OK, back to Matthew chapter 5,
and here's my text, verse 20, Matthew 5, 24. I say unto you,
this is God's message for you. I want you to take it personal
for you. And the word is that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of these scribes
and Pharisees. you shall in no way, no case,
no not at all, enter into the kingdom of God's heaven." Now
the scribes and Pharisees were regarded by the Jews as the most
spiritual, most religious, most holy people. As a matter of fact,
there is an old Jewish saying that went this way, if only two
people went to glory, one would be a scribe and the other a Pharisee. As far as outward religious morality
and work were concerned, no one outworked them, outperformed
them, outdid them. They could hold their outward
righteousness before other men. As the Pharisee prayed in that
one prayer in Luke 18, God, I thank you I'm not like that old boy.
I pray, I fast, I give tithes, I give all these things. You
see, everything that he did, he was trusting. Our Lord said
he spoke a parable unto them which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous. And that causes you to despise
other people and think you're somewhat better. These scribes
and Pharisees, they thought they were so good, but our Lord so
plainly said, you make clean the outside of the cup and the
platter, but within, within, you're like that whited sepulcher
on the outside, you look so clean and so white, but He said within,
and that's the problem. full of dead men's bones rotting
and corruption. Our Lord plainly says that morality
and our best efforts at salvation is not enough. We must have a
righteousness, a justifying righteousness not to match theirs. That's not
too difficult. But He says you must have a righteousness
that exceeds superabounds that of an outward moral righteousness. You see, we're not trying to
establish a righteousness before men. Comparing one worm to another
worm, that's no problem to come up to that level of that worm,
but that's not the standard. The standard of righteousness
is not man. The standard of righteousness
is God. He's going to judge the world in righteousness by the
Lord Jesus Christ. A justifying righteousness must
exceed that of the Pharisees and of the scribes. Is that the
righteousness you have before God who is holy? Now, I know
this, there is no admission to God's presence without a perfect
justifying righteousness. In Psalm 24, the question is
asked, who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who shall
stand in His holy place? The answer comes back, he that
hath a clean hand and a pure heart, who has never lifted his
soul to vanity, Psalm 24. No admission without a perfect
righteousness. And I know this, an outward,
legal, moral righteousness is not sufficient by the deeds of
the law. Do you have a righteousness?
that's by your merit produced by your doing the law? Well,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. That means
by the deeds of the law, no one can stand on that standard and
say, I've kept the law. Not at all. Where is such an
exceeding justifying righteousness to be found? Now, I must have
one because God is holy. And I can't produce one. Where
can I find such a righteousness satisfying unto God? I must have
it or perish. No one's going to enter God's
presence without a justifying righteousness. Well, my friend,
the good news of the gospel is, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
have the very righteousness of God through Christ. He is called the Lord, our righteousness. Now, hold your place there and
find Romans 10. And this is what this religious
world doesn't know. They don't know anything about
God who is holy. They don't know anything about
the righteousness that's of God. The righteousness that's of Him.
That is provided by Him in the substitute Jesus Christ. Romans
10. It says of these Jews, Paul is
talking about the same crowd here described in the Pharisee.
The moral majority of his day. Verse 3, for they being ignorant,
Romans 10, 3, of God's righteousness, that's his essential holy character,
and going about to establish their own righteousness. See,
they don't know who God is, holy in His character. Therefore,
they're going about to work up a righteousness. They have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness, now watch this,
it's the righteousness of God. The righteousness that's provided
in the gospel. For Christ is the end of the
law. For righteousness to everyone that, what's that word they're
saying? Believes the gospel. That's how this righteousness
is received, not by doing, turn back to Romans 1, but by believing.
Believing. How is this righteousness received?
Well, this righteousness, my friend, is Christ. He's made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He is our righteousness before God. Jeremiah rejoiced in Him,
the Lord, our righteous. He's made to me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Now look at Romans 1 verse 16.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew and
also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God. There it is again. That phrase
in the book of Romans is so key. The righteousness of God. It
doesn't talk here about God's righteousness. This is the righteousness
of God. See the difference? It's the
righteousness given of God freely. Blessed is that man whom God
would impute righteousness without works. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed in that gospel. How God can be just. and justify
the ungodly. That's the key to the gospel,
to understanding the gospel. Where there is a righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
justified shall live by... How do we live? By faith. Faith
looks to Christ. The justified shall live by Christ.
