Would you turn back to Genesis
chapter 7? Lord willing, tonight I'm going
to preach on the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm looking
forward to that. Genesis chapter 7, let's read
this first verse again. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou, and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I
seen righteous before me in this generation. Now, when the Lord says to Noah,
I see thee as righteous, He doesn't play mind games the
way we do to convince himself of something that isn't so. You
and I can easily play mind games to see a certain thing and be
convinced of it. We lie to ourselves. We'll do
anything to justify what we think, what we see, but the Lord's not
like that. And when he says to Noah, Thee
have I seen as righteous, That means Noah was righteous. God sees things as they really
are. And he looked at Noah and he
saw a righteous man. Now, he did not overlook anything.
He didn't view him as if he were righteous when he really wasn't.
No, Noah was truly righteous. That's the only reason God would
say that. He said, Thee have I seen as righteous. Now, if
God sees real well, He sees a whole lot better than you and I see.
He seeeth not as man seeeth. Look in Genesis chapter 6, verse
5. And God saw. And remember, the
Lord can see real well. 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. Now this
is God's testimony of men. This is what God sees. And God
says regarding this man Noah, thee have I seen as righteous
before me. Now I've entitled this message,
How Can a Sinner Be Seen as righteous before God. That is the most important question
that we could possibly consider. How can a sinner be righteous
before God? Now, before we can answer that
question from the scriptures, it's important for us to know
what the terms mean. First of all, what's a sinner?
When I'm asking this question, how can a sinner be righteous
before God. Now, for me to be able to define
what the scripture means by a sinner, I first have to know what sin
is. What is sin? Well, there's a lot of definitions
the scripture gives, but the one I'm going to look at right
now is 1 John 3, verse 4, where God says sin is the transgression
of the law. And he's talking about the ten
commandments, the thou shalts, and thou shalt not. Sin is the
transgression of the law. Anything short of perfect, continual,
and entire obedience to the Ten Commandments is sin. And you
can't be partially obedient. You cannot be partially obedient. Sin is any want of perfect conformity
to the Ten Commandments. What is the sinner? The sinner
is the one who commits the sin. That's easy enough. You know,
when a man is put into jail, you don't put a sin into jail,
do you? You put the person who committed the sin into jail.
The sinner is the one who commits the sin. And God does not place
sins into hell. He places the people who committed
those sins. The sinner is the one who commits
the sin. Now, regarding a sinner, here's
what a sinner is. He's somebody, she's somebody
who breaks God's law continually. Every one of the commandments,
you take the ten commandments, a sinner has not kept one of
those commandments one time. That's what a sinner is. He's
never told the truth. Everything he's ever said has
been a lie. Even if he's telling the truth, it was a lie because
he said it. You know, the scripture says
the plowing is a wicked sin. Plowing seems like a wholesome activity,
but if a wicked man does it, that makes it sin. He's never
been chased in his heart. He's murdered people. He's been
guilty of killing, killing people's characters. Not just the physical
act of murder. Perhaps no one in here has ever
killed anybody physically, but you've killed plenty of people
in your heart. in thought. A sinner is somebody who has
broken every single commandment in everything he's done. Now,
would that describe you? Are you somebody who has not
kept one of God's commandments, not even one time? Now, if you
say, that's not me, I've got no gospel for you. But if this describes you, listen
real carefully. That's the person I want to hear.
The person who is a sinner. He's broken God's law continually.
All he does is sin. He cannot not sin. He can't look
down at anybody. He's a sinner. He has no claims
on God. Now, what is meant by righteousness? Remember the question is, can
a sinner be righteous before God? What is meant by righteousness? Well, righteousness in the scriptural
sense means no sin. If you have righteousness, that
means God's holy law looks you over and can find no guilt. You've never sinned, not in thought,
not in word, not in deed. You're without sin if you're
righteous. You're without sin. You stand
perfect before God's holy law. You've never sinned. Now, here's
the question. How can a sinner, somebody who
all he's done is broken God's law, all he's done is sin. That's
it. That's a complete summary of
his life. He's nothing but sin. How can that man actually be
righteous before God? And the only way that question
can be answered is in the gospel. First of all, the Bible is the
only place you can find the answer to that question. How a sinner
can be righteous before God. And it's seen in the gospel. You think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know one man that really never sinned. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he never sinned, not in thought, not in word, not in deed. He
kept God's law perfectly. He never sinned, yet he died. And there's only one reason for
death, sin. If he didn't have sin, when he
died, he wouldn't have died. The sins of God's elect became
his sins. And the only way a sinner can
be righteous before God is seen in the life, the death, and the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the first time the
word righteous is used in scripture is with reference to Noah. Genesis
7-1, thee have I seen as righteous before me. He looked at Noah.
