Vexation of the Soul & The Righteousness of Christ

If y 'all turn with me to Genesis chapter 19 this morning, we're gonna read a somewhat lengthy passage to kind of set the tone, and then we will pray and get on with the message for today.

Let me keep this up here so I can watch my time. Genesis chapter 19, we have a very interesting biblical narrative here.

Let's look through it. Verse one, it starts, "'And there came two angels to Sodom at even, "'and

Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, "'and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. "'And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground, "'and he said,

Behold now, my lords, "'turn in, I pray you, in your servant's house, "'and tarry all night, and wash your feet, "'and you shall rise up early and go on your ways.

"'And they said, Nay, "'but we will abide in the street all night. "'And he pressed upon them greatly.

"'And they turned in unto him, "'and entered into his house, "'and he made them a feast, "'and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

"'But before they lay down, "'the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, "'compassed the house round, "'both old and young, all the people, "'from every corner, from every quarter.

"'And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, "'Where are the men which came in to thee this night?

"'Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. "'And Lot went out the door unto them, "'and shut the door after him, "'and said,

I pray you, brethren, "'do not so wickedly, do not do so wickedly. "'Behold now, I have two daughters, "'which have not known man.

"'Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, "'and do to them as is good in your eyes, "'only unto these men do nothing.

"'For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. "'And they said, stand back. "'And they said again, "'This one fellow came in to sojourn, "'and he will needs be a judge.

"'Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. "'And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, "'and came near to break the door.

"'But the men put forth their hands,' "'and the angels, and pulled Lot into the house to them, "'and shut the door.

"'And they smote the men that were at the door of the house "'with blindness, both small and great, "'so that they were wearied themselves to find the door.

"'And the men said unto Lot, "'Hast thou here any besides, son -in -law, "'and thy sons, and thy daughters, "'and whatsoever thou hast in the city, "'bring them out of this place.

"'For we will destroy this place, "'because of the cry of them is waxen great "'before the face of the

Lord. "'And the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. "'And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons -in -law, "'which married his daughters, and said, "'Up, get you out of this place, "'for the

Lord will destroy this city.' "'But he seemed as one, "'and then mocked unto his sons -in -law.

"'And when the morning arose, "'and the angels hastened Lot, saying, "'Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, "'which are here, "'lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

"'And while he lingered, "'the men laid hold upon his hand, "'and upon the hand of his wife, "'and upon the hand of his two daughters, "'the

Lord being merciful unto them, "'and brought them forth, "'and set them without the city.

"'And it came to pass, "'when they had brought them forth abroad, "'that he said, "'Escape for thy life, "'look not behind thee, "'neither stay thou in the plain, "'escape to the mountain, "'lest thou be consumed.'

"'And Lot said unto them, "'Oh, not so, my lord. "'Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, "'and thou hast magnified thy mercy, "'which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life.

"'I cannot escape to the mountain, "'lest some evil take me and I die. "'Behold, now this city is near to flee into, "'and it is a little one.

"'Oh, let me escape thither, "'is it not a little one? "'And my soul shall live.'

"'And he said unto them, "'See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, "'that

I will not overthrow this city, "'for which thou hast spoken.'" Let's pray real quick, and then we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful day that you blessed us with, for bringing us all together once again, and allowing this fellowship to take place, allowing this local body of believers to edify one another and to lift each other up as we gather in the worship of your word, in the worship of you, in the study of your word, in the fellowship of one another.

We ask you to bless this time. We ask you to bless this service. Let the words be your words, and we ask that you guide all of it.

And we ask these things in your name, amen. Now, the primary topic, well, first of all, the title of today's message is

Vexation of the Soul and the Righteousness of Christ. And believe it or not, despite the opening passage here, and at least half the title, this is going to be a very edifying message, but there's a purpose behind starting it the way that we did.

The primary topic, again, of today's message is going to be the power of the righteousness of Christ and how our position as Christians in this righteousness is our salvation from a culture that has gone mad, much like the one that Lot found himself in at the time that this particular story took place.

But in order to really understand and appreciate the power of Christ's righteousness, it can be helpful to kind of survey the thing which stands opposite to that divine righteousness.

And of course, that would be man's wickedness. That would be the wickedness of the world, the wickedness of the flesh.

