Roy Hession emphasizes the significance of the name Jehovah Tsidkenu, meaning 'The Lord Our Righteousness,' as prophesied in Jeremiah 23:5. He explains that this name encapsulates the essence of the Gospel, which offers divine righteousness to those who believe, regardless of their past failures. Hession highlights the importance of recognizing our need for God's grace and the transformative power of accepting Christ as our righteousness. He encourages believers to abandon their struggles for self-righteousness and instead embrace the free gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus. Ultimately, he reassures that true peace and assurance come from understanding that our righteousness is found in Christ alone.

We continue with the next study, in the compound names of Jehovah. Will you please turn to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. Now the prophets of Israel had the great task of calling the people back to the God from whom they had so often departed, and pronouncing certain disciplines that would come upon them if they failed to come. One of which that Israel was going into captivity. And this is prophesied again and again in the prophets. But the very prophets that speak so often of the coming captivity of Israel also speak of a yet more glorious day beyond that discipline. The day of grace when Jehovah is going to restore his captive people. And the passages that relate to those glorious positive promises are so often what we call the evangelical parts of the prophets. They arise by words of comfort given to their chastened people that God's wrath is not going to last forever. His anger endureth but a moment. His favor for a lifetime. And so you get these lovely glorious passages that the saints have appreciated. Oh we know what the disciplines of life are but how comforting to be able to feed our souls on the promises of grace. Now it's in one such passage that we read this morning. Jeremiah 23 verse 5. Here he's talking about that yet more glorious day that will dawn with the coming of Messiah and ultimately the restoration of Israel. Verse 5. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And in particular that last phrase, this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. That's how it stands in the authorized version on this case. The compound nature of the name doesn't appear in the authorized version in the text. The whole thing's in capitals, it stands out terrifically. But if I look at the marginal references and most of the authorized versions have the same marginal references, I see against that text this note, Hebrew, Jehovah Sidkinu. So it is one of the compound names. In some cases up to now we've had the compound name in the text, Jehovah Jari, Jehovah Nissi. In other places they put it in the margin. But it's authentic. So it could be read, this is the name whereby he shall be called Jehovah Sidkinu. May I spell that for you? If you're taking it down, it's T-S-I-D Sidkinu, same word, K-E-N-U, one word, Jehovah Sidkinu. And I want to tell you, it is one of the most precious of the compound names of Jehovah. And it has been made so loved and known by a wonderful hymn by Mari Bache in which each verse speaks about what Jehovah Sidkinu could mean to you. It isn't a sort of a hymn that's not published much or known. It appeared first of all in the Sankey book, but perhaps not first of all. It's certainly brought along by Moody and Sankey. Twelve hundred sacred songs and songs, it's still one of the great classics. It has the biggest range of hymns, ancient and modern, that I know. Of course it doesn't come up to date with later ones. But all the great ones, and the hymn I can't find anywhere else, I always look to dear old Sankey, and there he has. Mari Bache's famous hymn, which I'll read it to you a little later on, where we have this great name, celebrated, Jehovah Sidkinu. And of course it means the Lord, our righteousness. Yes, that's perfectly right, as our verses have it. The Lord, ought to be in caps, our righteousness. NIV just puts it that way too, the Lord, our righteousness. But actually it is Jehovah Sidkinu. So then we're on a very important issue about righteousness. That righteousness which is the boast of the gospel, to impute to the vilest offender who dares to believe on a God who justifies the ungodly. And this is the whole subject of the gospel. Do you know, this strange reference to righteousness is the distinguishing mark of the gospel of our Lord Jesus. When Paul, at the beginning of Romans, says he's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, he goes on to say, for therein is a righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I tell you a reason why Paul is so proud of the gospel. Because therein there's offered to the penitent believer a divine righteousness in which he can appear before God without shame or fear. Now I know this aspect of the gospel isn't perhaps touched upon as it should be, which means whole tracts of the epistles of the Romans don't mean very much to us. You neglect one little bit of God's word at your peril. I don't mean that there's anything in threat about it, but you become the loser, if you should. And here is the great boast of the gospel. For therein is a perfect, glorious righteousness in which the vilest offender who