The righteousness of the perfect
shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by
his own wickedness. The righteousness of the perfect
shall direct his way. What direction do we have in this life? This verse may seem to be merely
stating the obvious, but the truth is this teaches something
that very, very few people are even aware of, much less believe. Direction. Religious people commonly say
the law is our rule of life. The law is our guide. But think about this. To say
that is nothing but an admission of our sinnerhood. It's an admission
of failure. If you say the law is my rule
of life, how's that working for you? How are you measuring up? To say that is to declare our
godlessness. That's all that is. It's not
helpful. To set somebody up on the path
of keeping the law is not helpful to them in any way. And here's
the thing. The scripture teaches here in
this verse that this is not the case for those who are perfect. The law is not your guide if
you're perfect. So what are you if the law is
your guide? Now, I want to be clear if the
Lord will bless this and I pray it will be clear. The law was
not Christ's rule of life. It just wasn't. Not in the sense
that religious people say that. What's meant by that is this.
Men sinners see the law as a standard that we are to strive to measure
up to. And by doing our best to measure
up to that, we can obtain favor with God. Now you know that's
right. That's what religion is all about.
We want to please God. We want to do God's will. So
we're going to keep his law. That's a recipe for disaster. And it may seem to you that the
Lord merited righteousness that way by having the law as his
standard and by striving and measuring up to that law. But
think about it. Did Christ meet the law's strict
and holy standard? Yes, he did. But Christ did not
do what he did. because the law said do it. That's
what our verse is teaching tonight. He did not do what he did because
the law said do it. He didn't look to the law and
say, okay, this is what I need to do. He said that it was his meat
to do the will of his father. It was to him fulfillment and
joy and sustenance to his righteous soul. That's what our verse said. The righteousness, the righteousness of the perfect shall be his guide. Why did Christ do what he did?
Because he said, well, I've got to measure up to the law. That's
not what he said. He said it's because it's what
sustains me. It's what fulfills me. It's what
rejoices my heart. It's my delight. Turn to Psalm
40. And let's look at this. Psalm 40. This is important. Now this is not just a minute
distinction that really doesn't have any
bearing upon us or anything. This is very important. Psalm
40 and verse 6. Now we know from Hebrews 10 7
that these are the words of Christ as he entered into this world
as our surety. Paul said there in Hebrews, when
God was not satisfied with the blood of bulls and of goats,
then Christ entered into the world. And here's what he said
as he did. Psalm 40, verse six. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin
offering hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. And these next words are very
important now. This is the teaching of our text.
And to us, it's life. I delight to do thy will. The law said,
sacrifice an offering. Christ said, I'm going to come
do what God said because I love to. It just makes me happy to
do it. That's salvation. Somehow a man
has to please God. And pleasing God is not just
about conforming outwardly to a set of rules. Pleasing God
is being God-like. It's being holy. It's being righteous. It's being perfect. It's having
a heart that loves to please God, that loves to do what God
says, that would never think of doing anything else. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. It's not just on cold tables
of stone as some standard for me to measure up to. It's right
up in here. It's in my very being. It's who
I am. The holiness of God and pleasing
God and doing right and obedience and submission, perfection is
who I am. It's my heart. That's our salvation. That's what we're talking about.
The law is not even for a righteous man. Now think with me, from
the scripture, not that we're gonna reason this out, but think
with me about what God said. The law is not even for a righteous
man, and that's what we're talking about, a perfect man. Okay? A perfect man. The righteousness
of the perfect man is his guide. And we're talking about the perfect,
the law is not even for that man. It's not. And he's talking
about that man. Turn to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy
1. In verse 5. Now the end of the commandment is love. Out of a pure heart. The end of the commandment,
that is the goal of it, the purpose of it, the point of it, the fulfillment
of it, the reason God gave it, is love out of a pure heart and
of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned, from which some, having
swerved, have turned aside into vain jangling, desiring to be
teachers of the Law, you see how the law, the end of the law
is love out of a pure heart. And those who have turned aside,
it's not that they've forsaken the law, they're just not using
the law rightly. They're teachers of the law,
but they've turned aside from the truth, from the gospel, from
Christ. Desiring to be teachers of the
law Understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.
They don't realize that the point of the law is Christ Loving Christ
and loving what Christ loves But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully It's not that there's any flaw with
God's law. God's law is just a an expression of him who he
is It's holy and good and perfect There's nothing wrong with the
law, but you've got to understand it correctly. You've got to use
it correctly knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous
man. You remember what I said earlier
to say that the law is my rule of life is to just admit that
I'm a sinner because the law is not made for a righteous man.
