Let's read here from the book
of Acts, chapter 10, a couple of verses. Verse 32, it says, 32 Send therefore to Joppa,
and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter, He is
lodged in the house of one Simon, a tanner, by the seaside. Who, when he cometh, shall speak
unto thee? Immediately therefore I sent
to him, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore
are we all here present before God. and hear all things that
are commanded of thee of God. And Peter opened his mouth and
said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, which leads me to believe and
to say, that God Almighty, who is over all and above all, has
no respect to the person of any but as they are in Christ Jesus. And I also believe firmly with
all my heart and soul, that there is not a sinner in all of Adam's
race from start to finish that would ever go to heaven if God
would let him go to hell. Now, you think on that a little
bit. And if you can master that truth, you'll find out that God is not
a respecter of persons. I'm always so glad when Brother
Scott will comment on Scripture. because he'll read something
and I'll think, I hope he says something about that, so I won't
know what that means. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3, please. Romans chapter 3. I've entitled this message, The
Righteousness of God. And I want to say a few things
this morning. Number one, praying that that
which is said is honorable to the Lord. Praying that it will be an encouragement
and a comfort because that is what the Lord has commanded His
preachers to do. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Wherein shall we comfort them?
Tell them that their warfare is ended. Tell them this, that
there is no battle for them. The battle is won by the Captain
of our salvation. And tell them that their iniquities
pardoned. Tell them that. Tell them I've
forgiven them. And God's people hear that and
they're comforted. Well, we speak often of the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know for myself,
often I will use words, and I've heard them, But then,
by the grace of God, the Spirit of God will give me a realization
of, I wonder what does that exactly mean? What exactly is being said? The imputed righteousness of
Christ. Well, I'd like to deal with that
for a few minutes. Paul the Apostle had said in
verse 19 Romans 3. He says, Now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Now, the law here means the entire
revelation of Almighty God to mankind. Now, without going back
into the other chapter, whether it means the law of nature or
the written law. Some had only the law of nature. They didn't have the Scriptures.
They didn't have the law. They didn't have prophets. But they did have the law of
nature. And the law of nature, the Scripture says, reveals the
power of God in creation so that man is not blameless. But also, the Jews had the written
law. And Paul told them, he said,
you are not any less guilty than they are because neither the
heathen who had only the law of nature, or the Jews that had
the written law, if they failed to see the righteousness of God
in it, they were guilty. Therefore,
Paul says, we know that what things soever the law saith,
the law of nature, the written law, it saith to them who are
under the law, whether it is the law of nature or the written
law, and every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Men are guilty because they have
not beheld, not seen the light of the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ in it. You say, well, how could they
see it? They couldn't. They're blind. But are they without
guilt? No, they're not without guilt.
They're guilty. Guilty. Now, then he said in verse 20,
Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now, by the deeds of the law,
this is where I ended last week. I just touched on this. I made
a couple of statements and I said we will pick up right here. Now,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Now, to justify, for God to justify
a sinner is to declare that sinner to be blameless and guiltless
according to God's standard. To justify. That's what it means.
To declare to be blameless. Now this is only by one way. The imputed righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, that God Almighty would
consider Christ's righteousness to be my righteousness. That
God Almighty would look at Him and say of me, I find you in
my Son." Blameless. Without guilt. Now, this imputed
righteousness is speaking of the obedience, we looked at obedience,
well, that's worship. The obedience by the blood and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people are considered,
are charged, are declared to be by His righteousness, holy. Holy. You say, are you sure? Holy? 1 Thessalonians 5, verse
27, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto
all the holy brethren. All that are found in Christ,
all the believers, You are declared by Almighty God by His righteousness,
holy brethren, the holy brethren. You say, but I fail to see in
me that standard of excellence. I didn't say that you saw it.
