This morning for our Bible study
I would invite you and hope that you would take your Bible this
morning and let's turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5
and let's begin reading at verse 17. Think not that I come to
destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy. The
Lord Jesus Christ plainly says I came to fulfill all the law
and everything that was written of by all the Old Testament prophets. Verse 18, For barely, or truly,
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, or from the word, till all
be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven." Now verse 20 is a verse I want to camp on for a little
while this morning. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness, now that's the key word this morning in
this study, righteousness. Our Lord says, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case in no way entering the kingdom of heaven. Now the scribes and the Pharisees
in this time here in Jerusalem, the scribes and Pharisees were
regarded by the Jews as the most spiritual, most religious, most
holy people. There was a saying in that day
among the Jews, if only two people went to glory, one would be a
scribe and the other They were regarded by the common people
as the most religious, most holy. As far as the outward religious
works were concerned, no one outperformed them. They were
very zealous of where they went and what they did, what they
said. Yet the Lord plainly says that
this righteousness they possess, an outward moral righteousness
they possess, our Lord plainly says it's not enough. He said
you must have a righteousness that's far exceeding to theirs. You must have a righteousness
just not to match theirs or to meet theirs. It must be something
more than an outward morality. He said it must exceed it, exceed
it. Now, three things, three or four
things that I know the Word of God teaches. There will be no
admission to glory, to God's presence, without a perfect,
justifying righteousness. We read in Psalm 24, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul to vanity. None of
us possess that naturally. No admission to God's presence
without a perfect righteousness. Secondly, an outward, legal,
moral righteousness is not enough. It's just not enough. It's not
sufficient. And the reason being, God says,
our righteousness, the best we have, the best we can bring,
He says, away with it is filthy rag. Now, let me ask you this.
Where is such an exceeding, justifying righteousness to be found? Where
is it to be found? Now, that's the question. I think
of the hour, the moment. Where is this justifying righteousness
to be found? My friend, the Word of God spells
out this righteousness that we must have, this righteousness
that's exceeding. The Apostle Paul said, He counted
everything but loss, dung, and ruin, that he may win Christ
and be found in Him, having His righteousness." You see, the
righteousness that the believer enjoys, this exceeding righteousness
that we enjoy, is in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's described in Scripture as
the Lord, our righteousness. And my friend, this righteousness
that we have and we enjoy that's an exceeding righteousness that
God will accept, this righteousness is received by believing, not
doing, by believing. It's received by faith. Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. I want to show you
five or six things about this subject of righteousness. Now,
I pray that you'd listen to me carefully, because a righteousness
that's justifying we must have, and that righteousness is only
found in Christ. Not in the right church. Not
doing the right work. It's received by faith in Christ. Now, listen to me. Here's five things we must understand. The first one is righteousness
lost. Righteousness lost. The Word
of God describes us in vivid terms as guilty sinners. Read the record in Romans 3 and
other places. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understands.
There is none that seeks God. They've all gone out of the way.
There's none righteous, no, not one. Righteousness lost. Ezekiel, or rather in Ecclesiastes
7, verse 20, we read, There's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good, no, not one. Isaiah 64, I quoted that already. Our righteousness, God said,
is filthy rags. In Genesis 6, 5, we read, Every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually. You see, righteousness lost. These things were not always
that way. God didn't create man in a fallen state. God created
man in righteousness after the image of God. We read that in
Ecclesiastes 7. God made man upright. But what
the problem is, is this. Adam didn't stay that way. Adam
sinned against God in his heart. And what Adam did, I did. His
sin was reckoned and imputed to us. By one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all
men in whom all sinned. In Adam we stand guilty. His
sin was reckoned, charged, and imputed to us. His fallen nature
was also imparted to us. Jeremiah describes the heart,
that's our nature as deceitful and desperately wicked. You see,
righteousness was lost in Adam. We're dead in sin, ruined, dead
and shut out. Secondly, we see there's a righteousness
required. And here's the reason. God is
holy. Being perfectly holy, He demands perfect holiness. Anyone
that is not perfectly holy as God will be consumed by the fire
of His holiness. Now let me ask you this simple
question. How good does one have to be to enter into God's presence
justified? Think about it. How good do you
have to be? Let me tell you, my friend, here's the answer.
As good as God. As good as God. God requires
absolute holiness. It must be perfect to be accepted. God demands holiness of us, but
my friend, here's the truth, we can't produce it. We can't
produce a holiness. We can't produce a righteousness.
