That song that we sung, Grace, and the song Amazing Grace, the
most widely used of religious songs throughout the world. I venture to say not one out
of a thousand knows what that word really means, grace. This world and its false prophets,
they take that to be, they take grace to be just some silly,
sentimental, emotional thing of God that he just throws out
there for men to do what they want to do, like a bone, whoever
wants it. But the Word of God plainly declares
that the grace of God, grace, we sing amazing grace. Grace
is an unmerited, undeserved gift of God Almighty that he bestows
on whom he will. He gives it. He bestows it. He doesn't just throw it out
there and offer it. He gives it. Grace. Grace. In Romans 3, verse 25, it says
that speaking of Christ, God has set forth Christ to be a
propitiation, that is, a covering, through faith in his blood. And
he did it to declare his righteousness. for the remission or the putting
away of sins that are passed through the long-suffering of
God, the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, the Apostle
Paul says this emphatically, to declare, I say, at this time,
his righteousness. His righteousness. Righteousness. That's the title
of this message. Does the name Jehovah Sidkenu
mean anything to you? Jehovah Sidkenu mean anything
to you? See, some eyes light up. Let
me read that, where that name is mentioned. In Jeremiah 23,
verse 5, he says, The day has come, saith the Lord,
that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. A king shall
reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment, truth, and
justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely." That is, the Church And this
is his name, this is his name, whereby he shall be called Jehovah
Sidkenu. That means the Lord our righteousness. Does that name mean anything
to you? Does the word righteousness mean
anything to you? It does to some, but not to others.
To some, I saw the faces of some light up. To some, the name Jehovah
Sidkenu is cause for gladness and rejoicing and assurance and
comfort, the Lord our righteousness. But to some others, that name
is just another religious name, just another term. Get on with
it, would you, preacher? Just another religious term,
theological word, not particularly interested in it. But to everybody, unless you have some understanding
of what this name means, unless you have some understanding,
unless the name Jehovah Sidkenu is the hope on which you hang
your very soul, then you are on your way to hell this morning. That sounds strong, but John,
it's the truth. Unless you understand what this
name means, eventually, then you are headed to hell. The most important subject of
which men could ever study, righteousness, is not being studied. The one thing which is needful,
nobody seems to need it. The one question of all questions,
nobody's asking it. Righteousness. What is it? What is it? Who has it? Where do you get it? Righteousness. Let me read a few verses of scripture
to you. As I said before, and I'll say it a million times,
the Lord gives me grace. It doesn't matter what I say,
or any man says. A man's thoughts are not God's
thoughts, and man's ways are not God's ways. This is the only
sure work. He that has a dream, the Prophet
Jeremiah said, let him tell his dream. Oral Roberts and all of
them, Jimmy Swagger, let them tell their dreams. But he that
has my word, Let him tell the Word faithfully. Let him preach
according to that. Let me read you a few verses,
and you can jot them down if you want to, or try to follow
along. Psalm 9, verse 8, says, The Lord
shall judge the world in righteousness. The Lord shall judge the world
in righteousness. Then over in Psalm 96, verse
13, The Lord cometh, he cometh to
judge the earth, he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth."
Psalm 98, verse 9. The Lord cometh to judge the
earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world, and the people
with equity. Psalm 99, verse 4. The keen strength loveth judgment,
thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness."
Over five hundred times this word is used in the scripture.
Over five hundred times. I'd say it's pretty important.
We need to know what it means. Righteousness. Why? Why do we never hear this word
used and never hear it defined or explained? I've never heard
a preacher on TV or radio or anywhere else talking about the
righteousness of God. You don't hear it. Why? The Apostle
Paul says it in Romans chapter 10. He says, they are ignorant,
verse 3, of God's righteousness. They are ignorant of God's righteousness.
