Tonight, I'm going to be speaking
out of Acts chapter 15. We're going to look at the first
11 verses, and I've entitled the message, The True Apostles'
Creed. This is not a man-made document,
but there is a true apostles' creed. Now, what I would like for you
to do if you can is just pretend that you've never heard the gospel
before. This will be the first time you've
ever heard a gospel message. And I've entitled this message,
How Can a Sinner Be Righteous? Think of it like this. How can
someone who is guilty become not guilty? That's the question. How can
a sinner be righteous? Now this is the age old question.
It was asked in the book of Job. How can God be just? and justify he that's born of
woman. How can he be clean who is born
of woman? Look back at our text in Genesis
chapter 7. This is God's testimony with
regard to Noah. That's so critically important. This is not Noah's testimony
concerning himself. This is not what somebody else
said about Noah. Oh, he's a good man. He's a righteous
man. This is what God says. And the
Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark
for thee have I see righteous before me. In this generation, looking verses eight, nine of
the same chapter six, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. These are the generations of
Noah. Noah was a just man. And that word just is the same
word that's translated righteous in Genesis chapter seven, verse
one, same Hebrew word. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations. Not relatively perfect, completely
perfect. There's no such thing as relative
perfection. He was completely perfect. Now this is the same word that's
used to demonstrate the Paschal lamb without blemish, without
spot, undefiled. That's God's description of Noah. Perfect. without fault, without
blemish, undefiled. And this is the Lord's testimony
concerning him, not his own testimony. You ask me about myself, get
me in the right place, I'll tell you anything. And you'll do the
same thing. But this is God's testimony. He's the only one
who really sees things as they are. You and I don't, we walk
through a fog all the time. We don't know what's going on.
He does. He sees perfectly. And this is
his testimony concerning this man, Noah. Come into the ark. Not go and do, not go and make
yourself fit. Come right now. Don't wait for
anything to happen. Come right now into the ark. For thee have I seen as righteous
before me. Righteous like Abel was by faith.
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified
of his gifts. This is God's testimony. And
by it, he being dead yet speaketh. God did not treat Noah as if
he were righteous or call him righteous, even though he was
not. God saw Noah as righteous for this one singular reason. Noah was righteous. Now turn to Genesis chapter nine
for a moment. This is after he got off the
ark. Verse 20. And Noah began to be in husbandman,
and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was
drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brethren without." Now here we have Noah, this righteous man,
Drunken, passed out, laying naked in his tent. Now somebody is
saying, are you saying it's okay for believers to act like that?
Didn't say it at all, but this is the fact, isn't it? He was
drunken. Nakedness always represents in
the scripture, sinfulness. Drunken, passed out, laying naked
in his tent. Now let me ask you a question.
Does that change the fact that Noah was righteous before God? And God the Holy Spirit had this
recorded, this event for a purpose. Here we see Noah in a debased
fashion, and yet the God of glory, the Holy God, the God who's a
two pure eyes to behold iniquity, The God of glory calls this man
righteous. Now the fact of the matter is
Noah was a sinner just like you, just like me. He was just as sinful as I am
and he was just as sinful as you are. Noah was a very sinful
man. I am a very sinful man. Me, say it like this. If you
saw what was going on in my heart in any given day, you wouldn't
hear me preach. You wouldn't do it. You say,
I'm not going to listen to that man preach. You know what? Same thing with you. If
I saw what was going on in your heart, I'd say, no, I wouldn't
listen to anything that person said. Shows what hypocrites are,
doesn't it? That's exactly what it shows.
But Noah, You and I were very sinful individuals. Does that negate Noah being a
just man, perfect and righteous before God? The answer is no. Now the question is, how can
that be? That's the question of questions. That is the most
important question you and I can ever, ever deal with. How can a sinner be righteous
before God? And it really be that way when,
look at Noah. How can you say that man is righteous? Only the Bible answers that question.
