I invite your attention to the
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 54. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
54. My text is in verse number 17. My message is entitled, Righteousness
from God. Our brother Chris read this entire
chapter, 17 verses, earlier this morning. So I am not going to
read them again. However, I will do this. You
have the synopsis of the tract. If you do not have a copy, there
should be one on the tract table. I'll give you an outline of this
54th chapter and you can look at the outline later. This speaks
of the Church of Christ in this present day. We know that because
Paul refers to this chapter in Galatians 4, verse 27. But there are nine divisions
in this chapter of 17 verses. And briefly, one by one, it's
in the second paragraph of the tract, this chapter deals with
Her enlargement in numbers, verses 1 and 2. Her expansion throughout
the nations, verse 3. Her forgotten past, verse 4. Her relationship with God, verse
5. Her calling in conversion, verses
6 through 8. Her covenant with God, verses
9 and 10. Her glory of structure, verses
11 and 12. Her children being blessed in
verse 13. And in verse number 14, through
the end of the chapter, we find her security from her enemies
and her victory over them. That is an outline of this 54th
chapter. But I'm going to take your attention,
God willing, to the last verse. wherein we read these words, No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of Jehovah, and here's my text, now watch it carefully, and Their
righteousness is of me, saith Jehovah. Their righteousness
is of me, and their righteousness is from me. And we're going to
look at that subject today of righteousness from God. What
is righteousness? Our modern word, righteousness,
comes from a 16th century word meaning right-wise. Righteous
comes from right-wise. What is it to be right-wise? It's the opposite of being wrong-wise. It is being right. What is righteousness? It is right-wiseness. It is being
right in what you are and right in what you do and God's children
have a righteousness and Jehovah says, it is from me. We will
here consider four points in our message today. This righteousness
defined, second. This righteousness distinguished,
third. This righteousness completed,
and fourth. This righteousness applied. Now
let us define it first. What is righteousness? We're looking for a definition.
What is it? Here it is. perfect and complete
conformity to every precept of God's law. It is obedience to
God's law, complete obedience, perfect obedience, flawless obedience. Anything short of that is not
righteous. That's what righteousness is. It is furthermore the fulfillment
of the righteous requirement of the law, Romans 8, 4, which
is called the law of righteousness, Romans 9, 31. There is in this
book a law of righteousness. Well, what would you expect if
it comes from Jehovah? Would it be otherwise? I mean
there are crooked laws and there are laws that should never be
passed but this is a law of righteousness and there is a righteousness
that is revealed in this law of righteousness. Vine in his dictionary says it
is the character or quality of being right or just. Thayer in
his dictionary says it is the state of him who is such as he
ought to be. That's what righteousness is.
If you are righteous, you are what you should be. And even
God says so. It's not you saying that about
yourself. Jehovah says their righteousness
is from me and they are what they should be in my sight. When I look at them, they are
what they should be. Well, let's distinguish this
righteousness. That defines it. Let's distinguish
it. This righteousness from God is
not the original righteousness of mankind, for that was lost.
In Ecclesiastes 7.29, we read that God made man upright, but
they have sought many schemes. God made man upright. Adam, he
was upright. That does not mean that he did
not walk around hunched over like a monkey. Although he did
not, he was upright in that regard. But it means more than that,
not just physical uprightness, he was morally upright. How do
we know? God said he is my image. I have made him in my image. I am upright, he is upright. But they have sought many schemes.
