You know, you've heard all of
your lives that you've heard preachers say, and I'm sorry
to say it, I've said it too, but it's been umpteen years ago,
I hope, that if a person says amen, it's
like saying sickum to a dog. Well, I don't believe that necessarily. The tragedy is sometimes people
say amen when they ought not to say amen. We were visiting
this family in the wee hours of yesterday morning. He said,
one thing I detected, Brother Beth, he said, I noticed you
were giving some things tonight. And he said, they were saying
amen before you even finished. They didn't know what you were
going to say. Now do you see what I'm talking about? I love
that worship is a serious business. Serious business. You say, well,
I didn't know you were going to do all that. Well, I get strung
out sometimes, so you'll have to bear with me. Let's look at
the two verses and try to be practical about some important
things. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. I want to stop there for
a moment. Did you know there is much controversy
over that phrase from face to face? I said there is much controversy.
There are at least, I suppose, six different interpretations
of that one little phrase from face to face. I'm not going to
answer that tonight. We'll do this next Lord's Day
in connection with our message on the last phrase of the 17th
verse, that just shall live by faith. The barium that is in
the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. I am not going to spend time
this evening reviewing what I gave this morning except to give the
definition of righteousness, and then we'll pick up with the
second point where we left off this morning. The word righteousness,
as I said, means perfect obedience to the law of God in thought,
word, and deed, without omission. The expression which is found
many times in the Book of Romans, the righteousness of God, is
the righteousness provided by God which satisfies God. By this righteousness, the elect
of God are brought into right relationship with God. With those statements before
us, we will now continue our study. This morning, we spent
the entire time discussing Paul's negative statement, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. I hope some of the things that
we said this morning will be helpful to us in these apostate
days in which we live. Now, taking up the second point,
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I won't spend
too much time on this point tonight because I have already made some
statements about the 16th verse concerning the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ that will suffice, I hope. Therefore, it will not
be necessary for us to expand very much on that which I've
already given. In commenting just a little bit
in order to get to the third and final point of this particular
message, we should ever think of our message not of its rejection. Let us ever think of the message
that God has committed to us and not of its rejection. The message is power only as
being the record of power. The gospel is powerful, but the
message is power only as being the record of power. The real
energy rests in none other than Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Paul's thought was that high
above all other manifestations of the divine energy rises the
strange paradox, the omnipotence of God declared in weakness. Now think about that for a moment.
Let me repeat it. I said Paul's thought was that
high above all other manifestations of the divine energy, divine
power, rises the strange paradox, the
omnipotence of God declared in weakness. The gospel is not the word of
command, as we gave you some illustrations of this last Wednesday
evening. It is the word of the gospel, the word of the gospel. Do not
equate salvation, that is presented in Romans 116, with regeneration. They're not synonymous terms.
Salvation is negative and positive. It is deliverance from evil,
and, beloved, it is endowment with good. The hearts of your pastor and
his wife were wrung out this past week as a result of this
lengthy conversation, and I'm trying to be helpful in using
these things that we have encountered recently as illustrations. Beloved, it is a tragedy when
persons are in places of leadership whose lives are full of things
that bring reproach upon the cause of Jesus Christ. I was asked the question the
other evening, do you believe in church discipline and do you
practice church discipline in the church? I said, we surely
do. It is the most difficult thing to do in the Lord's work,
but we do our best to do it. This person said, the man with
whom I was talking, we began the little church, of course
the church actually had a wrong beginning, I told you that, a
year ago, and that's the reason it went under. I said, after he'd asked me some
questions about church discipline, He said, you know, we were taught
at the beginning about the importance of discipline, but he said we
could not practice it if without beginning
with a pastor and his wife. What a tragedy. What a tragedy. Let me use another
illustration. My insurance man called me about
three weeks ago and asked me if I knew a certain preacher,
and I said, yes, I know him. He said he had just resigned. He left his wife for another
woman. And he said, it is known throughout
the church And he said he told me he was
going into the insurance business. You know, that's another type
of ministry that men get into when they get in those kind of
jails. And so he had asked him about the insurance business. I noticed
in the paper, not only yesterday, but Sunday is a week ago, I mean
Saturday is a week ago, where this person has started a Bible
class, and I heard about it when I was out with this church this
last week, heard more about it. But this pastor has started a
Bible class in the Marriott Motel on Highway 45, and 200, follow
me now, 200 of the members have followed him to help him build
a church. Don't you know he can preach
a strong, convicting message on adultery? Beloved, that grieves my heart.