And what we're dealing with is the mystery of the gospel. Now, before we answer that question,
we need to do some defining of terms. First, what is a sinner? Remember, we asked the question,
how can a sinner be righteous? What is a sinner? We can't answer
that question. How can a sinner be righteous
if we don't know what a sinner is? Well, What is sin? What is sin? Now, if there's
no God, that's debatable. Is there even such a thing? Who
can say? What makes somebody think there
is a right and wrong if there's no God? Hey, survival of the
fittest, the strongest win. But if there's a God, and there
is God, And he defines sin as the transgression
of the law. First John chapter three, verse
four says, sin is the transgression of the law. This is God's law.
Somebody says, well, I don't agree with it. Doesn't matter
whether you do or not. It's still God's law. God is God. And sin is the transgression
of his law. Thou shalt have no gods before
me. The second commandment is the
commandment against idolatry, trying to humanize God, bringing
him down to our level. The third commandment is the
commandment concerning the reverence for his name, to say his name
in vain without the proper reverence is a sin punishable by death. The commandment concerning the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy, to rest and to do no work. The
commandment concerning honoring your mother and father and submitting
to all God ordained authority. The sixth commandment, thou shalt
not kill. Not physically, no, you can't
murder anybody, but you can't kill people's characters either,
or murder them by innuendo. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is the commandment against
any form of sexual sin. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Take what
doesn't belong to you. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not covet. Now, sin is the transgression
of God's holy law, sin is to fail to obey God's holy law perfectly. Let me repeat that. Sin is to
fail to obey God's holy law perfectly. That's what sin is. Well, what
is a sinner? A sinner is the one who commits
the sins. Now understand this, God doesn't
send sins to hell. He sends the people who committed
those sins to hell. And to break one commandment
one time is to break them all, all the time. Let me read James chapter two,
verse 10 to you. For whosoever, shall keep the
whole law, and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. You break one commandment one
time. God says that means you break
every commandment all the time. Somebody says, well, that's just
too strict. Doesn't matter whether you think that or not. That's
the way it is. That's God's testimony. This is not man's thoughts. This is God's testimony. The sinner is the one who has
never kept one commandment one time. How do you fit into that? The sinner is one who has never
kept one commandment one time. One time, would that be you?
Would that be you right now, present tense? You're guilty
of putting things before God every second. You've been an idol maker, bringing
God down to a level that you found that you could work with.
Every time you've used his name, there's been a failure of proper
reverence. You've never rested. You've never submitted to authority.
You've been a murderer in your heart. You've committed sexual
sin in your heart. You lie, you steal, you covet. You're a lawbreaker all the time. Would that be you right now. I'm not talking about the way
you used to be, I'm talking about the way you are right now. Now turn with me for a moment,
hold your finger there in Genesis 7 and turn to 1 John chapter
1. Now let me show you how the scripture verifies this Verse eight. If we say. We have. Present tense. Active voice. If we say we have
no sin right now. We. What's that word? Deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. We've
lost all credibility. We're liars. Verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, whatever I do, this message I'm
preaching right now, whatever I say, if I'm in on it, doesn't
matter what the action is. If we say we've not seen, well,
I didn't see him there. God says you did. God says you did. If we say we
have not sinned, we make him a liar. You know, it always amuses
me when somebody says you call me a liar. Yeah. Yeah, I am. And you're calling God a liar
because he says you have sinned and his word is not in us. A sinner is the one that is a
continual law breaker. That's what a sinner is. He is
a continual law breaker. He has not kept one commandment
one time. Does that describe you? Does that describe me? But God said to Noah, and this
would describe Noah. And if you would ask Noah, he'd
say, that's me. There's no doubt about that. God said to Noah, thee have I
seen as righteous. before me. Surely he means relatively righteous,
certainly better than that group described right before the flood
in Genesis chapter six, verse five. 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. Surely that's not Noah. Yeah,
it is. Yeah, it is. But Noah found grace. Don't you want to find grace
in the eyes of the Lord like Noah did? Oh, this is what I want
more than anything else. You know, anything I say when
I say this is what I hope that's what I want more than anything
else. I sure do. I hope that's what I want. I want to be just
like Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. God saw Noah as Righteous. Now, if that's not what he means,
if he means, well, Noah was a little bit better than those other folks.