It started there in the Garden of Eden. The first scheme by
which man lost his righteousness. And we have been improving on
those schemes ever since. Ever since. Now, God made man
upright. Adam was upright. Straight as
an arrow. Physically and spiritually. He
fell into the scheme and began the scheme and he sinned and
he died and became unrighteous and his unrighteousness is imputed
to every one of us. Every one of us. None of us was born upright,
none of us can be upright because we have sought out many schemes. All were made sinners. There
is therefore none that is righteous. Therefore, this righteousness
from God is not that with which Adam had and lost, nor is it
a personal or self-righteousness. There is not a just man on the
earth who does good and does not sin, Ecclesiastes 7.20. Therefore
by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in God's sight. Romans 3.20 Saints confess all
our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. Isaiah 64 verse
6. I'm not going to get too graphic
in this except to say that these filthy rags are used sanitary
napkins if you will. And men parade themselves in
them and boast about how good they look. And God says, it's
filthy rags. All of them! Every righteousness
we have is like filthy rags. And saints are not of those who
trust in themselves that they are righteous. Our Lord told
a parable. He told it, we read, about those
who trust in themselves that they are righteous. He said,
now there was this Pharisee and a publican or a tax collector,
and they both went up together to the temple to pray. And the
Pharisee, he trusted in himself that he was righteous, and he
stands in some prominent place and says, Oh Lord, I thank you
that I'm not like other men. By the way, if you will analyze
his prayer, you will find that he is probably the only man in
scripture who prayed and never asked God for anything. I thank you that I am what I
am and I made myself to be. I am not like these other men,
especially that tax collector over yonder. I do this and I
do that, and I am righteous. I know it. I'm convinced. And over here
in the corner, there's a tax collector. who would not so much
as lift his eyes to heaven because he was afraid God might be looking
down on him and he did not want their glances to meet. And he
smote upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus said, that man, that
tax collector, that sinful publican who begged for mercy He went
down to his house justified, righteous, but the other one
did not. The tax collector went down to
his house righteous, and then left his house, went to God's
house, still as righteous as he was. The Pharisee went down to his
house condemned, and is condemned forevermore. We are not of those
who trust in themselves that they are righteous. We are not
of those who boast of our self-righteousness. Rather, here is our righteousness. It is a completed righteousness. We come now to the third point.
This righteousness was completed and wrought by Jesus Christ in
perfectly keeping and fulfilling God's law. Now remember we said
at the beginning, righteousness completely and perfectly fulfills
every precept of God's law, including both The positive precepts and
the negative precepts. And the positive precepts say,
you shall do this. And the negative precepts say,
you shall not do this. And Jesus Christ did the law,
completed the law fully and completely. And in doing so, he made a righteousness. He wrought a righteousness. Every stitch in its warp and
woof was his righteousness. Fulfilling this aspect of the
law. Fulfilling that aspect of the law. He wrought a complete
and perfect righteousness before God. Now what is God's law? God's law is summarized into
two great commandments. Because a certain man came to
Jesus one day and he says, Master, and he's being facetious, He
had seen Jesus had confounded the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the Herodians, and he's a learned doctor. This man is a doctor
of the law, and he's probably one of the greatest authorities
in Jewry on the law. And he says, Master, what is
the great commandment in the law? The greatest. Now he's probably
saying, of all the commandments, he's probably not talking about
just the 10 commandments. He knows those well. There are
over 600 commandments in the law of Moses. Over 600. And these scribes and Pharisees
sometimes had nothing better to do than to sit around and
try to decide which one's the most important. Well, I believe.
I don't think you're right because I believe. And they would have
these discussions, which is the great commandment in the law.
So, here is this scribe who comes to Jesus, not a believer. Master, he says. facetiously, then seriously,
he says, which is the great commandment in the law? And probably looked
around, you know, got him, got him. And Jesus, nonplussed, he says, the first of all the commandments
is Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God. Jehovah is one. And you shall love Jehovah your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.
He just answered the question. And then Jesus says, But I'm
not done. That's Thotha said. Not those words, but wait, there's
more. And Jesus said, The second commandment
is like it. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. There is no commandment greater
than these. And the Pharisee said, you're right. You're right. Now, observe carefully. The two
great commandments, Jesus elsewhere said, on these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets. There is no commandment greater
than these. What are they? You shall love
Jehovah your God with every fiber of your being and you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. That is a complete summary of
God's law. Love Jehovah with every fiber
of your being. Love your neighbor as yourself. I'm not really sure which of
those two is the hardest to do. But they're required. They are
required. Now, in Exodus chapter 20, We have
ten commandments. Now here are the two great commandments,
and Jesus said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,
including the ten commandments. However, if you will look at
the ten commandments, you will observe that they perfectly describe
what it is To love Jehovah your God with all your heart and soul
and mind and strength. And second, to love your neighbor
as yourself. They do so in ten commandments.
The first three commandments show us how to love Jehovah our
God. What are we told to do? You shall
have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself
a carved image for an idol. And you shall not take the name
of Jehovah your God in vain. Do you want to know what it is
to love Jehovah? Here it is. Right there. The first three
of the Ten Commandments express how we are to love Jehovah. He
is to be the only object of our love. The only object. We are not to misrepresent whom
and what He is with anything physical. And we adore and revere His name
and never take it in vain. Now if you do that, you have
loved Jehovah your God with every fiber of your being. How should
you love your fellow man as yourself? Love your neighbor as yourself?
