Sin & Righteousness According to God | Psalm 11:7, 1 John 2:1

Okay. Beloved, turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 11, verse 7.

That's our first text for today. Psalm 11, verse 7.

Psalm 11, verse 7. God's Word speaks to us and says, For Yahweh is righteous.

He loves righteousness. The upright will behold His face. Amen. And turn with me now to Deuteronomy, chapter 32.

Deuteronomy 32, verses 3 through 4. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verses 3 through 4.

God's Word again speaks to us and says, For I proclaim the name of Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our

God, the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are just, are righteous.

A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is

He. Amen. And our final text, turn with me in the

New Testament to the first letter of John, chapter 1, beginning in verse 9.

1 John, chapter 1, verse 9. 1

John, chapter 1, verse 9. God's Word says, If we confess our sins,

He, God the Father, is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And He Himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

This is the reading of God's Word. Amen. Okay, beloved, so as you can tell, we're taking a little bit of a break from the sermon series

I've been preaching on regarding Scripture alone. And I needed some time to prepare that a little bit more, and I wanted to take the opportunity to preach on this topic again.

It's one of my favorite subjects to preach on, and I really enjoy preaching on this message.

And I think it'll be a blessing to you all as well. The sermon title,

I kind of wrestled with it, but the sermon title is actually, Sin and Righteousness According to God.

Sin and Righteousness According to God. Not whatever we think, not what anybody else thinks.

What matters is what God says. Amen. Now, and I also preached a similar message on this before, which

I call the Gospel According to Righteousnesses. As we will find, there are different kinds of righteousnesses described all throughout

Scripture. But these passages that we read today deal with, focus on two of the most important subjects in the entire

Bible. Two of the most important ones, sin and righteousness, right?

Sin and righteousness, very important. That's what the Bible is essentially all about.

And another way you might put it is law and gospel. As well. Now, notice that 1

John says, So that you may not sin. I write these things to you.

For what purpose? So that you may not sin. Because once again, according to God, according to God, we are all sinners.

Wretched sinners born guilty under the law of God. Even and even after God saves us, regenerates us, makes us new creations, we still sin.

We still sin. So the proper response to our sin is to avoid sin, to not sin, like it says here.

And when we sin, when we do sin, to repent.

To repent, to confess our sins, our specific sins. As John also instructs us, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

To seek forgiveness, to also forgive when we are sinned against.

And to reconcile and mortify, put to death our sin in our flesh.

Which is primarily our bodies, our fallen unredeemed bodies. That's like 1st

John 1 9 says, which I alluded to. If we believers confess our sins, he,

God the Father, is faithful and righteous. He is good, holy, and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

From all of it, not some, all of it. Amen. So it is good and necessary then for us to confess our sins daily before God.

That's the same thing Christ instructed us to pray, the model of prayer in the

Our Father. Forgive us our sins, our debts, as we forgive those who trespass against us, right?

We are to daily confess our sin and our need for a Savior, even as believers, even as believers.

So we must have this mindset regarding sin.

It is very important. So both, and as sinners who do not believe, who need to be fully forgiven by God, and as believers who continue to struggle against sin in this fallen world, and in our fallen unredeemed flesh, our bodies have not been redeemed yet, right?

Beloved, that's not until the resurrection when Christ comes back. And that is where 1st

John 2 1 says, My little children, I am writing these things to you, believers, so that you may not sin.

This is a very important passage, one of many that the

Bible talks about regarding sin. I've mentioned this before that practically every page in the Bible talks about sin and righteousness, practically all of it.

And now the next obvious question is, what exactly is sin?

What is sin according to God? Because a lot of people redefine sin. They try to make it less than what it really is.

Oh, it's just, you know, it's a mistake. It's something that we do, you know, to err is human.

It's just we're human. It's just who we are. Sins are just things that we do and we can't really help, but God understands that.

It's like, well, no. And there's a sense in which that's true because we are sinners and we do sin. But sin, according to God and his word, not just any

God, there's only one true God. Amen. And it's the God of Scripture that defines sin for us.

And I love the catechism for young children, the reform catechisms that clearly define sin according to Scripture.

What is sin? Sin is any want, any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

Sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

And the catechism continues to define what is meant by want of conformity, a lack of conformity, not living up to God's standards.

What is meant by that? It is not being, not being or doing what

God requires of us, right? Not being or doing what God requires of us.