It's made for sinners. Now I am a sinner. But the goal, the point of the
law is for me to be perfect. And that doesn't happen by keeping
the law. By the deeds of the law, Paul
said, Romans chapter 3, shall no flesh be justified. And that's just what makes sense
to man. How am I going to be righteous? Well, God has a law.
I'll just keep that law. No, you're not going to be righteous
that way. What's the lawful use of the
law? Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayer. It's made for vile, wretched
sinners. That's why there's a law. So you see the teaching of our
text in Proverbs 11, Christ was directed to do all that he did
by his own righteousness, his own heart of love for his father
and obedience to his father and submission to his father. And
this is true of us also. Now hold on, Chris, how can you
apply that verse to us at all when it has the word perfect
in it? Well, I'll tell you why, because the word means complete.
And Paul said in Colossians 1, 2, verse 10, we are complete
in Christ. We're complete in him now. The
word perfect here means whole, W-H-O-L-E, whole. And this certainly doesn't describe
us by nature, but the woman with the issue of blood said in Matthew
9, 21, within herself, if I may touch his garment, I shall be
made whole. And I'm pretty sure she was on
to something. We're whole, we're complete. This word perfect means sound. And I know that after the Gadarean
demoniac met the Lord Jesus Christ, before he would have been described
any other way but sound. But when the Lord found him and
got done with him, he was sitting and clothed and of a sound mind. And so we as believers, this
is us in Christ. The law is not made for us. It's
made for what we were. It's made to show us what we
were and to reveal our sin and evil, but it can't do anything
about it except drive us to Christ. Show us our need of Christ. Put
us in the dust at His feet. We are able, and as is always
the case in scripture, to apply the same words to Christ and
ourselves, because as he is, so are we in this world. As God sees him, so God sees
us. But also, also, not only by representation
are we in him, and God sees us in him, But also he's our actual motivation. He is the law written in our
hearts. It is our righteousness that directs us. What is our
righteousness? Our goodness? No, Christ. It
is our righteousness that directs us in this life now, not the
law. He is our motivation. He is Christ
in us, the hope of glory. The law is not our rule of life.
The Bible says that the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ. And what did Paul say after that?
We don't need a schoolmaster anymore. The law fulfilled what
it was given to us for. It brought us to Christ. We're
not under the law anymore. We're under grace. The law is not the goal. Christ
is the goal of the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness, the goal, the purpose, the fulfillment
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Do
you believe? Then you're complete, you're
whole, you're sound, and the law is not your rule of life.
It is the righteousness of God in your heart. that guides you. What directs
my steps? The law? Is that what it is? No, love, the goal of the law
where we read is love out of a pure heart, pure, whole, sound,
perfect, same words now. Only a righteous heart can direct
the steps of the righteous according to our text. And a righteous
heart is a heart of love. Galatians 5 14 all the law is
fulfilled in one word. You know what it is love You
mark it down Galatians 5 14 all of the law is fulfilled in one
word even in this thou shalt love All right now do we love I I love the law. The law is not my rule of life.
The law can't save me. The law can't make me righteous.
But the law is good and holy and perfect and I love it. I
love God's law. To delight in the law, now think
about this, to delight in the law That is in the righteousness
of God, which is, the law is an expression of his holy will,
his righteousness. This is what God wills. Thou
shalt not and thou shalt. His will concerning us. To delight
in that is way more important than obeying it. Man, Chris is going crazy tonight.
Now, for sinners to be saved, somebody's gonna have to actually
measure up now. Somebody's actually gonna have
to keep the law. But it's not gonna be you. And so for you,
it's way more important to delight in it, to love it, than it is
to keep it. Romans chapter seven. Paul there
confessed, he said, I can't do the things that I would do as
a believer. I can't measure up. I cannot fulfill the law. I can't
do what I want to do. I can't not do what I don't want
to do. But he said, I tell you this,
I delight in God's law. By God's grace, I delight in
his law. I love it. He was able to say that honestly.
