John, we sing that a lot. John's got that beautiful high
bluegrass tenor. He made me try to sing it. I can't get up there. He can. Don't you love that hymn? Mercy
seat. What's that? Christ. He's our mercy seat. Romans 2. Read with me the first
four verses. Romans 2. Paul just addressed
the world in general. unbelieving world, and now he
is addressing the Jews. He says, Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art, a judgest. But wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same thing. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God? Despisest thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God Lead the thief to repentance. Now,
Paul is not saying here, and if you read all of this chapter,
maybe you're a little bit confused of what he's saying here. He's
not dealing with not judging people. Because the whole book judges
us all. And he concludes in chapter 3,
guilty. What he's saying is, he's talking
to these religious Jews, these religious people that thought
they were holy and righteous, thought they were God's people
because they were good people, because they kept the law. And he's saying, and you look
down on the people of this world and say they're a bunch of sinners.
Remember the Jews said that to the blind man, wasn't they? They
said, we may not be sinners. He's not telling them, and this
is what many would get out of this. See? You're not supposed
to judge people because we're all just a bunch of sinners.
You're supposed to accept people as they are. God loves us all
like we are. It's okay. I'm okay, you're okay, and they're
this way. But that's not what he's saying. He's going on to tell us very
clearly. We're all under the judgment
and condemnation of God. All of us. You know, if someone ever asked
me what book to read in the Bible, I'd always say Romans. Go to
Romans, the whole counsel of God. We saw in the first chapter
alone, the whole counsel of God in one chapter. But all your
questions will be answered in Romans if God, through a preacher, opens
your understanding. All you need to know about God,
about man, about salvation, is found in the book of Romans.
But we can't and won't understand unless God enables us to understand. But there's a key word throughout
this book like all the Bible. The key word is righteousness. Righteousness. The key word.
Thirty-three, thirty-seven times in the book of Romans. One hundred
and twenty-nine times in the Psalms. You think the Psalms
is a devotional book? Did you notice how many times
David said, if somebody hears me, they're going to hear about
thy righteousness. Didn't he say that? Proverbs, 64 times. Isaiah is quoted in the 3rd Testament
more than any other prophet, 58 times. And he concluded chapter
45 by saying, Shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness
and strength? For in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel be justified and glory. Do you know what that
means? Some of you do. Bless God. Bless God. Over 500 times in
the Bible. But I prayed, and I hope that
this won't be just a doctrine, that you don't know this in your
head. We've all heard this so many
times. Our children know something of
this in their heads. But I tell you this, you cannot
know God, you cannot know yourself, you cannot know Christ, you cannot
know the truth and not understand something of God's righteousness. You can't do it. He begins this
way in Romans 1. Go over here to Romans 1. He
says, the gospel, verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. It's the power of God. This is what God uses to say
in preaching of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation,
everyone that believes the gospel. The Jew first, also to the Greek,
for therein. This is the first thing he says
about the gospel. Verse 17, therein, in the gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed. And then verse 18, he says, the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Let me ask you again, this morning
I said, I asked you, I said, do you hear the blood of Christ
mentioned much in modern religion. Do you hear it? Do you ever hear
the righteousness of Christ mentioned? Answer me. Five hundred times. Paul said
this is where it starts. This is where the gospel starts. And he blessed God, and we know
this verse, just to quote it, that God's people bless God because
of God are we in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness. The prodigal knows what that
means. The saints in glory know what
that means. They're robed in it. I think I know what it means.
This is not higher doctrine. This is who God is. This is why
Christ came. This is why Jesus Christ came. He came to land to be stripped,
stripped of His skin, as it were. to clothe some people. This is
why Christ came. This is how God saves sinners.
If you get to heaven, it's going to be because of this righteousness. And there are going to be millions
standing before God some day wearing some fig leaves and say, we're okay. Paul is writing to the Jews in
chapter 2. Chapter 1, he's talking to the
lost world in general. They don't give a thought to
God. They're haters of God. They don't give a thought to
God. He's writing to the Jews who were devoted, devout, and
I know many. I know many. I don't mean Jews
of that nation. Devout, religious, law-keeping,
moral, Sabbath-keeping, strict-living religious people. That's who
Paul is talking to. That's who he's writing to. He
knows them. Why? Because he was one. And over in chapter 9, he said,
I could wish myself a curse for my brethren. He had a heart for
them. He said, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. He said,
I wish myself cut off from Christ, accursed from Christ for them.