That is a sin of omission, something we ought to do. We are commanded to do, but we don't do it, right?

And then what is meant by transgression? This is doing what

God says not to do, right? Doing what God forbids us from doing.

These are known as sins of commission, right? So you shall not lie, you shall not steal, you shall not murder.

That's something we should not do, right? And that's what 1st

John also tells us. 1st John 3, 4, Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness.

If you sin, you do lawlessness. Why? Because sin is lawlessness.

It is lawlessness according to God. That is what it all comes down to, the law of God.

Now, what is the law of God? I already kind of alluded to that. This kind of hints at it.

But the law of God is also known as, there's many laws of God, but there is the moral law of God, summarized in the

Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, right? And further summarized in the two great commandments.

Thou shalt love God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself, right?

Those are the two great commandments. That is the sum, the entirety of the law and the prophets, like Jesus said, hangs on those two commandments.

On those two commandments. So, this is what

God says. Now, this brings us to an important question for self -reflection and self -examination.

What is your life's purpose? What have you set your purpose in your life to be?

What is it? A lot of people will tell you different things. Money, power, success, women, men, whatever.

All kinds of things. People aspire to all kinds of things. But what does

God say? Is our purpose in life, is your purpose in life, one of them at least, is it to not sin?

Is it to avoid sin? How important is it for you to avoid sin?

To not commit sin, whether sin of commission or of omission? How important is it for you to be free from the snares and temptations of sin?

What price are you willing to pay to not sin? Because isn't that what

God's word tells us? Why did the apostle, why does God write these things to us? So that you may what?

Not sin. Do not sin. That that's unequivocally clear.

This doesn't require special interpretation, right? What price are you willing to pay to not sin?

What cost are you willing to sacrifice to not sin? Because again, sin is also tied to righteousness.

Because being righteous and doing righteousness also requires us to not sin, right?

You can't be righteous and then steal, like the Bible says in James 2. How can you say, well,

I don't lie, but I'm a thief. You can't, you're not righteous.

You break one single law, you are guilty of all of it. Like James 2 .10

says, you break one, you break them all. Because God is holy. He, you can't get away with one of them, one sin.

And the Bible says, in fact, that we sin and have broken his entire law. Our sin is exceedingly sinful in God's eyes.

So in order to be righteous and do righteousness, we must not sin.

Yet, we have a problem, right? We all have a big problem because we all sin and are naturally born sinners by nature.

You know, in a previous sermon series I preached on, on church discipline, I asked us this question.

Do you recognize and take the exceeding sinfulness of your sin seriously?

How seriously do you take sin in your life? And its destructive effects.

Do we acknowledge how destructive sinful sin is? Because again, what does

God say? What sayeth the scriptures? Amen. Romans 7 .13,

if you could turn with me there. The book of Romans chapter 7 verse 13. Here we see what

God says with respect to how sinful sin really is.

Romans chapter 7 verse 13. I'm going to read from the

Amplified Bible. It has a good rendering here. Romans 7 .13. This is the Apostle Paul speaking to God's people.

Did that which is good, the law, he's referring to the law of God, then become death to me?

Certainly not. The law is not death, but sin.

In order that it might be revealed as sin was producing death in me by using this good thing, this law as a weapon.

So that through the commandment of God, sin would become what? Exceedingly sinful.

So that's the purpose, one of the purposes of God's law. God's law shows us how sinful we really are.

It shows us the sinners that we really are. And that is why also as we let's turn now to 1

Corinthians chapter 5. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we see in the next epistle over from Romans.

1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6. We see once again this important concept explained of how destructive and contagious sin is.

Sin is described as an infection. It spreads like a plague. Even among God's people, if it's not disciplined according to God's word.

1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6. God's word says, you're boasting the Corinthian church is not good.

Do you know, do you not know that a little leaven, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.

A little uncleanness makes the whole lump unclean. Clean out the old leaven so that you believers in Christ may be a new lump without uncleanness.

Just as you are in fact unleavened for Christ, our Passover lamb also was sacrificed.

Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, evil of sin, but instead with the unleavened bread of what?

Sincerity and truth and righteousness. Amen. This is what

God's word says. This is what God's word says regarding sin. Now, here's another fearful warning that Christ our

Lord himself gives us from his own mouth in the gospel of Matthew chapter 5 verse 29.

Very important passage. This is Christ speaking to us. Matthew chapter 5 verse 29 in the gospel of Matthew.

