Galatians chapter 3 in this morning
we'll be looking at verse 6. Verse 6. I know that we went
last week, we went verse 6 all the way down to verse 14, but
I could not pass this up. I really believe the Lord had
laid this on my heart to focus on one word in this passage. Righteousness. Righteousness. Look at this in Galatians 3 verse
6. Even as Abraham believed God,
it was accounted to him for righteousness. The title of the message this
morning is, The Value of Righteousness. The Value of Righteousness. Now last week we saw this text.
We saw that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. In that he heard the gospel.
If you look at that in verse 8, it says, at the latter part,
he preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee,
that is in his seed, Jesus Christ, shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. That by His coming, by the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jews and Gentiles were determined
to be blessed with the same blessing of Abraham. And what was that
blessing of Abraham? It was righteousness which is
of faith. That is the blessing that Abraham
received was righteousness. And how he received that righteousness
was by faith. Faith. I noticed this week, I
sat in my car at a red light and I watched and I noticed a
whole bunch of people going somewhere. I don't know where they were
going, but they seemed to be in a hurry. Everybody was in
a hurry to get somewhere. There was something at that particular
time and moment that had great value to them. They were trying
to seek or obtain something by their travels. They were going
somewhere. They were getting something.
They were doing something that was valuable to them. If it wasn't
valuable to them, they wouldn't be doing it. It was valuable. And so they're running around
seeking the things of this life. And I wondered this. I asked
myself, how many of them value righteousness? How many people value righteousness? Do you see righteousness as something
of great value? How many people see righteousness
to be the most valuable thing and the most needful thing in
this life? Do you see that? Do you see righteousness as the
most valuable thing? What makes something of value?
When I say righteousness is valuable, what makes value? Is it not something
that's rare and useful? Something that's rare and useful. If something's not rare and something's
not useful, then it is of no value. No value at all. I heard
on the news that they had these people in a foreign country,
they were diving in trash to find gold. They called them trash
divers. Now, they weren't searching for
the trash. That was abundant, wasn't it? Trash is of no value. What were they searching for?
Something of value, something they can use. They were searching
for gold. Gold is found because it is rare
and it is useful for life. That's why it's valuable. But more valuable than any gold
or any silver or any precious thing in this world, righteousness
is to be valued above all things. Righteousness. You see, the natural
man does not desire righteousness because he thinks righteousness
is something common. Common. They believe that all men can
be righteous if they just give it their best shot. Why seek righteousness? All I've
got to do is just do my best. And I can be righteous. I can
be good. To the lost, righteousness is
something any man could have if they just want it. But what is righteousness according
to God's Word? What is this righteousness that
was imputed to Abraham, that is blessed to his people, to
those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? What is this righteousness
according to God? First of all, God says this righteousness
is very rare. It is very rare. There's only
one righteousness. Only one. In all the universe,
there is only one righteousness. Now, righteousness, by definition,
means perfection. Just. Holy. perfect in justice and judgment
and in all moral character and being. Friends, this could only be attributed
to God Himself. God alone is, in essence, righteousness. Righteousness is His very essence.
It's who He is. It's like love. God is love.
God is righteousness. God is holiness. And every one
of those attributes stem from Him. There is only one righteousness. It's very rare. Daniel said this, O Lord, righteousness
belongeth unto thee." Righteousness doesn't belong to us. It belongs
to God. We are not essentially righteous,
nor can we be righteous by our endeavors. Righteousness belongs
to God. It is the rarest and most precious
thing in all the universe. For God declares that there is
none righteous by nature. I know you know Romans 3, but
go over to Psalm 14. This is where this is where Paul
gets this from in Romans three. Psalm chapter 14. Look at verse two. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men. To see if there were any. That did understand and seek
God. Now friends, we know God's omniscient. This is for our benefit
that He says He looked down. But this word is searched. He looked in searching with all
of His omniscience. God searched the portals of time
and eternity and the earth and He found none righteous. Look at that. This is the result.
They are all gone astray. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. There is no need to make an appeal
against this decision. There is no need to fuss about
this. There is no need to argue about
this. God hath looked, and God said, There is none righteous.
