We're going to repeat some things
we've said before, but to say the same things is not gracious
to me. To you, it's safe. And any good teacher rehearses
or goes back over the things that you've already learned. And this is a Bible study, and
that's why we go so in-depth and verse by verse. But if the Lord doesn't speak
to us, He doesn't speak to our heart that we won't profit from
this. If we just give some facts and
believe some things in our head, this won't profit us. It needs
to touch our heart. The Word of God is the living
Word, and it's the Savior of life to life. Words of life. And I hope the Lord will make
it live. Righteousness. I'm going to say
it again. I'm going to keep preaching it. is the theme of the whole book
of Romans. Righteousness. Righteousness. Look at Isaiah 45 quickly. And
so much to say in so little time. But on this thing of righteousness. It's not a thing. It's a person.
It's a person. You know these verses. Maybe
someone doesn't. Isaiah 45. Look at verse 23. God's Word is full of this Word.
Isaiah 45, 23, I have sworn by myself the Word is gone out of
my mouth in righteousness. You can just say that's Christ
who came from the bosom of the Father in righteousness. And shall I return, that is,
born, and unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear. What shall they swear? Surely,
shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Yes, to Him shall men come. To
all that are incensed against Him shall be a shame. In the
Lord, who? The Lord Jesus Christ, shall
all the seed of Israel, His elect, be justified, and they will glory. Glory in Him. Look at Jeremiah
23. I love this. Jeremiah 23. Someone sang a song,
Jehovah Sikkimu. I just saw it in someone's bulletin.
I believe it was Brother Marvin. Maybe I'll sing it for you someday.
Maybe we can learn it together. But Jeremiah 23 says in verse
5 and 6, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch and a king. shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days, Judah, that's the remnant, shall be saved, and Israel shall
dwell safely. What's his name? This is his
name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenia. All right? Now, he's the husband of his
bride. Look at Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah
33. His name is Jehovah Sidkenna. Well, look at Jeremiah 33, verse 14. We just heard about the branch.
Behold, verse 14, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform
that good thing, that work which I have promised unto the house
of Israel, to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time,
will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called. the Lord, our righteousness. She bears his name, Jehovah Sikhinah,
because he is made unto her. Wisdom, righteousness. Do you get tired here? It's just
a person. Not a doctrine. Not a doctrine. Alright, Romans
chapter 1. The heart and soul of the gospel
is found in this. The righteousness of God, which
is Jesus Christ. Yeah, they're covering. Our next
message is about His garments. That's the covering of His people. Romans 1, someone doesn't know
and understand something of this righteousness. You don't know
God. You don't know the truth. You
don't know why Christ came. You really don't need Christ.
Now this, this, the world in general doesn't care. Doesn't
care about this. Religion in general doesn't,
rarely speaks of it. So what does that say? That people
take pleasure in unrighteousness. The world and the religious world
fancies themselves to have some kind of righteousness. And it's
an abomination to God. And this is why Christ came.
To be His people's righteousness. This is why He came. Because
God is righteous. And Christ came to make us righteous. If you don't understand that,
you don't understand who God is and what you are and why Christ
came. But if you do, God has given
you an understanding. Romans 1, look at this. He began
by saying, Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
It is the power of God and the salvation for everyone that believes
it. It cannot be saved without hearing the gospel. It's the
power of God and the salvation, right? That's what it pleases
God to you. Preaching of what? Christ. The gospel of Christ. Read on.
It's to the Jew first and to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. The righteousness is holiness,
the righteousness that God required, and the righteousness God provides
in Christ. You understand that, don't you?
Don't take that for granted. Look at chapter 3. This is the
heart of Romans and the heart of the truth. Chapter 3, verse
20. Where do you start? It's everywhere. Verse 21, Now
the righteousness of God without the law, that is, without us
keeping it, is manifested, revealed, being witnessed by the law. How
many people understand that? You do, don't you? And the prophets. And even the righteousness of
God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, untamed, holy. and upon
all, put on His thing, His righteousness, unto and upon all that believe. Why do you believe? God gave
you that thing. He chose you. He put you in Christ.
You've got to believe. Why? That He's your righteousness.
