TPW 31 Fatal Ignorance of God's Righteousness

Fatal Ignorance of God’s Righteousness and the Need for Christ Alone

That's why Paul says in verse 1, my prayer to God is that they would be saved because ignorance of God's righteousness is spiritually fatal. Welcome to the Protestant Witness. This is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Birdwell Heights Presbyterian Church, excited to upload another podcast.

We are blessed at our church here. There's a fellow in our congregation who is an expert on the history of Presbyterianism and he has done extensive research and is also a filmmaker and has filmed a wonderful documentary that he's been showing to the adult Sunday school class during the Sunday school hour before church on Sundays for the last several weeks.

And part of what this guy does is he does a lot of work looking for old, out of print, rare books by Presbyterians and he found a fellow named Samuel Blair. And Samuel Blair wrote a number of important treatises.

I've actually been helping transcribe one on predestination, it's just outstanding. Anyway, he lived in the mid -1700s and this fellow from our church also self-published a number of copies of a sermon that Samuel Blair preached in 1754.

And it's a marvelous sermon on Romans 10, 3 and 4 about the righteousness of God. They being ignorant of God's righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of.

God.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. That great, great passage there. And so I started reading through this little paperback of this sermon that hasn't been published or seen the light of day since it was preached in 1754.

And it was so excellent. I was just in my office just shouting Amen. So I pulled up my manuscript of the sermon that I preached on Romans 10, because I preached all the way through the Book of Romans a couple years ago, and compared my own findings with his and just right there together.

So I took my manuscript, edited it, tried to make it a little bit better, did a little more studying on the passage, and then included a lengthy quotation from Samuel Blair's sermon on Romans 10, 3 and 4.

But I preached through Romans 10, 1 through 4 in this sermon this past Sunday morning. And we did communion, and two of my older children made their professions of faith and are now communicant members of the church.

We had a covenant baptism. The family in the church recently had a baby, got to baptize their baby, covenant baptism. And then a young man who has come to know Christ in our church made a profession of faith and baptized him.

So I was telling the congregation, you know, we do communion on the first Lord's Day of.

Each month.

We take the Lord's Supper together. And I told them, this is a really unusual and glorious day, because you get to see two covenant children, two of my older kids have made professions of faith, they were baptized as infants, making their profession of faith to become communicant members.

And then a covenant baptism of an infant, and then an adult that's come to know Christ.

Has made their profession of faith.

So we got everything in one service, and it was, what a great Lord's Day. And then we have a fellowship meal afterwards, and we actually had to recently do a significant expansion to our fellowship hall.

So we'll usually have, you know, well over 110, 120 people stay for lunch, and it's great. We stay until about three. It's one of the reasons we don't do an evening service on the first Sunday of the month, because people stay so long, chatting, hanging out, talking, and just enjoying the blessedness of Christian fellowship.

And it's such a wonderful, wonderful time. But I preach this sermon on fatal ignorance of God's righteousness. Because Romans 10, 1 -4, particularly verses 3 and 4, is so critical, so important. I mean, it is the heart and the soul of the Christian faith.

What is the righteousness by which alone we enter heaven? And if people aren't trusting only in Christ to get them all the way into heaven, not just for justification, but getting them all the way into heaven, because justification is what gets us into heaven.

Trusting only in that God-righteousness, the righteousness of God, instead of seeking to establish our own righteousness. It's such an important text of Scripture, and it was glorious to be able to get back to that again, and to just hammer the gospel and then take communion after it's just reverberating.

In our ears.

So it's pretty amazing.

God loves us and has blessed us, and we get to live our lives this way under His grace and with the gospel in our hearts, singing His praises. And it really helps me, especially dealing with all this revoice stuff.

I'm deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply concerned about it, and I'm wondering what the end game is going to be as far as how this is handled in my church here, and how our presbytery is going to handle it, and what's going on with it.

So I've been concerned about that, but God has helped me to not worry, but to trust Him.

With it.

So, fatal ignorance of God's righteousness. There is nothing more important than this topic, and I hope that you will find this.

Edifying.

Let's pray it together, please. Merciful Heavenly Father, we thank you for breathing forth to us the words of eternal life. We confess that without divine revelation, without verbal revelation from you, we would not know how to be saved.

We would most certainly be self-deceived in our own righteousness, trusting in ourselves.

Like fools.

Help us to see that only Christ's righteousness has the merit necessary to meet your requirements, and that to be Christians, to have eternal life, to have our sins forgiven, we must be relying solely, completely, and only upon Him and His righteousness.

We ask in His name, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10, and this will be the last of the detour off of Luke. We'll be getting back to Luke's gospel next Sunday, but Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 4, and I've called this morning's message, Fatal Ignorance of God's Saving Righteousness.

Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 4, this is God's word. Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

And God bless the reading of His infallible word. This past week, I was handed a very special gift by a member of our congregation, a small book which contains the manuscript of a marvelous sermon preached 264 years ago by the Reverend Mr. Samuel Blair, who was preached in 1754 on this passage.

And it's so encouraging to read someone who's been dead for so long, going through the same text and I pulled up my manuscript, my sermon manuscript from this passage from a long time ago when we went through Romans, and when someone hands me a book and I yell amen more than three times, it's probably going to alter what I'm preaching on that Sunday.

It's a marvelous book, and there's a bunch of copies of it out there. It's a short paperback, it's also got the Westminster Shorter Catechism in it. But Samuel Blair was one of those one of those rare individuals.

I'm thankful he's been discovered and I hope that all his works will come back into print because they are absolute jewels of truth. Just wonderful, wonderful stuff. Satan's greatest masterpieces are not the false religions of men outside the true faith.

Satan's greatest and most effective masterpieces are the false religions which closely mimic the true faith. Christian counterfeits are Satan's deadliest creations. But every form of spirituality that stands opposed to the one truth all has one thing in common, something that unites them all.

And here it is. In the final analysis, men save themselves by what they do. In the end, it is the righteousness or works or decisions of men that are decisive in the salvation equation. To make the issue before us clear, at the end of the day, when it boils down to the heart and soul of religious ideas before us, and whether or not man's eternal destiny will be blessed or cursed, here is what the war is between the truth and all that opposes it.

You ready? Self-righteousness versus the righteousness of God. That's the difference between the truth and all of its competitors. Self-righteousness versus the righteousness of God. Upon what legal grounds are sinners saved and brought into heaven to be with God in the blessed fellowship and communion with him forever?

Will it be our goodness, our righteousness, our works, or will it be the righteousness of another of God? There's a very important concept communicated through the word of God in general, but particularly in this passage of scripture before us this morning.

The concept is this, folks, and you've got to get this, because I promise you, the world that you've grown up in and the world that all of our kids are growing up in does not get this. The concept is this, zeal that is not based upon truth is worth nothing.

Zeal that is not based on truth is worth nothing before God. One of the saddest things that we see in the world is the publication of books promoting false gospels and false religions, and the zealots of those false religions who crisscross the globe speaking and wearing themselves out, proselytizing converts to their false religion, and the incredible amounts of time and energy and money that are poured into the dissemination of false religious ideas.

Jesus himself very sharply rebuked such people, namely the Pharisees and the scribes. In Matthew 23, 15, Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Warm and gentle Jesus.

Traveling land and sea in order to make converts would require planning and money and courage and self-sacrifice, analysis of the area and how to reach it, lots of hard work. But notice that Jesus does not commend them for their zeal.

And here's the primary point of this morning's message. Truth is more important than zeal or sincerity. The most important question facing anyone in life is, how can I, a sinner, be right with God? How can I live and die in the comfort of knowing that my sins are forgiven and that my person is accepted as righteous in the sight of God?

Every false answer to those questions leads to eternal damnation, and therefore zeal for every false answer to those questions is worthless in the sight of God. No matter how much zeal someone has for their religious beliefs, if those religious beliefs are not true, what is the worth of the zeal?

It's a common belief in our relativistic postmodern age that detests disagreement. It detests arguments, and especially theological debates, that as long as one is sincere and nice, based on whatever your standard of niceness is, you're okay.

As long as you're nice and you're sincere and you're spiritual in some way, you're alright. God's word has a much different message for us in our passage this morning. I hope you heard it. Listen to it as we walk through it.

Look at verse one. I've given you an outline there. Listen closely to this God-inspired truth. Verse one, Paul says about Israel, brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.

Stop right there. Although Paul spent all of Romans 9 explaining the absolute sovereignty of God and salvation, that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, and that therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens, Paul nevertheless sees no incompatibility between that absolute sovereignty of God and human salvation on God's part and the need to pray for people's salvation.

There's no incompatibility at all. It does not occur to him ever to think, well, what's the point of praying? God's already decided it. He's already picked everyone he's going to save. Your prayers can't change anything.

That is a lie. That's not true. Because the names of the elect are not part of God's revealed truth in scripture. We pray for the salvation of the people that we know. Our prayers are a very powerful part of the execution of God's plan in this world to glorify himself.

God's word tells us always to remember this precious truth. James 5, 16. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. But hasn't God decreed everything? He has. Isn't everything going to happen exactly the way he decreed it?

Yes.

