for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it, the gospel of Christ,
is the power of God unto salvation. To who? To every one that believeth,
the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein, in the gospel
of Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. And the title of the message
this morning is The Gospel of Righteousness. The Gospel of
Righteousness. Paul here declares his desire
and boldness to preach the gospel of Christ. I am not ashamed That's
what I've been doing. He's writing to the church of
Rome. He said, that's what I've been doing. I've been wanting
to come to you, but the Lord has let me to go here and let
me to go there. To do what? I am a bondman to
the barbarian, to the Greek, to everyone. Because I'm here
to do one thing, and that is preach Christ. Preach Christ. This gospel. And he said, this
gospel that I preach, I'm not ashamed of it. But I declare
this gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. to everyone that
believeth." The power is not in the preacher. The power is
not in our words or our wisdom. The power is not in your hearing. The power is of God. If anyone
is saved this morning, if you are blessed in any measure this
morning, it will not be because of me. If you are blessed in any measure,
if you hear this Gospel in any measure at all, if you believe
on Christ in any way, it is the power of God alone that did it. It wasn't even your determination
to do it. The power is not in you, just
as the power is not in me. The power is of God. God gives
power. I plainly and boldly declare
that salvation comes to everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth. Did
you hear that? Everyone that believeth. You believe on Christ alone?
Then I want you to understand something. That is the power
of God. That you believe it all. That you have faith in Christ.
It is of the power of God through the means of preaching this Gospel. To believe on the Gospel, our
Gospel, is the power of God, for all true faith in Christ
is the work of God. Jesus said this, and He made
it very plain to those people. After He had fed them, He left
them. They were not His. He left them.
And they came and followed Him over there and they said, Jesus,
what do we need to do to do the works of God? Isn't that what
modern religion asks? What do we need to do to do the
works of God? If I want to live the victorious
Christian life, what do I have to do? That is the message today
for them. The lost world, that is all they're
interested in. What do I need to do? Jesus said,
the work is not yours to do. The work is God's. He said, this
is the work of God, that you should believe on Him whom He
has sent, John 6, 29. That's what He told us. Faith
is the work of who? The work of God. That's who works
faith in you. But how shall you believe on
Christ except you hear? Isn't that how faith comes? Faith
cometh by hearing. Paul said this, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. He said, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how
shall they call on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be what? Sent. Well, who's doing all this
calling and sending preachers? God does that. Men don't do that. God does that. He sends His men
out. To do what? To declare the gospel. We're
not here to argue. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. I'm not ashamed of this gospel
and I'm not here to debate the gospel with anybody. I'm here
to simply tell you. That's it. I'm a messenger. I
have a message and I just tell you the message. That's not complicated,
is it? Men make it complicated. Men
mess it up. That's not for us. You see, I'm
just here to tell you the gospel of Jesus Christ, to declare it
to you. Without a preacher, and how shall they preach except
they be sent? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God. And not the Word of God as just
this book, but rather the gospel that is the whole of this book
is Christ. The Word of God. And so we preach because it is
the means that God has chosen to exercise the power of salvation
to His elect people. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, he said, We are bound always to give thanks to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. Listen to this. How did He purpose
this? Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. You now see that God chose you,
and God not only chose you, He purposed how you should come. How you should be saved. Through
the work of the Spirit in making you holy and giving you faith. But how did this faith come?
He said, you were called, that's the next verse, you were called
by our gospel. By our gospel. And so, the necessity
of preaching. I tell you, this has been neglected,
isn't it? Isn't preaching the most abhorred
thing in modern times? Now, I'm not talking about pep
talks or seminars or anything. Those are popular. I'm talking
about simply declaring Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now
they can grin and bear it for so long. They can endure it if
it tickles their academic understanding of election and justification
and all of these higher, they think, higher forms of teaching.
That's just the gospel. It's not a higher form of teaching.
It's the gospel. So we preach the gospel. And
this is how God uses it. He calls His people by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
question. What is this gospel we preach?
What is this gospel God has ordained to be the means of salvation
for His elect? Listen to what Paul said. I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's the gospel we
preach. The gospel of Christ. He said,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do
thy will, O God. What is the volume of this book?
