Brother E.W. Johnson, who pastored
in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for many, many years, pastored Calvary
Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, a good many years ago went to
visit one of the men in his congregation who was dying in the hospital
bed. And before he left, Brother Johnson
said to him, how is it with your soul? And the man looked at him and
said to him, if you've told me the truth, all is well. If you've told me the truth,
all is well. I bear in mind the awesome responsibility
that is mine, speaking to you in God's stead to tell you the
truth in the name of God my Savior. Turn with me, if you will, again
to Romans chapter 4, and I want to talk to you again about righteousness,
specifically the righteousness of faith. Romans chapter 4, we'll
begin our reading at verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pretending to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by works, He hath whereof to glory, but
not before God. For what saith the Scripture?
What saith the Scripture? With regard to all matters spiritual,
with regard to all matters doctrinal, with regard to all matters religious,
nothing matters except this. What saith the Scripture? Doesn't matter what creeds are
written by men. Doesn't matter what men had believed
historically. Doesn't matter what you have
been taught as a child. Doesn't matter what you think
or I think. What saith the scripture? What
does the scripture say that Abraham is found? Abraham believed God. And it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Abraham believed God. and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now unto him that worketh is
the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Verse nine, cometh this blessedness
then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also.
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Verse 13, for the promise that
he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Verse 16, therefore, it is a
faith that it might be by grace to the end. The promise might
be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made
the father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God
who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as
though they were. Who against hope believed in
hope that he might become the father of many nations. According
to that which was spoken so shall thy seed be verse 19 and being
not weak in faith He considered not his own body now dead when
he was about a hundred years old Neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief But was strong in faith giving glory to God and being
fully persuaded That what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed. If we believe on him that raised
up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. The righteousness of faith is
the righteousness Paul speaks of in this portion of scripture.
Here, the Holy Spirit is showing us how sinners are made righteous
before God in free justification. And he uses Abraham as an example
of how sinners are made righteous before God by faith in Jesus
Christ. He takes Abraham because Abraham
is that man held forth in the scriptures as the father of all
who believe. The father of all who believe,
by example, the father of all who believe because he is that
one with whom God made his covenant by which he made his promises
of grace to his Israel, the elect of God, and revealed the covenant
in Abraham. But let's look at this man, Abraham.
Who was he? What kind of man was he? Abraham
was a base idolater. A base idolater. In Ur of the
Chaldees. And the Lord God chose him. God
called Abraham and brought him out of Ur. Out of his idolatrous
religion. Out of his father's house. Out
from among his family and kindred. And revealed himself to him in
covenant mercy. The Lord God came to him and
spoke to Abraham. When he spoke to Abraham, he
gave him a promise. He said, I'm going to make your
seed more numerous than the stars in the sky, more numerous than
the sand of the sea. He revealed to Abraham that he
would give him a son, a son in whom he would be blessed, by
whom he would be blessed, and in whom all the nations of the
world would be blessed. His son, Isaac. spoke of more
than just Isaac. Isaac represented Jesus Christ,
the woman seed who would redeem and save his people. And then
God made this covenant with Abraham. He made himself known to Abraham
in a covenant. The word that Abraham believed
The word spoken to him was not the written word of God. There
were no scriptures written in his day. But rather it was God
the word, Jesus Christ himself who came and gave to Abraham
the word, the revelation of God. And the man who revealed himself
to Abraham in that place in Genesis 12 and again in Genesis 15 is
none other than Jesus Christ the Lord, made known to him in
covenant promise and in sacrifice Again, I remind you the sacrifices
Abraham made those animals later given by law To Moses and the
children of Israel as clean animals for sacrifice Abraham divided
the sacrifices and stood between them Somehow and I don't know
how God made known to Abraham that his son Abraham that one
through whom he would have life everlasting. Jesus Christ the
Lord is God's sacrifice. And Abraham saw himself involved
in the sacrifice. He stood between the pieces of
the carcasses and he drove off the fowls of prey that were destroyed
the sacrifice. He drove them off and an overwhelming
terror of darkness came upon him. Perceiving that the sacrifice
was made because of his sin Made for his sin made for him for
the saving of his soul Abraham believed God Abraham believed
God That's how do you know that Abraham saw all those things
in Genesis 15? Because our Lord says in John
chapter 8 Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad. Abraham understood these things
speak of Christ the Redeemer of my redemption and salvation
in him. What is it that Abraham found?