He said, I bear them record. They have a zeal for Christ.
He said, I know they're zealous because I was, Paul said. He
said, I was. He said, they don't know God
because I didn't know God. What? They don't know about God,
Paul. They don't know about His righteousness. He said, I didn't. He said, concerning
the law, Righteousness. He said, I thought I was blameless. I'm so way ahead of myself now.
But he's writing to the Jews. And the thing I'm trying to get
across here is this is not just higher doctrine. It's not just
the way you learn this. You know, you know God and then
you learn this later. You don't know God if you don't
know something of His righteousness. You don't know Jesus Christ.
You don't know why He came. He's not Christ to you if you
don't know something of His righteousness imputed to you. Blood? Why blood? Because the
lamb was stripped. I just tried to say stripped.
Naked. Why did our Lord hang naked on
a tree? Clothes are a cuddling. Clothes
are a covering. Cover our nakedness. Cover our
sin. The first man and woman were
naked and no shame. But when they sinned, they had
to be covered. What did it take to cover them? Death. They sewed
together some fig leaves. We look good now. We've got it
covered. We've got it all covered. It took the death and the skin of
lamb. What's he doing? Why is He killing
this lamb? Why does that have to happen?
Aren't our fig leaves good enough? No! And He covered them with His
skin. Christ stripped Himself. Christ made sin for His people
who knew no sin. That we might be made. You may never understand that
verse like you do right now. Like that lamb being stripped.
How are those naked, guilty sinners going to be covered and clothed
and warmed and comforted? They're scared to death. They
think God's going to kill them. But no! God took the lamb in
love and mercy and grace and killed the lamb and stripped
the lamb of its skin and robed it. He didn't ask them if they
would accept it. He put it on them. And they felt
instantly warmer. Instantly comforted. Instantly
thinking, maybe He's not going to kill us. Maybe He'll forgive
us. Maybe He's forgiven us. Why did they strip Christ? Just
to be mean and cruel? That's a picture of the Lamb
whose skin was taken from Him to cover. He was made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He took His righteousness. I just told my whole message.
I had four or five pages. That we might be made the righteousness
of Him. We don't have any. We can't produce
any. Try as you may, it's not good
enough. It's a fig leaf it won't cover. Isaiah said in Isaiah 64, 6,
all our righteousnesses. There wasn't a better man on
earth than Isaiah at the time. He said, all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. You know what that word means? Mistress cloth. That's repugnant. God doesn't
say good things about me. John and I were laughing at the
story of 1 Samuel 22. I'd love to preach on that again. 1 Kings 22. There was a prophet
named Micaiah. And Ahab, king of Israel and
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were together. They shouldn't have
been. And God reproved Jehoshaphat for being with that bad man.
You have no business with them. God killed Ahab and had mercy
on Josaphat. Anyway, they were seated together
and they were trying to decide what to do. Whether or not to
go against Assyria. And Ahab said, let's call the
prophets. And he had a bunch of them. They
were everywhere. They were all on the payroll.
He said, let's call them. He picked you one and he got
a bunch of them. And they all said, every one of them, here
I am preaching on it, every one of them said, Go, the Lord is
with you, it's good, it's wonderful, it's all going to be wonderful.
Victory, victory, deliverance. You ever heard that today? Deliverance. No mention of the blood and righteousness
of Christ. There is no deliverance apart from the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. There is no gospel apart from
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. None. But they
all said, go, God's with you, deliverance, great deliverance.
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah said, hold on there, let's call a true
prophet. He said, one? Ahab said, yeah,
there's one fellow. He's named Micaiah. And here's
what he said. Here's what Ahab, that wicked
king, said. He never says anything good about anybody. He never says anything good.
I don't like him. That's what he said. And Jehoshaphat
said, we need to hear from him. And he came, and the first thing
he did was mock Ahab. Ahab said, shall we go? He said,
go. That's what everybody else is saying. God loves you, it's
okay, go on, be good, deliverance, go ahead. Ahab said, tell me
the truth. And Micaiah said, the dogs are
going to lick your blood. You're going to die. And Ahab
said, I told you. He never says anything good. He never makes me feel good about
myself. People, this book doesn't say
anything good about us. Go with me to Ecclesiastes chapter
7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. The book of Ecclesiastes is so
wonderful and marvelous. God led the wise man Solomon
to deal with everything in life, to try to find something in it,
and he said, it's all vanity. And the conclusion of the matter
is, he said, fear God. Want wisdom? Want to know what's not vanity?