What is the sum of this book? What are you looking for when
you study this book? If you're not looking for Christ
when you study this book, it is a vain study. It is an empty
study. This volume of this book was
written of Christ. It was written of Christ to do
the will of God. The work of Christ, the person
of Christ, is the sum and substance of this book. And so if you go
find Him, you're going to be blessed. Because that's what
this book's about. It's all about Him. Search the Scriptures. You remember what He told those
Jews. He said, you search the Scriptures. In them you think
you have eternal life. How many people think they have
eternal life, but don't have it? Who think they have eternal life,
but don't have it? Those who trust in their work. Those who trust in themselves.
Those like the Pharisees who trust in their obedience to the
law, or their obedience to the church, or their works of righteousness. They think they have eternal
life. But the Scriptures aren't there
to testify of you. They're there to testify of Christ
and Him only. Christ is the sum and substance
of this book. So then we boldly and plainly
declare this gospel in the power of God the Holy Spirit and desire
only to preach Christ, who is the gospel of God. And you who
believe by the power of God unto salvation, this is the gospel
you've heard, this is the gospel you believe, even Christ Jesus. Now, have you believed? I know most of you, I know all
of you well. And I have such hope, such confidence
that you know Christ. But do I know really? Should
I take that for granted? No, I would never do that. I
would always ask you, make your calling and election sure. Do
you not suppose Judas really thought he was one of the elect? He was not, was he? You should make your calling
and election sure. You should know this. Do you believe on
Jesus Christ alone? If you have, if you do believe,
then you are born again of the Holy Spirit and you have been
made the righteousness of God in Christ. Now, I want you to
get a hold of that. You who do believe, you who truly are given
faith in Christ alone, you are made the righteousness of God
In Christ. In Christ. This is, that is, you've been
given a new nature. Something that was not there
before, a new heart, a new life, and faith to believe the gospel
of Christ. And what is it about this gospel
that gives us such comfort? This gospel that gives us comfort,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Now I have five
things. Five things about righteousness.
Five aspects of righteousness that should give every believer
a comfort in this gospel. First of all, this gospel that
we preach is concerning the righteousness of God. The first thing is Righteousness
ruined. That's the gospel we preach.
Second, righteousness required. Third, righteousness recovered. Fourth, righteousness received. And the last one is righteousness
rewarded. Ruined. Required. recovered, received, and rewarded. First of all, righteousness ruined.
The gospel always begins where man is. I'm thankful for that. If God ever expected man to come
to Him, then there would be no salvation for any of us. Adam
ran from God and he would have never come to God. But God came
to Adam, isn't it? Isn't that what the Scriptures
tell us? That God came to him. And when did He come to him?
Did He come when He was better? Did He come when He was good?
Did He wait till everything was alright and then come? No! He
came in the very teeth of His iniquity. He came to Him in His
very state and condition of total depravity. You see, when God
made man, God made man upright. God made man righteous. He communed
with God. He walked with God. And you know,
these things we can only imagine, right? You can't really know
what this is truly like, Adam's life, when he was with God in
the garden. We can only speculate about this,
but I know this to be true. He would commune with God because
he was holy. Matter of fact, God came and
walked, the Scripture says, in the cool of the day, as though
this was His custom to walk with Adam. And so Adam was upright,
and He gave him such a simple law. Wasn't that law something... It's not complex. It wasn't a
systematic law of do's and don'ts. He gave him one law. One tree,
one fruit, don't eat. You could have wrote that in
one sentence. Do not eat. Could have put a sign on it.
Don't eat. It was a simple law. And so long as he obeyed that,
he had righteousness. But as soon as he ate, he rebelled
and transgressed the law of God. And listen, righteousness for
mankind was forever ruined. Ruined. Lost. Forever. When Adam ate, both of their
eyes were open. They saw they were naked. And
they hid themselves from God. Why? Because in that very day
he ate, he rebelled, and he lost all righteousness. And this ruin of righteousness
was not isolated. This truly affects us. This affects every one of us
by nature. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. Listen, for all have sinned.
When did you sin? When was your first sin? Your
first sin was in Adam. That's your first sin. That was
my first sin. Adam represented us as a whole. I don't care where you come from.
You are all the product of Adam. And you sinned in Him. When He sinned, you sinned. And
when He ruined righteousness, He ruined it for us all. That's the message of the gospel.
