Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
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will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And if you'd like to follow along
with the message in your Bibles, turn to the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs in the Old Testament right after the Psalms. Proverbs
chapter 14. And I'm going to mainly deal
with one verse here. And it reads in verse 34, Proverbs
14, 34. And it says, righteousness exalteth a nation. but sin is a reproach to any
people or to nations. The title of the message is Righteousness
Exalts a Nation. Righteousness exalts a nation.
Proverbs 14, 34. Now the reason that I feel led
to deal with this subject is because of the current moral,
economic rather, and political climate of our nation. Many,
many people, many of my friends and I myself, we grieve over
the state of our nation today. and we see so much in decline,
moral decline, political, economic decline, and we know that our
nation, the United States of America, uh... needs uh... several things that needs it
needs moral reformation it certainly does uh... we think about uh... what our supreme court did uh... a few months ago in condoning
and allowing homosexual marriage and things like that trying to
redefine marriage and understand now that the highest court in
this land is still below the highest court of all which is
the court of god almighty Man cannot redefine marriage because
God is the one who defined it as a union of one man and one
woman and that's what marriage is from Genesis on. So man can
do what he wants to do. It's like in the time of the
judges where it says that there was no king in Israel and everyone
did that which is right in their own eyes. Man wants to set his
own standard. And so we see all kinds of moral
degradation. It's always been that way in
the world. People say, well, it's gotten worse today. I don't
really think it's gotten worse, but I think we see it more because
of television and movies and the internet and things like
that. It's brought into our homes. And it's bad. But I begin to
think about this, and I've seen this in certain yards in our
area where people put signs up, and that's okay. And this verse
is quoted, righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach
to any people, and it's true. But I really wonder if people
really understand what that means, what this verse is saying. And
therefore I want to deal with five issues here that I will
bring out concerning what this means. Righteousness exalteth
a nation. Now one thing I want you to understand
at the beginning is as much as our nation is in need of moral
reformation, repentance, economic, political, however you want to
put it, The one thing that our nation needs more than anything
else is the one thing that all nations have needed more than
anything else since the fall of man, and that's the gospel. That's what our nation needs,
the gospel. As much as I pray for moral reformation,
moral reformation will not save sinners. Now, saved sinners may
be brought to a moral reformation, but salvation is by the grace
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to understand that.
And this verse, Proverbs 14, 34, Righteousness exalteth a
nation. Sin is a reproach to any people
or all nations. That verse has to be taken in
that context. For example, here's the first
thing I want you to consider about this. It says, Righteousness
exalteth a nation. Number one, what is righteousness? That's the first issue that has
to be settled in the minds of people. if you're going to understand
verses like this. Now, many times, well, as we
read the scripture, if we're going to interpret it rightly,
divide the word of truth rightly, as Paul told Timothy, rightly
dividing the word of truth, we have to consider the context.
Who is writing here? Well, the human instrument that
God used to write these words was King Solomon, the King of
Israel. And who's he writing to? Well,
he's writing to the nation Israel over whom he was made king. He's
writing to the nation Israel that were under the Old Covenant
Mosaic Law. And therefore his subject has
to do, and all through this set of Proverbs, in Proverbs 14,
he's talking about the contrast between sin and righteousness,
between foolishness and wisdom, all of those in that context. And that's why this verse says
it this way. Here's righteousness. Now righteousness exalts a nation.
And now here's sin, the opposite. Sin is a reproach to any people.
And here's the point that we need to understand. First off,
we're all sinners. The Bible says, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now that's the
fact of the matter. We fell in Adam. When Adam fell,
he brought sin and death into the whole world, upon the whole
human race. And as a result of the fall of
Adam, we're all born in sin, born dead in trespasses and sins. What is spiritual death? That's what we are by nature,
spiritually dead. You who were dead. That's what
Paul wrote in Ephesians 2.1. Hath he quickened? And so what
is spiritual death? Well, it's the absence of spiritual
life. And what is spiritual life? Well,
it is the spiritual desires and motives and goals that God gives
his people through the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in
the new birth. He calls it a new heart, a new
spirit, a new life. You must be born again, Christ
said, or you will not enter the kingdom. You can't see the kingdom
of heaven. You see, man by nature does not desire the things of
God that glorify God. And that's what spiritual death
is. He desires religion now. He may even desire morality.
