Would you turn back to Matthew
6? What does the Savior mean when
He says in verse 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
His righteousness." I can understand what the Lord
would mean if He would say, seek the Kingdom of God, and you seek
to be righteous. You seek to have the righteousness
that goes along with being a subject of that Kingdom. I can understand
that. But what does He mean when He says, seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness? I may be very religious, but
if I'm not seeking his righteousness, I'm not seeking him. Now, this
is not some isolated statement. This is the tenor of this whole
book. Let me show you that. Turn to
Psalm 40. Now this passage of scripture
is quoted in Hebrews 10. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look what he says in verse 6 of Psalm 40. Sacrifice
and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy
law is within my heart. Is there any doubt about who's
speaking here? This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he
says about his preaching. He says in verse nine, I have
preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I've
not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest I have not hid thy
righteousness within my heart. I've declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I've not concealed by loving
kindness and by truth from the great congregation. Now, the
Lord Jesus Christ preached by righteousness. I want to quote
some scriptures. In Psalm 51, 14, David said,
deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, sin that deserves death. Perhaps he's even referring to
that sin that put to death the Lord Jesus Christ, blood guiltiness. David knew something about that.
He said, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, and my tongue
shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. In Psalm 45, verse 24, we read,
I mean, Isaiah 45, verse 24, surely shall one say, this is
something that all of God's people say, in the Lord have our righteousness
and strength. Psalm 54, verse 17, their righteousness,
talking about every believer, their personal righteousness
is of me saith the Lord and there's Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 6 this
is the name wherewith he shall be called speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ this is the name wherewith he shall be called
the Lord our righteousness and then in Jeremiah 33 15 when spoken
of the church this is the name wherewith she shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. In Romans 1, 16 and 17, Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the
power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the
Greek for therein in the gospel is the righteousness of God.
Not man's righteousness. Not somebody that lives right.
The righteousness of God is revealed. And you just read that passage
of scripture in Romans 3, but now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God. which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now, turn with me to Philippians
chapter 3. I've quoted all these other ones, but let's look at
what Paul says here in Philippians chapter 3. Remember, seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Verse 8, Paul says, Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss, but garbage, but rubbish, For
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
my own righteousness. I don't want to have anything
to do with my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which
is of God. by faith. Now you see from these
scriptures, this is not some isolated thought. This is the
tenor of the entire Bible to have his righteousness. Now there is no salvation apart
from a knowledge of the righteousness of God. Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
them record. They have a zeal for God. They're
religious, but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. And this is what everybody does
who is ignorant of God's righteousness. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. and they've not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. Now, why does the Lord say, seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Well, let me quote another scripture,
Psalm 71, 16, and that will answer that question. David said, In
Psalm 71, 16, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine
only. Now, why would David say that?
Because his righteousness is the only righteousness there
is. Let me repeat that. His righteousness
is the only righteousness there is. Now I want us to look at
the biblical testimony of man, and I want you to look at these
scriptures. These are familiar scriptures, but I hope, you know, I hope
these come to us in the power of the Holy Spirit, where we're
not just reading and saying, I already know that, and it's
old, but we hear it as if we've never heard this before. Now
here's how God describes you and I. In Genesis chapter six,
verse five, and God saw that the wickedness of man, Genesis
six, five, Remember, the only righteousness there is, is His,
because here is where you and I are. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of His heart. He's not even talking about the
works here. He's talking about what goes on in the mind, and
in the heart, and the thoughts that pass through His brain.
Every imagination of the thoughts of His heart was only evil continually. Turn to Psalm 53. Verse 2, God looked down from
heaven upon the children of men Psalm 53 verse 2, God looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and did seek God. Every one of them is gone
back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Turn to Isaiah 64. Verse six, the prophet speaking
under the inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit says, we are
all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the
wind have taken us away. There's none that calleth upon
my name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. For thou
hast hid thy face from us and consumed us because of our iniquities. Turn to John chapter six, verse 44. No man. These are the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ. No man. I don't care who he is.
No man can come to me. No man has the ability to come
to me. No man has the desire to come
to me. The Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. And the reason you will not is
because you can't. And the reason you cannot is because you will
not. Now this speaks of the absolute depravity of human humanity. No man, you can't even, I can't
even come to Christ unless drawn by God. The most altogether lovely
one, the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is, who is the bright morning
star, the, the fairest of 10,000. We can't come to him because
of our wickedness. Unless God is pleased to draw us. We'll
talk about a wicked person that will not come to Christ. Look
in Romans chapter three, two more scriptures. This once again was already read,
but look what it says in verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that understands.