and going about to establish their own righteousness, and
have not submitted themselves, that is, bowed to the righteousness
of God." That's strong words, isn't it? Well, what is righteousness? What is it? What is it? Get on
with it, preacher. Okay. What is righteousness? Most people think righteousness,
and this may have been the first thing to come to your Most people
think righteousness is goodness. In other words, people think
that righteousness is the best you can do, the best a man can
be, righteous living, getting right with God, they like to
say. No drinking, no smoking, no cursing,
no chewing, always going to church, paying your bills, supporting
your family, doing your civic duty, never cheating on your
taxes, doing what's right to your neighbor, voting regularly. supporting charity, generally
speaking, good, clean living. That's righteousness, somebody
may say. Nearly everybody—and this is
what's damning men's souls—nearly everybody thinks that if you
do most of these things to the best of your ability, that you're
sure to go to heaven, that God will accept you. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Look at Matthew, don't take my
word for it, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, the Lord
Jesus Christ himself is speaking in Matthew chapter 5 verse 20. Matthew 5 verse 20. He says, I say unto you, now
this is not, this is the God-man speaking here. This is not some
fly-by-night preacher. This is God himself in human
flesh speaking. He says, I say unto you, that
except your righteousness shall exceed, that is, be better than,
greater than the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you're not going to get into the kingdom of heaven. except
your righteousness shall exceed or be greater than the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye are not going to heaven."
Well, who were the Pharisees and the scribes? I'll tell you
who they were. They were the strictest, most
devoted religious people of their day. There's not a soul in here
that would hold a candle to these people. I'm talking, we're talking
about doctors of the law now, masters of divinity. We have
them these days. We have Pharisees still around
today. Doctors of divinity, D.D. One old evangelist once said,
usually that D.D. ought to have a fiddle in front
of it. Well, fiddle D.D. D.D., master of divinity, doctor
of philosophy. We have them these days, Pharisees.
Doctors of the law, these fellows were. They read and studied them
regularly, the law, the word. They knew the word of God, at
least right here. They could quote it. They could
quote it. They were keepers of the traditions.
They observed everything concerning the law they could think of.
Washings, fastings, all these holy days and so forth. You're
talking about Strict. Now, they tithed of everything
they had. If somebody gave them a chocolate
cake, they'd give ten percent of it. They'd take it to the
temple. Whatever it may be. Whatever they got, they gave
ten percent. Strictly. Everything. Anise and
herbs. They were strict about everything.
Every little point of the law. They were strict livers. They
had so many rules and regulations, their whole day was It was taken
up with keeping these things. Washings, prayer, readings, teaching,
fasting, all giving, watching. And the world called them righteous.
These are righteous men. It's not what the Lord said.
Did you hear what he said? He said, Except your righteousness
exceed those men, you're not going to heaven. except your righteousness is
greater than these men, you're not going to enter the kingdom
of heaven." In other words, I'll put it in our language, unless
you do more than Mother Teresa, everybody know that little nun?
She goes about all day long, sleeps about three hours a night,
they say. Goes about all day long, every day, day in and day
out, doing works of charity. Unless you do more than her,
unless you are more outwardly moral than Pope John Paul himself. Unless you do more and are better
than Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul, Billy Graham, whoever you
esteem very highly, religious, you are not going to heaven.
That's putting it in our language. Unless you're absolutely perfect,
I mean perfect, without one flaw now, without one single spot
in your character from the day you were born until the day you
die, unless you're absolutely perfect in thought, word and
deed, you're not going to heaven. That's what the Lord says. That's
what the book says. I'll read that to you. Don't
take my word for it. Leviticus 22.21 says this, It
shall be perfect to be accepted. God is perfect. He won't accept
anything but perfection. Deuteronomy 18.13 says, You shall
be perfect with the Lord thy God. Galatians 3.10 says this,
Cursed, everybody's under a curse that continues not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Every
single point. Every point. Perfect. James 2.10
says, Whosoever shall keep the law, if he offends in one point,
he's guilty of it all. He's broken the whole law. James
2.10. Thought, word, and deed. And someone may say, that's impossible. Right. Right. Galatians 3.11 says that no man
is justified that is said to be righteous. No man is justified
by the law in the sight of God. It's evident. It's clear from
the word of God. Galatians 3.11. Well, you say,
well, nobody's perfect. Right. Right. I hope you reach that point.
Romans 3.10 says that there's no righteous, no not. Well, you say then, someone may
say, well, since nobody's perfect or truly righteous, and God requires
absolute righteousness, absolute perfection, to get into heaven,
to be with him, since nobody's perfect and nobody has this righteousness,
then how's anybody going to get to heaven? I was hoping you'd ask that.