That shows us that all kinds of things are happening today,
and some people will follow anything, anything. Salvation is negative and positive. It delivers us from evil, but
at the same time we are endowed with good. On the way to church
tonight, my wife and I were talking, and a thought came to my mind,
and I want to pursue it. I can see a great avenue of study
here. Grace regulates the recipient. You know, we talk about When
man fell, he fell all the way, all the way into the basement.
I want you to know that when grace enters the life of a person,
we'll begin that with the mind. His thinking is changed, it's
regulated. Beloved, I'm speaking some things
that we need to take to heart, that all of us who are the recipients
of grace know by experience. Our thinking is different. If
our thinking is not different, then we do not possess grace. So we begin with the highest
part of man. As a result of man thinking differently,
his affections are adjusted to his thinking. Does this make
sense? Can you see what's involved? are his affections adjusted to
his thinking, but his actions are adjusted to his affection.
That's already a message that I just got coming to church and
I just gave you this outline of it now. Beloved, this is the
teaching of God's Word. So salvation is negative as well
as positive. Deliverance from evil, but at
the same time endowment with good. If salvation doesn't make better
persons out of us, then we're wasting our time preaching, and
we're made better persons now, and we continue to improve with
the grace of God until full perfection in the kingdom. Salvation is a process. There
are three aspects of salvation. Number one, you're familiar with
this, but I'll repeat it. saved from the dominion of sin. Number two, saved now from the
power of sin. And number three, eventually
we shall be saved from the presence of sin. I don't believe that
a person who possesses grace goes from a higher level of living
to a lower living and living in the basement. But today, religionists are trying
to justify all the ungodly actions of people. We're talking about
the righteousness of God tonight, and being clothed with God's
righteousness. And this righteousness with which
we are clothed is revealed in the gospel. Now we come to the
third point. The gospel is a revelation. of
God's righteousness. You remember this morning at
the beginning I gave a statement, we'll enlarge on it tonight,
in the development of the third portion. I quoted one of the
writers of the past who said, if the righteousness that is
revealed in the gospel is that righteousness which God's righteous
character required him to require, it is also that provision which
his own pity prompted him to provide." Oh, what a place! I
want you to know I could quote that every day and I did not
get old, I mean, because of the truth it contains. Now we'll
enlarge on that in the development of the third point tonight. There
are passages in God's words where the righteousness of God is best
explained as the essential character of a divine being. I'm not going to give a list
of those references. This can be determined by you
as you read and study the scriptures. There are other passages where
the qualifying phrases point to something different than God's
essential character, and this is what we have in Romans 117. It is true that the eternal righteousness
of God and the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, the believer,
have a close connection. But the transition of thought
from one to the other is not difficult to be detected. While
the righteousness which God imputes has its foundation in the righteous
character of God, yet Someone has said, quote, they must not
be embraced as being the same, end of quote. That's true. The righteousness that is revealed
in the gospel, Romans 117, is the special display of God's
righteousness, righteousness in the redemptive work accomplished
by Jesus Christ his Son. Someone has said, and I quote,
we'll get to some preaching material here in a moment, thus the state
of acceptance into which the believer is represented as inducted
is a state of fellowship with God. Therefore, the conditions
of being accounted righteous are such as God's perfect character
demands. Now, I want to discuss the last
point will be denied under five different headings. Actually,
this is a message all of its own. I affirm that the righteousness
of Romans 117 is not what many say it is. First of all, some say it is
God's attribute of justice. Some say it is God's attribute
of justice. Now, I want to show you what
the consequences of that would be. First of all, the mere attribute
