Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23. It is always joyful to be able to
come here and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But to hear
it preached is better. I love to hear it. Enjoyed it
last night very, very, very much. But here in Jeremiah 23, 5, look
what it says. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord. I will raise under David a righteous
branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, in this righteous
branch days, this king's days, Judah shall be saved, Israel
shall dwell safely, and this is his name whereby he shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Now when God put Adam in the
garden, he gave him a righteousness, his own righteousness. And he
stood in that righteousness until God gave him one command, Thou
shalt not eat of the tree of good and evil. And the day ye
eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. Well, he ate and he died. And when he fell in the garden, when our father Adam fell in
the garden, he sustained an infinite loss. in this matter of righteousness. He lost a righteous nature. I mean, when he fell, he lost
everything. He lost a righteous nature. Our
Lord says there's none righteous, no, not one. Somebody says there's
anybody doing good. He said, there's not anybody
good. In Psalm 14, it says that God went looking for a good man.
He said, I found out there's none good. I found out there's
none that understands. There's none that seeketh God.
There's none righteous, no not one. And he didn't lose his self-righteous
nature. He lost his nature, his righteous
nature. And then his character of uprightness
was completely wrecked and ruined. Wrecked and ruined. He lost all
sense and understanding of what righteousness is. Because he
went immediately when he fell and got a fig leaf and tried
to cover his nakedness with a fig leaf. So he lost all sense of
what righteousness really is, the understanding of it. He actually
thought that a fig leaf could make his nakedness not to be
seen in the sight of God. Thought that he's, he didn't,
you know, he had this self-righteousness that, oh, listen, I'm okay now.
I'm okay now. But I tell you what, beloved,
that's what he says, Paul says to Israel, he said, oh, I bear
record that they have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. And so we don't, you know, man
has got a self-righteous nature. We all do. And if God don't deal
with that and keep that subdued and make us absolutely abhorrent,
we'll never get rid of it. When they get rid of it, you
know, when we draw our dying breath. But anyway, our Lord
Jesus Christ, it says here that He shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. And the Lord Jesus, by His precious
blood, Adam sinned and Noah lost righteousness, lost what understanding
of righteousness is. And the Lord Jesus, by His precious
blood, took and put the sin of His people away. He took the
consequences of their sin away from all believers. He bore the
penalty of their sin in His own flesh. He appeared once in the
end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And He Himself bore our sins
in His own body on the tree. But let me tell you something.
Just having our sins forgiven is not enough. Not enough. In God's eyes, we may be without
sin, but yet God requires, God requires that a man actually
keep the law. He must continue in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. And I tell you, that's
where man lost his understanding of righteousness. Do you all
have any people around here giving out the Ten Commandments, you
know, to put in your yard? Hang on you all. Argue about
having them over the courthouse and all that. Listen, I don't
want to see them until Christ has fulfilled them. And so you
see, it's not enough just to have your sins forgiven. You've
got to have action. You must keep the law. You must
have an obedience and a righteousness that's acceptable to God. And
when that righteousness, where that righteousness is, the pardoned
sinner, he has to have a righteousness where he can be completely covered,
so that when God Almighty looks at him, and sees him, and views
him, God can look at him and say, that man is perfect in my
eyes, that man is righteous in my eyes. We got to have that. And this is his name. whereby
he shall be called. This is the name that we're going
to know him by. This is the name we're going
to call him. This is the name that we need. The Lord Jehovah
our righteousness. This is what he has, this is
what he is, and this is what he shall be called by true believers. Now what does it mean, the Lord
our righteousness? What does it mean, Jehovah our
righteousness? It means this, that the God-man
the Lord Jesus Christ, who came through the womb of a virgin.
He was never ceased to be what he was, the eternal God. But
he came and planted by the Holy Ghost in the womb of a virgin.
And he came forth from that womb of that virgin as something he
had never been before. He became a man. And God and
man was united in that one and glorious person. didn't cease
to be God, but yet he was still man. And he didn't have Adam's
blood in him. He didn't have any relation to
Adam whatsoever. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, this eternal God, this God-man, He's the creator of
this world, the sustainer of this world. He's the giver of
life. He's before all things. By Him
all things consist. He upholds this world by the
word of His power. It's by Him, through Him, that
everything was, is, and shall be, always will be. Bless His
name. And it's in Christ, in our Lord
Jesus Christ alone, that God the Father is well pleased. There's
never, never, never been anybody that God looked at and said,
I approve of them. I'm well pleased with them. But
when our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized, the Father spoke from
heaven and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
And when He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, changed into
His glory that we'll see when we get to glory, And there they
stood, and they said, oh, Simon Peter says build three tabernacles.
