I want to read a scripture from
Isaiah 41 for you real quick. In Isaiah chapter 41, there's a verse over here that
I'm working on, but it's a good verse to lead into today's message
which is titled, The Righteousness which is of God. In Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10,
we read these words. Actually, you know what, I want
to start back at verse 8. But thou Israel. Now remember,
Israel is a picture of God's people. I'm not talking about
the Israel over there on the other side of the ocean in front
of us. Those folks over there in Israel, they're in the same
boat the folks here in the United States are in. They're in the
same boat all of mankind is in. That's in sin and deprivation. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But the Lord chose a people,
and He chose a people in the day of Israel for a reason. To show His power to an elect,
to a chosen, Not to the whole world. Those who preach that
Christ loves all mankind, they're preaching foolishness. God says,
I, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And I don't care how
you want to take that and interpret that to your own destruction,
God means that he loved Jacob and hated Esau. He does not love
the whole world. He calls His people Israel. He
calls His people the sons of Jacob. You know what Jacob, what
his name was? His name was changed to Israel.
Because God had chosen him. He had chosen him and the seed
that was to come through him to be his glory. Do you realize Despite what you
see in the mirror, when you look in the mirror in the morning,
God has chosen His people, possibly you, possibly me, to be His glory. Doesn't that boggle your mind? Thou, Israel, it says, art my
servant. Thou, Israel. All of creation
is God's servant. Isn't that what we looked at
in the Bible study this morning? Everything that happens, I don't
care what it is, serves the purpose of God Almighty. Everything. All things are under
His rule, under His authority, under His ruling and bidding. So when it says here, I have
chosen thee, Israel, my servant, then he says,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend, thou
whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee
the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, thou art my servant,
I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. And here's what I
wanna get to here in this verse 10. Fear thou not. Do you look in the mirror sometimes
and you think to yourself, am I truly saved? How could I have
thought that thought? How could I have gotten so angry
or let that thought go through my mind? How can I see myself
as being saved as the worm that I am? Our Lord says to you and I, if
we belong to Him, fear not, and I'll show you why here. This
is why. Fear not, for I am with thee. Have you ever thought to yourself,
Lord, where are you? Where can you be, Lord? How can
this thing be plaguing me in this world? How can I be in a
situation with this person or with a loved one? Where are you? Where were you, Lord, when I
lost my loved one? Maybe, maybe, just maybe, in
the weakness of the flesh, our dear sister Roberta is going
through that very thing. Where were you, Lord? Here's
my rock, and he's gone. I know for a fact, I know for
a fact our dear sister Shelby has gone through this very thing.
Shelby Fortner, when the Lord took him from this world, Lord,
where are you? What am I going to do? Our Lord says, fear not. I am
with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. Don't you love the scriptures
where it says, I will be their God and they will be my people? He says this next, I will strengthen
thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. That surely cannot be talking
about anything John can do. That surely cannot be talking
about anything that you could do. That has to be talking about
something outside of us. First off, what could I do to
hold you up? What could I do to hold myself
up? Oh, I'm just going to put that
out of my mind. I'm just going to pay no attention to it. I'm
going to ignore it. No, it keeps coming back, doesn't it? Our
Lord promises you and I that He will uphold us with the right
hand of His righteousness. Well, we know that God Almighty,
God the Father, He's righteous beyond anything that we can even
imagine. He's so holy, we can't even picture what He would look
like. He's so holy, we can't even imagine! We can't even imagine what the
Father We can go off of what He says in His Word. He's the
Father. He's God, the Creator of all that is. But we can't
even imagine the holiness of Him. So what is He talking about? His righteousness. He's talking
about the One that He sent. The very One that He prepared
a body for. That we read in Hebrews chapter
9. The very One that He said, shall save my people. Who is that? Jesus Christ the
Lord, the Son of God. What is the right hand of my
righteousness? You know, I've got some notes
that I've put down on a piece of paper that the right hand,
I did a word search in the computer, the right hand, I'll just share
a couple of them with you, the right hand of power, Matthew
26, verse 64. The right hand of God. Mark 16,
verse 19. Exalted by the right hand of
God. Acts 2, verse 32. Jesus standing
at the right hand of God the Father. Acts 7, verse 55. Romans
8, verse 34. Christ died. was risen and now stands at the
right hand of God the Father. The armor of righteousness in
2 Corinthians. Ephesians 1.20, God set Christ