Here we find our Lord preaching his first sermon on the mount.

And he has some very important warnings for us regarding the seriousness of sin.

Christ says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 29, but if your right eye makes you stumble, causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you.

Why? For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.

For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Amen. These are fearful, fearful words, beloved. But that forces us to question our motives, our life.

Do you take sin in your life this seriously? Do you avoid sin with this level of seriousness that Christ is telling us?

Do you take drastic measures to purge it, to cleanse it from your life if necessary?

Even as a believer, okay? Because unbelievers cannot stop sinning.

Unbelievers are unbelievers. All unbeliever does is sin. But even as believers, we need to crucify sin in our life.

So much so that Christ says, cut your hand off, take your eye off. Now, does he mean this literally?

No. Christ is not telling us this literally. But his point is, how do you take it seriously?

Are you serious about not sinning? Because God is serious about us not sinning.

And he has given us everything that we need to stop sinning, to not sin.

Even though we still struggle with sin as believers. But as believers in Christ, we must flee from sin, run away from sin.

Much like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife in Egypt in Genesis 39.

We have to take sin seriously. We metaphorically cut our hand and eye out.

If we need to. To take sin out of our life. We take ourselves out of that situation that might cause us to sin.

Amen. Now, notice in 1 John 2 .1. There's a term of endearment.

My little children. My little children. Because God loves us and cares for his believing people.

So much so that he wrote us this letter. And warned us and guides us.

So that we may not sin. And not only this letter, as I said.

But sin is a central focus of the entire Bible. It's the whole focus of the

Bible is sin. Of the problem of sin. Of the definition of sin.

The consequences of sin. How do we answer and resolve that problem of sin.

That we ourselves cannot solve on our own. Right? Now, I have a very important public service announcement.

It's funny. I realize now it's kind of redundant to say this is a public service announcement. Because in really every sermon is a public service announcement.

But anyway, here's an important one. If avoiding sin is not a focus of your life.

If you are in a church that does not preach on sin. About sin.

Against sin. Then something is seriously wrong with us. Something is seriously wrong.

We are in danger. Our eternal souls are in danger. If we do not have a healthy conviction of not sinning.

Because that puts you at odds with God himself. Because God says do not sin.

Right? We may need to examine ourselves and repent.

What does that mean? To repent. To change our minds and our convictions about sin.

About sin and about how much how sinful we really are. Especially apart from the grace and mercy of God.

About who we are as sinners. About God's righteous holy law.

How holy his law is in contrast to how unholy we are. Right?

That's something we all need to keep in mind. And everyone.

Without exception. Now let's turn to the letter to the

Romans. Now beloved. The letter to the Romans chapter 8. In Paul's letter to the

Romans chapter 8. We find another important word of admonition regarding sin.

Romans chapter 8 verse 6. Here God explains to us some very important concepts.

For the mind. The human mind. The unbelieving mind set on the flesh.

On sin. In other words. On the flesh. On sin is what?

Is death. But the mind set on the spirit of God is life and peace.

Notice how these are contrasted. Your mind is set on sin.

Or is it set on life and peace? On the spirit. Because the mind set on the flesh is at what?

Is at enmity toward God. At odds with God. Making you an enemy of God.

For it does not subject itself to the law of God. It refuses to obey the law of God.

For it is not even able to do so. Cannot obey.

And those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. Those who are unbelieving sinners are not able to please

God. None of us can please God apart from the grace of God. And forgiveness of God.

The Apostle John further admonishes us that the one who does sin is of the devil.

Because the devil sins from the beginning. The Son of God, however,

Christ, was manifested for this very purpose. To destroy the works of the devil.

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin. Wow. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin.

Because his seed, God's seed, abides in him. And he cannot sin any longer.

Because he has been born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested.

Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God. As well as the one who does not love his brother, right?

That's the second great commandment. Love your neighbor, your brother. That's 1

John chapter 3 verses 8 through 10. Notice there are only two options there.

Either you are in the flesh or you are in the spirit. Either you are a child of God or you are a child of the devil.

There's no other options. There's no in -betweens. You're only one or the other. Who are you a child of then?

Who do you belong to? God or the devil? There's only two options.

What does your life, what is your belief, what is your mind, your actions, your words, your thoughts, what does that reveal about you and who you belong to?

That is what the Bible is all about. We as believers who are children of God have a great hope and comfort.

