Turn with me to the first chapter
of 1 Corinthians, if you would. We're going to look at a little
bit here. Last week we had a lesson that
was on Christ, our wisdom, and He's made unto us wisdom. In
the last couple of verses of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, it
speaks of verse 28 and following 1 Corinthians chapter 1. and
base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I read that passage and that
was by way of one of the verses in the lesson we had last on
Christ, the wisdom of God. We looked in Proverbs and we
looked in several places that spoke to, as Christ, that wisdom
that is personified in the book of Proverbs and indeed all of
the scriptures. Here in 1 Corinthians where it
says in that verse, He has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, all things that are pertain to
our salvation. and on our standing in him before
God. And as I was looking again to
a lesson that we would have this morning, I read that passage
again and I thought there's four spots there. The next one is righteousness that we're going
to look at this morning, Christ, the righteousness of God for
his people. And then sanctification and redemption,
all parts, a different aspects or different angles of looking
at the same thing of our redemption in Christ Jesus. And so that's
what we're going to look at this morning. To start with, I'd like to read
a couple of passages in the book of John. If you turn to John
chapter one to start with, And probably like most people
that are bringing a lesson or a message, as you collect verses
along what you are looking at. You go back and you say, I'm
going to put these in order and make sure everything flows smoothly
in the right way. And I came to realize as I was
reading through some of these passages, and we're going to
spend a bit of time in the book of Romans, that it's not a step
one through 10 how to do something or how to get this. All the scripture
that speaks about Christ our righteousness are all pointing
the same direction. They're all pointing to him.
And indeed, that is not something that we need
to strive to do is to make sure we put things in the right order
in that regard. But I think we should do it decently
and lay things out as the scripture there. But more importantly,
is that the scripture is what we're looking at. But I'd like
to read the first 18 verses of the book of John chapter 1, and
you'll see as we go along how this is going to fit in with
what we're going to see today. It says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was with God in the beginning. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This
was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have
we all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Quite a bit of time could be
just spent on this passage and several things from who our Lord
is and is God. as the creator, an awful lot
of things here that contained in this passage. But the part
I'd like to tie in, and we'll see later, is in verse 12. It says, but as many as received
him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. direction or the people that
are being spoken to here in this passage are God's people, those
that He has redeemed. We're going to see that Christ
as our righteousness, as it said there in 1 Corinthians, He has
made that unto us. It's not something that we discover
or that we take upon or that we assent to or we receive or
we make decision upon it is it is of it says here that that
God's people are born by his spirit by his doing and not by
our decision to or or our Coming around or however you want to
take it that they're born of not a flesh and blood but by
God's will alone and that he has done this and that these
are who Christ's righteousness is made their righteousness. We'll tie some other thoughts
into this. Then in chapter 6 of John also, I'd like to read The book of John, there's a lot
in the book of John of our Lord's own words, whether they're in
red edition or not. And all of the words are God's
words, obviously, but the words that we have directly from Christ
himself when he was here amongst the people that deal with a lot
of his people and who his people are and his redemption of them
and how that comes about. But in chapter six, again, another place, any of
the places that we're going to look at could be made into a
series or many messages and not just a lesson, quick lesson on
it. But in chapter six, starting
with verse This is a chapter that it was
hard for me to, uh, let's start with verse 26 of John chapter six. And we're
going to read down a ways. It says, Jesus answered them
and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because
you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and
were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son
of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. And just stop for just a second
here. This, The work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent is not telling them what they must do. It is telling them
who has to do it. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is indeed the only path to everlasting life, as we are going to see,
but it is his work that we believe on him. It is not a how-to passage. It is not, here's where you are,
and there's how you get there. It is a statement being made
to those people that the work of God, that you believe on him
who has sinned. If God doesn't do that work,
it's not gonna get done. And then verse 30 and on, it
says, they said, therefore unto him, what signs showest thou
then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our
fathers did eat man in the desert, as is written. He gave them bread
from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at that last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which come down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me except the father which hath sent me draw him. And I'll raise
him up at the last day, as it is written in the prophet. And they shall be all taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that
any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath
seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread
of life. Your fathers did eat man in the
wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living bread. which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. And it goes on there, but here
Jesus speaking about those that God have given him, those will
come to him. He is the bread of life. He is
the one that our life is in. And when he redeems his people, to himself, those are things
that we have from him. He is that true bread of life.
The other parallel there is the water of life to the woman at
the well, that she wanted that water and revealed himself that
he was that water of life. He is the source of life. He
is the source of, as we'll see, all spiritual blessings are in
him to his people. Righteousness is indeed one of
those key things, the right standing before God. We're going to read
passages about man's kind of thinking on those things and
what God has to say about that. As we saw in John and in Corinthians,
he is that to his people, that righteousness. Any right standing
that a natural man can ever hope to have before God, is in Christ
alone and in that righteousness alone. Man, by nature, does not
like to hear that. They like to hear that. But as
we saw in the other passage here, it's God's work to cause his
people to believe and his work alone to do that. That is the
work of God. Turn to the book of Romans, please.
if you would, and we're going to be sometime in the book of
Romans. Not that Romans is the only place that
speaks to this, and indeed we know that, and we'll look at
a couple of other passages, but Paul speaks a lot to the Romans,
a lot to the Romans that had a need of understanding what
righteousness truly was and where it comes from. And indeed, all
of God's people stand in that same spot. This book of Romans
isn't to the Romans only. And the book of the Hebrews,
thank goodness, wasn't just written to those in Jerusalem at that
time, but to God's people of all time. And we've got passage
that says that these things weren't written just to those people.
They were written for us. And indeed, God's people have
been blessed of all times by the word he has and the truth that we can hold and can
have that he reveals to us. In the book of Romans, chapter
one, I almost feel sliding when I
start down a part way in a chapter, but we do have kind of limited
time, so I'll do that. In Romans chapter 1 starting
with verse 16, just for a couple of verses it said, Paul speaking, Verse 15, so as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the
Jew first and to also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just
shall live by faith for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness. and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness." Just those three verses right
there we look at that the gospel of Christ, not just a gospel,
but the true gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation,
to everyone that believeth, the Jew first and also the Greek.
Therein, in that true gospel of Christ, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, that just shall live by
faith." The true righteousness that we must have that men seek
for in religion as a standing before God, it is only revealed
in the gospel, the true gospel of Christ. That's the only place
it's revealed. There are many things that you
can read. There are many religious things
you can read. But if they indeed reveal the
righteousness of God, they are relying heavily on what the scripture
has to say or they're not, they're not speaking the truth. And the
only righteousness we have is as, as it said in there in Corinthians
again, he is our righteousness. And he's made that to us by God
in him. We, he has made that righteous.
And here it says, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
to faith that is written. The just shall live by faith.
And indeed we have passages that we know of. Abel is the first
one that you can infer at least by what he did. that the righteousness
of God was revealed to him. He knew what he was doing when
he did that sacrifice, that he offered that, that was not to
place him in better standing, but that was by faith doing what
God requested that. And that pointing of that lamb
to the true lamb of God, that was the first The first lamb
we have is a picture of the Lamb of God. Back farther when they were clothed
with those skins, I believe they were probably lamb skins that
God clothed them with. So the righteousness, of God
was revealed to them by God. And from then, those points on
down to today, whether it was by the teaching of God directly
to them and handed down or by the written word that we have,
that is the only source of true righteousness that's revealed
is by that, by God's word to us. And it says, Verse 18, the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And apart from
God revealing himself to his people and doing the work of
God in us, that's the only conclusion we can come to, is we would hold
the truth in unrighteousness. you know, if you tell somebody
of just a religious order of some sort that verse there and
they take exception to it. But other than the true gospel,
any other thing that is done to get righteousness is holding
the truth in unrighteousness because it discounts or disregards
or nullifies what the scripture says about Christ and His only
righteousness that we can claim to. And as we've said many times,
the only standing that we as believers hold to, wholly and
100% to, is our standing in Christ alone and His righteousness.
That covering that we have to have, that cloak of righteousness,
is only under his cloak of righteousness. It is not attained by any other
means. So that other religious thoughts
and things of man are holding the truth in unrighteousness
and only him revealed in the scripture to us. In Romans chapter
3, By rights, read all the passes
in between that at your own time that were mentioned because it's
part of a whole of the Book of Romans in dealing with man's
nature. There's a lot dealt with in here
and we're touching on one aspect or one, taking one thought out
of the whole, but about the Christ our righteousness, but the whole
is pointing that same direction. There's not, it's not, Paul's
not saying in the book of Romans or any of the other gospels or
law or prophets not pointing to another source of righteousness.
This is just a piece of what was taken a slice out of the
whole of what Paul is saying. Uh, um, about Christ as our righteousness
and our salvation. In chapter 3 of Romans, starting
with verse 20, and up above you're speaking
what man is like by nature. By no means is Paul saying that
outwardly that man is as bad as he could be, but by nature
man is pretty out there. As far as his standing before
God, he's He's in a minus, below the zero. And so in verse 20
of chapter three of Romans, it says, therefore by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. For there is no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, 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, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." And a very important,
very critical, very foundation point on our faith and what we
have come to believe by God is where it says that he, verse
26, second part, that God might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. God is just. His justice demand
righteousness. That's the only, that's the only
thing he's That's the only thing. Righteousness only. Something adds up to righteousness. It's not going to happen, as
it said below there. It's not our thoughts or ideas
of what righteousness might be, but it's by that faith of Jesus
Christ, it says here, that was made a propitiation for our sin. that His righteousness, that
He might be just and the justifier. If Christ's righteousness is
not made, if He's not made righteousness to us before God, there is no
standing. There is no other way. That's
the only way in which God is just and is the justifier is
that He supplies that requirement that he supplies that righteousness
that we have in him. In a sense, that's the sum and
total of the rest of what we're going to look at here. But that
is, in a nutshell, where it stands. We saw what the work of God is,
him redeeming his people, causing and giving us the faith of Christ,
and then that righteousness that he gives and makes us to be in
him. That's a nutshell where we stand
before God. Natural man cannot, we can read
those words without his understanding and without his redeeming in
his people. We can't even hardly understand
the written words of those things, let alone the spiritual standing
that we have in him. In Romans chapter four, here it's speaking about one
of our favorite guys in the early part of the scriptures and gets
carried through the whole, from beginning to ending, is Abraham.
Chapter four of Romans, starting with the first verse. It says,
what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to
the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For
what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness
then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned, when
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. And this pastor you're speaking
about, um, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for
righteousness that, that, um, uh, same statement. And it's
similar to what we see on a list of people in Hebrews, but all
of God's people stand in the same spot that, um, um, uh, without
believing God, him doing that work. And that's the causes that,
We have no standing. We, uh, we have no standing,
but if we do and are, we are like Abraham. It was, it's counted
unto us for righteousness, his righteousness. And, uh, without
that, and as it says here, uh, um, was it by works or was it by
God causing that? It's by God causing that. And
as he says here, A couple of things in this passage that we
could take off on and spend a lot of time, but as it says here, we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. Okay. God said Abraham had faith,
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Okay.
If it says that, then I believe that God counted it to righteousness. And then it says here, how was
it reckoned? when he was in circumcision or
uncircumcision? Was it because of his standing
in a sign in the flesh that he would now, because I believe
he did circumcision or before that? And it says in uncircumcision. It had nothing to do with anything
that Abraham did. Abraham was nothing special other
than one of God's people from before the foundation of the
world. But other than that, in his life where he was at, he
was no different than many people about him and God was the one
that was the difference that called him out. It goes on to say that those
that walk in the steps of Abraham of faith not being circumcised
that we are in the same position. It's counted to us for righteousness,
regardless of circumcision, regardless of tithing, regardless of any
other thing that may come along, that does not change that standing. When he does his work and causes
his people to believe they are in Christ, then things they do
are done because of that change that he has caused. not to gain
something, but because of where the position now is, it causes
us to, and as Paul said, I'm still in the flesh. Everything
I do is not going to be those things that I desire to do, but
we stand in Christ, in Him, and not in those things that we do
or don't do. In the book of Psalms, we're
going to look at a couple of spots in Psalms before we move
along. Psalm 32. Just a little bit here. It says, Psalm 32, blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there's no guile. And here it's speaking that,
and we're not gonna read the rest of that, but it does, and
it says, to be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous, he
calls his people righteous, and shout, for joy because of this. But here it said, Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. And again, that only comes about
because of God's doing his work in his people, causing that faith,
that belief in him, that righteous standing that we have because
of Christ, that our transgressions are forgiven, our sin is covered,
and he does not impute iniquity unto his people. And there was
a In the bulletin, there's a couple of thoughts, but one of them
said that it's done with. Any guilt or iniquity, it's done. It's covered. It's done away
with. It's not just set aside. It's done. It's put away with
in Christ. It's done. He was indeed the
perfect and is the perfect Lamb of God in that that sacrifice
did do what the picture shows. It did take away those things.
