Good to see everybody out today. I'm always glad to see people
gather where the gospel is preached. I love to be there myself. Well, you can see I'm continuing
a series that I started a few months ago on the righteousness
of God, why it's important for us to understand this term in
the scriptures. You can see the subtitle today
is Rebellion. It's reason. It's remedy. That's what we'll be talking
about. That's our subject today, the rebellion of fallen humanity. Rebellion is in the hearts of
us all by nature. Now, we see this rebellion first
in Adam, who rebelled against God's standard and sought to
set his own standard. We see it also in Cain, who sought
to come his way rather than the way God had taught him to come. We see it in humanity in general,
whose hearts were only evil continually and whom God destroyed in the
flood. We see it in Israel. Israel,
that nation singled out by God as his chosen particular nation
in this world. Although Israel was God's chosen
nation, they started out in rebellion against God. Look at Deuteronomy
9 in verse 7. This is Moses writing here in
Deuteronomy. He said, Remember and forget
not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness
from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt
until you came into this place. You have been rebellious against
the Lord. After 40 years of wandering in
the wilderness, most of the children of Israel were still rebellious.
Look at Deuteronomy 31. That was the beginning of Moses'
writing. Here's the end of it. He said,
for I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck. Behold, while
I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious
against the Lord. And how much more after my death? Fifteen times in the book of
Ezekiel, God calls Israel a rebellious house, a rebellious nation. You might ask, what's that got
to do with me? I mean, this is Israel. I'm not
a part of the nation Israel. What does Israel's rebellion
have to do with me? Well, the nation Israel is a
type of the church. What we see God doing temporally
with this chosen nation, we see him doing eternally with those
that he's chosen out of every kindred tribe. and nation. The
church, as Jim taught us last week, is the spiritual, the eternal
Israel of God. We see that statement in Galatians
6 and verse 14. Peace on the Israel of God. He's talking about the church
there. The rebellion we can easily see in the nation Israel, we
can see in all of humanity. God delivers his people from
rebellion. Abel, he delivered. Cain, He
left. Noah and his family, he delivered. The rest of the world, he left
and destroyed in the flood. Joshua and Caleb were the only
two above the age of 20 fighting men that left Egypt, that entered
into the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb, he delivered
the rest. perished in the wilderness. Hebrews
chapter 11 is a whole chapter about those that God delivered
from rebellion, from the Old Testament. Well, we're talking
about the righteousness of God being the most important single
piece of information sinners need to know and understand.
And today we'll be talking about it as the one thing, the only
thing that will expose a sinner's rebellion, the only thing that
will reveal its reason, the only thing that will declare God's
remedy. That's what we'll be looking
at here today. First, the righteousness of God is the only thing that
will expose a sinner's rebellion. The preaching of God's gospel
does one of two things. In our last message in this series,
we talked about the first of those things. You probably don't
remember, but we talked about godly repentance. Under the gospel,
the Spirit of God gives life, He gives faith, He gives repentance
from dead works and former idolatry. Under the gospel, in other words,
a sinner like Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's
the first thing. Or, under the gospel, And despite
the gospel, despite its good news, despite its command to
believe and repent, under the gospel, a sinner is left in their
rejection. They're left in their rebellion. One or two things happen when
the gospel is preached. The gospel, you see, is a confrontation. When a sinner hears or write
how God is just to declare him or her righteous based on Christ's
imputed righteousness alone, that sinner is confronted with
some overwhelming information. He's confronted with a new God,
a God he never heard of, a just God and a Savior, a God who justifies
ungodly sinners based on nothing. but the imputed righteousness
of Christ. He hears about a new Savior who came to this earth,
became incarnate to establish that righteousness, to put away
the sins of his people. He hears a new gospel. He hears
new terms like imputed righteousness. I never heard this term until
God sat me down. under the gospel. This is overwhelming
information, and as we saw in our last message, this overwhelming
information demands a change, a change in our thinking, a change
in our direction. Under the gospel and in the light
of the righteousness of God, always revealed in that gospel,
God commands men everywhere to repent, because He's appointed
a day when He's going to judge this world in righteousness by
that man whom He's ordained. Now, where this change comes,
you find a repentant sinner. Where that repentance does not
come, you find a rebellious sinner. Now, this is not a sinner who's
beginning to rebel. It's a sinner continuing in his
or her rebellion. In other words, hearing and rejecting
God's gospel, that's not where rebellion begins in our heart.