truly believes may stand before God. It's imputed unto him, not on the grounds he's done very much at all, except to believe on him who justifies the ungodly. And here it is all foreshadowed, way back in Jeremiah, this glorious compound name of Jehovah, Jehovah Sidkenu. That's his name. Now when we come to this word righteousness, which as I've indicated is very important, especially in Paul's writings, you've got to understand what is meant. As I said the other day, if I picked up a book on electronics, I'd have to reply to Niall Davis or someone else as to what in the world, what use is made of a particular word. And I tell you, we're dealing with heavenly wisdom. There's enough for the sinner far from God. It reveals the gospel enough for him to find his way back to God easily. And yet there's such depths in it. It's going to be your lifetime study. And may I say, my friend, if you mean to be a Christian in a practical, real sense, you've got to settle it. You are going to become a student of the scriptures to your dying day. There's no option. You may not have passed many exams, but you're invited to get your mind and heart saturated with heavenly wisdom, which neither the princes or students of this world know. But you can know it. Babes such as I will have it revealed. Now here's a word, righteousness. Now you would think, normally, that that would mean that it's a personal quality, a moral quality in man that is spoken of righteousness. It's not used in that sense at all. It is used consistently in Paul's writings and in other places too, but especially Paul, as meaning right, standing with God. Indeed, dear Guy King, a beloved Keswick preacher and a superb children's preacher and vicar of the church, which he sometimes attended in Beckenham. I knew him in the days when he was still living. And he wrote the Scripture Union notes years ago, and they were in Romans. And those notes are still classics. And he said something there that's helped me a lot. He said, when you read of rightness, righteousness, read, rightness with God. That's the sense in which it is used. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is a rightness with God offered to men who are completely wrong with God. Righteousness then, in Paul's writings at least, is to be equated with rightness with God. And when you repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says in Romans again and again, righteousness is imputed unto you. I'm sorry, that's the word. Or you could say reckoned, if you like, count, but I rather like that word. It's imputed to you. We know you mustn't impute such wrong motives to other people. In the same way thou shalt not impute to other people right things when they're not right. But God does. When a man confesses he's all wrong to God, God says, now I want to tell you, I'm reckoning you, I'm imputing to you a heavenly, divine righteousness, and you can't have a better standing with me than that which I reckon to you. Oh, it happens so often in this lovely epistle to Romans, if you know it. Of course, the trouble is you will read other versions, and now I'm wading away on about imputing, and maybe the NIV has reckon or act. Well, you'll just have to somehow come to terms with this. You'll never get anything else from me but the old AV. In fact, I've tried to persuade folks in my conference, and perhaps I didn't make it clear enough. I wanted to say, put down on the brochure somewhere who's going to take the Bible readings, and what version he's going to use. And if a man is going to use the NIV, then we know, we'll all bring our NIV. If, however, you see a man's going to use the AV, we know, and we'll all bring our AVs. And if we haven't got one, we'll go and buy one. Because they're going out of print. I'm in a great difficulty. I have a lovely version of the AV. It's called the Two Version Bibles. The AV's in the main body of the text, and round the margin are the little variations from the early revised version. And though I wouldn't like to live and die with that revised version, it's most helpful, those points where it varies. But anyway, you'll have to find your way through. It's one of the difficulties. One of the difficulties that's associated with the blessing of all the work of translation which has been done. Righteousness imputed. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness apart from work. Say what? All the time. You've got to get round to it. You've got to master it. And away with this thing. It must be in easy English. The technical books today aren't in easy English. And there's nothing difficult. Oh, I know there's some archaic phrases. Well, I got those straight years ago. And when I preach, I always just slip it round and tell the people that's a bit archaic, concupiscence. You don't know what that means. Well, I tell them. And carry on. And we soon get over that obstacle. But here it is. Righteousness imputeth unto us. And that righteousness is a person. This is the name. Whereby he shall be called Jehovah. My righteousness. And I cannot think of anything more basic than the subject we're thinking about today. Now, along with that passage in Jeremiah 25, I want to put a passage in the New Testament that has a lot to shed on it. Romans 10. Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. This is Paul writing. For, looking back to that people that gave him such a bad time, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law's demands for righteousness, because he is himself our righteousness. Let me explain what I understand it to mean when it talks about Christ being the end of the law. The law of God, ten commandments, the whole covenant that came from Mount Sinai was very straightforward, if or be it a bit awesome. And as those great ten words were uttered, the covenant was clear. This do, and thou shalt live. Words will not be able to describe the blessings I'm going to heap upon the people who will do this that I command. But inasmuch as it said, this do, and thou shalt live, it's implied and stated, this fail to do, and thou shalt die. And the people of Israel said, well that sounds fair enough, reasonable enough, they sound good commands. All that the Lord has spoken will be do, so they said. But they found that whereas to will was present with them, how to perform when it came to it that which was commanded, they found not. And the law that promised them life in the first place, in the issue, only brought them death, for the one thing they failed to do was to keep that law. And that was how it was. Death reigned by sin and the law. And the law added to the power of sin to condemn us. It says somewhere, the strength of sin is the law. Perhaps you would say the strength of sin, surely, is temptation. It doesn't say that in 1 Corinthians 15. It says the strength of sin is the law. Because that knowledge that you have, of right and wrong, in which you are centred to, only gives sin and Satan the more power to accuse you because you haven't kept it, you haven't lived up to it. But Jesus came, made in a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the curse of that law which they had not kept. And he did fulfil the law, in that he fulfilled the death penalty that the law had prescribed and he took our place. He bore our sins. And he bore the death penalty of the law which should have been ours. And therefore he satisfied the law. The law can't condemn a man twice. It's condemned by surety, by substitute. It can't condemn me. And in that sense, Christ is the end of the law's power over us. It doesn't mean to say there aren't moral principles which reveal the will of God, but the thing that's changed is the method by which that will and law is going to be implemented. Under the first covenant it was by us. And you failed under the second and to put my laws in their hearts. Where before it was I ought to, under grace. And when grace has reached us, it is I'll ought to. All the difference in the world and also all the power of the spirit backed up to make it a reality. So Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. It will never give you ground to expect righteousness by the doing of it. It only brought you death, that's been brought to nothing. You're free from it. Now, that verse is quoted by Philips's translation, a colloquial translation. He makes no claim for it to be other than a very colloquial. But there are places where there are flashes of wonderful insight. And Romans 10, 4 is one such place. And he has it, for Christ is the end of the struggle for righteousness to everyone that believes it. What a beautiful phrase. Christ is the end of the struggle. I know a friend of mine who's got a little book and it's entitled, The End of the Struggle. What a struggle we've had to keep the law, to achieve that righteousness which will make us at home with God. And we've not succeeded. But inasmuch as Jesus has come, he's brought an end to that. Christ is the end of the struggle. What you're going to get, you're going to get on another way than the way of struggle. And maybe for years that's been your Christian life, ever since you first came to know Christ in some measure. A struggle for righteousness, to be really right with God, to feel right with God. And not only a struggle for righteousness, but a struggle for power. Oh, how we've struggled to have power. Pray more, read more, be more faithful at the prayer meeting. And for revival in the church. All the struggles the saints of God have been put to, to try and get things happening. It's all striving, it's how many works of the law. But Christ, it says, is the end of the struggle because he's going to give you without struggle what you've failed to get with all the struggles in the world. Now this verse says about they being ignorant of God's righteousness, this gifted way, have been going about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. And what's wrong at the back of our struggles is we've not submitted to the conditions to have everything as a free gift. Why do you have to submit to the righteousness of God? Because this righteousness, which is ready to be counted to your account, is for sinners, flops and failures. And you don't begin to qualify unless you take your place as a sinner again, as a flop, as a failure. We'd do anything in the world and do that. Ne'er would we gladly have washed in some great river or done some wonderful thing. My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather when he says, wash and be clean. He would have done anything but strip, reveal his leprosy and go and wash in that little river in front of everybody. Yes, there's always this