Man in his best state is altogether vanity. There is a holy law I
cannot keep. The law of God declares me guilty.
By no way justifies me. By the deeds of the flesh shall
no man be justified. There is a holy law I cannot
keep. There is a righteousness demanded.
that I cannot produce. There's a life of sin I cannot
erase. What if I could, from this point,
live a good life, a perfect life? What about the sin of the past?
I can't go back and erase that. You see, God demands righteousness,
and there's a judgment at which I can't escape. God's appointed
unto men once to die, and after that judgment, the whole purpose
of God giving that law is to show us and convince us that
we're sinners. to show us and convince us that
I can't produce a righteousness. And this law of God was given
not to put away sin, but to expose our sin and to drive us in despair
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way in Galatians
3. The scripture hath concluded, all under sin, that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster. That's our guide, our teacher
to drive us, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by
faith. You got the first two? Righteousness
lost, righteousness required. Now, thirdly, righteousness established,
or we might say righteousness reestablished. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to fulfill and to establish a justifying righteousness
for us. He says that in our text, Matthew
5, 17. He said, I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets.
My friend, he came to fulfill, to accomplish, to execute, and
to complete this justifying righteousness before God. He said to John,
suffered to be so for us to fulfill all righteousness. Living as
our mediator, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, living as
our mediator, He executed perfect righteousness. He lived as a
perfect man. The record of Scripture said
He had no sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin. Such a high priest became us
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. Hebrews
7, 26, living as our perfect mediator, dying effectually as
our substitute. I must not only have a righteousness
that justifies, but I must have an atonement to put away my sin,
past, present, and future. The Lord Jesus Christ is my substitute,
the just dying for the unjust that he might bring us unto God.
Christ living as our Mediator, dying effectually as the Believer's
Substitute, as the Believer's Mediator, is our total acceptance
before God. We're accepted in the Beloved. This is how righteousness is
established. Not by us, by our Substitute,
Jesus Christ. Only in Christ is God well pleased. He lived a life I couldn't live.
The Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my Beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. He paid the debt I could not
pay. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. Now listen to me. If
salvation comes some other way than by the blood, person, and
righteousness of Christ, if it can come some other way, the
record of Scripture said, then Christ is dead in vain. He died
needlessly. Galatians 2, 21 says that Christ,
if righteousness comes by the law, comes by my morality, comes
by my work, then Christ is dead in vain. We read in Romans 10,
verse 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. You see, righteousness established
in Christ. He is our righteousness. Now,
fourthly, this very righteousness that we need is imputed by God's
sovereign grace. The fourth point is this, righteousness
imputed. Righteousness imputed and received
by faith. Now, this Bible truth of imputation
is very, very important. It's vital to the scheme of salvation
by grace. We see several things about this
imputation. We see the imputation of Adam's
sin to all people, and Adam all sinned, and Adam all died. We see the imputation of God's
elect The sin of God's people was laid on Christ. God made
Him to be sin for us. He was wounded for our transgression. Our sin was laid upon Him. He's
guilty of sin by imputation. God reckoned our sin to the Lord
Jesus Christ, our substitute. He paid my debt. Imputation of
Christ to the believer. You see those three things? The
imputation of Adam's sin to all people, the imputation of our
sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to the believer, we
see an imputed righteousness by God's grace received by faith. We read that in Romans 4. And he quotes from the Old Testament
in Psalm 32, where he talks about, blessed is the man to whom God
would impute righteousness without works. Abraham believed God And
it was reckoned and counted to him as a justifying righteousness
as that faith looked to Christ. This is the only way we can stand
before God justified. This is the way that God has
devised so as to exclude all human merit and magnify his own
grace. Exactly the same way we were
ruined, we're redeemed. Only in a different man. Imputation. Righteousness imputed. Now here's
a scripture that verifies that. Romans 5, 19 says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered in, by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, we see that many are made righteous. How is this imputed righteousness
received? It's received by believing, not
by doing. Faith is not the cause of salvation. Faith simply receives Christ
who performed and executed all righteousness for us. So, here
in conclusion, what is the righteousness we must have that's an exceeding,
justifying righteousness before God? It's an imputed righteousness
received by faith, and that is Christ, who is our righteousness. Now, I pray the Lord will bless
that word to your heart and cause you to think about how far short
our righteousness, that is the deeds of our hands, come short,
we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And may
God show you the necessity of Christ, our exceeding righteousness.