Transformative Power of Godliness and Righteousness in Faith

When you lose godliness, you always lose righteousness. There is no greater fallacy than the fallacy that has characterized the moral teaching of the last 100 years or so, which has been this: that you could shed the godliness and hold on to the righteousness, that you could dismiss the Bible but still get the conduct that the Bible inculcates. [00:20:06]

The Christian man is a man whose life is governed by principles. He knows what he's doing and he knows why he's doing them. He's not just conforming to a pattern; he has reasons. He's working out his doctrine. He is a righteous man because he knows that the law of the Lord is right and it is true, converting the soul. [00:21:53]

Truth is the opposite of deceit. He says here later on that it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. He talks about the hidden works of darkness elsewhere. Well now then, truth is the exact opposite of such things as that. The characteristic of the life of the Christian man is that there is no deceit in it. [00:22:21]

The Christian man is an open man. He has nothing to conceal or hide. He's not a man who's pretending to be something that he isn't. He is what he is, and he is what he is by the grace of God. Oh, he is an exact opposite to that other type of men whose whole life is lived in deceit. [00:24:14]

Light is the most beneficent thing in the world. What a wonderful thing light is and all the good that it does. Nobody likes a day like this; nobody likes fog, but we glory in the light and the sunshine. Light heals our bodies wherever it is. It does good; it brightens everything, works into the deepest parts. [00:26:30]

Our Lord has told us, as I reminded you, that we in turn are the light of the world, and we are to radiate this beneficence amongst our fellow men and women. And likewise, in the same way, light always exposes that which is wrong, brings it into sight and condemns it, as it were, and shows us what is right and true and good. [00:27:36]

The great characteristic of the life and the conduct and the behavior of the Christian is that the whole of his time he is discovering what it is that really pleases the Lord. That's what he wants to do. That is his grand ultimate motive. And here is something, therefore, which we must emphasize in a very special manner. [00:31:22]

The Christian is not interested in them as abstract principles. He is interested in them because he knows it is the will of the Lord. It's the Lord that interests him, and because the Lord is characterized by these and is anxious that his people should be, this man is interested in them. [00:34:21]

The Christian is a man who realizes that he owes everything that he is and has and hopes to be to this Lord, to the one who so loved him that while he was yet in darkness, while he was yet a sinner, while he was yet ungodly, while he was yet an enemy, so loved him that he gave himself for him. [00:40:30]

The Christian is a man who says to himself, I am not my own. I have been bought with a price. He's not a free agent. He is, with the Apostle Paul, the bondslave of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has died that he might be forgiven, who has died that he might be made good, who has died that he might have a hope of entering into heaven. [00:41:03]

The Christian is a man who is not interested in abstract virtues, even though they be goodness, righteousness, and truth. He is interested in them only because he is interested in the Lord. Christ died that we might be the lights of the world, that we might be good, that we might be reflections of him. [00:43:59]

Let your light, he says, so shine that men may behold your good works, but glorify your Father which is in heaven. Yes, says the first answer to the first question in the Shorter Catechism, the chief end of men is to glorify God and to enjoy him as you're doing so forever. [00:44:30]