And that's why he found grace in the earth. He wasn't quite
that bad. That's what it means in salvations
by words. Let me tell you something. Righteousness is not God grading
on the curve. Righteousness is perfect. absolute
righteousness. It's sin less ness. If you're righteous before God,
that means you are sin less ness. You have no sin. You have never sinned. You've never had a sinful thought.
You've never had a sinful motive. You've never had a sinful deed.
You are sinless. That's what it is, to be righteous
before God. Now, how can a sinful man like
Noah, like me, like you, be righteous without sin in the sight of God
where I really have no sin? I think of that publican in the
temple in Luke chapter 18, beating on his breast, crying, God, be
merciful to me. The sinner! And what did the Lord testify
of that man? I tell you that man went down to his house sinless,
justified, without guilt before God. And this righteousness when he
saw Noah as righteous. This righteousness is not the
righteousness before the law of a man who hadn't been caught.
Not at all. This is not the righteousness
of a man that's called righteous, even though he's not. This is
not a lower standard of righteousness. Now, I make this statement quite
often. I love it. Don't get tired of making it.
I hope nobody gets tired of hearing it. There's only two kinds of
people in this world, the righteous and the wicked. The sinless and the sinful. Two kinds of people, righteous
and wicked. Every one of the righteous without
exception believe themselves to be wicked people, people who
have not kept one commandment one time. All of the wicked believe they
have at least the ability to keep one commandment at least
once. Now, there is only one righteousness
that God will accept. his own that's why david said in psalm
71 16 i've made mention of thy righteousness even thine only
why his righteousness is the only righteousness as a matter
of fact daniel 9 17 says righteousness belongeth unto thee You know,
I think this is very interesting in the scriptures. I know that
everything belongs to the Lord. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell
therein. I mean, everything belongs to him. Amen? Everything belongs
to him. But there are five things that
the scripture says belongeth to the Lord. That means he's
got a monopoly on them. That means he has absolute, it
is. Number one, Psalm 62, 11 says,
power belongeth unto the Lord. I hate it when somebody refers
to me, he's a powerful man, or she's a powerful woman. No, they're
not. God only is powerful. He has
absolute control over everybody and everything. Don't call some
man a powerful man. He's got no power at all. He's
like Pilate, don't you know that I have power to release you and
I have power to crucify you? Thou couldst have no power at
all over me. Wouldn't you have loved to heard
him say that? Just the way he said it. Power belongeth unto
the Lord. And in that same Psalm, Psalm
62, he says, also belongeth to thee mercy. You know, mercy is
utterly in God's hands. His mercy is sovereign mercy. It belongs to Him. He can show
you mercy. Anybody in here, He can show
you mercy. Mercy belongeth to the Lord.
He can pass you by too, but He can show you mercy. Don't anybody
despair of that. Mercy belongeth unto the Lord. And Psalm 3,8 says, salvation
belongeth unto the Lord. Hebrews 10.30 says, vengeance
belongeth unto me. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Now, nobody here has any right for vengeance, but he does. And
then righteousness belongeth unto the Lord. I want to give you five things
the scripture teaches with regard to a sinner. A sinner, now remember
what a sinner is. A sinner is somebody who breaks
the law all the time. All the time. If that doesn't describe
you, you don't really believe you're a sinner. God's never
really taught you. You've been left to yourself
up to this point. I hope the Lord reveals this to you today.