And there's some people in this audience, I hope everybody, I
hope everybody, I really do. But there's some people, when
God looks at you, He sees somebody who is altogether righteous. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? To think that God can look at me, and He sees me as righteous,
and the only way He can see me as righteous is if I am righteous.
That's the only way. Now, regarding Noah, look in
Genesis chapter 9, verse 20. And Noah began to be in husbandly.
And he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was
drunken. And he was uncovered within his
tent. Is that sin? You know it's sin. What all that
means about him being uncovered in his tent, I don't know, but
it wasn't good. And he committed sin. And God
says regarding this man who committed this sin and many others, thee
have I seen as righteous. And if God sees someone as righteous,
there's only one reason He sees them that way. Because they are
righteous. Now, I think of that publican
in the temple. You're familiar with it. Luke
chapter 18, where he's beating on his breast, crying, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner, the worst man to ever live. That's
how he viewed himself. The chief of sinners. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. And the Lord Jesus says regarding
that man who, by his own confession, was a sinner. He says, I tell
you, that man went down to his house justified. Not merely forgiven,
but without sin. If you're justified, that means
you didn't do anything to be condemned for. That means you
stand without guilt. That means you stand righteous
before God. That man who, by his own confession,
was a sinner, Christ said he went down to his house justified
rather than the other. Now, when God said to Noah, thee
have I seen as righteous before me, he did not say, The have
I seen as sinful, but I'm going to treat you as if you were not.
That's the way we think. When we think of God seeing Noah
as righteous, we think, well, he knows he's sinful, but he's
going to treat him as if he weren't. That's the way we think. But
that's not the way God is. When he saw this man as righteous,
it's because he was righteous. You know, there are people who
have committed crimes that they haven't been caught. And before
the law, they're righteous. But we know in our heart that
just because they haven't been caught doesn't mean that they're
without guilt. They're still guilty, even though the law hasn't
caught them. If somebody murders somebody without anybody knowing
about it, they're still murderers, whether the law declares them
to be that or not. We know that in our conscience. We know that
so. Now, when God looks at Noah and when God looks at every believer,
He doesn't look at somebody who is guilty and sinful, but I'm
going to treat them as if they were not, not at all. God said to Noah, thee have I
seen as righteous before me. And the only way that God could
see Noah as righteous is if he were in fact righteous. Now, right now, as God looks
upon this assembly, he looks at me and he looks at you. There
are only two types of people. They're the wicked The sinner,
the one who all he has done is broken God's law. That's it.
Sinful. That means full of sin. That
means all you are is sin. He either sees you as wicked
or righteous. That's how God sees. Everybody
in this room right now, God either sees you as a wicked person,
somebody who ought to be in hell and who will be in hell. And
if justice demands that, or he sees you as righteous, altogether
righteous, without guilt. Now, this is something that is
almost amusing. All of the wicked, every single
one without exception, all of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous. or at least they have the potential
to be righteous if the circumstances are right. I might be a bad person,
but if the circumstances were right, I could be good, or I
could change, I could turn around. All of the wicked, every one
of them, believe themselves to be righteous. And all of the
righteous believe themselves to be wicked. Every single one
of them. Isn't that amusing? I don't know
if it's amusing. It's interesting, isn't it? If you're a righteous
man, you believe yourself to be altogether wicked. And if
you're a wicked man, you believe somehow you can be righteous. How can Noah? How can the publican? How can you? How can I actually
be righteous before God? How can a sinner be righteous? Here's what the scripture declares
regarding this altogether divine righteousness that every believer
possesses. Isaiah 54, verse 17. God said
their righteousness. Their personal righteousness. And if I am righteous, I have
a personal righteousness. It's not just some kind of name-dropping
or some kind of document tacked on to me. No, I actually have
a personal righteousness before God. My righteousness. This is
the righteousness of the saints. My personal righteousness. He
says their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Now, how can a sinner be righteous? We'll first turn to Hebrews chapter
2. For both he that sanctifies,
he that makes holy, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and they,
verse 11, Hebrews 2, 11, both he that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified, they who are made holy, they who are made
righteous, are all of one. Now, if there are two people
and one of them is righteous, does that make the other righteous?
