Take your Bibles and turn back
with me to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, I've entitled
this message, The Gospel of Righteousness. I told you it wouldn't be a fancy
title, Eric. I told you it wouldn't be. I thought about a title,
and I always want to have a fancy title. I never get one. I get
a simple one. Well, at least you know what
it's about. When I tell you the title, you know what it's about.
The Gospel of Righteousness. Now, our text will be found in
verse 16. The Apostle said, For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, listen, for therein, in the gospel, In the gospel,
which is the power of God, therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Now Paul declares his desire to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. He said, I'm a debtor.
That's what we went over last time. Paul declares he is indebted. He is of necessity called to
this function of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And even so, every man that is
called of God has the same heart, the same desire to preach the
gospel with unshamed zeal. to declare to you the gospel
of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation."
Now, the gospel we preach, the preacher, there is no power in
the preacher. Paul is declaring that to you.
When he said, the power of God unto salvation is in the gospel,
he's declaring this, it's not in me. The power of God is not
in our words of wisdom, It's not in our hearers. But the power
of God under salvation, listen to me, belongs only to God. It is, in truth, the power of
God. The power of God. Now I boldly
proclaim the gospel, this, that salvation Salvation is completely
and solely of the power of God. But what Paul is testifying here
in verse 17, he said, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
Where? In the gospel. The means by which
the power of God comes in salvation to sinners is only through this
means. This is the only means by which
the power of God comes to sinners through the preaching of the
gospel. And so then to believe our gospel
requires the power of God. Requires the power of God. In
Ephesians 2, what does it say? And you hath he quickened who
were dead. Who can quicken the dead? Only God. This is spiritual
death. Yes, physical death. Only God
can raise the physical death. But that's not what he's talking
about. Something is more important and vital than that is the resurrection
of the soul. Only God can save. Jesus said
in John 6, 29, this is the work of God. that you believe on him
whom he has sent. The work of God is what? That
you believe. That's the work of God. So, how should you believe on Christ?
But, you know, the scripture is also clear. Paul is going
to make this very clear in Romans 10. He says, Whosoever calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how are they
going to call on him in whom they have not heard? And how
are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are they
going to preach except they be sent? How beautiful are the feet
of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. The preaching of the gospel is
the means by which the power of God comes to the sinner. Paul
says in 2 Thessalonians 2, We are bound to give thanks always
to you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation, Here's the means. Through sanctification
of the Spirit. That's the power of God. The
quickening of the Spirit. The giving of a new nature by
the Spirit of God. Through sanctification of the
Spirit and what's the fruit of this? Belief of the truth. Those
things are going to come together. Once the Spirit sets a man apart
and gives him life, what happens? He believes. It's automatic.
It's going to come out of him. Faith is the fruit of that new
life. And this is what he said. How
did this come? He said, whereunto you are called
by our gospel. You see, Paul is making this
very clear, this gospel that he is not ashamed to preach. Why is he not ashamed of it?
Listen to me. This is what God uses to save
sinners. That's why I'm not ashamed to
do it. This is why you're not ashamed to hear it. Because you
know this gospel is the power of God unto salvation because
you experienced it. You know it's true. When this
gospel came to you, it came in power. It came in power in demonstration
of His Spirit. In the creation. of a new life. And this gospel that we preach
centers around Jesus Christ. That's what we're preaching.
We shouldn't preach any old thing. The preaching of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified is the message God will use. He won't use any
other message. You know what Jesus said about
the Bible, don't you, about what it's about? He said, Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book it is written of me. The volume
of the book is written of me. Now if the volume of the book
is written of me, who are we going to preach about? We're
going to preach about Him. That's the volume of the book.
And what does the volume of the book tell me? To do thy will,
O God. He has come to save His people
from their sins. That's what He came to do. And
so, Jesus told the Pharisees, he said, search the scriptures.
In them, boy, they got hostile when he said that, because they
had these things written on their sleeve, and on their collars,
and on their borders, and they could quote any scripture. And he said, wait, you need to
go back and read. Read the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, but, this is where you missed it, they are they that
testify of me. The whole scripture testifies
of Jesus Christ. And so have you believed on Christ?
Do you believe on Him alone? Then you have been born again
of the Spirit of God. That's the evidence of the new
birth, is to trust Him implicitly, completely, and absolutely as
all your righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and wisdom. He's
everything. I have nothing to contribute.