at His own right hand. Colossians 31, Hebrews 1.3, 10,
12, and 12.2, the right hand of power looking unto Jesus who
is sat down at the right hand of God Almighty. This is the
righteousness of God, Jesus Christ the Lord. How is God going to
uphold us? How is He going to strengthen
us? Well, it says there in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 10, He's going
to uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, His
righteousness. That means that there's nothing
we need to do, folks. That means that we need to rest
in Him. Rest in what He's going to do
for us. We were talking in Bible study about how Isaac, Jacob's
father, he didn't rest in the Lord when he thought he was going
to bless his son Esau, did he? No, in fact, he sent Esau out
to go get some meat. And Rebecca overheard that he
was about to bless his son Esau. And she remembered the promise
of God. Isaac knew the promise of God. He knew that Jacob would
be the one served by his older brother. He knew that the blessings
of God were to go to his son Jacob, yet he didn't wait on
the Lord to prove it. He was going to bless his son
Esau. He sent him out. And despite what Isaac was thinking,
God's purpose was served. God's purpose was upheld by the
hand of his righteousness. Turn, if you would, to Philippians
chapter 3. You know, actually hold up for
a moment on that. If you're already there in Philippians
3, mark your page there. I want to go to John chapter
6 first. John chapter 6. We're going to come to the table. We're going to take a piece of
bread, an unleavened piece of bread. And we're going to remember what
the Lord did on the cross in supplying His body. We're going
to eat a piece of bread that is a picture. There's nothing
holy about the bread. There's nothing. You can eat
it. You can go home and eat the whole
tray of bread if you want, and it's not going to do you any
good. It's not going to do anything for you, but hopefully God will
move in your heart to do something, and that is to remember who it
is that saved His people and the body that was given to Him.
We're going to eat of His flesh pictorially. A picture. We're going to drink the cup
of wine. A picture of the blood that was
shed on that cross. A picture of the blood that the
cost of sin had to be shed for the cost of sin. It's called
atonement. payment was made. Here in John
chapter 6, we read these words beginning
at verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I
will give you is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of
the world." Now, look over at verse 54. Whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed, and he that eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. And this is that bread which
came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and
are dead. He that eateth this bread shall
live forever." Now after hearing that very thing, after hearing
those words over in verse 66, we see where many, many of his
disciples went back and walked no more with him. And then in
verse 67, then said Jesus unto them, twelve, will ye go away? Will ye also go away? And Simon
Peter, answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. Folk, there is only one righteous
that ever walked this earth, and that's the Lord Jesus. There's
only one who we can say was righteous enough, godly righteous enough,
to appease God's wrath, and that's his son, the Lord Jesus. Paul
had been incarcerated for preaching Christ and Him crucified. For
preaching the true Gospel. Preaching the true Gospel, folks,
will always bring judgment and criticism from the outside world. Oh, don't you dare tell me it's
not my choice to come up to the front and accept Christ. I have
to have some part of it. That's what they'll say. Don't
you tell me that grace is free. You have to do something. God
died for everybody. That's what they tell you. That's
what they want you to believe. When you come to the world and
you say, absolutely not. My God is God over everything,
including my will. They say, no, no, no, no. He
doesn't take the free will away from men. That's yours to exercise. Folks, if God leaves us to our
free will, we'll always choose evil. Period. I know this. If God leaves me to myself, I'll
screw it up. I'll choose the wrong thing every
time. But by His grace, He doesn't
leave those that He died to themselves. He's not sitting around waiting
for us to exercise our free will. He's not sitting around waiting
for us to come down to the front of the altar. He's coming to
us right where we are and cutting out that old heart that says,
I will not let you rule over me. And that's what we all did. Everyone was rejecting. the true and living God. If you
stand up for the true and living God, the truth of God's Word,
they'll reject you. They'll put you down. They'll
turn from you, just like they did to Paul. They put him in
prison, just like they did to all of his disciples. All of
his apostles. What did they say that was so
hateful to the world? You don't have any control of
it. Don't you tell me I don't have any control of it. I work hard to earn my self-righteousness. I wear the nice clothes. I wrap
myself in the beads. I swing the lanterns of smoke. I go to church on Sundays. I
pray in my house all the time. Don't you tell me I don't have
rule over what I do. I'm not telling you that. God
is telling you that. Through His Word, You don't do
anything but evil. There are none good. No, not
one. Isn't that what His Word says?