All that sin, verse 23, comes short of the glory of God, but
being justified freely by His grace, time, through the redemption
The blood-bought pardon of Jesus Christ, whom God set forth, read
on, God set him forth to be a propitiation, that's a covering, covering atonement
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. See there, verse 26, to declare,
I say, at this time, his righteousness. Is this important? There is no
non-essential truth in God's Word. Like those garments of Christ,
you can't separate them, you can't part them, you can't take
part of them. You've got to have the whole Christ, the whole gospel.
You can't say, I like this part, I don't like that part, I believe
this. No, sir. The whole Christ, the whole Lamb.
The complete, finished work that's wholly and completely in Jesus
Christ. The whole garment. I've got to
go on. But our Lord gave an example
of a man trying to patch an old garment with a little piece of
new, and he said, that won't do it. You ought to throw out
that old and give it a whole new garment. And that's what
the Lord does to you when He's saved. He throws out your old
religion, gives you a brand new one, and the essence and the
sum and substance of it is Christ our righteousness. That's it. You couldn't hear a more important
message. I hope the world listens to this. We'll listen to it.
Romans 5, this is the heart and soul. Verse 17, Romans 5, 17. If by one man's offense death
reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Read
on. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, that's Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
In Adam all died, he said. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men, that is, all in Christ,
under justification of life. Read verse 21. As sin reigned
under death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. What do we pray? Sovereign grace
through the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. Sermon 17. Romans 10. You see, this is the
book of Romans. Romans 10, verses 1 through 4. Brethren, Paul is talking to
the Jews. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them
record that they have the zeal of God, but not. They don't know,
really, the true and living God. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, are going about, going about to establish their
own righteousness. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Is it important? Three times
in one verse, he said these people are ignorant, going about, have
not submitted their revels against Him. He's not saying they're
sane and they just need to come to a knowledge of the doctrine
of the grace of righteousness. No, sir. Paul said, I was that
way. He said, I thought I had a righteousness.
I thought I was good. I thought it was moral. I thought
I was going to heaven. I thought God was pleased with
me because of my righteousness. And he said, I hated all talk
of somebody that God not giving me credit for anything. I hated
it. He said, I hated this way that
nothing I ever did accounted for anything. I hated it. That
God said, all my righteousness are filthy righteous. He said,
I hated it. I've given my life for God. I've served Him. I've
been zealous for the truth. But when I saw His Christ in
person, when I saw a holy God in person like Isaiah, He said,
woe is me. I'm undone. Then when I heard
about a righteousness without me keeping the law because I've
broken all of it. I heard of a righteous robe wrapped
around me." Oh, he said, I began to love it. Love it. Love Him who is my righteousness. Not saying these Jews were saved.
They just needed to come to an understanding. No, sir. They
had not submitted unto the righteousness of God. They were ignorant of
it. They read about it. They were willingly ignorant. You tell people of this gospel,
you tell them the truth, that no good work you ever do... I
told one of my neighbors this one time, she got furious at
that. I said, there's not one single
act of charity or work you've ever done that counts for anything
for that old man. Not one. Is that so? If it's not so, Jesus
Christ didn't need to come here. He didn't need to come here.
If righteousness comes, listen how serious this is, if righteousness
comes by the law, if acceptance with God comes by us doing anything,
or quitting anything, or being anything, Christ died in me. And you can't explain the cross. Chapter 2 of Romans, alright?
Here's where we are in chapter 2. Out there I just summed up
everything. The whole truth of God. You cannot know the truth of
God and not know something of God's righteousness. Paul just
said that, didn't he? They're ignorant of it. Think
they had one? They're going to stand before
God someday. Millions of persons stand before
God and actually plead things that they've done for God. With
no thought, no thanks, no appreciation to Jesus Christ who came and
made sin. Came to this earth to work out
that righteousness. And God's hottest place in hell
is reserved for him. Stealing Christ's glory. Romans
2. Verse 17, now he says, Behold,
thou art called Jew. The title and subject this morning
is a Jew inwardly, not outwardly. A Jew of God's making, not our
own. Not man's. God has to make someone
a Jew. You're not born that way. You've
got to be born again that way. And it's of God. Alright, let's
just read down through verse 24. He said, You call a Jew,
you rest in the law, you make your boast of God, you know His
will, so you do. You approve things that are more
excellent, that is, you not worldly like these Gentiles. Instructed
out of the law, you are confident that you are a guide of the blind,
a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the
foolish. You remember our Lord Nicodemus. I believe the Lord
saved Nicodemus, don't you? And we'll see that, I think,
in this John 19. But Nicodemus came to him by
night. He was ashamed. But the Lord's
dealing with him. And he came to our Lord by night.
