray, righteous Father, holy and righteous. He said, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. So He's declared Him as righteous. Jesus has declared Him as righteous, being just in accordance with His divine law. He's always going to do the right thing, even when we don't think it was the right thing. Now, we've looked at the scriptural fact of God's righteousness. Now here is the manifestation of His righteousness. In Psalm 11 and verse number 7, we see that God loves righteousness and He hates sin, like He loved that which was holy and He hated that which was unholy. It says, For the righteous, Lord, loveth Righteousness. So, if you're righteous, you love righteousness. And he calls him the righteous Lord. He loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the upright. So God is righteous and therefore he loves that which is just in accordance with his divine law. by using the definition of it there. And secondly, God's righteousness leads him to always do right. So firstly, God loves righteousness and hates sin. Secondly, God's righteousness leads him always to do right. Now, I'm in Genesis 18 and verse 25. A lot of background to this portion of scripture, but the exchange that you're about to hear in this one verse proves many things, but proves one thing that stands out in our minds for tonight. That there's none righteous, no not one. All deserve judgment. All deserve hell. It's just the state of mankind. So listen to this verse in this aspect. Genesis 18.25. You know the background of the story, Abraham's concerned that God's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and there could be righteous people there. What if there's this many, what if there's this many, what if there's ten? And God in His kindness says, yeah, if there's ten, I won't destroy it. So what does this exchange prove? This exchange doesn't prove anything, but this, it proves that there's none righteous. Here's what he says, "...that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked." God, I mean, that's not like you, right? To destroy the righteous with the wicked? Is that something that God would do? Well, John Gill, our Baptist forefather in the faith, said, No, that's true temporally speaking. Many times the righteous get killed with the wicked, don't they? In earthquakes or floods or fires or wars. Sometimes the righteous do get killed, but not eternally. God doesn't do that eternally. The righteous are spared the wrath of God, and the wicked are punished eternally. So that's what John Gill points out. So he's saying to him, it's far from you to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. So, in other words, that the end result of the righteous and the wicked would be the same. I just can't see you doing that, God. That's not you, right? It's kind of a statement that's being made here. And then, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? I mean, he's pretty presumptuous here, isn't he? He's saying, I mean, aren't you, if you're the judge of all the earth, aren't you going to do right? Well, he's missing one fundamental point here. There's none righteous, no not one. And he's talking to a God who is righteous. Remember what the definition of righteous is? Just in accordance with God's divine law. That's righteousness. He is going to do what's right every time according to his law. And so Abraham says to him, you know, you're the judge of all the earth, you're going to do right, right? I mean, you're always going to do what's right, right? God says, of course I am. He goes, well, if there's ten people there, righteous people, will you spare the city? Why, of course I would. But they're all sinners, Abraham. You're forgetting. There's none righteous. No, not one. And while Abraham may have had a different idea in his mind about what righteousness is and saying one might be right with God, such as Abraham was right by faith, we give Abraham all sorts of room because he's probably smarter than all of us. But the point being, in this particular exchange, God's righteousness always leads him to do right, even when we're arguing about it, trying to figure out what looks right. In fact, that woman that was in that abortion video, she asked a little boy, she said, do you believe in God? He said, yes, I believe in God. And she said, I do too, and I think abortion is part of God's perfect plan. Okay, so she was making a statement. And Abraham is here making a statement. In a similar vein, go in the opposite direction. But you're a righteous God, you're always going to spare the righteous, and you're never going to allow the righteous to be destroyed along with the wicked, right? But the exchange proves one thing, and that is that God's righteousness, His justice, always leads Him to do what's right, even when it doesn't look right to us. Even when we're arguing with God to change the circumstances. Oh God, heal my ailing relative and don't let them die. And they die. God didn't hear me. God wouldn't answer my prayers. Now go ahead and finish it the way I want it. Because that's really what happened. but God's righteousness leads him to always do what's right. It's kind of easy to say when everything's going right right now, but it's when those things aren't going the way we want them to does it become particularly difficult. All right, we're going to take a quick break, about five minutes, and then we will be back in here to wind things up. Now we're going to be dealing with the justice of God, and we won't be long on this one, will we? No, we will not. And so when we finish the justice of God, we're going to stop. And it's only about a half a page, but a lot of verses. Okay, when we talk about the justice... When we talk about the justice of God, that means nobody's listening. So somebody hung up. I said, the justice of God, and they hung up. They're like, no, it's too late. So, the justice of God. What verse did I leave off on? Okay, Genesis 18. The justice of God is this. The justice of God is that perfection whereby he cannot look upon sin. And in the definition of justice in the basic sense would be the execution of righteousness. Now we said the righteousness of God was called a legislative holiness. The justice of God has been termed by some theologians as judicial holiness. So you've got legislative holiness, this is judicial holiness. The justice is the execution of God's righteousness. The righteousness of God is the execution of God's holiness. The justice of God is the execution of God's righteousness. If that makes sense, it's kind of a tiered thing. So you've got the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and the justice of God. Now here is the scriptural fact of God's justice or His execution of righteousness. In Psalm 97 in verse 2, this is what it said, clouds and darkness are round about Him, Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. So His throne literally inhabits righteousness and justice. Now think about the definition of those words. The righteousness of God is just in accord with God's divine law. So the throne sits in the midst of that which is just in accordance with His divine law. And the justice