His Righteousness

In John 17, verse number 25, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who prayed, O right Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. I wonder if you know that our God in heaven is righteous. I wonder if you understand the righteousness of God. Tonight, let's look at the righteousness of God together, covering two aspects.

Number one, the meaning of his righteousness, and number two, the magnificence. Of his righteousness. And this is a fascinating study as we understand our God. First of all, the meaning of his righteousness.

Look with me, first of all, at its meaning grammatically. Over in Nehemiah chapter 9. If you've got your Bible, I would invite you there to turn with me if you would, please.

Over in Nehemiah chapter 9. Verse number 8, it reads as follows. Thou hast fulfilled thy promise, for thou art right. Same word used again in verse number 33. However, thou art just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly. So the word just and the word righteous are the exact same word. They mean straight. They mean that God in his character always does the right thing. Number two, what it means morally.

Turn with me over to Psalm 92, verse number 15. Psalm 92, verse number 15. It reads as follows. To declare that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no un in him. God is absolutely free from any sin. or any unrighteousness. God's righteousness is the natural expression of His holiness. He is infinitely pure. Therefore, he opposes all sin, and that opposition to sin is demonstrated in his treatment of his creatures. So whenever you question the justice of God, whenever you question the righteousness of God, that what he does is right, and everything he does to his creatures is right, you blaspheme the name of God.

And commit sin. And those of us who have sin, those of us who understand sin and live in sin, what right do we have to question God's justice? But thirdly, I want you to look at it with me practically.

Psalm 145, verse number 17 reads as follows. The Lord is righteous in all his ways. That says that every act of God is just. He doesn't condemn innocent people, or he doesn't let the guilty people go f. It's a word that deals with God's actions. They are always right. They are never wrong. They are always just. They are never un. And of course people will say, well, if that's the case, why does God allow so much injustice? If God is righteous, why is there so much unrighteousness then, if that's the way God is?

And we will answer that question in a few moments. But God is always right. God is right. That's what it means. God is straight. God is just. Because God is morally pure, every one of his actions are right, true, and just. He is never wr. Everybody agree? Good. We've got a few amens there. We're on our way. Now, I want you to notice with me the magnificence of his righteousness.

This is absolutely. Fabulous. I sat in my study today and I was just so excited, I couldn wait to get here tonight. This is so good. The first thing I want you to notice about the magnificence of his righteousness is that it explains his punishment.

It explains God's punishment. If you ever want to know why things are as bad as they are, all you've got to do is understand the righteousness of God. Turn with me to Psalm 11.

Psalm 11 is a prayer of divine retribution upon the wicked. Psalm 11, verse number 4. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold his eyelids. Test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Upon the wicked, he will rain snares. Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. And the upright will behold his face. In this prayer of divine retribution upon the wicked is not a prayer of vindictiveness.

Why? Because it's a prayer of the conscious realization that God and sin cannot co Together. And because they cannot coexist together, and because God is righteous, then He will punish the unrighteous. And those who are upright, God will bless them. They will behold the f of God. God must punish sin. Or he ceases to be holy. Make sense? If God doesn't punish sin, then he ceases to be holy. He cannot enact a holy law. Threaten the penalty, then take no action when the law is broken. That would make him un.

That would make him not. just but because God is just he always acts in harmony with his holy nature so he punishes sin and the sinners whenever and where sin ex Over in Revel chapter 19, listen to what it says in verse number 1. After these things, I heard, as it were, a loud voice of great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God because his judgments are true and righteous. for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality and he has avenged the blood of his bonds on her So here we sing the great halleluj Revelation chapter 19.

For God has dealt his divine retribution out upon man and upon the great harlot, and it's right to do so. Why? Because if you live in unrighteousness, God's righteousness will deal with you in a way in which you will feel his wrath. That explains the punishment of God. Now that's an amazing thing. Why? Listen to what Ezekiel 33, verse 11 says. As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, he says. No pleasure. You're reading Revelation chapter 16 and Revelation chapter 19, and they're singing hallelujah choruses, praising God because He's dealing with man, He's killing man, He's wiping man out.

Why? Because they deserve it. But He says. I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turns from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. Now how do you reconcile that? Here is a God who judges man because he's righteous. He's holy. There, he deals out retribution upon man because he has transgressed the law of God. And he has every right to do so because every judgment that God puts upon man, every act of God, we read it in Psalm 147, every act of God is right. So if he wipes us all off the face of the earth, it's the right thing to do.