This carpenter. And Nicodemus was a high-muckety
buck Pharisee who went to the seminary Say, right, went to all the schools
of religion, you know, and he was high up. And after talking
to the Lord, the Lord looked at him and said, Are you a master
in Israel? Are you a teacher in Israel? And don't know this
thing, this one thing, this first thing, the foundation, the fundamental
truth of salvation, that you must be born from above? That
this is a kingdom that you can't put yourself into, that you have
nothing to do with, and nothing you do, nothing you say, nothing
anybody else can do for you, that it's of God? Are you ignorant
of this? You must, I tell you, Nicodemus,
you, you, Nicodemus, you Pharisee, you must be born again. What do you think of that? I
don't know. He may have stomped off, but
he came back. He came back. See, not many wise
men at the place. Not many mighty. Not many noble. There weren't many barren seas
sailing with him. You don't read of many of them. That's why Paul
says, I'm the greatest recipient of grace in the world. I was
the most self-righteous, self-glorifying, vainglorious fellow on earth. I'm the chief of sinners. But
God. Look at verse 21. He says, verse 20, You are an
instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form
of knowledge and truth in the law. Paul one time said to Timothy,
he said, they desire to be teachers of the law but don't know where
they get it and don't know what they believe. They're ignorant
of the law. He also said that one time to
the Galatians, you that desire to be under the love, don't you
hear it? No, you don't hear it, you don't understand it. It's
spiritual, it requires perfection in thought. God's not looking
at what you're doing. Understand it, He is, but that's
not, He looks on the heart, He sees the hidden man. That's what
He's going to judge. The outward is a result of the
inward. Alright? He goes on to say, you
that teach another, verse 21, do you teach yourself? Don't
you teach yourself? You that preach a man should
not steal. Dost thou steal? Oh, I've never stolen. Oh, have
you ever coveted anything? Have you ever coveted anything?
That's stealing. You're guilty. The only reason you didn't is
because God kept you from it. Right? Right? You know it's sacrilege. Read on. Thou say'st a man should
not commit adultery. Dost thou commit adultery? Not
me, never. Liar. To look with lust, our
Lord said. Guilty. You that abhor idols,
dost thou commit sacrilege? Is there any idol, anything you
love and anything you give more thought to than God? That's idolatry. You make your boast of the law,
verse 23. Through breaking the law, you're
dishonoring God, verse 24. The name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it is written all through
the Scriptures. God dealt more severely with
the Jews than anybody because there's blaspheme in His name,
claiming to be His people. and doing and saying what they
were doing, it brought great reproach on God, more so than
the Gentiles. Do you understand that? And it's
still today. The Jews were corrupt. They looked
good outwardly. These Jews that Paul was speaking
to, these Pharisees, they had on their ecumenical garb, their
phylacteries, they made them broad, they looked and appeared
outwardly finds everyone. Our Lord Jesus Christ looked
at them and said, you're white as a grave. He said, you make
white the sepulchre. Inside you're full of dead men's
bones. Didn't He say that? That's religion. And people saw them. People knew
them. People they lived with. They knew them. They saw them.
They saw their corruption. Roman Catholicism aside, that's
clearly a corrupt religion. But people don't care, do they
Mike? They don't care. Why? Because
that's their righteousness. That's their righteousness. I'm
a member of the Roman Catholic Church. I was christened. I'm
a good standing member. I give my payment tithes and
all that. I go to Mass and I'm going to
get to heaven because of that. I don't care how corrupt it is.