Didn't He say that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God? Those who are outside of Christ
hate Him. And if they hate Him, they're
going to hate you right along with Him. But though we are surrounded,
that's really what we are, aren't we? If you go down that way or
if you go up that way, there's churches all over this road.
Some of you know that the area is called the Bible Belt of Tennessee
and Kentucky. You can go through a town and
there's four churches on every corner. You don't see gas stations
on the corners. They're in the middle of the
block. Why? Because there's churches on all
the corners. Even though we're surrounded
by false religions, self-righteous legalists, our strongest enemy
is still right here inside of us. See, this is the enemy that
John has to face every day when I get up. What do you mean, John? How are you an enemy? The things that dwell in this
flesh, the things that bother me most in this world, are right
here inside of me that are against my God. Can you remember a time
in your life when that wasn't there? Do you remember when that
didn't bother you? I'm thankful for what bothers
me now. I'm thankful that sin that I
commit in this flesh bothers me today. Because that tells
me that God's doing a work in me. See, He doesn't do that work
in everybody. He doesn't convince everybody
that they're sinners. Many get up out of the churches
today and they walk out the door thinking, I'm okay. I quit smoking. I don't cuss anymore. I don't
look at those pictures anymore. I don't do this. We've been talking
a lot about those folks lately, haven't we? The holier the now.
See how holy I am? I go to church on Sundays. Our
strongest enemy is self. Pride. Oh, look. Did you see what I just did?
I just knocked that ball right down the middle of the fairway.
Woo! Man, I'm good. Our pride, our self-worth, our
thorn in our side. How about unbelief? Oh, I can't believe God would
do that. I can't believe that the Lord
would save a man like me. That's my biggest part of unbelief. How could the Lord save a man
like me? He saved a man like Paul. He
saved a man like David. He saved a man like Abraham. Turn now, if you would, over
to Philippians 3. Our Lord is sending us help. And that help comes through His
Son, the Lord Jesus, the right hand of righteousness. God's
right hand of righteousness. Those who are blessed that we
read about in Matthew chapter 5, let me just turn over there
while you're turning to Philippians. In Matthew chapter 5, what did
we read over there? Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they They shall obtain mercy. Who are these
blessed? These who are blessed that are
spoken of in Matthew 5 are those who have had the truths of what
they are before a thrice holy God revealed it to them. Meekness
does not come natural to mankind. Lowliness is not a natural thing
for any of us. Have you ever heard of Mother
Teresa? Do you know she's a sinner just
like you and I? She's a very humble woman. She's
done great things while God had her on this earth. Feeding the
poor, taking care of the lowly. But folks, she is no different
than you and I when it comes to standing before God. We have
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. If a person's
heart is not for Christ, the true Christ of Scriptures. All
that that person may do, no matter how good, no matter how meek,
is nothing but sin. The natural man or woman will
take pleasure in their meekness. They'll take pleasure in their
lowliness. It's not our nature, it's our
very nature to feel righteous about what we do, or at least
in our own minds. Many put great trust in what
they think is faith. My faith is this, or so, or I
must be saved. I have repented, so I must be
saved. I've made a decision, so I must be saved. I've been
baptized, so I must be saved. I've come to the front and given
myself to God, so I must be saved. They come up with all kinds of
things conjuring up in their own imagination as a way that
seems right to them, and I'm telling you, by God's Word, it
will lead us all to hell. There's only one way, and it's
told to us in John 14, verse 6. The Lord says, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. You're not going to come to the
Father by going off and reading the Bible under some tree in
the woods. You're only going to come to
the Lord by hearing the gospel preached. Whosoever call upon
Me shall be saved. But how are you going to call
upon Me if you've never heard of Me? How are you going to believe
in somebody you've never heard of? The Lord has determined the preaching
of His gospel to save His people, and that's by His Word. This verse I just quoted for
you, John 14, 6, it's one of many that brings great joy to
the hearts of God's elect, God's people. We rejoice in the fact
of truth. John 15-16, we read these words,
ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. We rejoice in our
Lord being the author and the finisher of our faith. You know,
when my faith is small, When I'm struggling with that faith
I talked about just a moment ago, the sin in me that rises
up and says, I'm just not sure. I can't put my faith where I
just don't feel sure over there. The Lord reminds me. He reminds me
that whether my faith is the size of a mustard seed or as
large as the tree itself, it's from Him. And it's perfect. And it's all I need at this time.
