If you've closed your Bibles,
would you open them please to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20?
The subject this morning is righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Though we will contrast Christ's righteousness with our own righteousness,
our text for today is one that is used by many to justify their
insistence that we must keep the law in order to be saved. On the one hand, they say that
Jesus Christ died to save sinners from their sin. But in the next breath, they
say that they must preach the law rather than Christ, or at
least in addition to Christ, so that the people will keep
the law, wanting the people to know the law. That's laying the
burden of the law on them, isn't it? I love God's law. I hope you do too. God's law
was given to us by God, and it is a blessing. I want to keep
God's law, but I have found that I can't do it. Many years of
trying, I just can't keep God's law. That's why I need a Savior. And besides, I don't believe
that you can get to heaven by keeping the law. Here's why I
believe that. The scribes and the Pharisees
were regarded by the ancient Jews as being the most devoted,
the most spiritual, the most holy of all men. If anyone in
those days would have been called His Holiness, the scribes and
the Pharisees would have been called His Most Holy Holiness. They were held in such high esteem,
the scribes and the Pharisees, They had such good reputation
among the people that the Jews had a saying about them. It went
something like this. If only two people out of the
whole world were to go to heaven, one would be a scribe and the
other would be a Pharisee. But as good as the reputations
of the scribes and Pharisees were, Jesus said in Matthew 5.20,
I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
case, in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Wow, what
a statement. And yet, insofar as outward and
religious righteousness was concerned, it looks to me like no one excelled
the scribes and the Pharisees in keeping the law. In works
of piety they made a long public prayers on the street corners.
They prayed on the street corners so that everybody could see them
and how righteous and how religious they were. In works of charity
they gave alms blowing the trumpet so that everyone would be impressed
by their generosity. In works of giving they paid
their tithes. counting out 10% of their gross
income. In works of courtesy and hospitality,
they often held banquets. They even invited Jesus Christ
and his disciples to their homes in order to be hospitable. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
declares to us that our righteousness must exceed not just mass, but
it must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
And Jesus said that if your righteousness doesn't exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, then you can't be saved. Well,
then who can be saved? Matthew 5.20 clearly teaches
us three things about salvation. First, there won't be any admission
into heaven without perfect righteousness. Second, a legal or a Pharisee's
righteousness will never be accepted by God. And third, the only hope
that any sinner has of being saved is through the perfect
righteousness of a divinely appointed and a divinely accepted substitute
and representative. Turn to Jeremiah 23 in verse
6. And I pray that you listen to
this carefully, please. The only substitute that God
has ever provided to represent sinners is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord our righteousness. In Jeremiah 23 6, the prophet
said about Christ, in his day, Judah shall be saved and Israel
shall dwell safely. And this is his name, whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And in 1 Corinthians
1, verses 30 and 31, Paul said, But of him, but of God. But of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God, or by God, is made unto
us wisdom. He's made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. So that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Jesus
Christ is a believing sinner's holy righteousness. And here's
why. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul said,
For he, for God, hath made him to be sin for us. I would rather
have that read as it more properly reads, I think. has made him
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. But according to the Son of God,
the scribes and the Pharisees who tried to keep the law, which
would lead them to righteousness, didn't succeed at all in keeping
that law. Why not? Because they didn't
pursue righteousness by faith. They pursued a self-righteousness. A self-righteousness which was
based on their works. Not on the faith of Christ. To
be saved, you must have the faith of Christ. And that's a gift
of God. The Jews, you see, stumbled over
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became their stumbling
stone. As God says in Romans 9.33, Behold,
I lay, God says, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock
of offense. Jesus Christ is an offense to
unbelievers. I lay a stumbling stone and a
rock of offense, God says, and whosoever believes on him shall
not be ashamed. Oh, I pray you can hear and understand
this. You can only understand it by
the teaching of the Holy Spirit of God. But listen to me carefully,
please. If I ever said anything important,
these words I think are important. The only way a guilty sinner
can be saved The only way a guilty sinner can obtain any righteousness
before God is through the faith of Jesus Christ, who is the Lord
our righteousness. Why is that? It's because our
righteousness has been lost. We've lost it. We don't have
any. As the sons and daughters of
Adam, we're all sinners. We've lost our righteousness.