I don't care how vile or wicked it is. All the hidden stuff that
goes on. I don't care. That's how I'm
going to get to heaven. Millions. What about you? Some of you were
in that. But God. Reformed religion is not much
better. I'm telling you the truth. You know, the name of God is
blaspheming now more than ever in these last of the last days.
The unbelieving world is scoffing and mocking at all the utter
foolishness that goes under the name of Christianity. I hate
it, don't you? Doesn't it vex you? More so than all the filth you
see around you, like in Sodom. What vexes me is religion, what
it says about God. And the world is scoffing at
God. Oh yes, it's the greatest show
on earth. And that's all it is, a show.
It's a circus and people are flocking to see it. Not to see
Christ, but to see the show. Not to hear the gospel, sweetest
note of seraph's song, but to hear the music. And it's a admonition
to God. But here we see. A little flock,
few in number, to hear one thing, to hear one person, to glorify and
honor one. Why? Sovereign electing grace. That's why. You didn't come to a knowledge
of the doctrines of grace. God came to you. Grace came to
you. Christ came to you and spoke
to you, redeemed you as a person. So-called Christianity today,
with all it says about God and man, God loves everybody like
they are. God doesn't want any of these
bad things to happen. The world is scoffing at that
God. That's a mockery of God and truth. There is no sin. There is no
judgment. Like that last verse in Judges. Because there was
no king, no sovereign in Israel. Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. And that's the day we're living
in now. But there's a few. There are a few. who know that
our God reigneth. And He's holy, and He's just,
and He's righteous, and the Judge of all the earth. And He will
by no means clear the guilty. But God... I can't preach ten
minutes without saying that. But God, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, His chosen people quickened us together. Oh, it's
my grace you say. Raised us up in Christ. Put us
in Christ. Covered us with Christ's righteousness.
Made us to know and understand the righteous one. A Jew. Made us Jews. People of His choice. Read on. Circumcision. Circumcision. Let's close with it. He says
in verse 25, let's just read all these verses. Circumcision
beareth it profiteth if thou keep the law. If thou be a breaker
of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. No problem. Therefore, if the uncircumcision,
that's the Gentiles, they keep the righteousness of the law,
shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
That is, shall he not be declared a child of God, righteous, if
he keeps the law? If. Where you going? And shall
not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfilled the
law, judge thee who by the letter and circumcision does transgress
the law? He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
outward in the flesh. That's not true circumcision.
He is a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the hearts,
in the spirits, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men. but
of God. And in another place, Paul said,
circumcision not with hands, not done by men, but of God.
All right, let me see if I can make this clear to us. And I want you to turn in closing
to Philippians 3. God gave this sign of circumcision,
and we preached the whole message on it not too many years ago. He gave this sign to Abraham. Abraham was chosen of God. He was an idolater. He didn't
know God. He wasn't seeking God. God chose
him. God sought him. God revealed
himself to him. And God blessed him and made
all the promises before he was circumcised. Before the loss. He didn't know the Lord. Without
the loss. God said, righteous. Why? What did He do? Nothing. He believed God. He believed God and He was
counting on Him for righteousness. He said, You are holy, unblameable,
unreprovable and righteous in my sight. For what? Believe in
Him. Believe in Him. Trust in Him. Circumcision was given to Abraham
later as a mark in the flesh that distinguished a Jew from
a Gentile. Yes, it had wholesome, God never
did anything symbolic, strictly symbolically. But it was wise,
it was good, it was pure justice. It had wholesome, hygienic, even
aesthetic purposes. And I think it had to happen
as a result of sin. And he did that. He gave it to
them. But now, this was a mark in the flesh to distinguish between
God's people. They had to obey. They had to
do it. They had to do it. There was pain in the flesh involved.