Oh, let's hurry up, hurry up. And God spoke from heaven and
says, oh, no, no, no. This is my son. Don't listen
to Moses. He spoke of me. Don't listen
to Elijah. He preached about me. You listen
to my son. You hear him. You hear him. And I tell you, son, our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself said, I always, always, always do the things
that pleases Him. You see, beloved, it's not only
with whom but in whom God is well pleased. God is a... Christ God is so pleased at him
that he made him to be our atonement. He was pacified and appeased
in him. He was satisfied with him. He's
propitiated through him. Everything that God needed, He
found in His blessed Son. And I tell you, He's God. I'm
telling you something. We say He's our all in all. He's
God's all in all. He's God's all in all. He says,
Behold my servant, mine elect, in whom my soul delights. And
I tell you, beloved, it is by Him, by this Jehovah, our righteousness,
by Him and through Him alone that we are justified in the
sight of God. Now justification, it happens
outside of us. It happens in a court. It happens
in glory. Justification happens in a court
of law. It happens in the presence of
God. It happens outside of ourselves. And it's something that God Himself
must do. And there our Lord Jesus Christ,
when God required us to pay for our sins and render an obedience
to Him, God sent His Son. And I threw him, he took his
own blood, and entered once into the holy place, and there he
obtained eternal redemption for us. He was delivered for our
offenses, raised for our justification. And I tell you what, that word
of justification, acquitted from all guilt. Acquitted from all guilt. Now
thou know our courts of law, that people get off and they're
guilty. But when God justifies a man, when God justifies a man,
He takes away all the guilt of everything He's ever done. And
I tell you, He takes it away so completely and perfectly that
you don't feel it again. Do you hear what I said? You don't
feel it again. You know how long it's been since
I felt any guilt? Law, come on here, accuse me.
Ain't got nothing to find in you but holiness. Come on justice,
draw out your sword. I already have. Done put it back
in his sheath. Come on God in your wholeness
and righteousness. Come on. Look me over from top
to bottom. I see perfection. I don't see
any guilt. Oh my, acquitted from guilt,
guilty of our treason, our rebellion, our sins of which we are now
ashamed, but all which we were ashamed. Look with me in Acts
13, just a minute. I told these folks I really,
really worry about time when I'm preaching. I can't help it, but I do. So when I get to preaching,
Todd, you blink your eyes at me. Look at you, watch. I'm going to do it. Okay, all right. But look what it says here about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 38, be it known, Acts 13,
38, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, He said, I
want you all to know something. I want every one of you to know
something. When he stood up, he said, I
want you all to know this. That through this man, this man,
This God-man, this sinless man, this perfect man, this righteous
man, this man, this king, this one who is Jehovah our righteous,
be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and
listen to it now, and by him, you go through the scriptures
one of these times, look how many times it says by him, and
by him, all that believe, are justified
from all things, all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. So all by Him. And listen, not
only is the Father well pleased in Him and it's by Him we're
justified, acquitted from guilt, but it's by Him that we're accepted. It's by Him that Scripture says
we're accepted in the Beloved. We're graced in the Beloved. They tell me, and I don't know
anything about Greek at all. I can't tell you nothing about
Greek. I can tell you Alpha and Omega. I can tell you that. Well, Delta is one of them words,
you know. Delta is a Greek word, ain't it? But anyway, accepted
in favor. And that word grace means charity. People say, I don't want charity.
I do. I want God's charity. I want
to be graced in the Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved. Graced,
blessed, accepted. We're at in Christ. Why? To the
praise of the glory of His grace wherein He made us accepted in
the Beloved. Oh, listen, that's what it says.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, He made this
peace and we're accepted through the blood of His blessed cross.
Now listen, and O. Scott Richardson used to say
this all the time. He said, God will not speak to
nor be spoken to by any member of the human race except through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way God will accept
a man, speak to a man, have dealings with a man, and be spoken to
by a man, or let a man speak to him, is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Only acceptance in Him and Him
alone. No, listen, if I had an opportunity
to preach to the world, that's what I'd tell them. There's no
way that God can, will, or ever dare to speak to you, or let
you speak to Him, until you come to Him through His blessed Son,
and be justified and rest from your sins in His blood, and have
His righteousness before you. I tell you, that's generation's
passion because men are not saying that and telling men that. And
oh, listen, let me tell you something else about this righteous. It's
by His merit, His merit alone, that who we are and what we are
and what we do is made acceptable. We're complete in Him. Now, you
know, I seen the other day where some boy scout got every merit
badge that there's possible to get. And that's wonderful. I'm sure his mom and dad is proud
of him. His scout leader's proud of him. But that absolutely means
nothing before God. I know when I was in the Marines
and you get through boot camp, they give you a merit badge.