So we find ourselves in the 21st century here in America, having to battle not only the evils that are the source of this wickedness, the principalities and powers that Paul tells us about in Ephesians 6, it's a wickedness that attempts continually to penetrate the minds of all of our fellow citizens, even our own brothers and sisters in the

Lord. It's attempting that, it's attempting it continually every day. Not only do we have that going on, but we also have to battle our own inner turmoil that the images, that the language, the societal degradation that all of that wickedness leads to puts us, or that it puts within us.

In other words, the things that we see, the things that we hear, those things in and of themselves can bring a sense of inner turmoil even for us today.

So we have to battle that simultaneously as we battle the source itself, the principalities and the power, the putting on the armor of God to defend ourselves from these things.

These are things that vex or can vex our souls as we move through each and every week.

Well, those feelings of despair, that inner turmoil that is possible, that can crop up, it's not anything new.

It's something that the called of God had had to deal with forever. But the question then is, how exactly do the called of God deal with that?

How do they deal with the despair that may come with the feelings of a vexed soul as we find ourselves in a culture gone mad, as a lot did?

How do we deal with it exactly? Now, that is the most important thing that we're gonna be looking at.

We're gonna see how resolution has been found in the midst of such despair by our patriarchs, by the patriarchs of the faith.

But really quickly, let's go back at the beginning of that Genesis passage for a second.

Let's reread some of it, not the full thing, but a few of the verses with a couple of thoughts before we lead into the next phase of the lesson today.

In verse one, and there came two angels to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.

And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. He said, behold now, my lords, turn in,

I pray you, into your servants' house in Tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early and go on your ways.

And they said, nay, but we will abide in the street all night. Now, that's a very interesting response given who gave the response.

It's a very strange one, because it's coming from the angels who knew exactly what goes on at night in the streets of Sodom.

They knew that the place in which they were going, they were entering to not only save Lot, but to bring destruction.

And so they give Lot this interesting response and say, no, we're gonna hang out in the streets, we'll be fine.

And being angels of the Lord, again, they knew that realistically, at least normal people would have been in danger in that same circumstance.

However, what they knew also was that this answer, by them answering in that particular way, it was gonna bother

Lot to a great degree because they were putting Lot in a situation where he had to physically move them to demonstrate his concern for their well -being as a result of the great sins that he was surrounded by daily.

He knew, again, what would have happened to them had they not come into his house for safety.

So they put Lot in a position where he had to physically move them. It says in verse three, and he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he made them a feast, and they did break unleavened bread, and they did eat that Hebrew word for pressed upon.

It literally means to press upon physically. So he had to go outside of his house, put his arms around these guys, push them into his house to, again, demonstrate his full -blown knowledge of the type of culture he found himself living in.

Verse four says, but before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every corner.

So we have an exhaustive description of the types of people in Sodom that were showing up to this particular place.

What we can gather from that, of course, is that outside of Lot, there was not a single person in the city with a

Godward frame of mind. No one was thinking about godly things, holy things, or God at all.

They were putting their own lusts and things of that sort, their own in -the -moment lusts above everything else, including their own well -being, but certainly above God.

And they called, in verse five, unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee this night?

Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And Lot went out the door unto them and shut the door after him.

So Lot here, he was so hyper -aware of how wicked his environment was, he didn't even want his guests to see any of what was about to transpire outside as Lot was about to begin this discourse with the wicked men of the city.

He shut the door behind him. He did that to shield his household from the behavior of those fellow citizens.

And he knew, again, how bad these people were. And he says in verse seven, I pray you, brethren, do not do so wickedly.

In Romans one, we learn that the sinful human being, which rebels against his creator continually, will eventually be turned over to a reprobate mind, the result of which is an implacable person with no remorse for their wickedness and no conscience left to restrain what would be right objectively.

And they're turned over to essentially do what's right in their own mind. So Lot's plea with them here would do no good in discouraging their sinful lusts because we have a demonstration in the people of Sodom here of what

Romans one looks like practically. They were given over to a reprobate mind. They were implacable.

Nothing that Lot could have said to these particular guys because time and time again, they slowly seared their consciences and pushed

God out of their minds. They are now at a point where there is no morality. It's whatever

I say goes, and it doesn't matter what Lot's about to tell us. We know what we want, and we're going to get it is the way they were thinking.