There is none that seek after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 8, Romans
8, verse 6. For to be carnally minded, that
means you just think the way you naturally think. Carnal is
flesh, the way we're born into this world. To be carnally minded
is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind, now look at the, is enmity. It doesn't say
it's at enmity. It says it's the thing itself.
It is enmity against God. For it's not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Now I could just go on and on.
Without question, the Bible teaches the total depravity and inability
of the natural man. Now I've read those scriptures.
It teaches that whether we see it or not, or whether we agree
with it or not. But let me ask you a question.
I want everyone to consider this. Do you agree with what you just
read? Do you agree? Do you believe
yourself to be totally depraved? Would that describe you? When
Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17 verse 9, the heart is desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things. Is that your heart? The reason that the Lord said,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is
because his righteousness is the only righteousness there
is. You and I cannot come up with
righteousness. Have you ever stood before God
guilty as charged? then you know that if you're
to be righteous, it'll be by His righteousness, because you
don't possess one of your own. It must be. It must be His righteousness. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. Now what is His righteousness?
His righteousness. It's His righteousness. You know
you don't have one. It's his righteousness. It's
his absolute purity. It's his holiness. It's his utter
light with no shadow, no darkness at all. It's his hatred of sin. It's his perfect, inflexible,
unalterable justice. His holiness. And let me speak of two things
that scream And I use that word, scream. Let me speak of two words
or two things that scream of His righteousness. Here's the
first word, hell. Do you know right now as you're
sitting here and I'm standing here and you're sitting here,
there are people in hell suffering the wrath of God against sin
and they're going to be there eternally. It will never end. If you die without Christ, you. If I die without Christ, I will
spend eternity in hell, suffering the wrath of God with no pity,
no mercy from God, nothing but his awful wrath and frown. And believe me, with God, the
punishment fits the crime. The fact that there's an eternal
hell tells us that God is righteous. He's so righteous that he cannot,
he cannot accept sin. Sin must be punished. But this
speaks or screams of the righteousness of God even more loudly, the
cross. If there was ever a time when
God could have looked the other way and not punished sin, it was a cross. That's His Son. That's the Son of His love. But the Lord, God the Father,
didn't look the other way. He poured out his full wrath,
his hatred of sin, his righteousness on his son to where the Lord
Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God forsook him. God turned his
back on him. God wouldn't look in favor upon
his only begotten and well beloved son. God forsook him. Why? Because God said, I'll by
no means clear the guilty, even if it's my only begotten and
well beloved son, he really was forsaken. The father showed him
no pity. He felt nothing but his father's
awful frown. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. He bear our sin. in his own body
on the tree. The person guilty of breaking
God's law must be punished with eternal hell and that's what
the Lord Jesus Christ experienced. Now to be righteous is to have
his righteousness. It means I have to stand before
God's holy law without guilt. The righteousness of God is perfect
righteousness. Now understand this, you and
I cannot be partially righteous. Somebody says, well, I've been
faithful in my marriage the whole time, except one time I committed
adultery. Just once. The rest of the time,
I didn't. What's that make you? Makes you an adulterer. That's
all you are. That would describe your character.
You see, you don't become a sinner when you sin. You sin, you commit
the act because you are the sinner. And I need a righteousness before
God that I cannot produce. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. Now here's the big question.
How? How? Can I be righteous? To where his righteousness is my personal
righteousness before God. I mean so that God doesn't treat
me as if His righteousness were my righteousness, but the very
righteousness of God really is my personal righteousness so
that the Holy God embraces me and has communion with me and
I'm fit for fellowship with God. How can His very righteousness
be my personal righteousness? Well, let me give you what the
scripture teaches. Turn to Matthew chapter 3. Verse 13, Then cometh Jesus from
Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. I've always thought this is an
amazing thing. Why was the Lord baptized? I can see why I need
to be baptized. I can see why you need to be
baptized. But what about the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ came
to be baptized. Now, we had four people baptized
last week. That was such a blessing. And
what does baptism mean? When I'm baptized, I'm confessing.
that the only and the sufficient hope that I have is that when
Jesus Christ lived, I was in Him and He lived for me. I'm
confessing my only hope is union with Him. That when He lived,
He lived for me. That I was in Him. When He died,
I was in Him. He died for me. When He was raised,
I was raised. I was in Him. What He did, He
did for me. That's what we're confessing in believers baptism.