This is not something that we as believers should fear. It's like, oh well, oh but it says we cannot sin.

But I do sin. No, that's not the point of this passage. The point of this passage is that those who belong to God no longer sin because they have been forgiven of all their sin and there's something else.

It teaches us that the children of God do not sin and cannot sin even though this does not mean that we must be sinlessly perfect in this life.

Again, believers still sin. That's not what this means. Even 1

John chapter 1. If you turn with me there, 1 John chapter 1 verse 10 says something very clear to us that we have to balance by exercising the analogy of scripture, right?

We must interpret scripture in light of its immediate context and the rest of the

Bible. 1 John 1 10 says, If we say that we have not sinned, okay?

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. We make God a liar because God says we are all sinners and His Word is not in us.

So we can't lie to ourselves and say, well, we no longer sin. We don't sin. No, we do. We are making

God a liar if we say that we do not sin. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

And look at this. Look at this hope, beloved. And however, if anyone does sin, we have what?

We have who? We have an advocate, a paraclete with God the

Father. Who is He, beloved? Jesus Christ, the righteous. Amen.

We have somebody to rescue us from our sin simply by trusting in Him.

Christ, the righteous. He is our advocate, our righteous advocate, because we are unrighteous, beloved.

And He is our righteous advocate who covers and wipes and forgives our sin.

As believers, then, we must always strive to avoid sin, take drastic measures if necessary to take ourselves out of a sinful temptation or situation.

Put to death our earthly members by denying our flesh and repent of and confess our sins before God and before those whom we have sinned against, right?

So even though, even though we as redeemed saints and believers, those of us who believe still sin every day and fall short.

But it is not because we carelessly disregard God's commands. Habitually, because if you did, you would likely reveal yourself to not be a believer, to not be a

Christian. But because it is because we still are living in our flesh.

Our flesh is that unredeemed part of ourselves, primarily our bodies, that still tempt our minds to sin.

We haven't been fully redeemed yet, right? That is why we still struggle with sin. But we now also have a divine human advocate with the

Father, a defense attorney. That's what advocate means. It's a legal term.

Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is merciful and gracious, for if we confess our sins,

He, God the Father, is faithful and righteous to forgive us. How many of our sins, beloved?

All our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Amen. What a hallelujah, beloved. What a Savior. What an all -sufficient

Savior we have in Christ and in Christ alone. Because no one else did this for us.

No one else lived for us and no one else died for us the way Christ, our advocate, did.

No one else could do it. No one else could. Those of us who believe the gospel of grace that is completely sufficient and efficient.

It is entirely sufficient and efficient for us. Apart from anything we do, grace alone,

God's grace alone through faith alone. And apart from any of our so -called good works, because of Christ alone and what

He did for us, we have a faithful righteous advocate, a paraclete, a comforter, like the

King James says, assigned to us forever. He doesn't say like, you know, earthly lawyers who, hey, sorry,

I can't take your case anymore. I got too much on my plate or you know what? I really can't defend you.

This is just, I can't defend you. I'm sorry. No, Jesus never turns away those whom the

Father has given to Him. He becomes our eternal righteous advocate forever, forever before God.

He is always and forever by our side, by our side.

By faith and trusting in Him alone. And this is in addition to the other advocate that God has given us, beloved, the

Holy Spirit of God, who eternally abides in us and caused us to believe the gospel.

Because out of upon our own will, our own efforts, we run away from God. We don't want

God. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we are already right with God, but we are not.

And yet God sends us His Spirit as our other advocate to cause us to believe and to trust in Him.

Take note of these things, beloved, as this is going to become relevant to the next sermon on the

Bible, on the Apocrypha. So do not be deceived by false teachers who twist the scriptures and the historic expressions of sound doctrine.

We should wholeheartedly embrace the sound words of the Belgic confession of faith and condemning any and all teaching that subverts the finished work, perfect work of Christ as enormous blasphemy against God.

Article 22 of that confession on the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of faith says this,

We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery of the

Holy Spirit, He kindles in our hearts a true faith. He causes us to believe that embraces

Jesus Christ with all His merits and makes Him its own and no longer looks for anything apart from Him.

We don't look outside of Jesus for our salvation. It's all in Christ, for it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is in Christ alone or if all is it,

I'm sorry, is not in Christ or if all is in Him, then he who has

Christ by faith has his salvation entirely. Therefore, to say that Christ is not enough, but that something else is needed as well, it doesn't matter what else you say that it is, whether they're works or acts of penance or confession or anything else, is a most enormous blasphemy against God.