No, no, but if there's only one person who's righteous. And according
to that passage of scripture, every believer is one with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not to not real close, but one
so that what he is, I am being in him. Is he righteous? You say, yes, Jesus Christ is
righteous. He's altogether righteous. If
he's righteous, I am too, because I am one with him. That's what is meant by union.
Turn to Matthew chapter three. One with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love this verse of scripture. Verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. Now put yourself in John's
place. What if the Lord Jesus Christ came to you and said,
I want you to baptize me? You reckon you'd feel unworthy
to do that? You reckon you'd feel like that's not something
you ought to be doing? Of course you'd feel that way. Well, John
felt that way too. Look what he said, verse 14, but John forbade
him. Well, he was, he was, he, What's
he doing? He was wrong, wasn't he? I mean,
whatever the Lord says to do, do it without question. But he
forbade it. No, no, I can't do that. John
forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest
thou to me. And Jesus answering said unto
him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh me to fulfill
all righteousness. Doesn't say that, does it? It
didn't say, thus it becometh me to fulfill. It did become
him to fulfill all righteousness. But he said, thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, everything the Lord did,
he did as an us. And when he fulfilled righteousness,
everybody that was one with him fulfilled righteousness. And
I am righteous. How can a sinner be righteous?
First, by being united to the Lord Jesus Christ so that what
he does I do because I'm one with Him. That is an impossible concept
to understand, isn't it? The fact that I'm one with Christ.
I can't understand it. I just believe it. It's one of
the great mysteries of the Gospel. The two shall be one flesh. I
believe it. I'm one with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I always have been one with the Lord Jesus Christ. And being
one with Him, I never even had a beginning. There's never a
time when I began to be... I didn't start becoming one with
Christ. I've always been in Him. He's always righteous in Him.
I've always been righteous. United to Him, I've always been
righteous. Now that's the first way a sinner
can be righteous, by being united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
to me, the best example of this is old Levi. You can read about
it in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 9. Levi was the great grandson
of Abraham. And it says in the scripture,
when Abraham paid tithes, Levi paid tithes. It didn't say he
paid tithes representatively in his great-grandfather. It says he paid them. He paid them when he was yet
in the loins of his great-grandfather. When Abraham paid those tithes,
Levi paid those tithes. Now when Jesus Christ achieved
perfect righteousness before God's holy law, everybody united
to him did too. Now that is how a sinner can
be righteous before God. And it's real righteousness.
It's, oh, this is real righteousness. How can a sinner be righteous
before God? Turn to Romans chapter 4. Verse 6, Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, how can a sinner be righteous
before God? By imputed righteousness? You know, imputed righteousness,
I just read about righteousness being imputed. Imputed righteousness
is a wrong term. Imputed is never used as an adjective
to describe righteousness. Imputed is a verb. Righteousness
imputed, not imputed righteousness, but righteousness. See, there's
only one righteousness. And that righteousness is imputed. Now, I am a sinful man. The fellow that's preaching to
you right now is a sinful man. And I hope somebody's not thinking,
what do you reckon he's doing? Don't think like that. Just like
you. I am a sinful man. Full of sin. How can I be righteous? Well, David, verse 6, describes
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without their It didn't have anything to do with them earning
this, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, here's how a sinner can
be righteous. It's by God taking my sin. This is not something I could
do. I couldn't take my sin and place it on Christ. I never will
forget hearing a preacher once say, I put my sin under the blood. You can't do that. You think
you have the authority to take your sin and place it in Christ?
You can't do that, but God can. God can. He took my sin. And
he lifted it up off of me and he imputed it to the Lord Jesus
Christ so that it became his sin. He became guilty of it.