element of submitting to God's verdict about us and taking the sinner's place. And therefore, to avoid that, we'll devise any way of Christian living and holiness that doesn't involve any handling and it doesn't work. But the moment, the moment we submit, we take a sinner's place, we spill the beans and say, oh God, I've been in such bad shape these days. Hallelujah. And some people weep. I'm trying to counsel them under my breath. Hallelujah. She's a candidate at last. She knows what a failure she is. Now grace can do something for her. And the moment you submit to take a sinner's place, Christ is reckoned to you for righteousness. He is reckoned to you for a righteousness which you don't otherwise possess. Can I be better arrayed than with Christ as my righteousness? Last night Peter James was speaking to us from Leviticus, talking about how the offerer used to lay his hand and identify himself with that lamb or goat, whatever it might be, confessing thereby his fact that that death was really his, that's what he deserved. And then it says, it, it, it, it, that burnt offering shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for him. Christ accepted for me. Could you have a better standing before God with Christ as your righteousness? Because the sinless Saviour died, my guilty soul is counted free and God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me. And this is the name whereby he is called Jehovah, Sidkeynu, Christ, Jehovah, my righteousness. I've got in my hand a cheap edition of Grace Abounding, the spiritual autobiography of Bunyan. What a story is the story of Bunyan's autobiography. No man despaired of ever being saved than he. He went through agonies of self-doubt even after he'd turned his life over to Christ. He was still beset with doubts. And, oh, the devil took advantage of that sensitive nature of his and persuaded him to believe that he'd committed the unforgivable sin. And there are all sorts of verses. The devil is a marvel at quoting scripts when he wanted to. There are some verses that, well, I'm not quite sure I've got the right interpretation. I know it doesn't mean that I've committed the unforgivable sin, but I can understand the devil giving it a twist about Esau, who found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. And maybe another verse. That's you. And that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And the devil accused him of having done what Judas did, of having sold the Lord. He said, I wouldn't sell him, I don't want to sell him. Oh, you're going to sell him. And under pressure, at last it's all right then. Let him go if he will. There you are. Done it. And, you know, I don't know how many years, two or three, and it goes on, the story of his struggles, for 80 pages. You see, is this man ever going to get out of it? Is he never going to rejoice in the assurance of salvation? The verses that the Spirit gave him to encourage him are beautiful. In fact, when I've got time, I'm going to go through and list all the beautiful scriptures, speaking of grace for sinners, that kept on coming to him from the Lord, but the devil kept on snatching them away from him. Ah, for others but not you. No, I don't think it could be for me. He would have thought he ought to have gone to a psychiatric hospital or something. The darkness he was in. Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast-wind it in either direction. The darkness he was in. Sometimes trusting, sometimes doubting. And then God begins to meet him, and those gracious promises come with greater rapidity. They're not all fully received, but he's beginning to come out of it. But still there lurks a doubt. Am I really right with God? One day, however, as I was passing into a field, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And I thought that I could see Jesus Christ at God's right hand. Yes, there indeed was my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say about me that I did not have righteousness, for it was standing there before him. I also saw that it was not my good feelings that made my righteousness better, and that my bad feelings did not make my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday and today and forever. Now indeed the chains fell off my legs. I was loose from my afflictions and irons. My temptations also fled away, so that from that time forward those dreadful scriptures terrified me no more. Now I went home rejoicing because of the grace and love of God, and went to my Bible to look up where that verse was found, which said, Thy righteousness is in heaven. But I could not find it. And so my heart began to sink again, until suddenly there came to my remembrance 1 Corinthians 1.30. Put it down, look it up, and he quotes it. Who of God, Jesus, who of God, is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? And from this I saw that the other sentence, which had come from heaven to him, was also true. I lived here sweetly at peace with God through Christ, and so on and so on. There was nothing but Christ before my eyes. I was not thinking of him now as concerning his blood, his burial, or his resurrection, but I was thinking of Christ himself. And he sat there on the right hand of God in heaven. And his chains fell off after years of agony, when he saw that his righteousness was in