Feb. 5, 2017 God the Righteous Making Sinners Righteous by Pastor Josh Sheldon

The Wages of Sin, God’s Forbearance, and the Call to Repentance

How about this morning on the way to church? Well, you certainly did. I certainly did. We all did. Your husband or your wife did. Your children did. Your neighbor did. Not one of us has a thought pure enough to be held up to God's righteousness and be called anything but short of his glory, anything but sin compared to God.

And the wages of sin is death, so why aren't we dead right now, this moment? If you sinned on Tuesday, why did you live till Wednesday? If you sinned on the way to church this morning, why are you alive right now, hearing my voice?

Is it so we might continue in it? Of course not. And of course, when we get to chapter six, we'll deal with that in much more detail. Romans 2, 4, which we did several weeks ago, which has the only other use of this word, abeyance, says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance, there's that word, it's the only other place it's used in the New Testament, his forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Why are you alive right now? God didn't wink at your sin, didn't wink at mine, in his kindness, his forbearance, to give you time to repent. This can apply as well to you who believe as it does to you who have not yet bowed the knee to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you believe in Jesus? Is this gospel that I'm preaching, that I'm begging you to believe, cutting through to your heart, is it stirring you at all? You will bow your knee to Jesus. You will bow your knee now or another day, but be assured you will.

Romans 14, 11, as I live, says the Lord, quoting the prophet Isaiah, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Philippians chapter two, verse 10. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Your knee will bend to him. Whether in grateful adoration for what he has done for you by the cross of his son, or in sorrow for a gospel you've despised and rejected. Paul says that the former sins, God in his patience, in his forbearance, he held them aside in a manner of speaking.

If by former sins he means the Old Testament saints like David and Abraham, just as two examples, then the only real difference between them and us is the length of time of the forbearance. If we sinned on the way to church here this morning, your forbearance has only been a few hours, but there is forbearance if you're alive.

For them it was a few centuries or several centuries. Many opinions on how to take this verse. I'm not gonna survey them all this morning. My take is that Paul has in mind the saint of old, those who had faith in the promises of God and hope in the coming Savior.

It is those who repented of their sins according to what they then knew, but full forgiveness, full forgiveness, had to wait for the fullness of God's purposes to be accomplished by his son Jesus at the cross.

And so, verse 26, God can be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Abraham had faith. God the just justified him. David had faith. God the just justified him. Joseph had faith.

And God the just justified him. Do you have faith? Do you believe in this Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption he accomplished, the righteousness of God vested in him? Do you believe in him? Then God the just has justified you.

This is from the Greek word dikaios, dikaios. The verbal form is dikaio. Righteousness is from dikaiosune. I'm not telling you those words are related. I think you can just hear it in the sound of them.

His righteousness, his dikaiosune is shown in his justification, which means to pronounce them not guilty. His dikaio, to them. His righteousness is shown in his justification. It is him, God, the one who is right.

He is the just, he is the right one, declaring us the not right ones because of faith in his son and the work of his son on the cross to be righteous, to be just, to be that. Sin's not ignored or set aside.

God in his righteousness keeps his word to forgive sinners. He committed himself to forgiving sinners by the work of his son Jesus. This is by his grace. This is through faith. Faith in Jesus means among many other things that you believe his perfect life, his complete obedience to God's law is accounted as if it were yours.

That's what Paul means when he says for all. For all. His obedience attributed to you by faith. The $64 theological word is imputation. Imputation as if it were yours. God imputes to you Christ's righteousness and thus can declare you justified without compromising his own righteousness or his own loathing of sin.

This is 2 Corinthians 5, 21, one of my favorite verses. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And so by this gospel, God's righteousness has been revealed in Jesus Christ.

By Jesus Christ on the cross, it's been resolved. And by Christ, God's righteousness and his hatred of sin is reconciled to his righteousness and his forgiveness of sin. That would be an appropriate time for a very loud hallelujah because brethren, this is how we're saved.

God the just justifies the unjust. God the righteous forgives the sins of the unrighteous and declares that one who has no deserving whatsoever to be righteous. God will look upon you with the righteousness of God himself.