Great demonstration of Romans one there. Now skip down to verse 15, skip a little bit. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened

Lot saying, arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

The angels understood that there is a lot of urgency behind everything happening right now.

Because if there's not urgency, and if Lot doesn't heed their warning, Lot would be consumed from the human viewpoint in the punishment of these people's sin.

But what does Lot do next? How does he respond to the angels letting him know about this urgency, about the fact that we cannot, we cannot mess around at this particular time.

And it's right here at beginning at verse 16 that we start to get a glimpse of the effects of immersing yourself in such a wicked culture like Lot did.

Now you can make an argument that, well, if you live in a culture at all, you're immersing yourself in it.

And I might agree in the general sense, but you can certainly see levels of immersion.

For example, Abraham had separated himself, but Lot was right in the midst of this city.

So that's what I mean. He, Lot is right in the thick of wickedness. And because of that, what is the effect?

In verse 16, it says in while he lingered, while Lot lingered, despite the urgency that the angels were giving him, the men laid hold upon his hand while he was lingering and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, the

Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth and they set him without the city.

So how does Lot respond to the angels' charge? He hesitates. He tarries, he lingers.

Deep down, even though he was surrounded by degenerate sodomites and knew it and had a very good idea of exactly what that meant and the implications of it, the only interest of these people with the degraded mind was to defile themselves and those around him, even with the knowledge of knowing that is what he was finding himself in and what the angels were warning him about.

This environment, despite that wickedness, is what Lot was used to. It's what he was comfortable with.

It's what he knew. He knew his home. He knew his surroundings. He knew his environment. And so he lingered when he was told, you got to get out right now because it's about to all be gone.

He was struggling with the thought of leaving his life behind, even if it meant escaping the evil around him and starting anew, which is essentially what would happen.

But we also see God's mercy upon him as well, because even while Lot was grappling with this inner battle between what he knew was right and what had become his comfort, what he had become comfortable with, the

Lord was still merciful with him. We don't see a lot of wisdom in Lot right now is kind of the point I'm trying to get. We're getting an idea of his character.

We're getting an idea of his concerns, of the effects of total immersion in a wicked society.

In verse 17, it says, and it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy life.

Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed.

So the angel knew what Lot's greatest temptation would be. His greatest temptation would be to look back.

It would be to yearn for the culture that he had become all too familiar with and presumably still desired deep down to be in, which is why he tarried.

It's because it's simply what he knew and that struggle of leaving all of that was very real in the life of Lot here.

As we all know, this was a temptation to look back that Lot's wife who undoubtedly cared more about her life in Sodom rather than the commands of the

Lord, she did succumb to that temptation and we know what happened there. But this is in many cases, the natural result of that total immersion in such a culture.

Whether that be the lingering, the tarrying of Lot or the full -blown desire for it like Lot's wife that led to her death because of her disobedience.

In verse 18, it says that Lot said unto them, oh, not so my Lord, not so. He didn't want to go to the mountain.

He didn't want total separation which would have been in the likeness of Abraham. Not so.

Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. He's buttering them up a little bit. He's making a plea. And thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life.

And I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me and I die. Well, what other kind of evil would he be worried about?

I mean, he's rationalizing here is what's happening. Behold now, this city is near to flee into and it is a little one.

Oh, let me escape. Thither is it not a little one and my soul shall live. So Lot's secondary desire was to flee to a smaller city.

If he couldn't stay in the city that he was used to, that he was comfortable with, that he loved to some degree, surely, his secondary desire was to avoid total separation but rather to go to a smaller city.

One originally intended by the way to be destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah and the only reason it wasn't is because they accepted his request and they knew

Lot was there because it tells us a few verses later that that city would have been destroyed as well.

The gravity behind the influence of these cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, this little city on Lot's life was so great that his desire to live within them directed his will for the future of his family.

They were part of his identity at this point and he was struggling with the prospect of leaving that part of him behind.

Now, why is all of that important to us? How could we possibly compare ourselves to Lot in this context?

Well, it's not necessarily a one for one comparison. That's for sure. We're in Corsican and Navarro County. That's not nearly as bad as the heart of San Francisco is one example, one of many examples you could use.