We lost our righteousness before God in the garden when Adam,
as our substitute, sinned. Now these are strong words, but
we are all totally depraved. We have all gone astray, the
Bible says, from the womb speaking lies, we have gone astray. We
all drink iniquity like water. And so thorough and so complete
is the depravity of man that even our works of righteousness,
or as filthy rags before the Holy Lord God. And in our best
state, in our best state, we are altogether vanity. But things
weren't always this way. Turn please to Ecclesiastes 7
and verse 29. God originally created man in
righteousness and in true holiness. Originally, we were all created
in the image and in the likeness of God Himself. And God is holy. One aspect of that was that we
were created with an upright nature. In Ecclesiastes 7.29,
wisdom says, Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man
upright. But they have, men have, sought
out many inventions. You know how long Adam lived
in the garden in this upright state that he was created in
by God? We don't know. He lived in that
garden a little while, but we have no idea how long. But turn
please to Romans 5 and verse 12. It seems to me it was a relatively
short period of time. that Adam remained upright because
something happened there in that garden. Our father Adam sinned
against God and in sinning as their natural father, Adam plunged
the entire human race into sin, death, and condemnation. And
so we all became sinners. Because Adam fell, we inherited
his sin nature. Romans 5.12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man, as by Adam, as by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned. And in Psalm 14, verses 2 and
3, David said that the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and see God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Now turn please to Psalm 51 verse
5 that we sang about this morning and I'm glad that we did. Because Adam was appointed by
God to be our divinely appointed representative, Adam was appointed
as the federal head of the human race. Adam's sin was imputed
or passed on to us in divine judgment. Adam's sin, nature,
was imparted to us by a natural generation, or in other words,
the simple way to say it is, we inherited our sin nature from
Adam. It's our nature to sin. David
said in Psalm 51 verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me." And in Jeremiah 17, the
prophet of God said, The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked, who can know it? And in Matthew 15, verse
19, Jesus said, For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts,
and murders, and adulteries, and fornications, and thefts,
and false witness, and blasphemies. We all have. We are all born
with a sin nature. So you can see clearly from God's
Word that by the sin and fall of our father Adam, we all suffered
a loss of righteousness and it was a three-fold loss of righteousness. This is a loss that just simply
can't be denied. First, when Adam sinned in the
garden, he lost his upright or righteous nature. And we did
too in Adam, because we all inherited Adam's sin nature. Before the
fall man was righteous, and after the fall he had no righteousness,
he was a sinner. And so are we all by nature,
sinful, guilty, condemned, and lost. Second, Adam lost all of
his legal righteousness too, and so did we. Now by legal righteousness
I mean that man can't approach God because he's a sinner. Turn
please to 1 Timothy 6 and verses 15 and 16. You remember that
Adam was expelled from the garden and so he was separated from
God. And because our sins too, our sins separate us from God,
we can't approach God either. In 1 Timothy 6, verses 15 and
16, Paul said that, With the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which in times God shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords. That's Jesus Christ, of
course, isn't it? who only have immortality dwelling
in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man has
seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Now turn to Romans 9 and
verse 31, please. And then third, once man had
sinned, fallen man then lost all of his knowledge and understanding
about righteousness and what righteousness is. And just as
soon as the man had lost his righteousness, he then went about
trying to establish his own righteousness for himself. What he did was
to sow fig leaves together to make himself presentable to cover
his nakedness and make himself presentable to the Holy Lord
God. And man has been doing that same thing ever since. We desperately
want a righteousness of our own. And the evidence of that is that
by nature we reject Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Jesus
Christ becomes our stumbling stone. In Romans 9 beginning
in verse 31 it says, But Israel, which followed after the law
of righteousness, had not attained to the law of righteousness,
wherefore, or why not, Because they sought it not by faith,
but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at
the stumbling stone. They stumbled over Christ. As
it is written, Behold, God says, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and a rock of a fence. That's Christ. And whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And then continuing
on in Romans 10, verse 1 says, Brethren, My heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might all 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, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Who, of course, is Jesus Christ. Now turn please to Luke 16 and
verse 15. If you haven't seen yourself as
a sinner, you might not understand this. But the natural man has
absolutely no idea about what righteousness is, where it can
be found, or how it can be obtained. But the strange thing is, that
he thinks he does. He thinks he understands what
righteousness is, and he thinks he knows where it can be found.
