There are some things so ugly,
so grotesque, so disgusting that while we are constantly aware
of them, just common courtesy forbids that we discuss them
in public with anyone until our hands are forced and they must
be discussed. Tonight it is my responsibility
for your soul's sake and for the glory of God to talk to you
about the most disgustingly repugnant thing upon this earth. My subject is self-righteousness. Let's turn back again to Luke
chapter 18 and read once more this parable that our Lord gives
addressing the issue of self-righteousness. And we know that is the reason
he gave the parable because Luke speaks by divine inspiration
and tells us by way of introduction in verse 9 that he addressed
this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. Luke 18 verse 9 he spoke this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others what a crime what a horrible
crime two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee
and the other a publican What a great privilege God has established
in the midst of men on this earth who deserve his wrath, a place
where he meets with sinners by his word, a place where he reveals
himself, where he dispenses mercy. He's prepared a place where men
can come and hear from him and worship him. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. What a waste. What a waste of a golden opportunity. What a waste of the ordinance
of God. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What a prayer. Oh, what a prayer. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. What a contrast. What a tremendous
contrast. Our Lord addresses this matter
of self-righteousness. He did so frequently while he
walked upon the earth talking to religious people. And he did
so and gives us his word that his servants may deal with this
matter and deal with it forcefully because we are all by nature
terribly self-righteous. Self-righteousness is the inbred
family disease of all the sons of Adam. From the heights of
society to its depths, all men are self-righteous. Some of you
recall when Brother Nybert Folks over in Lexington first started
the meeting out on Limestone. Went out on North Limestone Street,
and Todd told me a few months afterwards, he said, you know,
one of the reasons that I went out there, chose that for a place
for us to meet, was not just because that's what we could
afford, but I thought at least out there on that side of town,
we wouldn't have to deal with self-righteous people. But I
found out that drunks and dopeheads and prostitutes are just as self-righteous
as everybody else. Self-righteousness runs through
humanity. There's no such thing as a human
being who is not by nature self-righteous. We all secretly flatter ourselves
that we are not so bad as some. That we have something which
will, after all, recommend us to God's favor. Something that
sets us apart. Something that distinguishes
us from others. The wise man said, men, most
men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. We're good at that,
aren't we? I don't know of anything every
human being I know is not good at like they are this. We all
like to proclaim our goodness. That's the nature of fallen man.
In doing so, we forget or disregard the plain testimony of Holy Scripture.
In many things, we offend all. There is not a man upon the earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. What is man that he should be
clean? Are he that is born of woman
that he should be righteous? They are all under sin, as it
is written. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Ever since man became a sinner,
he has been self-righteous. When man had a perfect righteousness
before God with which he was created, he didn't glory in it,
he didn't cherish it, but ever since man has fallen and lost
all righteousness, he's pretended to be righteous. Immediately
after the fall, you remember Adam sewed some fig leaves together
and put on an apron with which he attempted to clothe himself
before God and present himself as righteous before God. As soon
as he did, as soon as he went about establishing his own righteousness,
he began to excuse any evil that might be seen in him and blamed
it on God Blamed it on the woman that God had given him, refusing
to take any responsibility for himself. And that's the way it's
been ever since. As it was with Adam, so it is
with all. We justify ourselves in all things
before men and before God. Self-righteousness is born in
us. While we can to some degree control
our lusts and lies and acts of evil, theft and murder and adultery
and such, self-righteousness will never allow a man to confess
his sin. It won't happen. It won't happen.