They give you a merit. That you just, that you made
it. You married it now to be called a Marine after you got
out of boot camp. They wouldn't even call you a
Marine until you got out. And they gave you a little old ribbon
you could put on calling it a marriage badge. Oh boy, Semper Fi. Oh, listen. But there's only
one person in the sight of God who ever had any merit, had any
worth, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
in his life was so righteous that he is righteousness itself. He was the law incarnate. The law that was written on Sinai
was written in His flesh. Written in the flesh of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law and the prophets, but to fulfill that blessed law. And I'm telling you, He fulfilled
it in every way. You know, when it says, look
with me in Isaiah 42, just a minute. I want you to see this. But it
says, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Well, how is He the end of the
law? Well, you turn and let me tell you this. He's the end of the law as far
as keeping it. He kept it. All ever precept,
ever commandment, everything that it required, He kept it.
And then He's the end of it to its penalty. The soul that sinneth
shall die, well he died. He's the end of it as to its
curse and its penalty. So his precepts is fulfilled
in him. His penalty is satisfied in him. And so you see beloved, look
what it said here in Isaiah 42 in verse 19. This is the way our Lord Jesus
Christ was, about His merit and the way He lived before God and
the way He was. Who is blind but my servant? Or death as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as He that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? Now what does He mean here? He
said He had one view that was to satisfy and honor God and
keep the law. He steadfastly set His face towards
Jerusalem. He said, I must be about my father's
business. My need is to do the will of
Him that sent me. So he was blind to everything
but God and His will and His power and His glory. That's all. Our Lord is blind to everything
but that. Seeing many things, He didn't observe opening the
ears, but He hears not. And listen to what it says about
God. Our Lord said, the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness
sake. Why? Because He'll magnify the
law and make it honorable. You see, beloved, our bad works
are not forgiven. Our good works are not accepted
through Him. And in fact, if we ever had a
good work, well, I've never met anybody that's If you have a good work, you
know what you do? You feel good about it and you ruin it. Ain't that right? You feel real
good about it and it's gone. And oh, listen, it's the merit.
And the merit of his blood is what puts away sin. His blood
is the only worth that God accepts it. And I've done quoted this
one time, but listen. Hebrews 9.14 says, He, not with
the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood, He entered
once, just once, into that holy place. I don't know if this is
right or not, but I believe it. I believe that our Lord Jesus
Christ, in that dark hour, in that transaction that went only
between Him and His Father, by the Holy Spirit, He entered into
the holiest of all. Just like that high priest behind
the veil. He entered into the presence
of God. And He entered there with His own blood. And He offered
that blood on God's holy altar. And God accepted that blood on
the behalf of everyone for whom Christ offered that blood. And
God said, it's a sweet smelling savor in my mouth. Now, Lord
Jesus came back out of that holy place. And when he came back
out of there, he had eternal redemption for us. It is eternal
because he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
It's eternal because He's the Lamb sitting on His throne. It's
eternal because Beloved entertained eternal salvation for us. And
we'll never, ever have to offer another sacrifice. That just
makes me want to holler, I'll tell you. I'll tell you, this
gospel, what a gospel we've got. Oh! And listen, we receive this
and God is just now to justify them. Why? Because Christ shed
His blood. Christ obtained this redemption. And then, listen, not only the
merit of His blood and His merit, but the merit of His obedience
is imputed to us for righteousness. Oh, listen, our Lord from the
day He was born till the day He entered glory. He rendered obedience to God
in every way, God and man. And that's why He tells us, you
know, for as by one man sin in the world, but by one man righteousness
we obtained. And I'll tell you, let me tell
you this. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that God
made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Now let me say
you something. If you and I can ever find out
what sin is, we'll understand something about 2 Corinthians
5.21. Now we know what sins are. That's all we can do is talk
about sins, things we do, actions we commit. Adam committed a sin. And that's all we can talk about
is something we do, a sin we've committed, an action that people
do. And when Paul wanted to talk about how bad sin is, you know
what he said? It's exceeding sinful. So if we can find out
what this thing is, then we'll understand something
about what Christ was made to be. And Christ became us. in the sight of God and His law.