In verse 22, I delight in the law of God. After the inward
man, after the new man, after the new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. And that man is not guided by
the law. He's guided by love. This revealed that Paul had an
interest in the covenant of grace. Why do I say it's more important
to love the law than it is to keep it? Well, with this qualification,
somebody got to keep it. We all goners. But for us now,
we're not gonna keep it, but we can love it. In fact, God
promised in his covenant of grace that we will love it. You know
the Lord said the law is in my heart there in that passage where
we read? You know what's part of the covenant? God said I'll
put my law in your heart too. It'll be there just like it was
in the heart of my son, Jesus Christ. We're not gonna be like
him in this flesh, in this world. But we're going to be liking
in that sense. The law's going to be in our
heart. That's why Paul could say, I love the law. The law
was in his heart. That covenant was fulfilled in
Paul by God, even though he couldn't keep
it. But what it did do is reveal
that Paul had an interest in that covenant, a saving interest
in that covenant, in which God said, I will write my laws upon
their hearts. And in that covenant, Christ
is our righteousness. Christ is the fulfillment of
that covenant. We are not the beneficiaries of God's covenant
of grace based upon our meeting any condition of it. Christ is
the surety of that covenant. We benefit because He performed. We are declared righteous by
God because Christ obeyed. But by God's grace, according
to His promise in that covenant, I do love His law. And I'll tell
you this, I love God Himself. And by His grace, I love my neighbor
now. None of it like we ought. None
of it like we want to. None of it like we should. None
of it like we will. But we're not the same as we
were. Because of his free, sovereign, electing, distinguishing, covenant
grace. He says we're righteous. And
a righteous man is not motivated by law. He's not. He's directed by his righteousness.
Which in our case is Christ. Christ in us. We have the mind of Christ, mind
and heart. But now let me be clear now,
since I love the law and love God and love people now by his
grace, does this mean I measure up to God's standard of perfection?
We know better than that. No, no, it's not about that. My love is full of sin, but that
I love it all means that Christ has given me life. It means that
Christ is in me, my hope of glory. And I know that I have a saving
interest in Christ by the witness of the spirit within me. And
I know that if he's begun a good work in me, he'll finish it.
He's able to finish it. He's the author of my faith.
And if he authored it, he'll finish it. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Because of God's grace, I'm in
Christ, and because I'm in Christ, Romans 11 5 is talking about
me. In our text it primarily refers
to him, but you can't refer to him without referring to me anymore.
Does that make sense? You can't talk about him without
talking about me in him because as he is, so am I. Christ was indeed in and of himself
complete and whole and sound and perfect. He lived according
to the dictates of his own righteous And thereby he was and is the
righteousness of all whom he represented. My righteousness
is not like his. It's not patterned after his.
His righteousness is not my example. His righteousness is my righteousness. But also we have to learn this
lesson now. And this is the lesson of this
text that I want us to see tonight. The believer is not motivated.
The word directed. in our verse, what directs us,
what motivates us, what guides us, what moves us in the direction
we go. It's not the law. It's not the
law of God. Even we who are full of sin,
if Christ is our righteousness, and we indeed bear the fruit
of his spirit, Then the law is not for us, as we read in 1 Timothy
1. It's just not. We are not under
the law. The law is not for a righteous
man. You say, well, Chris, you're
not a righteous man. But God said I am, if I'm in
his son. And these words are no more true.
They can be no more true than they are in describing Christ's
people who of God are in Christ Jesus. We are as perfect as God's
son because he's our perfection. And it is Christ in me that directs
my way. My righteousness directs me.
He is my motivation. He's my example. He's my very
ability to walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
Romans chapter eight. You remember Romans chapter eight?
It says in verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And then, It talks about why and how that
is because Christ came and did what we couldn't in our stead
as our representative and substitute. And he is our righteousness now
and we don't because of him. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Not after the letter of the law,
but after the spirit. Not after our fleshly law keeping
and ordinance keeping like the Jews and By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be holy. We don't walk like that, we walk
after the Spirit. And as for the wicked, our text
says you can blame it on society, you can blame it on Adam, you
can blame it on your parents, you can even blame it on God,
and a lot of people do. But you will perish because of
your own wickedness. If you are guided in the right
way, it will be because of your own
righteousness now. Not righteousness you were born
with, not righteousness you came up with, not righteousness you
measured up to, the righteousness of God in Christ. The righteousness
that is without the law. But that's what will guide you. Not the law itself. John 3.19 says this now. What did our text say? The wicked
will perish because of their own evil. Because of their own
wicked heart. John 3.19 says this is the condemnation. That Christ Jesus came into this
world. Light came into the world. Who's that? The light of the
world is Christ. Light came into this world and
men love darkness rather than light. That's why you're under
the wrath of God right now as you sit there, if you are. This is the condemnation. Christ
came into this world and you loved yourself so much that you
nailed him to a cross and laughed at him while he bled. That's
what that says. And so it's a matter of righteousness,
And wickedness, as always, life and death, light and darkness,
and life, light, and righteousness are in Christ. They are Christ. And wickedness and darkness and
evil are me. And so as always, it's me or
him. It's me or him. Thank God. As I looked at that
last part of our verse, I just thanked God in my heart and how
unthankful we are. I'm not bragging on my gratitude
for God because it's pathetic. But by His grace, thank God,
if we perish, it'll be our own wickedness that takes us down
to hell now. And that's all we are by nature. I thank God for
Romans chapter 3. Let's turn over there and close
with just reading this passage. I know that we look at this passage
a lot and for good reason and it may be very familiar to you
and that's good as long as familiarity doesn't breed callousness with regard to it,
doesn't cause us to You know, you can become familiar to something
with the point that it just kind of goes in one ear and out the
other. Most don't ever be in that place. But I want us to
be very familiar with this passage of scripture. Romans 3 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. You see that? He tells us what
the law won't do and what it will do in that one verse. Isn't
that so instructive? The law will not justify you.
