to turn to in Isaiah chapter
51. Isaiah chapter 51. In verse 5 My righteousness is near. My salvation is gone forth, and
mine arm shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." Now here's
the part that I want you to hear. But my salvation shall be forever. and my righteousness shall not
be abolished." That verse in contrast to these previous verses which he
admonished the hearers to lift up their eyes to the heavens
and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner, but my salvation."
God's salvation. Salvation means deliverance,
deliverance from the penalty that is due us as transgressors
My salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not
be abolished. Let me talk to you for a few
minutes here this evening about righteousness for the unrighteous. All we like
sheep have went astray. Everyone has turned to his own
way, all of us. All the peoples of the earth,
members of Adam's fallen race, there is none good, no, not one. Their righteousness in themselves,
their natural righteousness, is like unto filthy rags. But righteous for the unrighteous. We must have righteousness. Somewhere there in the book of
Romans, the first two or three chapters or the fourth chapter,
it says, it's not the mere hearer of the law But it is the doer
of the law. A man who is the doer of the
law, fulfill all the jots and tittles of the law completely
and perfectly, he hath a righteousness. But we know that we do not have
the ability, we are full of inability to keep the complete, perfect,
holy law of God. We're guilty and we're transgressors. We've broken the law. So we're
unrighteous. But there is a righteousness
for the unrighteous. It is in righteousness. You remember this. If you don't
remember anything else, remember this. It is in righteousness,
by righteousness, that God saves the sinner. Righteousness for the unrighteous. It is in righteousness, by righteousness,
that he saves the sinner. And no other way. No other way. God, being God, cannot compromise
His holiness and His righteousness. He will not compromise it. He
will not lower the standard. If He compromises His holy justice,
His holy law, His holy righteousness, if He compromises it, He ceases
to be God. The chief attribute of God is
not that God is love, although God is love. But the chief attribute
of God, all of God's attributes are holy. But his chief attribute
is his holiness, his holiness. A holy God, the holy Bible, the
holy apostles, the Holy Spirit. everything about God is whole. He will not accept anything less
than what he is himself. That sounds amazing, doesn't
it? You'd say, well, if you had no inkling, if you had no enlightenment
as to the gospel procedure, If you had no understanding as to
how God can be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,
you'd say, oh, there's no hope. There's no hope for a man. No
hope can be found for a man if God requires that we be as he
is. We must be as he is. We must have the righteousness
that he requires, the righteousness that he demands. We must have
it. We must be covered with it. We must have it on as a robe. We can never come into his presence
without it. If this righteousness is not
in the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
believer, If it's not there, there's no righteousness to be
had. No need to look anywhere else. We're all miserable, undone,
and have no hope whatsoever. But thank God it is in righteousness
and by righteousness that God saves the sinner and no other
way. He justifies the ungodly. but he does it by righteousness,
not unrighteousness. His pardon is righteous pardon, and therefore, because it is
righteous pardon, it is irreversible. His salvation is righteous salvation,
and therefore, it is an everlasting It is as the righteous judge
that God justifies the believing sinner. The Bible says he is
faithful and just in forgiving sin. Not just faithful, but just,
which means righteous. It means holy. God will not compromise. By his pardon or forgiveness,
he magnifies his righteousness so that he who goes to God or
comes to God for pardon or forgiveness, whatever word you like to use,
can use as his plea before God, the righteousness of a righteous
judge. That's his plea. God loves to
pardon because he is loved and he loves to pardon because he
is righteous and true and holy. individual member of the human
race, no sinner. There must be a distinction made
between a member of the human race and the sinner. There cannot be a distinction,
but most people want you to make a distinction. When I say no
member of the human race, I'm saying no sinner because all
are sinners. Only one man that ever walked
the face of the earth was not a sinner, but who was called
a sinner is none other than the Son of God himself. No sinner. No sinner can be too deep or
too old. too far in sin to be saved and
blessed. Why? Because the righteousness
out of which salvation comes is an infinite righteousness. His righteousness, I read to
you, is forever. wax away and perish like smoke,
and the earth shall grow old like a rag, like a garment. But
my righteousness shall be forever. The sacrifices which the sinner
is called to rest are the sacrifices of righteousness. It is from
the God of our salvation that this righteousness comes. It is with righteousness that
his priests are clothed. It is the work of righteousness
that is peace, and the effect of that righteousness is effectiveness, assurance, and
quietness forever. That's the effect of it. It all
comes from the God of the Bible. When he came, the Lord Jesus,
when he came to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and
make reconciliation, He also came to bring in everlasting
righteousness. The Bible says that is the name
whereby he shall be called the Lord. My righteousness. In 1 Corinthians
1 and 30 it says, For he of God is made unto us righteousness. And from the very moment, the
very second that we receive the divine testimony concerning the
righteousness of the Son of God, all the guilt and all the shame
that was on us passes over to him and all of his righteousness
passes over to us. Look with me in this book of
Romans to chapter 3 and verse 22. Let me read this. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that
believe, For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. What's he saying here in Romans
3 and 22? It says, In believing, in believing,
not in doing, not in doing, the righteousness of God becomes
ours for the promise of it. The promise of this righteousness
is to Romans chapter 4 and verse 5. The promise of this righteousness
is to him that believeth, not to him that doeth. You don't
come doing, you come believing. Listen to what the promise says.