No, not one. There's none that doeth good.
We all have sinned and come short of the righteousness, the glory
of God. Every one of us. And there is
not one of Adam's race that is an exception to this decree.
Not one. Not one. Not one of Adam's seed
ever will escape this decree. There is none righteous. No,
not one. Not the infant in the crib and
not the elderly person facing the grave. And none in between. by nature are righteous. So there
are not many righteousnesses. There's only one. It belongs
only to God. Second of all, righteousness
is useful. It's useful. I'll tell you this,
if I was an archaeologist and I dug up an old napkin, a used
Kleenex of some nobody, I don't know who it was. It was just
a piece of dirt, a piece of cloth. And I picked that up. You see,
I would have the only Kleenex used by this man in all the world. But what use is that? Do you
think I could sell that? Or I'm sure maybe some fool would
buy it, but it's really not useful. It's a piece of garbage. It's
a piece of garbage. Trash is not useful. It has no
value. It may be rare trash, but it's
still trash. It's of no value. And so it is
with righteousness of men, they're of no value. And I'll tell you,
men may use this may use rare. occasions of goodness, right? There may be rare instances where
I see somebody doing good in my eyes. Most people of the world will,
they'll say that's good if a man devote his life to giving food
to the hungry. Now, that's not bad, is it? That's
good. I'll tell you what, that's rare.
That's rare. for people to treat each other
well in this world. But you think about that woman
that died in her sins, Mother Teresa. She did a lot of good
things, didn't she? She helped the poor. She was
helping the needy. She embraced those who nobody
else would embrace. She did a lot of good things.
We think of Gandhi and his religion. He was a very pious man in his
religion. The Pope is a very pious man. And I'm sure that he may even
do some good to people. These people exhibited very rare
acts of kindness, feeding the hungry, abstaining from outward
immorality, very religious and pious. But this kind of righteousness
is useless to the preservation of the soul. It is useless. It is useless because God will
not accept it. We may accept it. We may be the
fool that buys a Kleenex, but God's not. God's not a fool. God will not accept it, but sees
it as filthy rags. Go to Isaiah 64. Isaiah chapter
64. Verse six. Again, this is God's estimation,
God's declaration. But we are all as an unclean
thing. And all our righteousness is. are as filthy rags." Notice he doesn't say righteousness,
but he said righteousnesses. He adds a plural to it. And he
didn't say our bad stuff is as filthy rags. He's talking about
our best stuff. He's talking about the most religious
and pious thing that a man could possibly do. And if he does multiples
of them, it still doesn't matter. In the eyes of God, it is filthy
rags. And it doesn't matter if you're
offended at this. That means menstrual cloths.
That's what it means. Our righteousnesses are as bloody
rags. before the eyes of God. If a man could live, if it were
possible, if it were possible for a man to live all of his
life in a perfect righteousness, If he had committed one sin,
one thought, one motive that was not righteous or perfect,
God says in Ezekiel 33, 13, He is worthy of death. Worthy of
death. Eternal, everlasting hell. And friends, it does not matter
what men think about that. It doesn't matter. God is not
concerned with what man thinks about Him. God does whatsoever
He pleases with His own. He made you, He created you and
demands of you to be perfect and holy and righteous as Him,
as Himself. If you do not have the righteousness
of God, you have no righteousness at all. Therefore, we must admit there
is no hope to obtain righteousness by our works. Man must see. He must see that there is no
hope of obtaining God's acceptance by his own works. But man is ignorant of God's
righteousness by nature. He goes about to establish his
own righteousness, which has no value. It has no value. It is impossible and hopeless
to be accepted by any other righteousness than the only righteousness that
exists, and that is God's righteousness. It's the only one, and it's the
only one useful. It's rare. and useful. If a man has God's righteousness,
he has something of great value. Number three, how then can sinners
be made righteous? Not by the works of the law.
Look at our text. Not by the works of the law.