I said that Almighty God has justified or has declared His
people in His Son, holy, holy brethren. Now, let me tell you
this about justification. Justification does not mean that
the sinner is made inherently holy. What that means is existing
naturally. Now, I do understand that there
is in me, that is in my flesh, There dwells no good thing. I
understand that there is a nature of which I was born in Adam,
that there is nothing good in me. I know that. I look at myself and I see nothing
good in me. But God Almighty has declared
in the person of His Son that I am holy and without blame
before Him in love. You say, how can that be? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11. I know by
faith. that God Almighty has declared
me in the person of the Lord Jesus, holy. How do you know that? By faith. By faith. Now, I see in me that
there dwells no good thing. I see in me that there's nothing
in me that's good. But by faith, how God Almighty
has viewed me, He has declared me righteous. Faith, Hebrews
11, verse 1, is the substance, the totality, the ground, the
confidence of the things that are hoped for. It's the evidence
of things not seen. How do you know? Can you see
it? No. No. But I can tell you this. There is in me dwelling no good
thing. I can see that. But to behold
how God Almighty views me in the person of Christ as being
holy and without blame. That's what Ephesians 1 verse
4 says. has predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by
Jesus Christ to Himself, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love." You say, that's a standard that's
just a little bit higher than I can grasp hold of. I agree. Faith is the evidence of things
that are not seen. You say, do you truly believe
that? If I don't believe it, I don't have any hope. Because
I'm going to tell you something. I'll tell you what I can see.
I can see that in me there was no good thing. I know I ought
to. That's what Peter says. We ought
to obey God rather than men. I know I ought to. But how little
I find myself. But with Christ's righteousness
charged to me, justification has nothing to do with what you
can do. You understand what I'm saying?
This is justification. It has nothing to do with your
ability. You say, I believe God. I have
faith in God. I have hope in Christ. I seek
the Lord. That has nothing to do. Almighty
God has justified Romans 4, 5, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him, that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted."
Reckoned, his faith believes God for righteousness. I believe God Almighty has justified
me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ without any works
of righteousness. My faith didn't justify me. My
faith didn't add anything to justification. My believing,
my seeking, my hoping, my love, my looking, my thinking, my giving,
nothing, nothing, nothing has to do with justification. God
Almighty justifies without any works of righteousness. You hear
me? Nothing, nothing. You say, well,
I don't think I can. I didn't say that you could.
I said you couldn't. God Almighty has justified His
people freely by grace. By grace. Justified freely by
grace. Christ paid the redemption of,
paid the price of that. Justified by His blood. Faith
believes it. Justified by faith. But faith
doesn't justify it. Not by works of righteousness.
Justification is apart from anything that you can do. It has nothing
to do with you. Justified freely by His grace. So whenever you think of the
word justified, just get it out of your mind that you had anything
to do with it, to initiate it, to maintain it, or to finalize
it. It doesn't have anything to do with it. God Almighty justifies
because He chose to. And He does it. By son, by sacrifice,
by pain. I'll deal with that in just a
minute. For God to justify a sinner is
to say that the imputed righteousness of Christ, God looks on a sinner
and His Son, that He put in His Son before the foundation of
the world and says, by the obedience of Christ charged to that sinner,
He says to that sinner, well done, well done, well done. To justify is a different word than the
word pardon. Pardon is to actually say that
your sins are forgiven. You have to understand, when
we start talking, we break down words because the Scripture puts
them down in words that we understand. To pardon means to forgive sin. To pardon. Forgiveness. To not
impute guilt. If God has said, I will not charge
you with your iniquity, well, that implies that we've got iniquity
there. Do you understand that? There
is iniquity. So pardon. I'm born in Adam. I'm born a sinner. I said there's
no good thing in me. So Almighty God pardons the sinner. But pardon and justification
are two different words. Pardon says there's sin that
God said, I'm not going to charge it to you. I charge it to My
Son. He pays the debt. That's pardon. That's redemption. That's paying
the penalty. Pardon. That implies there's
sin there not charged. Justification says there was
never anything there. Justified. Justified. The forgiveness of sin is to
deal with God's elect by not charging them with their sin. To justify them is to declare
them guiltless. There never was any sin there
by the righteousness of Christ. Now, by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in its sight. How is that? Well,
by the deeds of the law would be to say that there was some
obedience that would merit justification, Freddie. Justification says there
was nothing there. You say, well, I was justified
because I obeyed the law. No, you didn't. Justified said
