Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I've entitled this morning's
message, How Can a Sinner Be Righteous? How Can a Sinner Be Righteous
Before God? Now, there is nothing we could
possibly consider that would reach the importance of us knowing
the answer to that question. How can a sinner be righteous? In Genesis 6, verse 5, we read,
And God saw, and before I go on reading, God sees accurately. God sees things as they really
are. God seeth not as man seeth. Man looks on the outward appearance.
The Lord looketh on the heart. And God sees things as they really
are. As God sees, that's what's there. Now, and God saw that the wickedness
of man, He's talking about all men, was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. Now, that is what God sees when
he looks in the heart of any natural man. Only evil continually. Now, somebody says, that's a
hard pill to swallow. It may be, but swallow it. It's
what the Word of God says. God's Word is divinely inspired
and it tells us the truth. And all you have to do is look
at the cross and you'll find out this reflects what you and
I are. The one time God let men do what
they wanted to do, they nailed him to a cross. And this is the
truth. And God sees this, that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. But we read in verse 8 of this
same chapter, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He found unmerited favor. Now, if God would have seen him
as he is in himself, he couldn't do anything and wouldn't do anything
for him. But Noah found grace, unmerited favor in the eyes of
the Lord, so that the Lord says this about Noah in verse 1 of
chapter 7. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. God looked at Noah and he saw
him as righteous. As a matter of fact, this is
the first time the word righteous is used in the scripture. And
I know that Noah was a sinner. All I got to do is read Genesis
9, 20 and 21. And Noah began to be in husbandry
and he planted a vineyard. and he drank of the wine and
he was drunken and he was uncovered within his tent. That tells us
he's a sinner right there by the things that he did. But yet
God says to Noah, thee have I seen as righteous. And God didn't
need to play mind games the way you and I do to view something.
When he saw Noah as righteous, there's only one reason, because
Noah really was righteous. Now, here's the question. How
can a sinner like Noah How can a sinner like me or you actually
be righteous before God? That's the most important question
we could possibly consider. Now, before we can consider the
answer to that question, we're going to have to have some definition
of terms. First, what is meant by sinner and what is meant by
righteous? What does the Bible mean by these
two terms? Well, for me to know what the
Bible means by the term sinner, I first have to know what sin
is. There's a lot of definitions I could give from the Scriptures,
but this is the one I'm going to give for right now. 1 John
3, 4 says, Sin is the transgression of the law. Now, he's referring
to the Ten Commandments, all the thou shalts and the thou
shalt not. Sin is the transgression of that
law. If I do not have a perfect standing
of obedience before that law, I sin. Anything short of perfect
and complete and continual obedience to the Ten Commandments is sin. Sin is the transgression of the
law. If I have a lustful thought in my heart, it's sin. I've committed
adultery. If I don't tell the truth, it's
sin. Even if I'm saying the truth
in such a way as to put another slant on it to be my advantage,
it's sin. To murder my brother, to be angry
without a cause, to murder his character by slander and innuendo,
to be angry without a cause, to be jealous is murder in God's
sight. Sin is the transgression of the
law, and the sinner is the one who sins. Now, when we put somebody
in jail, we don't put the crimes in jail. We put the ones who
committed those crimes in jail. God doesn't put sins into hell. He puts the one who committed
the sin into hell. A sinner is the one who commits
the sin. And let me tell you this about
a sinner. A sinner is somebody who all he ever does is break
the law. He hadn't kept one commandment
one time. He looks at the Ten Commandments
and he says, I've not kept one of them one time. You see, he
has some understanding of the breadth and the depth of the
commandments. And he really believes that he
hasn't kept one commandment one time. Now, do you believe that
you've kept any of God's commandments? Remember, the Bible doesn't recognize
partial obedience. Partial obedience is disobedience.
It's only perfect and complete obedience that God accepts. A
sinner is someone who all they do is sin. They've not kept one
commandment one time. Okay, what is meant by righteous
when I ask, how can a sinner be righteous? What does the Bible
mean by righteousness? Well, it means no sin. If you're righteous, that means
God's holy law, the Ten Commandments, looks you over and says, no fault. There's no sin in this person.
You're perfect. You're righteous. You're without
fault. You've never had a bad thought.
You've never said a bad word. There's never been a bad deed.