But one of the main points that I hope that we can all draw from this is that in our,

I'm gonna speak broadly for a second, just generalizing for just a moment. In our Sodom -like culture, and I mean, you can turn, where's the railroad track?

I guess it's back there. Turn right over there, right down the street and you can see what I'm talking about. There's a great demonstration of it right there on the other side of the road from our church.

When we find ourselves in a Sodom -like culture like we're in, like we live in today, we find a powerful force that can literally alter our perceptions, our sensitivities to wickedness, our desires, and even what we consider to be normal, what we would consider to be comfortable living.

And that is a danger that we all need to be aware of. It's not necessarily that I'm trying to make a one -for -one comparison between anyone here and Lot or any of our brothers and sisters around us, although some of them perhaps.

But what we can gather from this story so far, it's not the end of it, but what we can gather so far is that there are consequences and those consequences can sneak up on us and take hold of us, alter our perceptions, dilute our sensitivities to that which

God hates a little bit over time. And eventually you find yourself in a place, or eventually you could find yourself in a place like Lot where all of a sudden

I'm kind of okay with it. I know there's some wickedness going on around me. I don't want my guests going out in the street, but I don't want to leave either.

And so there's a great danger in letting that happen. Again, in letting the subtleties of, let's just say secular culture, because that's kind of the modern equivalent of what

Lot was dealing with, the subtleties of that altering our lives in such a way that we're all of a sudden okay with the culture and are even willing and perhaps even have the desire to live within it.

But all of that aside, because that could be kind of a completely separate topic by itself, what

I really want to hone in on this morning is how a person like Lot, whose desires and whose proclivities were completely opposite of what they should have been, that being set apart from the world, holy living, maybe in the likeness of his uncle

Abraham, even a person like that, he could be saved in the midst of his vexation.

Now turn with me for a second to 2 Peter. And this is really the primary passage that I have for us this morning.

The Genesis passage was to set some context for what we're about to read. In 2

Peter chapter two, and let's read verses, starting verse four, and we'll read through verse nine.

And this is super interesting. Let me just ask you a quick question before we read this. When you think of Lot in the narrative we're giving in Genesis, where does your mind go?

What kind of guy do you kind of associate Lot with his character traits?

What kind of guy do you make him out to be? And for me personally, when you read the story of Lot, even knowing he was a believer spared from the wickedness, spared from the destruction, he wasn't that great of a guy.

He had a lot of, well, for example, he was totally willing to sacrifice his virgin daughters for the protection of these guests.

He was totally fine with living in the midst of sodomites and was comfortable with it. In fact, he wanted to stay there even after the charge from the angels.

We all know what happens after he leaves and he does go into the mountain and the sin that followed after that.

And so the Old Testament narrative of Lot is not that great. You come away with it with thinking,

I don't really want to be like that guy. And it's a great demonstration of the depravity of man.

And yet in 2 Peter chapter two, starting in verse four, what do we have? We have

Peter telling us, for if God spared not the angels that sinned and cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved

Noah, the eighth person, 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 overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should after live ungodly.

Who's that ensample for? Those that should live similarly after. That is an indictment on our very culture today in 21st century

America, in verse seven, and delivered just Lot, and delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

For that righteous man, according to Peter, that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds, the

Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

Now, what we learn here is that despite our first impressions of Lot that were given in Genesis, and his character, we learn that in God's eyes, he was a just man.

He was a righteous man. And that because of his righteousness, his soul was vexed day to day as he lived among the presence of absolute wickedness.

But how could this be? How could he be righteous? How could Lot, the guy in that story, be viewed righteous in the eyes of God who is holy and infinitely holy compared to us?

Because it can bother us a little bit. We're striving to be a set apart people. We're striving to be holy in the likeness of Christ.

And if it bothers us so much, and we would probably look down on a man like Lot with at least the limited knowledge that we have.

And if all you have is the narrative of Genesis, you think kind of bad first impressions. How could a

God infinitely holier than us look at him as righteous? How could that be?

Well, I think that we get a clue in that the fact that we do not learn about Lot's righteousness until we get to the

New Testament, thousands of years after Lot lived. In other words, Lot's righteousness, the fact that he was a just man isn't talked about in that original story.

It's not until you fast forward on this side of the cross and you have Peter as he is moved along by the

Holy Spirit writing this epistle that we learn about Lot being a just man and learn about his righteousness.