It's just where rebellion is exposed in our heart, you see.
We're already rebels against God. We're born rebels against
God. If we would be otherwise, God
has to deliver us by the preaching of his gospel. That deliverance
will only come where God's gospel, wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. and nowhere else. Now, let me
just make a statement about that, wherein the righteousness of
God is real. For the purpose of this message, when I say the
gospel, just remember, it's wherein the righteousness of God is always
revealed. If you don't have the righteousness
of God revealed, how God is just to justify sinners, based on
Christ's imputed righteousness alone, you don't have a gospel
message. You've got a message, but it's
not the gospel. Let's look at some scriptures
that show us that God's gospel alone will expose a sinner's
rebellion. Look at 2 John, just one chapter
in 2 John, verse 9. He says, whoever transgresseth
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Now you see in that verse, the
one that doesn't abide in Christ, he doesn't have God. The one
who does, he has both. The Apostle John is instructing
the church concerning the basis of our reception or rejection
of those who come preaching to us, those seeking fellowship
with us. The basis is their doctrine of Christ. It's the gospel. Are
they declaring a savior who saved his people from their sins? Are
they declaring Christ righteous and imputed as the only ground
of salvation? Or are they declaring a so-called
savior who just makes sinners savable? if sinners will do their
part. You see, they're declaring one
or the other. Where the gospel is preached, they're declaring
a Savior who has accomplished the salvation of His people.
Everywhere else is another gospel. Look at verse 10 in this context. He says, If there come any unto
you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed. If they preach the gospel, receive
them. If they don't preach the gospel,
don't receive them. Don't applaud them. Don't speak
well of them. Don't say, God bless you. Not
if they don't come preaching the gospel. Look on to verse
11. It says, he that biddeth him God's speed is partaker of
his evil. Now this is where I want to show
you that we're not just beginning to be rebels, we're already rebels. Look, if one comes to you preaching
another Jesus, his deeds are evil. He's an evil preacher. I mean, men may think well of
him, but God calls him evil. If you receive him, that is,
if you bid him God's speed, if you applaud his message, You
do not at that time become a partaker of his evil. You are rather at
that time to be exposed as already a partaker of his evil. His evil
is another gospel. Your reception of him exposes
you that you are already in league with him and already in rebellion
against God. That verse there says, he that
bid it in God's feet is partaker. You don't become a partaker,
you already are. And the gospel he brings, whether
it's God's gospel or another gospel, reveals whether you're
a partaker or not. Look at another passage on this
subject. Look at John 3 in verses 16 and 17. Now you know these
are some of the most memorized verses in the scripture in all
who name the name of Christ. Verse 16, for God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. God loved the world that
He purposed to save so much that He gave His Son to save them.
That's what that's saying. And I'll explain a little more
about that as we go on. God didn't send his son into
the world to condemn the world. He sent his son into a world
already facing condemnation based on the best of their efforts.
He sent his son into the world to save the world. Look at John
3.18. He says, He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but he that believeth not on him is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Now, He that believeth on him
is not condemned. That's a pretty emphatic statement,
isn't it? It's absolutely emphatic. But
what makes it emphatic? Well, it's not the believing
that this world's religion promotes that makes it emphatic. Rather,
it's the him sinners are commanded to believe on that makes it emphatic.
He that believeth on him is not condemned. Believe on Him who
was sent by the Father. Believe on Him who's God and
man in one person. Believe on Him who became incarnate,
who took into union with His deity, truth, humanity, body,
and soul. Believe in Him who walked in
perfect obedience to the law. Believe in Him who died for the
sins of His sheep being imputed to Him. Believe on Him who put
away those sins by just satisfaction. Believe on Him who established
righteousness in the earth, who gives His people an unchangeable
standing of justification based on His righteousness imputed
alone. believe on Him who enables God to be both a just God and
a Savior. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. It's not the believing there.
It's the person we're to believe in that makes the difference.
Does a sinner's believing have anything to do with delivering
them from condemnation? Is it any part of the cause of
them being delivered from condemnation? No, because those believing on
Him are believing on him whose death alone has already delivered
those he died for from condemnation. That's who we're commanded to
believe on, one who's already delivered, one who's already
put away the sins of his people, one who's already established
the righteousness by which God is just to justify. Their believing
on him is the evidence that they're not condemned. It's no part of
the cause of them not being condemned. Look at the second part of that
verse. He that believeth on him is condemned. He that believeth
not on him is condemned already. This sinner's failure to believe
does not condemn the sinner. It's not the cause of his condemnation. It, too, is the evidence of his
condemnation. Believing on him is the evidence
of no condemnation. Not believing on him is the evidence
of condemnation. Look at verse 19, and this is
the condemnation, that light is coming to the world and men
love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
As Bill said in the message this morning, light, it just reveals
or exposes. It doesn't change anything. The
light just illuminates what's already there. The light is the
gospel. The light is the only message
that reveals the hymn that sinners are commanded by God to believe
on. It either reveals their condemnation, it reveals their non-condemnation,
or it exposes their condemnation, one or the other. This evil here,
he says, men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. The evil is the same we read
in 2 John. It's the evil of looking somewhere
other than the righteousness Christ worked out for all your
salvation. Looking within, looking at something you've done. It's
spiritual evil. It's the evil of another gospel,
another Jesus. Look on in verse 20 and 21. For
everyone that doeth evil, everyone that goes on seeking salvation
based on something found in him, everyone doing evil hates the
light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Like Bill said, lest his false
refuge should be uncovered and discovered and exposed. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that they are wrought in God. The sinner who
is exposed to the light, but who rejects the righteousness
of God revealed under that light by that gospel, and goes on trying
to establish a righteousness of his own, is the one doing
evil. He hates the light. He won't come to the light because
the light exposes the evil of his deeds. The gospel exposes
his rebellion against the clear teaching of the scriptures. But
like we see in verse 21, all are not left there. Under the
gospel, God's people rest their hope of salvation in the doing
and dying of Christ alone. And they manifest that God has
done a work of grace in their hearts. It's under the gospel,
and it's under the gospel alone, that the rebellion of sinners
against God's Savior, against his salvation, is exposed. Now, you might find this as interesting
as I did, that the words rebel or rebellion, they're not found
in the New Testament. The words aren't. but the fact
of rebellion is there in abundance. Look with me at a passage that
reveals our rebellion as unregenerate sinners at Ephesians 2 verses
1 through 3. Paul says, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins? wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, even as others." Paul is describing He's talking
to regenerate sinners, but describing when these were unregenerate
sinners. In other words, before their
conversion. And it's obviously a conversation, a walk of rebellion. He said, wherein in time past
you walk in that same spirit that now works in the children
of disobedience. That's the spirit of rebellion,
whether the word is used there or not. That's exactly what it
is. And he says, among whom we all, Paul includes himself, we
all had our conversation there. Our life was there. We walked
there in times past. and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." In other words, by nature, all men
look just alike in their religion. They're ignorant of God's righteousness,
they're going about to establish their own righteousness, they're
looking within at least for some part of their acceptance with
God. That's what it is to be, by nature,
a child of wrath, even as others. Look at another passage that
talks about our rebellion but doesn't use the word. Look at
Titus 3 and verse 3. Paul says, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. Disobedient to God. Again, he
states what believers were before their conversion. This is the
kind of sinners Christ came for. It's the kind of sinners he died
for. It's the kind of sinners he stood under God's wrath for
and put away sin for. He died for the rebellious that
God might dwell among them. Look at Psalm 68 and verse 18. Thou hast ascended on high. He's
talking about Christ here. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell among them. My point here is this. By nature,
we're all rebels. We're rebels against God's sovereignty
and salvation. We're rebels against God's mercy
and grace. We're rebels against those things
that are freely given to God's people. We're rebels against
God's remedy, the only remedy for sin. It takes the gospel
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed to expose that
rebellion. Everyone who is now a member
of Christ's church is a former rebel. Under the gospel, the
Spirit of God delivered you from your rebellion against God's
way of salvation. If you're not a former rebel,
guess what? You're still a rebel. You're
a continuing rebel. Either way, it's the gospel.
It's the righteousness of God that exposes the rebellion of
sinners to God's way of salvation. All right? Why are we rebels? Why do we all rebel against the
mercy, goodness, and grace of God? That doesn't sound like
it makes a lot of sense, does it? This is our next point. What is the reason for our rebellion?
The righteousness of God is the most important single piece of
information sinners need to know and understand, because it alone
reveals the reason for man's rebellion. The gospel alone reveals
what the law could only picture and point to, but not provide. Look at Romans 10 verses 1 through
3. Paul writes to those at Rome,
he said, 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." If you see those words I underlined,
Israel is ignorant of God's righteousness. Israel is going about to establish
their own righteousness. Israel has not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. This passage is dealing with
rebellious sinners. In other words, those continuing
in, those not delivered from their rebellion. The Israel Paul
writes of here are his kinsmen in the flesh. Israel, that nation
chosen by God, they had all the advantages. They had the patriarchs. They had the prophets. They had
the law. They had the ceremonies. They
had the sacrifices. And in that ceremonial law, they
had the gospel in picture and type daily right before them.
They had all the advantages which the Gentiles didn't have at all. And yet, Israel was still ignorant
of God's righteousness. Of course, all who've never heard
of the righteousness of God are ignorant. They never heard it.
They don't know anything about it. They're ignorant of it. But
Israel was not ignorant in this sense. They weren't ignorant
in the sense that they'd never heard of God's righteousness,
nor were they ignorant because they didn't understand God's
righteousness. The prophets taught them of God's righteousness.
That law showed them God's righteousness. They were ignorant because they
failed to see the value that God puts on that righteousness.
It's the only way God can be just and justify an ungodly sinner. It's the only ground of salvation
revealed in the Scriptures. This is the bottom line reason
why all rebel against God. They are ignorant of the value
God puts on the righteousness revealed in His Gospel. And being
ignorant of that righteousness, they're automatically, all of
us by nature, are automatically going about to establish a righteousness
of our own. What do sinners do who are ignorant? who are ignorant of, those who
find no value for God's righteousness. What do they look to? Where do
they look for answers? Well, they look to the only thing
there is. They look to the law. They look
to the law for righteousness. Without the knowledge of and
value for God's standard of judgment, the righteousness worked out
in the doing and dying of Christ, without the knowledge and value
for that standard, we all try to set our own standard. The
law is what fuels the rebellion of sinners, because by nature
all have missed the purpose of the law. We don't know what that
law is designed to do. It's not designed to do what
we think it is by nature. The law's design toward fallen
sinners is and always has been to stop men's mouths from doing
what? From justifying themselves in
sin and bring them in guilty. Look at Romans 3 in verse 19. Now we know that what thingsoever
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. The law's design is to stop the
mouth and bring sinners in guilty. You see it right there. Who in
this world is under the law? Are you under the law? Am I under
the law? Who's under the law? Every sinner who thinks that
anything found in them makes up any part of the difference
between saved and lost, every sinner that's still trying to
work out a righteousness of their own by their own obedience, is
under the law. And that includes their faith,
their repentance, their good works, those things that they
attribute to God enabling them to do. Every sinner who is not submitted
to the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is under the law. In their mind, trying to work
out their own righteousness by the law. The law speaks to those
who are under it. That's what it says. What things
whoever the law saith, it saith to those under it. What does
it say? What does this law say? Well, the law's design is to
show sinners two vitally important things about themselves. First,
it has to show sinners that they're deserving of God's just punishment
because they've not kept the law perfectly and continually.
It's not enough that you might have kept the law better than
somebody else you know. It's not enough that you might
be more zealous in your religion than somebody else you know.
The fact that you're a sinner, the fact that you haven't kept
God's law perfectly and continually makes you, makes me, makes every
sinner deserving of God's eternal wrath. Look on at Romans 3 and
verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of law
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The first thing it reveals, our
deservedness of sin. Secondly, the law must show sinners
that they're liable to God's just punishment based on the
very best that they can do, based on the very obedience they can
render. It's perfection or nothing when
it comes to God's law. You either measure up to that
standard of perfect continual obedience or the law pronounces
you condemned. The law provides no means or
deliverance for sinners from either the deservedness that
we're under nor from our liability to God's just punishment. In
other words, the law reveals a need here that it can't fulfill,
not even based on our best effort to perform it. Until a sinner
sees his deservedness of God's eternal wrath and his liability
to that just punishment based on his best efforts at law, that
sinner has no need of a Savior. Why? Because as long as you think
you're doing something that separates you from others who are not doing
that something, as long as you think you're doing something
that makes you acceptable to God and others unacceptable,
you already have a Savior. Your doing is your Savior. You've
established a righteousness that at least in part is by your doing,
and you're continuing to reject the only righteousness by which
God can justify you. You need to hear about God's
Savior. You need to hear about a Savior who's done everything
required for the sinners He died for to stand just, unchangeably
righteous in the sight of God. You need to hear God's remedy
for sin, His remedy for guilt, His remedy for liability to God's
punishment. You need to hear about God's
remedy for the rebellion of sinners. The righteousness of God is the
only thing that exposes our rebellion. It's the only thing that reveals
the reason for that rebellion. We don't value God's righteousness.
Now, our last point, the righteousness of God is the only thing that
declares God's remedy for our rebellion. Look back at Romans
3 and verse 21 and 22a right here. But now, I always liked those words, but
now. He just said, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified,
for by law is the knowledge of sin. But now, now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."
Now, if you were here for the 10 o'clock hour, you heard Bill
talk about how much the law and the prophets witnessed the righteousness
of God. That's what it was all about
to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. That's what
they talked about. Look at Romans 8 verses 1 and
2 here. We're talking about God's remedy
for our rebellion by nature. Romans 8.1, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law
of sin and death. There's no condemnation to those
sinners who've done the best they could to live the way they
should. There's no condemnation who's
tried their best to keep the 10 commandments. There's no condemnation
to those who treated their fellow man as they wanted to be treated.
No, no, no to all that. There's no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Who is that? Well, they're those
identified by their walk. You see the end of verse 1, those
who walk not after the flesh, not trying to work out a righteousness
of their own, not coming before God presenting their good works,
but who walk after the Spirit, who walk In that righteousness,
the Spirit shows them in the gospel and leads them to as the
only way a sinner can be just in God's sight. They're identified
by their walk. For the law of the life of the
spirit of life in Christ, that's the gospel, has made me free
from the law of sin and death. You remember Gary preached on
that law of the spirit of life in Christ. It's the gospel. It's
the gospel wherein that righteousness is set forth, wherein Christ
is set forth as the savior of his people. God sends the gospel. and gives life to spiritually
dead sinners and delivers them from their rebellion to God's
way of salvation. That's what's going on in this
world today. There's nobody being delivered from the wrath of God
today. That all took place by Christ
on the cross. It's in His doing and dying.
That's where sinners are delivered from the wrath of God. We're
preaching God's gospel to rebels knowing that God will call His
elect out of darkness. He will call His sheep to this
Savior we declare to you week in and week out. Look at verses
3 and 4 in this same context. It says, For what the law could
not do, and in that it was weak to the flesh, God sending his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. or what the law could not do.
What the law could not do is exactly what we are all, by nature,
trying to get out of the law. What is it the law couldn't do?
It couldn't provide guilty sinners any means to deliver themselves
from guilt. It couldn't end a sinner's just
condemnation. It can't provide that. It can't
do that. And it cannot provide any means
by which sinners can be declared righteous and just in God's sight. That's why Christ came. That's
why we need a salvation that's totally exclusive of anything
found in us. We need a salvation dependent
upon Christ's work and that alone. That's why He was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, so that as a sacrifice for sin,
He could condemn sin in the flesh, that is, in His flesh, and condemn
that sin for every sinner He represented. Christ is God's
remedy for condemnation, and He's God's remedy for rebellion. He went to the cross to deliver
His sheep from the wrath we deserved. He comes to each of his sheep
in time under the gospel to deliver us from the bondage to sin and
the rebellion against God's way of salvation. Look at Titus 3
and look at verse 3 again, and then we're going to read some
more verses here. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared."
We were rebels. It says, but after that, and
despite that, The love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. First, the love of God toward
man appeared in Christ on the cross, putting away sin, working
out a righteousness. And then, in regeneration, the
love of God appears to deliver us from our own rebellion against
the salvation that God has provided His people in the doing and dying
of Christ alone. Look on in Titus verses 5 and
7 there, Titus 3, 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. It's the knowledge of the mercy
and grace of God in Christ that delivers sinners from their rebellion
against God's way of salvation. Christ put away sin. He brought
in everlasting righteousness. His righteousness imputed is
what enables God to be just when He justifies ungodly sinners.
God is able to save to the uttermost all, any sinner who comes unto
God by Him. So, there you have it. The righteousness
of God is the most important single piece of information sinners
need to know and understand because it's the only thing that will
expose a sinner's rebellion, the only thing that will reveal
the reason for that rebellion, the only thing that will declare
God's remedy. a Savior who's done it all, who
left no condition for sinners to meet, but who worked out the
righteousness by which God can declare you or me righteous in
his sight. My prayer is that God will deliver
you, you, whoever you are, listening to this message, that he'll deliver
you from your rebellion against God's way of salvation.