We're confessing that the only hope we have is union with Jesus
Christ. Now look in Verse 13, Then cometh
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan to John to be baptized in him,
but John forbade him, saying, I had need to be baptized of
thee, and comest thou to me? You can imagine how awkward John
felt with this. What if the Lord Jesus Christ
came to you and said, I want you to baptize me? You'd feel utterly unfit, wouldn't
you? I mean, I don't have any business doing that. And I understand
John's feelings. 15, And Jesus answering said
unto him, Suffer it to be so now. I know this seems to be
inappropriate. You couldn't feel any other way.
But suffer it to be so now. For thus it becometh. I love
this next word. Us. Thus it becometh us. You see what Jesus Christ did.
He did as an us. When he fulfilled all righteousness,
Todd Nybert fulfilled all righteousness, because whatever he did, I did,
because I am united to him. Hebrews 2.11, both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. One with Jesus Christ,
so that what he does, I do. Now that is how his righteousness
is my righteousness. He said, thus it becometh us.
Oh, didn't you say thus it becomes me? Everything he did, he did
as an us for those who are united to him. Now that's how I can
be righteous and actually possess His righteousness. If I am united,
eternally united to Him. You see, when He was baptized,
when we are baptized, we're confessing our hope as union with Him. But
when He was baptized, He was saying, I'm united to them. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. I am the righteousness of God,
by God making me the righteousness of God. Look in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
30. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus. Now, how do you get in Christ? Well, God's got to put you there.
God's got to put you there. You can't put yourself in Christ.
God's got to put you there. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. He's made
unto me righteousness. God made Him unto me righteousness. This is God's work. This isn't
something that I had anything to do with. This is what He did. He made Him righteousness unto
us. Turn a few pages over to 2 Corinthians
5. Verse 21, For he, God the Father,
hath made him, and notice that word to be is in italics. It was supplied by the translator
supposedly to make the verse more understandable, but if anything,
it confounds it. Let's leave out the to be. We
can fairly do that because it's not in the original. For he hath
made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Somebody says, well, that's talking
about imputation. For he had sin imputed to him
who knew no sin, that we might have the righteousness of God
imputed to us. Now, we believe in the great
doctrine of imputation. That's the next point, as a matter
of fact. But here the Holy Spirit doesn't use the word imputed,
does he? Because that's not what he was
talking about. who his own self bear our sins in his own body. My sin was not simply charged
to his account. My sin became his sin so that
he was guilty of it. And the justice of God demanded
his destruction. That's why he cried out, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But just as truly as my sin
became his sin, his righteousness becomes my righteousness so that
I am the very righteousness of God. in Him. We wouldn't dare say that if
the Bible didn't say it, would we? But because the Bible says
it, this is what every believer can confess. I am the very righteousness
of God in Him. My sin was not merely charged
to His account. It was made His sin. I am not treated as though I'm
the righteousness of God. I am. I am the very righteousness of
God in him. Now that's what the Lord meant
when he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And the Bible also teaches the
great Truth of the Imputation of Righteousness. Turn with me
to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. Before I read the passage of
Scripture, I've told you this before, I'll tell it again, some
25 years ago. I thought I was going to die.
I was in the hospital. Many of you remember that. that
knew me then. I thought I was going to die.
And I thought I was going to meet God in judgment within just
a couple hours. And I started asking myself the
question, are you really saved? Do you really know the Lord?
Are you a believer? And I started looking within
to try to find some kind of evidence that I was saved and I was ready
to meet God in judgment. And to my horror, All I could
see was evil. I couldn't see one thing about
me that would recommend me to God. I had no hope. I was in
utter despair. I thought, I'm going to hell.
I was, I was, I was by myself. I'm going to hell. I'm going
to be in hell. I didn't have any hope that I'd be saved. No
hope. None. I knew for sure that that very
night I was going to be in hell. And the Lord brought this scripture
to me. Romans chapter four. Verse six. Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without work, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Everything I thought about
myself was true, but here's my hope. He didn't impute it to
me. He didn't impute it to me. It
was imputed to my Redeemer. I hope we never use this phrase,
imputed righteousness. There's no such thing. There's
only one righteousness. Now that righteousness may be
imputed. Imputation is never an adjective. It's not like,
well, there's imputed righteousness and there's this kind, there's
big righteousness, little righteousness, there's good, you know, really
good. No, there's no righteousness. The righteousness of God imputed
to the believer. And my sin was imputed to Christ. God didn't impute my sin to me.
Everything I thought about myself was true, but it wasn't imputed. Aren't you thankful? for imputation. Romans chapter 5 verse 17, his
righteousness is called a gift. The gift, the gift of righteousness. Have you ever been given a gift
where you knew that if you didn't measure up somehow, it'd probably
be taken back from you? People kind of held it over you.