These aren't vain words. Fear God. Ecclesiastes 7. Look at it with me. Ecclesiastes
7.19. Now, wisdom strengthens the wise
more than ten mighty men which are in the city. Four. Here's
wisdom. There's not a just man upon earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. Not one. Righteousness, go back to our
text. Righteousness means sinless perfection. Righteousness means
perfect holiness. Righteousness means not only
without sin, not only to be without guilt, but to be perfectly right
in everything you do. Are you with me? Are you with
me? Leviticus 22-21 is a whole denomination
that takes their denomination from Leviticus. They think they're
Levitical priests. They wear the robe, the beard,
not the robe, but it's pick and choose with the beard and all
that. Alright, if you want to take
that as your rule of life, take this, Leviticus 22, 21. It shall
be perfect to be accepted. Perfect. I don't mean outwardly. If God doesn't see as man sees,
He looks on the heart. You've got to be perfect. Righteousness not only means
sinless perfection, but it means that you not only have not sinned,
but you've said everything right. You've glorified God. You've glorified God that your
hands, not only pure, but your hands have worked righteousness.
Your hands have done things. Your feet have walked in paths
of righteousness. Never in wrong paths. That you
have done everything positively. What I'm talking about is the
life of Jesus Christ. That's what I'm talking about.
God called Him, My righteous servant. The Lord is well pleased
for His, what? Righteousness sake. Not one man. It must be perfect,
completely holy, just and good and pure. Are you listening to
me? Spotless, unblameable, unapprovable. Not just that, but altogether
lovely. Everything. Chapter 3 of Romans. Let's just skip ahead. Chapter
3. Okay, let's get to the answer.
Let's get to the good news real fast. Chapter 3. Now, he says in chapter 3, verse
9, he just dealt with the religious Jews that thought they were this
way and that way like Paul did. He said, I was blameless. But
then when God really spoke to me through the law, I found out,
oh, wretched man that I am. in my flesh no good thing, like
Ecclesiastes said. And in verse 9, he says, so my
Jewish brethren, my religious brethren, are we better than
those unbelieving Gentiles that never give God a thought, that
don't worship God, that we do all these things, that we are
circumcised, that we go to every Sabbath meeting and do this and
that? No. Not in any way. No way. They prove both Jew and Gentile.
They're all under sin. He goes on to list they're all,
they're none righteous. No, not one. None. And in verse 18, he ends it with
what wisdom begins with. There's no fear of God before
they're in. There's no way a person could think they were good if
they knew God. No way. There's no way a person
could attribute any part of their salvation to anything they ever
do, if they knew God, if they knew themselves. Paul, like he
said, Paul lived a whole life, he said, from his youth, Saul
of Tarsus, blameless, but he said, when the commandment came,
I died, it killed me, I slew me. He said, I found that in
me developed no good thing. He said, I was doing it all.
You know why I was doing it all? For me. For my glory. For my honor. And if it wasn't
for the grace of God, I'd be just like those the Lord said
are going to stand before Him someday and say, look at what
all I've done for you. Look at all the souls I've won
for Jesus. Look at all the things I've given up. Look at what I've
done. I've done many wonderful works, and I would only hear
Him say, depart from me. But by His grace, He chose me. Here I go again. Yeah, Paul's
the one that wrote this, isn't he? Not of him that willeth,
but of him that runneth. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's according to His mercy He
has saved us. Righteousness imputed. John, this whole book is about
that, isn't it? Paul loved it. He loved it. Why? Because he
used to have one. He used to think, I'm a good
fellow. And he looked down at those sinners. Look at those
sinners. But God finally showed him, Saul,
you're the worst sinner of all. That's why he said, I'm the chief.
Oh, he said, I love the gospel. Oh, I love the gospel. And I'm
going to go around telling everybody it's a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation. Why? Because there's none righteous.