If you're righteous, that means you stand before God's law without
fault. Now, how can a sinner be righteous? Seems impossible, doesn't it?
If all I've done is broken the law, how can I stand before God's
law without guilt and without sin? How can a sinner be righteous? Well, God says concerning Noah,
thee have I seen as righteous before me. There was once a publican. You can read about this in Luke
chapter 18, the tax collector. And he was standing in the back
of the temple. There was a Pharisee that was
up at the front of the temple saying, God, I thank you that
I'm not as other men are. And he goes on to name all the
things that he did do and didn't do. He said, I thank you that
I'm not like this publican, this pathetic excuse of a human being. And he felt himself to be that
way, the publican. He was beating on his breast. He wouldn't even
lift up his eyes to heaven. He was crying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. He believed himself to be the
most sinful man alive, and he's crying for mercy. God, be merciful
to me, thee, sinner. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
regarding to that man making that plea, he said, I say unto
you, he went down to his house justified. The religious fellow
went down to his house condemned under the power of sin, condemned
by God, but this man who was a sinner went down to his house
justified rather than the other, not merely forgiven. That would
be a great blessing, but not merely forgiven, but justified,
not guilty. By his own confession, he was
sinful, yet Christ said, He's justified. He has no sin. Now, how can that be? When God said this to Noah, "'Thee
have I seen as righteous before me,' he did not say, "'Thee have
I seen as sinful. "'However, I will not treat you
as if you were sinful, "'but I will treat you as if you were
righteous.'" That wouldn't be right. That'd be wrong for God
to do that. He said, and I carefully say
that because I'm not judging what God does, but God always
does what's right. If he sees somebody sinful, he's
not going to say, well, I see you're sinful, but I'm not going
to treat you that way. I'm going to treat you as righteous. No,
God saw him as righteous for one reason, because he was righteous. Thee have I seen as righteous
before me. Not as sinful, but I'm going
to treat you as if you weren't, and I'm going to treat you a
different way. No, God's always fair. He's always just. He's
always righteous. And he looked at Noah and said,
Thee have I seen as righteous before me. Now understand, the
whole human race is divided into two groups, the righteous and
the wicked. There's no third group. There's
no intermediate group. When God looks at me, when God
looks at you, he either sees someone who is righteous or he
sees someone who is wicked, someone who does nothing but break his
law, someone who does nothing but sin. Now, this is a very
interesting fact. All of the wicked, without exception,
believe themselves to be righteous. And all of the righteous, without
exception, believe themselves to be wicked. Isn't that interesting? The wicked believe either that
they are righteous or they have the potential to be righteous.
He may be a drug pusher or a murderer, but he thinks, well, if the circumstances
were right, if I would have been given a better environment, I
could do better. He may think, well, at least I have the power
of free will and I can choose to be good whenever I decide
to. All the wicked think they can be righteous or at least
potentially righteous, and all the righteous believe themselves
to be wicked, and the only righteousness they have is the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how can Noah, how can I,
How can you actually be righteous before God? Only the Bible answers
that question. Now, listen real carefully. First,
for a sinner to be righteous before God, he can only be righteous
by virtue of being united with, being one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is a great mystery that
I'm talking about. It's not something that can be intellectually comprehended,
just believed. the mystery of union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2, verse 11 says, "...both
he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one." They're not two. They're not simply close together.
They're one. I'm one with the Lord Jesus Christ
so that who he is, I am. What he did, I did. If I'm one,
if I'm united to him. In Hebrews 7, verse 9, It was
said of Levi that he paid tithes. He paid tithes to Melchizedek
because he paid them when he was in the loins of his father
Abraham. Levi was the great-grandson of
Abraham, but when Abraham paid those tithes to Melchizedek,
Levi paid those tithes to Melchizedek because what Abraham did, Levi
did because Levi was in him. God's people are in the Lord
Jesus Christ so that what he does is what they do. I believe
one of the most beautiful illustrations of this is found in Matthew chapter
3 at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he comes to
John to be baptized, and you put yourself in John's position,
how would you feel if Christ said, I want you to baptize me?
John felt utterly unworthy. He said, Be baptized of thee
and comest out of me. And the Lord answered him, Suffer
it to be so now, for thus it becometh us. to fulfill all righteousness."
