10th chapter, the apostle says in verse 1, he says, Brethren,
my heart's desire, what I really want, he said,
what I'd like to see come to pass, I'd like for this to My
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. To know God, we talked about
this morning, to know God, is the principal part of the salvation
of God in Christ Jesus, is to know God, to know who He is,
to know Him in Christ. But they didn't know Him. Israel
did not know their Maker, and Paul prayed that they might be
saved. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. The righteousness of God is the
ground on which God shows favor to us. It is the righteousness
of God in Christ. That is the ground of our salvation. God does not save us on the account
of our character or our conduct. Our character and our conduct
has nothing to do with the salvation of God. Salvation is solely based
on the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God, remember
I said here recently that it is a twofold righteousness. It
is the righteousness of God and it is the righteousness of Christ.
So it is the righteousness of God and it is the righteousness
of a man, the man Christ Jesus. and our salvation is founded
on that righteousness which is freely imputed or charged to
the account of the sinner that believes the witness and the
testimony of the Word of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
this righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. That's the righteousness he's
talking about. He's not talking about a personal
righteousness there. He's talking about the righteousness
of God freely imputed to us. But anyhow, I told you this morning
about the difference between true Christianity and human religionness. Now, true Christianity, Their
salvation is based on the Christ of God, the finished work of
the cross, the righteousness freely imputed, his obedience,
his blood shed. Now, the salvation of human religiousness
is that they are ignorant of this righteousness, this righteousness
wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, this everlasting righteousness
that he brought in, and freely imputed to our count, charged
to our count, they're ignorant of that. They're ignorant of
that righteousness and they go about to seek a righteousness
of their own. They're trying to establish a
righteousness by their doing. And that's the majority of what's
going on in this religious world today. That's what's being preached.
It doesn't make any difference who you listen to. before it's over with, the implication
of what to say will be, You do something for God so He can do
something for you. But anyhow, it says, My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. I want them to be saved. The only way they can be saved
is by the righteousness of God freely imputed to them. All right? They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, ignorant of the Christ of the cross, God in Christ,
they go about to establish their own righteousness by what? By the works of their hands.
It's like Cain and Abel. Abel offered up a blood sacrifice,
which he was saying, this animal sacrifice, this lamb or bullock
or whatever it was, this stands for me. He stands for me. He
stands for me. He's going to die for me. He's
going to shed his blood for me. And his offering or his sacrifice
was accepted by God. But his brother Cain offered
up the work of his hands. the fruit of the fields. He got
the best grain, the best corn or whatever they grew at that
particular time, grapes and pomegranates, and he brought them all in and
he offered them up to God. And God rejected his offering,
the work of his hands. Being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, they go about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. When
a man submits himself unto the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his eyes and his understanding is open, he
is submitting himself to the righteousness of God. It is the
only righteousness that God will accept. God will not accept any
other righteousness except it be his righteousness. which is
a sinless righteousness, a perfect righteousness. That's the righteousness
that pleases God. Listen to this verse. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that what? That believe
it. Christ is our righteousness and
he's the end of the law for everyone that believe it. Well, let me show you some other
things here in the book of Genesis, in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis. Here in verse 21 of this third
chapter, unto Adam also, and to his wife,
did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them." Now,
the reason I read this particular verse, because the truth that
is presented to us here, at least the principal truth
being taught here by God, is God providing a covering for
Adam and Eve. God providing coats of skin for
Adam and Eve. This is the figure of the great
truth taught throughout the Bible, more so in the New Testament
than the Old Testament, but all the types and figures of the
sacrifices of the Old Testament prefigure the doing and the dying
of the Lamb of God. But this is a figure of the great
truth of divine righteousness. Now, you remember, this is what
God requires. in order that a man might gain
favor with him, he must have a divine, perfect righteousness. Without a perfect righteousness,
God will neither look in his direction or have a word to say
to him for any comfort whatsoever, apart from divine righteousness. Man must have divine righteousness. Now, the robe or the coats of
skin that was provided for Adam and his wife Eve was an effectual
covering. It effectually covered them. There was not a spot that was
uncovered. They were covered completely.