Including your prayers. They're part of the way God does this. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, the scripture says. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

God used the prayers of Elijah to stop the rain. And then verse 18 of James 5. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. Your prayers and the burdens you feel are part of God's sovereign decree and plan.

And when you feel a burden to pray for someone, when you pray for someone's salvation, you should pray with confidence because that burden to pray and the words you prayed were decreed by God before he ever created anything.

The sovereignty of God doesn't destroy prayer. It's the only motivation to do it. Notice how plain Paul is in Romans 10, 1. He says he is praying to God for Israel that they may be saved. In our day, people would probably be offended that we pray for their salvation.

Paul was not politically correct when it came to issues like this, though. Our loyalty, if we are Christians, is to Christ and his blessed gospel, not to the approval of men. One of the reasons the Israelites despised Paul was that very thing.

He thought they were all lost if they didn't know Christ. Many people that we witness to in our day mock us for trying. They want to save us from hellfire and the eternal barbecue pit. Aren't they sweet?

Paul is sharing his heart in verse 1 as he's guided by the Holy Spirit. He prayed for the salvation of lost people, even though he believed and taught that God had already unconditionally elected by name, individually, from all eternity, who he's going to save.

Always remember, folks, why God told us that. Why has God told us that he's sovereign? Why has he told us that he has an elect people that he's determined to save, that he elected by name and loved from all eternity?

Why has he told us that? Number one, to destroy human boasting of any kind in salvation so that we would know it's really grace alone. Grace alone means unconditional election. And two, to be the anchor to our often weary, sad, and spiritually dry souls.

I can tell you, I know we can parade people up here to give their testimonies. I used to hate the sovereignty of God. I read Romans 9 70 times and slammed this Bible shut and pushed it across the table and walked out of the room and said, God, I don't even know who you are.

That which was once repulsive is now the very lifeblood of our hearts. Knowing that God is sovereign. You know when you find out what your theology is made of? When you suffer. You find out what your theology is, what's your understanding of God and his grace and his sovereignty, what it's really made of, if it's really true, when you go through the tragedies, when you go through the really hard things.

God gave us this blessed truth to destroy human boasting and to anchor us when we go through the darkness. Aren't you thankful to know that Philippians 1 6 is true? He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ.

Jesus.

Isn't it encouraging to you to know that God will finish what he started. If he began it, he will carry you all the way to heaven. God is tenacious and unrelenting in his love and faithfulness to his adopted children.

And we need not doubt that he will succeed in fully glorifying his grace by saving even the likes of us. That's why God told us about the doctrine of unconditional election in his word. In the meantime, we must believe that God is able to save everyone we see and know and have a burden for in our lives.

Folks, as long as the list of names of God's elect is known only to God, we must be of the mindset that everyone we know is one of God's elect. You know where I learned to think that way? John Calvin taught me that.

We should be of the mind as to think everyone we know is elect and that's why we know them. Why else would there be other people in our lives as Christians? That's the correct attitude to have. That's the attitude of Paul displayed here.

He didn't write off anybody.

He never thought anyone was too far gone to be saved. He didn't see anyone that way. Remember, this was the man who stood giving his hearty approval to the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7. If anyone was too far gone, it was him.

He knew that the sin and stubborn hard-heartedness of men was no match for the powerful effectual call of Christ and his gospel. And so for the Christians here, let verse 1 be a theme for you personally, especially those of you that are just now, just now entering into the season of life.

Now you have covenant children. Now you have these souls that you answer to God for. Now you have something that you're going to be assaulting the heavens for day and night, however long that child's alive, I promise you.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for fill in the blank is that they may be saved and pray, believing and knowing that your God is able to do it. He is able to save. No matter who you pray for or how hard-hearted they may be or seem, no matter what kinds of sin have had them in the vice grip of death, Jesus Christ in the light of his gospel can dispel the darkness.

Amen.

An ancient prophecy concerning the coming of Christ and what he would do in this world is found in Isaiah 61. And this is actually the next passage we're going to be looking at in Luke chapter 4. When Jesus stands up at the synagogue in Nazareth and is given the scroll of Isaiah, this is the passage that he reads.

And I want you to listen to this. And imagine Jesus standing up in a synagogue and reading this. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Isn't that so encouraging? Let us pray for all who do not know Jesus, that God would make them trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. He is able. He is able. Point number two, look at verses two and three in Romans 10 there.

Paul says in Romans 10 too, for I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge for not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own. They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Zeal without knowledge of the truth is a very dangerous thing. Paul bore witness to the incredible zeal of his countrymen, the Israelites. Their zeal for the Old Testament law knew no bounds, but they had missed its primary point and its primary message.