For as many as are under, verse 10, as many as are under the
works of the law are under the curse of the law. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. But no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God is evident. Isn't that evident? If you understand
what righteousness is, It is evident that none of us can be
righteous by obedience. None of us. Friends, to take one part of
law as proof of our righteousness is a vain and empty task. Because if you take one part,
you're under the whole thing. Just one. Any part. If a man is to be blessed of
the law, he cannot obey some of the law all of the time. Nor
can he obey some of the law all of the time. He must obey all
of the law, all of the time, for all eternity. If your righteousness
got you into heaven, it'll have to be your righteousness that
keeps you there. There's no hope in that. There's no confidence in that,
is there? There's no assurance in that. Friends, there is no
salvation in that. Friends, the Scriptures declare
we have all been born in sin. David said, Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He said in Psalm 58 verse 3,
The wicked are estranged from the womb, speaking lies. Who taught you to lie? Anybody
sit down and have to, no, that's not right. You've got to do it
this way. No, you didn't lie correctly. Here it is. Let me
teach you how to steal. No, you're doing too good. You've
got to really be sneaky. I didn't teach my kids that at
all. And they just love to do it. They love to do it. Because
of their nature, they were born in sin, shaping an iniquity. No man is righteous. No man is
justified by the deeds of the law. It's clear. Plain. Now friends, I do not want to
detract from the law at all. The law is righteous. Isn't it? There's nothing wrong with the
law. Paul said the law is good. The law is righteous. The problem
is not the law. The problem is our sin. That's the problem. And every
time a sinner sees the law or tries to obey the law, all it
does is excite the sin that's in them. That's all it does. When my children walk by a sign
that says, do not touch. Friends, they are excited to
touch it. They are excited. They can't
help themselves. And I'll tell you this, the law
says thou shalt not lie. And what does that do? That excites
within me not righteousness, but the fact that I'm a liar. It condemns me. The law can do nothing for you
but condemn you. How then again are sinners made
righteous before God? Only by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 11. But no man is justified
by the law, and the sight of God is evident. For the just
shall live by faith. The just, who are they? Righteous! The righteous shall live by faith. Christ, who is the eternal Son
of God, was righteous and one with God, was He not? From all
eternity, the Son of God was equal with the Father and the
Spirit, and He Himself is righteousness. But God, having the elect people,
could not and would not have a righteousness that's not marriage. In other words, He is not going
to stamp a seal of righteousness on somebody who has not earned
that seal. No one. In other words, God's not going
to paste on a righteousness. He's not going to paste it on. He cannot. Otherwise, He would
not be righteous. Isn't that right? If He let us
slide with a fake righteousness, He would not be God. But God, not willing to do that,
sent His Son to be made in the likeness, in the nature of man,
without sin, and He alone, as a man, accomplished the righteousness
of God. accomplished the righteousness
of God. You see, He was not the seed
of man that was born unto sin like all of us. He was the seed
of the woman. He was the seed of the woman.
The Holy Spirit of God came in and conceived Him a body in the virgin's womb. And he
became a man. And as a man, he obligated himself
to be under the law. And Jesus is the only man that
has merited the righteousness of God. We're still talking about
one righteousness. There's not two. There's only one. And Christ
merited, by His obedience, the righteousness of God for His
people. This was a great feat. Wasn't
it? It was a great feat because nobody
else did it. He's the only one that did it. And he did it not for himself, but he did it for all of his
elect people. He stood as a representative
man. And as he obeyed God, he obeyed
God as a representative man for all the elect. And as he did
good all of his life, so did all of his people in him. Now, I'll tell you, I wasn't
there when Adam sinned, but I got his sin. I wasn't there when Christ walked
on the face of the earth. But guess what? I got his righteousness
in a representative man. He accomplished righteousness,
magnified the law. These of Adam's race that God
loved and elected to Himself, those to whom God purposed to
be holy and blameless before Him in love, He gave Christ to
be their representative, their surety of all their righteousness. Therefore, His name shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. Not the Lord His righteous, He's
already righteous. the Lord our righteousness. In Romans chapter 4 and verse
3, it's the same thing that Paul is saying in Galatians 3, 6.