It was effectual, and the reason why it was effectual was because
God provided it. God does not do anything that
is not perfect. There is no imperfection in the
God of glory. All that he says and all that
he does is truth, the whole truth and nothing but truth. And he
provided coats of skin for Adam and Eve, and it was an effectual
covering. And I might also add, in the
providing of the coats of skin, there was blood shedding. Without the shedding of the blood,
there is no remission of sins. In order to kill the animal,
the blood must be shed. So there was the shedding of
the blood in the effectual covering with the coats of skin of Adam
and Eve. And our Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our righteousness, shed his blood. His blood was shed on our behalf. There is a fountain filled with
blood. that sinners plunge to be cleansed
from all their stain and to be made whiter than the snow. Now, the robe which God provided
was an effectual covering because He did it, because He did it. He provided it. He met every
need and every requirement that the sinner will ever need. He
met it. in this righteousness that he
provides. Now, just as the apron was ineffectual, it was an ineffectual covering. Why was it an ineffectual covering? Because Adam made it. Because
man made it, it was ineffectual. So man trying, to enter into
heaven by his own works, whether they be deemed good or bad, is
an ineffectual way to gain admittance to the courts of heaven because
it's all of man. God has nothing to do with it.
God didn't have anything to do with making these coats out of,
I mean these aprons out of These leaves, that was Adam's doing. He got the needles, him and his
wife, together and they sewed them and they covered themselves,
but they weren't effectual. Now, God's righteousness is set
forth in the cross. Let me read over here in the
book of II Corinthians. Let me read this while I'm here. 2 Corinthians, I think it's chapter
5, let me read this, three verses. Verse 19, it says, To wit that
God was in Christ. God was in Christ. God consented to become a man,
the God-man, and God was in Christ. Man and God in one person. Man
and God in one person. The Lord Jesus Christ is as much
God as if he is never man. As much man as if he is never
God. He came and took upon himself
our humanity. In our humanity he lived a sinless,
perfect life. No sin in him. Sin on him. Our sins transferred and laid
on him, but no sin in him. He was acquainted with grief
and sorrow, but he was not acquainted with sin, only by way of transfer. Now, it says to wit that God
was in Christ doing what? Reconciling the world unto himself,
the world of sinners that God sanctified and set apart before
time ever was. He's not trying to save people.
He saves people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. So, to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not charging, not
reckoning their trespasses or their sins unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, Paul says. As though God did beseech
you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God,
for he hath made him. God hath made him. This him is
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the babe of Bethlehem's
manger. This is the Christ of God. This is God's... This is the
one that God says, Mine elect is him, for he hath made him
sin for us by way of transfer, imputed. It says, It says, not
imputing their trespasses unto them. He doesn't charge us with
sin. He charges the Lord Jesus Christ,
the man Christ Jesus, who took our humanity, who's our surety,
who represents us, who's our substitute. Our sins are charged
to Him, laid on Him, God in His infinite and power and might,
gathered them all up, all of our sins from the time we were
born until the time we die, and took our sins and laid that mass
of sin on the Lord Jesus Christ. Laid on Him, see? He hath made
Him, God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we, the believers, might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Believest thou this? I do. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Be ye reconciled to God, and
bow to his Son, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Oh, listen to me. God's righteousness
is set forth in the cross, perfect sacrifice, a sacrifice without
blemish, without flaw, without wrinkle, a sacrifice so perfect
that even God himself could not find a flaw in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And whoever is in him, he is
well pleased with him. Perfect sacrifice offered up
himself and his sacrifice was accepted on behalf of those he
died for. Remember this verse of Scripture,
it says, He was delivered for our repentance and raised again
for our justification. Isn't that right? That's the
truth, so help me God. God reveals himself as about,
here in this third chapter, God reveals himself as about to achieve
every jot and every tittle that had to be done by the seed of
the woman. We'll find that out right here.