The Israelites were, as so many today, ignorant of God's righteousness and instead were doing what so many are doing today, seeking to establish their own righteousness. See what he's saying? There's only one righteousness that can gain us the favor of God and bring us into heaven.

It's the righteousness of Christ. And if we are seeking to establish our own righteousness, we're ignorant of the truth. We don't know God. That's how serious this is. Samuel Blair, Samuel Blair in that sermon that hasn't seen the light of day in two and a half centuries said this, they were ignorant of God's righteousness.

It will give light to this whole text rightly to understand what the apostle means here by God's righteousness. It is not to be understood of the moral perfection of his being, whereby he is a holy and righteous.

God.

The Jews were not ignorant of that. They knew that God was a holy and just God, but the phrase, the righteousness of God is to be understood of that righteousness, which God has appointed for the justification of a condemned sinner, which he distinguishes from the righteousness of the law.

For nothing can be available to the justification of a condemned sinner, but a perfect conformity unto and fulfillment of the law, both in its precept and penalty. So answering the demands and charges, which the law says against the center, thus the merit of Jesus Christ is called righteousness in both these respects, as it obtains that end for us when received by faith, which a personal righteousness of our own would have done, and as it is properly righteousness in itself, being an obedience yielded to the law of God.".

As long as people see themselves as fairly good, who just need a little help from God, they will be fatally ignorant of God's righteousness. As long as people do not see their need for someone else's righteousness, namely the righteousness of Jesus, they are ignorant of the gospel, ignorant of the truth, and are in as much spiritual danger as the most hard-hearted atheist or priest of Satan alive.

You see, the difference between an almost Christian and a Christian is an eternity of agony versus an eternity of blessedness. This is essential. This is no reformed distinctive. This is essential to being a Christian.

This is essential to understanding the truth. The righteousness by which sinners must be justified is a pure and free gift. It is achieved and accomplished entirely outside of us. Remember how Paul described it in Romans 5, 17?

For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus.

Christ.

If you do not know what Paul means by this gift of righteousness by which a sinner is justified, it doesn't matter how much zeal you have for any religion, even for one that claims to be Christianity, until you recognize that the only righteousness that can stand before the holy God of the universe is that righteousness achieved and performed by Christ.

Alone.

You, like the Jews Paul was seeking to evangelize, are ignorant of God's righteousness. And my friends, this is what all false religions and all false forms of pseudo-Christianity.

Get wrong.

All of them are ignorant of God's righteousness and instead are always finding some way to establish their own righteousness. Chapter 16 of session 6 of the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent of the Roman Catholic religion said this about justification, quote,.

We must believe that nothing further is wanting to the justified to prevent their being accounted to have by those very works which have been done in God fully satisfy the divine law according to the state of this life.

Ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. You just heard it. An entire religion built upon what the apostle Paul called scubalon, dumb, rubbish, excrement, fully satisfy the divine law by the works done with the help of grace and to have truly merited eternal life.

If so, however, that they depart in grace. Got to add that qualifier there at the end. In the anathemas and the curses pronounced upon heretics there in session 6, canon 22 of the Roman Catholic Council of Trent says, quote,.

If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God, which is what we would say, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified or that the said justified by the good works, which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life and the attainment of eternal life.

Let him be anathema. Hear what they're saying? So unless you are seeking to establish your own righteousness by your works that you do with the help of grace, you're going to hell. Folks, that is 180 degrees opposite of the truth.

That is the exact opposite of the truth. That is the exact opposite of what the scripture is saying here in Romans 10, 3 and 4. As Paul says in verse 3, look at it again. They being ignorant of God's righteousness and doing what?

Seeking to establish their own, seeking to get to heaven by their own works, by their own progress in the Christian faith, by putting sin to death, by pursuing holiness, by whatever it is that they're doing.

They're ignorant of God's righteousness. And that's true of anyone, whether they're, no matter what the label is or where they go to church. That's what all false religions do. They don't know they are ignorant.

That's what the Greek term there means. Ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of the gift of righteousness procured by Christ, which is reckoned or imputed to the account of the believing center, such that they are seen as righteous in God's sight.

Anyone who trusts in their good works. Yes, even the good works that are done from faith, supposedly by the grace of God, that person is ignorant of the righteousness of God. And the Jews at the time Paul wrote this, just as so many are deceived today, were seeking to establish their own righteousness.

And because of this, they mock at and fail to submit to the righteousness of God. NC Wright calls the biblical gospel, quote, a cold piece of fiction, a cold piece of.

Business, end quote.

The idea that Christ did this for us, that we're justified by this imputed righteousness. That's a cold piece of business.

Mocking at it.