And that's what 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says and that's what Paul is driving at here in Romans 3. But now I wanna go back to the middle. And Lord willing, I can bring this to not too long of a close. But I wanna go back to the middle of chapter three, verse 21 to 26.

The second half of verse 25 and the first, excuse me, second half of verse 24 and the first half of verse 25. And here the apostle explains the means God used to do all this. The righteousness of God there in verse 21 and 22.

And the righteousness of God there in 26 and in the middle of it, we have this beautiful gospel explanation. The means that God employed to do all this through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

There's more theology here than in almost any other sentence in our Bibles. Redemption, what does that mean? It means to purchase someone out of slavery. Redeem, purchase the slave and make them free.

In Romans chapter six, Paul's gonna speak of our slavery to sin from which we must be redeemed or bought. Galatians 3, 13, Paul says Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. What's the curse of the law?

Well, it's your inability to accomplish it among other things. Christ has redeemed us from that. The whole book of Ruth can hardly be understood without a grasp of what redemption means. And this is how we're justified by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

And what does blood do? Blood sets our thoughts on the cross where his blood was poured out for us. The word I wanna focus on as we come to a close is propitiation. Propitiation, it implies sacrifice and so it leads well to the idea of blood.

The word translated as propitiation is thought by some to mean expiation. I believe it's the RSV that uses that word there. As an expiation they say. If it is expiation, it means forgiveness of sins. If it's propitiation, then it means wrath turned away.

The original word could actually lead us to both. It's the Greek word hilasterios and that's the last Greek word you get today. Hilasterios, propitiation. And a few versions say expiation. This word in RSV, propitiation, this word in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew, that's the word used for mercy seat.

I'll read to you in a moment a couple of verses from Leviticus 16. When you see this word in the Old Testament, that's what it means, that's how it's translated, properly translated. The only times it's not is a few uses in Ezekiel and Amos.

It's the mercy seat. The mercy seat, what was that? It was a slab of pure gold placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. And in Exodus, we read that there were two golden cherubim with outstretched wings looking down upon it.

It was the most holy place where it was put in the most holy place in the tabernacle later in the temple. And the slab's name was actually propitiation because that was where the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled, thus propitiating God's wrath, God turning his wrath away because of that propitiation, because of the blood, and turning away his wrath at the sin that brought the sacrifice.

So with wrath now turned aside because his wrath has been satisfied, he's been propitiated, well then the sin itself can be expiated. It can be forgiven. Look if you will at Leviticus chapter 16. If you're using the pew Bible, I don't have the page number for you, so it's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, flip, flip, flip, chapter 16.

Thank you, Ken, page 95. This whole chapter is about the day of atonement called Yom Kippur still to this day. The annual festival where the high priest goes into the holiest place and there at the Ark, at the mercy seat, at the helesterion, at the propitiation, he presents the blood of the sacrifice to God on behalf of himself and all the people having confessed their sins and now brought the blood to bring God's forgiveness.

So just the first two verses there in Leviticus 16. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they drew near before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, the helesterion, before the mercy seat that is on the Ark so that he may not die.

And pay particular attention to these last few words. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. Now think of this. I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. There's God in the cloud over the mercy seat, above the cherubim who are looking down, staring down upon that seat and seeing the blood sprinkled on the seat.

As God forgives the sins, as he turns away his wrath, as he propitiates and expiates. Angels staring down, two golden angels or cherubim, outstretched wings, staring down eternally at this seat. Why are they looking down?

Well, 1 Peter 1 .12 says that angels long to look into our salvation. They long to understand what it means to be forgiven, what it means that Jesus Christ died for them because Christ did not die for the angels, but for his brothers and sisters.

He died for humans. He died for sinners like you and me. And angels long to look into this. They long to understand that. And there's the angels looking eternally down upon that. The cherubim over the mercy seat symbolize this.

They're watching the proceedings in wonder. There's another reason they look down. In Isaiah chapter six, the seraphim cover their eyes even as they sing, holy, holy, holy. Do you remember they have the six wings?

