Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now, here's our pastor, Rick
Warda. Today I want to tell you what the scriptures say about
the righteousness of God. I will tell you these things
as a man, someone like yourself, a sinful man like you, who desperately
needs to be saved from my sin and to be accepted by God. I
want to know that I am accepted by God. I want to know God as
he truly is. So I want to tell you what the
Lord himself says in his word. I want you to know that this
is the only salvation under heaven. This is all of my salvation and
is the only hope any sinner has of being accepted by God. The
righteousness of God is all of my salvation. It is all of my
comfort. It is all of my assurance of
salvation. It is the only basis for any
and all blessings from God. This is therefore the only reason
for my hope of eternal life. Now, all of this makes the subject
of the righteousness of God of ultimate importance to you and
to me. But I want you to know that for
this sinner, now speaking to you, this is the most amazing
and greatest possible news from heaven of God's saving grace. The Bible first explains that
the righteousness of God is not something you or I contribute
to. God created it. He worked it
out. It belongs to Him. It is His. It is God's righteousness. But He did not work out this
righteousness for Himself. God is holy and righteous in
himself. He needs nothing, certainly not
righteousness, for he is holy in himself. Nor did God work
out this righteousness as God only, but he worked it out as
God and man. He worked it out in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of God and He is the Son of Man. He is God and Man. He is the Lord from Heaven. He
is David's son after the flesh. And He is David's Lord because
He is God. Psalm 110, verse 1. Jesus Christ
does not need righteousness for himself because he is holy in
himself as God, but he worked out righteousness for his people.
He created righteousness for sinners, even sinners as sinful
as I am. Now the first thing we must ask
is, what is righteousness? The Bible tells us, in Deuteronomy
6, the Lord explains that righteousness is obedience to God's law. Deuteronomy 6.24 says, The Lord
commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our
God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as
it is this day, It shall be for our righteousness if we observe
to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he
has commanded us. Righteousness, therefore, is
keeping God's law. We are righteous before God only
if we keep all of God's law completely, if we keep it continually, and
if we keep it perfectly. Only then can we be righteous
by our own obedience. But the Lord spends the greatest
part of the Bible convincing men that there is no man on earth
who is righteous in this way. He says in Romans chapter 3,
there is none righteous. No one can argue with these words.
We may cringe to think that before God we are unrighteous, but there
is no reason to hide from ourselves what God says is most certainly
the truth. In fact, the Lord has said that
He searched every person on earth throughout time and found that
there were none righteous. Psalm 14 says, The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Thus, God says that righteousness
is keeping His law completely, continuously, and perfectly,
and He also says that no man has ever done this. All men are
therefore unrighteous by their own obedience. You and I, therefore,
have no righteousness before God. In fact, God has said that
our very best is very bad. He said, all of our righteousnesses,
not our sins, but our righteousnesses, are as filthy rags in his sight. Isaiah 64, verse 6. The rags
he is talking about are those rags that smell awful, that you
can't clean, rags you have to throw away because they are so
revolting and repugnant to God. That's the truth about our very
best. Our best thoughts and words and
deeds in God's sight are filthy rags. This is not the case of
a few people on earth or a few people at certain times. It is
true of all people. All, without exception, at best,
are nothing but filthy sinners in the sight of God. The best
of the best of men are full of sin. Listen again how God puts
it. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Have you ever considered that
word, none? None includes me, especially,
because I am a great sinner. But none includes you, too. God looked. He searched my heart. He searched your heart. And he
said, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now, it is one thing
that God has said, there are none righteous. But it is painful
and fearful to know that unless we are righteous, we cannot enter
heaven. Jesus said, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5
verse 20. If this is the case, if to live
before God we must be righteous, perfectly, completely, continuously
keeping God's law in thought and motive and word and deed,
who then can enter heaven? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ knows
the hearts of all men. He himself said that our righteousness
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
the most morally upstanding religious men. But do you know what else
Jesus taught? He taught that it is not our
sin that will keep us out of heaven. Do you know that it is
not your sin that will keep you out of heaven? Do you know that
there is but one thing that will keep you out of heaven? What
is this one thing that Jesus said will keep a man out of heaven?