And he died the way an unbeliever would die, forsaken by God. God's
wrath come in utter darkness and utter despair all alone.
He died the way an unbeliever would die because he had sin
on him. My sin became his sin. God imputed my sin to him so
that he became guilty of it. And he experienced everything
about sin except the commission of it. All the darkness and the
horror and the defilement and the shame, he experienced And
just as truly as my sin became his sin, his glorious righteousness
is imputed to me so that it's mine. It's mine. Their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. That's how a sinner can be righteous. By God lifting his sin up off
of him and placing it upon his son and him taking the righteousness
and merits of his son and giving it to him. That is how a real
sinner can really be righteous. Righteous by imputation. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Verse 17. For if by one man's
offense death reigned by one, Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. The free gift of righteousness. Now here, righteousness is said
to be a gift. Something given to you, not something
that you earned or achieved or worked out. It's something that
was given to you. The gift of righteousness. Do
you want this gift? Oh, I want this gift. I want
God to give me righteousness. I know if it's up for me to work
it out, I can't do it. I need it to be given to me as
a gift. Now, we read of those who have
received the gift, the free gift of righteousness. Now, what is
the evidence that you've been given this gift? You receive
it. You receive it. And you really
believe that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is your
personal righteousness before God. You receive this. You receive
it joyfully, gratefully. You're glad it's this way. You
receive the gift of righteousness. How can a sinner be righteous
before God? Well, if God gives you righteousness,
you've got it. And you receive it. And it is
yours. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. How can a sinner be righteous? Well, first, he's righteous by
virtue of being united to the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's one
with him. He's righteous because God imputes the righteousness
of his son to that sinner. And he took the sins of that
sinner and imputed it to Christ and he became guilty. He's righteous
by imputation in that sense. And he's righteous by gift in
the sense that God has freely given him this gift and he's
righteous because God has given him this. And then look in 1
John chapter 3. Verse. Seven. Little children. Let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. Now, somebody who does righteousness,
there's an actual doing of righteousness here. And somebody said, now,
wait a minute. What about that scripture that says there's none
righteous, no, not one? Say that in Romans 3.10. Quoting
Psalm 14 and Psalm 56, there's none righteous. There's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeks after God. They've all together gone
out of the way. They together become unprofitable.
There's none that do it good. No, not one. And what is this
about this fellow doing righteousness? It says he that doeth righteousness
is righteous, even as he is righteous. Well, here's the key to understanding
this. Look in verse 29 in 1 John chapter 2. If you know that he is righteous,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know that, don't you?
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born, is birthed of him. Now, that's what this
doing righteousness is all about. It's he that's born of God sinneth
not. Now what this is talking about
is the new birth, where he gives you a new nature, a righteous
nature, a holy nature. Now, the example of this is Lot. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. Verse 6. Verse 5. He spared not the old world,
2 Peter 2, but save Noah, the eighth person. I love the way
he's described the preacher of righteousness. Actually, Noah
was a preacher. He was a preacher of righteousness.
The righteousness I'm talking about right now, the righteousness
of the scripture, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
righteousness of every believer. He was a preacher of righteousness.
Bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with
an overflow, making them an example unto those that afterwards should
live ungodly and delivered just lot. Vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked for, look at this description. For that righteous
man dwelling among them, in seeing
and hearing vexed his righteous soul. from day to day with their
unlawful deeds. Now, you look at Lot. You read
about the account of him in the Old Testament. Remember when
he chose the well-watered plains, and he took the best over Abraham,
and he pitched his tent toward Sodom, and he ended up being
in Sodom, and even when the Lord told him to get out, he lingered,
and the angels had to yank him by the hand and pull him out
of there? And if we didn't have the New Testament, we would probably
question whether Lot was really saved, wouldn't we? But what
is God's testimony of this man? That righteous man and his righteous
soul was vexed day to day by their unlawful deeds. The sin of Adam was imputed to me and you so
that we became guilty of his sin. And doesn't scripture teach
that? As by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. His sin was imputed to me so
that I became guilty of it. And so he died when he sinned
And his death, his spiritual death, his sinful nature is imparted
to me so that when I'm born into this world, I'm born a sinner,
aren't I? I'm born a sinner. The wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go about it as soon as they'd
be born, speaking lies. I'm born a sinner because his
sinful nature was imparted to me. Now, in the same manner,
this is true with regard to every one of the righteous, those that,
like Noah, whom God sees as righteous. The righteousness of Christ,
God imputed it to them, so it became theirs. And his righteous
nature is passed on in the new birth. That's what is referred
to when he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. So we're righteous by nature.