him. And the verse he did find was the one, 1 Corinthians 1.30, but I've got a better one. In Jeremiah 23, Barnabas, which has seen that, this one. This is the name, Jehovah's name, whereby he shall be called Jehovah Siddiqui. And that one, having overcome the sharpness of death, and dealt with our indebtedness, is in heaven. Indeed, he got there, only by his blood, did you know that? Jesus didn't get into the holy place again, merely because he was a son of God. When he became sin for us, heaven hid his face. And he said, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? But how in the world has he got back to heaven? By virtue of his blood. The first person for whom the blood availed was Jesus. He was brought again, Hebrews 13 says, from the dead, by the blood. He had settled the debts he'd taken, accepted it as his own, settled them. So up from the grave he arose. And when he went into the holy place, that psalm was fulfilled. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. How is he going to come in? He's borne the sin of the world. He's been so defiled by his own blood. And if the blood was enough for Jesus to get in, it's enough for you. He had more sins on him than any one man has. The most one man can have are his own. He had the world. And if the blood was enough to let our surety in, bring him in, it's enough for you, dear friend. This is the name. Whereby he shall be called Jehovah Zikinu. And he becomes your righteousness before God. Isn't that good? Maybe you don't see your need quite. Neither do I always. Because I've been going about my Christian life in another way. I want to turn you to Romans 4, where it talks about that other way to which we so often turn. And frankly, we are shinning up the wrong tree. So distressed we can't get up higher. If you did, it wouldn't lead you to heaven. There's another way. Romans 4, verses 4 and 5. Now, to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace but of debt. You've got it a little different, but all the versions have got it quite the right meaning. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Two classes of persons. If you like, two classes of Christians. The division doesn't necessarily run between the lost and the saved. This division can sometimes run through the saved. There are those of whom it is true, to him that worketh. There are the others of whom it is true, those that work not, but that believe on him that justifieth the ungodly. And it would be helpful if perhaps you ask yourself, in which category am I? To him that worketh does his best, squares his shoulder, gets busy, makes his promises, vows to have higher ideals. The reward for such an one is reckoned not a matter of grace, but a matter of debt. It's owing to you. Man, you've done a marvellous thing. You've succeeded in putting God in your debt. You've done so much. You're working so hard. You've been so faithful that surely the blessing, be it salvation or sanctification or the fullness of the Spirit, is something that's owing to you. That's always true of striving. You're doing, doing, doing in the hope that that doing is going to bring you into blessing, that God owes it to you. I remember one campaign years ago, an evangelistic campaign, and nothing happened by the Saturday. And we were in despair. So we called a half-night of prayer for those that were really burdened about it. And in the days when my wife, my first wife, Revel, was still alive, and we had this great time of prayer, it was a terrible experience. We were like the prophets of Baal. Oh, God hear us! Oh, God hear us! Pleading for something to happen, pleading for souls to be saved, and Revel couldn't bear it, and she quit and went off to bed. But I stuck it out to no profit. Oh, we did pray. And that next day's preaching was the hardest day's preaching I've ever had. You see, there was something in our minds that if we did this, that, and the other, we'd put God in our debt, and he would owe us revival. We didn't put it that way, but that, in effect, was what it is, and here it is! To him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, a gift, but of debt. And it says, Who hath first given to him that he should repay him? That comes in Job, and it's quoted later in Romans 11. Who hath first given to God that God should repay him? And God says, nobody has. Nobody is ever going to succeed to put me in their debt. If they get anything from me at all, they get it as a gift of charity, or not at all. And so there's some of us, certainly I've been in this position, can slip into it very easily, by the doings of the law, by the doings of my service, or spending more time, or doing all sorts of things. It's amazing the things you dream up you ought to do to become a better Christian. The reward then is a matter of debt, and you've never succeeded. And you never get sure. Have I done enough to deserve it? You're on the wrong ground, and who of us doesn't know that? But there's another ground. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith in the God of grace, it says, is counted to him for a righteousness, I add these words a little bit, which he doesn't otherwise possess. Ah! Do you know what I covet most for myself? To be in that second class more continuously, and to be more quick to believe on him who justifies the ungodly. If things go wrong, the natural thing is to try and make up for it by my efforts. Not at all. I admit the wrong. I know the God I'm dealing with. He's a God who justifies the ungodly. Now this is an extraordinary thing. Because God had said in the Old Testament to the judges of Israel, Thou shalt condemn the wicked and justify the righteous. But here is He offering to do the exact reverse. To justify, declare right, those who are ostensibly all wrong, the ungodly. It takes some believing. Especially when you've got a bad conscience. Indeed, there's an illustration of the difficulty about believing on him who justifies the ungodly in the latter part of this very chapter. We have the extraordinary story of Abraham having to believe God's promise that he and Sarah were going to have a child when they were about a hundred years old, way beyond the age of childbearing. What a struggle he had. A great hope. He believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. And at last he received strength from God so that he counted God faithful, who had promised. And this is the illustration. Abraham was asked to believe in a physical impossibility. You and I are asked to believe in a moral and spiritual impossibility. That God should justify the ungodly. And by the way, may I say this word justify. Justify and righteousness come from the same root. Righteousness is the noun. Justify is the word. It's the same Greek word. And if you wanted to be utterly consistent you'd have to use a word that isn't true English. Justify should read then righteousify. Being righteousified by faith with peace with God. Same word. And God is offering to declare him to be right who's absolutely wrong. And what makes it so hard is you can't exercise such a faith in grace unless you're prepared to admit you are ungodly. How can you believe on him who justifies the ungodly unless you confess you are? Even a believer. Your attitude, your words, the things you've done. Lord, ungodliness, if ever there was to act like that, to have a reaction like that, an ungodly reaction. And if you want to be clear to that you have to admit it. And that's a bit of a struggle. It's built into the text. But still there remains a difficulty. How can God do such a thing? I who now at last confess I'm wrong, how can he declare I'm all right? You will never be able to believe it unless you see God raising his son from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised for our justification as proof that the debt was paid, the blood was enough. Do you know there are two places in Romans where we are told to believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And in Romans 10, the famous salvation text, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Not, as I would have said, if you believe that Christ died for you. Oh no. Because that still leaves unsettled was that work on the cross enough for my sins, a man like me. It still doesn't give me assurance of that. But seeing that one who bore it all, being raised from the dead, that's proof. God satisfied. The blood of Christ is sufficient for God. Shown by the fact he raised him from the dead. Therefore, isn't it enough for you? Must you go on beating yourself, taking a stick to yourself? Someone said, ever since she heard this sort of treatment, this has been her daily best text. Some of you know Mrs. White from the Eastern Counties, Chelmsford. And every morning she is impressed that I am believing that you raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. It was that which gave her assurance. No question at all. And you will never be able to believe on the one who justifies the ungodly until you see the finished work. So finished that the one who did it was raised from the dead as an open declaration. It was enough for God. And the most sensitive conscience can have glorious and solid peace. I want to say I have personally two battles in my walk with the Lord at this sort of point. My first battle is the battle to admit I'm wrong. I do not like admitting I'm wrong. I hate it. I justify myself naturally. And if some people say things in which they think I'm at fault, it hurts and stings, and I keep remembering and keep arguing about it. The battle to admit I'm wrong. But oh, He won't let me off. He wrestles with me as the angel did with Jacob until he breaks me. I say, all right Lord, I was wrong. And if it means saying, as it did to one person's brother, I went to him after the prayer meeting, that discussion we had before the prayer meeting. It had to break off just before I'd finished justifying myself. Was ever a prayer meeting timed at a more difficult time? And the Lord said, was there nothing in what he said? Nothing at all? There was. And so I said, oh God, you're right. And then after the prayer meeting, I went to that brother, I said, do you remember what you said? I want to tell you, you're right. Thank you for saying it. And all he did was to squeeze my hand and say, hallelujah. We would have had an argument that would have lasted for an hour. So there's the first battle. But then there's a second battle, almost as severe to believe I'm right. And I've got to believe I'm right. All I'm done for Is the blood not enough? What Jesus did, is that not enough? Is it not written, this is the name whereby he shall be called Jehovah