He justified me. Now, my first point is this. We see, first of all, righteousness
lost. That's the first point. Righteousness
lost. The Word of God describes us
in very vivid terms as guilty sinners. Now remember where we
started in Romans chapter 3. Remember those four nuns? Have
you ever met those four nuns? None righteous, none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God. They're none righteous. No, not
one. You see, we're all sinners. There's
none righteous. So that righteousness is lost.
God created Adam not sinful and lost and guilty. God created
Adam upright. Moral innocence. But something
happened. But one man, sin entered in. Death by sin. Death passed upon
all men in Adam. All sin in him. We're all sinners
in that first man, Adam. What he did, I did. Where he
went, I went. And I illustrate that with a
very homely illustration. What Adam did, I did. My mother
is an immigrant to this country. My mother immigrated in 1948.
She immigrated from Holland. I wasn't born until 1952. But what my mother did, I did. When she left Europe, I left
Europe. I was in her. You see what I'm
saying? What she did, I did. And Adam
all died. I am born sinful, guilty, without
God, without hope, without Christ. Shut up! Righteousness lost. Adam lost the way, the truth,
the life. What did our Lord Jesus Christ
say? I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes unto the
Father but by and through Me. He is the Lord. Our righteousness. So we see righteousness lost
in Adam. In Adam, there's not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Guilty! Guilty! That's good news to those
who are looking for salvation in Christ. Christ died for the
ungodly. It says in Genesis 6, in every
imagination and thoughts of the heart, only evil continually
wicked before God. As I said, God created Adam upright,
but Adam sinned against God. And Adam all died, and Adam all
are fallen. His fallen nature is imparted
to us. You don't have to teach a child
to lie, do you? That little child that you're
going to receive in a few months now, that little child, it's
going to come as a beautiful package, a beautiful child, but
it's going to come with that nature of Adam. It's going to
be fallen. It's going to be wretched. And
a child A child, you don't have to teach a child to lie. It comes
to them naturally, even before they talk. Even before they talk,
they lie. You who have parents are smiling.
I raised three children, two little boys, and they wouldn't
tell the truth for nothing. I had to whip them. I didn't
teach them to lie. It just comes naturally. I'm not making an excuse for
that. You children ought to tell the truth to mom and dad. But
I understand when my boys do lie to me, and they still do.
I catch them in it once in a while. They've got my nature. I gave
them my nature. And my nature is a sinful nature.
Adam's sin was imputed, charged to me. But not only that, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. I have that nature, that
Adam nature, implanted in me. Everyone born of Adam's race
has that problem. Now, unless you're involved from
a monkey. Maybe you don't have the problem that I did. But I
didn't evolve from a monkey. I evolved from Adam, and I have
that sin nature. You see, that's righteousness
lost. Second point is this, righteousness required. Righteousness required. Now, I must have a righteousness.
I touched on this earlier. Righteousness required because
God is holy, and being perfectly holy, He demands perfect holiness. Anyone that is not as perfect
and holy as God will be consumed by the fire of His holiness.
He's too holy to look upon sin with favor. As a matter of fact,
it says, if you're not there, but just let me read it to you
in Matthew 5, verse 48, Be ye therefore perfect, perfect even
as your Father in heaven is perfect. How can I meet that? That's what
God requires. Not the best I can do. That's
not the standard. The standard is the best that
God can do. Must meet that standard. Absolute
righteousness. He's too holy to look upon sin
with favor. Righteousness lost in Adam. Righteousness
required because God is holy. God demands of us a righteousness
which I cannot produce. But God still demands it. God
demands it. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. There is a holy law of God I
cannot keep. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. There is a righteousness that
God demands that I cannot produce. All of my righteousnesses are
filthy rags. There is a judgment in which
I cannot escape. And there is a life of sin that
I have committed that I cannot erase. If I could stop, speaking
hypothetically now, if I could stop sin right now, and from
this time forward never commit another sin, would that do? No. I couldn't do that anyway,
but what about the past? What about those past sins? You
see, there's a life of sin I cannot erase. There's a judgment that
I must face. And God demands holiness. The
whole purpose of God giving that law is to show us and to convince
us that we're sinners. And to cause us to despair and
to drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The law is like a light.