It says, but to him that worketh not. Don't come with doing. You violate the Scriptures. You do an injustice to God and
certainly a great injustice to yourself when you come to God
bringing something in your hand. But to him that worketh not,
it is to him that ceases not to work, ceases not to offer,
but simply trusts. in God's Son, him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness." Well, we believe, and what does
God do? He imputes. He reckons to us. He reckons to our count. Righteousness, the righteousness
which the Lord Jesus Christ brought in, the righteousness which he
established by his obedience to God's holy law. We believe he imputes, he charges
to our account the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and,
listen to me, the whole Transaction is done, and done once and for
all, forever. This righteousness that I am
talking about, that comes by imputation, that comes from God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, this righteousness presents us
before God as legally legally entitled to the possession of
righteousness. This righteousness that is wrought,
that he established by his obedience to the holy, just, and true law
of God, that righteousness presents us before the very presence of
God legally entitled to the imputation of the blessed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We get, when we have His righteousness,
we get the benefit of His perfection in all of its completeness. All
of it is ours. All things are yours, the Scripture
says. And that is his righteousness
which he provides for us in the Lord Jesus Christ and which comes
to us by our believing or our trusting in his beloved Son. And the transaction is done. It is given to all. without distinction, and it is
put on all who believe. What's put on them? A robe? A
covering? It is written in the Bible. It says, Put on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I think that's found in this
very book that I'm reading from in chapter 13 of the book of
Romans and the 14th verse. Well, look at the 12th verse
too. He said, The night is far spent. That is, it's about gone. There's
just a short time, just a short time before the sun rises. He said, The day is at hand.
That is, this has to do with the brevity of our existence
here upon the face of this earth. Here today and gone tomorrow. Pat and Mitch and some of them
was looking at some pictures that I have over there of some
preachers that had their pictures taken here 15, 18 years ago and
they said, Boy, has it been that long ago. Look how young they
are here and how old they look now. Boy, it's quick, isn't it? The night is far spent for all
of us, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore, in urgency,
in urgency, cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in rioting and in drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and in vain, but listen to this, but put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to
fulfill the lusts thereof. What is he saying here? Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on His righteousness. That's
what he's talking about. Put on His covering. Hear what I've got to say concerning
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in substitution. To substitute
dying in your place and your debt. God being a just God cannot
punish His Son for your sins and then grab you up and punish
you the second time. He can't do that. That would be unjust. That would
be unrighteous. And there's no unrighteousness
with God. Everything that God ever does
is in perfect righteousness. Understand, he says, what God's
done in Christ. and put ye on Christ, receive
him, trust him, put him on. Over in the book of Galatians,
chapter 2, there's a verse I'll read to you in connection with
that. Chapter 3, verse 27. It says in verse 26, For ye are all... Stop a minute here, for ye are
all the children of God. Well, he's talking here, he's
writing to men and women who are believers. They're believers. They're believers
in the Lord Jesus. He's not writing here to the
fifty states. of the United States of America,
including every single solitary soul that lives in the 50 states.