Zedkinia? Man, you've got to do both. And you've certainly got to do that second. You must dare to believe once you've taken a sinner's place, you are now declared as right with God as the blood of his Son can make you. And this is the great, lovely thing about this God of grace. He delights to declare him to be right who confesses he's wrong. Now this is brokenness in its right context. Every incentive, my dear friend, because brokenness is admitting you're wrong. Hardness, which is the opposite of brokenness, says it's your fault. Brokenness says it's mine. But oh, if I take that place. God says, now you're right. He was so with the publican, the tax collector, who said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. So different from the Pharisee. And Jesus said about that man, I tell you, he went down to his house justified, righteousified, declared to be right. He said, oh God, I'm all wrong. It isn't the wife. It isn't the kids. It's me, Lord. And the Lord says, I've waited a long time to hear you say that. At last you've said it. Now I want to tell you something. You who say you're all right, all wrong, are now all right. As right as that propitiatory sacrifice on the altar can make you. And you go down to your house with every visage of burden gone. You cannot be more right with me than what the blood of my Son makes you. This is the name whereby he shall be called. My righteousness is in heaven. And I want to tell you the central message of that famous epistle. I love it. I seem to love every bit of it, of the Bible. I seem to think that is the best bit in the Bible, the bit I'm studying. Until I get to another. Oh, no place like that. And Hebrews, its theme is that after he'd offered one sacrifice to sins wherever he sat down, on the right hand of the Magician, Hi! My righteousness, there in heaven, there for me, the Saviour stands, spreads his wounds and shows his hands. The work's finished. You don't look back to the cross, friend. You look up. His powerful blood, said dear old Charles Wesley, his powerful blood did once atone and now it pleads before the throne. Amen. Praise the Lord. This is the name whereby he shall be called Jehovah, Jehovah, the ultimate authority. My righteousness, before Abraham was, I am, I am, thy righteousness, Jehovah Sidkeenu. As I say, this isn't some little, extra little, subtle point that one particular speaker has brought out. This has been the common knowledge and joy of Bible students and preachers down the centuries. I'm reading a poem, it's in Sankey's hymn book, as I told you, by Murray Machen, lovely man, one of the saintliest men, forget what year he lived. He was a man who had a great ministry up in Scotland, was it Edinburgh or somewhere? And many were blessed. And he went on holiday to the Holy Land. And a man called W.C. Burns came to take his place in his absence. And under Burns, a mighty working of the Spirit took place. Many, many were saved. And when Murray Machen came back, it was to find that revival, such as he had never seen, had come to his church through this other preacher. I'm sure he got it right with the Lord. I know how I would have felt. Why didn't it happen when I was preaching? But that man's saintliness, oh he, God has thought it, brought him through. What do you think of this for a hymn, for a piece of poetry? I once was a stranger to grace and to God. I knew not my danger and felt not my load. Though friends spake in rapture of Christ on the tree, Jehovah said, Can you? It was nothing to me. Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll, I wept when the waters rolled over his soul, yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree. Jehovah said, Can you? It was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me with light from on high, then legal fear shook me. I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in self could I see. Jehovah said, Can you? My Saviour must be. My terrors all vanished before the sweet name. My guilty fears banished. With boldness I came to drink at the fountain life giving and free. Jehovah said, Can you? It was all things to me. In treading the valley, the shadow of death, this watchword shall rally my faltering breath. For when from life's fever my God sets me free, Jehovah said, Can you? My death song shall be. I don't know what the tune is like. I'll show it to you afterwards. I've never heard it sung. But isn't that a commentary? This is the name, dear friend. The one who's been striving, who's been working and never getting there. This is the name whereby he shall be called Jehovah said, Can you? Hallelujah. It's true for you. You say, I can't get there. Listen. Just confess you can't. The way to get there is to confess you can't get there. Grace does the worst. In the same way, the way to be filled is to confess you're empty. And so it goes on to all the other responses we're called upon to make. These big prayers asking for the positive, don't do it. Take time out to confess the negative and you become a candidate for that marvelous grace that flows from the cross. You become a candidate for Jehovah said, Can you? Let us pray. Thank you, Lord, for all that we have thought about. We've asked that you will make revelation. We believe you have been doing it. Oh, make it vivid. We pray thee for thy name's sake. Amen.