2 Peter. Verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like
precious faith. with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter tells us here, faith is
obtained. The word means appointed. It
was ordained. It's given. Faith is like. That means it's It's the same
in all to whom God gives it. It's of the same source, it's
of the same spirit, it's the same gift, and it's like. It
may not be the same in strength, but it's like. It's precious
because through faith Christ becomes precious to us. Now you
know this, I've told you this time and again, faith is not
in the heart that we're born with the first time. And faith
can't be produced by the heart that we're born with the first
time. Absolutely nothing good originates
within the sinner as we're born the first time. Nothing good
originates within the sinner as we're born the first time.
Faith must be given by the Spirit of God. The Lord said this, the
Spirit of God speaking through James said, every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. First
thing that has to happen is we have to be renewed, we have to
be regenerated by the divine power and grace of our God before
we're capable of this act of believing, of saving faith. So
whoever believes, whoever believes didn't do so without being born
of God and given this like precious faith. Now when you think of
faith, it's quite simply this, faith is entirely resting all
of your soul's eternal well-being into the hand of another. It's entirely resting all the
work into the hand of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when
you think about that, you think that should be the easiest thing
in the world that a person does. To entirely trust and hold on
to someone else to do everything that's necessary to bring us
into God's presence and make us accepted of God. You say that
seems the simplest thing in this world. And yet man is so unwilling
so dead by nature that we can't do this most simplest thing there
is. We can't do it. Trust somebody
else. We have to be given life. We
have to be given a desire after Christ. We have to be given a
willingness. We have to be given ears to hear
of Him. We have to be given a heart to
understand who He is. We have to be given knowledge
of who He is. We can't believe on Him of whom
we have not heard. And we have to be given faith
to lay hold of Him. And we even have to be kept by
His grace to continue believing in Him. Now, have you obtained
faith? This is a question everybody
needs to ask ourselves. Have you obtained faith? Have
you been born of the Spirit of God? Have you been made to let
go of every other confidence that you might have or that you
might have imagined and to cast all into the arms of Christ,
all your well-being? Today I want to focus on the
object of faith. The message is who faith believes
in, who faith believes in. Now this word through right here,
we're just going to focus on these last few words. Through
the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now this word through is true. The gift of faith is given because
God is righteous to give it. God does nothing in lies, nothing
in unrighteousness. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
We worship the God who is righteous. We worship the true and living
God. The whole purpose this world
was created was to manifest His righteousness. The whole reason
that He has sent forth and spoken in different ways in time past
by the prophets is because He's righteous. The whole reason that
Christ came and in these last days God has spoken unto us by
His Son. is because God is righteous.
The whole reason that the glory in sending forth those who preach
His gospel goes to Christ our King is because God is righteous. God is going to save according
to righteousness. God is not going to save by lies
and half-truths and hook and crook. That's not how our God
operates. He's the God of righteousness. This word through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ is true. God gives this gift
of faith because He ordained who would receive it. He has
worked everything to make sure we receive it through His righteousness
and He brings it to us through His righteousness. But it's also
true that faith is in the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ
and that's what I want to look at this morning, faith in the
righteousness of our God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now
what does that mean? Faith in the righteousness of
our God and our Savior Jesus Christ. What does that mean?
Who do we believe on? Who is it we believe in? I want
to show you three things. First of all, to believe in Jesus
Christ is to believe that Jesus is God. To believe in Jesus Christ
is to believe that Jesus is God. Christ is the prophet come from
God. He's the teacher come from God. But Jesus Christ is God. He is God the Son. Any kind of
faith that believes Christ to be only a prophet, only a teacher,
only a good example, only a martyr, is a false faith. It's not saving
faith. It's not the faith God gives.
There's been whole religions that call themselves Christians
that say that Jesus Christ is not God. That He is not God. He is God. He is God. I want to show you some scriptures.
John 1.1. John 1.1. Jesus of Nazareth who was born of the Virgin, who
was born in a stable in Bethlehem, and nursed on his mother's breast
like every other child, and in his manhood grew in wisdom and
stature as a man, as men do, that one is God in human flesh. He is God the Son. John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Do you
see that? The Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. This is who we're talking
about. Now look down at verse 14. And
the Word This One who is God was made flesh and dwelt among
us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Look back a few pages to Matthew. We'll come back to Matthew, so
you hold your place here in Matthew. But look back to Matthew 3. Matthew
3. We have these Scriptures delivered
to us, not by the whim of men. These Scriptures are delivered
to us as men were moved to speak by the Holy Spirit of God. And what they recorded here,
they were witnesses of. And they said this to us in Matthew
3.17. John said he heard a voice, and
this is what he said. Matthew 3.17. Lo, a voice from heaven said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus Christ
is God providing himself or lamb. That's who he is. On the cross,
you see God satisfying to the divine justice of God. When Jesus
Christ gives true faith, Do you know what I said? When Jesus
Christ gives true faith, when He gives true faith, when God
gives true faith, when the Spirit of Christ enters into this dead,
dying, wretched, sinful flesh that we are and He makes a new
creation, He makes us to believe and to confess with the mouth,
yes, Lord, I believe. that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which hath come into the world." This is the first
thing. Look over at 1 John 5. 1 John
5. Look at verse 5. 1 John 5, 5. We're going to believe in Jesus
Christ. We have to know who He is. We
have to hear who He is. It please God that this faith
we're talking about will come through hearing His Word, and
His Word come through the preaching of this Gospel. You see, it's
because He is the Word. He is the Word. Now, 1 John 5.5,
Who is He that overcometh the world? But He that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God. Look down at verse 10. Verse
10, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. What did God say of his Son?