Notice it didn't say, thus it becomes me to fulfill all righteousness,
but thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Everything
Christ did, he did as an us. He did what he did for somebody,
everybody in him, everybody who is united to him. 1 John 4, 17
says, as he is, so are we in the world. Is he righteous? Then
I'm righteous because I'm one with Him. I'm in Him so that
I am actually the very righteousness of God. Because He's the righteousness
of God and because He's the righteousness of God, I am too. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says, For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. That's
what the Bible says. I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't
in there, but it's in there. Every believer is nothing less
than the righteousness of God because they're united to the
Lord Jesus Christ, righteous by union. How can a sinner be
righteous before God? Righteous by imputation. I want
to read a passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 4, beginning
in verse 6. Even as David describeth the
blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. How can a sinner be righteous?
I am a very sinful man. That's just the truth regarding
me, and it's the truth regarding you. I am a very sinful man. But here's my hope. My hope is
that God does not charge me with my sin, but that He lifted His
sin, my sin, off of me and put it on Christ, and it became his
sin. He became guilty of it. My sin
was imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he died on
Calvary's tree. God didn't look at him and say,
Now, I know you didn't do this, and I know you're innocent, and
I'm punishing you for somebody else. No, not at all. He was
forsaken by God. He suffered the wrath of God.
He was in utter darkness. He died the way an unbeliever
would die. He died under the wrath of God.
Now, he never sinned in his person. He never committed a sin. Even
on the cross when he was made sin, he never committed a sin.
He remained holy, but all that sin is, he was made to be, and
he was guilty of that sin. You know, in Isaiah 53, when
it says He opened on His mouth, He didn't try to defend Himself.
The reason He didn't try to defend Himself is because He knew He
was guilty. My sin was imputed to Him. It became His, and His
righteousness, just as truly as my sin became His, His righteousness
is imputed to me. You know, the Bible never speaks
of imputed righteousness. It never uses Imputation as an
adjective to describe a righteousness like maybe there's some other
kind, but it always talks about righteousness imputed. There's
only one righteousness. That's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that righteousness is imputed to me so that I stand
before God without guilt. Righteous by imputation. What a wonderful thought. Righteous
by imputation. Righteous by union. Righteous
by imputation. In Romans 5, 17, we read, "...if
by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they would
receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one Jesus Christ." Righteousness is a gift. It's
a gift that God gives. It's not something you work out
and earn. It's the free gift of God's grace
given to everybody that Christ died for. Righteousness is called
a gift, the gift of God, the unspeakable gift. And what is
the evidence that he's given it to you? You receive it. You
receive this gift, you really believe that the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is your righteousness before God. God
gave it to you. My righteousness is not based
upon the righteousness of Christ. My righteousness is the righteousness
of Christ which God has given me and I've received. I really
believe that Jesus Christ, this perfect obedience, is my righteousness
before God. If you want to know the truth
about me, read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and that's the
truth about me. The perfect righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ is my righteousness before God, righteous by gift. And then also the believer is
righteous by nature. Righteous by nature. In 1 John
3, verse 7, it says, "'Little children, let no man deceive
you. "'He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.'"
Righteous by nature. Now, Romans 3, verse 10 says,
"'There's none righteous, no, not one.'" There's none that
understands. There's none that seeketh after
God. They've all gone out of the way. They've together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Now,
if that's true, how could this be true? He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. How can that be true? Well, 1
John 2, verse 28 says, if you know that he is righteous, you
know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
This is what happens when someone is born again, born from above. They're given a new nature. They're
given a holy nature. They're given a righteous nature.
