We'll read together the entire chapter. The text for the sermon this evening is verse 6 especially, but with 6, 7, and 8. But especially the phrase in verse 6 that God imputes righteousness without works. Let's read together this entire chapter tonight. This is God's Word. What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh have found For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also, and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet been uncircumcised. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect, because the law worketh wrath. For where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end the promise might be assured to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. So far we read, the holy and inspired word of God. The text, as I said, is verses 6, 7, and 8, with an emphasis on the end of verse 6. Let's read those verses again. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, a couple of weeks ago I was here and preached a sermon, part of a series that I'm preaching on the order of salvation from Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Introducing the glorious truths of faith as the instrument through which we receive the righteousness and the holiness of Jesus Christ. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. I preached that sermon for a confession of faith at Granville and did the same for you here at Byron. The sermon that I preach tonight is also part of this series. It's not the next sermon in the series, but the one after that. A sermon that I actually preached for confession of faith at Granville and will preach tonight again for the occasion of confession of faith. It's a sermon on Romans chapter 4. The previous sermon in the series was on the first five verses of Romans 4. And then I continued that with a sermon on verses 6 through 8. And in Romans chapter 4, what the Apostle Paul is doing is he is explaining the doctrine of justification by using Old Testament examples. Demonstrating the truth of justification through the example of Abraham. The whole chapter, really, apart from the verses that make up our text tonight, is about the faith of Abraham and the justification by that faith of Abraham. There's many reasons that the Apostle uses the example of Abraham specifically, and the passage gives us one of those reasons, that he was justified prior to God giving the law of circumcision. That was always the word of the Judaizers, that justification was by faith and works, particularly the work of circumcision. And God inspires Paul to write about Abraham to say this one grand truth, that God has always saved his people in the exact same way. From the Old Testament to the New Testament. prior to the law of circumcision given in Genesis 17 is the word to Abraham in Genesis 15. where we read the words of Romans 4, that Abraham believed, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And so in that previous sermon on those verses, we emphasized that idea. Abraham believed, and that faith was counted to him for righteousness. Faith inasmuch as faith embraces Christ, who is one's righteousness. And I followed that with this sermon. This sermon on verses 6-8 highlighting especially what justification is, as it is taught in this single phrase of verse 6, where we read, unto whom God imputeth righteousness, without works. That's justification. God imputing righteousness without works. And that's what we consider in the sermon this evening. Let's look at that under the theme God's imputation of righteousness. Let's notice these three points tonight. Imputed, not infused. Imputed, not infused. In the second place, of God, not of man. And then in the third place, blessed. Not afraid. God's imputation of righteousness. It's an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. It is a righteousness of God, not of man. And the fruit of having that imputation of righteousness is not fear, but blessedness. This is the question that we're faced with tonight. What is your legal standing before God? That's the question of justification. What is your legal standing before God, who is the great judge, and His law, which comes before every single man, woman, and child? As you consider one's legal standing, there are only two options. Either on the one hand, one is guilty, and with that guilt, worthy of death and hell. or one is righteous, innocent, not guilty, and therefore worthy of life. Justification is the declaration by God that your legal standing before Him is not guilty, righteous, and innocent, and therefore worthy of everlasting life. That justification is based upon, as we have it in our text, the imputed righteousness of Christ. The imputation of righteousness without works. Tonight I want to begin by explaining in detail the idea of imputation. The imputation of righteousness. And that over against what justification is not namely, on the basis of an infused righteousness. Romans 4 clearly is setting forth the doctrine of justification. And the dominant theme throughout Romans 4 is this idea of imputation. Now that does not come through as clearly as it could in our King James Version of the Bible. And the reason for that is that the one word in the original Greek that is translated in our text, imputed, is translated three different ways throughout Romans