Abraham found righteousness. What sayeth the scripture? Abraham
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. What is the righteousness that
Abraham obtained? It's called the righteousness
of God in Romans 3. Here in Romans 4, 13, it is called
the righteousness of faith. Now, when we speak of righteousness,
I keep insisting, and I'm going to insist again tonight, you
and I cannot perform righteousness, but do acknowledge, we recognize
and we do acknowledge in scripture God does, in his word, use the
term righteousness, referring to the acts of men. But always,
always, used in that way, the word refers to righteousness
before men, acting right before men. Job spoke of his righteousness. David spoke of his righteousness,
speaking of uprightness and integrity, speaking of their right behavior
before men. But righteousness before God,
no man can perform. The only way sinners, guilty
sinners like you and me and Abraham can be saved is to obtain righteousness. And the only way a sinner can
obtain righteousness is by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. Believe
on the Son of God and righteousness is yours. perfect absolute everlasting
righteousness before God Refuse to believe and you will perish
in your sins and never know the righteousness of God Turn over
to Romans chapter 9 Romans chapter 9 We are made righteous in the
experience of God's grace and When we're given faith in Jesus
Christ, whose name is Jehovah Sidkin, you the Lord, our righteousness,
and there is no righteousness to be obtained, but by faith
in him. Look in Romans nine, verse 30.
Throughout this epistle of Romans, Paul is talking to us about righteousness,
about free justification, about perfect righteousness before
God. Here in Romans 9.30, he says, What shall we say then,
that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith? But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Now let's put
that in shoe leather for us today. The Gentiles, folks who were
irreligious, folks who did not have the Word of God or the Oracles
of God and did not worship God. Folks who worshipped images and
worshipped whatever they conjured up that they thought might be
a representation of God. They obtained righteousness without
the law, without obeying the law, without doing the law. But
Israel, religious folks, Religious people who had the Word of God,
the law of God, the oracles of God, the ordinances of God, folks
like you and me. Religious people who worshipped
in the name of God and called themselves the people of God.
They did not obtain that righteousness which they pretended to seek
after. How come? Look what it says, verse 32.
Wherefore, why didn't they obtain this righteousness? Because they
sought it not by faith. But as it were by the works of
the law, men love works. You do and I do, it's natural
to us. We love to think we're somebody
and we can do something to make ourselves right before God. We
think because we can make ourselves right before men. Because we
can behave in a better manner than other men do, then we must
make ourselves right before God. They sought it not by faith,
but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled
at that stumbling stone, that one who is the foundation upon
which we build, Christ Jesus the Lord. As it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone. and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. If you don't believe
on him, you're going to stumble and fall down and be ashamed.
Verse 1, chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. God is my witness. God is my
witness. I long to see God save sinners
in this day. This generation, the people among
whom we live, not just my family and yours, I long to see people
turn to God in faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. We live in the
most religious, religious generation that's ever existed topside of
God's earth. People give money, hundreds of
thousands, millions of dollars to build churches and cathedrals
and to carry on works of religion all over the world. They're zealous. They're zealous. I don't question
those things. They're zealous. Very zealous. Very devoted. But their zeal
is zeal contrary to knowledge. The zeal of utter ignorance. What are you talking about, Pastor?
They being ignorant of God's righteousness. Being ignorant
of who Jesus Christ is. And what Jesus Christ accomplished,
being ignorant of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law. Christ is the period. Christ
is the finishing point. Christ is the termination of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The law's purpose is to show
us our sin and our need of righteousness. Christ came fulfilling the law
and he puts an end to the law for righteousness because he
is the righteousness of God. I want to be as brief as I possibly
can, and I'm going to give you my message in seven statements.