He that doeth righteousness. They now have the fruit of God
the Holy Spirit, a holy nature, a righteous nature that is imparted
to them in the new birth. Now, the best way I can explain
this is Scripture teaches that when Adam sinned, His sin was
charged to me and you. It's ours. God holds us responsible
for what Adam did because when he did it, we did it too. Romans
5, 12 says, By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin,
so that death passed upon all men, and that all sinned. When
Adam sinned, you and I sinned. His transgression was charged
to us. But not only was his transgression charged to us, his sinful nature
is imparted to us We have his seed so that when we're born,
we're born sinners, original sin. We're born corrupt. The
wicked are estranged from the womb. They go about as soon as
they'd be born, speaking lies, the Scripture says. David said,
Behold, I was a shape in an iniquity, and sin did my mother conceive
me. We're born that way. We have Adam's nature. In the
same manner, when Christ saves someone, His obedience is imputed
to them so that it becomes theirs. I'm righteous by imputation,
but his nature is imparted to them in the new birth. Peter
says we're actually made partakers of the divine nature so that
now we are righteous by nature, a new nature, one that we did
not have before God gave us a new birth. So how can a sinner be
righteous before God? Well, righteous by virtue of
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, righteous by imputation, Christ's
righteousness being imputed to me, righteous by a divine gift,
God giving me this righteousness, righteous by nature being born
again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the
Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. And we read in Romans
chapter 4, verse 5, to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Righteous by faith. His faith is counted for righteousness.
Now, what does that mean? Does that mean, and I think that
this is the way many people look at it, and this is the wrong
way to look at it, Well, God takes faith instead of righteousness.
He's lowered the terms, we messed it up, none of us can give perfect
obedience, and therefore God's lowered the terms and He'll accept
faith instead of righteousness. No, that's not what that means.
You see, faith is no substitute for perfect righteousness. It's
not at all. What's it mean then? According
to the Scriptures, faith is the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11, verse 1. It's the evidence of things not
seen. If you can see something, you
don't need faith. Faith is for that which you cannot see. We
walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is what you cannot see. Now, I cannot see my eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't see how that I was one
with him before time began. I cannot see how I've always
been carried in him and that I've always been in him. I just
can't see that. I can't even grasp it. I can't
grasp how I've always had personality before God. He's always loved
me and always knew me. You know, I was born in 1959,
and I don't have any conscious existence before then, but God's
always known me. Now, how do I know that? I can't
see it. By faith. Everybody that believes the Gospel
has always been united to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the evidence
that they've always been united to the Lord Jesus Christ is faith.
I cannot see how righteousness was imputed to me. I don't have
a paper or a document that guarantees me that righteousness has been,
in fact, imputed to me. I can't bring up some kind of
sales slip that lets me, like a sales slip that lets you know
you paid for it and that you got it. No, not at all. I can't
see that righteousness has been imputed to me. Well, how do I
know it has? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. You see,
I am relying on Jesus Christ right now as my righteousness
before God, and that is the evidence that his righteousness has been
imputed to me. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Now, I cannot see that righteousness
has been given to me as a gift. I don't remember him handing
it to me or him placing it within me. It's not something I can
see. Well, how do I know that he's given me this gift? Faith
is the evidence of things not seen. Right now, as I said, I'm
looking to Christ only as everything God requires of me. I'm hanging
on to him, and that's the evidence that his righteousness has been
given to me. I can't look within my heart
right now while I'm speaking to you and see, oh, I see a holy
man in there. I know there's a bad man in there
and a good man, and I see the good man. No, I can't see something
like that. I can't look in my heart and
say, well, there's a holy nature there. You see, the new man actually
owns the sins of the old man. The old man wouldn't even confess.
It's the new man that owns the sins of the old man and understands
that. I can't look within my heart
and say, oh, there's holiness there. No, I look in my heart
and see sin. But what is the evidence that
I have this new nature and this holy nature that I must have
or I won't be saved? You must be born again. What's
the evidence? Faith is the evidence of things
not seen, so justified by faith, made righteous by faith. So this
is how a sinner, a real bona fide sinner, somebody who's guilty,
somebody who's all they've done is sin, that sins their nature,
sins their name, that individual can actually be righteous before
God. That's the best news I've ever
heard. Truly righteous. When God looks at me, I'm righteous.
Righteous by union with Christ, righteous by imputation, righteous
by divine gift, righteous by nature. and righteous by faith. David said in Psalm 71, 16, I've
made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. And there's
only one reason why he speaks of only one righteousness, because
there's only one righteousness. That's the righteousness of God.
That's the righteousness of Christ. That's the righteousness that
a sinner is justified by. Thank God for his gospel. We'd like to invite you to services
at Todd's Road Grace Church. We meet Sunday school this morning,
945, morning worship at 1030, evening at 6. And if you want
this message, we can send it to you on DVD or CD. Call the church, write or email,
we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knipert, praying
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.