Blameless. This young man's blameless. Maybe you're blameless here tonight. You have followed all the rules. You've kept obedience with mother and dad. You're blameless, but lacking. But lacking. Blameless concerning outward behavior. Lacking in true heart religion. What is the deficiency of the rightearian theology? It's a loveless religion. It's purely loveless. You know, the song we sang the very first one happens to be my most favorite hymn. So whoever selected the hymns, thank you. It's the gospel set to music. Do you know who wrote it? Charles Wesley, not a Calvinist, but an Armenian. And I noticed we've changed the words a little bit to kind of cover up some of the, what we would consider doctrinal inconsistencies. But my friend, I'll tell you one thing. Charles Wesley probably loved, had more love of God in his little finger than I do in my whole body. That man loved God. He's my favorite hymn writer. My heart is moved by the passion of this man as he writes these hymns, these songs to God, his heart to God, the Lord of the Rings and all those. And in that first one, the Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf is trying to persuade Bilboa to leave the One Ring. The One Ring that rules them all. The One that was formed in the fires of Mount Doom. To leave it behind. And he refuses to do so. And suddenly, the room turns dark. And Gandalf's voice lowers an octave and thunders. And it so frightens Bilbo. He melts in terror. When you criticize my wife, especially wrongly, that's how I feel. I feel like I'm 10 feet tall and I'm speaking with thunder. And I mean to. That's the kind of anger I'm talking about. And maybe that doesn't relate to you, so maybe this will help you. What is the worst sin you can imagine? What is the one thing, the great crime against society? Maybe in your mind it would be the abduction of small children. and smuggle them into a country where they are sold to masters who rent them out to the vilest of men to do whatever pleases them sexually. Would that be the worst of crimes against society or perhaps They could be taking a baby from a mother's womb and then killing it. Is that the worst of crimes? Whether they are or not, even thinking about those things for a few moments does something internally. If you really think and you let the imagination run, there's a visceral reaction to both sins. You can feel anger arise if you think about them and their reprehensibility. Well, listen carefully. To truly love holiness, you've got to feel something of a righteous anger against any sin, and especially your sins. Especially your sins. It's not To love what is right because it's the sensible, the right thing to do. It's to hate whatever's not pure, whatever's not godly, what's not ever like Jesus, what brings sadness and sorrow to his heart. It's to love all that looks like God. Because you love God more than anything else, even more than being perceived as right. The desire to be perceived right is hindering us more than we realize. It hinders our evangelism. It hinders our relationships. Let two brothers in the church become contrary to one another, and both will insist that they are right and the other is wrong. Paul says to brothers who are in that predicament in the Corinthian church, What's wrong that you would not rather be defrauded even by a brother than to take him to court to prove that he's wrong and you're right? But more importantly, the desire to be right hinders your relationship and intimacy with this God who is holy. And that's what I want to show you tonight, tomorrow, And even Saturday, we'll get to the good new Sunday. But we have to go this way. So that's the philosophy of the rightearing. It's doing what one thinks is right because he loves righteousness more than he loves God. What does the word righteous mean? Since we're an informal group, small, you can answer. What does the word righteousness mean? be right. The root word is right. A characteristic of being right is what righteousness means. You can love righteousness, not God's righteousness, but your own. And that's the rightarian. He sees doing right as the way to achieve good results in his life. He has learned, man, if you do the wrong things, you're going to reap bad consequences. And so we avoid making poor decisions. We avoid what's wrong so that we can have good success in life, good results. And we look at that man and we see him. We see him following all the proper decorum and rules of conduct. He acts and behaves as he ought to in the church. He knows all the songs. He can pray the beautiful prayers. And we look at him and we judge on the outward appearance. And we say, there's a there's a man of righteousness. And on the inside, yes, he's a man of rightness, but it's all about his and it has nothing to do with his love for Christ. He sees doing right is the way to gain praise from others, an easier life, and of course, eventually eternal life. If I do the right things, God is pleased and I shall have eternal life. Listen carefully. Many professing Christians are simply that, rightarians. That's all they are. They're not Christians, they're rightarians. They view Christianity as being right, the true, only true religion. The truth, the dogma is sound. It is right. They believe it to be true. They believe this Bible to be the word of God. And because Christianity is right, they adopt Christianity because they see it as the only way to merit eternal life. Am