He's writing to a specific people. Here it says, Paul an apostle
not of man, neither by man. That is, a group of people didn't
get together and elect him and say, well, he's going to be our
preacher. He's going to be our apostle. We like him. He dresses
well. He's got a good vocabulary. He's
got a good education. He's a man of means, so we want
him to be our leader. No, a thousand times no. Paul an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who
raised him from the dead. And all the brethren are with
me unto the churches of Galatia. He's writing unto the churches,
unto the believers. And I know, and you know, that
everyone, who has confessed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
every one of them, it's not necessarily true that anything happened to
them. Some of them confess and profess
at a certain age, when they're six or seven years old, or when
they have daily vacation Bible school, they get them to profess
that they believe in Jesus Christ profess and they take them and
baptize them and they grow up living, believing that they're
Christians, believing that they're because of something that they
done when they was little children that makes everything right. But there's no light in them
for the most part. I'm not saying that everybody's
that way. There is a rule, not a hard, fast rule that makes
that so. but in the most part it is, listen
to me now, in this third chapter of the
book of Galatians. He says, For as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse that is written curses
every one that commit it, not in all things which are written
in this book. Look in verse 27. For as many
of you that has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ. That don't mean in water baptism. You didn't put him on in water
baptism. You trusted the Lord Jesus Christ
and because you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, you followed the
Lord Jesus Christ in baptism. that is in the picture of baptism,
and it can only be by immersion. You cannot show forth the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ by putting a little water on my head. You
can't do it. The word baptism is not even
in the New Testament. I don't know why the translators
put it in there. The word is immersion, immersion,
going down, being buried, When you're buried, you're out of
sight. You're under the water. You put on Jesus Christ by faith,
and then this outward symbol, you follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you say, I'm one with Him, I died with Him, I was buried
with Him, and I rose again to walk in newness of life. You
put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on His righteousness, and
as many of you that have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. Now I am, because of this righteousness
that has been charged to my count, the imputation of it, I am right now, every believer
is right now, this second, every believer, that every believer
ever shall believe in the Lord Jesus as his King, Lord, Savior,
Redeemer, Righteousness, Sin-Bearer and His Obedience. Now I am,
everyone, now I am as though, listen to me, When I put on Christ,
righteousness charged my account. Right then, from that moment,
I am regarded by God as though I'd never seen Him. I got Christ for my right. Did
He see Him? He'd never seen Him. There was no sin in Him. They
looked Him up. up and down, over and across. They examined him, the scribes
and the Pharisees, and even passed by no sin in
him. There is sin on him, but no sin
in him. He who knew no sin was made sin
in order that we might become what? The righteousness of God
in him. We put on Christ. So every believer
now is considered as if I myself had perfectly performed that
obedience which Christ Jesus performed in our behalf. I'm talking about righteousness
for the unrighteous. That's what I'm talking about. It is the unrighteousness of
our nature and of our true self. It's in that righteousness that
we come to God as unrighteous. By nature we come to him as unrighteous
vile wretches. We don't come to God with goodness
in our hands because we have no goodness. I don't think you'll ever appreciate
God's Christ, you'll never appreciate God's Gospel until you understand
that in yourself by nature you do not have one ounce of merit
that would entitle you to favor with God. So you cannot come
with some recommendation unto God or some foolish promise unto
God that you'll hope to do better than you have. You come in all
of your unrighteousness You do not come with goodness in your
hands. You come with the utter want
of goodness that you don't have any. You don't come with a promise
that you're going to do better. Don't come to God presenting
any claim as a condition for God to do something for you.
You go to Him as unrighteous and being unable to remove the
unrighteousness that is on you and in you. You come naked before
God with nothing in your hand, nothing whatsoever. You can't
offer God anything to appease Him and you can't offer God anything
of yourself. that would prevail upon him to
show you the least favor. You must come on the platform
of what you are, a poor sinner. And I stand here before you tonight. I once thought, I once thought
that Probably I ought to come making promises to God what I
would do and what I wouldn't do. But I have long since learned that that's very deceptive to
my soul, that I must come empty-handed. Nothing in my hand I bring simply
to thy cross I claim. What am I looking for? I'm looking
for the book of Hebrews here. Hebrews chapter 10. I believe
it is. Chapter 10. Verse 12. Someone read that for
me. I haven't got that page in my
Bible. I've lost it. Who was that now? Say that again. This man! Well, look over there in Hebrews
chapter 1 verse 3. See what he says there. Read that, Pat. sat down. He sat down, that man. When he offered this sacrifice
of himself, he sat down. The sitting down. of our high
priest says to all the inhabitants in heaven and all the inhabitants
of the earth who are here, one message. The work's done. Eternal redemption is obtained. No more work to do. The work's
finished. As long as you're moving and
doing something, it's not finished. But our Lord finished the work.
the high priest in the tabernacle, back into the holies of holies,
doing service unto God as a representative to the people. He never, his
work was never finished. It just kept going all the time. And if he ceased to be moving
around in the tabernacle, They'd kill him. God would kill him,
strike him dead right there. As long as he was moving, the
people rejoiced. And our Lord Jesus Christ, our
great high priest, when he finished the work, when he obtained eternal
redemption, he went over and said, Al, he said, Al, work's
done. If I just painted the room, There's no need for me to get
up on the ladder and start painting again. The work's done. It's been forever
and ever. Righteousness has been established
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and any man, woman, boy
or girl that wants it is his for the receiving. Without distinction,
black, red, white, blue, yellow, whatever, Little center, big center. It's
for the taking. Anybody that desires and wants
the salvation of God can have it in Christ Jesus. He said, Come unto me, all ye
that labor, labor, work, all you do it, do it, always do it.
You've got to do something. It's do, do, do. come unto me."
He never said, yonder there on the tree, he
never said that you had to do something. He said, all that
there is to do, I've done, and I've finished the work. Come,
he said, you that are laboring, you that are doing, busy as a
bee, trying to gain favor with God, seize your doing and just
believe.