He says the same thing to Paul in other words. What did Paul
do? Paul went to him three times and said, Lord, remove this thorn
that's in my side. What did the Lord say to him? My grace is sufficient. Isn't that what our faith is?
His grace? Isn't that what faith, believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ according to His Word is? It's faith in
Him? Whosoever believeth in me shall have everlasting life. We rejoice in our Lord being
the author and the finisher of our faith. We rejoice in these
words, salvation is of the Lord. Are you with me here in the third
chapter of Philippians? Look at verse 1 if you would.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, But for you,
it is safe. Paul is saying here, he's beginning
here, he says, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. He's our chief joy. You feeling
down on something? You being bothered by something
in the world or within? Remember this. Christ died for
you. Christ gave Himself for you,
and if He gave Himself for His people, how shall He not give
us all things? We may not have all things that
we want right at this moment, but folks, there's a day coming.
A day coming when the Lord's going to take us out of this
world. And we're going to have Christ, and He is all things. He's our greatest joy. In the
greatness of His own person, that He's God Almighty in the
flesh? He's our chief joy because we know that everything He's
done was perfect and all that He did? When the Bible says that
He knew no sin, we know that He knew no sin because He's God
in the flesh? Didn't that bring joy to your
heart? This One who laid down His life for His people is God
in the flesh? It's got to be done right if
He is. There's nothing that could Move
His purpose if He is. If He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, don't we have joy in that as well?
Knowing because who it is that says it? He's our chief joy in the fitness
of His incarnation, bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.
He's our great joy in the sufficiency of His righteousness and His
atonement. He's our great joy in the comforts
of His providence and purpose, and He's our great joy in the
glory of His intercession for His people on His throne. You ever be in a situation where
you think to yourself, oh, oh, John. Why did you say that? Oh, John. Why are you thinking that? Do you know our Lord is sitting
on His throne right now? And He says to the accuser, I paid for that. Does that bring
joy to you? Does that lighten up your heart
just a little bit, thinking, oh, what a blessed Savior. That's what we're to do when
we come to the table. We're to remember, despite all the things
that we may do in this world, you know, it didn't matter. It
didn't matter that Abraham did not wait on the Lord. The Lord's purpose was still
done. Did you ever stop about it and
think about that? You know, he didn't wait for that promised
son. He went and slept with the handmaiden
of his wife. Sarah. And they had another son. One that's not even mentioned
as his son in Scripture, but one who came before Isaac, the
promised. His name was Ishmael. Despite what Abraham did, God's
purpose was accomplished. Despite what David did with Bathsheba,
and sending her husband to the front line to be killed, despite
what you do, God's purpose is accomplished. For He's not God. Paul says to write these same
things to you is not tiresome. as it does for Paul and all of
God's chosen preachers, it's not tiresome for us to repeat
the Gospel over and over and over again. It's not tiresome
for me to stand before you again today after standing before you
on Friday night or Sunday morning for Bible study and preach to
you Christ and Him crucified. Because that's what God says
feeds His sheep and comforts His people. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord, your warfare is accomplished. How? By the right hand of His
righteousness, the Lord Jesus. Verse 2, we read these words,
beware of dogs. You know, I stand before you
And I warn you about those who preach lies, like those who say,
just come down here to the front. Just come down here and turn
yourself over to God, and he will save you. I warn you about those things.
My mom used to hate that. That was the biggest thing she
hated about Gene Harmon. was that he was so bold to tell
you that that church across the street is nothing but a goat
barn and the people there are going to hell unless God does
something for them. Our Lord says right here in his
word. Are you reading this with me?