Nothing new, nothing deep, nothing profound. Very plain, simple,
direct statements about righteousness, the righteousness of faith. First,
understand this. The Lord God Almighty requires
righteousness from you and me. God demands righteousness. He will not accept the best you
can do. He will not accept our best deeds. He will not accept our noblest
efforts. He will not accept our most sincere
obedience. God demands righteousness. Perfect, perfect, perfect righteousness. character righteousness, conduct
righteousness, perfect righteousness. Hear the word of God. I am almighty
God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. God says in his law, with regard
to anything we bring to him, it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. You bring God your prayers. They've got to be perfect. No
blemish. God won't accept. We brought
our gifts this morning, every two, so every Sunday, bring them
to God, give them in the name of Christ. The gifts doesn't
matter whether it's two bites or two billion dollars must be
given with a perfect heart. with no blemish or they're not
accepted. Not accepted. We offer God our
lives in service to him. They must be given in perfection
with no blemish or God won't accept it. We offer God our service. The service must be perfect with
no blemish or God won't accept it. This is what he said. It
shall be perfect. to be accepted. There should
be no blemish therein. Be ye holy for I am holy. God requires this righteousness,
this perfection, this holiness in heart, in character, and in
conduct. The Lord looketh on the heart. He said be ye holy in all manner
of conversation. in every detail of your life. Holy, holy. A preacher, that
shuts me out. And that shuts everybody out.
You're right. If righteousness is to be obtained
by something, you do. You see, you and I cannot produce
righteousness We cannot perform righteousness. And no man will
ever recognize that until he sees the righteousness of God
in Jesus Christ crucified. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6.
Isaiah chapter 6. Man's definition of righteousness
depends entirely upon his understanding of who God is. The problem with
this religious generation is that they have never seen the
holy, righteous, just character of God Almighty. They've never
seen the absolute holiness of God, and no one ever will see
God's holy character, His absolute righteousness, until they see
and understand, as only God can make us to understand, what happened
at Calvary. This is what Isaiah saw, Isaiah
6. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's darling son, Abraham's promise see, the woman see. How
do you know that's what he saw? Read the 12th chapter of John.
Our Lord said that's what he saw. Isaiah saw me. I saw the
Lord sitting On the throne of heaven, exalted high, God's given
him a name above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth. And every tongue confess, this
man who died at Calvary, he is Lord. Over all blessed forever. I saw him high and lifted up
and this king his train filled the temple all The glorious apparel
of the great king filled the temple above it Stood the seraphim's
each one had six wings He's sitting on a throne and above it the
seraphim's The picture is exactly what you had in the holy of holies
in the tabernacle And in the temple, the mercy seat with the
cherubs over the mercy seat facing the altar, facing the mercy seat
and the blood atonement. Here we had the seraphim, each
one facing the other, facing Christ, sitting on the throne.
His throne is a throne of grace. His sovereign throne is the throne,
the mercy seat. And with twain, he covered his
face and with twain, he covered his feet and with twain, he did
fly. And one Seraphim cried to the
other and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Holy,
holy, holy, thrice holy is the thrice holy Jehovah. Holy, holy,
holy. This is who God is. Holy, holy,
holy. So holy that no man can behold
him and not be consumed with the fire of his wrath. The whole
earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. Verse five. Then said I, woe is me. Now I've seen God in his glory. Now I've seen the righteousness
of God. Woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean
lips. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. And everybody around me is just
like I am. I can't help myself, and none
of the people can help me. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand. which he had taken
with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin is purged. And now Isaiah understood righteousness,
the righteousness of God, the righteousness of faith, accomplished
by the doing and dying of the Son of God. I've already touched
on this, but let me remind you, secondly, that you and I have
no righteousness. Whatever the righteousness was
that Adam had in the garden, folks like to debate about what
that righteousness was, whatever it was, he lost it in the garden. And whatever the righteousness
was in which man was created in innocence, we lost it in the
sin and fall of our father Adam. Turn back to Psalm 14, the 14th
Psalm. Now watch what it says. Verse two, the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. And this is what God saw
when he looked down from heaven upon you and me, upon the whole
race of humanity. They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filth. That is by the sin of one man,
by the transgression of one man, by the disobedience of one representative
man, Adam, we all went aside from God. We all at one time
together became filthy. And as a result, there's none
that doeth good, no, not one. This is what our Lord tells us
here in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12 through his servant
Paul. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have
sinned. All men, all women, every infant
born to a woman in this world is born in sin. Born with a depraved
heart and goes astray from the womb speaking lies. All children are born sinners. They're not made sinners by their
environment. They're not made sinners by what
they do. They are born sinners and act
according to their nature. Someone wrote to me this week.