of justice did not affect our salvation. Of itself, the justice of God
would have condemned every one of us. Do you see that? This
is the law of condemnation. The holy law of God doesn't provide
salvation for us. The holy law of God condemns
us before our righteous and holy God. Therefore, for any person
to say that this righteousness of Romans 117 refers to God's If that be true, I must say,
that the mere attribute of justice would condemn us. Because we're all unjust, and
standing before the just God, the attribute of justice would
condemn every one of us to perdition. The denial of the gospel was
not. The design of the gospel was
not for the principal purpose of evincing God's justice. Now, it is included in it, as
I'll show you in a few moments, but I'm trying to clear some
underbrush away in order that we might see the real truth of
the righteousness of God that has been provided for us in the
death of Jesus Christ. I said the design of the gospel
was not for the principal purpose. And I'm emphasizing the word
principle of inventing God's justice. It does that, but it
does more than that. There was more in the design
of the gospel than justice, even though justice was included there. Now I'd like to expand on that
thought for a moment. The historical facts revealed
in the gospel constitute the righteousness of God which came
when Jesus Christ came, and during the time he lived here on the
earth, and finally his vicarious Atonement on the cross. Now,
the facts reveal how God, number one, hates sin. The facts reveal in the reveal,
first of all, how God hates sin. Why did Jesus Christ die? Because God hates sin, that's
why he died. He's so holy he can't even look
upon his Habakkuk 113. Number two, he loves the elapsed. I want to show you now the different
truths that are involved in the righteousness of God. So these
facts, first of all, reveal God's hatred for sin. Number two, God's
love for the elect. Number three, God forgives the
select sinners without condoning their sin. God doesn't condone
the sin of the elect. He condemns the sin. the elect sinners without condoning
their sins. Number four, he has communion
with those whom he regenerates by the Spirit of God without
being contaminated. Isn't it wonderful that the Holy
God can have communion with you and me tonight even though we
are imperfect and yet he is not contaminated by having fellowship
and communion with us? Beloved, that should break our
hearts. humble us in the dust before the righteous and holy
God. And number five, he will share
the kingdom with the redeemed without defiling the kingdom. In other words, we're not going
to defile the kingdom and he's going to share it with us. So
you see, as I have tried to enlarge upon that statement, the design
of the gospel, was not for the principal purpose of inventing
God's justice, that was more in the design of the gospel than
justice, even though justice was included. And so the gospel
is made up of many facets, one of which is God's hatred for
sin, and to his love for the elect three, he forgives the
elect sinners without condoning their sins. Number four, he has
communion with us without his being contaminated. And number
five, we will share the kingdom with him without contaminating
the kingdom, because we will then be perfect, and not until
then. Now, beloved, that isn't negative,
that's positive proof. Can you rejoice in that? Can you rejoice in that? I believe
so, as redeemed person. Now, others say that the righteousness
of God, of Romans 117, is God's goodness that the gospel redeems. This is a departure from Paul's
argument. It is a departure from the meaning
of the word righteousness. I gave you the meaning of the
word righteousness. It is perfect obedience to the law in thought,
word, and deed without omission. Now, the study of this subject
has led me into another avenue of study as a result of my previous
studies on the impeccable Christ, and then as a result of the confrontation
I had with these two young ladies I told you about yesterday. Now,
I was not angry with them. And, beloved, when you and I
can get to the place where we can really be angry to the extent
that we want to do something drastic, do something wrong,
they're blind. And you don't just go around
kicking a blind person. You pity them, regardless of how they
might act. There is pity, deep down in your
heart, there is pity for the blindness which they possess. Let's look at this point for
a moment. I said this is a departure from
Paul's argument. If love or goodness had been
the design than the word mercy or goodness would have been used
rather than the word righteousness. Have you thought about that?