I making sense? And you say, that's hard to believe that people can be in that place. You're looking at a man that was in that place once. Pastored two churches, lost as a goose, as they say. Had I died, I would have gone to hell. They love God, they love the church, they love the Bible only in proportion to the benefit they see themselves receiving from these things. But this kind of love is neither biblical, nor does it honor the Lord. It's dishonoring. It doesn't love God for himself, or it doesn't love the Bible because of what it says. The Rictarian loves God as a means to gain something else rather than God himself. God's approval is absolutely necessary to the rightarian. He knows it. He must get it. But that's all his concern is with God, God's approval. Let me give you an example, because I know this is hard to understand. It isn't for the man or the woman who's lived it, though. You know exactly what I'm talking about. A man does a wonderful and kind things for a woman that he's attracted to. He sends her flowers. takes her to nice restaurants, he charms her, he woos her, he treats her like her queen, but his only attraction to her is physical. All he really wants to do is indulge his sinful flesh. I ask you a question, does he really love her, does he really honor her? Does he really care for her? Let's suppose she makes it quite clear to him that what he desires from her will never happen. Do you suppose he'll continue to pursue her? Do you think he'll still take her out to the nice restaurants? No, not at all. He doesn't love her for who she is. He doesn't want to serve her for the rest of his life for the sheer pleasure of knowing this makes her happy. No, all of his feelings of love is self-directed. That's what I'm talking about. The rightarian simply uses Christianity, even correct doctrine, as a means of gaining the approval of what he wants from God. Look at James chapter 4, beginning with verses 3 and 4. This is exactly what had corrupted the church to which James is writing, the rightarian spirit. A self-motivated, self-gratifying, self-seeking spirit. You ask, he says in James 4.3, and do not receive because you ask amiss. James is clear. God's not against answering prayer. In fact, Jesus said, whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe and ye shall receive them. But here, James is saying, yes, you're asking. That's good, but you're asking for the wrong reason, for the wrong purposes that you may spend it on your pleasures. The pleasure of God has nothing to do with it. The well-being of your brother, your sister, your church has nothing to do with it. And so he gives them the proper title, not Rictarion. That's too nice. He gets to the very heart of the problem. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Let's suppose you're a boss. He's always bragging about your job performance. He lets you have time off when you need it. He never asks any questions. He even takes you fishing, if you like fishing, on his expensive bass boat. But tomorrow morning, let us suppose he calls you to the office and he terminates your services with the company. How then will you feel about him? Most likely, you'll probably want to give him a piece of your mind. Did you really love him? Did you think a lot of him? Because of his own sake? Because you found him a worthy man? Or because of what he did for you? That, my dear friend, is not love. And that's what is the condition of this man's heart who approaches Jesus. That's his heart. He is a rightarian. It's just another form of legalism. It's one's self-effort to obtain the means to eternal life. And this theology thinks of duty and right, merely belonging to outward actions. It's what I do. It's how I perform. That's important. Oh, yes. Listen carefully. They know the heart's involved. They're not stupid. They know the heart's got to be involved. There's too much about the heart in the scriptures. They hear about the heart. They know the heart is involved. They just simply overlook the heart because they're focused on their behavior, their performance. The writerian asks this question, how does a Christian act? What am I to do? That's right. How do I appear? That is why several years ago, many of you are too young to remember this, the WJWD movement. What would Jesus do? WWJD. I think I got those letters inverted. What would Jesus do? I mean, you could buy necklaces and bracelets and plaques and pictures. It was a craze 20, 25 years ago. What would Jesus do? And books were written saying, this is how you live the Christian life. Whenever you have to make a decision, just ask your stop. Don't make the decision, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do in this circumstance? The reason it was so popular is because it aimed at behavior. It aimed on the outward. The question is not a bad question, what would Jesus do? The only problem with it is it needs to be followed by a second question. What would Jesus love? Why would Jesus do what he did? And if you just simply ask the first question, what would Jesus do? That will lead you into the theology of the rightarian. And you'll try to do what you think Jesus would do in your own strength. And that's not Christianity at all. We are living in an hour where the Christian church is miserably, pitifully weak. Very little advancements are being made. Look at our own nation. Look at your own city here. The encroachment of darkness gathers. It's getting