I wish and I hope that men, that you, that I, We'll reach this
point, not just in our heads, not just in a calm, calculated
way, saying, well, since this has got to be so and this has
got to be so, then how can this? Not that, but rather seeing that
you are not righteous, that God requires absolute perfection
in thought, in word, and in deed. And you don't have this. You
can't do it. To reach that point, say, I don't
have this then, and I want to be with God, I want to know God,
then how can I have this? That's the point I want us to
reach, in that way. Job said this, listen. Job said
this, the question of all questions. The oldest book of the Bible.
Job said, how can he be clean, that is born of a woman, And he's saying, how can a man
be righteous before God when he has sin in his bloodstream,
when he's born a sinner? You're little children, you don't
have to teach them to sin. They can come forth from the
woman speaking lies. You have to do everything you
can to make them do something good, say something good. Mine, they're parents. Job asked
this, what is a man that he should be called? A man which is born
a woman, that he should be righteous? And the question of all questions
is, how should man be just with God? How is this just and holy
God, Margaret, going to accept a sinful man? He can't do it. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, absolute perfection. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. The wages of sin is death, and
we've all sinned. We deserve to die spiritually.
The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die, the scripture promises
us. All the world is guilty before God, Romans 3.11. We read that.
Then you say, then somebody says, then who can be saved? With man,
it's impossible. That's the point I want us to
reach. With man, with us, with our doings, it's impossible. We can't save ourselves. By the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. Case closed. In the flesh, another
scripture, in the flesh no man can please God Almighty. Henry,
is that not what the Word says? So with man it's impossible.
We just can't please God. We can't make ourselves, we went
off in a cave like the monks do and did nothing but read the
scriptures all of our lives. God won't accept us on that.
Because we've got it within us. We've got this sin within us.
We've got a rebellious nature, a hatred. Do you wake up in the
morning when it starts raining and praise God for the rain,
or do you complain? Sin. Enough to damn us. God's sending this rain to raise
the water table we need so badly, yet we complain about it. He
ought to send us to hell, giving us something we don't deserve.
Rain. You see, and it holds true in the slightest, in every little
point. With nothing is it possible to
please God, to be accepted by God. But with God, all things are possible. Listen
to this. God is eternal. No beginning, no end. He made
this world from nothing. He made this world out of nothing.
You see, we have to have raw materials. We have to have something
to make something else. We can't just up and create something. God made it out of nothing. So the God of the universe that
made this universe out of nothing, he can take a nothing and make
a something. He can take an unrighteous man,
I mean an altogether unrighteous, unholy man, and just John, that's
what it's going to take. Only God can do this, you see.
We can't do it no matter what we do. The Moslems, they take
whips and beat themselves because they think bad thoughts, trying
to get sin out of them. Martin Luther crawled up the
stairs on his hands and knees, kissing the spots that are supposed
to be blood of Christ on the stairs in Rome. Kissing those
spots, hoping that would make him acceptable to God. Until
finally, God came to him in his word, in his heart, and he jumped
up out of there and ran out of that place as fast as he could.
You'd realize something. How then, how, this is what I've
got to get to, how then can man be righteous with God? How is
God going to accept a man? How? This is the gospel. This is the gospel. And when
a man is preaching this, he's not preaching the gospel. He's preaching another gospel.
And the Apostle Paul said it twice. He said, if any man come
to you preaching any other gospel than that we have preached, let
him go to hell. And he said, in case you didn't
hear it the first time, I'll say it again. Any man come preaching
any other gospel to you than that which you've received from
us, let him go to hell, because that's where he's taking everybody
else. This is the gospel, how a man can be made righteous or
holy before the Holy God. How God can declare a guilty
man innocent. We've said it before, that man
is Man is nothing but a worm, the scripture says. Nothing but
grass. We don't mourn over the grass
we cut outside, do we? No, we throw it in a pile and
burn it. Grass. God said that to the prophet.
He said, you go to the world and you tell them all flesh is
grass. Worthless to God. But God can take that guilty
man, that unholy thing, and make him holy, make him a son of God. so valuable to God that he sent
his son to die for him. He can do this even. He who creates
something out of nothing, he can punish a man for his sins,
yet set him free. He can kill a man and in doing
so make him live. This is the paradox of the gospel.