For then it would follow that Jesus Christ is only a partial Savior. That is to mock

God and the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice to say that we need to add something to what

Christ did for us. And therefore, we justly say with Paul that we are justified by faith alone, apart from works, like Romans says.

Amen. Now, this brings us to the next section here of the sermon, the gospel according to righteousness is.

Remember, 1 John 2, 1 says, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone says we have an advocate with the

Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, Christ is rightly called the righteous one, the righteous one.

Now, there's another question we need to ask ourselves here. The word righteous.

Can you apply this word to describe yourself? Can you truly call yourself a righteous man or woman?

Can you call yourself that? Are any of us righteous? Are any of us righteous?

Well, what does God say? Because in a sense, it doesn't matter what we think. What we think doesn't make it so.

It doesn't make it true. It matters what we think, but what we think needs to agree with what

God thinks and says, right? So then, according to God, according to God, indeed, there is not a single righteous man on earth.

Not a single one who continually does good and who never sins.

There is not a single righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. That's what

God says in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, verse 20. Not a single one of us is righteous.

Now, the Bible describes different kinds of righteousnesses with respect to both

God and man, which are also, these righteousnesses give us the story of the entire

Bible, the whole counsel of God, and reveal the true gospel to us.

There is, first of all, the righteousness of God. There is the righteousness of God.

That is the sole, ultimate, perfect standard of what is right and wrong. That is

God's own righteousness. God is the supreme, holy judge and law giver, and whatever

He does is good and right. Not because He does it and thinks it.

He is good, and He defines what is good. He says what is good and what is not.

He gives us the law to define what is good and what is not. Not because He submits to some standard outside of Himself, but because He Himself is the standard of righteousness and holiness.

That's what we read in Deuteronomy 32, verses 3 through 4 in the sermon text.

The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are just.

God, a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright as He, that's a parallelism, right?

Righteous and upright is He. He is upright. He's not crooked. He doesn't sin.

Mark chapter 10, verse 18 also says, And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? The man who questioned

Him. Why do you call me good? No one is good, except who?

God alone. Not a single one is good, except for God alone.

That's the words of Christ Himself. Clearly, unequivocally says,

Only God is good. And that is why we need His goodness to save us, because our goodness is wickedness.

We don't have any goodness. God's standard of righteousness for man now is revealed in His moral law.

Now, this moral law of God is the eternal, unchanging law of God, that has always been binding on all mankind, which directs and binds everyone in all places, in all times.

It doesn't matter if you were in the Old Testament, in the time of the garden with Adam and Eve, in the

Old Testament or in the New Testament covenant. Everyone has to follow the moral law of God, which directs and binds everyone to personal, complete, exact, and perpetual, non -stop obedience.

Right? Personal, meaning it applies to each one of us individually, not as a nation, not as a group, but individuals.

Personally, complete, that is, you can't say you do most of them, but then you miss some.

No, complete, exact, exactly as what God says to do, and perpetual, non -stop.

You cannot say that you've kept these, but then you fell short one of these days.

No, it has to be ongoing. That's what the Baptist catechism defines for us.

No, the Baptist larger catechism that we read from, beloved, very important.

Now, notice that both sin and righteousness, they are exact opposites of each other, but both sin and righteousness are defined by God in relation to His law.

Right? Both sin and righteousness are defined in relation to the law of God. Sin is what?

The breaking of God's law. Righteousness is what? The keeping of God's law, and it's a perfect keeping of it.

Sin is any lack of any breaking of God's law. So, that's what the moral law is.

Where is it summarily comprehended? Then, the moral law of God is summarily comprehended in the

Ten Commandments. Right? In the Ten Commandments. Now, what is the sum of the

Ten Commandments? Like Jesus taught us, the sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the

Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, all our mind, and number two, love our neighbor as ourselves.

Now, that's not a relative love. Oh, well, I love people by, you know, hitting them, like abusive people do.

No, that's not what God means by love. What God means by love is

His law, and His law says, do not lie, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not worship other gods.

That's what the love of God means, and the law of God teaches.

So, what then is the purpose of the law since the fall of Adam and Eve? The purpose of the law since the fall is to reveal the perfect righteousness of God to us.