It is your self-righteousness. Jesus taught this truth by an
example in Luke chapter 18. He said there were two men that
went up to the temple to pray. Now these two men represent all
men throughout time. The first man trusted in himself
that he was righteous. We know that he was not because
God said there is none righteous. But Jesus said this man prayed
thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. The first thing Jesus said about
this man is that he prayed. Do you pray? This man thanked
God in his prayer. Do you thank God? He thanked
God that he was not as other men. Do you ever wonder why others
do not obey God as you do? Based on what Jesus said, we
might think at first that this man was a good man because he
prayed and thanked God and did so many good things. Now, it
is true that God deserves all of the credit for any good that
we may have done, but this man did something very bad. He presented
himself and his goodness to God for acceptance. He trusted God
would accept him because of his good life. He was wrong. Think
for a minute what this man did. He brought himself to God. He
brought who he was. He presented to God what he was
and what he had done. He recommended himself to God
by the fact that he did not do those sins that he saw others
do. He described himself as worthy
of God's acceptance by what he did. This parable reminds me
of a man who once came to my own door. He was a false teacher. He taught salvation by works,
which God denounces as evil. So I ask this man who came to
my door, what will you say when you stand before Jesus Christ,
God the Son, the judge of all the earth? How will you answer
him? How will you answer your judge
who knows all that you think, knows your motives, hears all
that you say, knows what is in your heart and sees all that
you do? How will you answer him knowing all those things you
have done that you wish no one could ever discover? How will
you answer for yourself to Christ in judgment? Do you know what
that man who came to my door answered me? He answered just
like the first man in Jesus' parable. He said, I expect God
will consider what I have done and accept me for my good works,
though I have done wrong. Do you know what I told that
man? I told him what the Bible teaches in Matthew chapter 7
verse 21 and 23. If you stand before the Lord
Jesus Christ with that answer, I can assure you, you will go
to hell. Why does God send men to hell? Because God is holy. What does
it mean that God is holy? It means that God cannot tolerate
anything that is not as perfect as himself. Only God is holy. Do you know how holy God is?
When God found sin on His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, when
Jesus Christ bore the sins of His people as His own sins, when
He hung on the cross under the load of those sins for all of
God's people, God the Father withdrew from Him the sense of
His own presence. That is how holy God is. God delivered up His Son to the
will of His enemies because He bore the sins of His people.
Now, if that is how God treated His own dear Son, when the sins
of His people were laid upon Him, we know that God is holy. We know His justice is inflexible. We know He will do right. He
will not pervert judgment. Job 8, verse 3. We know that
He can only do what is pure, good, and holy, as He is holy. He cannot tolerate anything less
than his own perfection. Therefore, do you know how good
you have to be to be accepted by God? You have to keep God's
law completely and perfectly. You have to be as good as Jesus
Christ. Now, in his parable about the
two men who went up to the temple to pray, the Lord Jesus said
that the first man who prayed and presented himself with his
works to God, that that man, the man who believed God would
accept him on those grounds, the Lord Jesus Christ himself
said that this man went back down to his home condemned in
his sins. God did not justify him. He was condemned by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Even though this man prayed to
God, even though he thanked God and credited God for his goodness,
and even though he did so many works that he considered acceptable
to God, yet in God's holy eyes his best was very bad. It was filthy, repugnant, hateful,
loathsome evil, so evil that he must be punished for eternity
in the fires of hell. But Jesus said there was a second
man who went to the temple that day. This man also went to pray,
but he did not dare draw near to God himself because he believed
himself to be a very bad man. He knew that God is holy. He
knew something of his own heart. Instead of drawing near or speaking
out in public prayer, he smote upon his breast. He beat on his
chest with his fist where his heart was and he cried, God,
Be merciful to me, the sinner. Now Jesus, the judge of all,
gave the decision of heaven's court about this tax collector.