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Look down
at verse 20, and we know that the Son of God has come. and
hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Alright, so here's the first
question. Do you believe that God, can you rejoice that God
has come and He is Jesus Christ. He came. The Son of God came. Jesus Christ. If you can't rejoice
in that, if you don't believe that, don't believe He is the
Son of God come down, seek Him. Seek Him today and don't give
yourself any rest seeking Him because you don't know God yet
and you don't believe on Him. Seek Him. Seek Him. Alright,
here's the second thing. Notice the word there in 2 Peter
1. It says, we have faith in the
righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Not only do we believe that Jesus
is God, but we also believe that Jesus is the Savior. His name is Jesus because that
means Savior. His name is Jesus, the angel
said, because He shall save His people from their sins. That's
what a Savior does. He saves His people and He saves
His people from their sins. We not only believe that Jesus
Christ is God, we believe that Jesus Christ is the propitiatory
sacrifice for His people. Jesus Christ came to be the substitute
for his guilty people. Jesus Christ came for this one
purpose. This is the purpose for which
he came. He came that he might partake of the flesh and blood
The nature, not of angels, but the nature of his children. A
man's sin, a man's got to die. A man's sin, a man's got to answer
to the law. A man broke the law, a man's
got to answer to it. Adam's the first man, Christ
is the last Adam. He's the one who came to answer
for his people. And he joined himself with that
nature for that very purpose, to be made a substitute, to die
in the room instead of his people with the sins of his people upon
him. Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2 verse 14. I think sometimes when I look
at these Scriptures that I know we've looked at time and again,
I think, you know, if we, the Lord
keeps us together, we're going to be looking at these same Scriptures
and however long he tarries, and however long he leaves us
here together. We'll be looking at these same
scriptures over and over and over. We're not going to start,
God help us, God keep us. We're not going to start saying
something new and something different and something that tickles your
ears and makes you walk out of here feeling good about yourself
and thinking that there's something you can do to save yourself.
God help us, we're not going to do that. We're going to look
at these same scriptures over and over. Well, won't that get
old? Not if the Spirit of God abides
in us. It'll never get old. It'll never get old. Look at
Hebrews 2.14. Now here's our point. He came
and He took flesh and blood for a purpose. Hebrews 2.14. He said, For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself
likewise took part of the same. Flesh and blood. That's an astounding,
amazing, Mystery to just to just sit and think about God Invisible
God who cannot be seen is too holy to see with these these
eyes these polluted eyes of ours He came down and he took a flesh
and blood And he did it because the children he came to save
were flesh and blood Hmm Look at this, he says that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. He came, he was born to die. He came into this earth not to
live for himself, not to enjoy the very things that he himself
made. He came into this earth not to
heap up treasures unto himself that he himself made and had
every right to enjoy himself. That's not why he came. From
the first hour, he said, I must be about my father's business. He came to die. That's why he
came. He was born to die. He was born
to die. That through death He, because
nobody else could do it, He might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is the devil, and deliver them. Savior, salvation,
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subjects of bondage. in shackles, in chains, in the
deadness of the heart, under the law, under the dominion of
sin, under the power of the Prince of the air. He came to deliver
us from that bondage. For verily, verily, He took not
on Him, now this is it, you got this right here, don't ever get
over this. He took on Him the nature, not
the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. He took on him the nature of
the elect children God promised Abraham that he would save. And
when he did that, God laid all the iniquity of all his elect
children on our substitute. And instead of God pouring out
divine wrath on the elect of God. This is another one of those
things to just stand in awe of. Instead of God charging and laying
to your charge the sins that were on you, He took the sins
of His elect people off of His people and laid them on His Son. And instead of pouring out divine
justice upon His elect, He poured out divine wrath on His darling
Son. This is my gospel. This is my
Savior. This is my Redeemer. He did that
to satisfy. He did that to appease. He did
that to propitiate the holy God that every one of his children
have to deal with. He dissatisfied justice on their
behalf. And that's exactly what He accomplished.
Look at Romans 4. Romans chapter 4. And we'll come
back to Romans, so hold your place here in Romans. Romans
4.25. Romans 4.25. You with me so far? Jesus Christ
is God the Son and Jesus Christ is the Savior. He came, He is
the perpetuatory sacrifice, the sacrifice that appeased God,
that justified His people. God laid all the sins of all
His elect on Him and poured out divine wrath on Him instead of
on His children. And this is what He accomplished
thereby, Romans 4.25. He was delivered for our offenses. and was raised again for our
justification. He was raised again, God declaring
with perfect, unmistakable clarity that Jesus Christ justified everybody
for whom he died. He justified every person for
whom he died. He is not a failure. The scripture
says he shall not fail. He accomplished the work He came
to accomplish. When He said it is finished,
He was not saying it is finished with the exception that if you
will add your two cents, it'll be done. He said it's finished
because it was done. He hath obtained eternal redemption
for us. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He hath done it. It is finished. It is finished. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son. The words to be are added by
the translators. That's why they're in italics.
He sent His Son, the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction,
the appeasement, the justification for our sin. And is this the
faith you have? Is this the faith we have? Do
we believe Jesus is the Son of God? Do we believe Jesus Christ
put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself? If so, you can sing
the new song. If so, you can sing redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed. Now, here's one more
thing. The third thing. Back in our
text, 2 Peter 1. It says here, faith is in the
righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Faith believes
God and our Savior Jesus Christ is all my righteousness. As I
said to you before, just as He saves by sending His Son, if
it was that important that God's righteousness be manifest, that
He would send forth His Son and His Son lay down His life, and
His Son bear having nails driven into His hands and His feet,
that His Son bear that shameful, ignominious death, that His Son
bear scoffing and spitting and the rudeness of sinful God-hating
men, if it was necessary that God Himself come, providing Himself
a Lamb that He might be just and the justifier, and that He
Himself must come and satisfy His eternal justice. If it was
that important, God's going to save in righteousness. He's going
to bring this message to His people in righteousness. To say
that's not so is to, I tell you what it is, to hold on somewhere
along the line to a false profession. When God's people are brought
to the truth, when they're brought to the truth, and we grow in
grace and knowledge of Him, we grow more to know of this grace
of Him, and as we come to the truth, Those that truly have
faith in the righteousness of God let go of everything that
doesn't match the authority of this word. This word is the authority
and the authority who gave this word said it pleased God by the
foolishness that which men regard as unnecessary, as foolish, as
beneath them, as not needful. God said I pleased him by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And he has
to send the preacher. He has to send them. And he has
to bless it. And he has to give faith to believe
it. God saves in righteousness. And the man that doesn't believe
that somewhere along the way is trusting in something mom
and daddy talked him into. Something he did when he was
in lies and falsehood and whorehouse religion. Something he did when
he was tiptoeing down the aisle after 25 stanzas of Just As I
Am because 25 other people went down there with him. Something
he's doing to either protect what he plans on doing in the
future. Retiring from the Gospel. Not supporting the Gospel. Not
being with brethren. Somewhere he's either protecting
the past or the future. But in the way you know it, is
a man that comes to the knowledge of the truth, drops the lie. He drops it. He sees by the light,
there's a lie in my right hand and he drops it. All the time. The sure mark that he hadn't
dropped it is, He don't drop it. He won't drop it. So if you
can rejoice. Now, He saves in righteousness
and this is what we believe. Jesus Christ is God our Savior,
all our righteousness. He is Jehovah Sidkanu. That means the Lord our righteousness. We are Jehovah's witnesses. That's what we are. not as the
Jehovah's Witnesses that go by that name in this world, but
we are Jehovah's Witnesses. Our witness is our only righteousness
is the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Sidkenu. We declare that
his perfect life is our perfect life. We declare that all the
virtue, the snow white garment in which is absolutely no spot
and no blemish that covers me is Jesus Christ, my righteousness. We don't preach a righteousness apart from Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is the righteousness.
He is our righteousness. And in Jesus Christ, everyone
who trusts him by his grace has kept the law of God as perfectly
as Jesus Christ our righteousness has kept it. we have. If we're yet trying to establish
a righteousness, we will pick and prod and poke and jab everybody
around us. We will do so trying to make
ourselves righteous, trying to make others righteous, trying
to find something that we can secure our guilty conscience
with and boast in that that's made us righteous. And we'll
make ourselves miserable, and we'll make everybody else around
us miserable, absolutely miserable. But when we know that we are
covered in the snow-white garment of Christ's righteousness, we
can't hear about Him enough, we can't rejoice in Him enough,
we can't sing about Him enough, we can't cast our care upon Him
in prayer enough, we can't serve Him enough, because He is the
snow-white wedding garment we must have to come into His presence.
And we rejoice that He Himself has covered us in the righteousness
that He demands, the righteousness He required. Now look back at
Romans 8.3. And we'll close. Romans 8.3.
If I'm going about still trying to establish some kind of righteousness
by the work of my hands, still walking in my wisdom, still walking
in my might, I'm not resting in the righteousness of God.
This is what He said, Romans 8.3. It's done. He says, what the law could not do, and
that it was weak through the flesh. That means we couldn't
do anything ourselves. God, sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. He did it in His flesh. He condemned
the condemnation in His flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. We've been born of the Spirit,
not of the flesh. We're led of the Spirit, not
of the flesh. We walk after the Spirit, not
after the flesh. And the righteousness of the
law has been fulfilled in us by the Spirit of God abiding.
in us. We see and behold and know that
we couldn't do this ourselves and that God has sent His Son
and His Son has fulfilled all righteousness. Romans 10.4 For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. It's not just
the Ten Commandments, though He is the end of the Ten Commandments.
It's not just the ceremonial law, though He is the end of
the ceremonial law. Christ is the end of all righteousness. We can't go about trying to establish
some evangelical obedience. We can't go about trying to establish
a righteousness because we've prayed enough. We can't go about
establishing a righteousness because we've studied enough.
We can't go about trying to establish a righteousness because we've
given enough. We can't go about trying to establish
a righteousness because we've met together in the church long
enough. We can't establish a righteousness because we believe this preacher,
that preacher. No preacher can give you this
righteousness. No preacher can work this work
in you. No. God does it. God does it. He
does it. And Christ is the end of the
law for right. He's the end of this word right
here. The end of this whole word. The end purpose of it. The end
to which we're brought through every word of these scriptures.
And if we haven't been brought to Him, It makes no point whether
we're keeping the law of Moses or jumping through a list of
hoops that men have given us, calling it the new covenant and
works of righteousness that we ought to be doing. It doesn't
matter which one it is. If the end of everything, the
beginning and the end is not Christ our Lord, he's the end.
Now listen carefully. I want to make this statement
and we'll close. It's not the great mysteries. These things
I've spoken this morning are so great and so mysterious in
themselves. But sadly, these are things that
men will say, you know, I knew that from the very beginning.
That's something I found out from the very beginning. That's
just simple to me. Why don't you move on to something else?
If that's my thought about this, you know what I'd do? I go back
to the very beginning. I go back to this gate right
here because this is the touchstone by whereby we make our calling
an election. Sure, this is the gate of entrance
right here. This is the foundation. If we
have not started here, you know, if you start off drawing a straight
line and it's just a little off the mark, the further it goes,
the further off the market gets. This is where we start right
here. This is the simplicity that the child of God never grows
to leave. We grow in it. We grow in the
knowledge of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, but we never
grow past this. Do you believe He's the Son of
God? Do you believe that all your hope is that He justified
you from all your sins? Are you hoping in that last day
not to stand in your own righteousness that you've accomplished by something
you've done before we think we were converted or after, but
to stand that day robed in the snow-white garment of the Lord
our righteousness? If you believe on Him, be thankful. Be ever thankful. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. And he said, and I'm persuaded,
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. What have you committed to him?
Everything. Everything. All my eggs are in
this one basket. I'm completely, thoroughly persuaded
that Christ is all. Because He's God, and God's all. Because He's my Savior, who is
all my salvation. Because He's my righteousness,
who's all my righteousness. Christ is all, and He is all
in all. That's right, in all in whom
He dwells, He is all. That's the plain declaration
of God Himself. I want you to look over at something,
two things in Matthew 16. I never made this connection,
but I said if you If you believe Him, be joyful, be thankful.
Now, you know this verse here. This is what the Lord told Simon,
Matthew 16, 17. The Lord told Peter this. Peter, Matthew 16, 17. Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona. Let's
see what he said back in verse 16. Simon Peter answered him.
This is what he said, Whom say ye that I am? That's the question. This is the question. This is
the question. What do you think of Christ?
He said, Whom say men that I am? Or ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And this is what the Lord answered
him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, look at this last phrase, but
my Father which is in heaven. He's revealed this unto you.
Now look over at Matthew 25, 34. This will be our last verse. This is what the Lord said that
He is going to say in that great day to those who stand robed
in His righteousness. Matthew 25, He said, Blessed
art thou from my Father which is in heaven revealed this to
you. Matthew 25, 34 he says, Then shall the King say unto
them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father. Blessed
of my Father. He says, Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's when the
works were finished, when he trusted it all into the hands
of his son. Blessed, if you know this, and
rest right here, he said, you've been blessed of my father. And
in that day, he said, I'll say unto you, come, you blessed of
my father, and inherit this kingdom that I prepared when I entered
in the surety ship engagement for you, that I accomplished
for you, that I brought to you, that I've kept you in. Come now
and enjoy this kingdom. Amen.