And it's not in Christ that he thinks. And so he doesn't think
that he needs a Savior. In Luke 16, verse 15, Jesus is
speaking to some Pharisees. And He said unto them, Ye are
they which justify yourselves before men, But God knoweth your
hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination
in the sight of God." Most people, even if they know in their hearts
that they have sinned, they think that they're basically good.
It's kind of hard to find a real sinner, isn't it? So I pray that you've heard from
God's Word so far. something that has entered into
your heart and that by the power of God you've understood that
you and I that all of us together have absolutely no righteousness
of our own and that we have no ability to produce our own righteousness
because we can't even begin to keep the law and yet Our Lord
said that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. In making that statement, our
Lord was declaring that there never has been a single person,
single son or daughter of Adam, nobody on this earth who was
good enough who was righteous enough, who was holy enough to
inherit and inhabit the kingdom of heaven, except of course our
Lord Jesus Christ. There isn't now and there never
will be in the future one person in heaven who was there because
he was good, because he was righteous, because he was holy in this world. Man at his best estate is altogether
vanity. And our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags in God's sight. Turn please to Isaiah 64, verse
6. I have this thought, been thinking
about it a lot this week. It would be good if we could
just get this idea about a righteousness that comes from ourselves out
of our minds altogether. We should even forget the word
righteousness out of our vocabulary insofar as any human works are
concerned in God's sight. Because the truth is that our
righteousness is as filthy rags before the Holy Lord God. God's
words are very strong. They're very offensive to the
self-righteous, but they cease to be offensive when you see,
by God's mercy and grace, with God-given faith, that Christ
died for all of your sin. But to see that, first, God has
to open your eyes. God has to give you the ability
to see spiritual things. As the prophet said in Isaiah
64, verse 6, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness
are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And in Isaiah
1 verses 16 to 20, God told us, He gave us His command. Wash
you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do
well, seek judgment, and relieve the oppressed, and judge the
fatherless, and plead for the widow. But Lord, I've tried to
do those things. I can't do them. I don't have
the power, I don't have the ability to do those things. Verse 18,
Come now and let us reason together, said the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they, our sin, shall be as white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you
refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword, for
the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Only by the blood of Christ
can we be washed clean. And as Genesis 6 verse 5 says,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. But don't take my word for these
things. It's God's word I'm quoting to you. Read the word of God
in your own Bible, and you'll discover that every man in the
book, every man in the Bible who knew God, who knew the righteous
character of God had been made righteous in Christ. He knew
that he was a sinner and he lamented his utter wickedness. He hated
his sin. But I say again from God's Word
that absolute and perfect righteousness is required. Perfection is the
minimum requirement. if you're going to even approach
God or come into His presence. God is holy, and being perfectly
holy, He demands perfect holiness from us. God requires perfect
righteousness, and anything and anyone who is not perfectly holy
will be consumed by the fire of His glorious holiness. This
is God's commandment in Genesis 17.1. God says, I am almighty
God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. In Leviticus 22 verse 21 God
says that whosoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord
to accomplish his vow or a free will offering in beads or sheep
it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. And in 1 Peter 1.16 God says,
Be holy, for I am holy. Turn to Hebrews 12 verse 14.