I haven't answered the note yet. I'll get around to it. He said,
I need some scripture to help me show that man doesn't have
a free will. You'll never hear me say man
doesn't have a free will. Oh, no. You have an absolute free
will insofar as your nature is concerned. Men always do what
they want to do. They always do what they want
to do. The problem is your will can't act beyond your nature.
Brother Scott Richardson used to put it as only Scott could.
He said, your will just as free as a frog in a snake's belly.
You can jump around all you want to. You just can't get out. And
men act according to their nature. They choose wickedness. They
choose to act good or to act bad. They choose to do that which
men approve of or that which they disapprove of. They choose
to be kind or choose to be mean according to their nature, according
to the nature. But no man No man will come to
Christ. That doesn't lie within the realm
of possibility. That's contrary to nature. That's
contrary to nature. Because man does nothing but
stray. Man does nothing but rebel. Man does nothing but run from
God. None seeketh after God. Man by
nature has lost all righteousness and all possibility of righteousness
and all who ever knew God acknowledge that. You read the book of God. You read a man named Job and
he said, I've seen you and I've heard you and I abhor myself. I see myself I am before God
You know what a horrid sight I see Daniel said I I just quake
at the thought of what I am Isaiah said woe is me. I'm a man of
unclean lips. I'm undone and I dwell in the
midst of a people of unclean lips David said behold in sin
My mother conceived me I was shaped in the womb in iniquity. Apostle John, when he saw the
Lord, fell on his face, trembling before him until the Lord came
and touched him and lifted him up. We have no righteousness,
but God still demands it. Now, here's this third thing.
Turn to Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. God's own son. The Lord Jesus
Christ. The center substitute. Has established
righteousness. And the Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness sake, because he magnified the law and made
it honorable. The Lord Jesus lived in perfection. He lived in perfection, perfectly
obeying God in character and in conduct. In all his life,
he lived in perfect righteousness. But he didn't do that for himself.
He owed nothing to God's law. He is God. He didn't do that
for himself. He owed no obedience and he owed
no sacrifice. He owed nothing to the law. But
he came here as our surety, as our covenant head, as our representative
to perform righteousness for us. And he performed that righteousness
for us by his obedience unto death. Here in Daniel chapter
9, the prophet Daniel tells us in one brief sentence, what the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah would do when he appeared on
the earth. Now, if you read backgrounds at all to the books of the Bible
and you start to read them, you come to Colossians and you understand
that Paul was doing battle with the Gnostics at Colossae. And
you come to first John, you find out that John was doing battle
with the Gnostics when he wrote the first epistle of John. And
You read that and you scratch your head and you say, well,
I wonder what that was. I wonder what Gnostic heresy was. But
Colossi, the book of Colossians and the book of 1 John were written
to you and to me. It was not just a philosophy
they were doing battle with. The Gnostics denied that Jesus
Christ literally did come in the flesh. They denied that God's
son really became a man and they denied that he really lived on
the earth and that he really died at Calvary. All of those
things were just looked upon as being things by which God
reveals himself to men. But they could not possibly be
real because they insisted that everything physical is sinful
and God could never have been made a man. God could never have
become flesh. God could never have died. God
could never have been made sin. And John sums up the problem
this way. He says concerning Antichrist,
everyone who confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is Antichrist. What's he talking about? What's
he talking about? You read history and you know
Christ came in the flesh. That can't be denied. You read
history, you know Jesus was born in Nazareth. That can't be denied.