But this is what a sinner is. He breaks God's holy law all
the time. Now, let me remind you, if you
think you keep the law, you've got a very low opinion of the
law. You don't really understand the law. David said, thy commandment
is exceeding broad. You've made it real narrow. You've
humanized it and made it to where you can, that's not the way to
look at God's law. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped. And all the world stand guilty. for God. Now, how can a sinner
be righteous? Let me give you five things that
the scripture teaches. Number one, righteous by union with the righteous
one. Righteous by union with the righteous
one. The Lord said unto John the Baptist,
when he came to John the Baptist to be baptized, and John the
Baptist felt utterly unfit. You know, John the Baptist knew
he was a lawbreaker, that he broke the law all the time, and
he, how would you feel if the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, came to you and said, I want you to baptize me? Well,
John the Baptist felt that way as well, and the Lord said, suffer
it to be so now, For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. When Jesus Christ kept God's
holy law, and he did, He said, the prince of this world is coming.
He's found nothing in me. He didn't find anything he could
grab onto and say, well, he did this. No, perfect righteousness. Think not that I've come to destroy
the law and the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to
fulfill. And he fulfilled every jot and
every tittle of God's holy law. But what he did, everybody in
him did it as well. That's what he said. Thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. When Jesus Christ kept the law,
Todd and Ibert kept the law, if I'm in him. That's what baptism
depicts. You know, the going down under
the water and coming back up. When Christ lived, I lived. When
he died, I died. When he kept the law, I kept
the law. When he died under God's wrath,
I died. When he was raised, I was raised
as he is, 1 John 4, 17, as he is. Well, how is he? Is he righteous? Is he without fault? Is he without
sin? Is he beautiful to God? Is he
perfect to God? Is he well pleasing to God? Does
God accept him as he is? So are we in this world. Both he that sanctifies and they
who are sanctified are all of one. Righteous by virtue of union
with the righteous one. Secondly, righteous by imputation. I want you to look at this scripture
with me. Would you turn to Romans chapter four? Verse six. Now, let me give you the background
of David making this statement. David, the man after God's own
heart, has willfully abused his position of authority, commanded
a woman that he saw bathing on the roof to come into him, committed
adultery with her, and then tried to cover it up so her husband
wouldn't find out who the father was and he would think he was
it. And when that didn't work, he had her husband murdered. He murdered her husband in cold
blood. That's bad stuff, isn't it? That's
bad stuff. Well, the Lord did something
for him. And look what he says. Verse
six, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man under
whom God imputeth righteousness without works say. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now this is the act of God
in the justification of a sinner. He doesn't impute, that sinner
sins to him. That sinner sins, he put on Christ
and imputed to him. And that's why Christ died on
Calvary's tree, because my sin became his sin, and God imputed
it to him. This was real. This is not something
imaginary. I wish I knew how to talk about
this the way I ought to. But Christ was made sin by the
Father, that we, everybody he died for, might be made the very
righteousness of God. In him, this speaks of the justification
of the sinner, the sinlessness of the sinner, righteous by imputation. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. Somebody
says, well, I know things about, I don't care what you, if God
justified me, I'm justified. I'm justified, I stand before
God without guilt, without sin. And that's the only way I can
ever be that way, is if God did it. Job said, if I justify myself,
my own tongue will condemn me. This is about God justifying
me. Righteous by imputation. Thirdly,
we read in Romans 5, verse 17, of the gift of righteousness. Let me quote this to you. You
can turn there if you want, Romans 5, 17. They that have received
the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, the gift
of righteousness. Now, how can I know if I have
this gift? You receive it. Do you receive
being saved only by his righteousness that you don't have anything
to do with affinity? Do you receive this gift? Somebody
says, no, we never gave it to you then. If you receive it,
because he gave it to you. It's the gift, the free gift
of righteousness. Righteous by nature, fourthly. Righteous by nature. Righteous
by union. Righteous by imputation, righteousness
as a gift, and righteous by nature. Turn to 1 John 2. Verse 29. If you know that he is righteous,
do you know that he, the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous? If
you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born, is birthed, is fathered of him. Verse seven of chapter three,
little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. Now what that's talking about
is the righteousness of the new nature. Look how it's described
in verse nine, 1 John chapter three, whosoever is born of God,
what are those next four words? Doth not commit sin. It's amazing to look at all the
other different translations of the scriptures, this way he
doesn't practice sin. or he doesn't habitually commit sin, or he
doesn't, that's not what, you can't get that from this verse.