If the thought of being a sinner, if the thought of being called
a sinner is offensive to you, even though you know in your
heart that it's true, then I have some good news for you. If you
know that you're a sinner, Even though it's offensive to be called
a sinner, I've got some good news for you. But I pray you
won't stumble over it. There is a holiness. There is
a holiness to be pursued. It's a holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. In Hebrews 12.14 Paul said, follow
peace with all men. And holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. For we are to follow and to seek
after holiness. But where can we find perfect
holiness? If we can't find it in men, where
can we find it? Who should we follow if we can't
follow the scribes and the Pharisees? Who should we follow if we can't
follow those who teach us the law? God commands holiness of character. We're required to be holy on
the inside, in our hearts. We're required to be holy at
the very core of our being. The Lord looketh on the heart,
1 Samuel 16, 7 says, and God demands holiness in our conduct. We must also be holy on the outside. We must also be holy in all of
our behavior. Be holy in all manner of conversation,
God says in 1 Peter 1 15. In a word, God demands complete
holiness on the inside and on the out. We must be entirely
without sin, completely without sin. Or as Ezekiel 18 20 says,
the soul that sinneth It shall die. But that's the problem. That's the problem, isn't it?
It's a problem that we all face. God demands holiness, but we
can't produce holiness. Not one of us can do one good
thing that is acceptable as holy before God. It's written in Romans
3.12, There is none that doeth good, no not one. Do you see
it? Purity can't come from our corrupt
nature. We can't even seek the Lord on
our own, much less correct our past record or change our present
wretchedness. What are we to do? What can we
do? I can give you a suggestion.
You can look to Christ. Simple, isn't it? Look to Christ. It's too simple for most people.
Just live to Christ. If we live to Christ, we will
pray as David did in Psalm 51, verses 1 to 5. We sang about
it. David prayed, Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, blot
out my sin, David was praying. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Now turn please to Galatians 3 in verse 10. But it isn't only that we can't
change ourselves, we can't even control our future thoughts and
our deeds even. In Galatians 3.10 it says, For
as many of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things,
which are written in the book of the law to do them. We're
cursed because we can't keep the law. Skip down to Galatians
3 verse 24. Well, you might ask, if you can't
keep the law, if you can't continue to do all of the things which
are written in the book of the law, then what's the purpose
of the law? The whole purpose of the law
is to show us our utter inability to keep it. The whole purpose
of the law is to convince us of our need for a substitute
who did keep it. In Galatians 3.24 it says, So
then or wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. If you know
that you're a sinner, if you know that you're unable to stop
sinning, I'm going to suggest to you as strongly as I know
how that that's a good thing. I pray that you do know that
you're a sinner. I pray that God shows you that you cannot
stop sinning. Because the first work of God,
the Holy Spirit, the first work in a sinner's heart is to convince
him of his sin and to convince him of his need for a substitute.
Jesus said in John 16, beginning in verse 7, that it was good
for him to die and go away, because if I do not go away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I'll send him,
I'll send that Comforter, I'll send the Holy Spirit to you.
And when he has come, he will reprove, or he'll convict the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, The
Holy Spirit will convict him of sin because they don't believe
on me. Do you hear that? Oh, I pray
that you can. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would
come and convict the world of sin because they believe not
on me. A man's definition of righteousness
depends entirely on his understanding of who God is. Turn please to
Isaiah 6 verses 1-6. The problem with this religious
self-righteous generation is that they have never seen the
holy, righteous, and just character of God Almighty. They've never
seen the absolute holiness of God. And no one will ever see
the holy character of God until he sees by God's grace what happened
at Calvary. for you or for anyone to see
what happened at Calvary. God must first open your eyes
and that's the work of the Holy Spirit of God. The prophet was shown the Holy
Genesis of God. He said in Isaiah 6 beginning
at verse 1 that in the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the
Lord sitting upon a throne. The Lord was high and lifted
up, and His train, His glory, His train filled the temple.
Above us stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried to another, and
said again, as we sang this morning, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And the pulse of the door moved
at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then we see His reaction to seeing
the holiness and glory of God. In verse 5 we read this reaction. Isaiah says, Then said I, Woe
is me, for I am undone. Because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew
one of the Sarumamon to me, having a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with the tongues from off the altar." How good
does a person have to be in order to get to heaven? You haven't
been listening to me if you don't know the answer to that question.