darker, not brighter. Christianity is not climbing, it's declining. We are becoming a minority. I read just a few weeks ago, 10 years ago, one decade ago, 40% of the American population attended regularly a church somewhere. Now it's 30% in 10 years. It's dropped 10%. What will another 10 years be? We'll be like Western Europe, completely in darkness. And the reason is because we are trying to do Christianity in our own strength. When God said it's a virtual impossibility, can't be done by the flesh. It can only be done in the strength at which is divine. By God alone, God in you, Christ in you. And so the question is not what would Jesus do? The question is, what would Jesus do? as his heart is motivated by his love for his father. Well, it's the character of the rightarian. That's the philosophy. Let's look at the character. They are of a respectable demeanor. Now here we go to the text to see this. Look at verse 17. I've defined the philosophy of this young man. Now let's look at his character. Respectable. Very respectable. Verse 17, now as he was going out, that is Jesus on the road, one came running, knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Good teacher, do you see those words? That's a term that even Jews did not use for their rabbis. He is paying our Lord a great compliment. He is extolling him. He is showing him great respect by using this title. In fact, the Bible says he even knelt. He had great awe. and respect for Christ. He knew he wasn't just like any other rabbi in the synagogue system. There was something peculiar, different, unique, something attractive about this man. He walked with inner peace and well-being. He didn't care if people liked him or thought he was right or thought he was wrong. He didn't seem to be bothered by that. No, he seemed to know where he stood with God, and he was attracted to that, and he even knelt before him. Well, beloved, I hope that we all here in this room have respect for the Lord. I do wonder sometimes as I watch people come into places of worship, the way they drag themselves in, their demeanor, the way they act, the way they converse, even sometimes, and I don't believe people have to have three-piece suits and ladies have to wear dresses, but I think sometimes even our outward appearance says something about our thoughts about the temple of God. And it isn't the building, it's you and me. And the temple of God is where God resides. where he dwells. When you gather as saints, again, you can have holy blue jeans, not holy H-O-L-Y, but the other hole. You can stick your hand through it. And yet there be a reverence for one another because you realize this is the dwelling place of God. Friends, I hope we have respect. However, some of you have mistaken your great respect for Christ has love for Christ, and it's not the same. This young man no doubt respected Jesus, but you can't say he loved Jesus before I was converted. I had a great respect of Christ. I was afraid of him. I had a dread of him, a morbid fear of him. It's one of the reasons I was on this This rat's cage running, never, never advancing, because I had the same philosophy. I've got he deserves my respect. I've got to obey him. I got to do what he wants me to do or he will not be pleased with me. As you can see with this young man, most of these people are, for the most part, very religious. The Bible says he's a ruler of the synagogue. What does that mean? Well, it means at a very early age, which was very unusual, he had achieved status as a leader in the church. He was one of the important men who made important decisions for that local synagogue. He's very religious. But notice also, he's very sound in his doctrine. His doctrine was very good. He says, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? He believed in eternal life, which means he wasn't a Sadducee. He was on the right side of the theological argument of the day. He believed in eternal life. After death, the Sadducee didn't. He was fundamental in his doctrines. Please hear me. You may be very sound in doctrine and know the Bible, but that's no guarantee of salvation. Do you boast in your defense of the validity of the Bible, but you don't read it? What kind of defense is that? And how would that prove you are a Christian when you don't study Christ's heart? This is the overflow of his heart. You don't rule out the virgin birth or Christ deity or his death or the resurrection. Oh, wonderful, very good. But so sad that your doctrine has found a resting place in your head, but not in your heart. I'm speaking to someone here this evening. You may be a very young person. You maybe have already been baptized. You're very religious. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. But religion without Christ is the devil's bill of goods. It's a merciless hoax. And that was the plight of this young man, and somehow he came to know it. He knew it. He knew something was missing from his life. Is there something missing from your life? Is there something you know just doesn't add up? It's not plumb. It's not square. His was the work of an external, Christless religion. And there could be possibility someone here tonight had that same predicament. I have known several men over the years that I deemed faithful brothers, great companions with me on my road to the celestial city who proved in the end to be false. That's why I speak as I do tonight. One young man, when we began the ministry of Real Truth Matters, it actually began when I was a pastor many years ago, 2008, if I remember correctly. It's now the name of my ministry, our ministry. He came to my office one day and said, I want to quit my good paying job and I want to come to work for Real Truth Matters. My expertise is in journalism and videography. And I just believe the Lord is leading me to do that. And I sat him down and I said, do you know what it means to live by faith? And I just happened to have George Mueller's journal there handy and I whipped out and I just began to read excerpts. You know, when you hear of George Mueller, the great man of faith, you think every day there was a miracle. Read his journal, you'll discover otherwise. Often in the early days of the orphanage, they were selling their most prized possessions just enough to raise money to feed the children. Days after days, prayers would not be answered. They would be a waiting time, sometimes very difficult. And I read that to him. I said, this is part of living by faith. I'm ready. I know this is what God wants me to do. And so he quit his job and he came to work and he worked for me for about three years. And the more I got deeper into his heart, I began to see something that bothered me. And time went on and it bothered me more and more. He began to tell me of his difficulty with the idea of being assured that he could be assured that he was saved and had eternal life. And I finally discovered why he came to work for me. He thought if he could get close to a man that he perceived to be a man of God, maybe vicariously through me, something would rub off onto him and help him in his quest to be right with God. And when he discovered that being around me only made things worse, only aggravated the emptiness of his heart, he could stand it no more. And one day he walked into the same office and said, I've got to leave. And I said, leave RTM, yes, but not just that. I don't even know if God exists. And today, today, the man, and that's been 10 years ago, he's still in darkness, not walking with God. You think, well, how could anyone be more right than in the service of God? Friend, listen carefully. All your religious service is no more than a way of convincing yourself that you belong to God. And I pray it isn't so. I pray there's nobody in that condition. And I can get to where I apply this message, this text to the Christian, but I cannot assume that. And so I ask you again, please don't resist the thought that you too might be a rightarian. Don't resist that because you're afraid it could be true. Don't fight against examining your spiritual condition. Don't strive against the Spirit and the Word of God. I ask you, are you sure Christ's righteousness is the only righteousness you are claiming? Are you sure? I don't doubt your zealousness for the work of God. Look at this young man. He's most zealous. And yet the Lord knows there's something lacking. He says, one thing you lack. Hear me. God's not interested in what you do for Him. He's interested in who you are, what you are. Are you really His child? The Rictarian is not just religious and zealous. He's moral. This young man had not been listened carefully. This young man can say what most of us probably in this room cannot say. He had never been immoral. He had never been dishonest. Look at Mark 10 20. Jesus gives him commands how you deal with one another. The last six of the Decalogue. No murder, no adultery, no fornication, no stealing. And what does the young man say? Teacher, all of these things I've kept from my youth. Now, most scholars, not all, they're divided. Some want to believe that this young man's lying. He's trying to pull the wool over Jesus's eyes. I don't think so. I think he was sincere and I think he's right, if I can use the word, in his answer. Why? Because Jesus doesn't rebuke him for telling a lie. And then Mark says something very interesting in verse 21. Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him. It's not the response you usually give when somebody's just lied to you and you know it. He loves him. And not only does he love him, what else does he do? He extends a call to the young man to be what? What? Disciple. But one thing more than that. The replacement of Judas. He knows who Judas is, but he's a devil. John says he knew it from the very beginning. He's calling this man just like he called Peter, James and John, just like he called Matthew. He's calling this young man. He wants him to be the man. Now, that's my opinion. I'll give you, grant you that. But nonetheless, he's given the same call that the other apostles had received. That you cannot deny. He's blameless. What does the apostle Paul say about his own behavior before he was a Christian? In Philippians chapter three, concerning the law, blameless. This is years after his conversion. He's nearing the end of his life. Not time to start fudging on the resume. Not time to start exaggerating your credentials. No. He has all those years as a perspective of all those years of knowing Christ, walking with Christ. He means exactly what he says. What does he mean by blameless? When it came to his external behavior in his relationships with people, he had a clear conscience. blameless. This young man's blameless. Maybe you're blameless here tonight. You have followed all the rules. You've kept obedience with mother and dad. You're blameless, but lacking. But lacking. Blameless