If God Almighty will let you have your way, If God Almighty
will just leave you to your will, if God Almighty will just leave
you alone, you will never acknowledge your sin. Oh, you'll talk about
being a sinner almost in flattering terms. You'll acknowledge all
being a sinner. Sure, I'm a sinner. You'll acknowledge
that you've done evil, but you will never acknowledge what you
are, not before God. Millions of sermons have been
preached on self-righteousness, but it remains the number one
crime that keeps men from Christ. One of the old preachers a long
time ago made this statement, I scarcely ever preach a sermon
without condemning self-righteousness, yet I find that I cannot preach
it down. Men still boast of who they are,
what they have done, and what they have not done, and mistake
the road to heaven to be a road paved by their own works and
their own merit. God save me from self-righteousness. God save me from self-righteousness. Perhaps you think, well, Brother
Dunn, why are you talking to us about this? This message was
first addressed to men who professed to be the Lord's disciples. Look at the context. Our Lord
is talking to his disciples and is talking to those who trusted
in themselves that they were righteous. And I want to be honest with
your soul. I want to be honest with your
soul. I fear for you and for me that
we will be found at last deceived unless God Almighty seals his
word to our hearts. I fear that you who hear my voice,
some of you, may yourselves be engulfed, enwrapped in this business
of self-righteousness. Let me see. I know that nobody
here, not one of you, would be so brazenly crass and bold as
to say that you do not need Christ. You would never suggest that
you need no redemption, that you need no righteousness imputed
to you, no grace to save you. But whenever your pastor or another
speaks to you plainly, and tells you that your heart is as black
and vile as hell itself. You're fended. You kind of keep
it to yourself, but you think to yourself, he ought not say
that about me. That's just not so. Is it not that you're self-righteous? I plead with you for your soul's
sake to be honest. You who think, I know I'm not
as good as I ought to be, but then I'm not so bad as some.
I go to church regularly. I read my Bible. I say my prayers. I'm sober. I'm honest. I live
a moral life. Is that not the language of self-righteousness? There's only one cure for this
horrible evil. The only cure for self-righteousness
is self-knowledge, and self-knowledge is the most painful thing in
this world a human being has to deal with. Self-knowledge. We are all by nature sinners
and we all love it that way. That's our nature. Destitute
of righteousness. Filled with unrighteousness.
Our Savior tells us that out of your heart and mine proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. By nature, we are enemies to
all that is righteous and good. We have no power to change that.
No power to make ourselves righteous before God. We hear our Lord
declare, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. You shall in no wise enter into
the kingdom of God. And we recognize that we haven't
the ability to produce righteousness. Yet, we pretend to be righteous. No matter how righteous we are
in the eyes of men. or in our own right eyes, unless
we have the righteousness of Christ. the perfect righteousness
of Christ. I mean, unless we stand before
God in Jesus Christ, made righteous by his blood, by the imputation
of his righteousness, unless we stand before God so that on
the ground of justice satisfied, on the ground of perfect obedience,
on the ground of absolute sinlessness, we expect God to be gracious
to us for Christ's sake. And that's it. That's it. We
rejoice in mercy. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness of our
own. We have nothing but sin in ourselves. But blessed be God. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, has not only satisfied wrath and justice in
putting away sin for his people, he has obeyed God fully as our
substitute. And now every believing sinner
stands before God in Jesus Christ, worthy of God's smile, worthy
of God's approval. Once let the eyes of our understanding
be opened by the Spirit of God, and self-righteousness withers.
Once we see the Lord in His glory, as Isaiah did, we will cry with
the prophet, Woe is me, for I am undone. Once we see God in his
glory in the crucified Christ, we will be like Daniel and our
comeliness will wither within us. We will like the leper place
our hands over our mouths and cry unclean, unclean. Everyone
who goes to the house of worship, everyone who goes to any house
of worship is set before us in this parable. Either the Pharisee
or the publican represents you and me. The purpose of our Lord
in this parable is to show us the folly and the danger of self-righteousness. Now, before we look at the contrast
between these two men, let me show you that there is one thing
they have in common, and the same is true of us, everybody
here. Whether you're saved or lost,
whether you know God or don't, These things we all have in common,
as did the Pharisee and the Publican. They both went up to the temple. They both set their faces in
the same way. Outwardly, they both walked in
the same path. They entered into the same house.