The answer to that question is that he must be perfect. But I'm going to say it in a
different way. He must be as good as God, and that's perfect. He must be perfect to be accepted. God can't and God will not accept
anything short of perfection. In Psalm 24, verses 3 and 4,
David asks, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Nobody
that perfect. Who shall descend into the hill
of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a
pure heart, who has not lifted up upon his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully. Perfection is God's standard. And no one who is less than perfect
will stand in God's holy place. And yet it's written in Romans
8.8 that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And in Galatians 3.10 that cursed
is everyone that continues not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. Still, the fact that we can't
produce our own righteousness does not at all mean that righteousness
can't be produced look to Christ and there you see perfection
look to Christ don't stumble over the stumbling stone look
to Christ God can produce perfection man can't please God but God
can please God Man can't produce righteousness, but God can produce
righteousness. Listen to this carefully, please.
The Lord Jesus Christ came in the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world to fulfill all righteousness. Not for himself,
he was already perfectly righteous. He's God. He came in the world
to save us from our sin. He came into the world to fulfill
perfect righteousness. When John the Baptist felt unworthy
to baptize Jesus, in Matthew 3.15, Jesus answered him and
said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. And guess what? Though he felt
unworthy, John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Then John baptized Jesus
and in Matthew 5 verse 17 Jesus said, think not that I am come
to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but
to fulfill. And in Isaiah 42 verse 21 it
says, that the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He
will magnify the law and make it honorable. Our Savior did
for us just exactly what Daniel 9.24 said that He would do. He
finished the transgression and He made an end of sin for us,
putting away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus Christ
made reconciliation for iniquity by satisfying the justice of
God as our substitute. And he brought in an everlasting
righteousness by his obedience to the will of God in all things
as our representative, as our federal head. By his obedience
to the will of God as our representative and substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ brought in an everlasting righteousness of infinite worth
and merit for each one and for all of God's elect. According
to the book of God, according to the Bible, It is the life
obedience of Christ which constitutes that righteousness in which we
are clothed, that righteousness by which we are made acceptable
to come before God. Christ's death washed away our
sins. Christ's life and his righteous
life covers us from head to foot. His death was the sacrifice to
God and his life is God's gift to man by which all of God's
elect have satisfied the demands of the law. So sinners need only
to look to Christ. Only in Jesus Christ our substitute
is it possible for the law to be honored or for our souls to
be accepted by God. Now there are many people who
seem to be very clear about the merits of Christ's death. But
they don't seem to understand, at least it seems to me that
they don't understand the merits of Christ's life. And those, the merits of Christ's
life, are equally important to the merits of Christ's death.
Remember that from the moment that our blessed Savior broke
his mother's womb until the hour when he ascended up on high,
Jesus Christ was at work for His people. He lived and He died
so that we might be made righteous in Him. From the moment that
Jesus was seen in Mary's arms until the moment that He was
in the arms of death, when He bowed His head and He gave up
the ghost, Jesus Christ was performing the work of our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ completed
the work of His obedience in His life And then he said to
his father in John 17, 4, I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. Then because he had finished
the work of atonement in his death, and knowing that all things
were accomplished, he cried, it is finished, as we're told
in John 19, 30. And Christ died, that we might
have life in him. But throughout Christ's life
here on earth, The Savior was spinning the fabric of that royal
priestly white garment in which we would be robed and in His
death He dipped that garment in His blood. In Christ's life
He was gathering precious gold and in His death He hammered
it out to make for us a garment of fine, pure gold. That golden
robe is the robe of Christ's righteousness. It's called the
white robe that covers us. We have as much to be thankful
for in the life of Christ as we do in His death. In His life,
Christ Jesus rendered perfect obedience to the law as our substitute. And in His death, He satisfied
the claims of the law as our substitute. Therefore, the prophet
of God in Jeremiah 23.6 declares of Christ, this is the name whereby
He shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And about us in
Jeremiah 33.16 he says, this is the name whereby she shall
be called, the church of God shall be called, the Lord our
righteousness. This is the message that is set
before us in 2 Corinthians 5.21 which says, for he hath made
him to be sin for us. He has made him sin for us. Who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our only righteousness, and it is our joy to confess that
He is the Lord our righteousness. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1
verses 30 and 31, Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Turn to Romans 5, verses 18 and
19, please. Oh, I pray you could hear this.