We learn about it at this particular time because in the New Testament, we learn of a doctrine that was unknown to the

Old Testament mind. It would not have made a lot of sense, perhaps to the Old Testament mind had the word of God gone into a lengthy description of Lot's righteousness, of Lot's just character.

And that doctrine that is fleshed out throughout the New Testament that we now have to enlighten us a bit as to how that reality could be the case.

That doctrine is the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers. The word to emphasize there is

Christ's, the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers.

I'm gonna read one quick verse. If y 'all wanna go there, you can in Matthew 5 .20. You have a really interesting thing that Jesus says, a really interesting statement that Jesus makes talking to an audience about very new things that they had never heard before, they had never considered.

Christ is delivering brand new revelation to the world for the first time ever. And he says in Matthew 5 .20,

"'For I say unto you that except your righteousness "'shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes "'and the

Pharisees, you shall in no case "'enter the kingdom of heaven.'" Now in the context of Matthew, in that Matthew passage there,

Jesus is making a rhetorical statement that he knew would resonate with his audience because everyone there knew that you couldn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the

Pharisees, the most religious people of that time. This is a mandate, this is a standard that Jesus just gave that is absolutely unattainable to us.

You're thinking about the audience that is there hearing this for the first time. They're hearing this and they're thinking, well, great,

I guess the kingdom of heaven is reserved only for our religious leaders then because their righteousness will always exceed ours.

What they didn't know though, is that they could. They could exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the

Pharisees even then. But there was a key to it that was yet to be revealed even though it was already in practice.

In other words, the reality of salvation by grace through faith and through that faith comes

God's imputed righteousness. That was already in action even at the time of Abraham and Lyle.

And we learned that and we'll actually read a passage here in just a minute to explain how that was the case and why we know that's true.

But it hadn't been fully revealed up to this point. This made it perhaps kind of a little bit of a paradox for Jesus's audience at the time because they're wondering how could it even be possible to exceed the righteousness of our religious leaders?

But what about to us? What could that statement mean to us today with the complete revelation of God, the complete word as we have it?

Well, turn to Philippians chapter three. Let's read some verses here. And we will get an idea as to how we can answer that question.

Philippians chapter three. It says, we'll start in verse one.

"'Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. "'To write the same things to you, "'to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

"'Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, "'beware of the concision. "'For we are the circumcision, "'which worship

God in the spirit "'and rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. "'Though

I might have confidence in the flesh, "'if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof "'he might trust in the flesh,

I more.'" It's a little bit of a mouthful, but we'll break that down in a second. "'Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, "'of the tribe of Benjamin, a

Hebrew of the Hebrews, "'as touching the law, a Pharisee. "'Recall, Jesus's standard at the time "'that he gave his audience "'when he's given the

Sermon on the Mount "'was to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.'" And Paul is saying,

I was that. I was one of those. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church.

I was so zealous, in fact, that I was actively persecuting those that I believed stood in opposition to what my standards were, what my law was.

My pharisaical order that I was defending. Touching the righteousness of which is the law, blameless.

So again, Paul actually met the standard that Christ set in Matthew chapter five, verse 20, in that he was a

Pharisee, and by their standards, he was blameless. Verse seven, "'But what things were gained to me, "'those

I counted lost for Christ.'" And there, Paul totally shifts and makes everyone aware that everything

I just said, all of those credentials are meaningless. Those things were gained to me, sure.

I was living a great, great life in light of how all of this plays out in the mind of the

Pharisees. "'But those I counted lost for Christ, "'yea, doubtless, and I count all things "'but lost for the excellency "'of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my

Lord, "'for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, "'and do count them but dung, "'that

I may win Christ and be found in Him, "'not having mine own righteousness.'" Okay, listen closely here.

"'Not having mine own righteousness, "'which is of the law, "'but that which is through the faith of Christ, "'the righteousness which is of God by faith, "'that

I may know Him, "'in the power of His resurrection, "'in the fellowship of His sufferings, "'being made conformable unto

His death. "'If by any means I might attain "'unto the resurrection of the dead.'"

So Paul completely shifts. He completely shifts the tone from trying to put in the minds of his readers at Philippi, look,

I meet all of the standards that are needed for righteousness in man's eyes. They're all there. I did all of them. I crossed all my

T's, dotted all my I's, but all of it was lost for the sake of Christ.