chapter 4. It's translated throughout Romans 4 in the King James Version as imputed, counted, and reckoned. Those three words in Romans 4 are the exact same word in the original Greek as it's translated in our text as imputed. And that one word, I'm not going to read every reference, but give you a shotgun list of the verses that it's found in, is found throughout this entire chapter. Verse 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, and 24. Each of those verses, from beginning to end, has this idea of imputed in it. Justification is about imputation. It's so important to get that word right. And that is why throughout this sermon I'm going to repeatedly use that word. I'm going to repeatedly use the word imputed or imputation. Not so much the other two words counted and reckoned. So that, number one, we don't forget it. If I'm belaboring this point, I'm doing so intentionally. Imputation, imputation, imputation. Impute, impute, impute. That's justification. And we're going to belabor that point tonight in order number two so that we don't get it confused at all with a word that also starts with the letter I, but in terms of justification is worlds apart in meaning. And not only worlds apart in meaning, but really the dividing line between orthodoxy and heresy. And that's the word infused. Justification is not infused or the infusion of righteousness. Not infused, rather positively imputed. It's so important for us, in order to understand this truth rightly, to grasp that justification is imputation of righteousness. When the text says that God imputes righteousness, what that means, that word impute, means to transfer to or to ascribe to one's record. Let's flush that out a little bit. And we start by making very clear that the concept of imputation is a legal idea. Strictly a legal idea. Justification, which is imputation, concerns one's legal standing before God. That's how we started the sermon, and that idea is going to be repeated throughout this sermon in its entirety. One's legal standing before God is based upon one's record, one's legal record. One has a record. And on that record are that which one has done. And on the basis of that legal record, as one stands before the judge, God the judge declares on the basis of that record, this is what your legal standing is. Either on that basis of the record it will be guilty, or on the basis of that record it will be not guilty and worthy of everlasting life. Imputation is the legal idea of transferring or putting on one's legal record. In justification, God takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ and imputes that, ascribes that to your legal record. so that your legal record has the righteousness of Christ upon it. And on that basis, God says, this is your legal standing. I declare before Me, the Holy Judge, and before Me and My holy law, this to be your legal standing. Your legal standing is not guilty, righteous, innocent, and therefore an heir of everlasting life. Imputation is to ascribe to or place upon one's legal record. And justification is God's declaration not guilty but righteous, based upon Christ's righteousness, imputed to your legal record. Let's illustrate this. And we can illustrate this by switching up the figure just a little bit. This is maybe on the minds of some of you children or young people. Not sure when they come out for all of the schools, but you can think about tonight your report card. You have a report card that has the record of your work at school throughout this past year. Imputation, the idea of our text, is to take someone else's record and put it upon your record. take someone else's report card and everything that it says and ascribe it to your report card so that now it's yours. To use the language of justification in connection with the figure, it's to take the A of Christ's card, His legal record, perfect A, perfect righteousness, and impute it, put it upon, Your record. So that when God sees your report card, He doesn't see what you may have done throughout the year, but He sees Christ's A as it's put on your card, and God therefore declares, this is what's true of you. You are righteous. That's imputation. Transferring to your legal record, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Justification is, as the text teaches, the imputation, the legal transfer of the righteousness of Christ without works. Now to further develop this, let's contrast what is the truth, as we just explained it, with the lie. And the lie concerns what is called infused righteousness. Justification is the imputation of righteousness. It's not the infusion of righteousness. Now what's the idea of an infused righteousness? Well, we can gather what the idea of that is from the word infusion. Infusion is to work in someone. In medicine, one can get infusions. Blood or a drug that's infused or put into the body of a person in order to treat that person. Infusion is to work in a person. And so an infused righteousness is a righteousness that is within a person. which is distinctly different from an imputed righteousness, which is the righteousness of another placed upon the legal record of that person. These are two completely different ideas. Imputation is legal. Imputation concerns one's legal standing before God. Imputation is before God the