Unprofitable Servants

(Article for publication week of 6-20-2012 AD)

       “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do’ “ (Luke 17:10).

       If a man did everything that God required of him, he would be nothing but an “unprofitable servant.” Dear reader, should you perform every duty required of you by the law of God you would have nothing for which you could boast. You would simply have done your duty. Should you faithfully obey the law of God in every point, it would add nothing to God’s essential glory, nor in any way help Him in accomplishing His great purposes.

      This is the reason that so-called “works of supererogation” are so ridiculous. It is impossible for anyone to do more than God requires. No one has ever gone “above and beyond the call of duty” concerning what God requires. The world’s largest cult has invented a mythical “bank of good works”, whereby they claim the so-called “works of supererogation” of “saints” (as defined by themselves), are stored up and can be added to the credit of those in purgatory. Of course all this is without any biblical support. Our text plainly teaches that no one can do more than God requires.

     But, in actuality, no one has ever even come close to doing everything God requires. We have already seen in previous articles that all our righteousnesses are “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64”6), that there are “none righteous” (Romans 3:10), and that all have sinned and “come short of the glory of God.” Our best obedience is so tainted by sin, that it cannot be counted as a good work that would be acceptable to God. After we have done our very best, we must repent that it comes short of what God requires. Dear reader, you and I must repent of our sins, but we must also repent of our supposed “righteousness.” As one dear brother of old has put it, “we must repent of our prayers, and pray over our repentance.”

    Now, if one who has done all that God requires is but an “unprofitable servant”, where does that leave you and me who have come short of what God requires? Don’t you see it leaves us condemned and unrighteous before a Thrice Holy God? Dear readers, I am trying to convince you that there is no hope of self-salvation. There is no possibility of justifying yourself before God by you own obedience. Our righteousness will not fit us to stand before the Judge of all the earth Who will do right.

     But thanks be to God! He has a Servant Who has done all that God requires for the justification of all who believe in Him. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:11 tells us that this Servant shall justify many by His knowledge. Dear reader, look not to your righteousness for salvation. Look not to the righteousness of any other sinner for salvation. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Righteous Servant.

Filthy Rags

(Article for publication week of 6-13-2012 AD)

       “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

       Dear reader, do you realise what our text says about you? All of your best deeds do not impress God! In fact, the best you have ever done is only filthy rags!

      Now, I am sure that a few of you would recognise that your sins are loathsome to God, (although very few even recognise such a thing as sin any more), but you need to understand that your best obedience is also filthy to God.

     Note well, the text says ALL our “righteousnesses” (plural). The most noble act ever performed by a descendant of Adam is, as far as God is concerned (and His opinion is all that really counts), a filthy rag. All the great charitable acts performed by us are to God nothing but filthy rags. All of a man’s religious acts are nothing but filthy rags to God.

     I am labouring for the eternal good of your souls. I want you to see your desperately lost condition so that you will flee to Christ as a poor sinner to be saved His way. As long as you entertain any idea of your own personal righteousness, you will not come to Christ, and you cannot be saved.

     Look again at the text. The text says that we are all personally “unclean”. The word brings to our mind a poor outcast leper, loathsome to himself and everybody else. As far as your personal standing before God, this is what God thinks of you- a loathsome wretch. The Bible completely abominates the modern teaching of “self esteem.” You have no reason to have any self-esteem, because God esteems you as a filthy thing. You cannot be saved until you renounce all your self-esteem, and confess you are a filthy thing to God.

    You are personally filthy, and if you are trying to justify yourself before God, then it is like trying to cover your leprous flesh with filthy rags. This is what our text is telling us; we are filthy, loathsome sinners, and our best deeds of “righteousness” are, as far as God is concerned, “filthy rags.”

     Dear Reader, if you will ever be saved, you must renounce your sins. A few of you may believe that. But my text says, you must also renounce your personal righteousness. This is the reason so few are saved; they vainly imagine that they are actually a pretty good person. Oh! That you could see yourself as God sees you!

     Now, dear reader, your good deeds may be of some temporal benefit to yourself and others, and it is worse not to perform them, but I am talking about what good they do as far your justification before God and the eternal salvation of your poor soul. “The best obedience of my hands dares not appear before Thy throne” (Isaac Watts).

     Renounce your sins, and repent before God! And renounce your righteousness, and flee to Christ and ask Him to give you the robe of His righteousness to cover your nakedness. Ask Him to heal you of your filthy leprosy. I pray the Lord will have mercy on some.

Unrighteous

(Article for publication week of 6-6-2012 AD)

         “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). The Epistle of Paul to the Romans is one of the most theological books in the whole Bible. The great Theme of this book is the Righteousness of God. Paul introduces this theme in chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. After his introduction, he begins to open up the great doctrine of justification. The first major section of Romans is from chapter 1, verse 18 through chapter 3, verse 20. In this section Paul shows us why we need the justifying righteousness of Christ, that being the fact that none of us have any righteousness of our own. After he shows us why we need a better righteousness than our own, he then proceeds to show us that justification is by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ Alone. But first he wants to be sure that we understand our desperately lost condition.

        Our text this week is a quote from the Old Testament. Paul had absolute confidence in the inspiration, authority and preservation of the scriptures. So he says, “it is written.” The 14^th  Psalm to which Paul refers speaks of God looking down on the people on the earth. And as God looks down on the human race, He says, “none righteous.” God looked down on the Jews, and He said, “unrighteous.” He looked at the Gentiles, and He said, “unrighteous.” God looked down on white people, and He said, “unrighteous.” God looked down on black people, and He said, “unrighteous.” God looked down on brown people, and He said, “unrighteous.” God looked down on Simpson County and He said, “none righteous.” God looked down on YOU, and He said “not righteous.” There are none righteous in God’s estimation.

        There is none righteous among the descendents of Adam and Eve. The most moral person on earth cannot stand in the Day of Judgment on his own standing. The most religious person that has ever lived cannot stand before God by his own merits. We saw last week that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  Whatever you may think of yourself, or whatever others may think of you, God’s pronouncement is that you are unrighteous.

       “None righteous”! What an awful indictment of us all! We are in bad shape! God requires perfect righteous, and all of us, in and of ourselves are totally unrighteous. Not a person descended from Adam and Eve can ever say they are righteous. But there is a Person Who is perfectly righteous. The only Person Who is as righteous as God requires is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal and coequal Son of God. Poor sinner, your only hope for righteousness is in this Blessed Person. May the Holy Spirit give you faith to believe in Him for your whole and sole righteousness.