It shows us God's holiness in our sinfulness, that His people may know His will for their lives, and the ungodly, the unbelievers being convicted of their sin, may be restrained from sinning and brought to Christ for salvation.

That is what the law is for. It's not to tell us, hey, you need to keep the law in order to be saved.

No, it's to show us you can't keep the law, therefore, you need somebody else to save you.

That is Christ the righteous. Amen. Now, there is another kind of righteousness that the

Bible describes. This is the original righteousness of our first parents before they sinned and fell in the garden.

This is the original righteousness of man in the garden. Ecclesiastes 7 .29

says, See, I have found only this, that God made men upright.

He made them upright, but they have sought out many devices.

They have sought out many schemes. They fell. They sinned. God made man upright, but man disobeyed

God in the garden. But God made them originally upright.

Now, we have to make a distinction here, because the original righteousness of our first parents does not include a perfect, complete righteousness, which includes a sad...

Again, what is righteousness? Righteousness is obedience to God's law, perfect, perpetual, ongoing.

So Adam and Eve were not perfectly righteous. They were only blameless with respect to sin prior to sinning.

They did not have the perfect obedience of God. They had to earn that. That is why they had to keep the law and not sin, not be tempted by the serpent in the garden in order to gain that righteousness that they would have had if they had obeyed perfectly, but they didn't.

They did not have, and they did not earn the perfect obedience that Christ earned as a man.

They don't have the righteousness that Christ himself earned and accomplished.

That is why Christ came, right? That is exactly why

Christ came. And we have to be careful because those who claim that Adam and Eve were perfectly righteous without having to earn or gain it completely undermine the perfectly earned and standard righteousness, the standard of righteousness of God and the earned righteousness of Christ because he had to earn it for us and actually accomplish what our first parents could not do on our behalf, that perfect righteousness.

But Jesus said it is done on the cross, right?

He said it is finished and no one else in the entire history of mankind could utter those words and say that it is finished, but Christ alone.

Why? Because Adam and Eve failed. They failed. Like chapter six of our

Baptist confession teaches us by their sin, our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion fellowship with God.

We fell in them, we sinned in them, for by a death came upon all and condemnation.

All became dead in sin and totally defiled in all the faculties and parts of our soul and body.

We are guilty in Adam. We fell in Adam because Adam represented us.

Adam represented us. So that's number two, original righteousness.

The third kind of righteousness is a very important one because it is arguably the most common one that we see.

In this fallen world, this kind of righteousness is the self -righteousness of radically depraved sinners and legalists who think they can earn or merit their own righteousness or a right standing before God by their own efforts, by their own works, even if it's only a small part that they think they have to contribute.

Remember, you can say all of these things and believe in God and yes,

God saves us, but we need just one little thing and that is what the Judaizers said.

All you need to add to be saved is to be circumcised. That's all you need.

Just circumcise and you can be saved. And yet, what did Paul say? You are anathema.

If you bring any other gospel apart from the gospel of grace alone, you are condemned by God eternally.

Nothing that we do can earn or merit God's favor. And obviously because Christ earned and accomplished it already.

He's the one who accomplished it. This is what I also refer to as a self -deceived righteousness and it is worse than useless.

It is worse because first of all, we have none. We have no righteousness of our own.

Filthy rags in the eyes of God. That's what our righteous deeds are in God's eyes. Filthy rags like Isaiah 64 says.

And worse than that, it only magnifies our sin and our pride and our condemnation because it is to insult

God and the finished cross of Christ. The work of Christ on the cross.

Ask yourself, is Jesus not good enough for you? Is Jesus not good enough for you?

Why do we need to add anything to what Christ did for us? Like Isaiah 64, 6 says, we are all like an unclean thing.

All of us without exception. Unclean. That means what?

Unrighteous. Sinful. And all our righteousness are like filthy rags in the eyes of God.

We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities, our sins, like the wind, take us away. Away from God. Romans, turn with me to Romans chapter 3 verse 10, beloved.

Very important. Romans chapter 3 verse 10. This is such an important thing to understand.

What, where do we stand according to God with regards to sin and righteousness?

In the letter to the Romans chapter 3 verse 10 through 12. Verses 10 through 12. So, God's word says, as it is written, as God has written, there is how many righteous?

None righteous. Not even one. If it wasn't clear enough, not even one.

There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All, without exception, have turned aside.

Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even a single one of us that is righteous, beloved.

Wow, that is where we all stand before God. Apart from Christ and his righteousness given to us by faith alone, that is where we all stand.