of God is God's execution of that righteousness. And His throne sits right there. And we're talking legislative holiness, judicial holiness, and His throne in the midst of this application of His holiness. In Zephaniah chapter number 3 in verse 5 it says, The Lord, the just Lord, is in the midst thereof. He will not do iniquity. Every morning doth He bring His judgment to light. He faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame. So the Lord, the just Lord, is in the midst thereof and He will not do iniquity. In Deuteronomy, chapter number 32, in verse 4, He is described as the Rock. In fact, it says this, He is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment. So, you think about all the ways of God are actually an act of God's judgment. Whatever God deems is judgment. Now, when we think of judgment, don't we usually think of judgment in a negative sense? But judgment can be rendered in favor of you as well, can't it? Well, they judged in my favor. So all of God's ways are in fact judgment. So everything he does is his judgment. Whether it's some blessing that you receive or whether it's some impending doom that the wicked receive, it's part of God's judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, and then the scripture describes him this way, just and right is he. Just and right is he. That's Deuteronomy 30 to 4. Micah 6 in verse number 8 says this, He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee? So he's shown you what's good and what's required. And what is it? But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. So there they are. You say, well, what are my duties? Well, duties are described in various ways throughout the scripture. Ecclesiastes chapter number 12 tells us what the end is that we should be doing, but here it's described this way, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. How many of us have ever known somebody who seems to have all of their ducks in a row scripturally. I mean, they just seem to have everything right. You ever met anybody like that? Yeah, I'm sure you have. You've probably met people that, you may have even been to a church where you thought, man, all the theological T's are crossed, all the hermeneutical I's are dotted, all of the Ecclesiology here is just like it needs to be. Man, everything is so good. It seems so perfect and everything. And there's still something lacking. Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 13 as he's dealing with all the gifts that the church at Corinth had. They had tongues. They had people healing. They had some of the most awesome things. They had people prophesying. They had people just doing amazing things in the church at Corinth. And Paul told them this. He said, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, and become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. He goes on, though I have the gift of prophecy and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I can actually remove mountains. I mean you haven't met anybody like me. and have not charity, I'm nothing." Then he goes into the physical works that the church loves to be known for. He said, if I bestowed all my goods to feed the poor and I gave my body to be burned, in other words, it was like there was nobody like me. I was the martyr that all the books, the heroes of the faith were written about. You know, your children will read about me in those books. But if I don't have charity, it profiteth me nothing. And so, when we look at the duties of man, what does the Lord require of thee? What is it that He expects of thee? Well, it is to do justly. It's to do justly. It is to make sure that there's this justness in accordance with God's divine law. We want to do absolutely everything we can in that aspect But you also love mercy. There's got to be mercy. And there's got to be a humility. Walking with God humbly. And of course Paul clarifies it even goes further. There must be charity among the brethren. If there's not this love and things. He said it doesn't matter. I'm nothing. Even if I seem to have it all. Perfectly. Something that my wife and I dealt with about a year ago in a counseling session with a youth minister and his wife from another congregation. They were having all sorts of trouble. He was the greatest guy you'd ever want to meet on the outside. He was funny. He was happy-go-lucky. Everything about him was wonderful. But the minute they would crawl in their car to go home, He was short with her. He didn't want to talk to her. He was just rude. He was in his own world. He was rough with her kids. He was just kind of not a nice guy. But you put him in the pulpit. Did you get fired? You put him in the pulpit or you let him get a group of youth together. Alright everybody. Everybody loved him. He was the happiest guy you'd ever want to meet. He was amazing. He was two-faced. And the thing that we discovered in talking to him, there was just no humility. None. Because he had his education, he had his training, he was amazing. But there was no humility, and of course there was no charity either. Was he doctrinally sound? Everything we asked him, he seemed to be very doctrinally sound. He seemed to be right on the money, sounded great, wonderful guy. But nothing else matched up. And that happens many times. And we see the scriptural facts of God's justice is that God is just, but He's also merciful. And our duty is to imitate these characteristics of God the best we can. We're to seek to be like Him. He says, be ye holy. Based on what standard? My holiness. Wow, that's pretty big, isn't it? How do we get there? So, we know the scriptural facts of His justice. Here are the manifestations of God's justice. And there are, how many of them? There are five of them, I thought. There were only four. There's five of them. Number one, I'm going to read them to you. God is just in the punishment of unrighteousness. Every sin must be punished and every sin will be punished. So, He is just in the punishment of righteousness. Secondly, God is just in forgiving those who are His. Thirdly, God is just in keeping His word and promises. He'll do it. He'll do what He said. Fourthly, God is just in delivering and vindicating His people. And lastly, God is just in rewarding the righteous. And here they are. God is just in the punishment of unrighteousness. Every sin must and will be punished. Romans chapter 6 verse 23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So there's a price for sin and then there is a gift of God. There's a price for sin. It's just a price that's got to be paid. Somebody has to die for our sins. And then the second one is Daniel chapter 9 verse 11. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. There it is. And he hath confirmed his words which he spake against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil. What was the great evil? They were in captivity. For unto the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. Nothing to any place that ever happened like it happened to Jerusalem. He was saying, as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Isn't it interesting, you've got the prophets that are just warning and warning and warning and warning and then they all go into captivity. And then in the midst of captivity they're saying, you know, we should have done what the prophets said. We should have done what the law of Moses said before the prophets ever said anything. That's usually the way it works, isn't it? That we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, For we obeyed not His voice." Now there it is, there's that declaration. He's righteous in all His works. And we didn't obey His voice. He's going to do what He promised He's going to do. And now, O Lord our God, Thou hast brought Thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten me renowned at this day. We have sinned. We've done wickedly. O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us." That's what our sin does. Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach because of our sin. And when we sin, it's not just us that suffers, it's all those around us. I watched a confession of a pastor who has been caught up in adultery the other day. And it wasn't just adultery, it was prostitution, marijuana, and gambling were the three charges that were brought against this guy. while he was in his pulpit and watched his confession and of all of his addictions and things of this nature that was upon him. And it was intense and amazing. And who suffered? His wife and children were going to suffer. His church was going to suffer. Reproach had come upon Jerusalem and all his people. That church was marked. That's where that preacher was that this happened. That's exactly what people will say in that community from that point forward. Oh, I know that church. I remember what happened years ago. Then, God is just in forgiving those who are His. Justice has been done in that the penalty for sin has been paid in full. God would be unjust if He required a believer to pay further than the debt that's been paid. It wouldn't make sense. Of course, we're very familiar with 1 John 1.9. I think it gets abused a little bit, but it's a wonderful verse and we never want to not use it because other people abuse it. But the Bible says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. from all unrighteousness." And that's the promise of His Word. Of course, Romans 3.23, we're familiar with that, "...for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But we don't know verse 24 too well. We know, "...for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But what's the very next verse tell us? "...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." We leave that one out sometimes and it need not be left out because that is the proclamation that is ours. God is just in keeping his word and his promises. And that's in Nehemiah chapter number 7, it says this, 9 verse 7, Thou art the Lord thy God, he's going to keep his word and his promises, who didst choose Abram and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name Abraham. and found us his heart faithful before thee, and made us a covenant with him to give in the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words, for thou art righteous." So the justice of God is God will always keep his word. And he says, God, you're that kind of God. You've done that. You promised Abraham something and you've done it. He's just in delivering and vindicating his people. And in Psalm 103 verse 6, we sing, The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. So He executes righteousness and judgment because He vindicates His people. And lastly tonight, God is just in rewarding the righteous. He will, in fact, do that. And this is what the scriptures say concerning that. Second Timothy chapter 4, For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure's hand, I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, and here's the reward. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but also unto them that love his appearing. Now, this next verse is in Hebrews. And we see God's faithful in rewarding the righteousness. But the act of sanctification is extremely evident in these verses. Becoming more like Christ. It's very evident in these verses. Remember what we're talking about here. This is God rewarding the righteous. Listen to what it said in Hebrews 6 verse 7. This is a good one. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it, and bringeth forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. So the earth receives rain, comes upon it. Herbs spring forth. Men dress those herbs. They take care of the vineyard and they receive blessings from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing. whose end is to be burned. So there's also briars and things that spring forth as that rain falls upon the earth. And he says it's nigh unto cursing. It's just you can see the curse in that type thing happening. And the end of those briars is that they're going to be harvested, put into a big pile, and burned up. But beloved, we are persuaded of better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." So he says, Christians, Hebrew Christians, he said, We are thinking there's better things about you. In fact, we believe that what we're going to see in your life are things that accompany salvation. Isn't that what you think when you think of a believer? You think, what should I see in a believer? Things that accompany salvation. What goes along with salvation? If a person tells you they're saved, shouldn't there be something that accompanies that? And so Paul's saying, you know, we're persuaded of better things in you than producing briars and thorns, which are just going to be gathered and burned. In fact, we think there's going to be some things that accompany salvation. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. So if you're being faithful to labor rightly and to love rightly, loving one another as you ought, He's not going to forget that. God will remember that. "...which ye have showed toward his name, and that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." So he says there's these two aspects that we're persuaded of about you. One, is that your work and your labor is evident for the Lord, but that your love by ministering to the saints is also evident. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end." He says, and that's our hope, is that you don't stop, that you go all the way to the end of your life. laboring and ministering to the saints, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them that through faith and patience inherit the promises. We don't quit. We keep going. And Paul was saying in the book of Hebrews there, that's his full assurance. God is just and rewarding the righteous. And he said, and I am convinced you're going to do right so that you might receive that reward. And that's where we're going to stop tonight. We're going to quit right there. And I had a pencil. Here it is. I'll mark it. And we'll pick up next, two weeks from now, we're going to pick up on the wrath of God. That's exciting. But then the very next one is the love of God, so don't panic or anything of that nature. And next week, Pastor Josh is going to start his groundbreaking work on Christian apologetics.