God was determined that this salvation, this great
and glorious salvation of God, the source of that great salvation
would be through the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman
is Christ. He took the matter into his own
hands, and it was altogether a question between God himself
and the serpent. Although now Adam and Eve, the
man and the woman, they were called upon to reap the bitter
fruit of their sin, yet it was the serpent that the Lord God
said, because thou hast done this. He said that to the serpent. He didn't say that to Adam and
Eve. Adam and Eve, they reaped the bitter fruit of their rebellion
and their sins. They didn't escape. You can read
that unto the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow, and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children. Thy desire, shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life, and the thorns, and
the thistles, and so forth. But the serpent was the source. The serpent was the source of
the ruin, the source of the fall. And God says that the seed of
the woman is going to be the source of redemption. That's
Christ. Now, Adam was on the scene, and
he heard all this. He heard the words that God spake,
to the serpent and said, Because you've done this, he heard that.
And Adam heard it, and he believed it, and in the power of that
belief, he called his wife's name the Mother of All Living. Now she might be called the Mother
of All Dying, but in the judgment of faith, She was the mother
of all living. It was the mercy of God, only
the mercy of God, and the grace of God, the goodness of God,
the kindness of God, the tenderness of God, the long-suffering of
God, to allow Adam to hear what he said to the serpent before
he was called to listen to what God had to say to him had it
not been so. he would have been plunged into
the deep, black-ass despair that you can imagine. It's despair, it's heaviness,
it's grief, it's sorrow to be called upon to look at myself
without being able to look at God as he's revealed himself. in the cross. If I couldn't see
Him in all of this, if I come to this point that I've found
out what I am, that it's been revealed to me what a terrible
wretch and what a sinful, hateful mongrel that I am full of the
poison of sin, self-centered, full of pride and presumption
blasphemous thoughts, if that was revealed to me and I never
found out who God is in Christ, well, I'd want to shoot myself
to get out from underneath the misery of it. There's no child
of Adam, no child of Adam from Adam until the last one that's
ever born a woman could bear to have his eyes opened. to the
reality of what he is and what he has done without sinking into
utter despair unless he could take refuge in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there's where our hope lies
in him. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Oh, my rest is
easy. Come to me. A man won't come,
will he? They won't come until God reveals
to them what they are, that they're hopeless and helpless and can
do nothing by themselves. They're wretched and blind. They
know nothing, ignorant of God. But when they find out who they
are, when the sinner and God meet at the point of who they
are and at the point of who He is, then salvation Just like
old Zacchaeus, they said, Zacchaeus, come down! And Zacchaeus made haste, the
Bible said, and jumped out of that tree. And furthermore, our
Lord said to Zacchaeus, He said, Today salvation has come to your
house. Oh, listen, if a man, never finds out who
he is, he'll never run to the refuge and hide himself in the
Rock of Ages if he doesn't find out who he is. And if he dies
in that state, in the state of unbelief, he'll go where all
unbelievers go. He'll go to a place where hope
cannot come. There's no hope in the regions
of the damned. There's no hope beyond the pale
of the Lord Jesus Christ. No hope, no hope, no hope. Their men's eyes will be opened
to the reality of what they are and what they've done. But they
will not be able to find any relief or any refuge in God. They'll spend eternity away from
God and away from everything that's holy and good and merciful
and kind. Let me read something else to
you, then I'll quit. In Hebrews chapter 12, I believe, Let me show you something here.