That would be the last six commandments. And what are they? What is it
to love your neighbor as you should? It is in these commandments. Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor. And you shall not covet what
belongs to your neighbor. That's how you love your neighbor
as yourself. If you love your neighbor, you'll
never lie against him. You will never misrepresent him.
You will not desire anything that he has. You'll be satisfied
with what Jehovah your God has given unto you. You'll be faithful
to your spouse and not unfaithful with his or hers. That's what
it is. Now you may say, now preacher,
you said the first three commandments apply to the first great commandment
and the last six of the ten commandments apply to the second great commandment. You lift out the fourth commandment,
preacher. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. No, I didn't leave it out. No. That commandment was given only
to the nation Israel. Never given to Gentiles. And it was a sign of the covenant
that God gave to that nation. So therefore, The Sabbath commandment
had nothing to do with loving Jehovah or loving your neighbor
as yourself. It had to do with keeping an
ordinance. And by the way, we do keep Sabbath. Christ is our
Sabbath. By faith in Him, we keep our
Sabbath. But anyway, to come back to the
point. The point that we here make is,
that's what God's law is. God's law requires that you perfectly
and completely love Him with every fiber of your being and
love your neighbor as yourself. Well, now be honest with me. You've broken that law already
this morning, have you not? Somewhere or other, maybe multiple
times, because I'm certain that I'm not the only man in the building
this morning who's broken God's law. None of us can keep it. It is
impossible. Jesus was duty-bound to keep
it. Duty-bound. It was of necessity
that he keep it. Paul the Apostle, through divine
inspiration, said Jesus was born under the law to redeem those
that were under the law. Notice, the lawmaker became a
law keeper. He who was over the law was born
under the law and he did it in order to redeem his people. Jesus
in his incarnation said, Behold, I come in the scroll of the book,
which is God's eternal decree of predestination. In the scroll
of the book of God's predestination it is written of me, I'd like
to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart.
Well now that's a little different now, isn't it? When my father would tell me
what I was not supposed to do, I could not wait for him to turn
his back so I could do it. His law was in my heart, but
I did not delight in doing it. Jesus says, your law was in my
heart and I loved to do it. And he did it. He did it. He
said, do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He never put any part of the
law aside. Jesus kept every precept of God's
law. All 600 and some whatever number
there is. If God's law said do it, He did
it. If God's law says I forbid it,
He abstained from it. Perfectly. Perfectly. The only one who ever did so.
He said, I say to you that till heaven and earth shall pass away,
one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till
all is fulfilled. Now, jot and tittle, what is
a jot and a tittle? You've heard the terms, jot and
tittle. Jot, J-O-T. What is a jot? Our English word, jot, translates
the Greek word that is spelled I-O-T-A. We pronounce it I-O-T-A,
but the Greeks pronounced it Y-O-T-A. And the Hebrews pronounced
it Y-O-D. And it is the smallest character
in the alphabet of both the Greek and the Hebrew languages. The
jot looks like a little I with no dot over it. Smallest letter. Jesus is saying even the smallest
letter in God's law will be fulfilled. I will do it. Now what is a tittle? A tittle was some little mark
associated with a letter so that you could know what it was. It is the dot over the I. That's how small a tittle is,
folks. The jot is the smallest letter
in the alphabet and the tittle is the smallest character over
the smallest letter. And Jesus is saying, I will cross
every T and dot every I and every aspect of this law will be fulfilled. Every aspect. Every jot and tittle,
not even the smallest part of God's law will remain unfulfilled. I will fulfill it not only in
letter, but also in spirit. And so he went about to do so.