So far as we can see, there is no difference at all in their
outward religious behavior. I'm reminded of the first two
men who went to a place to worship God. Cain and Abel. They both
gathered at the appointed place at the appointed time to worship
God. But there was a mighty gulf fixed
between them. The difference between these
two men was in their hearts. Cain had a heart full of pride
because he thought he was righteous. He refused to trust a substitute
and brought God the works and the fruit of his hands and was
therefore rejected by God. He went away condemned. Abel, on the other hand, believed
God. He knew himself a sinner. And
because in his heart he looked away from himself to Jesus Christ,
the Lord, as his only righteousness. He offered a sacrifice representing
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and was accepted for Christ's
sake. Now, let's look at this parable
very briefly. And I want to call your attention
to four things that show four great differences in these two
men. First, their character. The one
was a Pharisee, the other a publican. Our Lord could not have picked
two people at more opposite extremes in the minds of the Jewish society
in which he lived to describe the race of men, the Pharisee
and the publican. total extremes opposite from
one another. In the mind of Jewish people
to whom he spoke, the Pharisee represented the epitome of morality
and righteousness. The Pharisee represented all
that was good and noble and desirable. The publican was looked upon
with more disgust with more contempt as being one more vile than a
harlot, a thief, or a drunk. He represented the depths of
degradation and ungodliness. The Pharisee, he was one of those
men who was of the most ancient sect of the Jews. There was no
group of Jews, no group in Jewish religious life, no group of Jewish
religious leaders who had a greater background historically than
the Pharisees. They were the oldest, most ancient
sect of the Jews. The Pharisee was thoroughly,
now I want you to hear this, I'm not inventing it, I'm telling
you what I know to be so from this book. The Pharisee was thoroughly
Orthodox in his doctrine. You'll hear somebody say, well
a man can't be right in his doctrine, be wrong in his heart. Let's
see. Let's see. The Pharisee believed in the
inspiration scriptures. He believed the Old Testament,
which is all the scripture he had, was the word of God, inspired
and authoritative. He'd defend it to his death.
The Pharisee believed in the Messiah, believed in the Christ,
believed the Christ would come and the Christ would deliver
his people. The Pharisee believed in election, predestination,
and limited atonement. When he went to the temple to
worship God, he went to the temple to worship at the altar of God,
through the priest of God, who represented no one except Israel,
who they thought were the people of God, and made atonement for
no one but the people of God. The Pharisee believed in the
resurrection of the dead. He even believed in the future
punishment of the wickedness and the everlasting bliss of
the righteous. The Pharisee was strict. Oh, he was strict in his religious
observance. Strict. I mean meticulous. Meticulous. I know a few. I know a very few. Believers or unbelievers. I know
a very few who could compare with the Pharisee in the strictness
with which he governed his life in outward behavior. He prayed
three times every day. I'm not talking about he just
said the blessing at table when he started to eat. Three times
a day he knelt and prayed. He fasted twice every week. He paid tithes of everything
he possessed. It wasn't leftovers he brought
to the house of God. It was the first thing. He brought
the best of what he had and paid tithes on it all. The Pharisees
strictly observed the ceremonies of the law. He was meticulous
in his observance of the Sabbath day. He wouldn't think about
mission in the church service. He wouldn't think about it. He
played church, but not at home. He came every Sunday. He kept
all the appointed feasts, came up to Jerusalem, convenient or
not, the Pharisee went to the house of God at the appointed
time to worship. But everything the Pharisee did, and this is
the rub, everything the Pharisee did, He did to be seen of men,
everything. He wouldn't have done any of
it if men weren't looking. I wonder what you and I do just
because somebody else is looking. If that doesn't hit you between
the eyes, like a ton of bricks, it ought to. It ought to. The Pharisee stood
in the corners when he prayed. He'd go out in the public. Our
Lord said he stood in the corner. He didn't go stand in the middle
of the street, he stood in the corner. So that when he prayed,
people coming from every direction could see him and hear him and
congratulate him. Our Lord tells us that they made
broad the borders of their phylacteries. They took pieces of scripture
and sewed it into their long flowing gowns. Large pieces of
scripture so that people could look at them and see that they
were devoted religious people because they carried Bibles with
them everywhere they went. All of their religious exercises
were designed specifically to either win the applause and approval
of men, or to increase the applause and approval of men, or to keep
men applauding and approving of them. There are many, like
the Pharisees, that keep up the outward duties of religion so
that men will approve of them. They suppose that by their religious
works they make God their debtor. And they despise others, thinking
themselves holier than others. Those others who do not observe
their traditions. Those others who are less meticulous
in their lives. Those others who cannot be looked
at as being so faithful and holy. And they say, stand by thyself,
for I am holier than thou. They thought they were so good.