But at any rate, it was still unseen. It was unseen. How do you know this
man's a Jew? Well, you can't see it. Well,
right there's a picture. But it never did make anybody
a child of God. It was a shadow, a type, a picture,
a symbol of what does make somebody a child of God. Circumcision
without hands. The circumcision of God. What
God does to somebody's heart. that transforms them, that makes
them, that distinguishes them, that separates them, that distinguishes
them from the rest of the unbelieving world, that makes it clear they're
God's people. Now, he is not a Christian which
is one outwardly. He is not a Christian which is
one outwardly or appears to be so. If that were so, A Reformed
preacher I used to know in this town actually did this. He said
this. He went up to a woman in a grocery store, and she was
dressed very modestly. And he actually said to her,
are you a Christian? And she said, well, yes, I am. He
said, I thought so. I could tell by the way you were
dressed. Now, that man's ignorant. The Muslims dress more modestly
than any Christian on the planet. I'm not preaching down on anybody, but
I'm exposing it for what it is. They wear a little covering,
a little doily on top of their head, a veil in the Scripture. Now you cover your face. The
holy angels, who never committed sin, had six wings with two they
covered Their places. They've got no sin to cover.
But that's a symbol that God is just that holy. Cover the
flesh. Don't let me see the flesh. And
that's what this represents. Do away with that dead flesh. That religion of flesh. Works
of the flesh. Even the covering of the flesh.
Even the clothes, we're going to see that in the next message.
Even the clothes that people take great pride in, that's flesh! You know, if he'd had any sense,
he would say, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust Christ? Is Christ
your only hope? Is Christ your righteousness?
Is Christ your hope of glory? Huh? You're at peace with God?
You're righteous before God?" She said, yeah. He said, well,
that's good. Now, I believe you're a Christian. Not your dress! No doubt, if God saves somebody,
they'll be more modest in the world. But that doesn't make
you a Christian. That doesn't show that you're
a Christian. Now, Philippians 3, it says in
verse 2, he says, now you beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Now,
he's talking about, you'll read it for yourself later, Isaiah
56, God calls these false preachers dogs, dumb dogs. Brother Ralph
Barnard said that's where that DD comes from behind their name,
DD. Men say it's a doctrine of divinity.
And Barney said, no, it's a dumb dog. If you had any sense at all, you
wouldn't call yourself a doctor. Now, I know some good men have,
and they're just wrong. It's a flattering title. He said, you beware of these
evil workers. That's what Christ called them.
Judaizers. Circumcisers. Self-righteous,
Pharisees, beware of the concision. We're the circumcision. Three marks. Three marks. And
none of it has to do with the way you dress. None of it is
outward. What are they? Number one, we
rejoice and we worship God in the Spirit. From the heart. Our Lord said,
Spirit and truth. the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
You can't worship God apart from Christ. You can't worship God
apart from the gospel. You can't. You can pretend it. Worship God in the Spirit. That
is, God's not worshiped with men's hands. What do you see
going on in religion today? Huh? Go see the show. Oh, it's
impressive, isn't it? Not to God and not to me. Is
it to you? It's a show of the flesh. God's
people worship Him in the spirit, in fear and trembling, and yes,
rejoicing. What are they rejoicing, secondly? They rejoice in Christ Jesus. You announce, I'm going to preach
Christ and Him crucified. Who's going to show up? Those
that rejoice in Christ and Him crucified. Those that rejoice
in a lamb. Those that were bitten by the
snake. I'm going to hold up the remedy
today. Who's going to look? They rejoice in Christ Jesus.
They never quit rejoicing. They hold steadfastly in their
hope and rejoicing. They never quit rejoicing. You
quit rejoicing in the simple gospel of Christ crucified, you
never saw him. And what you see Him and behold
His glory, you can't get enough. Tell me again. Tell me again
about Him who loved me and washed me from my sins in His own blood.
Lift Him high. Don't talk about anybody else.
Let's talk about Him. That's what they're doing in
glory right now. That's the mark. That's how you
know Him. Who's a Christian? Those that
love Christ, that follow Christ, that worship Christ, that rejoice
that He is their Christ, their righteousness. And thirdly, no
confidence in the flesh. Visions, signs, miracles, wonders,
experiences, Feelings, feelings come, feelings go. Feelings are
deceiving. My hope, your hope, is in nothing
less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. Nothing else
is worth believing. Is that you? No confidence in
the flesh. Don't give me any flesh. Just
preach Christ to me. That's how you know Him. That's
how you know Him. That's circumcision. And God
has to do it. God has to do it. And He does
it to every single one of these people. All Jews, inwardly, have
been circumcised by God and given a new heart. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? Let's just preach it again.