He can kill a man, yet because he killed him, he makes him live
again, live completely. Romans 5. Everybody turn to Romans
5. This is where it starts. Romans 5, where it plainly and
clearly is revealed from God's Word, if he shows it to us. Romans 5. We've got to start
at the beginning. Now, man was created a perfect
being, Adam. He was created holy and upright. No sin, no sin. But man fell. He rebelled against God. That's
the only time a man ever had a free will. Adam had a free
will. What happened to him? He chose
evil. Now, man's will will only choose
evil because of that. Adam had the power to choose
between good and evil. Not us now. We don't have that
power because sin is in our bloodstream now. It's like the virus AIDS. A man with AIDS doesn't have
the power to choose life or death. He's a goner. And sin is in our
bloodstream. We don't have the power to choose
life or death. We're goners because of sin. Unless God does something for
us. But it starts right there. Man fell in the garden. He rebelled
against God. And look at it, Romans 5, verse
12. It says, "...by one man," that
is, Adam, "...sin entered into the world, and death by sin."
Did Adam die when God told him he would? God said, "...the day
you shall eat of that fruit you shall surely die." Did he die
that day? No. Yes, he did. He died spiritually. God kicked him out of his presence.
What is life? It's the presence of God, isn't
it? God is life. If you're not in
the presence of God, if God doesn't dwell with a man, he's a dead
man. He's dead in trespasses and sin. God kicked him out of
the garden that very day. He's dead. He's dead to God.
He had no desire for God, no interest toward God. He's hiding
from God. He hated. All these evil emotions
came up. The woman, he despised the woman.
He got mad at God for creating the woman. The woman you gave
me, she did it. All these things came. And death, spiritual death
by sin. And so death, verse 12, passed
upon all men. It's in the blood. He said, God
created one man, and everybody else came out of this man's bloodstream.
So what's in our blood is in our blood. What's in our nature
is in our nature. Death passed upon all men for
that all have sinned, in whom all have sinned. So we're all
sinners. That's called imputed sin. Imputed iniquity. Representation. You say, I won't have that. I
won't have that. I wasn't there when Adam sinned.
How can you just hold me accountable for that? I will not be accountable
for something somebody else did. All right. Then you have no part
in Christ's death. You weren't there when Christ
died, either. How can you claim that? See,
His righteousness, what He did, is imputed, charged to people. You say, I wasn't there, I won't
take it. Those who take this attitude,
they reject imputed sin. That's what this is, imputed
sin, sin in the bloodstream. These are the ones that the Apostle
Paul spoke of over in Romans 10. These are the ones. In verse
2 of Romans 10, he said, I bear them record, they have a zeal
of God, they're going about trying to find some kind of God. They're
serving him day and night, but not according to true knowledge.
Romans 10.2. Because they're ignorant of God's
righteousness, and they're going about to establish their own
righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Well, did Christ do away with
the law and its requirements? No. No, he did not. He said, I've not come to destroy
the law or to make it void, but to fulfill it, to magnify it. Not come to destroy it, but to
magnify it, to show you just what it takes and how I did it. See this? Here's the story. Here's
the gospel. Christ came down, the God-man. Christ came down
here to do something for a man that he couldn't do for himself.
That is, make himself pleasing to God Almighty. Man can't do
it. He's a worm. God won't have anything to do
with a worm. So God said, well, if I'm going to accept this man
in my presence, if I'm going to have this sinful being up
here with me, he's got to be perfect. And there's nothing
he can do to do it. to make himself perfect. I want
to go down there and do something for him. So God became a man.
He lived on this earth thirty-three and a third years, exactly my
age. Thirty-three and a third years, God as a man, his name
was Jesus Christ, lived on this earth from a baby. He never spoke
one idle word. He never thought one idle thought. He never lusted after a woman.
He never complained. He loved God above all else,
like the scriptures, like the commandments say, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength.