there was nothing there. There was no guilt there to obey,
to earn another step up, to be justified. No. Justified by the
deeds of the law. But I do know this. I do know
that I must obey. I must obey. My obedience then
for justification is this. This is my obedience. His righteousness. There's my standard. Now we obey
because we've got a heart. But I'll tell you this, we obey
in part. But we do obey. But His righteousness is our
justification. Now I want to deal with verse
21. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The righteousness. The straight wiseness. The righteousness of God. Actually, the word righteousness,
the righteousness of God, is from the same root word, same
word, comes from the same word that we looked at when we saw
justified in verse 20. Justified. To say that there
was no guilt ever. No guilt ever. You see, when
you start talking about justified before God, that there was no
guilt, justified freely by His grace, We are now talking about
an area that is so sublime, so wonderful, so marvelous, that
our minds, our little fickle minds, are lost in the wonder
of what we are actually talking about. I am telling you that
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen in Him, considered
in Him by His righteousness, Charge to me. That means that
God would consider His to my account. God Almighty has said,
no guilt, no sin. Let me ask you this. Did the
Lord Jesus Christ, now I know He was made sin. He was made
sin. What does that mean? He was made
the guiltiness that I am. He was actually made that. Do
you understand that? No, I don't. But I can tell you
this, whatever the depth of sin is, you say sin is the transgression
of the law. I understand that, but I cannot
enter into the depth of it. Sin is disobedience. Sin is the
transgression, the disobedience. But I still can't tell you the
depth of the body of sin. That is the very opposite. Sin
is the very opposite of righteousness and justification. The very opposite. My question is this, did the
Lord Jesus Christ ever, in one point, one thought, one deed,
did He ever disobey God? No. No. He is the obedient, This
is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased." What did he do? He said, I do always only those
things that please the Father. That's all I do. That's all I
do. That righteousness right there that he earned as a man,
the God-man, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. What he
did, what he thought, what he accomplished, that's mine. That's
mine. That's mine. Imputed charge to
me, the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness is what's
spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5. He hath made him sin who knew
no sin, not in himself, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God. that
we might be made the righteousness of God. Not the best that a fallen
creature could ever do, but the righteousness of God in him. The righteousness of God? That's
right. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The believer is made all that
Almighty God requires All that Almighty God demands. He has made what man could never
in himself do. Never. Never. We're fallen creatures. Alright. What is this righteousness
of God? Well, I know this. First of all,
it was the reason that Paul was not ashamed to preach the gospel. He was not ashamed. Look back
at Romans 1, 16, 17. because only in the gospel is
the righteousness of God revealed. Only there. Now, to understand
more clearly why Paul had said, by the deeds of the law, verse
20, shall no flesh be justified in his sight. By the deeds of
the law, We've got to understand, first of all, the depth of the
law's requirement by the deeds of the law. Now, I understand
that in our little puny minds, somehow we think, you know, well,
there is some areas of obedience that I've done. I do. I mean,
really, you know. I do. I come to church and I
give and I fellowship with God's people. I read my Bible and I
pray. So there are some areas. What is the requirement? By the works of the law. By the
deeds of the law. Well, somehow we can perceive
that obviously by the deeds of the law means the obedience of
its rules and regulations and directions and actions. But also, you've got to understand
by the deeds of the law, you've got to understand one thing.
By the time you and I got on the scene, the law had been broken
in the Garden. From the Garden, that law and
demands of obedience, well, it had been broken, and now there
was one other thing that was involved with the deeds of the
law that had to be taken care of. Not only did its demands
for obedience have to be kept, but also, now that it had been
broken, its penalties had to be satisfied. Do you understand
what I am saying? By the deeds of the law shall
no man be justified." Not only would you have had to have come
and obeyed in every precept, every thought, every deed, every
manner, I mean everything, everything, every jot and tittle of the law
had to be obeyed, but there was one other thing. It had been
broken, and now that law, also its deed, Demanded that you die. You see what I'm saying? The
soul that sinned is going to die. So by the deeds of the law,
men start talking about, well, I think we ought to preach the
law. I think we ought to get back to the law. I think we ought
to get up here and straighten people out by the law. Well,
don't forget that while you're preaching the law and telling
people and kind of getting your little whip here, you know, I'll
just straighten you up. Also, by the deeds of the law
means that that law's penalty is going to have to be satisfied.