He speaks of the righteousness of God that's been provided for
us. He didn't use either the word mercy or the word grace.
He didn't use the word goodness or he didn't use the word mercy.
He used the word righteousness. Beloved, it cannot mean what
many religionists advocate, that is, a higher degree of the same
righteousness that is in man in a lower degree. Our Lord taught,
except your righteousness, speaking to the Pharisees and scribes,
exceed, he made a statement to the disciples, except your righteousness
exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, he shall in no case
enter into the kingdom. And you know the Apostle Paul
in Philippians chapter 3 talked about the righteousness that
he had of the law, he possessed, but he said, O that I might be
found in Christ not having that righteousness which is of the
law. Philippians 3, verses 8 and 9. So the righteousness which God
requires must exceed the righteousness of man. The righteousness of
man is nothing but filthy rags, Isaiah 64, verse 6. So the righteousness
which men seek to establish is one founded on their own and
the righteousness which God requires is that provided in the death
of Jesus Christ his son. Now we come to another thought.
The righteousness of Romans 117 is a righteousness that comes
to man on a basis that is totally apart from any standards raised
by man. I repeat, The righteousness of
Romans 117 is a righteousness that comes to man on a basis
that is totally apart from any standards raised by man. This revealed righteousness means
something more than a mere disclosure to human apprehension. It is
a righteousness revealed in action and operation. It simply means that when a person
is right with God, when he's reconciled to God, he is reconciled
to the ways of God. Isn't that simple? If he's reconciled
to God, he's reconciled to the ways of God. It is dynamically brought to
bear upon the elect of God Thus it is the power of God on to
salvation. The revelation of God's righteousness
does not make the recipients partakers of the essential righteousness
of God. That's heresy. But I want to
show you the beauty of this righteousness. God's righteousness does not
become ours. I'm talking about God's essential
righteousness does not become ours. The righteousness provided
for us in the death of Jesus Christ is imputed to us, and
God's righteousness that has been wrought out for us on the
cross of Calvary is placed to our account in such a way that
God looks upon us as being righteous before him. That's what Paul meant in writing
to the Corinthians when he said, for him who knew no sin was made
to be sin, or it's an offering that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So it has been so placed on our
account that we are looked upon as being righteous and treated
as such because we are accepted in the blood. It is God's plan
for forgiving us of our sins and for treating us as if we
had not committed sins. Isn't that humbling? Now another thought we must develop.
Since righteousness is perfect to the law of God, I said perfect
obedience to the law of God in thought, word, and deed, then
I want to raise the question, how could Jesus Christ have fulfilled
that righteousness if he was tempted in the same manner that
men are tempted? Now here's a new avenue of approach.
that you can add to the work of the impeccability of Christ.
Now I'll demonstrate this thought. And this came to my mind and
I could not help but enlarge upon it after the confrontation
I had yesterday with those two young people. Baptist young people who did
not know no evidence whatsoever of grace and out yet smiling
and doing their religious work. And I'm not going to repeat what
I said this morning. I don't want to give them that much publicity.
But now let's think about it. I've given to you the biblical
definition of righteousness. It means perfect obedience in
thought, word, and deed. Now I'll ask you a question.