And it's not by any righteousness that may come from any of that, that I am saved, that I stand here today, that I may partake in the resurrection of the

Lord, but by someone else's righteousness. In verse four and six there, Paul is simply making the point that even if they wanted to leave their confidence in the flesh, rely on their own volition for their eternal destiny, then

Paul of all people would be qualified. If there was ever a person that could be saved by what he did, it was

Paul. And he made that crystal clear in those verses four through six there. But this very

Paul that just said that, that laid the groundwork, that gave all of those qualifications, this very Paul is saying, look, from the human viewpoint, from the subjective righteousness of the

Pharisees, and I say subjective there because what were they doing year after year? They were adding new rules. So you're not righteous if you're keeping our rules from a couple of years ago anymore because we got some new things that need to be considered.

So it was a subjective righteousness. It was continually changing. From the viewpoint though of that righteousness of the

Pharisees, I am blameless, he tells us. And that's still not enough, which is what he goes on to elaborate in the following verses.

It's still not enough regardless of that. In verse seven, he makes it clear that these things that made him such a quote unquote great person in man's eyes were loss for the sake of Christ.

But in verse nine, we have the target back in our sights. Right when

Paul rings the death knell of all hope in our own conceits, we see the brightness of another righteousness, one that's not our own, one that is objective, one that's concrete, one that's immutable.

He says in verse nine, let's read it one more time. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, that I may know

God. He could not have known God in his previous life living by those pharisaical standards, that I may know him,

I am given his righteousness and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.

But how could this righteousness be attained? How can you get that kind of righteousness? How can you attain a divine righteousness that is not your own, but rather that of a perfect being?

If it is a righteousness that's not our own, how could we claim such a thing for ourselves? Well, Paul technically does answer that in verse nine, that it's through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

He does answer it in verse nine, but let's see if we can be enlightened to just a little bit more, get a little bit of a deeper description of how exactly this works.

And this will be our last passage for today. Turn to Romans chapter four. And I think we'll start in verse one.

Let me take a look really quick. Romans chapter four.

Yeah, we'll start in verse one. And we'll read a little bit here. And this right here is where it really starts to open up how exactly can all of this work?

How could Lot have been viewed as righteous in the eyes of God? How could he have been a just man?

By what standard? By what standard could Lot be a just man? For that matter, by what standard was

Abraham viewed as a just man? And we're about to find out. Romans chapter four, starting in verse one.

What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

Just pause for just a second. What Paul is saying is that if it were by works, Paul, I'm sorry,

Abraham could have gloated in the same way that the Pharisees were gloating.

And what were they gloating? They were gloating within, where were they gloating? They were gloating within their echo chamber of other

Pharisees, the other religious leaders. By their own manmade standards, they were doing just fine, blameless.

But not before God is what Paul just said. Same thing is true for Abraham. Abraham was true for the

Pharisees. You are not gonna be found as, you're not gonna be seen as justified before God if it is by your own works.

Verse three, for what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him, counted unto him, for righteousness.

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.

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. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also?

For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned?

When he was in circumcision or when he was in uncircumcision? It was not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father

Abraham, which he hath being yet uncircumcised for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

So again, very wordy there, and there's so much there to take from that passage, all of which carrying equally massive implications.

But the main point, the main thrust of that entire section, 13 verses, is Paul saying, look,

Abraham, there was a righteousness that was not Abraham's that was accounted to him, that was imputed to him before the law existed, before he was ever circumcised.

Therefore, righteousness is not actually righteousness when it is derived from the law, not before God.

The imputed righteousness that Abraham had and that even Lot had, as we learn in 2

Peter, was given to them prior to the law, prior to circumcision.

The truth that Paul is really emphasizing is that this righteousness, again, is not ours.

It's certainly not one derived from the law. So from where does this righteousness come?

And who is this blessed man of Romans 4, 8 when it says, blessed is the man to whom the

Lord will not impute sin? Who is that person? The answer is that it's any person whom

God justified by faith, which wipes away our sin from our own account, puts

Christ's righteousness into us, into our account, and it ushers in a divine peace with God that would otherwise be impossible.

And if you look at just the first verse of the very next chapter, Romans 5, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God, an utterly impossible undertaking if it weren't for the righteousness of somebody else that was counted to us.

So, shockingly, I made fantastic time today. My conclusion is twofold.

There are consequences for living in this fallen world.

We all know that. And they are exacerbated, though, when we surround ourselves with wickedness continually, immersing ourselves directly into a culture that is an affront to Christ's standards of living.

It will vex our souls day to day when we find ourselves in that situation. Now, like I said earlier, there are perhaps degrees with which we find ourselves in a culture, maybe sometimes worse than others.

Again, out in the little safe haven, so it feels, the forest glade, surrounding an otherwise small town, is a little bit different than living in downtown

San Francisco or New York City or you name it. So there are degrees with which we immerse ourselves in the culture, sometimes by necessity, and that's a totally different topic.

I'm not getting into that. But just, I want you to realize, when I say immersing ourselves in a culture, I'm talking about in the likeness of life, where you are right in the heart of it.

You are right in the middle of the vast wickedness that the ungodly are partaking in, that the rebels of their creator are partaking in, the rebels of God.

And when we find ourselves there, it vexes our souls. But there is salvation from this vexation.

So point number one, our souls can be vexed when we immerse ourselves in a culture that we shouldn't.

But the second point is that there is salvation from that vexation. There is a positional place by which we stand, and that is the righteousness of our

Lord, given us by faith in Him as our only Lord and Savior.

But one thing I want you guys to remember is that this righteousness is the salvation from that wickedness around us.

That righteousness is the salvation from the wickedness around us, not an excuse to become the wickedness, not an excuse to go be one with the wickedness, to take part in it, to be comfortable with it in a strange sense like Lot was.

We should never excuse ourselves from holy living because of the fact that we're positionally righteous in God's eyes.

That is true, but it is not an excuse to avoid holy living or to go put ourselves out in an ungodly culture.

You will find absolutely no support for that reasoning in scripture because we know there is reasoning like that, as Paul argued against in a few places in Romans as well.

The purpose of reading the story of Lot is to demonstrate the power of Christ's righteousness in that being a salvation from what he was going through, not an excuse to be like Lot.

We don't want to be remembered as a Lot. We want to be remembered as an Abraham in the grand scheme of things, one that separated himself from the world and from the dangerous environment that his nephew found himself in by choice.

And that is possible. It is possible to be remembered as an Abraham rather than a

Lot as we are conformed to the image of his dear son through the righteousness that is found in those who believe.

So there is a great power in the imputed righteousness that we get to take part in at the moment of salvation.

The father sees Christ in us. He doesn't see the sin anymore that we now know has been paid for.

It was a one and done deal. And that righteousness carries the power with it to such a degree that you can read a story like Genesis 19 and learn in second

Peter chapter two that Christ's righteousness overcame it. It overcame even that scenario, which is an amazing thing.

And we find ourselves today in that exact same position. So I will end it there. Let's pray and we will be dismissed.

Heavenly father, I really appreciate the just honor of getting to be in this particular church home, this among this church family, to be a part of this church family.

Lord, the thankfulness that I have for that and the fellowship that we get to partake in on a weekly basis is one that I never want to take for granted.

And I ask that you continue to bless our time together, not only today, but continually into the future.

That you be with us throughout the week, that you be with us from week to week as we find ourselves in a similar place as Lot found himself in, perhaps not to the same degree yet, but we know that our enemies abound.

We know that the principalities and powers and high places are penetrating the minds of those around us continually and forcing them to think ungodly, wicked thoughts, forcing them into a wickedness that can be scary if viewed from our own strength, our own knowledge, relying on our own ability to handle certain things.

But in reality, it doesn't have to be scary at all because not only do we have your righteousness within us to help us overcome these things and so that we can be viewed as the blessed man whose sin will not be imputed against us.

We ask, Lord, that you remind us of that reality so that we can come through the culture we find ourselves in strengthened and understanding that you have everything under control and that you have us in the palm of your hand and that you see us as righteous because of what your son did on our behalf.

Lord, we ask you to bless the remainder of our day, bless our fellowship here in just a moment, bless the meal we're about to have together, protect everyone that's traveling, bring them home safely to us, and protect all of us as we disperse here shortly and travel back home.