He says, what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is not
reward reckoned of grace, but of debt. Isn't that simple? If
you work for me, I owe you. If I say, hey, let's agree to
do this and I'm going to pay you. And you come to me and I
give you the money. You know what? You don't even
have to say thank you. Why? You earned it. You earned it. I owed it to you. But the reward
is not reckoned of debt. Why? We can't work it. We can't
earn it. But to him that worketh not.
I love that. Worketh not. My son worked real
hard to work not. And so did I. So do I. But this
thing is an impossible thing for man. We don't want to work
outwardly, but we all want to work for our righteousness by
nature. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth, on Him that justifieth the ungodly."
Believe on Him who makes sinners righteous. That's what it is. Makes sinners righteous. And
His faith is counted for righteousness. A man must see his works and
his merit reward. But we've also seen that our
works and merit cannot merit righteousness. If the righteousness
is to be had, it must be given by grace. To the understanding
to the undeserving sinner. Let me ask you this, are you
ungodly? Do you see your need of the righteousness
of God? Do you see its value to your
soul? then stop trying to earn it and believe Christ. Believe on Christ. Rest in Him. Believe on Christ alone who is
the only righteousness of God. And all who believe have His
righteousness imputed to their charge. Now the word for It was
accounted to him for righteousness. I like this word because this
word means, has a sense of receiving something that was already there.
It has a sense of receiving something that was already there. For righteousness! For righteousness. You see, the
righteousness of Christ was imputed to me in eternity when God put
me in Christ. When God put me in Christ, there
was no sin in Christ, but I was in Christ. Why? Because He had
already imputed that righteousness of Christ to me, to everyone
that believes. He has already imputed that righteousness. So in time, that's not our experience,
is it? In time, we have an experience
of sin. In time, we walked according
to the course of this world, according to the lust of our
flesh. But when the power of the Holy Spirit came, He imputed
righteousness to our conscience by His power and by His gospel
to see that our righteousness had been imputed all the way
back there. It was accomplished by Christ
in time for us. And now it is actually given
to us. Joanne, your righteousness is
the same righteousness I have. It's not two different righteousnesses.
We're not levels of righteousness. My righteousness is just as righteous
as the newborn babe in Christ. Why? Because His righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ and my righteousness is the righteousness
of Christ. Galatians 3. And verse 28 says
this, For there is neither Jew, nor Greek, nor bond, nor free,
nor male, nor female. For ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. Pretty level playing field, isn't
it? I love that. I love that. Why? Because I don't have to
try to be better than you. I just have to believe on Christ. And I do. And not only is that
righteousness of God, that valuable righteousness that's only one,
that Christ has accomplished, not only when I believed was
that righteousness imputed to my conscience, it was also imparted
into my very body. so that the Holy Spirit himself
lives in us. Know you not that you're the
temple of God? Know you not your bodies are
the temple of God? Why, He dwells in you. He gives us a new nature. And
that new nature is perfect. It's holy. It's righteous. It's
just. It has the only righteousness
there ever is. It can never get more righteous,
nor can it get less righteous. Now this flesh is altogether
a different story. This flesh is corrupt, it has
always been corrupt, and it will always be corrupt. Friends, two
distinct natures live inside of us. God didn't take His righteousness
and twirl it around inside of this clay flesh of sin. Otherwise, righteousness would
be contaminated. Two natures in every believer. Righteousness and sin. I want to read this to you. I
know I'm running late, but this was very good. Robert Hawker
said this. And I'll close with this. If Jesus be the only righteousness
of his people. Either this righteousness is
my righteousness or I have none at all. Wholly sinful in myself
and wholly righteous in him. I must be. or I have no part or lot in this
matter. If there be not in me a total
renunciation of everything, the mistaken calculations of men
call righteousness. Yea, more than this, if there
be not a full, unreserved confession of universal sin and unworthiness
in me, I cannot be wholly looking for acceptance and living wholly
upon the Lord as my righteousness. Our sin we. Own. Our unworthiness we own. And
bow before Christ, believing him to be all our righteousness. And he is. He is our righteousness. I pray Lord bless this to you.