Open your Bibles with me to the
book of Isaiah, chapter 3. Isaiah, chapter 3. Two verses tonight, and I can't
get beyond these two verses tonight. I will later. But tonight, this
is what I want to deal with, verses 10 and 11. For here we
have the message of every God-called and God-equipped prophet and
every God-called and God-equipped preacher of the gospel. I started
to entitle this message, What to Say to Whom? But I'm going
to just title it this way, Ron, The Righteous and the Wicked.
The Righteous and the Wicked. But here in these two verses,
God is instructing his prophet what to say to whom. Now, this
is a time of trouble for Israel, not open, easily seen trouble,
because actually the nation Israel at this time, the southern kingdom
of Judah rather, we call it Israel, generically, during the time
of King Uzziah, when Isaiah began prophesying, was a time of great
prosperity and plenty. And yet the people were not in
obedience to God. They had perverted the covenant,
the services, the ceremonies. They had lost sight of the real
meaning of that covenant, the covenant given to Moses, which,
as we've seen so many times in our studies of the Old Testament,
in the book of Leviticus and in other books, was given mainly
as a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ, whom they were to
see as the promised Messiah, God-promised salvation, through
the coming Messiah, who would be the seed of woman, the God-man,
and then so many other things, details, and truths that He revealed
concerning the Messiah and who He would be and what He would
do, so that the people were to look to Him and trust Him And
they were to repent, repent of their own sinfulness, see themselves
as we really are, sinners who are in such, such great need
of God's mercy and God's grace. And that if we enjoy any blessings
here on this earth, or if we will enjoy any blessings in eternity,
that these are blessings that we can lay no claim to as that
which we've earned or that which we've deserved. but it's salvation,
and salvation is of the Lord. And so the prophet has been pronouncing
so many woes upon the people. These things would come in the
future, and they would experience it as a nation. But out of all
the negatives that have been said and been stated and preached
and exposed, the prophet is to say this. Now look at verse 10.
Say ye to the righteous, and it says here, the literal reading
of this would go like this, it says, say ye to the righteous
well, well. And the translators here got
it right, that it shall be well with him. It shall be well with
him. For they, that is the righteous,
shall eat the fruit of their doings. But, he says in verse
11, here's what you say to the wicked. Woe unto the wicked.
Ill. Not well, but ill. It shall be
ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Now, what does all that mean?
Well, the righteous, whoever they are, however they came to
be, it'll be well with them. No matter what. No matter what's
going on in the nation. No matter what's going on anywhere. No matter how much they're accused
or they're attacked. That's why I had Brother Stan
read that song. That's what that's about, isn't it? You see, God
is our refuge. God is our judge. God is our
defense. So whoever he's talking about
here, and the righteous, he said, it'll be well. And notice it
says, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Now with
the righteous, it speaks of fruit. But then the wicked, it'll be
ill with them, and the reward of his hands shall be given him.
He's going to get what he earns. That's what he's saying there.
Now this is the clear message to be preached. There's a parallel
verse over in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 8. that I want to read
to you. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse
12. This is the preacher, the wise
man, Solomon, writing, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Ecclesiastes.
You know the theme of Ecclesiastes. Everything in this earth, everything
that comes from man, and that is of man, is vanity of vanities. It's nothing. That's what it
means. It's profitless. It's worthless. But he says in verse 12, he says,
though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged,
he may be living a ripe old age, yet surely I know that it shall
be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. Fear meaning
worship, trust, obedience to God. Verse 13, but it shall not
be well with the wicked. Neither shall he prolong his
days, which are as a shadow." In other words, there will be
no eternal life, because he feareth not before God. And then he goes
back to vanity. We sing a hymn, one of my favorites,
and I know yours too. I know it by heart, but I thought
if I got up here and tried to recite it, I'd forget the words.
You know how that goes. "'When peace, like a river, attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows row, whatever my lot,
did you hear that? Whatever my lot. Now, your lot
could be poor, could be rich, could be sick, could be healthy.
But whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say. Now, that doesn't
come naturally. What's going to follow here doesn't
come naturally now. We have to be taught of God to
say this. It is well, it is well, with
my soul." Can we say that? Well, if we are among the righteous,
we can say it is well. But if we are not, we have no
right under God's word and under God's judgment to make such a
statement. Now, what I am going to do in
these two verses here is I am going to go back and I am going
to speak to you on the grand subject of how God makes a sinner
righteous. How God justifies the ungodly. You say, well, that's the ABCs
of the gospel. That's exactly right. But we
need to hear them again. And I want us to understand without
any confusion or any muddling of the issues with human language,
human words, or human debates. I simply want to just tell you
what God's Word says on this subject. First of all, he says,
it shall be well with the righteous. The thing that I want to understand
here, first of all, is this. Who are these folks? Who are
they? Because I can tell you this much,
I want to be one of them. How about you? Because whoever
it is, it's going to be well with them. It's going to be well. And that's God speaking. That's
not some preacher just talking to you, just trying to gain your
confidence or trying to gain a following. That's God speaking.
It's going to be well with the righteous. Now, who are the righteous?
Well, what is righteous? What does the Bible tell us about
righteous and righteousness? If you go back and study the
Word, it can be translated in several different ways. One of
the main ways you'll see it translated in the Old and the New Testament
Out of the original Hebrew and Greek, it's justice. Somebody
who is righteous is somebody who is just. Just according to
the law. And listen to me now, it's a
legal term. Now, you can argue that point
all you want, but that's what it is. This is a court of law
here. When somebody is declared righteous,
it means to be declared not guilty. Charges have been brought. The
trial has been set, all the evidence has been brought in, and this
person, whoever he or she is, has been declared not guilty. Isn't that right, brother? Not
guilty. In other words, there's no charge that can stick. There's
no sin that can be held against them. That's what that is. Now, that's an amazing thing.
Now, I am not telling you or saying to you that salvation
is no more than just a legal matter. I've been accused of
saying that, and that's crazy. Salvation is a whole lot more
than just legalities. But I want to tell you something.
Our whole salvation and our whole right standing before God is
based right here, grounded right here. And without this, there's
nothing else. This is the central issue of
the gospel. This is how God can be just. and justify the ungodly. Sometimes when we speak of righteousness,
what are we talking about? Well, first of all, let me tell
you this. He says, say ye to the righteous.
Now, where are you going to find a righteous person? Because in
the Bible, it says this in the book of Romans. Turn over there,
Romans chapter 3. Now, he says, In verse 10 of
Romans chapter 3, a portion of scripture which we've studied
many times, and you've read many times, men have preached on it many
times. He says, as it is written, now written by whom? By God.
There is none righteous, no, not one. Well, now, if you just
look at that verse and go no further, then it's not going
to be well with anybody. Now what it says, there's none
righteous, no, not one. And it goes on, verse 11, there's
none that understandeth. Not only is there none righteous,
there's none that even understand righteousness. There's none that seeketh after
God. God is righteous. Verse 12, they
are all gone out of the way. They are together become impossible.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. That's in the sight
of God. That's according to God's standard
of righteousness, you see. So when we look at that, we know
it says, it shall be well with the righteous. It will not be
well with the wicked. So if there's none righteous,
what's he saying here? There's none righteous to be
found among men born of Adam. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about fallen humanity right there. He's talking about
what we are by nature, by birth. So how in the world can a person
be made righteous? Well, look down at verse 19. He says, Now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Remember what I said. If a person
is righteous, that means they're not guilty. That means there's
no charge that can be held against them. Satan may accuse, men may
accuse, they may accuse themselves. But if they're righteous, they're
not guilty in God's court, in God's judgment, in God's sight,
in God's eyes. And that's what counted. Really,
I mean, you think about this. It really doesn't matter much
what I say about you or what you say about me. What really
matters is what does God say. Isn't that it? What does God
say? Well, he says in verse 20, Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified."
That word justified is the same word righteous. Same word in
the original. Justified. Now, he says there's
none righteous, no, not one. Yet we know there is a righteous
person. There are righteous people. God
said so. Well, how were they made righteous?
Well, they weren't by their works. Didn't have anything to do with
their works, did it? He says it, by deeds of law shall no
flesh. Who's that flesh there? That's
us. That's everybody from Adam on down, from the fall. That's
us. So we cannot be made righteous.
We cannot be justified in God's sight. Now, men may say, well,
you look pretty good and you've done a lot of works and you're
righteous. But you see, here's the thing, shall no flesh be
justified in His sight? in God's sight, God who knows
all and sees all, who judges according to truth, who doesn't
care where you come from, who doesn't care who your mom or
your daddy was. The law is no respecter of persons.
And he says, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. There are
none righteous by nature, there are none righteous by works,
none among sinful men capable of producing a righteousness.
Men may spend their lives in this earth in religion as sincere
and zealous and as moral as they can be, but they cannot even
come close to producing righteousness. So when it says back here in
the book of Isaiah, say ye to the righteous, we know this.
He's not speaking to any sinner who thinks that he's been made
righteous by his works, his efforts, his pedigree or anything else.
Impossible. There's no acts of religion that
can make us righteous. There's no acts of devotion.
And let me tell you something, there's no amount of blood sacrifices
that can make us righteous. The blood of bulls and goats
can never take away sin. Israel in chapter 1 of Isaiah
is said to be a religious nation, bringing their vain oblations,
that's their empty offerings, praying, worshiping, doing their
dead-level best, but they miss the main point of the law, and
that is to bring us in guilty based on our best and to drive
us to Christ. The righteous in the sight of
God are those made righteous by God's grace in Christ. And that is it. Now turn to Romans
chapter 1. Let me say that again, it bears
repeating. The righteous in the sight of
God are those who are made righteous by God's grace in Christ. If
you're righteous, and if I'm righteous, God has made it so. You didn't make it, so Your denomination
didn't make it so. The church didn't make it. God
alone made it so. Salvations of the Lord. Isn't
that right? You say, well, I don't feel righteous. I hope you don't. I really do. Because, see, this is not feeling.
A person who feels righteous is self-righteous. You know what
I'm saying? You know exactly what I'm saying,
don't you? You say, well, I don't look righteous. Well, you don't. And I don't either. But this
is not based on outward appearance. The Pharisees appeared righteous
unto men, the Lord said. But they weren't. So what is this all about? Well,
if you're righteous, God made you so. Now, where is righteousness
found? Well, in the book of Romans,
chapter one. He begins this by talking about the gospel of God.
In verse 1 and 2, he says, it's the gospel of God. This is the
good news that God has for his people. And this good news concerns
a person, a very unique person, a one of a kind, a great person,
a glorious person. He's none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is God and man in one person. Paul says in Romans chapter 1,
he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. That's
his humanity. That's his sinless humanity right
there. But he was declared to be the
Son of God by power. What power? The resurrection
from the dead. In other words, that's his deity.
His deity was not made. Now, let me tell you something.
You cannot be made deity. Deity cannot be made. Deity cannot
be created. I hear these people talking about
when we're born again, we have created in us a divine nature.
If it's divine, folks, it can't be created. It cannot be created. God is the eternal what? I am. Not I was or I will be. I am. You can't create God. He's everlasting. He's eternal. I can't understand
that, and you can't either. We're subject to time. We're
creatures. Next week we're going to be setting
our clocks back because we're just subject to time. What if
we decided we were just not going to do that? Well, it wouldn't
mean anything, would it? We'd just be late for every meal,
or early, I think, next week. But you see, God's not subject
to time. He created time. So he's not created. He's God
and man in one person. And this person did a great work.
He did a great work. Now I'll tell you what he did.
He kept the law perfectly. You know what that is? To keep
the law perfectly? Righteousness. And he stood in the place of
a people that the Father gave him before the foundation of
the world. Put into his hands and upon his shoulders and gave
him all the responsibility to care for, to save and redeem
and care for. And he set himself under the
justice of God and took upon himself the wrath of God for
the sins of his people charged to him. And he satisfied that
justice. You know what that is? That's
righteousness. And so Paul says over here in
verse 16 of Romans 1, look at it. He says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. Now, let me tell you something.
We don't have anything to be ashamed of in righteousness. So I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believes it. Now, there's something that tells
us about the righteous. They're made righteous by God
in Christ, and they believe. They believe. But hold on. He
says to the Jew first. It came to the Jew first in the
presentation, in the declaration of it, and also to the Greek
or the Gentile. Now look at verse 17. For therein,
that is in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. What I believe that faith to
faith is, is from the preaching of the gospel to faith that the
Holy Spirit gives you to receive it. And he says, as it is written,
the just or the justified or the righteous shall live by faith. Now, he says, therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. Now, what does that tell you?
That tells you if the gospel is preached, it's got to say
something about the righteousness of God. Isn't that right? I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It speaks of his person,
who he is, and therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
That's what he did. That's what he accomplished.
Now, what is that righteousness of God? Well, first of all, Paul
begins in verse 18 to show us why we need the righteousness
of God. Now, why isn't mine good enough?
Why isn't what I do good enough? When I tried to be a good little
boy growing up or when I tried to do right or tried to right
my wrongs, or when I got baptized, or when I joined the church,
or when I tried to be a responsible citizen, or a husband, or a father,
why isn't that good enough? Why do I need the righteousness
of God? Why isn't mine good enough? Well,
he tells you. Verse 18, now look at it. For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, there's your key. holding
the truth in unrighteousness." Well, who is the truth? Christ
said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He is the truth. What is the
truth? It's the gospel that glorifies
God and exalts Christ and puts the sinner in the dust where
he belongs. Now, you hold that truth in unrighteousness. What
does that mean? That's a sign that the wrath
of God abides on you. And he says in verse 19, because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
has showed it unto them. And what he does is from this
chapter here, from this verse on all the way over to chapter
3, verse 20, he brings all men and women by nature in guilty
before God in Adam and shows us why we need the righteousness
of God. He shows us why we don't have
righteousness of ourselves. why we can't attain to it, why
we can't establish it. And he concludes it with that
verse I read a while ago. Therefore, by the deeds of law
shall no flesh be made righteous in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Now, you can do your dead-level
best to keep the law, but all it does is show you, if you see
it, your sinfulness. Isn't that right? Your unrighteousness.
So what is the righteousness of God? Well, he begins to define
it in verse 21 of Romans 3. Look at that. He says, but now the righteousness
of God, without the law, that is, without our obedience to
the law, without our deeds of law, that's what he's talking
about there, is manifested. And it's witnessed by the law
and the prophets. Now, Isaiah preached it. Moses
preached it. Even the righteousness of God,
by faith or faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all, That is, it
is preached unto all. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. And upon all them that believe,
all who believe in him have this righteousness. For there is no
difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. All are in need. So being justified freely, being
made righteous, being declared righteous freely, unconditionally,
without a cause, by his grace, through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. What is this? It's the redemption
that Christ accomplished. It's His obedience, not mine. My righteousness is not my obedience. It's His. It's His suffering,
not mine. My righteousness is not my suffering,
it's His. You see what I'm saying? It's
His perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. It's what He
did for me on Calvary. That's what He worked out, wrought
out, and established. And what God freely gives to
me, imputes, charges, accounts to me, freely, unconditionally. And listen to me now. My righteousness
is not what the Holy Spirit does in me. Now that is a great work. It's a necessary work. Why? Because
of what Christ did for me. He goes on. He says, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation. You see, my righteousness is
wrapped up in his propitiation. His work of substitutionary dying
for me on the cross to satisfy law and justice. through faith
in His blood. My faith is not in me or in you
or in my faith. My faith is in His blood. What
is that? That's His death. That's what
it took to make me righteous. The death of one who's able,
one who's willing, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past," which
I believe is talking about the Old Testament saints, through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
how many times do I have to say that for it to get through our
heads? His righteousness, His righteousness, that God might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Turn to Romans chapter 10. Paul writes in verse 1, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, when does a sinner submit
to the righteousness of God? I'll tell you when. When he submits
to Christ and Him crucified. When he rests in him, verse 4,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth. He's the fulfillment. We study
in our Sunday school, the book of Acts, chapter 24, where the
Apostle Paul stood before the governor, Felix. And it says
he reasoned with him of righteousness and of temperance and of judgment
to come. Now, what do you suppose Paul
did when he reasoned with Felix of righteousness. I'll tell you
three things. Number one, we don't have one
by nature or by practice. We're sinners. We're guilty by
nature in Adam, and we have no hope of having one, being made
righteous by our works, by our efforts. This is what God requires,
perfection, perfect satisfaction to his law. And if there's any
sin, he requires justice to be satisfied. You cannot have righteousness
where there's any infraction of the law. You cannot have righteousness
where the charge of sin will stick. If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? None of us. And
then he reasoned with him not only of God's requirement of
holiness and righteousness, but also of God's provision of righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who's righteous before
God. All who are in Christ, those who are righteous, have been
made righteous in the sight of God by Christ's righteousness
imputed to them, charged to them. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. And here's the bottom line. If
I am in Christ, evidenced by my resting in Him, looking to
Him, putting my whole salvation in
Him, trusting Him by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, if I am in Him, then I can say with confidence upon
God's testimony that I am one whom He made righteous at Calvary. He put my sins away. And it'll
be well with me. And it doesn't really matter
what men say, or what men do, or what's going on in the world.
It'll be well. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. He says in verse 21, For he, that is the Father, hath made
him, that is the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin for us. He was made sin for us. How was
he made sin? Well, look up at verse 19. He's
talking about the ministry of reconciliation. Now, what that
means is this. How is peace made between God
and sinners? When you talk about reconciliation,
you know what it is to be reconciled to somebody. You know, a man
and woman, they get divorced and they talk about irreconcilable
differences. They can't reconcile. They can't
come together on common ground and have peace with one another,
so they divorce. Well, in Adam we fell. And we were born with a sinful
human nature, fallen nature, that set our minds, our affections,
our wills, our hearts in opposition to God and His glory. We were
at war with God. So there's the war, there's the
parting, you see. Now how can God, who is holy
and righteous, how can He be reconciled to such sinners as
we are? Is there some common ground upon
which the two, God and his people who are sinners, be reconciled,
be at peace? Now that's what the ministry
of reconciliation is all about. The word of reconciliation is
the gospel. So he says, verse 19, now here
it is, here's the ministry of reconciliation. That God was
in Christ, that means God the Father engaged all that he is
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself. He engaged himself in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile his people unto himself all over
the world. This is not every individual
without exception. How do I know that? Well, look
at the rest of it. Not imputing, not charging, not accounting
their trespasses unto them. He didn't charge their sins to
them. He laid them on Christ. That's what he did. He charged
them to Christ. He laid them to his account.
And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation, so that
now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
by us, we pray in Christ's death, be ye reconciled to God. Now
God was reconciled to you in Christ on Calvary. Let me tell
you what's going to happen. You will sometime, by the power
of God's grace through his Spirit in the new birth, you'll be reconciled
to him on that same ground. And here it is, verse 21. God
made him to be sinned. How? By imputation. Christ who
knew no sin. That word no there is that same
word that indicates the intimate relationship, like for example,
the love of God to his people, the love of a man and a woman.
They're intimate with each other. There's an intimacy there, a
knowledge and experience with each other. Christ didn't have
that kind of knowledge with sin. Not within himself. He ate with
publicans and sinners. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. He dwelt among sinners. But he
himself was never, never, never made a sinner. A sinner is one
who transgresses the law. Christ never transgressed the
law, yet He died for our transgressions. A sinner is one who hates God.
Christ never was made a hater of His Father. While He hanged
on that cross, He said, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
Me? Didn't He? Didn't He say, My
God? His Father. He said, Father, forgive them,
for they don't know what they did. That's what He said while
He was on the cross, while He was dying for our sins. Now you
see, sin causes a sinner, sin within causes a sinner to curse
God and die. Like Job's wife. Won't you just
curse God and die? But Christ didn't curse God and
die on that cross. No, now he was under the curse
of the Father for our sins charged to him. There's a difference.
But he was never made a transgressor. He was never, listen, to be a
sinner is to be an unbeliever. And these fellows go around talking
about he was made a sinner, just say it, he was made an unbeliever.
No, sir. He had perfect faith. The whole
time, he was on that cross. When he gave up the ghost, he
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. That is
not the words of a sinner. That's the words of a perfect
man. That's not the way a sinner dies.
Trusting God. Trusting the Father. Crying for
forgiveness to his enemies. That's not the way a sinner does,
you see. A sinner doesn't do that. He had perfect faith, perfect
holiness the whole time. Yet, he died, the scripture says
it this way, he died what? The just for the unjust. In other words, while he was
on that cross within himself, he was just. But he came under
the wrath of God, under the curse for the sins of his people charged
to him. Now, if that's not so, There's
not a person in this building tonight who's righteous, or anywhere
else. If that's not so, to say it any
other way is to condemn us all. I'm telling you, and this is
serious business, and I wouldn't be so adamant about it if it
weren't serious. I don't care who the preacher
is. I don't care how long he's been in the business. Christ
was never made a sinner. He never was. He was made sin. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him." Now, how are we
made the righteousness of God? In the same way that he was made
sin, by imputation. And you can see the flip side
of that this way. There's not a thing we've ever
done, even as saved sinners, in our attempts to obey God,
in our attempts to love one another, in our attempts to worship that
we can say is perfectly sinless without contamination. Can you
say that? No, sir. And yet, I can say,
as I'm looking to Christ as the author and finisher of my faith,
that I'm righteous in God's sight. How? In Him. Now, that's the
issue. The gospel reveals three distinct
acts of imputation. Adam's sin was imputed, accounted,
charged to all whom he represented, for as in Adam all die. And the
sins of God's elect, his Christ's sheep, were imputed to Christ,
and he died for those sins. And then thirdly, the righteousness
of Christ is imputed to everyone who believes on him. Isaiah spoke
of this. That's what he's talking about.
Our righteousness in the sight of God is an unchangeable point
of law and justice. The law of God can never reverse
itself. Once God declares a man or a
woman righteous, that's it. It'll never change. And you know
that makes sense, doesn't it? Because Christ is the same yesterday,
He's the same today, and He's the same forever. The justice
of God cannot declare us guilty, for who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Who can condemn us? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Did you notice that? It says,
who can condemn us? And the immediate answer to that
is, it's Christ that died. In other words, the point of
my not being condemned was the death of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Those who have been made righteous by Christ on the cross will be
born again by the Holy Spirit and come to see Christ as the
Lord their righteousness. Now, why is that? Because righteousness
demands life. Where a sinner is made righteous
by God, that sinner must have eternal spiritual life within.
He must be born again. And when he is, the Holy Spirit
shows him where his righteousness is in Christ. We're not made
righteous in the new birth. We're made righteous in Christ.
The righteousness imputed demands that we be born again by the
Spirit. And when the Bible speaks of us doing righteousness, it
means, you know what that means? It means resting in Christ. That's
what that means. Who's doing righteousness? Those
who rest in him. Those who look to him. Those
who follow Him and worship Him and serve Him out of love and
gratitude walk by faith in Him. You see, that doesn't make anything
we do perfect. But it declares that all that
He did was and is perfect. Now, what do we say to the righteous?
It's well. It's well right now, not later.
You don't have to wait until you die for it to be well. It's
well when things are up and when things are down. It's well in
trials or in disaster. It's well when Satan attacks,
because you know what? He cannot win. He can't win against
a righteous person. It's well when we're weak, even
at our lowest. You know, at our lowest, Christ
is still my righteousness. That will never change. It's
well in death. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. It will be well in judgment.
It will be well in judgment, for Christ is our righteous.
It will be well in eternity. And we can say to the righteous,
those who are resting in Christ, peace, because Christ is our
peace. And he says over here in Isaiah
3, they shall eat the fruit of their doings. That's not talking
about if they'll earn their salvation or their rewards. Our righteousness
excludes that. What are our doings? We're looking
to Christ. We're resting in Him. I'll tell
you what. There's fruit in looking to Christ.
You know why? Because He's divine. And we're
the branches. And where there's life from the
vine, there's fruit on the branch. We don't produce it, He does.
What do we do when we look to Christ? We repent of dead works.
We walk in obedience as the fruit of His doings. And it'll be well. I'll tell you, well in every
way. We'll be well fed, for we feed upon Him. His blood and
His flesh. We'll be well-dressed. We have
on His perfect robe of spotless righteousness. We're well-housed. God is our dwelling place. We're
well-wed. We married up, folks. You ever
heard that term? Down south they say, well, He
outmarried Himself. We outmarried ourselves. Christ
is our husband. We're well-provided for. But
now with the wicked, Isaiah says, it will be ill. for the reward
of his hand shall be given him." The wicked are those who are
yet in their sins. They are those who have not been
made righteous. They are without Christ, without
grace. Always, at all times, in all
circumstances, it shall be ill with the wicked, even at their
best, because man at his best estate is altogether vanity,
and all his righteousnesses are his filthy rags. All is ill with
them now, not just later. They may not see it. All shall
be ill with them as long as they live. And when they die, it will
be ill. When they stand at judgment,
for they will be judged by that perfect law of righteousness
that Christ displayed in his obedience unto death on the cross. And if they are found without
him, without a mediator, without his blood, without his righteousness,
O my soul, it will be ill with them eternally. And the reward
of their hands. shall be given to them. And you
know why? Because the wages of sin is death. Now, here's the point that Isaiah
is saying here. Righteousness has been set before
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be had most freely and
easily if you desire. Believe on him. Trust him. Rest in Him. Stop looking to
yourself or to anyone else. Look to Christ and rest in Him
alone. And it will be well with the
righteous.