Just the opposite. All it can do is condemn you.
And that's what it does. What it don't do is make you,
it doesn't remedy your sin. It cannot remedy your problem. You can't be justified by it.
But what it will do is show you how much you need justification.
The knowledge of sin. That's why God gave the law.
It's not for a righteous man. It's for somebody that needs
to see his need of righteousness. It's for a sinner. And now that
we have righteousness, we don't need the schoolmaster anymore.
We have Christ. I wish I could learn that. And
I wish I could say it right. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, so the law is good. The Lord uses it rightly. That's the right use of the law.
The law is good as long as a man uses it lawfully. And that's
the lawful use of it right there. To hear God's law and your mouth
be stopped. And in your heart become guilty
before God. But now, that leaves us in a
bad place, doesn't it there? God's law, all it can do is show
us how bad we are, but now the righteousness of God without
the law. But wait a minute, I thought
I had to measure up to the law to be righteous. No, righteousness
comes without you keeping the law. It's not without the law
in the sense that God throws his law out. Somebody's got to
keep his law. But Christ did that as his people's
surety and representative. And so righteousness for you
is without the law. And it's got to be. Because we're
never gonna keep it. But the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested. It's revealed to you now, if
God comes in power and presents his gospel to your heart, and
it was witnessed by the law and the prophets, this is nothing
new. The law said that you're not gonna be righteous by keeping
the law. Righteousness never has been by the law. Even of
old, the prophets didn't preach that. Even, what righteousness are
we talking about? That somehow we can work up a
righteousness without keeping, no, no, no. Even the righteousness
of God, which is, which exists by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ. That word faith there, it's not
talking about believing. That word is faithfulness. Christ's
obedience, his faithfulness to God's law is the reason there's
a righteousness for you and for me. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe. There's faith, there's our faith.
First we're talking about Him. It's upon all them that believe.
And that's necessary because we're no different than the worst
reprobate that ever disgraced God's earth. We've got to be righteous without
us keeping the law because we're no different from them who hate
the law. All have sinned, verse 23, and
come short of the glory of God. But now he's back to his main
theme in verse 24 here. He's talking about how we are
justified. He said, you not by the deeds
of the law, verse 20, there shall no flesh be justified. But I'll
tell you how we are justified. Freely, by grace, by free grace,
without a cause. God declared you holy when there
was no reason in you for him to do it. Because the reason
was in his son. Freely by his grace. That's the only kind of grace
there is now is free If there's a reason for God to have grace
upon you, it's not grace anymore. It's merit Being justified freely by his
grace Through the redemption. There's the calls freely is without
a call that's in you, but there's a cause and It's the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. The reason God justified you
is not in you, it's in Christ Jesus. His redeeming precious
blood. Christ Jesus whom God hath set
forth to be a sin offering. Is he my sin offering? If so,
that's by, that's through faith in his blood. That's how God applies all of
this to me. This is how he reveals it all
to me. It's how he causes me to experience the benefits of
what Christ did for me, by faith in his blood. I look at his precious
blood flowing down with eyes of faith and I say, there's my
propitiation for sin. There's how God can be just and
declare me just. Through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. He remits
sins and yet He's righteous to do it because of that blood.
Through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that God might be God, that God might be holy,
that he might be just, that he might not compromise his holiness
and justice in saving me. And the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. And I'll tell you this,
in all of that, you got nothing to brag about. If somehow I've
come across to not as saying that it's your righteousness
somehow that you worked up and married, then I've missed it
and you will too, if you listen to me. We've got nothing to boast
about here. It is our righteousness that
will direct us. But all of our righteousness
is Christ. And I'm still learning that. And I pray that God will teach
us that. We're not talking bad about the
law to say that the law is not our motivation. We just need
to understand what we are now before God. If the law is your rule of life,
you're in a hopeless place. There's no hope in that. You'll
never measure up. But thank God, the righteousness
of the perfect man will guide him. And I pray the Lord will reveal
his Son to us and in us. So that that verse will be true
of us. I want to be complete. I want
to be whole. I want to be sound. And that's
only true in him. But in him now, It's so true
that I don't even know how to tell you how true it is. Let's
pray.