That God could take His righteousness and charge it to us and give
it to us and treat us just like we was the ones who obeyed God
perfectly. Huh? Oh, listen. We didn't become
sinners by doing anything. And we're not going to become
righteous by doing anything. We fail by another man, and we're
going to be caused to stand by another man. We sin by another
man, we've got to be made righteous by another man. And it was, listen,
I love this, it was who he was before God that makes what he
did of such worth. God had to have a life a life,
a righteousness, a sacrifice equal to himself. So how did
he get that righteousness and life and sacrifice equal to himself? He himself became a man to satisfy
himself. Does that leave you in wonder?
Does that just make you want to worship and bow down? And
just submit yourself and say, Lord, bless your name for such
a salvation. Praise you for such a glorious
salvation. It's done. It's done. In all,
you're talking about a man that needs something that somebody
else done. I do. Oh. And let me tell you, son,
the works of Christ are our works. The life of Christ is our life.
The death of Christ is our death. We're so united to Him that what
He did, we did. Who He is in the sight of God,
we are. And let me tell you, He brought
in an everlasting righteousness. As old Scott used to say, this
ain't one of them pasted on righteousness. You get because you learn a few
things. This is not one of them things you stick on like you
stick a stamp on a letter. This righteousness, God looks
at and says, that's mine. Come on. Come into my presence. Let me take just a minute to
say this. God, when He saves a man, when
He brings a man, to the place where he trusts Christ and Christ
alone, that our Lord Jesus Christ is his only hope and plea, his
only righteousness before God. God must do something in that
man. He creates a new creature in
that man. He puts a new nature in that
man. He puts a divine nature in that
man. He puts Christ in that man. And he regenerates that man.
And it's through that regeneration, that new nature, that nature
that God Christ in us, it's that nature by which we come into
the presence of God and feel comfortable and be able to address
Him and feel like we can talk to Him. God makes, He does this
such a work in us that we... We couldn't converse with God
if we didn't have the nature. We couldn't understand these
things. We couldn't rejoice in these things. We couldn't bless
God for these things. We couldn't rejoice without God
making us people that can feel it and understand it and rejoice
in it. He brings into existence somebody
who never existed before when He gives him that righteousness.
To understand that righteousness. Huh? You know why you understand
what I'm saying? It's just like a face answers
to face in the water. Heart answers to heart. The heart
answers to Christ as he's preached in the gospel. If Christ is in
you, when you're being preached in the scriptures, your heart
answers, yes, amen. It's so. Ain't that right? He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. But oh, listen, God made Him
to be our righteousness and He said, I made Him so to you. I
ordained Him, I appointed Him to be everything you need, your
atonement, your perpetuation, your advocate, your surety, your
mediator. And that's our only plea before
God right now. And when God made Him to be sin,
made His soul and offering to be sin, made him a curse for
us. All this is put on our account
and now we're made the very righteousness of God. Now why is it called
the righteousness of God? Because God provided it. God provided it. We wouldn't
know anything about it if not God provided it. God gave it. There's three people involved. I hope I can remember this because
this ain't in my notes. I hope I can remember this. There's
three people involved in substitution. There's God. God made Christ
to be seen. Only God can do that. Only God
can constitute a man to be seen. And then there's us. God made
Him sin for us. There's the sinner. He's. And then there's the Lord Jesus
Christ. God made Him to be sin again for us. There's God. There's Christ. And there's us.
God made Him to be sin. There's us. For us. And then He made Him to be righteousness.
For who? For us. Three people. And you know all
the part we have in it? We're just a sinner that He bore
our sin away. And we're the sinner that He
made righteous. Huh? Oh, my. Why is it called the
righteousness of God? He provided it. And because our
Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, He worked it out and brought
it for us, brought it to us. And it's not a man's righteousness.
Can you imagine what a man's righteousness is? How pitiful
it is? It's just, you know, our righteousnesses are as a filthy
rag. Filthy rag. If you, if any of y'all ever
had your septic tank cleaned out, had them take the lid off
of it. Here a while back, had to have
a new fill line put in and it was awful. It's awful. It's absolutely awful. Well, that's what man is with
his own righteousness in the sight of God. God says, I abhor that. That stinks. To come into the
presence of God with your own righteousness is like coming
covered with dung from the top of your head to the sole of your
feet. And if anybody's in here with
their own righteousness, you're sitting here stinking before
God. Now we don't, we don't, we can't
smell you unless you open your mouth and start telling us about
it. But now if you open your mouth and start telling us about
how good you are and your own righteousness and what you've
done and what you've not done, then I'm going to hold my nose.
