All right, we'll start with Jeremiah
23. We're gonna be talking about the subject of the Lord, our
righteousness. And before I read the two passages
that I'm going to use as a text, I wanna start by defining two
terms that I think are very much misunderstood in religion today,
even among many who claim to believe sovereign grace. And
the first term obviously is the term righteousness. Righteousness,
what is righteousness? Well, righteousness in the Bible
is perfect satisfaction to God's law and God's justice. That's
what it is, it's a standard. In fact, most people think of
righteousness as being like moral behavior, somebody trying to
be good. But righteousness is not moral
behavior. Righteousness is the standard
by which all moral behavior is to be measured. Do you understand
that? It's like a ruler, 12 inches. If you want to see how many inches
are in something, you put a ruler down. Ruler is the standard.
Well, righteousness is the standard that God, by which God measures
all moral behavior, all what we call goodness. And so this
is how, when we read scriptures like Romans 3 in verse 10, it
says, there's none righteous, no, not one. And the apostle Paul is not saying
there's none moral in the eyes of men. He's not saying that
there's none who are trying to be good people. Because there's
all kinds of people who are moral, not in the eyes of God now, but
in the eyes of men. Somebody who, a couple who get
married and they're faithful to one another throughout their
married life. Okay, now that's a moral thing
to do. Does that make them righteous
in God's sight? No, because For the Bible says
we've all sinned and come short, missed the mark of the glory
of God. So no matter how good we try
to be, we are always in our best efforts going to fall short of
that perfect standard of righteousness. So righteousness is perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice. It's the standard by which all
behavior is to be measured as we stand before God. And what
the Bible teaches us is this, that that righteousness, that
perfection of the law can only be found in Christ. The glory
of his person, the glory and power of his finished work. All
right? Romans 10 4, for Christ is the
end, the finishing of the law for righteousness. to everyone
that believeth. You see, our believing is not
the righteousness of God, doesn't make us righteous. Our believing
is this, we believe in Christ, who is our righteousness, and
that's what I'm gonna talk about today. God's gonna judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and
that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead, that's Christ. Now the Bible does talk
about righteous living. It does talk about righteous
doing. But what is that? That's not
the attempts that we make to try to be good. Righteous living
and righteous doing is living and walking in the righteous,
in the grace of God based on the righteousness of Christ imputed
to us. knowing that I have no righteousness
within myself, and living by looking unto Christ. Okay? So that's righteousness. Now
another term I want to define, and not because it's the subject
of this message, even though it is involved, and we'll see
it, is the word holiness. And the reason I want to define
holiness is because many people get holiness and righteousness
confused. Well, what is holiness? Now listen
to me. A lot of people think of holiness
as moral behavior. But holiness is not necessarily
moral behavior in the eyes of men again. Here's what holiness
is. Holiness is as a believer, a
sinner saved by grace, separation from the world and all that denies
the glory of God in Christ. What separates me from other
people who don't believe the gospel? Well, certainly believing
the gospel separates me, but that's all by the grace of God.
So holiness is our separateness. Why are we met together? Of course, we're on the internet
now, but when we come together in this church, in this building,
we're met together, and why are we not with everybody else? Why
are we separated here? Because of the truth that God
has given us. That's our holiness. And certainly,
now, does that mean that Christians are not to try to be moral, good
people? No, we're to seek to be conformed
to Christ. But our seeking to be conformed
to Christ does not equal righteousness or make us righteous, and our
separation in our behavior does not make us righteous, okay? So I wanted to get that. Now,
with that in mind, let's go to Jeremiah 23. I have two passages
and I want to use this as my text. One in chapter 23, the
other in chapter 33. And let me give you just a brief
little thing here. Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem,
the Southern Kingdom of Israel, Judah, right up to the time that
God was going to bring judgment down upon Judah and Jerusalem
and bring them into captivity in Babylon, destroy Jerusalem,
destroy the temple, because of their sin, because of their idolatry. And Jeremiah told them that that's
what we deserve. We deserve this, accept it, go
on in, we're gonna be in captivity 70 years, then God's gonna bring
us back. But in the midst of the condemnation
and the damnation and the punishment and the negativity that Jeremiah
preached, he still had a positive message to the people that there
is salvation and blessedness. There is goodness for God's chosen
people. his elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation, Jew and Gentile, but that blessedness,
that salvation, that goodness was in the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't in the physical temple.
It wasn't in the physical nation. It wasn't in the law of Moses. It was in Christ to come. And
so in his preaching, he identified in prophecy who exactly the Messiah,
the Christ, would be. And let's look at this, Jeremiah
23, verse five. Behold, the days come. Now, Jeremiah's
speaking of a future day. Saith the Lord, this is the word
of God, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. This person in his humanity would
be a descendant of David, Judah. And a king shall reign and prosper. and he shall execute judgment
and justice in the earth. Now, this execution of judgment
and justice has to do with Christ as the surety, the substitute
and the redeemer of his people dying on the cross to establish
righteousness, the perfection of God's justice in the place
of his people. And verse six says, in his days,
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Now, what
he's speaking up here is a united kingdom. Judah and Israel were
separated at this time. Israel was gone, the Northern
kingdom. But there's going to be a united
kingdom and it's a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly kingdom. Christ came to establish a spiritual
kingdom, the spiritual Israel. That's not replacement theology,
that's fulfillment theology. And spiritual Israel is made
up of God's elect, chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, Jew and Gentile, all who will be brought to believe
in the Lord. All right, in his days, Judas shall be saved. Israel
shall dwell safely. Now look at it, and this is his
name whereby he shall be called. This is how he's to be identified.
Distinguish the Lord our righteousness. You see it? That's Jehovah Sid
Canu. That's one of the Jehovah names
of Christ. But it's an important one. All
of them are important. Now with that in mind, go over
to Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 33. Now look at verse
14 of Jeremiah 33. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have
promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. So
the promise of God to send Christ. And it says in verse 15, in those
days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to
grow up unto David. And he shall execute judgment
and righteousness in the land. Judgment and justice. That's
what righteousness is, see? Verse 16, in those days shall
Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. There's spiritual
Israel again, that's who he's talking about. And this is the
name wherewith she shall be called. Now back over in 23, five and
six, it said, this is the name wherewith he shall be called. But now here it says, this is
name wherewith she shall be called. Now, who's he talking about?
He's talking about spiritual Israel. He's talking about the
elect of God. He's talking about the church,
who is the bride of Christ. What does a bride do when she
marries her husband? She takes his name. And that's
what we do. And here's the name whereby she
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. You see that? Jehovah seek anew. We take his
name, we're married to Christ. Now here's my question, and here's
the question I want you to consider. How is Christ truly our righteousness,
our righteousness? How is he your righteousness? How is he my righteousness? Is
he, think about this, is he your righteousness? Is He my righteousness? How can I know? How can I be
sure? Is He everybody's righteousness? I'll tell you this much, if He's
your righteousness, you cannot perish. Because if He is your righteousness,
that means your sins have been put away. It means God cannot
charge them to you anymore. So is he your righteousness?
Is he my righteousness? How can I know? And what I want
to do, I want to give you four ways in which Christ is truly
the righteousness of his people. Number one, Christ is our righteousness
first legally justified by divine imputation. That's number one. divine imputation. And what I'm
gonna talk about here is the ground of our justification. What is it to be justified? It
means my sins are completely, eternally forgiven by God. It means that I am declared righteous
in God's sight. How is that so? Legally justified
by divine imputation. To impute means to charge the
merit or the demerit of a work from one person's account to
another person's account. It means taking responsibility
to pay the debt of another. Stand as their surety. That's
what Christ did for his people. before the foundation of the
world. God chose a people and gave those
people to Christ. Put all of the responsibility,
all of the accountability of their whole salvation upon this
one person, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity,
the Son of God. And imputed, charged, accounted
their sins. which they have yet to commit
before the foundation of the world, imputed unto them, to
him. Christ was made surety of God's
chosen people before the world began. Hebrews 7.22 says that
Christ was made a surety of a better covenant. Think about this. Here's 2 Corinthians
chapter five. Listen to verse 19. He's talking about the nature
and the substance and the content of a gospel ministry. That's
what he's talking about in 2 Corinthians 5. And he says, to wit or namely,
that God was in Christ, meaning that God engaged his glory, himself,
his reputation, his honor in the person of Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, The whole world, meaning the whole world
of his elect, not everybody without exception now, but spiritual
Israel. And he says, and how do you know
that? Because it says, not imputing, not charging, not accounting
their trespasses unto them. He didn't charge them to them.