So men start talking about preaching law and keeping the deeds of
the law. That law demands that disobedience
be penalized. Well, the deeds of the law would
demand that I die to be fulfilled. So by the deeds of the law, no
man is going to be justified in sight of God. You see what
I'm saying? You've got to obey and you've got to die. And when
you die, you died under the penalty of the law. So you see what I'm
saying? By the deeds of the law, shall
no man be justified? Justified? I've got to die under
its penalty. So now, I mean, I'm so far off
base, it's not even funny anymore. Men talk about But now the righteousness
of God, Paul says. The total satisfaction in obedience
to its precepts and penalties is declared. The Lord Jesus Christ
as the federal head of God's people, the surety of the sheep,
the representative, the obedient servant, He could satisfy the
deeds of the law for obedience and penalty. And He did it in
my place as my substitute. Do you understand? I had to die
and I had to obey. And I couldn't. I couldn't do
either one of them. I came forth disobedient. I came
forth speaking lies. And for me to obey the deeds
of the law for its penalties, I had to die. Oh, the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God without
the law. That means without any regard
to man's obedience personally to that law. The righteousness of God without
any regard whatsoever to my personal obedience is manifested, set
forth, clearly discovered. And that set forth in the gospel.
Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of
God and salvation, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The Lord Jesus Christ, Scripture
says, was made of a woman, made flesh. Made under the law. When it says made under the law,
that term right there means answerable to all its demands for obedience
and penalties. That's what it means. Made under
the law. Made answerable to satisfy all
the requirements of obedience and penalties. Made under the
law. He made Himself. Took upon Himself the form of
sinful flesh. The form of sinful flesh. When
He cried from the cross, those words, My God, My God. When He
cried, My God, My God. Now here is the God-man. The
God-man. My God, My God. Those were the
words that set forth His oneness with Almighty God in obedience.
The Lord said of His people, I'll give you a new heart, and
I'll be your God, and you'll be My people. My God, My God, here is the obedient
servant who fulfilled all of the precepts of the law for obedience. My God, why have You forsaken
me? There He is paying the penalty
of the law's brokenness. Why have You forsaken me? Sin
was on that cross. Sin. That's not disrespectful. He was made sin. There was God dealing with my
guilt in His Son. Why have You forsaken me? The
righteousness of God alone can satisfy God. By the deeds of
the law, no flesh, no old Adamic nature. Flesh, not this. No one found in Adam. No one
in whose veins the blood of Adam. Flesh. All flesh is grass. Paul says, in me, that is in
my flesh. Does that mean just skin? No,
in my own nature. That's what he's saying. In my
own nature. No good thing. That obedience,
the righteousness of God. You see, that obedience that
we're talking about to the law of God, that obedience right
there must be an eternal obedience. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. I'll tell you another reason
why you can't be justified by the deeds of the law. The demands
of Almighty God, who is the eternal God, the demands that He sets
forth in His law is an everlasting obedience. He's an everlasting
God. He's an eternal God. It must be an eternal obedience.
For me to look to myself, For me to look to my obedience,
because I'm a sinner, the moment I would die, I would cease to
be obedient. I have to have an obedience that's
an everlasting obedience. I must have an everlasting righteousness. Daniel 9, 24, 70 weeks. are determined
upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness." I must have Him who is everliving. I must have Him who ever liveth
to make intercession for me. I've got to have, Bob, an everlasting
righteousness. I must have one who is eternal. So you see, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified. The moment I died, I don't obey
anymore. I'm dead. I mean, you just lay
it out here. This is the reason why. By the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. The
righteousness of God the righteousness of God, was performed by the
Lord Jesus Christ in obedience to the law and by the law's demand
for justice and wrath for brokenness He made under the law, and He
satisfied obediently in life and obediently in death by the
deeds of the law, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 51.6, Lift up
your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath.
For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth
like an old garment. And they that dwell therein shall
die in the manner, but my salvation shall be forever, forever. And my righteousness shall not
be abolished. That's the righteousness of God.
That is the righteousness by which Almighty God says, not
guilty. That's the righteousness that
God charges to the elect, imputes to the elect. That righteousness.
You see the demands of that righteousness. The righteousness of God for
obedience to the law and for obedience to the law's demands
for justice, for breaking. He made under the law. He obeyed
for me and He died for me. Satisfied the law for me in life
and death. Satisfied it. The law says to
me, well done. Well done. Come in. Come in to that which has been
prepared for you before the foundation of the world. Well done. The righteousness of When we
talk about the imputed righteousness of Christ, that's what we're
talking about. Obedience in life, obedience
in death. The law satisfied. God declares
justified. Justified in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, Gary.