He did so. How do we know? He committed
no sin. Think about it, folks. He never
sinned in deed. He never sinned in word. Now, you perhaps have known some people
who could say, you've never seen me commit a sin in what I did,
and you have never heard me say a sinful word. And you just have
to want to ask them, yeah, but what you thinking about? What gutter has your mind been
going through this morning? The mind of Jesus was never in
the gutter. Even his thoughts, every imagination
of his heart was holy and righteous. Now that's beyond me. Indeed,
word and thought, he never broke God's law. And in so doing, he did so in
a two-fold manner. He did so in both his active
and his passive obedience. In his active obedience, he did
everything God's law required. In his passive obedience, he
fulfilled every punishment that the law
required of me. On Calvary, he goes to that tree
having never sinned. Never sinned. He's the only man
who never deserved to die. Why did he die? In God's sight,
he died because of me and all the rest of his people. And the
sins of God's people have to be paid for because God cannot
forgive me until my sins are forgiven and they have to be
paid for. And Jesus takes my sins from
me and lays them on himself, hangs there suspended between
heaven and earth and says, now Father, exact the punishment
that your law requires on me. And for three, saw it out. God's wrath, yeah, that was for
you. And that was for me. And for
three solid hours, he suffers and fulfills God's law by paying
for the sins that God's people committed. And he never whimpered. He never opened his mouth. He never said, uncle. He never
said, I quit. He never said, that's enough,
that's enough. No, no, no. For three hours,
he suffered the full penalty of God's law until God did not smite again. Is that all? Yes. That's all,
right. Well, IT IS FINISHED! And in so doing, he had wrought
a perfect and complete righteousness. He fulfilled God's law in every
jot and tittle, not only for himself, but also for this sinner. Also
for this sinner. It is finished. He had wrought
a perfect righteousness and fulfilled the law for me. I've had people
ask me, Moose, do you try to keep God's law?
No. No, I don't. Why not? Don't have to. Why not? I've already kept it. I've already
kept it! How did you keep it? In my substitute,
Jesus Christ, in my representative, because I was in him. And when
he said, it is finished, the righteous requirement of the
law was imputed to me. Paul says so. The righteous requirement
of the law imputed to me. I have kept God's law perfectly. in Jesus Christ, only in Jesus
Christ. By my Adamic nature I have sinned
with every breath I took, but in Christ the righteous requirement
of the law has been fulfilled. Okay, fourth point, this righteousness
applied. What good is righteousness If
Jesus keeps it all to himself, it's no good. This righteousness
is not, you know, something that you put into a jar and set it
on the shelf and God says, that's my son's righteousness. Beautiful,
isn't it? No, no, no. God does not do that. He gives it away. freely and
graciously. He gives it away to those of
whom he says their righteousness is from me. God imputes righteousness
to believers in him. Paul says God imputes righteousness
apart from works. It is imputed to us who believe
in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Accordingly,
the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us. Romans
chapter 8 verse 4. Furthermore, in Christ we have
righteousness from God. First Corinthians 1 30. Of God
you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness
from God. Furthermore, God will clothe
Christ's bride in Him and His righteousness, Revelation 19,
8. And to her it was granted, given, permitted, graciously,
to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine
linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. Christ's bride
will deserve that white dress she will wear. and it is his righteousness. Christ's wife will be clothed
in him, his righteousness, and it came from God. Furthermore,
Christ's bride declares that she is clothed in Christ's righteousness
from God in Isaiah 61 verse 10. He has clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He has covered me with the robe
of righteousness. Furthermore, Christ's church
desires to be clothed by God in Christ's righteousness alone.
We pray to be found in him, not having my own righteousness which
is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith. Furthermore, we
confess that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, our righteousness, and
we confess that God gave him to us. The Father said, this
is the name by which you will call him, Jehovah, our righteousness. That's who he is. And furthermore,
we do not confess or boast of any personal or self-righteousness. We confess, I will make mention
of your righteousness, of yours only, Psalm 71 16. Let me tell
you, I have read the Bible a few times
over the years. And did you ever notice that
sometimes, even though you have read the Bible, I have memorized
a good bit of it, but even though you have read
the Bible, maybe many times, did you ever notice that sometimes
you read something and you say, wait a minute, it's almost like
you see it for the first time. That happened to me one time. Todd Norbert and I went down
to preach in the West Indies. I had been invited to preach
on an island and I was told to bring a preacher with me so Todd
Norbert was usually my travel companion. And he got up to preach
and he preached from Psalm 71 and he read that phrase I will
make mention of thy righteousness, of thine only. And I remember
sitting in that pew listening, and it was like it had hit me
for the first time ever. You know, God's gonna do that
sometime. He will surprise you from the strangest places. You
read something, I've read that many times before, but whoa,
it really hit me this time. That's what we do. We make mention
of His righteousness and of His only. And you will do so if you
confess, my righteousness is from God. And other than that,
I have none. What did we sing this morning?
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my only dress. His righteousness. It's the only
thing that's beautiful about me. It's the only goodness I
have. My righteousness is mine, but only because God gave it
to me. Their righteousness is from me. Where's your righteousness from?
I hope you can agree with me. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
of thine only. Oh, Father, bless, we pray this
word to your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.