He is everything. And in that, I have confidence. Imagine if one thing depended
on you. Just one. We're going to see
that that's not sufficient. You wouldn't make it. You and
I wouldn't make it. But the comfort is this. It doesn't
depend on me. It is absolutely his work that
I'm trusting in. And this is the message, and
this is the gospel. Now that we see who the gospel's
about, it's about Christ. It's about Christ. If you've been given a new nature,
a new heart of life and faith, which believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen, what did you hear when
you heard the gospel? Listen, I'll tell you what Paul
says you heard. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The righteousness of God revealed. When you heard the gospel, you
heard of this matter concerning righteousness. Righteousness. And I want you to see this, that
Jesus Christ and his whole work centers around righteousness. Righteousness. The gospel reveals righteousness. Now I've got five things concerning
righteousness tonight. Five things the gospel reveals
about righteousness that every believer knows. Again, this is
not, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. These things,
I am just, I'm just reiterating the things you already know.
It's safe for that, isn't it? It's good for us to remember.
We forget things. But these things you know. First
of all, the gospel reveals this. Righteousness ruined. Righteousness ruined. Secondly, righteousness required. Thirdly, the gospel reveals righteousness
restored. Fourthly, it reveals righteousness
that's received. And fifthly, it reveals righteousness
is rewarded. First of all, righteousness ruined. What do I mean by that? The gospel
always begins where man is. It always begins with his nature. When the gospel is preached,
it is of necessity that men know what they are by nature. Listen, a man will never be found
of God until he's first lost. God will never quicken a sinner
unless he's first dead. A living man doesn't need to be
quickened. No, he's alive. Jesus told those Pharisees, he
said, if you were blind, then would you see. But because you
say we see, therefore you remain blind. So we always go back to the root.
When we preach the gospel, we always go back to the root of
sin. Always. It is of necessity we go back
to the root. This way, no one has any room
to boast. We go back to the root, nobody
has room to boast over anybody else. Why? Because we're all
on the same boat. This puts us all on the same
level. You remember when God made Adam,
he created him in the image of God, and when God created Adam,
he said of all his creation, it's good, it's good, it's good,
it's good. When he made Adam, he said this,
it is very good. Adam, according to God, was not
just good, he was very good. And so Adam Adam was made in the image of
God. He was made upright. He was smart. He was intelligent. He was holy. He was without sin. He pleased God in everything
he did. Daily, he communed with God. As I'm talking to you, this is
how Adam would talk to God. He'd talk to Him. Face to face,
talk to Him. commune with him. And God gave
Adam a very simple law. Consider, his intelligence was
so vast that he named all of the animals. It's just amazing,
astounding. What would you call this? What
would you call this? That's a worm. Where did you
come up with that? He's intelligent. That's a lion.
And so we keep these names that passed down. Why? Adam named
him. He was intelligent. God gave
him charge over all creation. Imagine that, one man controlling
all creation. He was a man chosen of God for
that. And God gave him one simple law.