that if they rubbed up close to a bad fella, it'd rub off
on him. Not the believer. This is what
Paul says, who was once a Pharisee. We are the circumcision. We are
the people of God. We are the people of God's covenant
and God's promise. We are the people born of God.
which worship God in the spirit. Worship God in his spirit and
by his spirit and worship God inside, inside in the spirit. I worship It's not something
that's done one day in seven or two days in seven. Our worship
is not something that's done at the appointed times of worship.
Oh, yes, yes, we worship God and delight to come to his house
at the appointed time of worship, but believers worship God every
day. Our lives are lives of worship. That's what our Lord taught us
in the first part of this chapter. It meant always to pray and not
to think. That is, we ought to constantly walk before God, trusting
Him, believing Him, worshiping Him, persevering in this business
of faith. Believers do. We worship God
in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. We glory in the
Lord. We rejoice in Him, we boast in
Him, we lean on Him. Our only hope, our only confidence
is Christ Jesus the Lord. And have no confidence in the
flesh. Nothing in our feelings, nothing
in our experience, nothing in our doing that gives us confidence
to lift our hearts to God. Our confidence is in Christ Jesus. The other man in this parable
was a publican. The Jews looked at the publican
the way religious folks in our society look at the pimp, and
the prostitute, and the pusher, and the homosexual. Same way. Same way. Same content. same
contempt and the Pharisee looked at the publican the same way
religious folks look at the pimp and the pusher and the prostitute
and the homosexual I ain't like him I don't see how man could don't
you? don't you? You don't see how
men can do what? James Jordan, there's nothing
you wouldn't do if God leave you to yourself. Take away all
the restraints. That dear lady there, not a human
being on this earth I more admire. I love her and admire her. There's
nothing you wouldn't do if God Almighty didn't restrain it. the man talking to you, there's
nothing I wouldn't do if God just left me to myself, took
away all restraints. Nothing. Contrasts between these
two characters. Now look at their behavior. Here's
another contrast. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. He stood to pray. These days things are a little
different. I recall some years ago I had
a fellow preaching for me and I was just being courteous. I
wouldn't do it anymore. He was a former pastor and I
was trying to be nice to him. He came to town so I asked him
to preach. Before he started to preach He
stepped out to the side of the pulpit and knelt down on one
knee and started to pray. If I could, I wanted to kick
him between the eyes so bad. Why? Look how humble I am. Look at me. That's all. That's
all. Pharisee stood to pray so everybody
could see him. His reason was to be seen. to
be seen. No display of reverence, only
a display of pride. That's all. No display of humility,
only a display of self-pride and self-exaltation. He stood
to pray, and he stood apart from the others. After all, there
were some folks like this publican in the temple, and he didn't
want to get near him, lest he defile himself. And he stood
with boldness and confidence as though he had a right on his own to
stand before God as his equal. And he prayed thus with himself. He sought nothing but his own
glory. stood before God confident of
his own righteousness, stood by himself with no respect to
Christ the mediator, no reverence, no regard, no faith in that sacrifice
represented in the Holy of Holies where the blood was sprinkled
on the mercy seat. He addressed God. Yes, he did. Well, he praised
to the Lord. This Pharisee did. He addressed
God, but his only reason was to praise himself. Shelby may
remember this. This has been Oh, 35 years ago,
maybe a little less than that, we were in church in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, and Brother Dan Parks' dad was a pastor, Brother
Ernest Parks. And this fellow came to the services
once in a while. Poor old Brother Parks, he was
so nice, you know, he'd call on fellows to pray, make them
feel good, I reckon. He called on this fellow to pray one night
as we were closing services. And before the old man got done
praying, I just thought, man, I can't even do this. I can't
even do this. And I turned around and looked
at him. And as I did, almost everybody in the building was
standing there looking shocked. Because he was thanking God that
he had been so good. Thanking God. God, I thank you
that you've let me do this. God, I thank you that you've
not let me do that. God, I thank you for this and
that and the other things that I have done. That's what the
Pharisee did here, isn't it? We see nothing of humility in
this man. He had no inclination to even
bow his head, much less his heart before God. Now look at the publican. The publican standing afar off in the outer court as one unworthy
to be where God meets with him in. as one unworthy to call upon
God's name, as one unworthy to approach him whose name is holy.
