Verse 3. We'll read the first
three verses, but my text will be found in verse 3. The Apostle
said, Brethren, 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. For they being
ignorant Ignorant of what? "...of God's righteousness, and
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." And that's the title
of my message this morning, The Righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of
God? And the beginning of this book,
the beginning of Romans in chapter 1, the Apostle says this to the
Romans, he says, I am ready, I am ready, Romans 1 and verse
15, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. Listen. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now the righteousness of God,
of which the Jews were ignorant. Paul's brethren, according to
the flesh, he said they were ignorant of the righteousness
of God. And by what definition, by what
measurement did he determine their ignorance? By this, they
went about to establish their own righteousness. They didn't
know the righteousness of God, and how did you know? Because
they went about to establish their own righteousness. There's
own righteousness. Paul said, but I've come to preach
the gospel. And what is a gospel? What is
the gospel? Paul says it reveals the righteousness
of God. That's what the gospel does.
It is a revelation. A revelation of the righteousness
of God. Now listen, if any man claims
to be a preacher of the gospel, But his message is something
other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that man should not
be heard. You know, Paul, he had one message. He said, THE gospel. That definite
article there means this, that there is only one gospel. Only
one gospel. If I preach to you another gospel,"
Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, he said, if I or an angel
from heaven were to come down and preach to you another gospel
than what I've preached to you, Paul said this, let that man
be accursed. Accursed. Strong language, isn't
it? Yet this is the Apostle speaking.
Let him be accursed. Matter of fact, that word means,
let him go to hell. That's exactly what it means.
Anathema. Let him go to hell if he preaches
another gospel than what I preached. Paul said those men that came
into Galatia, they were preaching another gospel, which is not
another. There is not another gospel.
There is only one gospel. Only one gospel. The gospel that Paul preached
is the gospel because he was taught of Christ. His gospel
and the apostles were received their gospel not of men, but
of God, but of Christ himself. Now I know this, men just seek
to confuse. Men desire to keep others confused. Religion is confusing. Religion
is very confusing. They try to confuse you in order
to make everybody seem welcome, don't they? I mean, if the gospel
is confusing, then everybody can make up their own opinion
about it, and then, you know, everybody feels good about it.
Look, I don't want to feel good and go to hell. Do you? I don't
want to feel good and go to hell. I want to know, is this the gospel? I want to know, is my gospel
the gospel? Rather than, is it some other
gospel? And men try to do this by this,
first of all, by names, right? Denominations. People do that.
Now denominations have been helpful. I know that it has some help
in determining where to go. You hear some denomination, you
have an idea, basically, of what their doctrine is. You can kind
of tell. But really, nowadays, names don't
mean that much. People put names on the door. Some people even don't put a
name at all on the door, just to try to, you know, say, well,
we're not with anybody. Names may surely help, but really,
they're not much of a help at all. Now, I'm, by denomination,
I grew up a Baptist, and I consider myself, if you want to, in the
strictest term of Baptist, yeah. Yeah, I would be what you would
call a Baptist. But to tell you the truth, 99%
of Baptists today, I wouldn't have anything to do with them.
We preach a different gospel today. 99% of them. They carry
the name, but really they don't have any of the same doctrines
as they used to. So what does it matter then what's
on the door? And I tell you, it don't matter. I want to make
it very plain, very simple, so everybody understands this. This
is important. There are only two religions.
I don't care what you put on the door. Two religions. Works
and grace. Salvation by works and salvation
by grace. There are only two. One is true,
the other is false. One is true. If a man is saved
or accepted by something he does, anything he does, If a man is accepted of God by
his works, by some ceremony, or by his will, that's works
religion. If a man is saved by his will,
his works, or his ceremony, that is works religion. I don't care
what you put on the door. Doesn't matter. The other is, if a man is saved
by grace, he is saved by the merits and the sacrifice and
obedience of a substitute. And salvation is by the unmerited
favor of God. Now those are two opposing Gospels,
two opposing religions. But here comes in some people,
and these are what we call liars and fools. Some say, well, salvation
is by grace. I believe that, pastor. I believe
salvation is by grace. I believe that the Word of God
says it. You can't get around it, right?
For by grace you are saved. There you go. You can't get around
that, can you? Through faith, that faith, not
of yourselves, it faith is a gift of God, not of works, lest, what? Any man should boast. If you
add anything to grace, what do you get to do? You get to brag.
You get to say, I did something. I added something. God says,
no, you don't get to add anything to this. Salvation is by grace.