Judge and His law. It's outside of us. Infusion is what is in us. An infused righteousness doesn't concern your legal standing. That's justification. It concerns your condition. What is true of you, ethically, as you stand before God. And one's condition is either that of corruption, or holiness, but it's that which is within. Two completely different ideas. Legal standing, ethical condition. Imputed, infused. Now before we go on and make more points about this, understand that everything that we're going to say tonight does not mean that we deny the reality of God's work within us. and working in us a righteousness and obedience to His law. That's the holiness of Jesus Christ worked in us and received by faith such that our condition is one of holiness, evidencing itself in a life of good works. Obviously the corruption there too with the old man that clings to us on this side of the grave. So we don't deny The reality of God's work in us. But here's the important point. In the world of justification, God's declaration of our legal standing before Him on the basis of which we are accepted in His sight and an heir of everlasting life, in justification, it has nothing to do with the infused righteousness or holiness that is within us. Our legal standing before God is not on the basis of an infused righteousness within, but entirely on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now why is that the case? That is the case because to teach that it is on the basis of an infused righteousness, number one, is to deny the explicit teaching of the text. The teaching of the text is that God imputes righteousness without works. The imputation of righteousness is completely independent of and without any works. Works being that which are from us. And really, to explain that, it doesn't matter what you say about those works. It doesn't matter if you wrongly were to say that the works are something that come from me, or to put a more orthodox spin on it, that there are works that are worked in me by God. In justification, it is entirely without works. Nothing that comes from within that we produce or that God produces in us and through us are accounted to our justification before God, our legal standing before Him, the basis of which we are accepted in His sight and an heir of everlasting life. It is entirely without works. And so to teach a justification based upon an infused righteousness, that which is within a man, denies explicitly the teaching of our text which says without works. Number two, to teach a justification on the basis of an infused righteousness really undermines and contradicts not just the explicit teaching of the text, but the whole Gospel. The whole Gospel is to proclaim one grand and glorious truth. By grace, through faith, Christ is my salvation and thus my justification and my righteousness. It's all the perfect work of Jesus and because of Jesus that I belong to God and be a member of His covenant and will live with Him into all eternity. And to say that in any regard, my acceptance by God is from within me, and what comes from me is to undermine not just this explicit teaching without works, but it's to contradict and undermine the entirety of what the Word of God is all about, which is salvation by grace through faith. And in the third place, to teach that salvation or justification is based on an infused righteousness is impossible because of what God requires to be accepted by Him. I'm not going to say a lot on this, so much could be said. But anything within us, or comes from us, never, can measure up to what is required of God to be accepted by Him and to be declared righteous in His sight. Even the best works that we perform are tainted with sin. And because of the perfect righteousness of God and what He requires to have life with Him, anything from us, not to mention that we are man who could never merit with a holy God, nothing from within us would ever measure up in order to be received in God's sight. And so much could be said about that, but because of the nature of everything within us, it's impossible to be justified in God's sight on the basis of a righteousness that is from within. To teach that contradicts the text, undermines the gospel, and is a failure to understand everything that comes from within a man, and a failure to understand truly what is required to be accepted by God, who is a righteous and holy God. Beloved, why is this so important to understand the difference between an imputed righteousness and an infused righteousness as the basis of our justification in standing before God? It's so important, number one, because that distinction is the dividing line between orthodoxy and heresy. between the orthodoxy of the Protestant faith that God has passed down to us, and the heresy of the Roman Catholic teaching of justification, and present day federal vision teaching of justification. Both of which teach a right standing before God on the basis of partly that which arises from within. no longer entirely the imputed righteousness of Christ, but also, in part, an infused righteousness, or something that comes from within a man. You have to understand that Rome is careful, clever, and deceptive, but very clear. I say careful, clever, and deceptive because Rome has always talked about grace, always