To submit to the righteousness of God means simply this. You understand that nothing you do, even nothing you do with the help of God's grace could ever gain you God's favor, nor could it ever play any role at all in getting you into heaven.

Notice how Paul wraps up the passage. Look at verse four, point number three. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The summation of Paul's point in this passage, really beginning all the way back in Romans 930 is this, the Jews pursuit of righteousness based upon their own works, their own goodness and obedience to God's law is wrong because Christ gives righteousness not by works, but only by faith.

Remember how Paul said it earlier? Look at Romans 930. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith, but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why?

Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. In Romans 10 and four here, the phrase, the law is referring to the written mosaic law of the old Testament.

So in what sense then is Christ the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes? This is a really a roundabout way of saying the very same thing that Paul said earlier in Romans 3, 20 and 21.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. The law can't give us righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Paul goes on, by the law is the knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Righteousness, the righteousness by which we enter heaven and are justified, declared righteous at the final judgment, does not and cannot come from a person's law keeping in whole or in part, as said Samuel Blair in that wonderful sermon.

It's not some of him and some of me. It's all and only Christ's righteousness and any attempt to mix them. And Paul would say, you're ignorant, you're ignorant of God's righteousness and are seeking to establish your own.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness in that sense. And Paul has argued very strongly that the old Testament scriptures teach justification by faith alone, citing Genesis 15, 6, and also referring to Psalm 32 and the justification of David by faith alone and not by works.

The word translated end in Romans 10, 4 does primarily indicate a temporal disjunction. Paul consistently emphasizes discontinuity between Jesus and the law when it comes to being justified before God.

As Paul clearly argues in many other places, specifically in Galatians 3, 21 and following, the law, listen, the law is not opposed to the promise of the gospel, but the law is opposed to the gracious nature of justification.

Always remember this folks, you need to understand this. The biblical doctrine of justification is often caricatured by false teachers, namely federal visionists, Rome, Constantinople, et cetera. It's caricatured as though we're setting the law of God against the grace of God.

We're not doing that. What the biblical doctrine of justification opposes is this, justification by law-keeping versus justification by faith apart from law-keeping. The law is consistent with the promises of God as long as you understand its function.

Why was the law given to us? It was added because of transgressions and to do what? To be our schoolmaster, our tutor, to drive us to Christ so that we will be justified by faith and not by the works of the law.

The law is consistent with God's promises, but justification was never intended to be by our keeping of the law. Nevertheless, the law is a good thing. The law is just and holy and righteous, but when it comes to justification, to getting into heaven, the law is absolutely worthless to us.

It's worthless to us. What does Paul say in Romans 4 .15? The law brings about wrath. Remember Pilgrim? Remember Christian and Pilgrim's Progress? He walks down the road of legality for a short time and finds himself walking up Mount Sinai and the hill is so steep it starts to actually turn back on him and there's fire and lightning and everyone that tries to go up that way gets killed and then he ends up coming back and getting back on the path.

It's righteousness that's given to us as a gift and nothing else by which we are justified. No flesh, no human being will ever be justified before God in any sense by their own law keeping. And folks, it's not being, it's not being mean or nasty or being a doctrinal hatchet man to recognize that when people get this wrong, they're not Christians.

I don't care how many short term missions trips they've done. I don't care how many good deeds they've done or how much of the Bible they can recite to you. If you get this wrong and what your confidence is resting on, you're not a Christian.

And that's not bigoted or mean or nasty. That's loving. That's the truth. The law is the mirror we hold up to our souls and see the wretched, miserable mess that we are in the sight of God. And unless a person has been convicted of their sins by the Holy Spirit of God, folks, listen, unless the Holy Spirit does that, nothing I'm saying right now to you is going to have any effect on you at all.

I might as well blow spitballs at a Sherman tank, won't even dent the fender. The Spirit of God opens your heart and shows you a glimpse of what you really are and who God really is. You'll be down on your knees with Isaiah, I promise you.

Woe is me. I am undone. I have no hope but in the blood and righteousness of Christ. When I was in seminary, one of the first courses I took required us to read the Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, which is a massive work.

And we were told to read it and to take notes and to write down things and to keep quotations, and that was a very useful exercise. If you've not read any of Calvin's Institutes, you need to do that. In the opening pages of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin wrote these words.

I still remember reading them the first time. They are more needed today than perhaps they have ever been, especially in the church. In the church. Calvin said this, quote,. Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself.

For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy. This pride is innate in all of us, unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity.

Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured. For before all of us are inclined by nature, because all of us are inclined by nature to hypocrisy, a kind of empty image of righteousness in place of righteousness itself abundantly satisfies us.