Everybody ought to hear this with joy and rejoicing and gladness,
but they don't. Why? They're not sinners. They are, but they don't know
it. But God in mercy and grace convicts. The first thing the
Spirit of God does is come through the preaching of the gospel of
Christ and says, you're a sinner. Convicts of sin. And what's the
second thing? What's the second thing Christ
said? Righteousness. That's what Christ said. When
the gospel comes and somebody finally hears from God, they're
going to find out you're not good, you're a sinner, and you
don't have a righteousness. And judgment. There's a judgment
to face. Why are you going to stand there?
How are you going to stand in a judgment someday? Everybody.
This second chapter deals with everybody's going to stand before
God. In these verses, You may be confused,
but it says to them, look at verse six. It says, He'll render
to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient,
continuous and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,
eternal life. He's saying if you do well, you'll
have eternal life. This is a denial of the whole
book of Romans. You've got to keep reading. And
somebody's got to tell you. What he's saying now through
these verses is, if you could do well, if you could continually,
in continuance, do well, then you would earn heaven. If you
could, keep the law. But he wrote in Galatians and
James to offend one more. Cursed is he that continuance.
Not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Can you? Have you? Now, what about your
past? What about your past? It doesn't matter. I quit that.
I quit that. Now I'm doing that. Oh, no, no, no. What about your
past? And you don't know what you're
going to do in the future. You just don't know. I'm a good fellow
now. You just don't know. If you're
one of God's and you get lifted up in self-righteousness, he's
going to let you fall. He's going to make you think
you're a devil. But that's a good thing. That's
the riches of his goodness. That's his full merits and his
long suffering. Know that the goodness of God
leads us to repentance. That the best message that a
human being can hear is a message of repentance. Not God love you. Repent. Because if you do, by God's grace,
the goodness of God leaves you repentant. You know what you'll
hear? Forgiven. The blood was shed for your sin.
You're covered. But I feel so sinful. You're
covered. The righteousness of Christ.
Chapter 3, I was there and I left it. Verse 19, Now we know that
whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law. Paul talked about what if the Gentiles keep the law?
Do they keep the law? Can anybody keep the law? No,
he's not saying that at all. They think it's not right to
kill, not right to steal. They show the law of God written
on the heart. But are they keeping it? No. Here's the conclusion. Whatsoever
things the law say it. See, the law wasn't given to
give life. It's given to show sin. That's why it's not the rule
of life. Christ is our rule of life. Verse 19, it saith to them
under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh, there shall no flesh be justified, declared
righteous, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight by
the laws and knowledge of sin. But now, hold on a minute, but
now, here it is. I hope I haven't lost you. I didn't lose you. I'm just reading
it. But now, the righteousness of God without law, meaning without
you keeping it. Oh, you're an antinomian. Well, I'm not against God's law. I love God's law. It's holy,
right, just, and true. I love it. Oh, how I love thy
law, O Lord. But it's a curse to me. It's
a curse to him. Why? It's not in the law. It's
in us. We don't have the ability to
keep it. And when we break it, all the law can say is, you're
guilty. The soul that sinned shall die.
That's all the law can say. The law can't say, well, I forgive
you. No! Now, the righteousness of the
God without the law is manifested. That is, clearly revealed, being
witnessed by the law. Now, what are you talking about,
preacher? Moses wrote the law, didn't he? Thou shalt not. Came down from
that mountain. Thou shalt not. Why did he say
that? You know, they were already breaking it before it was written.
While God was writing it, they were breaking it. And Moses came
down, the first thing he showed was, boom, you've broken it.
Every one of them. What good is it for me to show
it to you? You've broken it all. You can't keep it. But Christ said, Moses wrote
it to me. And God told Moses, alright Moses,
smite the rock. These people are thirsty, they
need water. Smite the rock. Wow, what good
will that do? Smite the rock. And he smote
the rock. Do you know what that is? That
rock is Christ. That's Christ crucified. They
need water. They need water for cleansing,
for sanctification. You don't sanctify yourself,
Jesus Christ sanctifies you. That's what he said. I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified. All right, Moses,
make a serpent of brass and hang it on a pole. These people are
dying because they're a bunch of rebels. They ought to die.
But Moses, make a serpent and hang it on a pole that everyone
that just looks will be healed. What's that? What's that? That's
me. That's what Moses wrote of. Moses, every house must have
a lamb. A lamb for every house. Take
a lamb. Watch it for seven days. It may
be spotless, sinless, perfect. A lamb. And every one of them
kill it. and take the blood and put it
on the doorpost and everybody in there, eat that lamb. Eat
it. Roast with fire. Bitter herbs. Not sodden at all. They're all
going to know they're going out of here because of one thing.