concerning outward behavior, lacking in true heart religion. What is the deficiency of the rightearian theology? It's a loveless religion. It's purely loveless. You know, the song we sang the very first one happens to be my most favorite hymn. So whoever selected the hymns, thank you. It's the gospel set to music. Do you know who wrote it? Charles Wesley, not a Calvinist, but an Armenian. And I noticed we've changed the words a little bit to kind of cover up some of the, what we consider doctrinal inconsistencies. But my friend, I'll tell you one thing, Charles Wesley probably loved, had more love of God in his little finger than I do in my whole body. That man loved God. He's my favorite hymn writer. My heart is moved by the passion of this man as he writes these hymns, these songs to God, his heart to God. I'd rather have a flaming, loving Armenian than a cold-hearted Calvinist any day. The Ritterian is loveless. Truly, look at this young man. He didn't love the poor. He didn't love them. But before you jump to any more conclusions, let me tell you, the poor were not the issue. The issue is not the poor. Jesus was not using the issue of poverty to go on a social issue crusade. He's not here on social justice means or platform. No, not hardly. Jesus is using the poor to reveal the young man's heart. Jesus was saying him, young man, stop loving things so you can truly love me. If you really love me, you'll do what pleases me. I want us to minister to the poor. You have the means to do it. If you love me, you'll be glad to do it. That was and always is the issue. Years ago, a man came to my office and told me, I have no feelings for my wife. I don't love her, I've tried, I cannot get that feeling back. And then he asked me this question. After he heard my counsel, are you telling me that the Bible says I'm to go back to my wife and try to love her when I have no feelings for her? How does a man love if he has no feelings? That was his question to me. Now I ask you, how would you have answered that question? Would you say to him, yes, you're to go back to your wife and remain married because the Bible says that's the right thing to do? Or number two, would you give a more philosophical answer? Love is not a feeling, it's a decision. And that decision is to put the other's best interests ahead of yours. Or number three, would you answer this way? God didn't intend for you to be unhappy, and if you don't think you can ever love her again, well, then just divorce her and go find somebody else you can love. Would that have been your answer? Well, of course, number three would have never been any of our answers. We know that it's not biblical nor right. But what about answers one or two? And I say to you, they're equally wrong. They're equally wrong. Their answers that are rightarian would give. You need to go back to your wife because that's what the Bible says you need to do. Friends, that's a rightarian answer. It's only dealing with outward behavior. It's not dealing with the heart where the problem is. It's dealing with the moral character or behavior. The Bible's answer is this. Here's the correct answer and the answer I gave him. Sir, you are commanded to love your wife even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. But this really has little to do with your wife. Has really nothing to do with your wife or even doing the right thing. It's all about your love for Jesus. Do you really trust Christ so much that you can obey Him and leave the consequences to Him? No, because you love Him. This is the issue, sir. That's what I pressed upon his heart. Are you trusting that he promised that he could give you a heart of love for your wife, that he can love her through you? It has nothing to do with her. It has everything to do with Jesus. Do you see how easy it is for the right theory and theology to creep in even to our biblical theology? That's why Jesus says to this young man about his finances, it had everything to do with his heart. Did he love Jesus more than what he possessed? And again, you can argue and say you love God, but I ask you, is it possible that your love is merely legalistic? You have no fondness of heart, no attraction to him, no passion for him, no passion for his presence. Why? Because whatever you're calling love is not a fascination with Christ. I'm asking you tonight to be honest. Are you truly fascinated with Jesus? That's the only way I know how to put this. He captures your delight. He's captured your imagination. And he still does. I was in a prayer meeting recently, and the text that the minister used was the 73rd Psalm. You might want to turn to it. Those last phrases are just so beautiful. It's worth the whole Psalm, Psalm 73, the Psalm of Asaph. He's in the first half of the Psalm. Being very honest with God and saying, I just didn't get you. I've tried to serve you and I feel like all my good, all my rightness, all my service was all in vain because I have nothing but problems. The wicked, they're prospering. But then he says this. He says, I went into the sanctuary and I got a good lesson. God turned my heart around. I saw the truth. I saw how wrong I was. And then he makes this statement, look at verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside you. Spouses, people, married folks, can you say that? Can you say that Jesus captures your heart more and fascinates it more than your spouse or your children? Then he says in verse 28, but