we're ever going to be brought
up, he's going to have to reach way down for us. And I'm thankful
that he does. Open your Bibles again to Isaiah
chapter 46. The title of the message this
evening is Righteousness Brought Near. Ever since Adam fell in
the garden, man has had two great needs. Number one, we need our
sin to be forgiven. We need our sin to be paid for
and blotted out. And second, we need to be made
righteous. You and I are sinful, so we need
to be given a new nature, a righteous nature. Now, these are our two
great needs. Man is dead, so he doesn't know
that's his need. And we're dead, so we can't do
these things for ourselves. We don't even know how these
things can be accomplished. So God must do them for us. Now
by nature, we don't know the true and living God. And that's
why idolatry is everywhere you look, because we don't know the
true and living God. Men know that we need God. Men
know that we must worship God. We know that inherently God must
forgive us, but we don't know him, so we make one up. That's
what Isaiah talks about here in verse five of Isaiah 46. To
whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that
we may be alike? They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver in the balance. Hire a goldsmith, and he maketh
it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship.
They bear him upon the shoulder. They carry him, and they set
him in his place, and he standeth. He stays right there. From his
place shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Now it
ought to be obvious to us that an idol who can't go anywhere
unless we carry him He can't do anything for us. It ought
to be obvious that an idol who can't speak to us, he can't hear
us, can't tell us how our sins are going to be forgiven, how
we could be made righteous. That ought to be obvious to us,
but it's not because our nature is dead. If a sinner is going
to be made righteous, Almighty God must do it. I mean, it just
is so obvious we can't do anything for ourselves. We fall down and
worship a hunk of wood. God must do something for us.
And scripture tells us that God has forgiven the sin of his people,
that he has made his people, his elect people righteous. And
this thing of salvation, this thing of God making his people
righteous is not left to chance. It's not left to us to decide
whether we'll accept it or reject it. God has an eternal purpose
and he's carrying it out. Verse eight, he tells us that.
Now remember this, he says, And show yourselves, men, bring it
again to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of
old, for I'm God and there is none else. I'm God and there's
none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. God has an eternal purpose. That purpose is the purpose of
redemption for His people through the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
purpose is to make His people righteous through Christ's righteousness. God's purpose is to forgive the
sins of His people through the sacrifice of His Son. That's
God's purpose. And God says that His counsel
shall stand. Now, you know what that means?
Whatever it is that God's purpose to happen is gonna happen. That's
what that means. God has the power to declare
the end from the beginning. From the beginning. Before the
beginning of this earth ever was, God told us what the end
would be. Now God didn't know what the
end would be because he looked down through the telescope of
time and he saw what the end would be so then he turned around
and told us what it would be. That'd be like a fortune teller.
God knew what the end was going to be because he determined that's
what it was going to be. He purposed that was it was going
to be from all of eternity. So everything that happens, I
mean everything that happens in our world happens because
God determined for it to happen at that exact second before he
ever created the world. Now either that's so or God's
not God. Either God determined every minute
event of human history before the world was ever created or
there is no God. That's the only two options.
Well, God is God and He does do all of His pleasure. Whatever
it is that God determined to do in eternity is exactly what
He's doing right now. Here it is just a little over
a week from Christmas and we had spring today. You want to
know why? God determined for that to happen
before he ever created the world. Well, that's so. And nobody can
stay his hand. Nobody can change God's purpose. Nobody can alter it. You know,
we call this a plan. You know, it's not a plan. Like I make plans to do something.
Well, that might happen. It may not. This is not a plan.
God doesn't have a plan of salvation. He has a purpose of salvation. He's purposed to save his people. And that purpose is going to
happen. And we ought to take comfort in this truth. I know
that human nature rebels against it, but we ought to take comfort
in this. God's a God of purpose. There
are no accidents in our lives. On a whole lot rather, God direct
everything in my life than risk getting in an accident by dumb
luck on the way home this evening. I'd a whole lot rather have God
be in control of that. There are no accidents in our
lives. And you know, it's easy to thank God when He sends things
to us that we think are pleasant, isn't it? You know, we show up
at work one day and the boss calls us into his office, gets
us a promotion. We say, well, God did that. You
know, we're so thankful. Well, it's true, God did that.