He may be a law-abiding citizen, but he doesn't desire salvation
God's way because God's way gives man no room to boast. You see,
if I'm saved by the grace of God, I don't have anything to
brag about except Christ and His righteousness. So the first
issue that has to be settled is what is righteousness. Now,
when we speak of righteousness, we have to look at it in the
context of what we are and how we speak, and men and women speak
of righteousness as it compares to men. You know, you look at
a person, you say, well, he's moral, he's religious, he's trying
to be a good citizen, a good father, a good husband, all of
that, a woman, a good wife, a good mother. And you might say, well,
that's a righteous person. But when it comes to this passage,
And here's King Solomon, the king of Israel, writing to Israel
under the old covenant, what is righteousness? Now, righteousness
has to be defined according to the standard of the very nature
and character of God. So whenever we talk about righteousness,
we're not talking about how we appear to each other. We're talking
about how God sees us. And that's what that Old Covenant
was all about. The Old Covenant law was given to the nation Israel
to show them that they were not righteous, even the best of them. Because righteousness, now mark
this down in your mind, righteousness according to the nature of God
is perfect satisfaction to the law and justice of God. That's what righteousness is.
Perfect, now, perfect. In other words, that's why we
see verses in, like in the book of James, chapter one, where
he talks about to offend in one point of the law is to be guilty
of all. Because you see, if you offend
in one point of the law, you come short of righteousness,
and you're guilty. That's why it says, the soul
that sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth must die. And so when the Bible says in
Romans 3.23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, what it means is that none of us, by our works, by our best
efforts, measure up to the standard of righteousness according to
God's nature. according to God's standard.
That's why you have passages of Scripture like Romans chapter
3 in verse 10 where it makes this statement. Listen to this,
Romans 3 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no,
not one. Now did you hear that? There
is none righteous, no, not one. Now who is he talking about here?
Is he talking about just the immoral dregs of society, the
ones who are in prison, the drug addicts, the whoremongers, the
pornography pushers? Is that who he's talking about?
Yes, he's talking about them, but he's also talking about me
by nature and you by nature. Notice he doesn't say there's
none moral. No, not one. An unrighteous person
can seek morality. I'll show you that in just a
minute. He doesn't say there's none religious. No, not one.
He doesn't even say there's none dedicated and sincere. No, not
one. He says there's none righteous.
And what it means is this. It means there are among men
fallen in Adam, there is none to be found who are righteous
in God's sight by their works, by their efforts, by their sincerity,
by their decision, by whatever. None righteous. I am not righteous
in myself. And he goes on in verse 11, he
says, there's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after
God, that's man by nature. When I say man by nature, I mean
man as he is naturally born, as a dead, spiritually dead sinner. Somebody said, well, I don't
agree with that, we're born spiritually dead. He said, we're born innocent. and we only become spiritually
dead or become sinners when we make our first choice to sin.
Let me ask you a question. Is there any human being in the
history of mankind who did not sin? Now you'd have to say no. The only sinlessly perfect person
who was ever born into this world is the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man. and he was not born spiritually
dead as you were and as I was. You see, in order to glorify
God and to bring forth any fruit unto God, we must be born again
by the Spirit, the new birth. And so, why is that? Why is it that no person born
among fallen men has failed to sin? It's because we're born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. He says in verse 12,
they are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
Now that's good according to God's standard now. No, not one. And so he tells us, as he goes
on through there, that righteousness is perfect satisfaction of God's
law and justice. Now here's the second issue.
When we're considering this verse, righteousness exalts a nation.
Sin is a reproach to any people. All right, in the history of
the world, here's the second issue. In the history of the
world, among nations, has there ever been a righteous nation?
In the history of the world. Well, now here's the point. If
we measure righteousness by God's standard, the answer is no. There has never been a righteous
nation among the nations of the world. Somebody might say, well,
what about Israel? Well, Israel was not a righteous
nation in themselves. I'll give you an example. Now,
I don't have time in this program to go through all the Old Testament,
but you know, listen, if you're familiar with the Old Testament
at all, you know that Israel failed as a nation to keep the
law. Now that's, I'm not saying that
self-righteously because I have failed to keep the law. I'm a
sinner. You see, my salvation is not
by my works. It's by grace based on the works
of another. My salvation is not secured because
I have done righteousness. My salvation is secured because
Christ, my substitute, my surety, has done righteousness in His
obedience unto death. But listen to the prophet Isaiah
addressing the nation Israel. And he says in Isaiah chapter
1 and verse 4, listen to this. Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity. a seed of evildoers, children
that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are
gone away backward." He says in verse 5, why should you be
stricken anymore? You will revoke more and more.
In other words, God's judgment is not going to bring you to
repentance. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint
from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness
in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."
He's describing symbolically there the sinfulness of the people,
not only in their actions, not only in what they don't do, but
in their heart. That's man's problem. You know,
sin is a heart problem. It's not just the actions that
people, that we do that are sinful is just an outcropping of a sinful
heart. And that's what he's saying.
And if you go back and read the whole chapter of Isaiah 1, you'll
find that he's talking about religious people there. So even
in their religion. So in the history of the world,
somebody said, well, what about the good old USA? Weren't we
a righteous nation? not according to God's standard.
Now listen to me very carefully here. I thank God for our nation
because this nation, in God's providence, has been special.
We've had a democracy, We've had a representative government.
We've had freedom. I pray every day. I don't know
what's gonna happen on our political climate. I'm not very optimistic,
but I know God's in control. And I pray every day, Lord, please,
please preserve our freedoms so that we have the liberty that
we've had all these years, that our forefathers and our military
have fought for. And I thank God, I'm a patriot.
But let me tell you something now. You cannot say that the
USA has been a righteous nation according to God's standard of
judgment. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Well, here's the third issue. Where is righteousness to be
found? Now think about it. He says, righteousness exalted
the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. We're all sinners.
You can talk about us individually. You can clump us together as
a group. But we're all sinners. If you
put, they say China has billions of people, well put all billions
together, what have you got? You've got a bunch of sinners.
United States, a bunch of sinners. And I recognize there are countries
where they don't have the freedoms and the privileges that we've
had in this nation. And I thank God that we've had
them. But my friend, the United States, as far as being a righteous
nation in God's sight, according to God's righteous nature, His
holy nature, the United States is no closer to being a righteous
nation than the worst of nations. And that's what Solomon was talking
to these people about. Righteousness involved keeping
the law, and they didn't keep it. Why was the Old Covenant
given to begin with? Well, it had to do with where
righteousness is to be found. Now think about God's standard
of righteousness. And here's what the Bible teaches.
That righteousness can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. in the book of Jeremiah chapter
23, he's called the Lord our righteousness. Now that's not,
that's talking about believers there now. If I'm a believer,
if I've been brought to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit
through the new birth, then I can claim that Christ is my righteousness. You see, that has to do with
the great exchange of substitution and satisfaction. Christ went
to the cross to die for my sins. My sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to Him. My debt. You see, if you sin
against God, you have a debt to His justice. You've got to
pay your debt. Well, we can't pay it. But Christ paid my debt
for me. How do I know He paid it for
me? Because I believe in Him. I trust in Him. That's the evidence.
His righteousness, his merits, his value, his worth, his worthiness
is imputed to me, charged to me. That's the ground of my salvation. My friend, that's the heart of
the gospel. Somebody say, well, I'm saved by the blood of Christ.
Well, that means he died for the sins of his people. That
means righteousness is established by him. And so where is righteousness
to be found? In Christ. Acts 17 31 talks about
how God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness 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. Righteousness can only be measured
now by Christ. And that's where righteousness
is to be found. Over in Romans chapter nine, it talks about
Israel that followed after righteousness by their works and they didn't
make it. Read it in Romans chapter nine, verse 31 and on. They didn't
make it because they sought it not by faith. What is it to seek
righteousness by faith? To seek it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you seek righteousness by
your works, you won't make it. If you seek righteousness by
your religion, you won't make it. Your decision, you won't
make it. If you seek righteousness by
your baptism, you won't make it. You'll fall short. Righteousness
can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10 and verse
4 says, For Christ is the end of the law. That is the fulfillment,
establishment, finishing, completion, perfection of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. So there's where righteousness
is to be found. Here's the fourth issue. What's the lesson in all
this? Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any
people. Here's the lesson. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Man cannot make himself righteous. Man cannot wash himself clean.
Man needs salvation by grace that reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The best morality will
not make sinners righteous before God. The best morality, the best
religion, the best sincerity, the best decision will not cleanse
you from your sins. The best morality and religion
and decision will not give you a new heart, will not give you
spiritual life, will not change your nature. Man at his best
cannot say, I'm righteous. And then here's the fifth issue.
Listen to this very carefully. You know what? There is one righteous
nation. There is. What is that righteous
nation? Well, look at Galatians chapter
6 with me. And I want you to read this.
Now, I could show you a lot of scripture on this. But there
is one righteous nation. In Galatians chapter 6 and verse
14, here's what the Apostle Paul wrote. But God forbid that I
should glory, save or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, righteousness comes
by the cross, not by your works or my works, not even by your
decision or my decision, comes by the cross, the death of Christ. Save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. In other words, to be in Christ
is to be separate from the world. Verse 15, For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature, or a new creation. Verse 16 says, And
as many as walk according to this rule, what rule? God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace be on them, that is they have peace with God because it's
based on God's grace through the righteousness of Christ and
mercy, God's compassion and loving kindness is upon them and upon
the Israel of God. There's the one righteous nation,
the Israel of God. Now who is the Israel of God?
Well, the Israel of God is spiritual Israel, and I know people don't
like that today. They call it replacement theology.
It is not replacement theology. The true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which He redeemed by His blood, which are made righteous
in Him, based on His righteousness imputed to them, and who are
born again and called out by the Holy Spirit, That's what
the church means. It's called out of the world
by the gospel to believe in Christ and rest in him and live according
to his word. The true church did not replace
Israel. The true church is the fulfillment
of what Israel, the nation, typified, and they're called the Israel
of God. That is the church. We are spiritual Israel. The
Apostle Paul wrote about that in Romans 2 when he talked about
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly and circumcision that
in the flesh, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision
is that of the heart. That's the new verb. You see
a righteous nation has a righteous king. And who is that righteous
king? It's the King of Kings, the Lord
Jesus Christ. A righteous nation has a righteous
people. Well, how can anybody who's a
sinner, like I am, claim to be righteous? Only in one way. That
is based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. He is the Lord my
righteousness. I stand before God, washed in
the blood of Christ, and clothed in His righteousness, imputed
to me. and I believe in him and rest
in him and follow him. Now everybody who has brought
to that faith by the Holy Spirit are the citizens of a righteous
nation, not righteous in ourselves, but righteous in Christ. And
so when you read passages of scripture like this in Proverbs
1434, righteousness exalteth the nation. What's he talking
about? He's talking about the gospel. back in the old covenant,
the law was laid down and they were commanded to keep the law,
but they failed. Do you think you would have done
any better? Do I think I would have done any better? The answer
is no. We need righteousness in Christ by the grace of God.
Hope this message has helped you and join us again next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.