He had a sense of guilt, of sin, of corruption before God that
caused him to stand afar off as one deserving to be separated
from God forever. He had some sense of reverence
for God in whose presence he stood. The publican was not even
willing to look up toward heaven. J.C. Ryle said he felt the remembrance
of his sins so grievous and the burden of them so intolerable
that like a child who has offended its father he dared not look
his almighty maker in the face. The guilt of sin lay heavy on
him. He blushed with shame before God. He was possessed with a fear,
a well-deserved fear of God's well-deserved wrath. This man
was broken, broken before God. And he smote upon his breast.
He beat upon his breast because he was shocked. of what God made
him see in himself. As I thought about that, preparing
this message for tonight, wouldn't it be shocking, wouldn't
it be shocking for somebody here suddenly to begin pounding his
chest and sobbing like this publican? Oh, I'd love to see such a shocking
thing. I'm shocked at apathy and indifference. People come, profess faith in
Christ, profess to believe God, and they come to church when
they take a notion to, when they got nothing else bothering them,
nothing else standing in the way, worship God at their convenience,
and when they do come, Stare out the window and see what the
next bird is going to be lighting on that telephone wire out there.
Daydream, click the fingernails. I've had folks bring the newspaper,
read the newspaper. Claim to be worshiping God. Not the public. Here's the third
contrast. Look at their prayers. The Pharisee
said, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. Extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in
the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He doesn't confess anything about
sin, expresses no desire for God's glory, has no interest
in God's praise, expresses no need before God, because he didn't
have any. He gives thanks to God, but his
only reason is to credit and exalt himself. Proudly, he denies
being like other men. But the fact is he was a liar.
He would never acknowledge it, but he was just like everybody
else. He was a sinner in Adam, a sinner by nature, a sinner
by choice, a sinner at heart, just like the publican. He denies
particular sins. Names them. He names them. When
I remember hearing Brother Herbert Wilson years ago make a statement.
Herbert was pastor down in Western Salem as well. He said, anytime
a preacher talks about something a whole lot, it's cause he got
trouble with it. And this Pharisee talked about
something a whole lot. He talked about something a whole
lot. He denies certain things of which he knew he was guilty. The Pharisee was an extortioner. He was one who devoured widows'
houses in the name of religion. The Pharisee was unjust. Our Lord depicts him as an unjust
steward who used the things God put in his hands for his own
gain. The Pharisee was an adulterer, an adulterer of the worst kind.
He was an adulterer who worshipped himself, a spiritual adulterer. And even in his self-righteous,
pretentious morality, Pretty good indication that in private
he wasn't near what folks thought he was in public. Somehow the
Pharisees managed to get one of their buddies to take a woman
and set a trap for her in adultery in the very act they caught her.
Now that's tough to do. That's tough to do. And they
brought her to be stoned and said nothing about him. I think
they must have knew one another pretty good. They must have known
one another pretty good. And the Pharisee, even as he
made this prayer, was guilty of all these things before God.