Unrighteous before God and worthy of his judgment and punishment and condemnation. The last thing you want, therefore, is to answer

God on judgment day with that kind of false righteousness. It's not a true righteousness.

It's a false righteousness because God says it's no good. It's unrighteous.

You're gonna need a far more perfect and complete righteousness than that. This is why the

Apostle Paul said, I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law by our own obedience, then

Christ died in vain. Christ died needlessly then. In other words, if we could save ourselves, then why did

Jesus come to live, suffer, bleed, and die? That was the whole point.

The right, this brings us then to the next righteousness. Oh man, this is good stuff.

Number four, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

And I said before, he is the righteous one because there is no one righteous apart from him. He alone is righteous.

God alone is righteous. But Jesus Christ is the sole righteous one in a category all on its own.

Because not even God the Father, and not even God the Spirit, has the righteousness that Christ has.

It is a righteousness all on its own. And it is also known as the active and passive obedience of Christ.

Because Christ kept God's law perfectly, both in his active obedience in life, in obeying the law of God, and in his passive obedience.

Passive means not like passively, like he's letting something happen to him.

He is, but passive means suffering. The Greek word for passive is pascane.

That's where the word pasqua comes from, Easter. It means suffering. In his suffering, he bled and died for his people.

That is the righteousness that Christ and no one else has. Because no one else suffered for us.

God the Father did not suffer for us. That's a heresy. God the Spirit did not suffer for us. That's a heresy.

Christ alone suffered for us because Christ alone is the one who earned the righteousness that we needed in order to face

God on judgment day and be called righteous. Amen? He alone obeyed the law of God perfectly, satisfied all its legal demands.

He alone fulfilled that covenant of works that Adam failed in the garden miserably.

He alone became the spotless sin and wrath -bearing Lamb of God that takes away all the sin of the world, of his people.

Amen? Galatians 4, 4 through 5 says, But when the fullness of time came,

God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those of us who were under the curse of the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters of God.

That is the answer to our problem. We're all sinners, but Christ is our only answer.

Hebrews 4, 15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet he alone was without sin.

That's righteousness according to God. 1

Peter 2, 22 through 24, He committed no sin, no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled.

He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. He suffered passively, but continued entrusting himself to the one, to him who judges justly.

That is his father, our adopted father, those of us who believe in him.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we believers might die to sin and live to righteousness, because by his wounds you have been healed.

His wounds alone are what heal us, beloved. It is only through Christ alone.

Now as I start wrapping up here, there is another righteousness that I wanted to make sure that we also understand, because there's more to the story of redemption, beloved.

There is also the imputed righteousness of believers, the imputed righteousness of believers, whereby as sinners they are legally declared righteous, credited, reckoned righteous, or justified.

That's what the Bible says. Justified through repentance and faith alone in this gospel, this message of salvation, apart from any works or self -righteousness, because God himself imputes both their sin, our sin on Christ, and his righteousness is imputed or given to us.

To impute means to legally reckon, to legally reckon or credit or charge something to you, and in this case it is a legal status before God.

Now again, beloved, there are only two legal statuses. Either you are a sinner, an unrighteous sinner in the eyes of God, or you are a righteous person, a righteous saint who has the righteousness of Christ.

Not your own, but Christ's, because only one is righteous, and unless we have his righteousness, we are not righteous.

We are in the other category, unrighteous sinners who are condemned by God. Romans 4, 3 through 8,

For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted, it was credited, it was imputed to him as righteousness.

Now the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due.

It is not grace then, but the one who does not work for his salvation, but instead believes upon whom?

Upon him who justifies the ungodly, the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Instead of his works, because he has no good works, because he is trusting in another man's perfect work, that of Christ.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man who God counts righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Beloved, that is a blessed thing to be, a state of the one who has considered now, reckoned, imputed, sinless and righteous because of Christ and what he has done for us.

This is the kind of righteousness that we all need. No exceptions. The only perfect righteousness that any man has ever produced is as a human, is in the person and work of Christ alone, which you can receive by faith alone.

So then, we as ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

How? He, God the Father made him, Christ the

Son, who knew no sin, to be sin on whose behalf?

On our behalf. Those who believe in him, so that we believers might become the righteousness of God in him, in Christ, in Christ, beloved.

This brings us to the last few righteousness is now. There is the renewed, number six, the renewed righteousness of believers known as sanctification.