But you know, those things that we think are unpleasant, they're
no accident either. They are no accident. These things
happen by the will of our Heavenly Father, the same way unpleasant
things do, or pleasant things do. And there's real comfort
in believing that. And it's not really, it's not
believing that, is it? is believing Him. There's real
comfort in believing Him. He will accomplish His purpose. Now our Lord often chooses to
use strange circumstances to accomplish His will. Our Lord
often chooses to use things that seem contrary to nature to accomplish
His will. And you know why He does it that
way? He does it that way so when it happens we'll know Oh, God
did this. This is not some random act.
God did this. Look at verse 11. Calling a ravenous
bird from the East, the man that executes my counsel from a far
country. Yeah, I've spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will also
do it. Now you remember when the Lord,
that time there was a famine. The Lord wouldn't send rain on
the earth for a number of years and there was a famine. And he
told Elijah, you go down there by the stream. And during that
time, no rain, the stream didn't run dry. Elijah had something
to drink. And the ravens, ravens flew in every morning and every
evening bringing Elijah bread and meat to eat. Now that's against
the nature of a raven to do that, especially a hungry raven. This
is a famine. The raven doesn't have anything
to eat and he picks up bread wherever he got it. I do not
know and didn't eat it. He carried it to Elijah. He picked
up meat. He's a hungry raven. He didn't
eat it. He carried it to Elijah. That's against nature. God used
those ravens to feed his prophet. So we know the Lord did this. And the Lord says here, he's
going to do the same thing with Cyrus. He's going to call Cyrus
from a far country to deliver Israel. The Lord's going to bring
Cyrus, this mighty conquering king. And he's not going to come
to conquer and destroy Israel. He's going to come to conquer
and set Israel free. And then when he does, you know
what Cyrus is going to do? He's going to give him money to go
back and rebuild Jerusalem, rebuild the temple. That's contrary to
the nature of a man. A man don't give up money. He
don't have to. Cyrus did. How'd that happen? God purposed
for that to happen. God purposed to use that man,
contrary to human nature, to deliver his people. And these
things still happen. God still works with his people
this way. You think about this. How on earth is Wayne Kennel
gonna get from Pennsylvania to Ashland, Kentucky? How's he gonna
do that? Come hear the gospel. And somehow
he gets here, he asks Tara on a date, she shoots him down the
first time. Well, what are we going to do? Wayne's not coming.
Oh no, he's coming. Tara relented. God's purpose
was to save him. And he brought him to hear the
gospel. How on earth is Dan Morgan going to get from Lexington to
Ashland? Dan graduated from college, got him a job, and he was so
happy, he avoided Ashland like the plague. Got him a job in
Lexington. And then before long, you know
what happened? Dan's running from Ashley and they transferred
him to Ashley. Wonder why? It's God's eternal purpose. God works things against human
nature. He's got to work it against our
nature. Our nature's contrary to him. God works against human
nature and brings his people to hear the gospel because that
is his eternal purpose for that son of Adam, his child. Now,
since we'll never figure out how God forgives sin, and we'll
never figure out how does God make sinners righteous, God gives
us the message. He makes it plain. He gives us
the message that tells sinners how God forgives sin and how
it is that God makes a sinner righteous. Will we listen? This is a message
from God. Look what he says. Hearken unto
me. This is the message of God for
sinners. Will we listen? Hearken unto
me, ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. Now I
want us to notice who this message is sent to. The Lord describes
them in two ways. This message is sent to the stout-hearted. You know what that word stout-hearted
means? It means stubborn as a bull.
That's us, isn't it? Stubborn as a bull, stout-hearted. Something that's stout is hard,
you can't move it. Our natural heart is hard, it's
stout, it's dead, it's full of pride, full of arrogance. It's
useless for nothing. Useless for no spiritual thing
at all. But God has a message of grace
for his people. Now if he's sending this message
to the stout hearted, it has to be a message of grace, doesn't
it? The stout hearted didn't earn it. The stout hearted didn't
deserve it. The only explanation is grace. God has a message of grace and
forgiveness for the stout-hearted. And the second way God describes
his people, now these are God's people, the people that he's
chosen to save. He describes his people by nature
as far from righteousness. Well, how far away from righteousness
are we? Well, we're so far away from righteousness that scripture
calls us unrighteous. We're the polar opposite of righteous. We're as far away from righteous
as you can get. Now that's bad news because remember
one of the things we are great needs is righteousness. We need
to be made righteous since we're fallen Adam. And God tells us
we're far from righteousness. We're as far away as you can
get. Then how can I get near to righteousness? How can I be
so near to righteousness that I'm made righteous? That's the
question. When ourselves, we can't. We
can't do that. But God promises it's His purpose
for His people to bring that righteousness near. We're not going to go to it.