talked about faith, always talked about Christ, always talked about God's work in a man. And so it sounds very good that that which is from within is of God and is Christ. But the moment Saying all of that, which may sound good. The moment that you take that and say, now that contributes to my right standing with God. That contributes to my acceptance by God. That contributes to what makes me an heir of eternal life. That contributes to what causes God not to condemn me for my sins. The moment You include in that something from within. No matter where you say that comes from. God's work in me. Christ's work in me. It becomes that which is of me. And no longer is entirely the perfect work of Jesus that is imputed to my account. Which perfect work is the only basis of being received by God in mercy. This is the dividing line in justification between orthodoxy and heresy. Is justification the imputation without works of the righteousness Christ? Or is my acceptance by God and my right standing before Him partly from an infused righteousness that comes within. To say the former, which Gideon says as a member of this church in which we say together with him tonight, to say the former, is to confess the true gospel of grace. And by God's grace, that's what He says, and that's what we say with Him. Because we know that my standing before God, my not being condemned by God the Judge to everlasting destruction, is entirely because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to my record. I said, number one, that this is so important because it's that dividing line. And number two, it's so important because this distinction between the imputation of righteousness and the idea of an infused righteousness is the distinction and difference between justification and sanctification. And that, too, we need to be very clear in our minds about. that in part, this stands at the heart of the distinction, justification, entirely legal, and the imputation of Christ's righteousness and sanctification, God's work in me, to make me ethically holy with the holiness of Jesus, which shows itself in good works. Two different, distinct aspects of God's salvation of us. not to be confused, not to be brought together, but to be understood rightly in their own place. And that distinction in your mind, imputed, infused, helps us understand what justification is and what sanctification is. The series that I'm preaching is on the order of salvation, the logical order of salvation. And this is where it becomes really, really important to understand the order properly. What Rome does is makes the order this. Sanctification, justification. Something within me that I produce that leads God to say, I accept you in my sight and make you an heir of eternal life. That's the false gospel. But the logical, true gospel order is this. Justified. Imputed righteousness of Christ to my record. That's the basis of my acceptance with God and forgiveness. And as a result of that, the fruit of that, sanctified. God's work in me to make me holy and to produce the fruit of good works out of love for Him. That distinction helps us understand those two doctrines rightly, to keep them clear in our minds, in order to keep the gospel clear as well. The second point of the sermon tonight is of God, not of man. I started with Imputed, not infused. Now we speak about what it is that is imputed. We've been talking about that throughout the sermon. The righteousness of Christ. And now we flush that out more thoroughly in the second point of the sermon. What's imputed, according to the text, is righteousness. Righteousness, beloved, is perfect conformity to the law of God. The righteousness necessary for life with God arises out of God as a righteous God. He's a perfect God. And the only one who can be received by Him and have life with Him must be righteous like He is. And true righteousness is perfect, full, conformity to His law the law which is a perfect reflection of who he is as that righteous God. The righteousness that is imputed to us without works, as the second point indicates, is a righteousness that is of God, not of man. and is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Let's look at those three ideas. It's of God, it's not of man, and it's the righteousness of Christ. Number one, it's of God. The whole of the righteousness that's required for life with Him is of Him. And that's true from a couple different perspectives. It's true, number one, from the point of view that God in eternity willed to provide the righteousness necessary for His people in His Son Jesus Christ. It's of God in that sense. That God in eternity, determining the whole course of human history and the salvation of His bride, determined that I will be the God who will provide the necessary righteousness for My people to have life with Me. And I will provide that in my Son, Jesus Christ, who will come. And will do all that is necessary to merit life and salvation for my bride. It's righteousness of God in that sense. Willed by God. Planned by God. Determined by God. for His bride. And it's a righteousness of God also in the second place in this sense, that Christ, who is our righteousness, is God. The Lord Jesus Christ. is truly God. We know the qualifications for the mediator. One of them has to be that he is truly