Jesus said, this tax collector, a man hated by all, a man who
believed himself to be the sinner, who would not dare draw near
to God himself, knowing God is holy. Jesus said, this man cried
to God, that God would consider only the propitiatory sacrifice
that made satisfaction to God's justice, appeased God's wrath
against sin, and made God favorable towards all who come by Him. Jesus said, this man, though
unrighteous in himself, who cried to God to be accepted because
of the sacrifice of Christ, and not for anything else, but for
the sacrifice Christ made when he offered himself, the sacrifice
God accepted. Jesus said, this man, who thus
came to God, looking only to Christ, went down to his house
justified rather than the other. Do you know what it means to
be justified? It means that God has looked
and compared your righteousness to His holy law, and in justice
has found you to have completely, continuously, perfectly kept
His law. It means God has said you are
righteous without sin, that you have fulfilled all that He requires
for eternal life. It means that God declares a
man to be righteous. It does not mean that the man
is, in himself, righteous. This second man was clearly a
sinner. He confessed himself to be THE sinner. Therefore,
to be justified does not mean that God has found the man's
own personal obedience to have fulfilled his law. But it means
that in considering the sacrifice of Christ, God has found Christ
to have fulfilled His holy law. It means that in His own sufferings
and death, the Lord Jesus Christ has obeyed all that God's law
requires for righteousness. And it means that by his suffering
and death as the substitute for his people, Christ has also satisfied
God's justice by enduring the curse of God's holy law. Remember, God has already searched
the hearts of all men. He looked upon my heart. He looked
upon your heart. He has already said, there is
none righteous. There is none that doeth good.
None. How then can any man be just
before God? How can God, who is holy, who
will not clear the guilty, how can he accept and justify an
ungodly sinner like me, like this publican? The answer is,
by the righteousness of God. But if righteousness is keeping
God's law completely, continuously, and perfectly, what then is the
righteousness of God? Note this very carefully. It
is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people,
in their place, as their substitute, as their representative head,
to answer God for them. Remember the question God raises
to all men, how will you answer God in judgment? How will you
give an account of yourself to God? The righteousness of God
is the only answer God will accept. It is the only answer every believing
sinner brings to God. The Bible puts it this way in
Romans 10 verse 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. The end of the law means the
complete fulfillment of the law, the consummate purpose for which
the law was given. And what was the purpose of God's
law, which we failed to realize because of our disobedience?
It was to justify the obedient and to give life to the one who
kept the law. But since all men, without exception,
have failed to keep God's law, and have failed to glorify God
by keeping it, therefore, by our own personal obedience, by
the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. By our own obedience, we cannot
be justified, because we're sinners, sinners by nature, sinners by
practice. But though no man has or can
fulfill God's holy law, there is one who has, and that one
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He fulfilled God's law. He fulfilled every jot and tittle
of it, and he brought the purpose of the law to its consummate
perfection, its end. Matthew 5, verse 17 through 18. On the cross, Jesus cried, It
is finished. John 19 verse 30. Now that word
finished is the word end in Romans 10 4 where it says Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. Only sinners die. Jesus lived
under the law. He had no sin of his own. He
did no sin. Yet according to the gospel,
Christ died for us. Therefore, he did not die for
his own sins. He died for the sins of his people,
for us. He bore the sins of his people
in his own body. And when he did, he was obeying
his father's commandment. He was obedient unto death. And
because he perfectly fulfilled all of God's law in his life
and in his sacrificial, substitutionary, sin-atoning death, he earned
everlasting righteousness for all those for whom he died. The
law rewards life to the obedient. By his obedience, Christ earned
eternal life for his people. Romans chapter 5 verse 19 says,
As by one man's disobedience, by Adam's disobedience, many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, the Lord Jesus
Christ, shall many be made righteous. As sin has reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now let's review what we've seen
from scripture up to this point. First, righteousness is obedience
to God's law. Second, no man on earth has ever
kept God's law. Among men there is none righteous. Our best is very bad. Third,
Christ himself, the judge of all, says even though a man who
was outwardly upright was rejected by God because he came for acceptance
by what he was in himself and what he had done, Nevertheless,
the Lord Jesus said that a sinner who came to God looking only
to Christ's sacrifice of himself for the sins of his people went
down to his house justified. God declared a sinner to be righteous
because of the sacrifice of Christ. And fourth, scripture explains
that the sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ made of himself as a substitute
for his people under the wrath of God not only made satisfaction
to God's justice, but because he acted as substitute for his
people, His obedience is their righteousness. Christ's obedience
unto death is the righteousness God counts to every sinner who
looks only to Christ for all of his righteousness and acceptance
before God. The obedient life and sin-atoning
death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Christ's righteousness fulfilled
the law, Romans 10, verse 4. It brought the law to its perfect
consummate end. Christ perfected his people before
God by his one offering of himself. Hebrews 10 verse 14. Do you now
see why the gospel is good news to sinners? Do you see that the
one thing that will keep you out of heaven is not your sins,
but your self-righteousness? Only one who trusts in himself
and what he has done will attempt to come to God with anything
other than Christ alone. Now, the Bible is very practical.