A lamb. The law witnesses, clearly says,
from Genesis to Malachi, clearly says, Salvation is one way. The Old Testament saints were
saved one way. Moses wrote of me. Our Lord said,
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. To him
give all the prophets witness. The whole Old Testament is not
to tell you how to live, but it's to tell you about Him who
came to live for you. Righteousness! I can't help it. I'm going to
holler it. Righteousness has nothing to do with you. Righteousness,
you can't attain it. Righteousness, you can't do it.
You can't do it. Grit your teeth. Try it. If a
man has a free will, stop sinning. Free will? Say, I will not sin
anymore. Go ahead. You just sinned. Righteousness is something completely
outside of you. Righteousness is without you.
Look at it. Without you. Now, verse 22, the
righteousness of God, that He provided, His perfect hosts,
which is by faith. The biggest two-letter word in
the Bible. Jesus Christ. Read it. It doesn't
read right if it said in. Read it. By the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. Unto and upon. Christ died for
and Christ's righteousness was imputed to all them that believe. So you see, first you've got
to believe. Yes, you do. But it's not of
your sins. It's a gift of God. That's what our Lord said to
the man he came to die for. He said, who do you say that
I am? We know who you are. That's not
of your sins. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Oh, how many people quote that
that don't have a clue. And they wouldn't go about to
establish their own righteousness. They wouldn't go with Paul, Romans
10, all through this book. This is the theme. It really
is. If they really knew God, they wouldn't dare bring up their
righteousness. They wouldn't stand up and preachers,
oh, I know so many of them. They'd make it very vague whether
or not you're going to get to heaven by Christ or by you and
Christ. Well, I'm here to tell you. Okay? I'm here to tell sinners
that if you get to glory, it'll be one way. It won't be you and
Christ. It'll be Jesus Christ. It'll
be because Jesus Christ died for you. It'll be because Jesus
Christ lived for you. And it'll be because Jesus Christ
ever lived for you. And if you get there, you're
going to be robed. You're going to have a robe on.
And it's a robe, but you have nothing to do with it. That Job said, naked I came into
this world, and naked I shall leave this world. But Job, when
you get to glory, you're going to be robed. Man is the only creature that
comes into the world naked. All other animals have a fur
coat, don't they? Why is man naked? To show us. You've got to have a covering
that somebody else has made. Somebody else's skin. Somebody
else's righteousness. And I'm making this clear. Proverbs 8 and 9 says it's all
plain if you understand it. I was going to have you turn,
and I quoted it before, Isaiah 45, Surely, shall one say, In
the Lord have I righteousness. In the Lord have I righteousness.
Now, we'll say this in closing. When the Lord gave His name to
Israel, He said, This is the name whereby you shall call Him.
Jehovah Sidkenu. This is the name whereby you
shall call Him Jehovah Sidkenu. What's that name? Somebody tell
me. Say it louder. Say it louder. If these are your
righteousness, I want you to say it right now, real loud.
Say it. Alright. Then it goes on in Jeremiah
to say, you know this, don't you? It goes on to say, the church,
this is her name. This is what you're going to
call her. Jehovah's Savior. The Lord our righteousness. They
bear His name. They're righteous. Why? Like
the child in Ezekiel, who made beautiful through His commandments.
Don't you love this? Do you want me to preach it again?
I do. This is my hope. This old sinner. Oh, man. Oh, Lord, make it clear to somebody.
Stand with me. We'll just dismiss in prayer.
Dear Lord God in heaven, I ask You, I beg You in the name of
the Jehovah's Witnesses that You would strip naked a sinner
this day Create thy fear in their heart. Show them what they are
before a thrice holy God. Take the law and make them guilty
before You. But then, O Lord God, in mercy
and grace and goodness and long-suffering and forbearance and love and
kindness and mercy, show them Christ, the sinner's substitute.
Christ, the sinner's righteousness. O Lord, show them. Cover them.
Robe them. Clothe them. strip their righteous
rags from them, take away their fig leaves from them, and show
them they have need of a better righteousness, an eternal, perfect
righteousness, Christ himself to cover them, to robe them in. And we shall sing like David
of old throughout all eternity, we'll make mention of thy righteousness
in thine only. to the praise of the glory of
his name, we pray these things. Amen.