Here's this gift, but I've got my strings on it. I'm going to,
I'm going to get it back. If you don't, you know, God doesn't
do that. If he gives you his righteousness,
it is yours. And the gifts and the callings
of God are without repentance. His righteousness, his gift of
righteousness is not an offer. It's not an offer to you that
you accept or reject. If he gives you his righteousness,
you receive it and it becomes your personal righteousness before
God. It's yours. He never ever offers
a gift. He gives it. And if you don't
receive it, he never gave it. Now, do you receive his righteousness
as your personal righteousness before God? the gift of righteousness. Would
you turn with me to 1 John 2? This is just as important. Verse 29 of 1 John 2. If you know that He is righteous... Now, do you know that about the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's righteous, isn't He? He's the righteous
one. He's the just one. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. Now, in order to do righteousness,
you have to be righteous. Isn't that so? You know, I love
that scripture in Proverbs where it says, the plowing of the wicked
is sin. Now, I can't think of anything
that seems more wholesome than plowing. Going out and cutting
up the dirt to plant seed, provide food for your family, maybe to
provide food for the poor, plowing. Seemingly, let's get back to
the basics, plowing. I'm going to be a farmer. I can't
think of anything that seems more wholesome than that. And
yet the scripture says the plowing of the wicked is sin. Because
if he does it, that makes it sin. Now, in order for someone
to do righteousness, they have to be righteous. You see that? For someone to
do righteousness, they have to be righteous. If you know that
He is righteous, you know everyone that doeth righteousness is born. Is born, is birthed of Him. What this is talking about is
the new birth. Regeneration. Being born again. Birthed by
the Spirit of God. Can He give birth to anything
short of perfect righteousness? He can't do that. Born of the
Spirit? Know what He bears, what comes
from Him. Scripture says in 2 Peter 1 verse
4, we're partakers of the divine nature. Now this is talking about
the impartation of righteousness. Righteousness imparted, there's
righteousness imputed. You're made righteous, righteousness
is imputed. Righteousness is imparted so
that the believer actually doeth righteousness. That's the actions
of the new birth. Look at what 1 John 3, 9. Whosoever
is born of God. Doth not commit sin. For his
seed remaineth in him, the seed of God. He cannot sin. He likes the ability to sin because
he's born of God. Now, you know, that's talking
about the new nature. That's not talking about the old nature. All the
old nature does is sin. Don't you know that? But the
new nature, it does not commit sin. It is born of God. Here's the last scripture I want
to look at. How can a sinner have his righteousness? How can
I actually have, remember, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. And all of these things should be added
to you. Turn with me to Romans chapter four. But, verse five, let's read verse
four first. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, righteousness, acceptance with God, salvation, not reckoned
of grace, but of debt. In other words, that would mean
God owes you salvation, but to him that worketh not, but believeth
on him. that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness." Does that mean the act of faith
is counted as a substitute for righteousness? No. No. But here's what it does mean. How is it that I can know that
I've been eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ so that
I'm one with Him? How can I know that? I can't
see it by sight. Faith. Here's the evidence that
I am united to Christ. I believe the gospel. And anybody
who believes the gospel has been eternally united to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now how can I know that he's
made unto me righteousness? How can I know that my sin became
his sin? Now understand this, not everybody's
sin became his sin. There are people in hell, he
didn't die for them. To say that he died for somebody
in hell is blasphemous. If He died for you, you must
be saved. Now, it's clear that He died
for His elect. How can I know I'm one of them?
How can I know I'm somebody that has His righteousness and that
my sin became His sin? How can I know that? As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Faith is the evidence. How can I know that His righteousness
was imputed to me and that He doesn't charge me for my sins?
I want to know that, don't you? I want to know that I'm not being
held responsible for my sins because, man, if I am, it's over
for me. I want to know. How can I know? To Him that worketh
not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly. Do you
believe on Him that justifies the ungodly? That's the faith
that is counted for righteousness. How can I know I have a holy
nature? Because you know, even when I'm talking about a holy
nature, I also have such a horrible, evil nature
right along with it that I'm aware of even when I'm preaching. My sin is ever before me, David.
How can I know when I have that nature that I have a righteous
and holy nature? Faith. Not by looking at this,
well I'm really holy here, I'm good, I might be bad, no. Believing
the gospel. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Now if you're a believer, walk
out of this room knowing that you have the very righteousness
of God. And remember this if you're an
unbeliever, this righteousness is a gift. There's nothing keeping
you from having it in the sense that if you, anybody who's asked
the Lord for his righteousness, he's never turned them down.
And if you don't ask, that's why you don't have it. It's not
because he won't, it's because you won't have it. So ask the
Lord, ask him. that you might have His righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
to you. Let's pray together.