Like a light. We read in Romans 3 there a while
ago. Don't turn, let me just remind
you of it. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified by the law in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin, Romans 3.20. And now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophet, even the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ. So by the deeds of the law, we
cannot be justified. The law is like a light. If you
go down into your basement, Now, this is a basement that's a basement.
You know what I'm talking about. A basement that's used for a
basement where you don't live, where things just accumulate.
And you just go down there occasionally. And you go down there occasionally,
and the first thing you do, you flip on a light. What does it
do? Does it remove the cobwebs? Does
it remove the dust? Does it remove the clutter? Does
it remove the trash? No, it exposes everything. That's
what the law of God does. It exposes our wickedness. It exposes our sin before God. It exposes our guilt. Let every
mouth be stopped. All the world become guilty,
guilty before God. But now the good news of the
gospel is now that there is a righteousness of God without the law. It says,
see, without the law being manifested by, being witnessed by the law
and the prophet, even the righteousness, there is that phrase again, of
God. The righteousness of God. That's the gospel. The gospel
of Jesus Christ. That leads me to my third point.
So we've talked about righteousness lost. Righteousness demanded. Thirdly, righteousness established. Established. How is it established?
Well, is it something that is dependent upon me? Is it something
that I must do? Is my righteousness by my deeds,
my doing? Well, if it is, then Christ died
in vain. If righteousness is by the law, then he died a needless
death. Righteousness established or
righteousness accomplished. Notice in Matthew 5, verse 17,
our Lord says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to
fulfill the law of God. He came to honor that very law
of God. He came to honor the law. Our
Lord said of him, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. As of him in Isaiah 42, 21, he will magnify the law
and make it honorable, make it honorable. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to fulfill and to establish a justifying righteousness for
us by his life, by his death. Now, my friend, the Lord Jesus
Christ in the fullness of time, he came, born of a woman, born
under the law, to redeem us who were under that law. He, as the
God-man mediator, the substitute, He came to live a life I could
not live. His every obedience under that
law was perfect. He perfectly honored Father and
Mother. He perfectly honored God, loved
God with all of His heart. He magnified the law. He honored
the law. His was an exceeding obedience
under God. You see that? Jesus Christ fulfilled
and established a justifying righteousness for us, living
perfectly as our mediator. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sin, and dying affectionately to put away our
sin. You see those two things I must have. I must have a righteousness
by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. I must have that
justifying righteousness, but I must have also my sin put away. And I have both of those to the
full, so much to satisfy of God Almighty." He said, their sin,
their iniquity, will I remember no more. This is the believer's
total acceptance before God. We're accepted in the Beloved,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that ever pleased
God fully, perfectly. He lived a life I could not live. He paid the debt I could not
pay. He redeemed me with His blood. If salvation comes some
other way than Jesus Christ in His life, in His death, in His
glorious, victorious resurrection and His exaltation, His enthronement,
then He lived a needless life and died a needless death. If
salvation is some other way, So you've got those three. Righteousness
lost. Righteousness demanded. Righteousness
established. Not by my merit. By the merit
of another. The Lord Jesus Christ. You see
that? You with me now? Now here's the fourth thing. Righteousness received. Righteousness
received. How's it received? It's freely
imputed. I want you to find Romans chapter
4. It's freely imputed to all who
believe God. Romans chapter 4. God charges this righteousness. He freely gives this righteousness
to all who are granted life and faith in Christ. You see, this
righteousness we have, it's just not simply, it's not like a sticky
note. You see those sticky notes that
you stick on. It's not a pasted-on righteousness. It's a righteousness that's imputed
and charged to you. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Christ. It's not a pasted-on thing. It's
not a sticky note. It's Christ, our righteousness
before God. And this is received by God-given
faith. Romans 4, look at verse 1. What
shall we say then? that Abraham, our father, as
pertaining to the flesh, hath found? Well, by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. But
for what sayeth the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness." Now, I've got an assignment for
you today, or this week. In Romans chapter 4, I want you
to count how many times the word reckoned, imputed, and counted. Reckoned, imputed, counted to
the believer in this chapter. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Now, his faith wasn't his righteousness,
but his faith looked to Christ, the Lord, our righteousness.