When God gave the flood and destroyed the earth, destroyed everybody but eight souls, that was the right thing to do. It was the just thing to do. It was an injustice. Why? Because the wages of sin is what? Death. Therefore, God was righteous to wipe the earth. Clean from all of its wickedness and all of its wrongness, unrightness. You see? And yet, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That's an amazing statement. But yet to punish the wicked is the only response that is consistent. With his holy nature.

That's the only response. God must do it. Now, this is where it gets really exciting. Because you see, if you understand his righteousness, then you it explains his punishment upon man. But if you go to point number two, you understand that his righteousness eliminates our penalty.

Turn to me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. God's righteousness explains his punishment. God is going to punish sin. He has to. Why? Because he's righteous. It would go against his holy nature not to punish sin. He has to deal with it. And yet, it says this in 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 21: he made him. Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become what? The righteousness of God In Him. Now you got to follow this very closely with me. I don't want to lose you here.

Please hang on. If you want to write, write, but make sure both ears are completely open. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God. Became sin for us. God the Father, listen very carefully. Treated Christ as if he was a sinner, yet he had no sin. You follow with me so far? He treated him as if he was a sinner, though he had no sin, because Jesus Christ is the sinless Lamb of God. He had him die as your substitute to pay the penalty for the sins of those who believe in him. That's illustrated very clearly in Isaiah 53.

But he was pierced through for our trans, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging, we now are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of all mankind to fall on him. That is what happened at the cross. Listen very carefully. As Christ was not a sinner, yet treated as ones. one, so a believer is not made right, but he is treated as if he is right. See that?

As Christ bore our sins on the tree and wasn't a sinner, so now we bear his righteousness, although we're not righteous. That's what Jesus Christ did for us on the tree. Now, one day we will be made completely righteous. When we see him, we'll be like him, for we'll see him as he is. But as God the Father looks down from heaven, he no longer sees your sin. What does he see? He sees you cloaked in the righteousness of Christ. That's why he never treats you as a sinner. That's why you're never called a sinner in the Bible once you give your life to Christ.

Why? Because God the Father doesn't see you as a sinner anymore. He sees you as righteous. Why? Because now we have been declared righteous. That's what justification is. Turn with me over to Romans chapter 3 for a moment.

Romans chapter 3. But now, apart from the law, understand that Paul has taken the first three chapters of Romans and showed how depraved, how dark.

How bad man is. Okay? And he ends in verse number 19 and says this: Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all The world may be accountable to God. So, all the world's accountable to God, and all the world is full of sin, and there is nothing good in a man, he is totally a bow-rotten sinner. Okay, that's the nature of man. He is totally separated from God and in enmity with God. He is God's enemy. And Paul has spent the first three chapters articulating how all that came to be and what is man's condition.

And then it says this: But now apart from the law, The righteousness of God has been manifested. You can't do anything to get right with God. You see, what Paul does is answer the question that Job asked. Back in Job chapter 9, verse number 2, and every man has asked since the very beginning of time, how can a man be made right with God? That's the question. How can we as creation get right with the Creator? That's always been man's question. How can I be right with God? How can I have a relationship with God?

And Paul says, Here's how. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with God. Because this righteousness is apart from the law. This righteousness is the righteousness of God. It has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Paul goes on and says this in verse number 22: even the righteousness of God. through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. So it's by faith that we receive the righteousness of God. And there is no distinction.

The distinction is this. All have sinned, verse number 23, and all have fallen short of the glory of God. Whether you are a murderer, a bank robber, a rapist, or whether you tell little white lies over here, all have sinned, and all have come short of the glory of God. There is no one who can obtain the right. Of God, it all comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10, 9, and 10. Says what? Turn there with me if you would. Romans chapter 10. Verses 9 and 10 say as follows: If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with the heart man believes, resulting in what? Righteousness and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. So, the way a man obtains the righteousness of God is by faith. In the work of God. Now read on. And he says: being justified as a gift, it's free. By his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. What God did is that He redeemed us. How did He redeem us? He bought us back. Man is enslaved to sin.

Okay, and when God redeemed us, He purchased us back out of the slave market of sin, cloaked us in His righteousness, so we don't have to bear the punishment of our sin. That's what Jesus Christ did for us. At Calvary. God would be just. God would be right in sending every one of us to hell. And if He did, we would be without excuse. But because God has a pleasure in not destroying man, but that he wants him to turn from his ways and follow him, Jesus Christ became that ultimate sacrifice. so that we would no longer have to bear the punishment for our sin, but if we accepted His work on the cross, then we would be free from the penalty of sin forever because we are now cloaked with the righteousness of God.