Now consider the simplicity of this. That's my tree, don't eat
it. Is that simple? There were, you
know, at this time, and I don't have this down, I need to move
faster than this, but at this time there were no trees that
didn't produce fruit. Every tree in the garden made
was fruitful. Every tree. When God made it,
it produced fruit. Some kind of fruit. That's not
happening now. I got a bunch of shrubs that
do nothing. But then it did. And so he said,
you have all of it, except that one. That was mine. Don't eat
it. Didn't last long. And so long as Adam obeyed that
law, he remained in his state. But as soon as he ate, he rebelled
against God. He transgressed God's one law. Can you see that? One law. One law. And the perfect man
could not obey it. Now I've thought of this as I
went through this Do you realize that when Eve ate that, nothing
happened? Do you notice that? Nothing happened. She was deceived. The serpent
deceived her. She didn't understand. And she
ate it. And she said, look, Adam, nothing
happened to me. There you go. Try it. Now, Adam
was not deceived. He knew full well what he was
doing. And when he ate, the scripture says, listen to this, both their
eyes were open. Why was her eye not open when
she ate it? You listen to this, Eve represented nobody and God
didn't give her that law. That law wasn't for her. That
law was for him. And when he ate, she died. along with him. He died, but
so did she. Why is that? Because Adam was
a representative man. We're going to see this very
clearly. When Adam sinned against God,
knowingly rebelling against God, he died. He died. And therefore, he ruined
the righteousness that he had. Forever ruined it. And not only did he ruin the
righteousness he had, he ruined our righteousness. He ruined
our righteousness. So then, what is the hope of
us ever obtaining righteousness? A man commits murder. He commits
murder. Can he ever remove the guilt
of it? Can he ever not be a murderer? Is that possible? What if he
does community service? What if he does that? What if
he goes and builds houses for the homeless afterwards? What
if he does many good works? Does he ever stop being a murderer? No. He's guilty. And once you're
guilty, you're guilty forever. Righteousness is forever ruined. That's what the gospel teaches.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world. Result,
death by sin. Result, death passed upon all
men. Why? For all have sinned. When he sinned, we all sinned. Righteousness ruined. That's
what the gospel teaches. Secondly, the gospel teaches
righteousness is still required. You know, when Adam fell, God
did not lower his standard. That's what religion wants. That's
what men want. They say, well, we can't be righteous,
so God has to lower His standard. If He wants any of us to get
into heaven, He's got to lower His standard. And that's what
they believe God did. They believe God just lowered
the bar so we can make it in. He made it kind of hard, made
it kind of difficult, but we can do it. No. God didn't lower
His standard. The second thing the Gospel teaches
is this. God is holy. Listen to what the
psalmist said in Psalm 145, verse 17. The Lord is righteous in
all His ways and holy in all His works. God is holy in His
very being, therefore all He does is righteous. He can't do
anything else. You know, it's very difficult.
You don't want to say it unless it's so. that God can't do something. You know what God can't do? He
can't sin. You know what God can't do? He
can't permit sin to go unpunished. God cannot and will not allow
anyone into His presence except they are as holy as Himself. The standard was never lowered
by any means because man failed. When Hannah prayed her prayer
unto the Lord, this is what she said, There is none holy as the
Lord. For there is none beside Thee,
neither is there any rock like unto Thee. In other words, His
holiness is immutable. That's what Hannah was saying.
Hannah was saying this, God, there's nobody holy like You.
And Your holiness is like a rock. It doesn't move. The standard
doesn't wane at all. Oh, then how shall sinners ever
appear before God and be saved? If that's true, and it is. How then sinners can stand before
God when the scripture plainly tells us that we are at enmity
against God? Enmity. Romans 8, he's going
to testify to this that the carnal man, the carnal mind, is enmity
against God. And you just ask religious people,
they'll tell you they don't hate God, but God said they do. Who
am I going to believe, them or God? I think I'll hold to God.
God said, your mind's at enmity against me, and I'll tell you
how you prove it. or the carnal mind is not willing
or able to obey the law of God. Are you able? Are you willing
to obey the law? God never ceased to lower His
standard. God in no way lowered His standard
of acceptance of sinners. Even though we have sinned and
come short of the glory of God, yet God never ceased to demand
perfect righteousness. Hebrews 12, 14, follow peace
with all men and holiness, holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. You got that? In order to see the Lord, we
must be as holy as He is. Our Lord Jesus told the Pharisees
and many who followed him in his day. He said this, listen
to this statement, accept your righteousness. Again, this is
what the gospel reveals, right? Righteousness. He's revealing
what God requires in this text. He says, accept your righteousness. Exceed the righteousness of the
spirit. Now, to us, we see the scribes
and Pharisees as the evil people because they crucified Christ.
We say, well, that shouldn't be too hard. They crucified the
Lord of Glory. But when he said that, you have
to understand that there was a saying among the Jews that
if two people were going to heaven, one would be a Pharisee and one
would be a Sadducee. Because in the eyes of the people, they
were the most holy people that ever lived, those Pharisees. And Jesus said their holiness,
their righteousness is not enough. Their righteousness is not enough.
Your righteousness has to be better than theirs. And so think of the most the
most righteous man that ever lived other than Christ. Think
of him, whoever he is. The most gracious man, the most
generous man, the most kind man, the most whatever. You see, in
order to be accepted of God, your righteousness has to be
better than his. Which means to say this, that
your righteousness is in no way good enough. Jesus said, you will in no wise
enter the kingdom of heaven. So then righteousness, what kind
of righteousness is required? Perfect righteousness. sinless
righteousness. You want to see God, you want
to be accepted with God, you have to be righteous as God. So the only righteousness the
gospel reveals that God will accept is what? The righteousness
of God. Look at that back in your text.