If Jesus Christ had the capacity to sin, if he was tempted in
all points as men, as the affirmed, and went on to say, I guess she
thought if he had been here he would have looked at her and
desired to have a relationship with her. Poor ignorant young
girl. Because I asked the question,
you mean to tell me that she used the word Jesus and I used
Jesus Christ? You mean to tell me that he had
such weakness within him that he could look upon a woman and
lust after her? She said, yes. Oh, I was horrified. All right, if that be true, now
think about this. In order for Jesus Christ to
work out a righteousness for you and me, a righteousness that
would clothe us and make us acceptable before God, Jesus Christ, first of all, had
to die for what we have done, number one. I'm reviewing something
to get to a main point. Number two, he had to die for
what we have not done. And number three, in order to
complete that redemption, he would have to die for what we
are. Now, beloved, if he had evil
thoughts, he could not fulfill that last requirement. I want you to see that. I said,
if, and I challenge the world to refute this statement, if,
I said, Jesus Christ was tempted in the same manner that we were
tempted. You see, the poor girl didn't know the meaning of the
word temptation. I said, did you know the word is used in more
than one way in the scripture? She didn't know, of course. And
I didn't take the time to try to explain it to her. I tried
to stay on something that I thought maybe she could see. But if Jesus
Christ looked upon a woman with lust in his heart, but did not
submit, then if that be true, I said, then he could not fulfill
the requirement of dying for what we are. He could die for what we have
done because he was perfect in his deeds. He could die for what we have
not done because he was perfect in his deeds. and he could die for what we
are because he never had an evil thought, there was no evil within
him, there was no weakness within him that could have responded
to any attraction by sin outside of himself. They don't have a savior. You say you're getting technical,
but this is doctrine. This is the truth of Jesus Christ,
and we'd better see Him as the Holy Scriptures present Him.
And the only persons who love Him, really love Him devotedly,
are those who see Him for the person He really is. In the winepress of suffering,
Jesus Christ stood alone. No one could assist Him. in this
mighty work of redemption. Thus, righteousness was provided
by God. Man has no part whatsoever in
this righteousness provided by God. That which satisfies God
must be provided by God. It is just that simple. Now let's
go a step further. In the application of this righteousness to those whom the Father gave
to the Son, the Holy Spirit stands alone. I said Jesus Christ stood
alone when he suffered on the cross. No one assisted him in
his redemptive work. He stood alone. That righteousness
was provided by God. without the assistance of any
individual, without the assistance of any creature. In the application
of this righteousness, this righteousness that is revealed in the gospel,
the Holy Spirit stands alone. No one assists him in the work
of regeneration. Now, coming to church this morning,
I heard something that will help me to simplify this I was listening
to a Church of Christ minister, heard about the last 12 minutes
of this message. Last Sunday and today, he was
exposing the charismatic movement. And he was doing a splendid job
of it, believe me. He gave some great things. In
fact, I told my wife on the way, now that doesn't mean that I
endorse the Camelot doctrine, it's heresy as a whole. But he
was saying some good things on this particular point. So he
made some statements, and I appreciated them so much, I told Juanita,
I said, copy those down. And she copied them down. Now
listen to this. In order to refute his, that
is, the view that many hold concerning the charismatic movement, he
made this statement. He said that faith is not necessary
for Christ to perform miracles. He said, now, the way that these
so-called divine heeders get out of their predicament is that
whenever there is failure, they say, well, the person just didn't
have faith. Well, I've exposed it in this manner. Listen now.
But he gave some good statements. And then he gave many illustrations
in the Bible, and I've done this when I taught about two years
ago. I gave a series of messages on this very thing. And I've
gone through the New Testament, I'll not take time to do that
tonight. But there are many instances in the scriptures where the Lord
Jesus Christ healed individuals and they had no faith. So it
is not necessary for a person to have faith in order to assist
Jesus Christ in the performance of a miracle. And that is biblical
That is a biblical statement. It's in keeping with the harmony
of God's Word. But I'll show you what it is. After elaborating
on that, after disproving the charismatic or the charismatic,
as he called it last Sunday, he turned right around, don't
you see something? He turned right around, he had
just made the statement that faith is not essential in the
performance of a miracle by Jesus Christ, and then concluded his
message. You know where I'm going, don't
you? I want you to see how inconsistent heresy is. Turned right around
and said, but, you know right there, he wanted to be opposed
with his little doctrine. He said, in order to be saved,
you've got to believe. Now let me stop you a moment.