That's the greatness of his righteousness. And for people to say that God is not just, that it is an injustice for God to send people to hell. Completely false. The just thing for God to do is send everybody to hell. The gracious thing for God to do is allow a payment for our sins that we might escape the penalty for them. And that's what Jesus Christ did. Well, se the point number three: it effectuates our protection.

If you understand the righteousness of God, It will explain the punishment of God. It will eliminate our penalty and it will effectuate our protection. That is, it will accomplish. the protection that you and I need. What does Romans 8, 1 say? There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who have been cloaked, those who bear the righteousness of Christ. No longer will be condemned. God will protect us. Why? Because He promises to. That's why. It is the strong arm of the righteous God who protects his people.

Therefore, to understand the righteousness of God is to understand how he accomplishes his protection. for your life and for my life, so that you and I are never ever condemned by God. Fourthly, it enables our practice of righteousness. Because God is righteous, because He has cloaked us with His righteousness, it enables you and me to practice righteous living. Turn with me over to 1 John chapter.

2 verse number 29. 1 John chapter 2, verse number 29. What's it say? If you know that he is righteous. You know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. John says very clearly: if you know that God is righteous, Then you know that everybody who practices right living, righteousness, is born of God. Is one of his children. It says in 1 John 3, verse number 10: By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God.

He goes on to say this: nor the one who does not love his brother. So we know that part of loving our brother is part of the deeds of practicing righteousness, the right kind of living, the way that Jesus Christ himself li. Now we can talk about the injustice in the world. We can talk about all the problems in the world. The people who are who are needy, who are underprivileged, who are widows, who are orphans, and we can look at this and say, this is injustice.

This isn't right. We as God's people need to act in just ways. And lastly, the magnificence of his righteousness explains his punishment, eliminates our penalty, effectuates our protection, enables our practice, and encourages Our pursuit. It encourages our pursuit of righteousness. It says over in Philippians chapter 1 verse number 9 these words And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellence in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.

Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes Through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Paul would say this over in Second Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 7. I have fought the good fight. I had finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of right. The crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who loved his appearing. Why would Paul picture his life as a sacrifice? Why did he run like he ran? Why did he work like he worked? Why did he give his life away? Because he knew at the end there was the crown of righteousness and the righteous judge.

that is Jesus Christ him would bestow that righteous crown upon him because he walked and lived in righteousness. The crown of righteousness, I believe, is when we are made completely righteous, completely just like Christ, the righteous God, the true, pure, holy, sinless. Perfect God is going to make us true and pure and holy, is going to make us completely sinless, just like Him. Because when we see him, we'll be like him, for we'll see him as he is. And that, I believe, is the crown of righteousness.

And Paul says that moves me, that encourages me. And that is for everybody who loves his appear. Everybody who loves his appearing is longing for the day in which the righteous judge is going to bestow upon them the crown of righteousness. In the meantime, we battle against all kinds of unrighteousness. We live in a world of injustice. We live in a world of inequity, but we as Christians battle that because we live to fulfill Righteousness. We live righteous and holy and pure life because Jesus Christ the righteous one lives with us.

Over in Psalm 9, it says this: Psalm 9, verse number 12. The right man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap and very green. Let me ask you a question: Are you full of sap?

Are you green this evening? Are you flourishing in your walk with God? Are you standing firmly planted like the trees in Lebanon? Unshakable, unmovable. That's how the righteous man is. And the only way he can be that way. Is because Jesus Christ clothed us with his righteousness when we accepted his finished work on the cross. And as we hunger and thirst for more righteousness and seek after him, the Bible says, Even in your old age, even when you grow old, you're going to be green and full of sap.

You're going be ripe. People are going to see it. They're going to see the fruit of your lives. Because Jesus Christ is living, ruling, and reigning, and he is the righteous one. Proverbs 15, verse number 9 says, He loves him who pursues Righteousness. Are you pursuing righteousness this evening? Are you wanting more of God? If you understand the righteousness of God, that He is righteous, and you have come to Him. And understood that he bore your sin on the tree, that you might be the right of God in him.

Then you should be pursuing more of his righteousness. I trust that you are.