He said, for there in the righteousness of God is revealed. It's not just any righteousness.
You don't get to pick and choose what is righteous. What you think
about righteousness don't really count. It's just however righteous
God is, that's how righteous you have to be. That's the standard. Over in Micah, chapter 6, remember
that false prophet? He was talking to that wicked
king. In Micah, chapter 6, that wicked
king asked a question. He said, how can I be accepted
with God? Good question, isn't it? You're
going to face God. You ought to know what God requires
of you. He said, what does God require?
The heathen king said, Will the Lord be pleased with 10,000 rams? Does he want 10,000 offerings? Is that good enough? What about
10,000 rivers of oil? Would that be good enough? Do
I have to give my own firstborn child to save my soul? Listen, the prophet He said something that's true. This was true. Because he couldn't
say anything else. You remember that false prophet?
He wanted to say something bad. He wanted to, but God wouldn't
allow him. Well, God made him say this.
Now listen to this. Here's what God requires of you.
Pay attention. Listen. Do justly. in every thought, in every word,
in every deed, in every action, do justly. And love mercy. How can you do
both? I think that just confounds the
mind. How can you be just and live among sinners being merciful?
Is that possible? That's always the question. How
can God be just and still justify and show mercy to the ungodly?
How can that be? Listen, only God can do that.
You and I can't do that. What the prophet was giving him
was an impossibility. And then he said this, walk humbly
with thy God. Every time I feel like I've done
something justly, I won't walk humbly. I won't. We can't. What he's telling us to do is
be holy and we can't do it. Yet this is what the gospel declares
about God's righteousness. If you want to be accepted, you
have to be as holy as God. This then is impossible and Paul's
going to get. Now listen from verse 17 down
to chapter three and verse 20. The apostle is going to talk
about the impossibility of us ever obtaining this righteousness. So now we know two things when
the gospel is preached. We know this. Our righteousness is ruined. And the second thing we know
is God demands righteousness that we can't provide. You know
that? Well this then, next thing, is
the center of this gospel. Righteousness restored. Righteousness
restored. This is the sum and substance
of all that Jesus Christ did. Is he restored righteousness. And so if it's impossible for
us to come to God and God requires righteousness that we have ruined,
behold then the purpose of God in the ruining of man is simply
this, to display his grace in providing righteousness. Providing
righteousness. Consider this, before ever the
world was, God purposed to make people righteous. to make his elect righteous.
Consider in that covenant of grace, this is the covenant that
is expounded so clearly in Ephesians 1 that God gave us all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. He started with the reward, didn't
he? He started with the ice cream and the cake before he gave you
the meal. He told you the end before He went through half.
Then He told you half. According as He had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, what's His purpose?
That we should be holy and without blame. What is that in righteousness?
If you're without blame, you're what? Righteous. Don't you see that God purposed
that His people should be righteous? But how? Seeing they ruined their righteousness,
how would God make them righteous? Listen to these two words, by
Jesus. That's how. By His Son. God purposed to make them righteous,
therefore we praise the glory of His grace for making His elect
accepted in Christ before the foundation of the world. But how can this be, seeing that
we are truly guilty? Now God purposed to make me righteous,
but how can that be, seeing that I am truly guilty? I am truly unrighteous. How then can God, by Jesus Christ,
make me righteous? It's a mystery to the natural
man. Go to Romans 5, we're skipping
ahead now. You're cheating. I got no choice, this is good.
This is the way it is. I told you Romans 5, 12, right? Wherefore, by one man's sin unto
the world, and death by sin, so death pass upon all men. Look
at verse 19 now. For by one man's disobedience
many were made, what? We were made sinners. Wait a
second. I don't remember that, do you?
I don't remember. I'm not going to say who's oldest
in here, but the oldest person in the room, do you remember?
Do you remember when that happened? No. Why? We weren't there. We
weren't. But we were in this. Adam was
our representative head, just like he was Eve's. Many were
made sinners. Well, how in the world is God
going to make sinners righteous? Well, he tells us. So by the
obedience of one, many are made what? Righteous. How is God going
to make me righteous? Through the obedience of another
man. Another man. That's how God does
it. Jesus Christ, in that passage
declaring the impossibility, He said, Accept your righteousness,
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. But, listen to this,
I came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill. You see, He came to fulfill the
law, to satisfy the law, to honor the law. In other words, to what? To provide
a righteousness. Now, let me ask you this. When
Christ came down into the womb of the Virgin, and He was born,
and He lived in this world, wasn't He already righteous? What did He need to obey the
law for? Not for his righteousness. He
wasn't doing it for his righteousness. He already had righteousness.
He was God. Christ Jesus submitted himself
in love for his people, submitted himself to honor the law of God
in every thought, word, and deed as a man so that he would provide
a righteousness for his people. And he did that. Jesus Christ
took upon him the form of a servant, the Apostle said, and being made
in the likeness of sinful flesh, he became obedient. Obedient even unto death of the
cross. The gospel that we preach, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed even because Jesus has fulfilled
all the righteousness of God in the place of His elect. And so then, we who are in Him,
the scripture declares this, we have the righteousness of
God by being in union with Him. By virtue of our union with Him
as our representative, we have the righteousness of God. We
have it. It's ours. Go to Romans chapter 8. You see
Paul was struggling with himself in that previous chapter. He's
going to deal with the dual nature of man and how we struggle within
ourselves. And he come to that end of himself
and he said, O wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver
me from this body of death? Then the thought of the Spirit
came to him. He said, I thank God. This is not going to be
the end of it. I thank God through Jesus Christ.
He's going to deliver me. Why? Because there is therefore
now no condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. I like that word now. There is therefore now. And now. And now. And now, no condemnation
of those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? For the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. For what reason?
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. You see that? The righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in us. That's why he did it. That's
why he came. That we might have the righteousness
of God. The righteousness God requires
is the very righteousness that Jesus has provided. This is the
center of our gospel, friends. This is the meat of it. The truth
of it. And you know what? Righteousness
was not just his act of obedience. We think about that. In his act
of obedience, he actually obtained righteousness. So when he was
honoring God, and he was thinking about God, and he was serving
God, and he was loving God, he was doing that as our representative. So when he did it, we did it.
Just like when Adam sinned, we sinned. When Jesus did all those
things, we did all those things. But that wasn't all there was
to that righteousness, is it? There was something else that
was missing. Punishment for sin. The law required two things.
Active obedience. Passive obedience. And secondly,
it required death for sin. So if Christ made our righteousness
and didn't die for our sins, that righteousness would only
be contaminated by our sins. Sin had to be removed. It had
to be taken away, like the scapegoat. It must have been confessed on
the head of Christ, and Christ, as the strong man, must have
carried our sins away in order for us to be righteous before
God. And so Christ, our Redeemer, was condemned as he bore our
sins in his own body by his one offering, he satisfied the justice
of God in our place. The scripture says, but this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high, expecting till his enemies
be made his footstool, for by his one offering he hath perfected
forever. Isn't that what we need, righteousness?
What is righteousness but perfection? He has perfected forever them
that are sanctified. That's what Christ did by his
death. And so then what do we say about
Jesus Christ? What do we know about his work?
I know this. He restored all our righteousness. He restored it. Matter of fact,
you can look this up later, Psalm 64, 69 and verse 4, listen to
this. I restored that which I did not
take away. Isn't that what he did? He restored righteousness. He
restored our righteousness. And I have this. We're going to consider also
how He restored it. Consider the great offering of
our Lord Jesus Christ. As we serve Christ, you know,
we're called to bear our cross, to take up your cross and follow
Him. We suffer in this life, we do. Believers are intended
to suffer in this life. It's just so. But what is our suffering in
comparison to His? To make you acceptable with God,
what did it cost him? Listen to this text. It says
God was not willing to impute. Go to 2 Corinthians. Look at
this. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look at verse 19. to which God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself. Listen, not imputing their trespasses
to them. Do you realize that God was not
willing to charge your sin to you? He was not willing to charge
your sin Well, where did it go? Look at verse 21. This is where my sin and your
sin went to make us righteous. It said, for he hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ was made
to bear our sin. Now, this is going to be, in
order to make you righteous, I want you to know that I have
no clue how this was done. God can't punish an innocent
person. It's an abomination, isn't it? Yet we behold Christ,
He is the innocent man. without sin, did no sin, thought
no sin, felt no sin, even as he was crucified, even as he
was being made sin, he felt, thought, did no sin. He was absolutely
perfect. And yet in some way God made
him to be sin for us, made him to be guilty. And in strict justice God punished
Christ and for Sookie. Now there's a lot of men that
can say, well I understand that. You're not looking at one that
can understand that. I don't know. I don't care. You do all the
gymnastics you want. I can't, I can't, maybe you can. Maybe God has given you some
insight that I don't have. But I don't understand that,
but that's just so. God made him to be sinned. He was really
guilty. And God really punished my sins. Conversely, listen to this. Look what it says. It says, He made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. See, I'm made something that
I don't know anything about. I'm sin from the top of my head to
the bottom of my feet. And yet, isn't it a miracle of grace that
I am made righteous? You see, you could see no sin
in Him as He crucified, but yet He was made sin. You know what?
I'm made the righteousness of God, and you follow me around,
you won't see nothing but sin. Isn't that amazing, astounding?
Yeah, but I am made righteous based on what He did, not what
I do. He made my righteousness. Well,
then the fourth thing is this, righteousness received. Righteousness
received. How does the guilty sinner then
actually become righteous? We know that we were purposed
to be righteous. God required it. We ruined it.
God required it. Christ made it. Now how is it
really mine? How do I know that I am righteous? That's vital, isn't it? What
does it matter if I know that the elect are righteous? But
I don't know if I'm righteous. Because of this, everyone that
Christ made righteous, He will come to them and give them this
one thing, faith. Isn't that what it says? For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Righteousness
ruined, righteousness required, and righteousness restored. Therein
is the gospel revealed. But how is it received? Look
at the text. From faith to faith. That's how it is. From faith
to faith. Get the order of this. Who had
the first faith? God did. The Father did. When
God the Father covenanted that Christ should make us righteous,
He had faith in His Son. He trusted His Son to make our
righteousness. From God's faith, He trusted
Christ. How is our righteousness made?
It's made by the faith of Jesus Christ. Look at Romans chapter
3. He's going to deal with this eventually, Romans 3 and verse
22. Even the righteousness of God that we're talking about.
Righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. Righteousness
of God which is how? How is it made? By the faith
of Christ. That's how your righteousness
was made, isn't it? From faith, the faith of the
Father to the faith of the Son. But how does it receive? From
the faith of the Son that made it to the faith that we have
in Him. the faith He gives us. Friend, faith is not a work.
Faith cannot come from a lost man. A lost man cannot have faith.
You know that? A lost man cannot believe. He
can't. It's impossible. It's like wanting
an apple out of an orange tree. You can't get it. And so it is out of a lost man.
Faith cannot come from a lost man. We wonder, why don't they
believe? Why don't they believe? They
cannot believe, friends. It's impossible. For by grace
you are saved through what? Faith. Where does faith come
from? It is a gift of God. And not
of what? Not of works. You didn't do it. You didn't make faith. Remember,
it came from the faith of Christ, and that faith came to us. And
by this faith, the gift of His grace, what do we receive? We
receive Him who is the righteousness of God. You know what John tells
us? As many as received Him. How do you receive Him? By faith. And so this tonight, do you believe
on Him? That's the question. Do you believe
on the Son of God? Do you trust Him with all your
righteousness, not part? You see, if you're trusting in
your righteousness and His, that's not faith, friends. That's not
of God. That's not the faith of God. The faith of God completely,
absolutely rests my soul completely on Christ. I remember Donnie Bell, he's
gonna come preach to us at our conference. Donnie Bell would
preach on a message on rest one time. And Donnie, I move a little
bit, but Donnie was moving. He was, he was, he came from
a Pentecostal, he was a Pentecostal pastor one time. And boy, he
could move. And he would, he'd come down,
he'd go in the pews and stuff like that. And I remember hearing
him talk about rest. He said, he got to a point, he
said, I don't know what I'm describing. Rest. And then he just went to the
front and laid down. He said, this is what it is to rest. Do
you believe that? Do you trust Him to be all your
righteousness? Friends, this is how righteousness
is received. And when I receive it, did I
add anything to it? No. I didn't even have the faith
to receive it. I had to get that from God. So my faith that receives the
righteousness, it's all of God. And therefore God receives all
the glory. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God. Now why did you
receive it? Which were born. You see that matter of being
born again. Born from above. Not of blood. not of the will of the flesh. You weren't born by the will
of the flesh. And you weren't born by the will of some other
man. You were born because God willed it. Why do you have the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ? Because God willed it. God gave
it. And so then we receive it. How? By faith. We trust in him and
his spotless offering. And now then, listen, I don't
have time. Look at this in Romans three,
and I'll get off of this, but this is, I wanna, I'm gonna go
back over this again. I'm gonna have to go back over
this because this has to do with righteousness. We deal with two
words, righteousness imputed. We hear that word a lot, imputed. The word means to charge. That's
what it means. And he's going to talk about
how Abraham had the righteousness of God imputed to him. Charged to him. Now the word imputed means just
to charge. Now let me ask you this. Can you charge somebody
with something that they aren't? Is that possible to be just?