By nature, the righteousness given in the new birth, that
perfect new man. Here's the last thing I'd like
to say. Verse five. But to him that worketh not. He knows God is under no obligation
to save him by virtue of anything he's done or intends to do. He
works not. He knows there's no point in
it. There's nothing he can do to put away his sin. There's
nothing he can do to make himself better. He knows that. He works
not. Are you somebody who works not?
That's a commendation if you are. God's done something for
you. to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies
the ungodly." Now there's grace. God justifies the ungodly. That's
the grace of God right there. Notice it says, his faith is
counted for righteousness. That man who works not, but he
believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith, that
faith he has is counted for righteousness. Now, what does that mean? Does
that mean that God, instead of, he's kind of lowered his terms,
and since we can't keep the law, and he realizes that, he feels
sorry for us, he'll take faith as a substitute for keeping the
law, and that faith he has is counted as righteousness? I think
that's the way most people view that. But that doesn't have anything
to do with what it means. His faith is counted for righteousness.
Now, remember this. Faith is not my righteousness
before God. Christ is. Faith didn't keep
the law for me, Christ did. Faith didn't die for my sins,
Christ did. What's he mean? His faith is counted for righteousness. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse
1, we read that faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. You see, if you could see this,
you wouldn't need faith. You're an anchor. If you can
see it in a boat, what good is it doing you? The anchor's got
to be thrown out into the deep. And when you can't see it, and
it's down at the bottom of that dark water holding you in place,
it's doing you some good. But if you can see it, it's doing
you no good at all. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Regarding this thing of me being
eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ, how I've always
been in Him, chosen in Him, foreknown in Him. Can I see that? Can I see that? Is there something
about me that I can see? Yep, I'm united to Christ. I
can look at it. Can I see that? No. Well, what's
the evidence that I'm united to Christ? Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. Are you somebody who with trembling
hand holds on to Christ as the only way God would ever look
in favor toward you? Then you've been eternally united
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the evidence. Faith in
Him. Now, I don't have some kind of
piece of paper or document telling me that righteousness was imputed
to me or that my sin was imputed to Christ. There's nothing I
can see that says, yep, it happened for you. Well, what's the evidence
that it's so? What's the evidence that my sin
was imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness
is imputed to me? What's the evidence? Faith. Faith. Do you rely on the Lord
Jesus Christ right now as everything in your salvation? Well, that
means His righteousness was imputed to you. And that means your sin
was imputed to him, and he saved you. Faith is the evidence of
things not seen. Well, how can I know for sure
that he's given me this gift of righteousness? He doesn't
give it to everybody, only the believer. How can I know he's
given it to me? What's the evidence that he's
given it to me? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe
on Christ, that means he gave his righteousness to you. What
can I look in my own heart? Can I look within and see this
holy nature, this righteous nature that doesn't sin? Can I see it?
Well, yeah, I look with it. Yeah. No, I can't see that. Can't see it at all. Matter of
fact, all I see is sin. You know, it's the new man that
owns the sin of the old man. He sure does. The new man does.
Can I see it? No! Well, what's the evidence
that I have this holy, righteous nature that does not sin? Faith
in Christ. That's it. Faith is the evidence
of things not sin. In Psalm 71, verse 16, David
said, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now, why did he make that distinction,
even thine only? I know why I made that distinction.
Because this is the only righteousness there is. The righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only righteousness
I'm going to make mention of. His righteousness. In all these
senses. Now, how can a sinner, a real
sinner, guilty of nothing but breaking God's law, how can he
be righteous before God? Well, he can. And you've just
heard. May God enable each person here
to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their righteousness before
God. Now this is what a believer does.
He trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as his righteousness before God.
Let's pray together.