Now, to him that worketh is a reward, not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted,
reckoned, and imputed." Imputed righteousness. Even as David
also described it, the blessedness of the man. Here's King David's
hope. He was a man after God's own
heart. But David's hope wasn't David. He was the king. But that wasn't his righteousness.
His righteousness was in the king of kings. Lord of lords,
the Lord Jesus Christ, even as David also described as the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputed, God imputed, imputed, charges
to you, reckons to you, righteousness without works. By somebody's works, but not
mine, by the merit and the obedience and the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is fully charged to every one of God's people.
All things. All things. Look at Romans 8.32.
Turn over there. Romans 8.32. He that spared not
his own son. Romans 8.32. But delivered him
up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely? Freely give us all things. I like that word freely. Remember
we read that back in Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's freely given. Freely given. Given to all that
are granted and given faith to believe Him. That's the gift
of God. That's the fruit of life in Christ
Jesus. Where we see that truth of imputation
taught all through the Bible, Adam's sin was imputed to all
his race. By one man's disobedience, turn
to Romans 5.19, by one man's disobedience, you see Romans
5.19, by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. Adam's
sin imputed to all people, so by the obedience of another shall
many be made righteous. That's how we're made righteous,
by the obedience of Christ. The imputation of Adam's sin
to all men, The imputation, secondly, the second imputation, the imputation
of the sin of God's elect to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin
was charged to Him. The sin of His covenant people,
the sin of a certain people were charged to the Lord Jesus Christ.
God made Him to be sin for us. He laid on Him the iniquity of
His people. Christ died for His church, His
bride, guilty of sin, not His own. He didn't have any of his
own. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
but he's guilty by imputation. Our sin was charged to him. And
then we see thirdly, the imputation of Christ's righteousness to
his people. Imputed. Imputed freely. This is the only
way we can stand before God justified. This is the way that God has
devised to exclude all human merit and to magnify His grace. Exactly. Now listen to this.
Now you think about this before you throw this away. Exactly
the same way we were ruined, we're redeemed. And Adam all died, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. You see, God's going to deal
with all men in those two representative men, Adam and Christ. And Adam all died, in Christ,
in Christ, the many shall be made alive in Christ Jesus. How? Is this imputed righteousness
received? And my friend, think of it as
a person. A person. It is a doctrine, but it's a
person. It's a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not a
sticky note type righteousness. Not a paste it on type. It's
a person living in you. Righteousness in you. Received
by God, given faith. Here's the fifth thing. We see
righteousness not only imputed, but righteousness implanted. Now, what I'm talking about here,
some of the old timers called that imparted righteousness.
And here's what we're talking about. We're talking about those
who are born again of God who are partakers of a divine nature. I have that old Adam nature.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's just what it
is. It always will remain that until it dies and we put it in
the ground and it rots and God gives us a new body. But I have
not only that Adam nature, but those regenerated and born again
and begotten of the Spirit of God, they have that Christ nature.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. I have given to me a new nature
in Christ Jesus, a new holy nature, a righteous nature before God.
In regeneration, being born of the Spirit of God, we receive
that new nature, that new heart. The old nature is not extinct
or not existent or eradicated. It's still there. But thank God
it's certainly being crucified and subdued by the new nature
within. Sin does remain in the body, but it does not reign.
Christ reigns. We're under new management in
Christ Jesus. We have that Christ nature. within
us. Yeah, I have that old nature.
It's what Paul talked about there in Romans 7 and Galatians 5. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, and the Spirit and the flesh, they wareth one to another. There's a battle going on. I
would worship God perfectly if I could, but that old nature
gets in the way. Gets in the way. One day I'll
be done with it. I'll be done with it. And I worship
God like I ought to, like I should, like I will someday. Lastly,
in the sixth place, righteousness rewarded. In the coming of the
Lord, for every believer shall enter glory dressed in Christ,
our blessed righteousness. Righteousness rewarded. Keep
us from falling, said in Jude 1 24, and to present us before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Is that your hope
before God who is holy?