You can't get around it. But then they say, but. Now,
pastor, I believe salvation is by grace. I do. But. But you must be baptized. Now what did you just do? You
added a work to grace. You said you must do a ceremony
in order to be saved. But you've got to take of the
Lord's Supper. But you've got to join the church.
But you've got to obey the Ten Commandments. What are you doing? You're adding something to grace. You're adding something to grace.
Get this one. But you must exercise your free
will. You see, salvation is by grace,
but, pastor, you've got to exercise your free will. What did you
just do? You've added your work to His. You've made a work out
of will. Therefore, they deceive the souls
of men trying to combine works and grace. Well, what does God's Word say
about it? Let's just throw opinions out, right? Now, what we're here
to do is throw opinions out. Go to Romans chapter 11. Paul
is dealing with this very same subject. Romans 11 and verse
5. Anybody that would try to add
works and grace together to make a religion, to make a gospel,
what does he say? Romans 11 and verse 5. Even so, then, at this present
time, there is also a remnant according to the election of
grace. Paul's been dealing with this
matter of God choosing a people. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Before they were born, yet having
done good or evil, God loved Jacob and hated Esau. He's been
teaching this. And he's talking about this remnant
of grace that God has chosen. Now then, verse 6. By grace,
then it is no more works. Can you get any clearer than
that? If salvation is by the election of grace, if it is of
grace, it is no more work. What happens if you try to add
work to grace? And then he said, well, grace
is no more grace. You've changed the definition
of grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more of grace.
Otherwise, you change the definition of work. Work is no more work.
You see then, I'm telling you the gospel that Paul is preaching.
The gospel that reveals the righteousness of God is this. It is by grace
and grace alone. Salvation comes by grace and
grace alone. Grace alone. You cannot mix works and grace. You cannot do it. It makes another
gospel. And look at... Let's see. Yeah, either salvation is by
grace or by works. The apostle says, what then? Hath Israel obtained that which
it seeketh for? No, but the election hath attained
it, and the rest were blinded. What did the nation of Israel,
those in our text, Paul's brethren according to the flesh, what
did they seek? What did they look for? They
look for salvation by works. They look for the righteousness
of God to be obtained by something they did. By something they did. And what did Paul say? They didn't
obtain it. You know, one thing about works
religion, it's never done. You're never finished. You're
never done. When is enough enough? Enough
is never enough. You're always doing. That's what
those Jews were always doing. That's why they had 10,000 additions
to the law. They had 10,000 traditions added
to the law because enough was never enough. They sought it by works. Now
go back to your text. Now what does Paul say about
those who seek salvation by works? What does he say? He says this,
look, I long for them to be saved. Now look, anybody who wants salvation
by works, it's my prayer that God would open your heart and
testify of this to you, because I can't make you see it. I can't
try. It's impossible. If God opened your heart, he
said, that's what I hope. He said, verse 2, I bear them
record they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
He said, these Jews had zeal. Man, they were. There's nobody
more zealous to obey the law than the Jews. Nobody. None of
us. These guys ate, slept, and breathed
the law of God. Daily they did that. They had
the law of God written on their sleeves, on their hymn, over
their doors. They had it everywhere. They
were really dedicated to obeying the law. They had a zeal for
God. Now, how true is that of works
religion today? Works freewill religion today
is zealous. Man, they feed the hungry, they do good works, they
go and build houses in Africa and all these places, and they
have a charity for every disease. I mean, they do. They're really
zealous. They do good things. There's no denying it. They do
a lot of good works. They have a zeal. I look at them,
and then they're working so hard. They're trying their best. They're
doing good things. But their zeal, if it's after
their works, is not according to knowledge. But they're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Well, how do you know, pastor, they're ignorant? How
can you say that? Because they're going about to
establish their own righteousness. If you're trying to earn your
way to heaven, you are truly ignorant of the righteousness
of God. You don't know it. You don't understand the righteousness
of God. Paul says the Gospel that he
was ready to preach, it reveals the righteousness of God. This
is the sum of the Gospel. And so if a man strives to earn
righteousness by works, by something he does, by his religion, or
his relationship to fellow, what he does to man, for other men,
he has no idea of the righteousness of God. And this is the first
thing that you must see. If you want to know anything
about the righteousness of God, you must first see this. Man,
by nature, is unrighteous. Unrighteous. Man by nature is ignorant of
the righteousness of God. Listen, we all by nature were
ignorant of the righteousness of God. We didn't know anything
at all about righteousness. Man is dead, he is depraved,
that he cannot know God or the righteousness of God. Now listen,
that's not to say man is ignorant of God. Man knows there's a God.