It's so important. The only way that a sinner can
ever be made righteous is when the Holy Lord God imputes righteousness
to him. In justification, God imputes
the righteousness of Christ to his people. in exactly the same
way as he imputed the sins of his people to Christ. I would
say it's kind of an exchange, an exchange of sin for righteousness. As Romans 5 verses 18 and 19
says, Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemn, to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift, the free gift of justification, came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. How are sinners made by God to
become the righteousness of God in Christ? How is my sin imparted
to Christ in His righteousness given to me? Well, honestly,
I have to tell you, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how
it happens. But, God knows, and God did it,
and by faith, I believe. I don't have any evidence. All
my evidence is God's Word. It's that Word that I've been
giving to you this morning. But I can tell you this, if God
has made you righteous, then you'll know that He did it. You'll
know it. Because by the faith of Christ,
you'll believe it. As Hebrews 11 says, Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Turn to Revelation 20 verses
12 and 13. And I want to say something about
righteousness being rewarded. Craig was teaching about rewards
a little bit this morning. I thought he was going to preach
my sermon. In the last day, every believer
will enter into heaven. And each one, each believer,
will obtain the inheritance of everlasting glory. And that will
be righteous righteousness rewarded. Immediately after the resurrection,
we must all be judged by God according to the record of our
works. In Revelation 20 verses 12 and
13, John says, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things that were written in the
books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and the death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works." Does that prospect bring fear to your
heart? Does judgment something that
you have ever worried about? Hebrews 9.27 tells us, It is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. The judge that we must stand
before in judgment is the God-man Jesus Christ that we have crucified. John 5.22 says, For the Father
judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. And Acts 17.31 says that because
he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. Christ's
resurrection is our assurance of salvation for those who believe
and trust Christ. And in 2 Corinthians 5.10 it
says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." So from scripture
we clearly see that the dead will be judged. We will be judged
out of the books according to the record of God's strict justice. Does that concern you? Are you
worried about that? In the scripture, God is often
represented as writing and keeping books. And it is according to
those books that we will be judged. According to what's in those
books that we'll be judged. Now, I realize that's figurative
language. Don't be thinking ahead of me
here. But God doesn't need books to
remember the sins of men. But we will be judged by what's
written in those books. However, as John Gill wrote,
This judgment out of the books and according to works is designed
to show with what accuracy and exactness, with what justice
and equity it will be executed in allusion to statute books
in the court of justice. What are these books? Well, we
don't have time to look at each of them, but it would be an interesting
study to have some time. But Don Fortner lists six books
that he finds in scripture, and I'll just give them to you quickly.