Chapter 12, verse 1, it says this. It says, Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. Who are those witnesses? Well,
it tells us about them in the preceding chapter. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
Moses, and Rahab, and Isaac, Esau, or not Esau, Isaac, all
those are these witnesses. And all the saints of God that's
in heaven. They're all in heaven. These
fellows is all in heaven here. And they're looking down. They're
looking down. They surround us. They surround
us. They're looking down now. and Jacob and Abraham, they're
all looking down, David and all that, looking down. We're surrounded
by them, encompassed. Seeing we are encompassed by
so great a cloud, a cloud, a cloud, a cloud of hovers, a cloud of
witnesses. They're like an immense cloud,
a great cloud of witnesses. So he says, Let us lay aside
every weight, and sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run
with patience the race which is set before us." Now, I read
all that and said all that to come to this one place where
it says, Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. What is this race? I know what
you think it is, I suspect, but I'll tell you what this race
is. Now, in order to run this race, you must have no legs of
your own to stand upon, to run this race. You must have no legs
of your own to stand upon. You must be stripped of all dependence
upon yourself to run this race. You must stand alone, clothed in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can't run this race from
here to there and win the crown. unless you're stripped of everything
that you can depend upon pertaining to yourself, and you're trusting
in Christ and Christ alone. That's how you run that race.
You can't run it any other way. Now, when you're enabled to do
this, you will run well, when you're able to do it. I hope you can see what I'm talking
about. This righteousness brought by the Lord Jesus Christ on our
behalf, see? He did that for us. Not only did he keep the law
on our behalf, all the law, every jot and every
kittle of it. Our Lord kept it perfectly. Not partially, but he kept it
perfectly. He loved his neighbor as himself.
I can't do that. I don't do that. But he did it
for me. If my soul's salvation depended
upon me loving my neighbor as myself, how far would I get towards
heaven? I couldn't move an inch. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, who took for himself my humanity, and
in my humanity he loved his neighbor as himself. Didn't he? He loved
God with all his heart and all his mind and all his soul. I've
never done that. And will never do it as long
as I'm in this body of flesh. But he did it for me. He even run the race for me.
All I've got to do is trust him. Don't trust in anything I can
do, say, desire to do. Trust in Him. He finished the
work 2,000 years ago. He said, I've finished the work
that Thou has given me to do. I've finished it. And He sat
down once forever after He offered Himself. The law of God. He kept every
jot and every tittle of it. From the time he came forth from
his mother's womb, from that time until he cried it's finished,
every step that he took, every word that he spoke, and every
thought and every prayer that they raised up to him, he did
on our behalf as our substitute, establishing a righteousness
that would be agreeable, enabling God to do what? Enabling God
to be just and justifier of him that believes in Jesus. Not only did he obey the law
perfectly, every jot and every tittle of it, he bore the curse
of it. He bore the curse of it. The
curse of the law is death. And we're dead to that law now
by the body of Christ and married to another, even the Lord Jesus. And then he took our punishment.
He took our punishment. Our sins were laid on him who
knew no sin, the blessed Son of God. And He is punished. Talk about Him suffering. The
reason He suffered is because He is punished wickedly. He was in such tremendous pain,
agony, that God the Father said, I can't
look on it. I can't look on it. Couldn't
look upon him because he had sinned. My sin was on him. My guilt, my shame laid on him. So obnoxious to God. He's of
pure eyes that he can't look upon. Our Lord hung there by himself.
Hung there by himself. Talking about helping God helping
Jesus Christ and saving the sinner. You say, well, you've got to
cooperate. That's what they say. You've
got to cooperate with the Lord Jesus. There's something Jesus
has done, then there's some things you've got to do. You've got
to help him out. Where were the disciples to help
the Lord Jesus Christ out when he was on the tree? Where were
they at? They all run like scared kittens. They're running hid. He went
under to pray and he said, stay here and stay here while I go
under to pray and pray with me. And when he came back there to
sleep, what kind of help is that? What kind of help can human flesh,
by way of cooperation, help God save a sinner? It's all of God. It's by the grace of God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. All that believe on it. The believing is the evidence
that you've been quickened by the Spirit. You don't believe
to be born again. You're born again because you
believe. Am I right here? What am I saying? You don't believe in order to
be born again. You believe because you are born
again. You believe because you are born
again. You were dead in trespasses and
in sin, but you must be regenerated. You must be quickened. You must
have the life of God in your soul, and that's solely the work
and operation of God's Holy Spirit. And when he does that work in
you, then you believe. You can't cooperate with God.
Well...