Well, what's he talking about? Everyone that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, he's born of God. He's taught
of God. He knows all things from God.
What's that mean? To deny that Christ came in the
flesh is to deny that the man Jesus of Nazareth actually accomplished
Everything God said Messiah would accomplish To confess that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh Charlie's to acknowledge that
that man Jesus of Nazareth who lived here for 33 and a half
years who was crucified at Calvary Buried and rose again the third
day that man who set yonder in glory Actually did everything
the Prophet said he would do now. Let's see what the Prophet
said he would do Daniel 9 24 Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. And to make an end of sins and
to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
This is what Christ did. He took our sins in his own body
on the tree and made an end of sin. He put away our sins by
the sacrifice of himself. He finished the transgression,
brought it to a conclusion. He made reconciliation, made
atonement for iniquity, for our iniquity and transgression and
sin. God became a man, a man who is God, God who is a man,
and he reconciles God and man in the atonement in his shed
blood by satisfying divine justice. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He finished the work of righteousness. He brought in the righteousness
of God. The righteousness for which Abraham
believed God. The righteousness of faith. And
when he did that, he sealed up the vision. All that was written
in the books of the prophets. Genesis to Malachi. He sealed
it all up. All the prophecy. He finished
it. And he Having finished all this,
ascended up on high and sat down God's anointed one, the Messiah,
the king on his throne. This righteousness is the message
of the book. In his life, our Lord Jesus worked
out perfect righteousness for us. But God didn't just demand
obedience. He demanded satisfaction. And
by his death, he made propitiation, satisfaction for our transgressions,
for our sins. Fourth, this righteousness, this
righteousness that Christ brought in is imputed to all who believe,
laid to our account, laid to our charge, made ours. imputed to us. Righteousness
was imputed to Abraham when he believed. This righteousness
made ours from eternity. Christ the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world and God declares us righteous, justified
in him, accepted in the beloved. Our Lord Jesus in time came here
and fulfilled the prophets and satisfied law and justice as
our sacrifice. And he comes to chosen centers
in the sweet experience of his grace and gives us faith in Christ
and imputes righteousness to our consciences when he makes
us righteous in the new birth. giving us a righteous holy nature,
making us righteous before God in the experience of his grace,
so that this righteousness is imputed because righteousness
is ours. God declares it to be ours because
he has made us the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. How does
God make sinners righteous? Find out how Christ was made
sin, and you'll find out how sinners are made righteous. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was made sin without ever sinning. He was made sin though he never
did a sinful thing. Made sin though he never had
an evil thought, made sin, though he never had a corrupt lust in
his heart, made sin, made sin without a cause in himself freely. And that's how God makes sinners
righteous, without you ever doing anything, without you ever feeling
anything. without you ever performing righteousness
of any kind, without you ever having a perfect thought, a holy
thought, a righteous thought. God makes us righteous freely
by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Read
Romans chapter 10. And the apostle goes back to
Deuteronomy. He says, he says, the law says
who's going to go up to heaven? That is to Who's going to descend
from heaven, bring Christ down from above? Who's going back
to heaven to raise Christ up from the dead? But the gospel
says it's done. It's done. The word is near you,
even in your heart and in your mouth, the word which we confess,
Jesus Christ, the Lord. So that if you believe on the
son of God, this righteousness is yours. I'm lost in wonder
at this. All that Christ is and has as
the God-man, our mediator, we are and have in him. For as he is, so are we in this
world. There's another thing. This righteousness
that's imputed to us is imparted to God's people. imparted to
God's people in the new birth. Not only do we have a righteous
record before God, God has put in us a righteous nature, partakers
of the divine nature. That holy thing that's in you
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That new man that's in
you that cannot sin and does not sin, that's Christ the Lord.