Having been declared righteous by God now through faith in Jesus Christ alone, believer now grows in the likeness of Christ and becomes increasingly actively righteous in moral character and in obedience to the law.

And both becomes and continues to be sanctified. Now that we become perfectly sinless, not that we become perfectly sinless, but we do grow.

And even though we still sin, we now repent and actively seek to avoid sin and put it to death in our lives.

Like I mentioned earlier, we are no longer the godless, wretched sinners that we used to be prior to Christ entering our lives.

We are new creations. Can anybody testify to that? I remember when I wasn't saved,

I was a wretched, godless sinner. And when I became saved, my life changed. Beloved, that's what

God's work does. God is a savior who also is powerful enough to change us.

A new creation, like the Bible says. Ephesians 4 20 through 24.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus.

To lay aside in reference to your former conduct as an unbeliever, the old man, the flesh, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and sin, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, the new sanctified man, which is in the likeness of God and has been created in what?

In righteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.

And holiness of the truth. Now this last righteousness, beloved, is a precious and beautiful one.

It is the culminated righteousness or the glorified righteousness of believers, known as glorification.

This happens at the resurrection, when Christ returns, where both the bodies and souls of believers will be perfectly glorified and resurrected in true righteousness and holiness.

That's when we will no longer sin. When we have a glorified body, a new perfect body like Christ's body, that is free of any sin whatsoever.

And that, beloved, is a gift that Christ gives to us. It is not something that we earn.

Christ gives it to us, such that we will enter the courtroom of God.

That's our ticket to heaven. It's not our works. Our passport to heaven is, look at your body, because God is going to give you a glorified body.

Everybody's going to get one. You're either going to get an unglorified body, if you are an unbeliever, and you will answer to God in your unbelieving, unglorified state, or you will answer

God in your glorified body that you will enter heaven with. There's nothing to fear when you have

Christ. The only, this is it.

This is it, beloved. This is what it's all about. This is the telos, the telestai of God.

The whole purpose of God is to get us to that point, to our glorification, eternal glorification in heaven.

Now, that's what it is. It is a perfected holiness, only because of what

Christ has accomplished and given his resurrection power to us as a gift and a one -way ticket for admission into heaven.

It is all because of what he has done for us. Don't let anybody deceive you otherwise, beloved.

You don't earn the resurrection. You receive it by a gracious gift from Christ.

He gives it to you because who is, what did Jesus say? I am the what? I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will never die, but I will raise, who will raise him up?

Who will raise us up on the last day? I will raise him up on that last day.

Philippians 3, 20 through 21, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory.

Who's transforming us? He is. He transforms us through his working, through which he is able to subject even all things unto himself, beloved.

Amen. This is the story of the Bible, the drama of redemption, the gospel according to righteousnesses, beloved.

And if you want all those good righteousnesses that the Bible talks about, you cannot earn them.

You cannot merit them. There's nothing you can do to receive them. Here we see

God, man, sin, righteousness, and our mediator, our only mediator, and our advocate,

Jesus Christ, the righteous. So then, to end with this, how then are you righteous with God?

How are you righteous before God? This is question 60 of the Heidelberg in the Orthodox Catechism.

The answer is only, only by a true faith in Jesus Christ, in his gospel.

Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments and of never having kept any of them.

And even though I am still inclined toward all evil in my flesh, that is.

Nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace,

God grants and credits to me, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of who?

Of Christ alone, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner.

And as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.

All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.

And all God's people said, beloved, amen to that. That is the gospel of God's grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, beloved.

Let us bow our heads with a word of prayer and close out. Our gracious Lord, we thank you for this time of fellowship,

Lord, and of worship. We ask that you help us to receive these words, Father, regarding what sin and righteousness are, according to you, according to you,

Father, Son and Holy Ghost, according to your words, your precious words of truth. Please, Lord, save us by these words and sanctify us by them.

For your word is truth and your word is what sanctifies us. Your word is the gospel and the gospel is the power of God unto our salvation.

Because these words of truth save us, edify us and sanctify us,

Lord, and conform us in this renewed righteousness that you have given us and also culminating in that perfect glorified righteousness at the last day,

Lord, that you have given us by virtue, solely by virtue of what Christ alone has done on our behalf.

We thank you, Lord, help us to receive these things in faith, according to the truth of your word. Amen. Amen.

Now, beloved. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com