He was robbing God of his glory, taking it to himself. Unjustly
claiming a right to God's favor and guilty of spiritual adultery. Even if he had obeyed the letter
of the law as he pretended, he was completely wrong because
he could not perfectly obey it. And even if he had perfectly
obeyed it, he was wrong because it is written, by the deeds of
the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
Even perfect obedience to the law would not justify him. He
could not make up for his past crimes. The Pharisee judged himself
Not by the standard of God before whom he stood, but by the standard
of the poor publican. Now, we like to think ourselves
good, don't we? We do. God forgive us, we do. We like to think we're good.
I'm somebody. I'm somebody. Remember Jesse
Jackson when he was running for president? I am somebody. I am somebody. You sure are.
You sure are. Just like the rest of us somebodies.
Filth. Filth. We like to judge ourselves
good and the way we do that is we find somebody else with whom
to compare ourselves. Find another worm who's a little
deeper in the muck and mire than we are because we happen to be
out taking a sun bath. That's all. The Pharisee compared
himself to the public. Well, I'll tell you what you
do. When you look in the mirror and
you see Don Fortner standing beside you, don't pay any attention
to Don Fortner because that's an easy mark to measure up to.
Stand in the mirror and look in the mirror and see God Almighty
standing beside you. Now how good are you? How good? A preacher, nobody's that good. Years ago, years ago, an old
woman asked me. I first met her. Ruth Adkins,
one of the charter members of 13th Street Church in Ashland.
First time I ever preached there. She walked up to me after services
and she's so nice and sweet, but man was she sharp. She said,
Brother Don, how good does a man have to be to go to heaven? And I said, you've got to be
as good as God. Her eyes just sparkled, that's what she wanted
to hear. That's how good you've got to
be. as good as God, with his spotless garments on, holy as
the Holy One. Any other goodness is nothing
but a cloak for corruption. The Pharisee proved himself to
be a child of wrath and a child of the devil because he hated
his brother, this publican. He despised him. As I said to
you this morning, self-righteousness always despises others. Not some
others, all others. Self-righteousness despises everybody. Self-righteousness lives for
nothing but me. Just me. Just me. Well, I want
to. Well, it makes me feel good.
Well, I'm not happy. I get so sick and tired of listening
to men and women whine about me, me. Live for me! It's because you despise God
and despise everybody else. Men and women who know God live
for Him and for one another. Now, look at the public. God
be merciful to me, a sinner. Let me give you a better
translation to exactly what Publican was saying. He was looking on
the sacrifice portrayed in the Paschal Lamb whose blood sprinkles
the mercy seat. And he saw beyond the ark and
the mercy seat and the veil and the priest and the sacrifice.
He saw Christ the Lamb slain for sinners. who has obtained
eternal redemption by his blood, and he prayed, God, be reconciled
to me, be propitious to me through the blood of your darling son,
because I'm the worst sinner there's ever been. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. This word merciful,
it's only used one other time in the New Testament. found in
Hebrews 2.17 where the scripture says in all things it behooved
our Savior to be made like unto his brethren that he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. This
publican prays for God to be merciful to him. Now here's another
contrast I tell you this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. That's what I want for you, and
that's what I want for me. You see, self-righteousness will
keep you, as it did this Pharisee, from believing on Christ. Nothing
else will. Nothing else will. You might
say, I'm too bad to be saved. You don't really believe that.
You don't believe that. Not for a second. You don't believe
that. Oh, I'm such an evil person. God never had mercy on me. You
don't believe that for a second. You think you're too good to
be saved. And the fact is, your goodness will keep you from Christ.
Turn to Romans chapter 9. I'll wrap this up. Romans chapter 9. Verse 31, Israel which followed after the
law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? Why? They live by the law, but
they can't get it, because they sought it not. The righteousness
required in the law, they sought it not by faith, but as it were,
by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone,
and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
They're religious as all get out, but they don't know God
from a billy goat. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
being ignorant of Christ and his accomplishments, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God, have not believed on
Christ. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.