What happened when Eve ate? What happened? Nothing. Nothing. She represented no one. She didn't
even represent herself. He did. And only when he ate,
they both knew. They sinned against God. And
righteousness was lost. So by His one sin, righteousness
was forever ruined, and never to be repaired by works or will
or religion or deeds. Try, try, try. That's all religious
men do, is try, try, try. And you know what they do? They
fail, fail, fail. You cannot repair it. I'll give
you an illustration, just to put this in your mind. A man
commits murder. He's guilty of murder. Now, you can send Him to prison,
and He can last out His sentence, and before the eyes of human
law, He can be pardoned, or whatever, and let out of prison, go back
into society. Listen, there's one thing you
cannot do is ever remove His guilt. He did it. And no matter, as long as he
lives, that's what he... You realize that in Scripture that
Rahab is always Rahab the harlot? You got that? It's what she was
by nature. She could never take that away.
See, we are sinners. We're sinners. And no amount
of good works is ever going to take that away. Righteousness
is ruined. Second of all, righteousness
is required. Our Gospel testifies that God
is holy. The Scripture says the Lord is
righteous in all His ways, holy in all His works. Hannah prayed this. She said,
There is none holy as the Lord. For there is none beside Thee,
neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more of exceeding
proudly. Let not the arrogancy of your
mouth come out. For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and listen, by Him actions are weighed. Do you not see that God is holy
and the judge of all? How shall then we, who are guilty,
appear before a holy God? See, it is plainly revealed that
we and Adam lost the ability and desire to obey God's law. The Scripture says, we are at
enmity. The carnal mind is at enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. You ever tried
to subject yourself to it? How far did you get? You didn't
get anywhere. You didn't do it. Because the
natural man is not subject to it. He can't be. Neither indeed
can be subject to it. But listen, God did not cease
to require it even though you can't give it. It's impossible for you to ever
be righteous of your own works. Yet God still requires it. If
you are to ever enter into heaven, you must be as holy as God is. You not see how important righteousness
is? You must be as holy as God. Go
to Matthew chapter 5. I want you to see this. Matthew chapter 5. Our Lord says
something astounding to these people because They really trusted
these scribes and Pharisees, and they looked up to them. They
were very moral and religious men, but Jesus said this about
them. He said, verse 20, For I say unto you, that except your
righteousness shall superaboundingly exceed. That's what that word
means. Superaboundingly. except your righteousness be
superaboundingly more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case... There is not one case of anyone
entering in except their righteousness was greater than the scribes
and Pharisees. Now, everybody that heard that
that day, their jaw dropped to the ground. Because nobody in
this world was ever more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. You look at the Pope and all
his garb and supposed holiness. That guy wouldn't make a pimple
on their bottom. That guy is nothing compared
to the scribes and Pharisees. These men were always morally
conscious of what they were doing. They did everything on purpose
in trying to obey the law of God. They even counted the leaves
of their plants to make sure they tithed the right amount.
These guys were serious. This was not a joke to them.
They were very serious in their prayers and their outward showings
of religion. They wore robes with the law
of God written around the sleeves. They prayed openly in the public
and the public adored them. They were the most moral people.
They weren't pretending to be moral. They were moral. But Jesus
said, not enough. Not enough. So what's in your mind as to
righteousness? What do you think righteousness
is? I tell you it's not enough. Whatever you think it is, however
high you think it is, it's not enough. Whatever you think qualifies
for righteousness, not enough. So no matter how sincere a person
may be, no matter how hard they work, not enough. You shall in
no case, no case, except you be as righteous as God Himself,
you will not get in. Yet for all their morality, For
all their religious works and praise of men, Jesus said that
their righteousness was not enough. And except your righteousness
be more abounding righteousness than them, hell will be your
portion." So what righteousness will you bring to God? If it's
of your hands, it's not enough. What did the king of Moab say? He said, will the Lord be pleased
with ten thousand of rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
the transgression of my soul? He has showed thee, O man, what
is good, and what did the Lord require of thee? And this is
written on the hearts of every one of you, Do justly, and love
mercy, and walk humbly with your God." In other words, be perfect. You want to know what God requires?
That's it. Be perfect. Well then, if I were to stop
there, you should weep and howl. But I don't stop there. Don't
stop there, preacher. Give me hope. This is our gospel. Of course I'm going to give you
hope. Here it is. Righteousness recovered. Righteousness
recovered. How shall we come to God who
have ruined righteousness that God requires? Behold, then, the
purpose of God in the ruin of man was to display His grace
in recovering righteousness. Before there was ever a sin,
before Adam had ever represented anyone, God had a people that
He purposed to save. And I love this. In Ephesians
3, He tells us that purpose was to make them holy. according as He had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be what? Holy. God purposed that a people
should be holy and without blame before Him. How should they be
holy? Who are ruined. He purposed that
too by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. For by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Even so, by one man's obedience. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Even so, by one man's obedience,
many shall be made what? Righteous. Righteous. In that same chapter in Matthew
5, just above it, Jesus tells them His purpose for coming.