Is the new birth a miracle? I'm asking you a question. Is
the new birth a miracle? It is a miracle. It is just as
great a miracle as the Lord Jesus raising someone from the dead
physically or restoring sight to the blind or someone who was
blind and so forth. Regeneration is a miracle. Now
if it did not take faith to assist the Lord Jesus in performing
a physical miracle, yet he turns right around and in closing he
says, but you've got to believe, you've got to repent, you've
got to confess, and you've got to be baptized in order to be
saved, to be born again. In other words, he doesn't take for the Lord Jesus to perform
a physical miracle, but it does take faith in order for the Lord
to accomplish the miracle of regeneration. Now that's real
consistency, isn't it? It doesn't take faith to regenerate
a person, it takes faith to convert a person. A dying woman was asked the question,
by Charles, I think Charles Haddon Spurgeon asked this woman the
question, he was visiting her. He said, upon what are you resting
for salvation? The dying woman replied, I have
taken the sacraments regular for 50 years. Spurgeon was using this as an
illustration in one of his sermons. Then he showed, oh, how awful
it is for a person to rest his sole salvation upon regular attendance
at church, or participating at the Lord's
table, or, as this woman said, I have been taking the sacraments
regularly for 50 years." He said, you know, whenever a person is
resting his soul's salvation on something like that, he is
going to wake up to find out. He'll wake up to find out. And he used a word that we do
not usually use today, but I would use the word balloon, or an inner
tube or something. He thinks that he'll be able
to flow through eternity on that balloon. But he said it'll be
punctual and it'll let him down. He ain't a person who seeks to
rest his salvation on the mere sacraments of a church. Beloved,
it is the righteousness of God that has been provided by Jesus
Christ when he died on the cross, he suffered alone. He suffered
alone. And as he stood alone in accomplishing
salvation, in providing righteousness for us, the Holy Spirit stands
alone in the application of that righteousness provided by Jesus
Christ. I close tonight with just asking
you to think very seriously between now and next Lord's Day morning,
about the meaning of the phrase from faith to faith, from faith
to faith. Not long ago I was reading the
work of a man, and he left the impression very clearly, really,
by saying that this refers to the faith of the individual and
then the faith of other individuals responding to what this person
has. So it goes from the faith of the individual to the faith
of another individual. Dr. Barnes in his work on Romans
gives a list of views held by some, and then I think he has
some real excellent things. But I'll share this with you
in closing, from faith to faith. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, as it
is written, the just shall live by faith. In order to arrive
at the true meaning of the phrase from faith to faith, all one
has to do is go back to the book of Habakkuk, because Paul refers
to that verse, he says, as it is written, that just shall live
by faith. So when one studies that text
in the light of all the three chapters, in all three chapters
of Habakkuk, he will see the meaning of the phrase from faith
to faith. I must just go ahead and say
this because I spend most of my time next Lord's Day morning
discussing with you Faith grappled with a problem,
chapter 1, and faith grasped the solution to the problem,
and then faith was victorious over the problem in the last
chapter. I'll tell you that, and I'll
preach. Grappled with the problem, grasped
the solution to the problem, and then manifested a triumphant attitude
as faith was victorious over the problem. But this from faith
to faith, there are two prepositions, ek and ais. So the revelation of righteousness
in Romans 1, 17 presupposes faith. in the sense of believing acceptance
of the gospel. And then this leads to faith
in the sense of saving reliance on Jesus Christ. So revealed
righteousness is unto faith with a view to produce faith. But faith is a progressive principle. I said faith is a progressive
principle. The aim of God's righteousness
is life. The just lives by his faith. And as a person who possesses
life, he enters into the abundant life by the development of his
faith. One man expressed it like this,
he goes from the faith of justification to the faith of sanctification. Now there are some who don't
hold to that view, but we will elaborate on this, and this is
really the teaching of Paul's reference to Habakkuk 2, verse
4. So the true meaning of the statement
from faith to faith can be understood only in the light of Paul's proof
Habakkuk 2, verse 4. Faith grappled with the problem,
faith grasped the solution to the problem, and faith was triumphant
over the problem, from faith to faith.