He's coming to us and He's going to make His people righteous.
Look what He says in verse 13. I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off. And
my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel my glory. Now, God who always does his
pleasure, God who always accomplishes his will, said this is what I've
purposed, to bring righteousness near to my people. I'm going
to bring it so near to them, I'm going to make them righteous.
Now, first thing we've got to notice here is this. What righteousness
is he talking about? Is it our righteousness, which
is of the law? No. God says, this is my righteousness. I bring my righteousness near. This is not a righteousness that
we can earn. It's not going to come from us.
This is God's righteousness. The very righteousness that God
worked out as a man under the law, as the Lord Jesus Christ
made of a woman. He obeyed God's law perfectly. That obedience is God's righteousness,
the righteousness that he's going to bring near. And sinners receive
that righteousness by imputation. We receive it through faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, you can just imagine,
oh, Saul of Tarsus, can't you? That fellow said, I was righteous. I mean, touching the righteousness
which is of the law, I was blameless. He thought he was righteous,
didn't he? Look at Philippians chapter 3. Saul of Tarsus thought that,
but God taught the apostle Paul better, didn't He? Look here
at Philippians 3 verse 7. But what things were gained to
me, all those things I thought were gained to me, all those
things I thought made God pleased with me, those I counted loss
for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, all those
things that I thought were so, made me so good under the law,
all my own obediences, all my own doings, I count all those
things and do count them but dung. that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. We have God's righteousness brought
near to us by faith. Now look back at Romans chapter
four. God says, this is my righteousness.
And that is the righteousness of every believer. Every believer,
I don't care where you find them, I don't care what age you find
them in, every one of them has the exact same righteousness. It's the righteousness of God.
Every believer is made righteous the same way. It's always through
faith in Christ. Romans 4 verse 13, for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith, not by works, by faith. Now, someone's going to ask,
well, don't believers work then? I mean, what you're saying, so
I just won't do anything. Well, then you haven't heard
the gospel. Then God hadn't saved you. If you think that, of course,
believers work. They have works of faith and
love, but those works have absolutely nothing to do with being made
righteous. A sinner is only made righteous
in Christ. We're only made righteous through
faith in Christ. And if you look in Hebrews chapter
11, I'll show you a good example of that, Noah. We're not made righteous through
our works, it's through faith in Christ. Hebrews 11 verse 7. By faith, Noah being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an
ark to the saving of his house, by the witch he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith."
Now, I don't know much about ark building, but I pretty well
imagine Noah worked awful hard at it, don't you? He didn't have
a circular saw. I mean, this is hard work. That man built an ark with his
bare hands. That's hard work. But how is
Noah made righteous? Now, was it by his works, building
that ark? No. It says here it was by faith. Noah moved with fear and built
an ark in faith because he believed God. Noah got in that ark and
God shut the door. Noah stayed right there because
he believed God. See, he's made righteous by faith
in Christ. And your labor of love, all the
labor that you put in to support this ministry and do things around
here, comes from the exact same motivation. Not trying to earn
a reward. It's because of faith in Christ.
Faith and love. Now, God purposed righteousness
for his people. He purposed it in eternity. Well,
they're going to have it, aren't they? We know they are. Because
whatever God purposes, he brings to pass. Well, how? How will God bring his righteousness
near his people? Well, I have four or five things
here. Number one, God brought his righteousness near by prophecy
of Christ in the Old Testament scriptures. All through the Old
Testament scriptures, the people had the law, but all the time
they were under that law, we're told righteousness doesn't come
by the law because we can't keep it. So God is going to send righteousness. He's going to send His righteousness
to His people. Look at Psalm 85. Let's look
at a couple of these Old Testament scriptures and see that God sent
His righteousness near to His people by prophecy of Christ. Psalm 85, verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him, and shall set us in the way of his steps. We're starting
to get a pretty good hint here that righteousness is a person.