You know, I don't spend much time on dealing with atheists
because they willfully neglect their own conscience. They know
there's a God. Otherwise, they wouldn't fight
so hard to try to disprove Him. But I know this, that every man
knows God. Paul says this, "...for the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen."
Anybody see a sunset? You know, they're different every
time. It's amazing, beautiful. You can't look at the sky and
the trees and nature and tell me that you cannot see the power
of God. You cannot see the glorious power
of omnipotence to create such a thing as the world we live
in. And get this, this is a cursed world. This is the world after
sin. Could you imagine the glorious
place before sin? We can see this. And what does
Paul say? Look, you're without excuse.
You look at the creation, you know there's a God. You're without
excuse. But what does man do, but because
they knew When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were they thankful, but
became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into the image made like
unto corruptible man. What does man do with God? He
knows there's a God, what does he do? He makes God in his own
image. I read this from an archaeologist
one time. He said, you would sooner find
a nation or people without an alphabet than you would a temple. Now why is that? Because man's
religious. By nature, man is religious. He knows there's a God, yet he
has no idea who He is or what He wants. So what does he do?
He looks within himself to try to find God. He looks in his
own mind and he imagines what God would be like. And then he
makes an image out of wood and stone. Now today we don't really,
most people don't make them out of wood and stone, but they make
them out of their mind. God is not made in the mind. And man knows this, that the
Law of God is written on his heart. Every man knows the Law
of God. Everybody knows what sin is.
You take a person in Africa that never read the Scripture at all,
and they have laws, don't they? They have laws not to kill and
not to steal. Why? Because they have that written
on their hearts. Every man has this. And so what does man do with
this knowledge? He makes a God that is acceptable to Himself.
Well, I don't like your God, preacher. So what do you do?
You make up a God of your own. You have to. The God of this
book is my God. That's my God. If you want to
know anything about my God, this is it. This is where I get it.
Right here. I don't need to make up a God. That God is declared
Himself. And what I do is I bow to God
as He's revealed Himself. We make a God like unto ourselves. God said this to the wicked people. He said, Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether such in one as Thyself. Isn't that what man
thinks about God's righteousness? Man thinks of the best man that
he can think of, and he thinks that's righteousness. Look, the
best of us is none altogether but sin. You think of the best
man other than Jesus Christ, the best man of Adam's race,
and he is unrighteous. He's not righteous. He's unrighteous. And it doesn't matter how much
zeal you put into it, in your works, you can never attain to
the righteousness of God by your works because you are, by nature,
unrighteous. But what is righteousness then?
If we're not righteous and we could not tell what righteousness
is, how can we tell what righteousness is? Look to God. God is righteous. God is righteous. The scripture
says that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil. For one
to be accepted of God, listen, if you are to be accepted of
God, do you realize how righteous you have to be? You have to be as righteous as
God. You don't have to be as righteous
as your neighbor because your neighbor is just as unrighteous
as you are. Don't compare yourselves with others. Set your righteousness
next to the righteousness of God because only God accepts
the righteous. Remember what I said at the beginning.
Say you to who? The righteous. Only the righteous
eat as well with Him, because God only accepts the righteous.
He said, Be ye holy, even as I am holy. That creates a dilemma, doesn't
it? Does that not create a dilemma
here? You and I are unrighteous. God is righteous, and He demands
you be righteous. Now, how can we who are unrighteous
be righteous? Is that not the question? If
you are going to meet God, you are, how can I be righteous as
God is? Well, some men would say, well,
you need to go to the law. That's what some men would say.
They'd say, well, you need to start trying to do better. Would
you tell a convicted murderer he just needs to start doing
better? Is that it? Is that how he gets out of his
sentence of death? No, the crime has already been
committed. Doing better won't do anything for him. You've already
committed the crime. Doing better won't help you.
Won't help you. You've already broken the law.
Listen, cursed, cursed is everyone. that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them." All things. All
things. Not just the Ten Commandments.
Anybody sacrifice a lamb on Passover? Nobody. Why? No temple to sacrifice
it. No altar. No Ark of the Covenant. That's all been destroyed. There's
no place to sacrifice. Have you obeyed the law perfectly
in every part? Then why would you go to the
law? You know what Paul said about the law? He said this,
the law is for this purpose, that every mouth might be stopped,
and the whole world become guilty before God. The purpose of the
law is to show you guilt, never to save you, never to save you. Can you not see now that there
is no hope in the law? Can you not see clearly you can't
meet the law's demands? When Israel saw God, you know,
you remember in Sinai, when that mountain was burning with fire,
when the thunder and lightning was coming down, and God was
speaking, and He was giving His law, you know what Israel said?