The new man, the new birth is not a renovation of our old nature. Believers, sinners saved by God's
grace, are people with two distinct warring natures, flesh and spirit. The flesh soon must die. Thank God for that. The spirit
is forever. We have eternal life in Christ. I said this to you a few weeks
ago. Our translators did a magnificent job in translating the scriptures
for us from the ancient languages. The very same word that is used
and translated eternal life within just a couple of verses in John
chapter three is called everlasting life. And you see that throughout
the New Testament, eternal life, everlasting life. Why did they
use two different words or two different translations to translate
the same word? Because the context demanded
it. We have life eternal in union with Christ our Lord, who is
life. You remember the message Cody
brought here a couple of weeks ago about Christ, the light and
the life? Christ is life. The life we have
is Christ the Lord. All the life we have is Christ
the Lord. That life that's given us in
the new birth is eternal life. God the Son comes and takes up
residence in us. Christ liveth in me. Imagine that. Christ lives in
me. And the life which we live The
life we experience is everlasting life. We who are his shall never
perish. This life that is ours in the
first resurrection is a life over which the second death has
no power so that Christ comes and puts righteousness in us.
Some years ago, I heard someone mocking this thing of imparted
righteousness. So that's imparted nonsense. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is in us. If he's in us,
he was put in us. We didn't have him there by nature,
imparted to us. He is made of God unto us in
the experience of grace, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Sixth. And this is every bit
as important as everything else I've said. This righteousness
is the righteousness of faith. The righteousness of faith, it
must be received by faith. Look at Romans chapter four,
verse 23. We're told in verse three, Abraham
believed God. And it was counted to him for
righteousness. Now verse 23, it was not written for his sake
alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed. Now watch this. If we believe
on him that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. This glass has water in it. And in order for water to get
in that glass, it had to be received in the glass. And there are two
different words used in the New Testament for receive. This glass
received water totally passively. It didn't do anything. This dear
lady. Put water in the glass. She put
it there. I would be very, very surprised
if she should ever come out here with a picture and set it down
here and the glass tip the picture over and get a drink of water.
I'd just be astonished at that. That's not going to happen because
the glass is an inanimate dead thing. So it is we must receive
righteousness. We must have Christ put in us
by God's grace with no contribution on our part. Christ must be put
in you and you receive him completely passively in that regard. But
don't ever imagine that this matter of life and faith is a
passive thing. I'm fixing to receive some water.
I reached out with his hand and took this glass. And the water is mine. I received
it. To as many as received him, and
that's the word that you mark. As many as reached out and took
him. to as many as believe on the
Son of God. He gave the power. Power. Several years ago, Brother Darwin
walked back in the office before anybody else got there, and he'd
been reading that passage in John 1. He said, that word power,
does that mean authority or right or ability? I said, yes, sir,
that's what it means. Authority, right, and ability to as many
as believe on the Son of God. God gives the right, the authority,
and the ability to be called the sons of God. Believe on the
Son of God and reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin and alive
unto God righteous. Righteous, so that now we come
to God and we Offer God the works of
our hands. And God smiles with approval.
And we offer our prayers. And God smiles with delight. And we bring our gifts. And God
receives them with satisfaction. And we bring our lives, the totality
of our lives, in service to our Redeemer. And God smells it and
says, that's perfect. There's a sacrifice in which
there's no blemish, perfect and accepted in Jesus Christ, the
Lord. That's the righteousness of faith.
Show you one more thing. Turn back to Jeremiah, chapter
50, Jeremiah, chapter 50. Every sinner who trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ as a savior, shall in the last day be rewarded
by God for perfect righteousness. Every sinner who believes on
the Son of God shall in the last day be rewarded by God in strict
justice for perfect righteousness. Remember, we read Revelation
20 this morning. about God judging every man according
to his works, you're going to get what you deserve either in
yourself or in Christ the substitute. Look at Jeremiah 50 verse 20.
In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the
sins of Judah and they shall not be found. For I will pardon
them whom I have reserved. Soon, I'm going to meet God, and God's going to speak to me,
well done, thou good and faithful servant. Come, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. How can you say
that? I believe God. I trust His Son. Oh, may God give you faith now
so that you can go home tonight righteous in your soul, in your
conscience, in the sweet persuasion of God's grace in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Amen.