It alone reveals the truth. It alone addresses ultimate questions. The truth of scripture is that
you and I, in our own person, are sinful and hateful to God.
But the good news from heaven is that God, by His eternal will,
has chosen a people for Himself. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 through
14. He loved them from eternity.
Jeremiah 31 verse 3. The good news from heaven is
that God saves all those whom he loves. Zephaniah 3 verse 17. And Ephesians 1 verse 4 through
7. But in my conscience, I can't seem to get beyond this one thing.
I am a sinner. This realization, according to
the Lord Jesus, is actually God's work. Remember the tax collector? He said, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. Yet he went down to his house
justified. So the question now arises in
me and comes to you through this sermon. Can I be justified before
God? As we have already seen, the
answer the Lord Jesus Christ gives is, God justifies the ungodly. Romans 4 verse 5. Do you believe
in God who justifies the ungodly? Do you believe that God himself,
who requires complete, continuous, perfect obedience to his holy
law, has laid that requirement on his Son, and that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in our nature as God and man,
for His people has fulfilled all of God's holy law in perfection? Do you believe that Christ's
obedience is the only obedience you have by which you can come
to God and find acceptance from Him? Do you, as the tax collector,
see that God must look upon Christ alone to put away His just wrath
against you and to be at peace with you and accept you? And
do you look to Christ in His life and death as the all-sufficient
righteousness by which God has said sinners are justified before
Him? Then on the basis of God's own
Word, if you so believe God's Son and His sacrifice of Himself
as the only righteousness in which God accepts sinners, even
all who look to Christ, then I say to you with glad assurance,
Christ is the all-sufficient righteousness of all who believe
Him. Romans 3 verse 24 says, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. Any sinner looking to Christ,
who answered God with himself for the sins of his people, and
in his life and death fulfilled God's holy law, so that he magnified
God's law and glorified his Father, any sinner, and every sinner,
so given by God to see and believe Christ as his all, is justified
before God. God's own word says so. When
we believe Christ, we understand that we were justified before
God by the obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
what he cried from the cross? It is finished. But we were not
only justified before God then, but now, in our conscience, the
Spirit of God persuades us that Christ is enough. because by
His one offering He perfected forever all whom God the Father
gave Him to redeem. From God's own Word we are persuaded
that God justified Christ with His people when He raised His
Son from the dead. Romans 4 verse 25 says that the
Lord Jesus was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. But there is another justification. Every person will one day stand
before God. All who try to justify themselves
as the Pharisee in Jesus' parable did will be put to eternal shame
on that day. All who present themselves or
their decision or their experience or their works to Christ in that
day will be utterly put to shame. They will be commanded by Christ
to depart because they are workers of iniquity. Matthew 7 verse
23. All who now believe Christ in
their conscience, believe that He is all their righteousness,
who come to God by Him, will be justified by God in that day. Why? What will be their righteousness
then? They have no righteousness in
themselves. In what righteousness can they
possibly stand and appear before God? There is only one. It is
the righteousness of Christ. His obedience in the offering
of himself for the sins of his people satisfied God's holy law
and fulfilled its righteousness. By his death he established everlasting
righteousness for every sinner he came to save. How then can
I know that God has justified me? If Christ is your only answer,
if in your conscience you answer every demand of God from God's
Word with Christ and Him crucified, then Christ is your answer. God
has accepted Him for you. If Christ is all you have, then
you have answered God already in Him. If you need something
other than Christ and what He did in His life and death, then
you are as that Pharisee who brought himself for acceptance
to God. You will therefore depart from
God and your sins. You will not be justified. You
will be condemned without any righteousness. Oh, dear fellow
sinner, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Find Him to be the righteousness
of God and your only righteousness before God. God raised Him from
the dead, and when He did, He justified Him with His people
because of His obedience unto death. "'Tis not that I did choose
thee, You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.