Now ain't that right? You can spot them a mile away.
They start talking, don't they David? They'll give it away.
If they got their own righteousness, it'll tell on them. And they
stink. They stink. They actually stink.
And if they stink to us, imagine what they are to God. But oh,
listen. His righteousness, our Lord's
righteousness is compared to fine linen. He says it's like
wrought gold. It's the prodigal's best robe. And you know what he said about
it? Here, reach out your arms and help me put this on you.
No, no. He said, put on him. Put on him the best robe. The prodigal just, he just enjoyed
it. He just enjoyed it. Oh, do you
remember in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and After he went through the wicked
gate and straight gate and he got up to the cross and his burden
fell off. His burden fell off at the cross
and rolled into the tomb. There was faithful there with
him and he looked at him and he says, He said, that's the
most beautiful garment I ever, that's just shining. What a beautiful
garment you got on. Beautiful, glorious garment you
got on. He said, it is. He said, it is. And then he looked at him and
said, well, you're bound yourself up. You know, we don't see our
own righteousness, but we sure see what God does for everybody
else. And I tell you, if you got Christ's
righteousness on you right now, you're dressed in fine linen,
you look, you're wrought gold, and you got the best robe on
that God himself can provide. And when you're called to the
wedding, you won't be saying, well, how'd you get in here without
that wedding garment? Because you ain't going without
it. And oh, let me, let me hurry
up. Let me finish up. Before God, before God, before
our conscience, before the law, before justice, we must have
Christ to be our righteousness. Until He is our righteousness,
our righteousness, till we have Him as our righteousness and
we own Him and believe Him and He is our righteousness, we are
naked We're without God, without hope, and without Christ in this
world if you don't have His righteousness, if He's not your righteousness.
And until He becomes our righteousness, we're under the wrath and condemnation
of God Himself. Until He becomes our righteousness, it's impossible of being justified,
accepted by any other way. Is that not right? He said in
Galatians 5, I'll read it to you. Todd ain't looked at his
watch, so I guess I'm all right. He blinked his eyes. But look
what he said here in Romans chapter 5. Oh, it's impossible to be
accepted of God without a righteousness. And it has to be the righteousness
of God. It has to be the righteousness
He provides. It has to be the righteousness
that He will accept. Can't be any other way. But Galatians
5.3, look what He says. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
lot. If you're going to be justified
by your cleanliness, by what you do, you got to do it all.
And listen to what he says, And Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. Now what
he's saying, would you, can you imagine Christ's blood having
no effect for you? Not effectual for you? His righteousness
not effectual for you? His obedience not effectual for
you? If you try to be justified any other way, Christ absolutely,
blood and righteousness will do you no good. It's of no effect
to you. That's a horrible thing to think
about, ain't it, Mark? Horrible. And it's impossible
that our righteousness or the righteousness of another man
could bring us to God or make us acceptable. Because we have
none, the angels and saints don't have any. And let me close with
this right here. There's two reasons why men won't
have the Lord their righteousness. Two reasons why men won't have
Him for their righteousness, why they won't embrace Him for
their righteousness, why they won't plead for His righteousness
and have His righteousness. First reason is ignorance. Being
ignorant of the righteousness of God, they go about to establish
their own. They'll build them a house on
sand, And the second reason is pride. They refuse to let go
of their own righteousness and they'll perish for it. And let go is something they
don't have to start with. Paul said, I want to be found
in him not having my righteousness. What's your righteousness, Paul?
Dung. Garbage. So don't be ignorant. You've
been told about the righteousness of God. And God take that pride
and as Paul preached last night, God do the impossible and put
you, you old camel through that eye of that needle. He can do
it. He can do it. And you're talking
about strength for your faith. He's my righteousness right now. It'll be my righteousness tomorrow.
And I tell you what, when he said it's an everlasting righteousness,
that means it'll last as long as God does. It'll last as long as God does.
As long as God is righteous, I'm righteous. As long as Christ
is righteous, I'm righteous. And I'll tell you something.
When Mary Bell closed her eyes and she entered into glory, She
was no more righteous there than she was when she drew her last
breath. Now you're talking about blessing your heart, blessing
your soul. To know that when you leave here,
your righteousness is as good there and it's accepted right
there and it will not change. You just change locations. You'll
just change from where you are to where you need, want to be.
but your righteousness will never change, will it? Huh? Never change. I know I don't
look like much, but you don't see me like God sees me. Lord bless you. Thank you, Todd,
for not blinking.