Beware. If it's good enough for the Lord
to give us warning, shouldn't we as pastors and ministers do
the same? Beware of those who tell lies.
God is not saving people through lying. He tells the truth. Everything about Him is truth.
His salvation is about truth. What did I read back there? Let
me go back to that. That was a good verse there.
What is it? I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you want life, you're not
going to hear it through lies. What was it that Peter said?
He said, Lord, where are we going to go? You have the words of
life. Where are we going to go? This
is exactly what God is doing for us here. He's telling us,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision,
for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, Paul says in verse 4, and folks, I'll tell you,
if anybody had the right, if anybody had the right to say,
I've done things that are worthy of being saved in the flesh,
it would be those very Jews who rose up to be the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the Scribes. They were about the most religious,
holier-than-thou people that ever walked this earth. And Paul
was right there with them. He thought he was fulfilling
the law perfectly and had no idea that he wasn't until God
showed him. He says there in verse 4, Though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he that He hath where He might trust in the flesh,
I have more. I'm more. And then He tells us
in verses 5 and 6, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as
touching the law of Pharisee. Did you know that God didn't
give the law to the world? He gave it to His people, didn't
He? He gave it to His people to bring us to His Son. to teach
you and I that we cannot keep it. We need a righteousness,
folks, that cannot be produced by anything in this flag. We
need the righteousness of God, and that is his son, the Lord
Jesus. We need Christ. We need Christ and him crucified.
We need one who has put away our sin, one who knew no sin
at all, one who never sinned the entire time He was on this
earth, to be made our sin. You know, over in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, I quote this for you often. We talk about it often,
but I want to read this correctly for you. It says, For He hath
made Him, that's speaking of God the Father, He hath made
him. And then if you've got a King
James version of this Bible, you'll see in italics, to be. And that's not supposed to be
there. That was added thinking that, oh, this will help you
understand it a little better. The original language puts it
this way. He says, he hath made him sin. I don't understand that. There's a lot of guys who can
try to explain it to you. God help. I can't. I can't explain
something that I don't understand. I don't understand how God became
flesh. I don't understand how God, who
is so perfect in everything that He's ever done, could become
flesh sin. Could be made sin. But notice
what it says after that. He had made sin for us, who knew
no sin, speaking of Christ, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." There's the righteousness of God, once again, the very
One who walked this earth, perfect and righteous in everything that
He did. Let's go on, shall we? Verse 7, or verse 6, I never
got to verse 6, did I? Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,
but what things were gained to me, Paul writes, those I counted
lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I counted all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ." Now here's what
I want to bring us to here in Philippians. And being found
in Him. We're to beware. Not just of
those who preach and teach circumcision or any other kind of worse concision
against the gospel, but those things within us. Beware of what
you're capable of in the flesh. Examine yourself, it says. Am
I in the faith? Am I putting all my rest in Him?
Folks, this is something we don't do just once. We do it over and
over and over again. The more we stay in God's Word,
the more we can see that it's His grace being gracious to us,
not our works. Not something I have done. I
can't do anything. Thank God. He has done it all. He is my all in all. In Colossians
3.11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all
in all. Verse 10, that I may know Him. Did I finish nine? No, I did
not. And being found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness of God, the righteousness which is of God
by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death. This is my determined purpose,
writes Paul, my one desire, my soul and heart's sincere hope,
and I pray that it is with you as well. I pray that your hearts
desire this as well, that we may win Christ and be found in
him, not trusting or having any self-achieved righteousness of
our own, not having any righteousness in our works or in our deeds,
but possessing the genuine righteousness of God, which comes through faith
in Christ. That holiness and perfect righteousness
which He gives to His own. Listen to Colossians 1, verses
21-22. that were sometime alienated
in enemies in your own mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present
you holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight." Look
over at chapter 4 of Philippians. Turn over to chapter 4 and look
with me at verse 1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the
Lord, my dearly beloved. Now go down to verse 4. Rejoice
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation,
your self-control, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord
is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request
be named known unto God. And the peace of God which passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ. Stand fast in the righteousness
which is of God. Beware. Beware. Stand fast. Look at verses Look
at verse 9 once again if you would with me in Philippians
chapter 3 and then we'll come to the table. And be found in
him not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith.