Now what do you think of when
you think of the word righteousness and the word goodness? Most people
probably think of them as the same thing. Righteousness and
goodness, and they can be in certain contexts. You know, context
is one of the main issues in defining terms, especially in
the Bible. But if we were to define them
technically, let's say theologically, people think about goodness as
being moral behavior. That's a good person who's moral,
who's dedicated, who's sincere, especially those who are sincerely
religious in some way. That's the way people gauge goodness,
charitable. And in the eyes of men, as we
compare one with another, those things are good in our minds,
in our ways of judging these things. And most people think
of righteousness as the same thing, but again, technically,
theologically, biblically speaking, righteousness is something a
little different. And here's how I would put it.
Goodness can be described as moral behavior. But righteousness
in and of itself is not moral behavior. Righteousness is the
perfect standard or measure by which all moral behavior is to
be measured. And so what it comes down to
is this. Somebody might ask the question, well, how righteous
do I have to be to be saved? to be accepted with God, to be
right with God, or how good must I be? And the problem with man's
natural religious thoughts on these issues is that he judges
these things not the way God judges them, but he judges them
by how he compares with other people, how he or she compares
with other people. I've often told you about the
man who told me, he said, he said, well, I know I'm not perfect,
but I've never done anything that deserved going to hell.
Well, he's judging by a different standard than what God judges. And what Paul is showing here
in these verses especially beginning in verses nine through 12, and
then next week we'll go through the rest of them, he's showing
what God's standard of judgment is. And this is where we really
see the hatred of the light that the natural man has. This is
where we see the enmity really coming out. Look at verse nine.
Now here's Paul in his conclusion. He says, what then? Now he'd
already brought in all men and women without exception, who
have fallen in Adam, all right, that we are in need of a righteousness
and a goodness that we cannot produce. His whole purpose here
is to show why we need another righteousness, the righteousness
of God in order to be saved, in order to be accepted with
God, in order to be made right with God. And he'd shown that
to people who are immoral as far as our judgment is concerned.
And he'd show that in people like the Jews who were religious
and had the law of Moses. And so he says, here's the conclusion,
verse nine, what then? Are we better than they? Are
the religious Jews who had the law and who were doing their
best trying to be righteous, trying to be good by their works
of the law, are we better than the Gentiles? Are we better than
the uncircumcised Gentiles? And listen to what he says, no,
in, no, wise. Now Paul's not talking about
human standards of judgment. He's not talking about living
in human society. He's talking about how a sinner
is justified before God. He's talking about how a sinner
is made right with God according to God's standard. And he says,
in that area of salvation, of justification, of holiness, of
redemption, in that area, the Jews who had the law, who had
the sacrifices, based on their works, based upon their doing,
They're no better off in any way than the Gentiles who didn't
have the law. No and no wise. And here's what
he says, for we have before proved, we have charged, see, both Jews
and Gentiles that they are all under sin. Now that's the grand
conclusion and that phrase. All under sin. Now he states
it again down in verse 23, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Come short. Now, that word for
sin in verse nine and verse 23 is a word that means to miss
the mark. It means to fall short. It means
to not measure up. Here's a standard. And let's
say here's a person who's trying to be the best they can be. And
what he's saying, because of our falling Adam, and because
we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, no matter
how good we try to be, no matter how good in our eyes we achieve,
what goodness we achieve, we're always gonna do what? We're always
gonna miss the mark. Now what is the mark? Righteousness. Now there's the mark, there's
the standard, righteousness. How good must I be to be righteous
in God's sight? Well, here's what he says. Now,
when we talk about sin and we talk about depravity, all right,
look at it here. In verse 10, here's the reality
of sin. It says, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no, not, Now how much plainer can it get?
What's he talking about? He's talking about all of us,
by nature, as fallen in Adam, and by our works, we don't have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's requirement. And this is where, I mentioned
this, this is where the hatred of the light and the enmity,
God requires perfect righteousness. And man doesn't like that. Have you ever seen a situation
where a parent or parents expect their children to be virtually
perfect in every way? I remember years ago, I saw a
movie called Fear Strikes Out. I don't know if you remember
that movie. It's about a baseball player named Jimmy Pearsall. And he was a
great baseball player, made it to the pros, but his father never,
never was satisfied. And I remember when he was in
this movie, when he was batting, he had something like, it was
well over a 300 average in the minor leagues where he started
out. And he was so proud of that. It was almost like 350 or up. I think that's great for a baseball
player. And he went home and told his
father, and his father said, well, son, that's not enough.
You gotta be better than that, you know. And the boy eventually
had a breakdown and went crazy. And so we know that to expect
perfection, to expect it out of ourselves, expect it out of
our children, it's unreasonable. And that's the way man thinks
about God. God expects perfection. And they
say, well, that's unreasonable. That's not fair. That's unjust.
But here's the point. Two things you've got to keep
in mind about God. God cannot expect anything less than perfection. Why? Because of who he is. God
is a just God. God is a holy. God cannot expect
anything less than perfection because of his nature and who
he is. He expects righteousness. God
is righteous. And it's not unfair and unjust
because of this. God has freely and fully provided
for anybody who wants it now, a righteousness that equals his
requirement. And he's provided it by his grace
as a free gift through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
you seek righteousness, where you gonna find it? The only place
God says you're gonna find it is in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is the measure. Christ
is the perfection of His people. I have no righteousness before
God but Christ. And it's His righteousness imputed
to me, charged to me, accounted to me, His merit, His worthiness,
His value, you might say. Christ paid my debt, sin debt,
in full. Christ is the Lord my righteousness. He is the righteousness of God.
You see, to say we need the righteousness of God to be safe is the same
thing as saying we need Christ. Because he is the righteousness
of God. And the Bible says there's coming a day when the Lord will
judge the world in righteousness By the standard, the measure
of righteousness, this is Act 1731, God's gonna judge the world
in righteousness, and where are we gonna see the standard, the
requirement of righteousness? He says, by that man whom he
hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto all men,
in that he hath raised him from the dead. Christ, how good must
I be? How righteous must I be? I must
be as righteous as Christ. Well, there's no way that I can
attain that. and maintain it by my works. Can't do it. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous,
no, not one. So what's he telling? He said,
well, if we have a righteousness before God, it's not one we worked
out. It's not our works. It's not
even our faith, our believing. Do you ever have doubts? Ever? in any situation. That means
your faith is not perfect yet. But I'll tell you one whose faith
was, his faithfulness, that's Christ. You see, faith, true
faith in God does not rest on our believing, it rests in Christ. There's a difference. There's
none righteous, no not one. And I want you to notice here,
he didn't say now, there's none religious, no not one. He didn't
say here there's none who are moral and dedicated and sincere,
no not one, in the eyes of men. You see, how can a sinner be
justified, be made righteous, be declared not guilty, be pardoned
before God? There's two things that are required
for a sinner to be saved. There's a legal issue that's
got to be settled. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Remember
down here he says in verse 19, look here. 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. What does that mean? It means
I deserve nothing but death and hell. And that's based on my
best because my best falls short. There's none righteous, no not
one. So if we're going to have righteousness, That legal issue
of how my sin debt has to be paid in full. God's wrath has
to be removed on a just ground. God has to be reconciled to me
based on a just ground. Well, there's only one just ground,
the blood of his son. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. My tears won't wash them away.
My works won't wash them away. Even my faith won't wash them
away. Only the blood of Christ will wash away my sins. What
can make me whole? Righteous. Not anything I do
or try to do or believe. It's only Christ. I do believe.
I believe in Him. Faith has an object. So there's
non-righteous. Now here's the second thing it
has to be. Not only that condemnation has to be removed, justification
has to be settled. Sin has to be paid for. And that's
what righteousness is all about. So he says, what are we better
than they? No and no wise, for we're proved or charged, both
Jews and Gentiles, they're all under sin. So when it comes to
being good enough, none of us are good enough or righteous
enough in our sin. It's only in Christ. Now, what
is depravity? You know, when you talk about
the doctrine of total depravity, I know when I first heard that
term, I know what popped into my mind at the time. I was thinking
about the criminals. the inmates, the serial killers
of the world, the drunks, the drug pushers, all of that, that's
depraved, you know. Raving lunatics. People have
no regard for human law and civil law. That's who I thought about.
But if that's all you think about in depravity, you're not thinking
biblically. All right? Because what is depravity? What is it that shows whether
or not a sinner is depraved or not depraved. And I'll tell you
just very simply, it's what's their reaction to the preaching
of the cross? What's their reaction to the
preaching of the gospel? That's where depravity is shown
for. Look at verse 11. Now here's depravity. There is
none that understandeth. You see that? Now, what is it
they don't understand? Well, I've got here, you know,
people who are lost and unbelievers, even atheists, they have understanding
in a lot of areas. A lot of them, they understand
things like science and mathematics and art. They can understand
it better than I can. I mean, there are lost people
who know a whole lot more about physics than I do. Somebody starts
talking about physics and the deep things of physics, I don't
understand it at all. But what's he talking about?
They don't understand righteousness. They don't understand the reality
of sin and righteousness. They don't understand who God
is. They don't understand the reality of themselves and the
reality of salvation. They don't understand these things.
Look over at John chapter 16 with me. When the Holy Spirit
comes under the preaching of the gospel to bring a sinner
to conviction, the Bible says here he convinces or convicts
that sinner of three things. And this is where understanding
comes from. It's a gift from God. The Bible says the Son of
God hath come and given us an understanding that we didn't
have before. And the understanding has to
do with how we look at sin and ourselves, how we look at God,
how we look at salvation and righteousness. And it says in
verse 8, when the Holy Spirit has come, John 16, 8, he will
reprove or convict the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now, the world there is not everybody
without exception, because everybody without exception is not convicted
of those things in a saving way. And so he says, of sin. Now he's
gonna show you the reality of sin. Now what is the reality
of sin? Look at, because they believe
not on me. They don't believe in Christ.
Do you realize that if you don't know Christ and believe in him
and rest in him and trust in him for all salvation, for all
righteousness, that everything you do is sin in the sight of
God? Nothing but sin. You missed the
mark. That's the same word for sin.
There's several words for sin in the Bible, but that's the
same word. You missed the mark. In other words, without knowing
Christ as the Lord my righteousness, I missed the mark. I fall short. That's an understanding that
I didn't have before I heard the gospel and the power of the
Holy Spirit. Because my understanding before was that I could somehow,
by my decision or by my will or by my works in some part way,
that I could make myself enough to be saved. That was my understanding,
but now I know better. I'm gonna talk about that in
the main message. Verse 10, of righteousness because
I go to my father and you see me no more. Now how did Christ
go to the father? He went to the father as the
surety of his people who substituted himself and paid the debt, worked
out righteousness. That's how he went to the father.
There's only righteousness in Christ. If you're looking for
it anywhere else, you're not gonna find it. Now you may think
you found it, a lot of people do. but you're just fooling yourself. Listen, if you're gonna go search
for gold, don't dig up our parking lot, because it's not there. You say, well, how do you know?
Well, I just got a pretty good idea. Go to a gold mine. If you want righteousness, don't
look within. Don't look to yourself. Don't
look to your denomination. Don't look to the church. Don't
look to mom and dad. Look to Christ. And then he says
of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. What
he's talking about there is that my sins have already been judged
in Christ on the cross and God does not charge me with sin.
He doesn't charge me. Go back to Romans 3 now. He says
in verse 10, or verse 11, there's none that understand it. There's
none that seeketh after God. Now, he doesn't say here there's
none that seeketh after a God. A lot of people seeking a God,
but not this God, the God of this book, who requires perfection
and who only gives it in His Son. People are, you know, the
Bible speaks of idolatry as this, as that man oftentimes, he seeks
a God like unto himself. The moment that you reason anything
about God based upon your view of yourself, You're not seeking
the true and living God. You're seeking another God. You're
seeking an idol. Somebody told me one time about
talking about God's electing grace. He said, well, my God
wouldn't do that. Well, your God wouldn't, but
your God's an idol. Remember I told you about that
marquee I saw up in Huntington, West Virginia, outside that church?
He said, the God who hates, we don't serve him. You're right,
you don't serve the true God because the God of the Bible,
He has a just, righteous hatred that He exacts against those
to whom sin is imputed. People say, well I don't like
that. You know why you don't like it? Because you're measuring
God's hatred just like your own, which is sinful. Yours is sinful,
mine's sinful. But God's is not. God's is just. God's holy. So you see, they
seek, they will not seek after God. How you gonna seek after
God? You seek him in his word here.
Whatever God, listen to me, whatever God says about himself in this
book is true. Whether you believe it, whether
you like it or not, it's true. Whether you understand it or
not. There's things about God we can't understand. God is infinite
and immutable. We were talking about it last
night on some of these things about time and eternity. Mind-boggling. But I do know this. Whatever
God says about himself in this book. And God says that he will
only save and justify sinners based upon one ground. That's
his grace in the righteousness, the blood of his son. Now if
you come to God on any other ground, you're not seeking the
true and living God, you see. And whoever accepts you, whatever
God accepts you based upon any other ground, let me tell you
something about him, he's an idol. Look at verse 12. He says, they are all gone out
of the way. Now what way is he talking about?
He's talking about the way of salvation. the way of life, the
tree of life. Who is the tree of life? That's
Christ. Christ said in John 14, six, he said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There's only one way to God,
and that's through Christ. And these preachers who call
themselves Christian, who are telling people there are many
ways to God, they're lying, folks. And I'm not saying that just
to be mean and hard, it's just what God's word says. If you
seek salvation any other way than the way of God's grace,
the way of the blood of Christ, the way of the cross, the way
of His righteousness imputed, you've gone out of the way. There's
a way, and it seems right now, there's a way that seems right
unto a man, but it's the way that leads to death. Now again
now, understand now, he's talking about all of us by nature here
as we are naturally born. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. So if you do have an understanding,
if you have sought after the true and living God, if you have
found the way, it's because God in his grace and power has brought
you there by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
gospel. Look at the next line, verse 12. They are together become
unprofitable. In other words, it's very simple.
The way that they have gone, which is not the right way, is
a way they think will profit them in blessings, in benefits,
in salvation, in eternal life, but it's all unprofitable unless
that way is the way of God's grace, the way of the cross,
the way of righteousness in Christ, imputed. And then he says in
verse 12, he says, there's none that doeth good, no not one. Now understand, he's not talking
about how we measure goodness as we compare with one another.
He's talking about goodness as God sees it. I've got listed
in your lesson here a reference to Matthew 19. And that's where there was a
young man who came to Christ, and in verse 16, he asked this
question. He said, good master, what good
things shall I do that I may have eternal life? Now, the first
thing, and you can read that passage, Matthew 19, 16. The first thing you need to realize
is this. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
God, in sinless human flesh. He's
God-man, isn't that right? That's why the righteousness
of God is the righteousness of Christ, who is Emmanuel, God
with us. You see, we don't need the righteousness
of men. You know, Adam had the righteousness
of men in the garden before he fell, but it didn't last, did
it? We need one that'll last. We need one that cannot be taken
away. We need one that cannot be tainted
or contaminated or blemished. And that's why in order to be
saved, we need not the righteousness of men, but the righteousness
of God. And that's in the God-man, Jesus
Christ, God manifest in the flesh. All right, so he is God. Now,
when this young man came to Christ, he says, good master. That's
an endearing term for a rabbi, a teacher. So it's apparent that
this young man did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God
in human flesh, the Messiah. You know, the Bible in the Old
Testament talked about the Messiah being the seed of woman, that
the Messiah would be very God of very God. So he didn't look
at Jesus of Nazareth as being the Messiah, the Savior, God
in human flesh. He didn't look at him as being
God. So when he says, good master, what good thing must shall I
do that I may have eternal life? Remember how the Lord responded
in Matthew 19, 17. He said, why callest thou me
good? There is none good but one, that
is God. Now, basically what the Lord
is saying there is if you don't believe me to be God, now understand
this now. He's talking about eternal life.
What good thing must I do that I shall have eternal life? He's
talking about salvation. In that realm now, if you don't
believe me to be God, Christ is saying, then why do you call
me good? Because there's none good but God. Goodness can only
be measured by God, not by man. You look at a criminal and you
say, he's a bad man. You look at a pillar of the community
and you say, he's a good man. But when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to righteousness, when it comes to deserving glory
and all the benefits and blessings, there's none good, no not one.
So Christ said, well if you don't look at me as God, if you don't
believe me to be God, why you call me good? And so then he
told the young man, he said, well, here's the way you have
eternal life, by your goodness, keep the law. Well, how much
of the law? Keep it all. Don't offend him
one point. Here's the problem. We've gotten
off to a bad start, folks. First of all, if you determined
today that you were gonna keep the law perfectly, you'd fail,
wouldn't you? But even if you could keep it
perfectly from this second on, what about your past life? Is
there anything in the Bible that says keeping the law on day three
will take care of all the sins on day one and two? No. The wages of sin is death. And
didn't James say this? In James chapter one, to offend
in one point of the law is to break it all. You see? So Christ said, we'll
keep the law. Well, the young man thought,
he said, well, I've kept the, and he, Christ read the second
table of the law, which is love your neighbor, summarize love
your neighbor yourself. And the young man said, well,
I've kept that from my youth up. And so Christ said, well,
let's put it to the test. Go sell everything you have,
give it to the poor and follow me. Young man couldn't do it. And he went away sorrowful. Where
am I going to find goodness? Not up here behind this pulpit.
Where am I gonna find righteousness? Not here, only in Christ. That's the reality of sin and
depravity. Our only hope of righteousness,
our only hope of goodness is to look to Christ, okay.