it's good for me to draw near to God. Do you see that? It's good for me to draw near to God. I love the way the Holman Christian Standard Bible translates that, but as for me, God's presence is my good. And then the prayer meeting was then commenced after the devotion, and I began to notice how people referring to this psalm and to that particular verse, it's good for me to draw near to God. That they begin just to thank God for His omnipresence. In other words, they reverted back to their intellectual knowledge of the presence of God, which is, God's always with me, and that's my good. But that's not what Asaph is dealing with. Why do we do that? Why do we take something that is very experiential, very intimate, and we translate it out of the heart and into the mind? I'll tell you why. because some of the right Tyrian theology is still embedded in our hearts. And we have not removed it altogether. No, Asaph is saying, the experience of your presence is what's good for me. Is that what you long for? You sang about it, but did you just mimic the words and played the hypocrite when you sang those words? I don't mean to be soft. As you can tell, I mean to be fair. I mean to be honest. I mean to be searching. You've got to look within. You've got to quit pretending. You've got to quit looking at all the performance and look at the affections of your heart. Is God's presence really your good? The sense of it. If you could be right with God, here's a question you need to answer. If you could be right with God and be assured of eternal life without ever attending one more church service, reading one more chapter or verse of the Bible, or without praying one more prayer or giving one more dollar to the church, would you be happy? The rightarian would answer, yes, sir, amen, so be it. The true Christian would say, That has nothing to do with my happiness. What are you talking about? Isn't it strange? You who know the word of God, you who even know God, don't you think it's strange sometimes that you don't love the closet of prayer? Isn't that strange? Again, I'm not trying to take a rod. and beat the conscience until you feel some kind of sentiment called guilt. I'm just being like a physician asking diagnostic questions so we can get to the root of the problem. Isn't it strange that since you've professed faith in Christ, you can't remember intimate moments with Jesus when you knew he was in the room and so real to you? You don't remember anything like that? I don't. I don't get that. I thought Jesus said that Christianity is in essence, he who loves me will keep my commandments and he who loves me, my father will love and I will love him and I will manifest myself to him. Have we intellectualized our Christianity until we are right? Our I's are dotted, our T's are crossed, we are theologically astute, but our hearts are empty of what Christ considered true religion. You say to me, I know I'm a Christian very well, then let me ask you, what about this precise moment? Are you attracted to him? Are you fascinated? What about right now? I don't care what happened to you 20 years ago. I had false religious experience before I was saved. They were real experiences, and I know now looking back, they were not biblical experiences. I know they were not saving. They were not. Regenerating. Because when you get the real thing, you know everything else is an imitation, a poor imitation. It's a graceless religion. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? That's what the righteous is always seeking. A salvation where he's the moral agent, not the grace of God. Now listen, Christian. Don't sit there and think you're exempt of that sentiment, of that statement, because I want to show you by Sunday, we've all been guilty of that. And that's our problem. That's what's keeping you from experiencing the joy of Christ like you once knew, if you're really his. You're not satisfied with God's grace. It's a selfish religion. We'll look at that tomorrow night, I won't get into it this evening. The writerian seeks the good and the decent for his own reputation and not for God's. Do you remember those people who ate of the miracle of the bread and fish multiplied? You know, they pursued after Christ. They followed hard after Him. He left them. He sent His disciples away in the boat and He climbed up on the mountain and prayed that night. And they didn't know where He went. And they traveled all around the Sea of Galilee looking for Jesus, seeking Christ, pursuing Christ. And they sought Him. when he was nowhere to be found, and they did not stop looking for him until they found him. But they sought him for the wrong reasons, for carnal reasons, to fill themselves up with the blessings of this Messiah, the ones that he could give them. Physical blessings will make a man search long and hard for Christ. Don't be fooled. Look at what Jesus says in John 6, 26. John 626, Jesus knows their hearts. That's what he's looking after. Peter fails Christ miserably, but the behavior was not what Jesus looked at. He looked at Peter's heart. Here, he looks at these people's heart. John 626, most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me. I'm asking you tonight, are you seeking Christ? Not because you saw the signs, says Jesus, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. You want something from him and that's all your fascination with Christ to get what makes you feel right in the eyes of God. Now listen, as I bring this message to a conclusion, one of the characteristics of a Christian is this. They are willing, voluntarily willing to follow Christ. Their minds have been persuaded and they desire Him for His own sake. Look at Psalm 110 verse 3. This is the theme throughout all the Bible. God's people seek God because God is truly their ultimate delight and joy. Psalm 110, this is the messianic song quoted many times in the New Testament. Verse 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I don't, I looked it up in the ESV, but I don't remember what it said, but it says, it says the same thing. Essentially you use this different terminology. Your people shall be willing, they shall volunteer in the day of thy power. That word willing in the Hebrew, if we just want to be really exact. The word is a word that means a free will offering. There's no coercion, no being forced against your will, a genuine love of Christ because he is what you desire. Your mind is fully convinced he's the way, the truth, and the life, and therefore your heart eagerly pursues him because his loving kindness is better than life. His loving kindness, His intimate love is better than life. Do you know that, my friend? If you don't know what I'm talking about, how can you sit there and claim the name Christ, Christian? You're Christian is merely ritualistic formalities. It's not of the heart. Look at Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse three. Here we see it again, Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse three. This is the Shulamite maiden. My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door. She just heard him touch the handle. And what was the heart's reaction? Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse four. And my heart yearned for him. Does your heart yearn for Christ tonight? If we are to have any benefit of these days together, there has to be that that holy examination, that that moment where we take ourselves and our hearts into hand. And we put it in a spiritual x-ray. hoping to find nothing, but relieved if we find something and know the remedy. I finally end with Revelation 22, 17. God's people are willingly coming to him, joyfully. Their hearts skip. Not always, not always. I don't want to give you a perfectionist idea of Christianity. I don't want to get the idea that the bluebirds are always singing, the sun is always shining. It's a balmy 78 degrees. No, there's sometimes it's hard and sometimes God seems to hide himself and you can't feel his presence and experience him. The word becomes just black ink on white paper. Your prayer life becomes like walking in mud, hard, laborious. You know what I'm talking about. If you've served the Lord any length of time. No, but there's a willingness, a willingness to walk through the slew of despond in order to get on the other side to find Him. You know on the other side of the despair, you'll find Him. You know when weeping comes in the night, joy will come in the morning. You know it! And therefore you persevere. Because for the joy set before you, you run. Revelation 22, 17, And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will. I don't know why we fight over those words. They're not words of contention. Whosoever will. Who's willing? Or who's desirous? Who really wants Jesus? Let him take the water of life freely. That's true Christianity. Anything else is a form thereof, but denying the power thereof. Oh, I pray That if you are a rightarian in your doctrine and in your life, that tonight you will renounce. Here's another way you can know. Here's another way that rightarian theology creeps in, even into the Christian life. We find it more difficult when we're persuaded by that doctrine to confess and repent of sin. We find it more difficult. We find it more difficult to confess and be transparent with the brother. Why? Because being right in the brother's eyes is more important than the removal and cleansing of the sin. We want to keep a pretense between God. No, Lord. No, Lord. It wasn't sin. It might have been a mistake, but not a sin. And we justify ourselves. Those who've been genuinely saved, even though they have fallen into sin, terrible sin, there's still something of that new heart given to them at regeneration that longs willingly, freely, wants Christ and to experience his love afresh and anew. That's how you know you're not thoroughly persuaded and converted to the Riterian doctrine. There's still that willingness to come because Christ and Christ alone is your heart's deepest affection and attraction. May it be so for you, I pray. Amen. Amen, let's pray. Father, I come to you tonight as one of these of my brethren, poor. And not realizing how poor I am, my vision is not good enough to see the depths of my poverty with you. I know, Father, that there's still a lot of that righteous junk in my heart. And I ask, please be merciful and rid me and my brothers and sisters of it, those who do truly know you, and Father, for that soul that's just like this young rich man, wanting to be right so they can have peace of mind Inner balance, the nagging questions gone, the fear of eternal life being forfeited, death in its approaching hour. Oh, Father, for that one who is in that predicament, I pray, open their eyes and do what I cannot do. Give them understanding of the heart, of the spirit. Please, we pray. And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.