And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's
how's God reconciled to his people. And then verse 20 of 2 Corinthians
5, it says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you, and Christ said, be ye reconciled
to God. On what ground? Verse 21, for
God hath made him, Christ, to be sin or made him sin for us,
imputed our sins to him. Christ who knew no sin, he was
not made a sinner or didn't become a sinner, wasn't infused or contaminated
with sin, but sin was imputed, charged to him. He was made guilty,
made a curse, condemned based on sins legally imputed to him. that we, or in order that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took my sins
and he gave me his righteousness. The whole sin debt of God's elect
laid to the charge of Christ who knew no sin. And his people
have the virtue and the value and the merit and the worthiness
of his righteousness imputed, laid to their charge. laid to
the charge of God's people. And this is the justification
of God's elect before God in his court of justice. Romans
8, 33, listen to it. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, rose again,
seated at the right hand of the Father. Listen to this, this
is Romans four and verse six, talking about Abraham and David.
here the apostle is commenting by inspiration of the Spirit
on a passage that David wrote back in Psalm 32 when David wrote
that blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God doesn't charge them with
their sin. What does that mean? And he says in Romans 4 6, even
as David also describeth the blessedness of of the man unto
whom the God imputeth righteousness without works. He charges righteousness,
but it has nothing to do with our works. It's all Christ's
work. And David meant that when he
said, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. So Christ is the Lord our righteousness
before we even know about it. This took place in the mind and
purpose of God before the world began. And it's the ground of
our salvation. Our justification before God
is totally and exclusively a work done by Christ for us and not
anything done in us or by us. For example, the Holy Spirit's
work within us is the fruit of His righteousness imputed. So
how is the Lord really my righteousness? My sins were imputed to him,
his righteousness to me, before I knew anything about it. Okay,
here's the second way that the Lord is the righteousness of
his people. The Lord our righteousness. Number
two, redemptively by Christ's death on the cross for us. Redemptively. Number one, legally. as we are
justified by His righteousness imputed. Second, redemptively
as He died for us as our substitute and our redeemer. You see, because
God has justified His people upon the ground of Christ's righteousness
imputed to them, Christ, now listen to me, He was obligated
to do the work of a surety to pay the full penalty of our sin
debt with his own precious blood. Look with me in Hebrews chapter
two. I made mention in the 10 o'clock
hour that this is one of my favorite passages. But look at verse 14
of Hebrews chapter two. You see, when our sins were imputed
to Christ and his righteousness to us, that obligated him to
come in time, become incarnate, and pay that debt. Look at verse
14 of Hebrews 2. For as much then as the children,
that is God's children, the ones he chose before the foundation
of the world, his elect, the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, He also, Christ also, likewise took part of the same. He had to become flesh and blood
to be, as our surety, he had to become our substitute. And
in order to become our substitute, he had to have flesh and blood
without sin, that through death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil. Christ would overturn
the devil's accusations that brought condemnation. unto death. And verse 15, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage, that's the bondage of false religion. Verse 16, for
verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took
on him the seed of Abraham. Now who's the seed of Abraham?
That's believers. Sinners saved by grace. Now look
at verse 17, wherefore in all things it behooved him. Now that word behoove, is the
Greek word for debt. He was indebted. He was obligated. Why? Because of the promise made
before the foundation of the world. He willingly took on our
debt. He willingly agreed to do what
was necessary to pay that debt. So it behooved him to be made
like unto his brethren, the elect of God, that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. So his righteousness is ours
because he died and was buried and arose again for us. He redeemed
me with the precious blood that incorruptible blood, the unblemished
lamb, who was guilty, who was cursed, who was condemned justly,
because our sins were imputed to him. So who shall, and because
he did that, and because his righteousness is imputed to us,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it's God
that justify. In Romans 8 34, who is he that
condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. I've heard people say, well now
if my sins were imputed to Christ before the world began, then
he didn't have to come and die. Oh yes, it's because our sins
were imputed to Christ before the foundation of the world that
he had to come and die. He's our surety. That means he
had to pay the debt of sins that he became accountable for. Romans
3.24, listen to this. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Our
justification before God in the mind and purpose of God proves
that Christ had to come and redeem us. He had to pay the debt in
time. And then here's the third way. Now the first way, legally,
because of our sins imputed to Him, His righteousness has imputed
us. Second is redemptively as He
died on the cross to put away our sins. For by one offering,
the Bible says, Hebrews 10, 14, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Thirdly, He is our righteousness
spiritually by the new birth. Spiritually by the new birth.
Now listen to me. The work of the Holy Spirit within
us, giving us life in the new birth, giving us a new heart,
a new spirit, bringing us, giving us faith to believe, bringing
us to repentance. The work of the Holy Spirit in
us is neither our justification nor our redemption. Our justification
took place in the mind of God before the foundation of the
world. Our redemption took place at the cross. And as a result,
as the fruit of that, the work of the Holy Spirit is our regeneration
and conversion. It's our new birth, our new birth. And there are two things necessary
to make the righteousness of Christ our righteousness spiritually. And this is where I come basically
to the fourth thing that I mentioned, because that's divided into two
things. Go back to the question that
I asked. How can I know that Christ is the Lord, my righteousness? The first thing in the work of
the Holy Spirit is a divine revelation. Do you hear me? It has to be
revealed to me. It has to be revealed to you.
And how does God the Holy Spirit reveal it? Well, it's called
the word of righteousness, the word of salvation, revealed or
made known to God's people in time by communicating the gospel
to them. Paul wrote in Romans 1, 16 and
17, he said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For
it, that gospel, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. To the Jew first and the Greek
also, verse 17, for therein, in that gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed. That righteousness of God is
the work of God through Christ to establish righteousness by
his death on the cross. The righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith, from the gospel word to faith given by
the Holy Spirit, as it is written, the justified, those who are
declared righteous in God's, those for whom Christ is the
Lord, their righteousness shall live by faith. They live by looking
to Christ. Listen to Romans chapter 10,
talking about the lost, unbelieving Jews. The apostle writes in Romans
10 verse one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. I pray for their salvation. Don't you pray for the salvation
of your loved ones? We actually pray for the salvation
of all that we know. Paul says, I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. They're religious. but not according
to knowledge. They're missing some knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, God's justice,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They
won't bow to the righteousness of God. Well, what is the righteousness
of God? Verse four, for Christ is the
end, the finishing, the perfection, of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. There has to be a divine revelation
from God. By nature, we don't know God
as a just God and a savior. By nature, we don't even know
ourselves. Let me tell you something. If
you think that salvation is conditioned on you, whether it be your decision,
your faith, your works, whatever. I read in the paper last week
a preacher who said there's basically four conditions of salvation,
of getting in the door of salvation. He said, number one, you believe.
Number two, you repent. Number three, you confess. And
number four, you get baptized. Well, let me tell you something
about that preacher and the people who follow him. They do not know
God. The true God. And they don't
know themselves. You see, my believing is not
my righteousness. My repenting is not my righteousness. My confessing is not my righteousness. My being baptized is not my righteousness. All four put together are not
my righteousness. Christ is. It's His blood. But He has to be revealed. Has
He been revealed to me? Has He been revealed to you?
If He's your righteousness, for you to know it, He has to be
revealed. And then here's the next thing about the work of
the Holy Spirit in us. Christ is the Lord our righteousness
by divine impartation. Now don't flinch yet. What is
impartation? What is imputation? Imputation
is a legal accounting. Impartation is to communicate
effectually. Man by nature has been so ruined
by our fallen Adam that we are born spiritually dead. Our hearts are far from God. A heart is deceitful, desperately
wicked. Spiritual life must be given
by the Spirit through Christ. Spiritual life, what is that?
The imparting of a new heart, a new mind, a new affections,
a new spirit. That's what Christ meant when
he told Nicodemus, you must be born again. That's the gift of faith and
knowledge and faith. That knowledge that's revealed
must become a part of us. We must know it, not just intellectually,
but it must be our life. And this is when the Holy Spirit,
by communicating the gospel, gives us life from Christ. This is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Romans 8.10 says, if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of sin, this physical body, but
the spirit is life because of righteousness. The Holy Spirit
gives us life from Christ. He gives us knowledge of God. He gives us knowledge of ourselves,
knowledge of Christ and salvation by God's grace through him and
his righteousness imputed to us, the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith. He gives us faith to believe
in Christ as the Lord, our righteousness. I read it earlier, Romans 10,
four. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. He's my righteousness. How do I know that? Because I
believe in him. Romans 10 verse nine, listen
to this. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now, let me caution you here.
This is not what some erroneously call imparted righteousness. Righteousness is not imparted.
Knowledge is, faith is, repentance is, the new heart is, the new
life, that's imparted. All things which are imparted
are the fruit of what Christ did and which is imputed to us. This is not a new righteous nature
as some say that cannot sin and cannot be contaminated. My friend,
as long as we exist in this world as sinners saved by grace, we
will have to contend with the remaining influence and contamination
of the flesh on everything we think, say, and do. And that's
why our only hope is to look outside of ourselves in the power
of the Spirit to the Word of God, to the Lord, our righteousness,
Jesus Christ. He's my only righteousness. I
am not righteous within myself. I'm a believer because God made
me so. I'm a penitent man because God
made me so. It's not the Holy Spirit making
us righteous within ourselves. We're sinners saved by grace.
We're still plagued with sins. What this is is the Spirit bringing
us to look outside of ourselves and to rest in Christ as the
Lord our righteousness. Let me read you one passage.
In closing, Philippians chapter three. This is where Paul expresses
and describes it. Philippians chapter three, verse
seven. Of what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. All those things that I thought
recommended me unto God. Verse eight. Yea, doubtless and
I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I've suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dumb, that I may win Christ,
now listen, verse nine, and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith or the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. In other words, my hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On
Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Is the Lord your righteousness? Is he my righteousness? I pray
that he is. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts.