Well, it's my pleasure this morning
to introduce our speaker, Brother Bill Parker, former pastor of
our church. And at present, he's the pastor
of 13th Street in Nashville, Kentucky. He and his wife are
down here this week visiting with us. And Bill, we're glad
to have both of you. And you come and preach the gospel
to us. I want to direct your attention
back to Deuteronomy chapter 6. In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy
chapter 6. And again, let me express our
appreciation for all of you, for your prayers and your support
and your fellowship. We always enjoy, Debbie and I,
always enjoy coming back to visit and try to as often as we can
to get away from northeastern Kentucky and get down here to
the south. But it's been awful hot up there too. But last Wednesday,
we pulled into Cordele and got gas. And my temperature gauge
read 100 degrees. And then we went to Lake Blackshear,
and it went down to 99. So I thought, well, it's cooling
off. So the problem is it didn't get below 99 for a good long
while. But we still enjoy coming down
and visiting with you. Good to see everybody out, too.
If you'll look at Deuteronomy chapter 6, I'm going to deal
basically with one verse this morning, but I've got to deal
with it in context. So, and I want to deal with it
in context. Verse 25, the very last verse
of this, when it talks about, and it shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord
our God as he hath commanded us. The title of the message
is Our Righteousness. It shall be our righteousness.
Now you know as well as I do what most religious people think
when they see a verse like that. It shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments. And they normally
think of the righteousness of works. See there, if they work
hard enough, keep the commandments then they will be righteous or
be declared righteous well that is not what this is teaching
this is the second reading that's what the book of Deuteronomy
the term Deuteronomy means the second law what it means and
this is the second reading of the law to the nation Israel
And as I said before earlier in the Sunday school that this,
you've got to understand what happened here. Now this is the
people of Israel, the nation of Israel, they're about to go
into the promised land. They're about to pass over the
River Jordan and go into the promised land. And Moses in his
old age and before his death, as you know Moses was not allowed
to go into the promised land. And we could talk about the reason,
but the main reason is because Moses represented the law. And
the law cannot bring you into the promised land, which is a
picture of salvation. The law itself cannot save you,
cannot make you righteous. But it was Joshua who brought
the people into the promised land, Joshua. Joshua was a type
of Christ. His name in the Old Testament
would be Joshua, Yeshua, which is God our Savior, which the
New Testament equivalent is Jesus. For his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The law
came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so you have Joshua. One of
the two original members of the nation that wandered through
the wilderness 40 years because of their unbelief. But Joshua
represented as a type of Christ, as a picture, there's an object
lesson there. He's the one who led the children
of Israel over into the promised land. And that's a type of how
Christ is our savior. He's our redeemer. He's the one
who saves us and leads us into the promised land. So Moses is
reading the law. Now, 40 years earlier, this law
had been given on Mount Sinai. But here is the second reading.
That's what Deuteronomy is about, before they go into the promised
land. He had mentioned the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments.
That's the whole Old Covenant law of Moses. That would include
the Ten Commandments, but not just the Ten Commandments. It
also included the ceremonial law. What was the ceremonial
law? Well, that was the law of the priesthood. That was the
law of the sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
no remission of sins, you see, that blood shed. Now that sacrificial
system of worship, shedding the blood of animals, was instituted
by God right after the fall. Read it in Genesis chapter 3
and verse 21 when God slew animals and gave Adam and Eve coats of
skin rather than their own manufactured fig leaf aprons to cover their
nakedness. And that was a picture showing
how salvation cannot be by man's works or efforts, but only by
the blood of the one whom that animal typified. The blood of
the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. That's
Christ. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. See, all that animal blood that
was shed under the old covenant, and even before, The Old Covenant
for 1,500 years was a picture of the blood of Christ to satisfy
the justice of God. You may have, if you're familiar
with the New Testament much, you may have heard the term propitiation. We don't use that term much today.
And except when we're reading three verses out of the New Testament,
Romans 3 and Hebrews chapter, what is it, chapter 10, isn't
it? And I can't remember which chapter it is, but it's in Hebrews,
and then in 1 John chapter 4, or chapter 2 rather, and chapter
4 also. But that propitiation means a
satisfaction to justice. Satisfaction to justice. We know
something about that because God has implanted that within
the conscience of every individual person. You know that to do the
crime, there's a punishment. Now that doesn't always come
in an unjust world, in a fallen, sinful world, but it's there.
You young people, you probably face that first when your parents
punish you because of something you did wrong. You face it with
the civil government probably the first time you get behind
the wheel of a car. And you're going a little too
fast and you look behind you and there's those blue lights
flashing. And justice must be done. You're hoping that it won't
be done, aren't you? You're hoping that they'll let
you off. And that's okay if they do that. Sometimes they do. I've
been there too, believe me. But I'm going to tell you something.
If they let you off, let me tell you what has not happened there.
Justice has not been satisfied. If you're guilty, you say, well,
he had mercy on me. Well, he had mercy at the expense
of justice. Now, God can't do that. God is
a merciful God. He's a gracious God. But He cannot,
He cannot show mercy at the expense of justice. He cannot love sinners
without honoring His justice. He cannot be gracious and without
being just. He must punish sin. Now you put
those two together, justice and mercy, justice and grace, justice
and love, and you know what you have in the Bible? You have a
biblical understanding of righteousness. Of righteousness. In order to
be saved, You hear that term all the time. I'm saved, you're
saved, who's saved, how can we get saved, all that. Let me tell
you something. The first requirement of salvation is righteousness.
There's got to be righteousness established for salvation. And that's what God showed the
nation Israel in that law, in the law of Moses. We read this
in the first part of this in our study earlier this morning
about the statutes and the commandments and the judgments. God gave them
the law. Again, the Ten Commandments.
And the ceremonial law, the law of the priesthood, the sacrifice,
the altar. You had the tabernacle. The Ten
Commandments was given to them to show them their sinfulness
and depravity. It's like a mirror. You say,
better yet, it's like an x-ray machine or an MRI, because it
really reaches to the heart. You can't see your heart in a
mirror. You can see the outside. And that was a standard of righteousness,
a measure of righteousness that you must keep the law. But what's
the problem? We're sinners, for all have sinned
and come short, missed the mark of the righteous standard of
the law. We've missed it. We're all sinners. and we need
salvation. But that doesn't negate or deny
or confuse or cancel the law. It must be kept. It must be satisfied. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. That's why it says, without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. That means
without death. You know why? Because the wages of sin is death. There cannot be righteousness
except through justice satisfied. And that's what this law shows.
The ceremonial law, the law of the priesthood, the law of the
tabernacle, the law of the sacrifices, the blood that was shed through
animals was a type, a picture, a symbol, an object lesson of
God's way of righteousness, God's way of salvation through the
Lord Jesus Christ. So then salvation is by grace
and even Moses believed that. You know that? Christ said in
John chapter 5, he said, if you had believed Moses, you would
have believed me for Moses wrote of me. Moses didn't teach Israel
salvation by works. He didn't do that. Oh, they,
they thought that they believed that the Pharisees came along.
They, they had a righteousness in their own eyes, but it was
the righteousness of works. They worked hard for it. They'd
been religious. They'd been sincere. They'd gone
to church. They'd tried to do good. They
prayed. They fasted. And Christ came
along in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20,
and he made this statement, except your righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in
no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. No, you've got to have
one better than any man can produce, even the best of men. because
man at his best is altogether what the psalmist said? Vanity.
You see there's no way a sinner can be made righteous before
God by works. There's no way. That's what this
law of Moses, that's what Deuteronomy's telling us. Look back at verse
10, I read this earlier, this is good. Israel was delivered
out of Egypt not because of their greatness and their power and
their goodness, but because of a promise that God had made to
a man 400 years before, a man who was saved by grace, a man
who didn't deserve salvation and didn't earn it. His name
was Abraham. And God sent Moses down into
Egypt to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage just
because of a promise that he'd made to Abraham and an oath that
he'd sworn to Abraham. Had nothing to do with Israel's
greatness. They were the fewest of all people.
He says that in Deuteronomy 7. They were the least. Had nothing
to do with their goodness. They were a sinful people. They
were a murmuring people. They were a complaining people.
And murmuring in the Old Testament is unbelief. Guess what? It still is. Still is. You say, well, those dirty, rotten
Israelites, oh no, we're just like them, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. You say, well, they should
have believed God. Sure, yes, and you should too,
and so should I. You see, there's none righteous,
no, not one, in God's sight. But look here, he says in verse
10, it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee
into the land which he sware unto thy fathers. Abraham was
the one God made the covenant with, but it was confirmed to
Isaac and then to Jacob to give thee great and goodly cities
which thou buildest not. I'm gonna give you a city that
you didn't build. As I told the folks earlier, I said cities
today are kind of a negative thing because we think of crime
and all kinds of bad things when you associate them with big cities.
But back then when they said city, it was a place of refuge,
a place of protection, a place of safety. And God said this
to him, he said, I'm gonna give you a city that you didn't, I'm
gonna give you cities you didn't build. You know what that picture's? Salvation by grace. When God
saves a sinner, he gives that sinner safety and refuge that
he had no part in building. Go on, he says, he says in verse
11, and houses full of all good things which thou felt not. All
the blessings of God. that he gives us in salvation
are things that we had nothing to do with earning. You didn't
fill these houses, God did. That's grace. Wells digged which thou digs
not. You're gonna drink water. Water
was a precious commodity to these folks. I'm finding out it's a
precious commodity if you live in Atlanta these days. Well,
he says, I'm gonna give you water from wells that you didn't dig.
Of course, that's a picture of Christ, the living water. He
told the woman at the well, wells of living water, springs of living
water. That's the glorious blessings
of salvation. You see, the Bible teaches that
we don't earn or deserve God's blessings. Now, preachers today
will tell you otherwise. But the Bible says in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 3 that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If we have Him, we have
it all. And that includes righteousness. He says, I'm gonna give you vineyards
and olive trees which thou plantest not. That's the fruit of grace. And when thou shalt have eaten
and be full. You see, that's grace. That's
what it is. And look at verse 16. He says,
you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in
Massa. You know what Massa is? Go back and sometime read Exodus
17. That's when the people of Israel,
After they had been brought out of the promise, out of bondage
of Egypt, and they crossed the Red Sea on dry land, and that
Red Sea is a picture of the blood of Christ. That's how we get
out of bondage and into safety and freedom, by the blood of
Christ. And after they had been given the law at Mount Sinai
and they'd been judged by God for their idolatry and unbelief
and they had to wander in the wilderness for all those years,
they began to complain because they didn't have any water. And
God provided a rock and he told Moses to strike the rock, you
see, and out of the rock came the water. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians,
I believe it's chapter 10, that rock was Christ. How do you explain
that? I don't know, but I'll tell you
what, that's a great picture of how our life and our sustenance
is not by our works. It's by our rock, Christ Jesus.
But you see, they tested God because they murmured and complained.
He says, don't do that. He says in verse 17, you shall
diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. Now God,
now listen to me now about these commandments. Under the old covenant,
Before the old covenant, after the old covenant, God never has
and never will command a sinner to seek salvation by their works. He's never commanded that. So
if you're talking about keeping the commandments of God, you're
not talking about working for your salvation or working for
your preservation or even working for your rewards, which is big
in the mythology of religion today. God commands his people to rest
in Christ for all salvation. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. Not a
day. Christ is our Sabbath. We rest
in his finished work for all righteousness. And that's what
God commanded these people under the old covenant. I'll show you
that in just a moment. He says, you shall diligently keep the
commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his
statutes which he hath commanded thee, and thou shalt do that
which is right and good in the sight of the Lord. That's exactly
right. Obedience is not an option now.
Don't ever think that because salvation is by grace that that
cancels out or denies or even lessens the necessity of obedience
to God. every way because obedience listen
it's not enough it's necessary but never are we commanded to
obey God in order to earn or attain or maintain our salvation
it's the obedience of love it's the obedience of grace it's the
obedience of gratitude that's what it is And he says that it
may be well with thee that thou mayest go in and possess the
good land which the Lord swear unto thy fathers, to cast out
all the enemies from before thee as the Lord hath spoken. And
when thy son asketh thee in time to come saying, what mean the
testimonies and the statues? What does all this mean? And
the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you. Here's
what you tell him. Now look at verse 21. You start
with redemption. by God's power and goodness and
grace. Then thou shalt say unto thy
son, we were Pharaoh's bomb men in Egypt. That's a picture of
man in sin, depraved, dead in trespasses and sin. He said,
and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He
didn't say the Lord reached down 90% of the way and then we had
to come the 10%. He didn't say Christ did his
part and now the rest is up to you. He said, no, the Lord reached
down and brought us out. Hannah, in her prayer, had another
way of saying it. She said, the Lord lifteth the
beggar off the dung heap. He didn't say, now beggar, you
jump up and I'll catch you. No, he reached all the way down
to the dung heap and he lift the beggar out. He brought this
nation out of Egypt. They didn't come of their own
wills. They didn't even listen. When Moses came and first dealt
with them, they didn't even want to get out. And then later on,
they wanted to go back. That's their will. So he says,
he brought you out with a mighty hand, his mighty hand. And the
Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes, and he brought
us out from this that he might bring us in. He not only brought
us out of bondage, but he brought us in to blessing. You see, this
is not salvation conditioned on the sinner. This is not salvation
by man's power or by man's worth. God brought us out and he brought
us in to give us, not to enable us to earn, but to give us the
land which he sware unto our fathers. That's a picture of
salvation. When God saves a sinner, he brings
us out of the bondage of sin, brings us into the blessings
of grace, and it's all according to a covenant that he made with
his son before the world began. And it was all conditioned on
one thing, Christ coming into the world to die on the cross
in order to satisfy the justice of God and to bring in everlasting
righteousness. Verse 24, the Lord God commanded
us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, that's
to worship him and trust him and serve him in grace for our
good always that he might preserve us alive as it is today and it
shall be our righteousness. if we observe to do all these
commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us.
Now, this cannot be the righteousness of works. Let me give you these
reasons. Number one, first of all, the only way to have righteousness
by works of the law is to keep it perfectly. That's the only way to have righteousness
by works of the law. The only way that I can be made
righteous by works of the law is to keep the law perfectly,
no sin at all. And the scripture says in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 10 that those who are of the works of the law
are under the curse. Because cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do. In other words, if you're seeking
salvation or any part of it based on your works, here's what you
have to do. You have it all to do. You're
a debtor to do the whole law. Galatians chapter 3 says that.
You're a debtor to do it all. Secondly, all of us are sinners. And in ourselves, we have no
righteousness before God. Romans 3 and verse 10 says, there's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Would you fail to say that you're
a sinner? If you do, then you're deluded.
You're deceived. You're in darkness. But there
is no righteousness where sin is existent. In the center. Thirdly, the Bible teaches there
is no possibility of righteousness by our works. That's what this
whole law was about. That's why God gave him the Ten
Commandments. Let me show you that. Turn to Romans chapter
3 with me. Now listen to this. Verse 19. Romans 3. I want to show you a couple verses
here. Romans 3 in verse 19. It says,
Now we know that what things whoever 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
the law do then? It exposes our guilt, our depravity. Verse 20, therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified. That means be pardoned,
declared not guilty, declared righteous in his, in God's sight. Now a man may say something different
about you. A woman may look at you and say,
you look like a pretty good person to me. If anybody's saved, you
are. You remember the disciples said
that about the rich young man. When the Lord exposed his guilt
and his depravity and he went away sorrowful, Remember what
the disciples asked? They said, well, if he's not
saved, who can be? You see, that's what they were
saying by their observation. Man, you see, I can look at you
or you can look at me and we can say, well, you know, I know
that person's saved. I can tell by looking at him.
Well, now you better back up now. The Lord looketh on what? The heart. But in God's sight, no flesh
shall be justified, declared righteous in his sight by our
deeds of law. For by the law is the what? Read
it there in verse 20. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Now turn over to Romans 5 and
look at verse 20. Now somebody may ask, well, if
we cannot be saved by our works of the law, then why did God
even give us the law? All right, look at verse 20 of
Romans chapter 5. It says, moreover, the law entered,
the law was given, that the offense, what's an offense? That's offending
God, sinning against God, that the offense might abound. Now,
in the original language there, the picture is like overflowing
like a flood. It says, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Well, where sin overflowed me
like a flood. You see, this is the situation
with all of us by nature, as ruined in Adam and born in sin. We're drowning in a sea of sin.
It may not look like it outwardly. You may be religious outwardly.
You may be moral in the sight of men, but in God's sight, according
to his standard of righteousness and holiness, we are all drowning
in a sea of sin. Now, if that's not the case,
let me tell you something. You say, well, not with me. Well,
okay, if that's what you think, you don't need salvation. You're
not like the rest of us sick sinners. You're all right. And I'm surprised we didn't recognize
you when you come through the door, because you ought to be
walking on a cloud somewhere. You know, these folks that say,
well, you can live above sin, well, they're living above me.
And I have to look up to them, but I haven't seen anybody like
that yet. How about you? You see, everybody needs salvation.
The problem is, is not everybody knows it. It's kind of like everybody's
sick, but not everybody knows it. We need the great physician. We need Christ. But that's why
it came. There is no possibility of salvation
by works. That's what the scripture says.
None at all. And here's the fourth thing.
The Bible teaches, and this is what the law of Moses taught.
The only way to be righteous before God is by His grace through
Christ. Now go back to Romans 3. He said,
by the law is the knowledge of sin, okay? But verse 21 of Romans
3, now listen to this. He says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. It's not by our works of the
law. But that's what the law itself witnessed, testified of,
along with the prophets. They told the people of Israel,
too. That's why the people hated them. Here's what Isaiah told
the people of his generation. He says, Your righteousness is
no good. Your works cannot save you. You
must look to God's grace. You must come before God as a
sinner seeking mercy, beating on your chest like that old publican
saying, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And they would
say, well, now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You can't say
that about us, Isaiah. We're children of Abraham. Remember
what John the Baptist said? He said, don't say that because
that's not going to work. They said, we're circumcised.
means we kept the law we follow Moses none of those things will
make you righteous in the sight of God and that's why they hated
Isaiah that's why they that's why they killed him because he
exposed them for what they are he wouldn't allow them to carry
on in their own self-righteous works religion And so it says
here it's without the law, that is without, but the law witnesses,
verse 22, look at it. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, not by your faith or my faith,
but by his faith to do what he came to do. It's unto all, it's
preached unto all, and it's upon all them that believe. That's,
I believe, those who believe revealed that that righteousness
has been imputed to them, charged to them, accounted to them. For
there is no difference for all sin and comes short of the glory
of God. Listen to this, verse 24, being justified how? Freely. Give you houses you didn't fill,
cities you didn't build, vineyards you didn't plant. You justified,
made righteous, not guilty, unconditionally, freely, without hindrance. by his grace through the redemption,
that's what Christ did, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, a satisfaction through faith
in what now? Faith, not just faith, you know
people talk about faith, faith in what? Faith in who? faith
in his blood, faith in his death, faith in his satisfaction to
law and justice, to declare his righteousness. You see, my righteousness
before God is not my own, of my own making. It's his righteousness
charged to me. That's what the law of Moses
testified of in Deuteronomy 6 and all the way through. For the
remission of sins that are passed. That was even true of the Old
Testament believers. through the forbearance of God,
that he might be just and justify. It's only through Christ. For
by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto, not because
of, but unto good works. Good works are the fruit, not
the cause. They're the effect, not the cause. unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now turn to Galatians 3. Here's the last point. All the
commandments, all the statutes, and all the judgments of the
old covenant law pointed sinners to Christ for righteousness,
not to their works. Verse 22 of Galatians chapter
3. Now you know, in the churches
of Galatia, you had Jewish people who claimed to be Christian,
who claimed to preach Christ, who had crept into these churches
and wanted to bring people back under the old covenant law in
order to be saved or kept saved or to be made righteous by their
works or their circumcision or keeping days. And Paul said,
now that's a false gospel. That's another gospel. If salvation
is not all of grace in Christ alone based on his righteousness
alone, then it's another gospel. And the moment any preacher or
any person introduces the works of the sinner as far as attaining
or maintaining salvation, that's when they deny Christ. That's
why he said, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
And what he meant by that is if you think circumcision will
recommend you unto God or earn you God's blessings, then you're
denying Christ. and what he accomplished. So
he says in verse 22, look at Galatians 3, he says, but the
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that's Jew and Gentile,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore the law, that's the
old covenant law, was our schoolmaster, to bring us under Christ that
we might be justified by faith. Now what is faith? That's what
Christ accomplished. That's looking to Him, believing
in Him, resting in Him. Now look at verse 25. But after
that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster.
That old covenant now is abolished. We're no longer under that old
covenant, see. The shadow's gone, the substance is here. The picture's
gone, the substance is here. I think it was you, Sue, who
was talking about that, or somebody was talking about that, or it
was Rosa, I think, talking about that picture, that illustration
I used. You think about all of the husbands
and wives today in the United States who have a husband or
a wife overseas in Afghanistan or Iran or Iraq, and they miss
them. And they probably have pictures
in their house. And they probably take those pictures down or off,
and they look at that picture, that wife looking at the picture
of her husband. And her heart just leaps looking
at that picture. But here she is standing there
looking at that picture, and all of a sudden, she hears a
knock on the door. And she opens the door, and there's
the husband. He's home from Iraq. He's home from Afghanistan. Now,
what do you think she's gonna do? You think she's gonna shut
the door and go back and look at the picture? You're going to
drop that picture and hug and kiss that man and embrace him. And that's what it is. The old
covenant was pictures and shadows and symbols, but Christ has come. Now embrace him. Kiss the son
lest he be angry. You see, we don't relish in the
pictures. We study them, but we see their glory in the substance
who is Christ. And that's what he's saying there.
After verse 25, after that faith has come, we're no longer under
a schoolmaster. For you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as you have been
baptized into Christ. Now that's not talking about
water baptism here. We're going to have a baptism
here in just a few minutes. That's a confession of our union
with Christ. But the baptism, the word baptized
means literally placed into. That's what it literally means.
Sometimes we use the word immersion. That's why we baptize by immersion
in water, because it's placed into the water. We don't sprinkle
or pour. It's a picture of our death,
burial, and resurrection with Christ. And this water baptism
doesn't save you. And you know that. It's a confession
that you've already been saved. You've already been placed into
Christ from the foundation of the world and at the cross. And then he says, you put on
Christ. You see there, the law was a schoolmaster. Let me read
you this passage, Jeremiah 23, verse five and six. This is a
prophecy of Christ during the time of the old covenant, during
Jeremiah's time. He said, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch
and a king shall reign and prosper. Now that's a prophecy of Christ. who was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, his humanity, his sinless humanity, and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth. See, justice has
to be satisfied. He's gonna execute it. How? By his cross. And in his days,
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. Now, who
is that? That's spiritual Israel. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. You see, our righteousness
is Christ. Paul said it in Philippians chapter
three. He said, all that I may be found
in him in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness of God, which is by faith. our righteousness
it is ours not because we worked it out or we been so good or
what it's ours because he gave it to us god imputed it to us
he accounted it to us he laid it to our charge just as he laid
our sins to christ's charge and he died for those sins he laid
his righteousness to our charge and we have and he is our righteousness