He said, I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but
to fulfill. Fulfill the Law and the Prophets. Behold the Law of God that could
not be moved, testified that God required righteousness which
we could not do, but in grace Jesus took upon him the form
of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
this, that what Adam lost, what God required, Jesus recovered. Righteousness. That perfect righteousness
that God requires that no man should ever see Him. Without
it, He Himself provides it. As I told you this morning, our
friend said this on Wednesday, and it's a great thing, God saved
us from Himself, listen, by Himself, for Himself. He saved us from
Himself, from His justice, from His wrath, from His vengeance.
How? By Himself. By obtaining righteousness
as a man. By dying in our stead under the
law of God for us. And being raised again, He's
proven that He's satisfied with His righteousness. I told you that when Adam sinned,
you sinned. Isn't that right? And that's
true. But listen to this. This is good
news. You who believe, when Jesus obeyed
God, you obeyed God. When Christ died, so did you. And the law says, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with that. I'm
satisfied with His obedience, and I'm satisfied with His death,
and listen, I'm satisfied with everyone He represented. I'm
satisfied. That's what the law says. He
recovered righteousness. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, for sin, condemned sin. Oh, my sin is condemned, but
not in me, in Him. My sin was punished in the flesh,
not in mine, in His. And God says, I'm completely
satisfied for that. And you know what else? He says
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in who? What we could never do, He did. And not only did He do it, He
gives it to us. Righteousness ruined. Righteousness
required. Righteousness recovered. And
listen, listen, here it is. This is where the rubber meets
the road. Righteousness received. Received. Jesus Christ obtained
righteousness for all His people. And I say the elect a lot, because
that's who He did it for. He did it for the elect. I don't
doubt that. The Scripture tells us that plainly.
All that the Father gave to Christ will come to Christ and He would
lose how many? Nothing. Why? Because He redeemed
them. He recovered righteousness for
them. Now then, are you one of them? That's That's very necessary
for you to understand. Now you can have the elect in
your mind and you could theorize it and you could put it up on
academic terms and put it into a nice creed and you could read
it and catechism it, you know. I heard some of the kids back
there in the back. They were reciting the catechism. Lost
as all hail. But they knew it. Right here. Not talking about knowing it
in your head. Are you one of them? I want to
know that. I've got to know that. Did He
recover righteousness for me? Gotta know. Gotta know. Did He choose me? Did He die in my stead? I gotta know. I gotta know. Here it is. Do you believe on the Son of
God? I just told you about righteousness.
Told you where it's found, didn't I? Told you who did it. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, listen, from faith to faith. What does that mean? Well, the first faith is not
yours. You see, God first trusted in
Christ. There's the first faith. God
first trusted Christ with all of His elect and said, I give
them to you, son, and you will die for them and save them. And
Jesus said, yes, I will. I will recover all their righteousness
they lost. Yea, double will I give them. You see, it was by the faith
of Jesus Christ our righteousness was recovered. Flip over a couple pages to Romans
chapter... Romans chapter 3, one page. Romans
chapter 3. Look at verse 21. After Paul done told you that
the law, there's no way you're going to be justified before
God by the law, he says this, But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest. It's clear. Being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, where's
this righteousness of God come from? By faith of Jesus Christ. You see where righteousness is
recovered? By His faith. By His obedience. By His death. By His resurrection. Faith brought
in righteousness. Perfect righteousness. That righteousness
God requires, He got it. He obtained it by His own obedience.
Now then, how do I know I have it? Because we receive it by
faith. From His faith, it's given to
us by our faith. From faith, His faith obtained
it. And by our faith, we receive
it. That's what He says in that text. Look at that. Continue
on. By the faith of Jesus Christ. Listen. unto all and upon all
them that believe. You see His faith, and then you
see yours. You see that? His faith obtained
it, and our faith receives it. Now is that not simple? I won't make this complicated.
I know faith is a work of God. That's so, I just told you that.
It's a work of God. But I tell you this, it is like
a man starving to death. If you offer that man a piece
of bread, do you suppose he would have any trouble receiving it? Not if he's starving. He comes with empty hands, begging. The man puts the bread in his
hand, he receives the bread, and he eats it. Do you suppose
he gives any thanks to his hand? Is there any thanks, any glory
in his hand? No! The glory is in the man who
gave! The glory is in the bread he
ate! The glory is not in the receiving!
But everyone who believes, receives, what? The righteousness of God. I like these two words in that
text. Unto and upon. You know what
those two words mean? Impute or in and upon. Listen, this is what God does.
He imputes righteousness to us. He charges it to us. That's what
impute is. When Christ was made sin, what
did God do? He imputed our sins to Christ. And I tell you, He died under
the strict holy justice of God for our sins. Though He willingly accepted
that. He did. He willingly was made
sin for us. But consider how we are made
the righteousness of God. We have His righteousness charged
to our account passively. Passively. This was done before
we were ever born. His righteousness was charged
to our account. But when we came into the world,
we knew nothing of this. We knew nothing of His righteousness.
We didn't desire it, didn't want it, didn't care for it, didn't
have need of it. But when God the Holy Spirit
came, we began to know our need of it. And what did He do? He
gave us such faith to receive that imputed righteousness. Now
then, that we believe that righteousness is charged to our account. Charged. Scripture in the next chapter
said this, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. You believe on Christ? And you
listen. His righteousness is counted
by God to you. It's yours. It's yours. And not only does He give it
by an account, He gives it in you. By that new creation, you are
a new man. By believing on Christ, you believe
because He has created in you a new nature by which you can
believe. Isn't that wonderful? You couldn't
believe before, but now you can. What's the difference? He's created
in us a new man that can believe. And that new man, listen, is
holy! He's holy. He's without sin. This is what we call the imparted
righteousness of Christ. It's imparted to you in the new
nature. Paul said that the new man is
created after God in true holiness. John says this, you that are
born of God cannot sin. That's something, isn't it? Why can't we sin, John? Because
His seed remaineth in you. That new nature, the nature of
Christ dwells in us, believer. We are given the new nature.
Oh, pastor, I sin. Oh, that's the old man. The old
man can do nothing but sin. He's not changed. And the new man can do nothing
but righteousness. This is why you continually struggle. Because there are two opposing
natures in you, always warring against the other. Always opposed,
so that you cannot do what you want to. You know what? Neither
one can do what they want to. The old man can't be as evil
as he wants to, and the righteous man can't be as righteous as
he is. This is a struggle in us. It's constantly warring inside
of us. This is why he says that this
righteousness is revealed from the faith of Christ. It's given
to us by our faith as it is written, the just shall live. How? By
faith. So how do we live in this warring
faction of righteousness that's been recovered? It's been ruined. It's been required of us. Christ
recovered it. Now we receive it by faith. It's ours by imputation, by impartation. And now then that there's We
struggle in our breast. How do we live? By faith. That's why I don't give you a
list of things to do. Because it doesn't help. Matter
of fact, you should cease from the list and believe on Christ. And all who believe, listen,
you are righteous in the eyes of God. You are. You are because
the book tells us so. In that day and in that time,
Judah's sin shall be sought for and there shall be how many?
None. Nicodemus shall be sought and
it shall not be found. Jeremiah 50 verse 20. And He has imputed and imparted
this righteousness. And listen, lastly, righteousness. Our gospel declares that righteousness
shall be rewarded. Rewarded. Go over to Revelation
chapter 22. Look at this in closing. Revelation 22 and verse 10. And
He saith unto me, See thou not the sayings of the prophecy of
this book? For the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let
him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and
My reward is with Me, to give every man according to his work,
as his work shall be. Listen, what shall be your reward if you are unjust? Your reward will be eternal damnation. You'll get exactly what you deserve. What will be the reward of the
righteous? Eternal life and glory. What makes the difference? We've all been ruined. God requires
righteousness. What makes the difference? Christ
recovered it. And by grace, we have received
it through faith in Him. And now, you are righteous. And
you know what? You shall be rewarded as such. How can you be so sure? God promised
it. God promised it. Can God do anything
else? Can God condemn the righteous? No. Can't do it. And if Christ
has put away our sin, what is our reward? God said, I am thy
exceeding great reward. Herein, in our gospel is revealed
the righteousness of God. Ruined, required, recovered,
received, and soon rewarded. May God implant that in your
hearts. Keep that near you and walk by faith in it. Believe
it because it's God's Word. I pray this be a blessing to
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.