Not a thing. He refers to righteousness here
as a person. He'll set his people in him.
Look in Jeremiah chapter 23. Here the Lord removes all doubt.
Righteousness is not a thing. Righteousness is a person. And
the Father is going to send him to this earth to be near his
people, to be bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Jeremiah
23, verse 5. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved. This is God's purpose. They shall
be saved. And Israel shall dwell safely.
And this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord,
our righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu. There's no doubt
this, he's talking of a person here and his name is Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. He's going to bring righteousness
near to his people. I'll tell you, he'll be effectual
too. Sometime this evening, we read it often. You look at Jeremiah
32. How near did Christ bring his
righteousness to his people? So near that God says this is
the name we're with. She shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. How did she get that name? Jehovah
Sidkenu brought it near to her, didn't he? Now look at Malachi
chapter four. Malachi, the last book in the
Old Testament. The last chapter of the Old Testament. Malachi four, verse two. But
unto you that fear my name, shall the son of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings. And you should go forth and grow
up as calves of the stall. See, there's no doubt. Righteousness
is a person. His name is Jehovah Sidkenia. His name is the Son of Righteousness. It is dark now. It's dark in
our unrighteousness. But the Son's gonna rise. The
Son of Righteousness is coming to bring His righteousness near
and make His people righteous in the end. God brought His righteousness
near through all the prophecy of Christ in the Old Testament.
Then second, God brought His righteousness near when He sent
His Son into the world as a man. If you're still there, Malachi,
look over one page, Matthew chapter one. This is the time of year
everyone thinks about the birth of the Lord. And I guarantee
it wasn't December 25th, but I don't care what day it was.
The day, whatever day it was, that the Lord Jesus Christ was
born in Bethlehem. God sent his righteousness near. He sent him near. He took on
him a body. like we have. Look here at Matthew
1 verse 20. While Joseph thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son. How
do you know that's not going to be a daughter? That's God's
eternal purpose. She's going to bring forth a
son. And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins. There's no doubt. There's no
doubt. Well, what if what? No, there's
no doubt. He shall save his people from
their sins because that's God's eternal purpose. And he'll be
able to do that because he didn't partake in Adam's nature, did
he? He wasn't conceived of a man. He was conceived of the whole
of the Holy Ghost. So he is righteous in himself.
Look here at verse 22, Matthew 1. Now all this was done that
it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the
prophet, this Old Testament prophecy. Saying behold, a virgin shall
be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. The righteousness of God is brought
so near. God is with us in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to this earth and brought
righteousness to the earth. And if you look at Romans chapter
three, it is only through him, only through this one born of
a virgin in Bethlehem, that a sinner can be made righteous because
he came to this earth for this purpose, to be the righteousness
of his people. Romans three verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now
the righteousness of God, the same righteousness God talked
about there in Isaiah 46, but 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 how? by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference. God
brought his righteousness near to his people by sending his
son to be a man upon this earth. Third, God brought his righteousness
near through the preaching of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ
came, established righteousness as a man under the law. He went
to Calvary, took the sin of his people, blotted it out with the
blood of his sacrifice. He suffered, he died, he rose
again the third day for our justification. But we don't know anything about
that. So God sends his gospel near to his people. He sends
the gospel of Christ our righteousness to all of his people. And if
you're still there in Romans 3, look here at verse 23. This
is the message of the gospel. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now this gospel plainly
declares all men are lost in Adam. We're ruined in Adam. We're ruined. Something's ruined. It can't be repaired. It can't
be fixed up. It can't be patched up. We're
ruined. We cannot be educated into righteousness
by the preacher because our mind is dead. It can't learn anything. And we can't be threatened into
righteousness by the law, because our karma is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. The gospel declares the only
hope a sinner has is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look to Him,
believe Him, trust in Him. The gospel has one message. It
declares Christ. The gospel declares forgiveness
of sin in His blood. The gospel declares righteousness
through His obedience. And God doesn't leave this a
chance. He brings the gospel near to his people. And then
he gives them faith to believe. Fourthly, God brought his righteousness
near through the new birth. When God causes one of his children
to be born again, God's righteousness is brought so near to them that