They said this, let me not hear the voice of God again, neither
let me see the great fire that I die not. They were afraid. They said, we can't bear this
sound. And you know what God said? He
said, they've said rightly they can't bear this sound. You've
said right. You're right. You can't. So then how can a sinner be made
righteous and pleasing to God? How can God forgive sin without
payment? Can God do that? Have you ever
thought of that? Can God forgive your sin without
payment? You listen. If God is holy, He
can't. If God is just, He must and does demand payment for your
sins. So the question is, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly? How can guilty sinners be made
righteous? You want to know the answer? God tells him the answer. He
said, "...I will raise up a prophet from among thy brethren like
unto thee. I will put my words in his mouth,
and he shall speak unto them. That would I command him. And
it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words
which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Who's
that prophet that God will send? It is Christ Jesus the Lord.
This is how a man can be made righteous. By this prophet, Jesus
Christ. Over in Romans chapter 3, the
apostle, after telling us how unrighteous we are, he tells
us, gives us from verse 10 all the way down to verse 19, he
tells us how unrighteous we are. How we're without any goodness.
No man doeth goodness. No man's righteous. But listen
to this. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. Listen. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. Witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ. Oh, this is vitally important.
You know how righteousness is established? By the faith of
Jesus Christ. Righteousness was made by Jesus
Christ. He came into the world to make
righteousness that we ourselves could never make. That's what
He came to do. He came to earn righteousness
that we could never earn. He came into the world to merit
this righteousness. And listen to this, who this
righteousness is for. Unto all and upon all them that
believe. You see, everyone that believes
on Christ, that righteousness that He made, is given to us. It's given to those who believe. Our father Adam. When our father
Adam fell in the garden, If you want to see what a lost man looks
like, you look at the first sinner. When he died spiritually in his
heart, what's the first thing he tried to do? He tried to cover
his nakedness with fig leaves. Listen, he tried to heal a spiritual
condition by a physical thing. He thought fig leaves would heal
the spiritual condition in his heart. He thought it would cover
him before God. But when God spoke from heaven,
what did He do? He ran into the trees. He tried to find some place to
hide among confusion, among the multiplicity of works. Are you trying to hide? in your
works. Are you trying to merit God's
favor by your doing? Listen. Very serious. You're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. You don't know anything of the righteousness of God.
God's righteousness is much higher than you think. The only hope for an unrighteous
man is that somebody give me a righteousness God accepts.
And the only one who has that is Christ. The only one who can
give that to me is the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only did Christ
give me righteousness, He actually put away my sin. The law demanded
not only a positive righteousness, but a negative punishment. Therefore,
Jesus Christ came into the world to die in my stead. How righteous is God that when
God found sin in His own Son, He killed Him? That's how righteous
God is. What do you think He'd do with
us if He found sin in us? Do you not think He would kill
you? If you mark it down, He will. But when a man comes to Christ,
when a man comes to Christ, He comes and He finds righteousness. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. The righteousness of God. Where?
In Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ. And we believe,
we who believe on Him know this, that He has obtained for us eternal
redemption. Eternal redemption. And because
of His perfect work, listen to what Paul says in verse 4. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The end of
the law? The law can do nothing but condemn
me. But now in Christ the law is
ended. I have satisfied the law. I am
as righteous as God's Son. Who? Those who believe. Those who believe on Christ.
You are as righteous as God. And my sin, where is my sin? My sin is gone. Gone! One of my favorite passages is
Jeremiah chapter 50. It's so beautiful. Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse
20. Listen to what the Word of God
says. In those days and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. The sins of Judah. And they shall
not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve." Pardon. Peace with God. Is it found by
your works and your religion, your will, your determination,
your sincerity? No. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand." Everything else is sinking sand. See, a man in self-righteousness
and religion, what is he doing? He's sinking. He's got nothing
to stand on. But you who believe in Christ,
you are founded on the rock of God. And this is the gospel. Salvation by grace through faith
in Christ alone. That's something I can rest my
soul on. Because I can't rest my soul on my preaching. I can't
rest my soul on my works. I can't rest my soul on your
works. My soul rests on her. Where does
your soul rest? Where do you find your hope before
God? Very serious thing. If you're not as righteous as
God is, you won't be accepted. And I'm telling you, the only
place to find that is not in you. It's in Christ. I'm pointing
you to Christ. Go to Christ. Believe on Christ. And you'll find the righteousness
of God.