He did it! No man can say that, but that man. He did it! He never
lusted after a woman, he never got mad, he never got angry,
he never took an idle stint, never said an idle word. All
his life, thirty-three and a third years, he lived perfectly, righteously. You see, for 4,000 years, God
looked down through time. He looked down on men to see
if there were any that did understand or seek after God. And he said,
they're all going astray. There's none that do us good,
no, not one. Until now, 2,000 years ago, he looked down and
saw one man. From 4,000 years, he looked down
on me and he said, Reject it! Reject it! Reject it! Until this
man, he said, There's a man now that I approve of. And he was
so pleased with it, he said it audibly from heaven. Three times
for everybody to hear. This is my son and I am well
pleased with him. Hearing in him's life. So Christ came down here and
established this perfect life as a man. Why? Just so he could
show us how to do it? No! He did it for a purpose. He established this life as a
man, you see. He didn't have to do this. He
established this life that's called righteousness. Then he
took that righteousness off and put it on his people that God
had chosen from the foundation of the world. That's the word
of God, elected. He took this righteousness and
wrapped it around his people, and then God looks at those people
and says, I see no sin. All I see is righteousness. Do
you see? Righteousness! He looks at Henry
Soward, who's been nothing but a rebel all his life, a sinner. He looks at Henry and says, he's
a righteous man, in my eyes. He sees Christ in Henry's soul. You see? He sees the life of
Christ. Henry didn't have anything to
do with it, did you, Henry? He sees Christ. And then Christ
took Henry's forage sin, John Shusley's sin, Paul Mahan, Steve
Taylor, Margaret Torrance. He took their sins and put it
on himself. He took our sinful rags and robes
and rubbed himself with it. And he went to the cross and
God looked at his son and said, there is a sinner that deserves
to die. The soul that sins must surely
die. He saw me, he saw you. And he
killed his son. Do you see why he came? He had
to do it. The just God, the holy God, requires
death for sin. That's what the law said from
the very outset. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. He saw Christ on that cross as
a sinner with our sins, with Steve's sins, and it killed him. It killed him. And I died with
him. Steve, we died with him. Sammy,
we died with Christ. We didn't stay dead. You see,
he rose from the grave three days later and ascended to the
right hand of God himself. Why did he have to rise from
the grave? To prove that God accepted his sacrifice. God accepted
him. He came to the right hand of
God, and God said, You've done a good job. You've established
righteousness. You've imputed that righteousness
to all those people I chose, and they're righteous before
me. Now I can accept them into my presence. Good job, son. Good
job. And now he sits right there,
making intercession for his people. Praying with the Father, saying,
I chose Him, yeah, I loved Him, I died for Him. He's the one.
He's still a sinner. I've died for Him. He's righteous.
He's got that righteousness on Him. Now, that doesn't make a
man want to live just any old way. When he sees that, that
God's done all this for him, that he doesn't have anything
undone either, he says, that'll make a man live just any old
living sin. Oh, no. Oh no, that and that
only will really make a man want to live right in this world. When he sees that everything
he's tried to do is futile, and when he sees that God came down
and did this for him, he didn't have to do it, but he did it,
love and the promise of Christ will constrain him to live that
way. You see? That's the difference between
law and grace. The world out there is trying to please God
to no avail. But believers, those who are
resting in Christ in imputed righteousness, in Him and Him
alone, trust in Him, they love Him for what He's done for them,
and they're trying to please Him now. Not trying to please
Him to be accepted, but just trying to please Him because
they love Him. And they know that their acceptance
is only in Him. That's the gospel as clearly
as I can make it, people. As clearly as I can make it.
And 2 Corinthians 5.21. Turn there. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Now close. 2 Corinthians 5.21
sums up so much better than I've tried to. 2 Corinthians 5.21
sums up everything I've tried to say in 40 minutes. 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he, that's
talking about God, God hath made him, that is Christ, to be sin
for us, God's people. This was written to the believers
at Corinth. He's talking to believers. God has made Christ to be sin,
to be sin itself, for us. He who knows no sin, the perfect
God-man, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, where is your hope? Steve, are you going to try to
please God now? You can't do it, can you, buddy? It's futile.
Christ is your hope. Then you're a saved man. You're
resting in Christ and Him alone. You're a saved man. Saved woman. Saved young person. He is our
righteousness. You must have Only he has it,
only he gives it. So come to him. That's the sense
in which Christ said, No man comes unto the Father but by
me. And he gives eternal life to
whomsoever he will. Come to Christ. And if you do
come, you'll see that he's the one that brought you. He's the
one that brought you. Stand with me, and I'll dismiss
this in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for your
word, first of all, for your book. It's so exact, so true,
it's so clear, it's black and white. If only we had eyes to
see. Lord, only you can give those
eyes. We dwell in darkness by nature, and only you, who is
light itself, can give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God himself. that we might see it as it is
in the face of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God. Lord,
show us, break us. You dwell with those that are
humble and of a contrite heart and broken spirit. Lord, break
us. Deliver us from pride. Pride will damn our souls. But
let us come humbly, believing what you have to say, trusting
in Christ. In his name we pray, amen.