he's one with them. The text says, my righteousness
shall not be far off I'm going to place it in Israel. I'm going to place my righteousness
in my people. Look at 2 Peter 1, we'll see
how he does that. It's through the new birth. God puts his salvation, his righteousness
in his people by causing a new man to be born. 2 Peter 1 verse
3. according as His divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust." God brings His righteousness so near to His people that it's
in them, they're partakers of it. through union with Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that
God's people are actually made to be the righteousness of God
in Christ. Now that's God accomplishing
his eternal purpose. God sends his gospel to his people. And then he personally, God personally,
in the person of the Holy Spirit, comes near. The Spirit comes
so near, He touches the heart. He comes so near, He gives a
new heart. He comes so near, He dwells in
that heart that He puts in His people. And you know what? It won't be
one second late. God said, My salvation shall
not tarry. It won't be one second late. What love, what mercy, what grace,
that God would come so near to His people. Now we're made righteous. There's a righteous nature born
in every believer. And I know y'all know this, but
let's just be clear. There's still nothing righteous
about any of us. Not one thing. There's nothing
righteous about our flesh. There's nothing righteous in
any of our doings. We say with the Apostle Paul,
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. I mean, that's obvious. Now there's
nothing righteous of us, nothing righteous of a believer, but
there's something righteous in us. It's the righteousness of
God that he brought near and caused to be born in us in the
new birth, in us. That's pretty near, in us. And
then fifthly, God will bring his righteousness near. when
he perfects that righteousness and glory. Look at 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3 verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Now when Christ returns, God's
going to make, he's going to burn up this old creation. Sin's
been in it. It's got to be destroyed. He's
going to burn it up and he's going to create a new heaven
and a new earth that is righteous. And in that new creation, there
will be no trace of sin. None. Everything will be righteous. Don't turn to this, but let me
read it to you. Isaiah 65. For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come
into mind. There's going to be no trace
of sin left. Now look at, turn over to Revelations
chapter 19. God's going to make his righteousness
so near. It's going to be perfected in
us so that sin, this whole old creation, not even going to be
remembered. There will be no sin. only righteousness in that
new creation. And that applies to everyone
who's there too, not just the creation itself, but all of God's
people. They will be perfectly righteous,
both body and soul. Revelation 19 verse five. And
a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye
his servants and ye that fear him, both small and great. And
I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude. and as
the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering
sang, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Some of you are here Sunday afternoon
after our dinner and Lucy Brady played that hallelujah chorus.
I love that song. The words come straight from
God himself. Hallelujah, for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. That's the song of glory. Let's
be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage
of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white for the fine. Now this is speaking in picture
and the spirit tells us exactly what this picture is. For the
fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. That righteousness,
that's not just going to be a garment that we put on. Brother Scott
Richardson used to say, God's righteousness is not painted
on or pasted on. This robe of righteousness is a picture of
perfect righteousness, both body and soul. God perfected it. He brought
it near. And we're going to spend eternity
in that righteousness near our God. So near. How near is it? How near will
we be to him? So near that scripture says we'll
see his face. There's no conclusion to that.
I can't think what I'll say after that. So near. We'll see his
face. And we're going to know and give
thanks. He brought it near to me. Let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this gospel, the glorious good news of the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you'd cause
us to cease, to just stop all of our works of the law and labors
to be righteous. Futile, wasted effort. and cause us to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, have faith in Him. Father, give us faith to look
to Christ and to rest in Him. He's finished the work. He is
our righteousness. He is our salvation. Father,
we're thankful that this is not left to chance, but this is your
eternal purpose for your people. And according to your eternal
purpose, Father, we pray that you bless your word Bless Your
Word as it's been preached to Your glory, to the glory of Your
Son, and to the good of these people that have gathered together
to hear and to worship. Cause Your Word to take root
in our hearts, that we might be found in our Lord Jesus Christ,
not having our own righteousness, but that righteousness which
is His, His righteousness which is ours through faith. Bless
us, Father, we pray. Thank You again. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks and we ask these
blessings.