And say, just do you suppose God just closes his eyes and
says, OK, you're righteous. I'm just going to pretend and
I'm just going to charge it to you. And you're but you're not
really. I'm just pretending. That's not how God imputes. He
charges you with righteousness. Listen, because you are righteous. This is the word imparted righteousness. Both are true of every believer.
Now, listen, before it was imparted to me, It was imputed to me. It was charged to me before it
was actually mine, before I actually received it. That's imparted
righteousness. Now, where do we get this from?
Look at Romans 3 again. I got plenty of other, but I'm
trying to stay in Romans here. Romans 3, again, look at verse
22. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, that's how it was made.
It was made by the faith of Jesus Christ. And it's, look at these
two words. unto all and upon all, them that
believe." See, now he's talking about your faith. He's talking
about you believing. By the faith of Christ our righteousness
was made, and by the faith of the believer it is now received.
It is unto and upon. These two words are totally different.
One means to impute, and the other means to impart. That's why he uses both words.
This righteousness was charged to me because I was in Christ. But now by the grace and power
of God, that righteousness is imparted to me in the new nature. When I was born again in the
Spirit of God, I was born after God in true holiness. Ephesians
chapter 4 tells us that we are put on the new man, which is
created after God in true holiness. So we have righteousness both
imputed to us and imparted to us. And lastly, righteousness rewarded. When Christ died and he went
to the grave, the grave could not keep him because sin was
gone. God raised him from the dead
and set him on the throne of God. Why? Because he deserved
it. I think of Revelation 5. He said,
and the Lamb of God took the book from the hand of God. Now we couldn't look at it, much
less take it. Yet he deserved it. He earned
it. The only one that merited God's
favor is Christ. He's the only one that merited
it. He earned it. And he received what he was owed. You that are believers in Jesus
Christ, look at me. His righteousness is yours. Doesn't it say in Romans 8 that
we are heirs and joint heirs with Christ? You know what that
means? Everything He earned, we earned. Everything God promised to Him,
He promises to us. It's astounding. It's absolutely astounding. I
don't deserve any of it. And we confess that. We confess
that we don't deserve anything. Not unto us. Not unto us. You
made the righteousness. You gave us the righteousness.
And if we're ever going to earn anything, it's because of you.
But nonetheless, you're going to have it. God will accept us even as he
accepts himself. I like what Joseph Hart wrote
in a hymn one time. He says, God cannot demand twice
payment for sin. Once at my surety's hand and
then again at mine. Can't do it. And he wrote in
another one, he says, with his righteousness on, I am holy as
the holy one. Isn't that what God required? what God required, He provided. Jesus provided. And He gives
it to you. Now what do you do to earn it?
What can you add to it? Nothing. Nothing. Isn't this altogether glorious,
this salvation of righteousness, this gospel of righteousness
revealed to us? That's how we'll be accepted
of God, by Him. Only by Him. I pray God will bless this to
you. There's so much more here. I'm sorry, but I just I long
for you to have it. I long for you to eat on it.
I long for you to feed on it during the week. I want you to
grab it and lay hold of it. You that believe in Christ, it's
yours. God gave it to you. Isn't it glorious? Isn't it wonderful
what he's done for you? It's liberating, friends. It's
liberating. I'm free. I love to do things in the service
of Christ. Man, I would never try to add
any of that to His righteousness. I love you, but I dare not add
that to His righteousness. I love you because of what He's
done for me. I stand to be dismissed in prayer.