It says he does not commit sin. He's unable to commit sin. This is talking about that which
is born of God, that which is birth of God, the new birth.
Now, Adam's sin was charged to my account because I sinned in
him. And Adam's sinful nature was transmitted to me. That's
why I was born a sinner. The very righteousness of Christ
is mine and his righteous nature is given to me in the new birth.
Now, the best example of this is found in second Peter. Look in verse six. God turned the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah into ashes. Condemned them with an overthrow,
making them to example unto those that afterwards should live ungodly,
fire and brimstone came down from heaven and torched that
place. Nobody survived. But he delivered
just lot. And that word just, that means
just lot as in only lot. It means righteous lot. He delivered
just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for
that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Now that's God's description
of lot. The man who lingered in Sodom,
the man who went to Sodom in the first place, the man who
pitched a tent towards Sodom, The man who took the well-watered
planes and didn't show deference to Abraham. What does God call
him? Righteous lot and speaks of his
righteous soul. Hence, we are according to second
Peter one for four partakers of the divine nature. That's what it is to be righteous
by nature. It's to be a partaker of the
divine. It's to be born again. Now, last point. Turn to Romans chapter four. Verse five. But to him that worketh Not. Now that person who works not
is the person who knows that all of his works are filthy rags. He knows that every act of his
is an act of law breaking. He knows there's no point in
trying to work for salvation. He's been taught that. This is
not talking about somebody that's ignorant. The only people who
work not are the people who know that all of their righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. They know that. They know that
salvation by works for them is impossible. To him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifies
the ungodly, that makes sinless the sinful. His faith is counted
for righteousness. Now that doesn't mean that God
accepts faith instead of perfect obedience to the law. He's kind
of lowered his terms and since nobody can keep the law now,
no, it doesn't mean that at all. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Now, number one, I cannot physically
see my eternal union with Christ, can you? I can't see that. But I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. I believe he's the Christ. I
believe he's all in salvation. You know what that means? That
means I've been eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't
see God imputing righteousness to me. That's not something I
can say, well, I'm charging, no. Well, how do I know he did
it? I believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. I
believe he is the Christ, the prophet, the priest, the king,
the savior. I don't remember a time when
God gave me this gift. I can't say, well, I know he
gave me that gift. Well, how do you know he gave it to you
then? Faith in Christ. I look to Christ only as my righteousness
before God. Right now, I'm depending entirely
upon Jesus Christ as my righteousness before God. I sure can't see
a holy nature. Somebody says, you talk about
not seeing it. Do you see it? No, no, I don't see it at all.
What makes you think you have it? Because I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. It's only the holy nature that
does that. It's only the holy nature that sees the sinfulness.
You know what? A natural man, an unconverted man, all this
stuff just, they cannot see themselves as continual lawbreakers. Why?
Because they're unconverted. Because they've never been born
again. Because they've never been given a holy nature. And
they bring everything down to understandable terms that they
can understand. But oh, if God has revealed himself
to you, you have this holy nature. And the evidence is not because
you can see some kind of personal holiness on your part, it's because
you believe the gospel. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the eternal, uncreated Son of God, the second person of
the blessed Trinity, the Lord of lords, the King of kings,
the one whose will must be done, then you're united to him. Then he has imputed his righteousness
to you and it's yours. Then he gave you this gift. You have a holy nature, a righteous
nature. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would speak. And that power that raises the
dead. And say to each of us. Lazarus
come forth. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.