He says there's the book of divine omniscience, the book of divine
remembrance, the book of creation, the book of God's providence,
the book of conscience, the book of God's holy law, and the book
of the gospel. Turn to Jeremiah 50 in verse
20. But here's the interesting thing
about these books that God will use in connection with his judgment
of men. Oh, and I urge you to listen
to me carefully. There are some blessed people,
there are some people who are blessed by God, against whom
no crimes, no sins, and no offenses are going to be found in these
books. Not even by the omniscient eye of God Himself will the sins
of these people be found in these books. If Christ took your sin
on himself then your sin will not and never will be charged
to you because it was charged to Christ your sin was laid on
Christ the record of your sin is gone totally gone totally
wiped away if Christ took your sin on himself in Jeremiah 50
verse 20 it says In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
be none. And the sins of Judah, they'll be sought for too, and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon
them whom I reserve." Did you hear it? Their sins, the record
of their sins, shall not be found. Why not? Because God says, I
will pardon them who I reserve. God will pardon sinners in their
substitute. Praise God. Their names are going
to be found in another book. It's a book which God himself
wrote and sealed before the worlds were made. This book is called
the Book of Life. In this book of life, there is
a record of divine election. In the name of Jesus Christ,
our divine surety, a record of perfect righteousness. It's a
record of complete satisfaction. And in this record is the promise
of eternal life to all sinners who look to Christ for their
salvation. Not to themselves, not to their
own righteousness, but they look to the righteousness of Jesus
Christ for their salvation. The question is often asked,
and I've heard it asked twice this week. The question is often
asked, will God judge His elect for their sins and failures which
committed after they were saved? And will He expose those sins
in the day of judgment? Well now, if I'm asked such a
question, I usually respond with a question of my own. I ask them,
Did Jesus Christ die for you? If they say yes, then I say,
did he die for all of your sin? There is absolutely no sense
in which those who trust Christ shall ever be made to pay for
their sin. Their sins aren't forgiven because
they trust Christ. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. But our sins are imputed to Christ,
and they will never be imputed to us again. And the evidence
of that is that we believe it, and we trust in it. We trust
Christ. Christ, who is our righteousness.
In Romans 4.8 it says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin. And oh how I pray that you could
hear this, that it's something that is in your heart. Jesus
Christ paid our debt to God's law and to God's justice. And so God will never require
us to pay it again. God who blotted out our transgressions
will never write them again in his books of judgment. He who
covered our sins will never uncover them. and bring them to light
again. Oh, what joy and peace there
is in that, to save sinners, to sinners who are washed by
the blood of Christ. The perfect righteousness of
Jesus Christ our Savior has been imputed to us, and on the day
of judgment, God's elect are never represented as having done
any evil. But they're only described as
having done only good. The Day of Judgment will be a
day of glory, a day of bliss for Christ and for His people.
It won't be a day of mourning and sorrow. It will be a marriage
supper. Jesus Christ will glory in His
church and God will display the glory of His grace in us. And
we will glory in our God. And each of those faithful ones
who are found perfectly righteous, righteous according to the records
of God Himself, will enter into life and inherit everlasting
glory with Christ. That they have done good, nothing
but good, perfect good, without any spot of sin, without any
wrinkle of inequity or trace of transgression, They will enter
into everlasting life with Christ for all eternity. Who are these
perfectly righteous ones? They are all of those blessed
people who are saved by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
Jesus. As 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9 to
11 asks, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revelers, nor executioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. But you're washed. You're washed
by the blood of Christ. You're sanctified. But you're
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. And what could be plainer than
what God tells us in Romans 8.1? He says, there is therefore now
no condemnation. For who? To them which are in
Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh,
not trusting in their own righteousness, but who walk after the Spirit.
have been taught by the Spirit of Christ about the righteousness
of Jesus Christ and that's what they trust in. Romans 8 verses
32 to 34 says that he that spared not his own son but delivered
him up for us all, how should he not with him also freely give
us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. And for those of you
who have a concern about rewards and crowns in heaven, although
there shall be degrees of punishment, degrees of punishment for the
wicked in hell, because they are degrees of wickedness, There
shall be no degrees of reward and glory among the saints in
heaven because there are no degrees of redemption and righteousness.
It's a perfect redemption. It's a perfect righteousness.
Heaven was earned and purchased for all of God's elect by Christ
their Savior. We were predestined to obtain
our inheritance from eternity. Christ has taken possession of
heaven's glory as our forerunner. We are heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ, and our Savior gave all of the glory
which he earned as our mediator. He gave all of his glory to his
elect. And in Christ, every believer
is worthy of heaven's glory. As Colossians 1.12 says, giving
thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. To be glorified in
heaven will be only the completing of salvation, and salvation is
by grace alone. It is all by God's will. That means that there is no part
of heaven's bliss and glory that is a reward for our works. But
it is all a reward of God's free grace in Christ. All spiritual
blessings are ours from eternity. in Christ. May God bless the
preaching of his word to the salvation and comfort of your
souls. Amen.