God for several reasons, not the least of which is this, that one who is truly God is righteous with the righteousness of God Himself because He is God. And therefore in that sense, the righteousness that is imputed to your record is entirely a righteousness that is of God. And there are several beautiful passages that indicate language like this. One of the beautiful ones is Philippians 3 verse 9, where we read Paul's words, "...and being found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." We follow that in the second place by saying that this righteousness is not of man. Paul just said that in that verse. Really, the first point of the sermon was to emphasize that it's not of man. All of the language about imputed righteousness emphasizes it's someone else's righteousness that's reckoned to my account. It's not infused righteousness. That would be a righteousness which is of man. And it's not of man. And I mention this explicitly so that I can say that the nature of our righteousness is that it's an alien righteousness. In Reformation theology, that's an important word. An alien righteousness. Alien means belonging to another. What's imputed to my account belongs to another. It's God's righteousness found in Christ. imputed to my record which makes me before God to be declared righteous. And now we fill that out in the third place by explaining that the righteousness that God imputes to our record is a righteousness which is of Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth and by His living and by his dying merited the righteousness necessary for you and for me to be received by God and to have life with him and the nature of that life being everlasting life. The righteousness of Jesus Christ can be looked at from the point of view of the whole of his life and all of his death. as one grand work of Jesus to merit the righteousness that was imputed to you and to me. That's how sometimes the Scriptures refer to the righteousness of Christ. Looking at it as this one grand whole of His living and of His dying. For example, in Romans 5.18-19, we read, Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, really constituted sinners, that's a legal idea, guilty. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made, or declared, or constituted righteous." Those two verses look at the righteousness of Christ, His whole life as one grand whole that constitutes the righteousness required for life with God. But we can explain that by breaking it into two ideas. The righteousness that's imputed to our account, on the one hand, consists of Jesus Christ's perfect satisfaction of God's justice through His death on the cross. We've been talking throughout the entire sermon about righteousness imputed. But beloved, understand that there's another imputation that we haven't talked about yet. An imputation that took place before God imputed to your record the legal righteousness of Christ. And this is the wonder of the Gospel. That God, by grace, took your sin and guilt and imputed that sin and guilt to the record of Jesus. So that the moment, the moment Jesus was conceived, He came into this world standing before God the Judge as guilty. Not with His own sin and guilt, He had none of His own, but with your sin and guilt, by God's grace, imputed to His legal record, so that before God the Judge, He was guilty. And God said in the beginning, the day that you each are going to die, that's the punishment of guilt, death. And Jesus, the moment that He was born, was guilty with our sin, and took that guilt to the cross, and on that cross died the accursed death. But because He was God, could satisfy the justice of God in those three hours of darkness and cry out at the end, it is finished. The righteousness imputed to your account, so that God says to you, not guilty, is that righteousness of Christ, the satisfaction and covering of your sins as you stand before God. And that's why one of the grand blessings of justification is the forgiveness of sins. The declaration by God to you. You're forgiven. Your conscience accuses you of being guilty. You know you're guilty. You know you're before God the Judge and His law. And that conscience condemns you. But God comes in the Gospel and says, I declare you not guilty. And this is why, on your account, on your legal record before me, is that perfect righteousness of Jesus in His covering of your sins through His death on the cross. Which is why in the two verses that follow the phrase that we are expounding tonight, Paul emphasizes that with the quote from Psalm 32, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. When God imputes to your record the righteousness of Christ, what that means is He's not imputing to it your sin. He's not holding you accountable for the sins that you commit. He's not saying, this is on your record. And because it's on your record, you need to deal with it. And to deal with it means to bear what it deserves. And what it deserves, because you are a man and I am a man, is eternity in hell. God says, I don't impute it to your record, because I imputed it to the record of Christ. He took it to the cross. So that with that righteousness placed upon your record, God says, though your conscience accuses you of being guilty, He says, not guilty. That's one aspect of the righteousness of Christ. But then there's also another aspect. Because you understand to be accepted by God is not only that I'm not guilty of sin, but so righteous is God and what is required before God is a perfect righteousness, perfect conformity to the law of God. The righteousness of Christ that's imputed to your record is also that. Because the moment that he was conceived, not only did he all his life long suffer in order to pay the price for sin, but from the moment that he was conceived, all his life long he obeyed and he fulfilled God's law. And all of that came to a climax on the cross, so that on that cross, He was satisfying God's justice. And while doing that, also perfectly loving God with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength. And that whole work of Jesus, His living and dying, is the righteousness God imputes to your record. So that in justification, it's not only You're not guilty. But it's also this. You're righteous. I see you in Christ. And to see you in Christ means this. Perfectly fulfilled. My law. And on that basis, and that basis alone, He says, You're my son. And you're my daughter. And you are the rightful heir of everlasting life. Beloved, that's the imputation of the righteousness that is God's, not yours. And more specifically, that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, and not afraid. This, beloved, is your blessedness. Gideon, this is your blessedness. Blessed, happy. Happy because I'm at peace. Happy because I have joy. And this is my happiness. That God imputes to my record the righteousness of Christ. He accepts me through His work. And this is the nature of it. It can never change. Your legal standing before God can never change. Your conscience accuses you of being guilty, and God comes in the Gospel and says, no! This is your legal standing. You're right in my eyes because of my Son, Jesus Christ. And you are always righteous in Him. Truly, people of God, truly, the only thing, the only thing that gives us true joy and happiness eternally as we think about this life and the life to come. And that's the expression of the love of God as our Heavenly Father. Yes, He's the righteous and holy judge, but this truth that He imputes to you, the righteousness of Christ, He does as your Father who loves you, who saves you, who in His love brings you unto Himself in the only way that He can. through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's blessedness. And it's not fear. Beloved, we would be terrified tonight if what you heard from this pulpit was that your right standing before God is based in part upon something you need to do. Because you would walk out of the sanctuary tonight and you say, did I do enough? We'd be terrified all our life long. We'd be terrified because we would dwell upon the sins that we have committed in the past or present. We all have them. They come back to our minds. The sins of our youth. The sins of our past. Egregious and sins that we know we have in our history. That the devil so uses cause us to doubt and to lead us away from God. If my right standing before God was based on anything I did or could do, and as you think about these sins that I have committed, I know I would be afraid. I would be afraid every day, and I'd be afraid to face the reality of death. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is blessed, not afraid. Those sins that come to your mind, those sins that are heinous in nature, those sins that trouble your conscience, beloved, know this. Christ took them. He paid for them. And your right standing before God is not on anything you do, and entirely the righteousness of Christ. And so hear that tonight in the Gospel. Understand the doctrine. Understand it clearly. See the glory of it in God's saving work in Jesus, but hear the Gospel. The Gospel to you, Gideon, and the Gospel to us as a congregation. Blessed. Blessed because of the perfect work of Jesus Christ imputed to us. So that today, tomorrow, and into all eternity, I am right with God. You are right with God. And a worthy heir of everlasting life. And knowing that, now live for Him. Now hear the third question, or the second question of confession of faith. Now I'm resolved. more and more to live my life out of love and out of thanks for this glorious salvation. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we are thankful to thee for the righteousness of Christ. We know it's our only hope. It's our only peace. It's our only true and everlasting joy. And we have a salvation that is found entirely in Him. What a blessed truth. And write it, we pray, upon our hearts this evening. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us sing tonight now in conclusion, Psalter 190. We sing in the 2nd part of stanza 2, salvation thou hast willed for me, my rock and fortress thou. Let's sing the stanzas 1, 2, and 4. ever be. Oh, save me in thy righteousness. Give ear, and rest to me. Give ear, and rest to me. Be thou My rock and fortress thou. My rock and fortress thou. Thou hast upheld me in my praise. To thee, from whom I life receive, will I give constant praise. Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts of old, in your heavenly light. And bless the Lord, ye saints below, who in his grace The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.