He took them on himself, but took them from us. And in him,
he is made unto us in that, he is made unto us righteousness.
And in that, that we're alone, that says that the standing that
we have before God and in God, in Christ is, and there's another
thought in that same plot in Bolton, I think by Henry Mann,
that says we stand as close I'm going to say it
wrong if I don't read it as close to the throne as we can in Christ. Um, let's see in verse 31, Psalm
31, just back up a Psalm here, just the first verse. Um, I have
to be careful reading some of my Bible because I used to underline
in some places it's all underlined a whole bunch of it is. Psalm
31, the first verse, it says, In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. And that's the only way we will
and are delivered is in in his, as it says, in thy righteousness. And the Lord himself is that
perfect righteousness and he's made that to us. And that's the
only, that's the only way. And it says, I'll never be ashamed. And we're ashamed here. And there
are several other verses that speak to disappointed or found
wanting. It's not that we're going to
be ashamed of our God, but we're never going to be found short
or lacking or wanting or in need because of that. We're always,
we're taken care of. And if we have those things,
as it puts in that one verse in Corinthians, if he has made
those things to us, we're never going to be ashamed or lacking
or in want or desirous of something else that we need. Back to Romans chapter 4, and
as I believe I said this last week, this is not an intentional
study of only the book of Romans, but there are some very important
things that the Spirit had Paul write down and wrote down in
such a way as not much commentary is needed on it. We cannot better
what we have in the scripture. Chapter
four, starting with verse 19 and down just a bit, Romans chapter
four. It says here, and being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, again, our patriarch, considered
not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years
old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised he was able also to perform. Therefore it was
imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification." Important passage here, what it says to,
says about Abraham, what it says about us. It says here, staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he
was also able to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him
for righteousness." Now, it wasn't a good argument that he was listening
to here that he was fully persuaded. It was God that caused him to
be fully persuaded that God could do what he had said he would
do. That's the only way. There's no argument good enough
in the scripture anywhere else to convince man of those things
of righteousness. If God doesn't use that gospel
to not only to reveal that righteousness in the scripture, it's there,
but to reveal it to us, we don't have it and we cannot get it.
Abraham wasn't just, um, um, finally convinced of what God
had to say, he was convinced because God caused him to believe
that. And then where it says here, therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. Those things, it goes back again
to God doing God's work. If God does God's work, then
men can believe it and will believe it. And as it says here, wonderful
passage that speaks to us the same faith, the same belief that
he had, that he was fully persuaded, we have that same given to us
and that he is made by that, made unto us righteousness. In Romans chapter five, and we're not going to go through
the whole book of Romans a chapter at a time. We could do that,
but not today. We're going to look at just another couple of
spots and then we'll save some for next time. In chapter Romans chapter 5 verse 17 and following
a bit. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound, that as sin reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. And here speaking about Adam,
by death reigned by Adam, when the fall took place, death reigned
from there on down. It still reigns from there on
down until, and it says here, righteousness by one, free grace
free gift came upon all men under justification of life. By one
man's disobedience many were made sinners. By the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." And that's the Lord himself. Here where it says, made that
available to everybody, it's not saying, it's not as is put
out by religion. Here's the offer, if you accept
it, great. If you don't, don't. We have to look back to what
we saw In John, what Christ said was the work of God. The work
of God is revealing himself through the scriptures to his people.
If that does not take place, this does not apply. It's not
a how-to, again, not a how-to passage, but this is something
that, as a statement in Corinthians, he has made unto us righteousness. If we stand in him because of
God bringing life to us, that is the only standing we have. And if he has made our righteousness,
that is a pretty great standing in him. And that's all we can
stand in. And, uh, as once again, this
time, uh, during the morning lesson, we're done for this morning
and be free. Thank you. pitch the square button, right?
That way? No. All right.