And with two they flew, and with two they cover their feet, and with two they cover their eyes. They cannot look directly upon the face of God whose praise they call out forever and ever and ever. Think of all that picture.

As you try to imagine the ark with the mercy seat over it, and the angels looking down, and the blood being sprinkled on there, and then God in the cloud over the mercy seat accepting the sacrifice. That's what Paul's getting at here.

This is what Paul would have us have in mind. Hezekiah addressed God this way. Oh Lord, the God of Israel who is enthroned above the cherubim. This word, this hilasterios, is translated mercy seat in Hebrews chapter nine, verse five.

Above the ark were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, the hilasterios, which is just what Paul means in Romans 3 .25. So what is the point here? What is Paul trying to get us to think of?

Jesus Christ, the revealer of God's righteousness. Jesus Christ, the one who brings propitiation and expiation of God's wrath that we might be forgiven. Jesus Christ, whose blood was poured out on the cross.

Jesus Christ, the savior I plead with you to believe in. He is the mercy seat. Jesus Christ is that hilasterios. This is what the angels look at, the place where sin is covered, where God's righteousness is reconciled to his mercy, where the just and the justifier is able to declare us both righteous and justified.

There's no more ark, no more tabernacle, no more temple. There's only Jesus, the mercy seat, by whose blood we're redeemed, by whose blood our sins are forgiven. Well, God met with the people of old over the mercy seat.

That was at the end of verse two in Leviticus 16. I will appear over the mercy seat as the blood of the sacrifice is placed there, is sprinkled on there, that your sins might be forgiven. And because of that, because sins have been covered, because forgiveness has been conferred, because the sacrifice by faith has been offered, because of that, God meets with the people, and the glorious cloud appears over the cherubim.

And now, but now, but now, the righteousness of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, made manifest in him, but now, but now, God meets with you over the mercy seat. The mercy seat is Jesus. He is all that the whole scripture pointed to.

Paul says he's the propitiation. This is what he means. He's the mercy seat. And by faith in him and faith alone, in him alone, does God meet with us. Because Jesus, he alone can answer for your sin. His blood, and that alone, shed once for all time on the cross.

Only that can cover your sin. He's the mercy seat. He is the one, the only one, through whom God meets with man. It was Eliphaz who asked, can mortal man be made right before God? Think of that question.

Can mortal man be in the right before God? Do we harm the text if I say, can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a mere, excuse me, can a man be pure before his maker? Romans chapter three, verse 26.

Answer, resoundingly and gloriously, and hallelujah, praise God. The answer is yes. Because in him, in Jesus Christ, in the mercy seat, by whom, through whom, because of whom, God meets with his people, in him, all the promises of God are yes and amen.

And he meets with us by that free gift of justification, by faith, by faith, in Jesus Christ, I proclaim to you this day, amen. Heavenly Father, we do thank you again for the day you have given us, for the time that we have had together.

We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our mercy seat, by whom and through whom you meet with us. And I just pray, Lord, that we who know you by faith in him will avail ourselves of your presence that you have so freely offered because of your son.

And Lord, if there are those in this place who do not know Jesus Christ, who cannot come to you and come boldly to the throne of grace because they have not believed, I pray that today would be the day that the knee is bowed, the heart is melted, and faith by your grace and in your sovereignty is granted.

The Righteousness of God in Romans 3:20-26

I pray in Jesus' name, amen. I was talking to my friend on the phone last night, Pastor Mike Kelly, recently became pastor of the church out there in Livermore, Gateway Church. And as we're talking, what does one pastor say to another?

But what are you gonna preach tomorrow, being Saturday evening? What do you have in mind? And I told him Romans chapter three, verses 21 to 26. He says, what are you gonna preach? I said, well, let me think about this a moment.

Let's see, I have six verses and eight times righteousness is mentioned in these six verses. And that's sort of at the beginning and the end of this passage. And right in the middle is how this righteousness is accomplished by Christ on behalf of sinners.

I said, I think I'll mention a time or two at least about God's righteousness. This is a bit of a preacher's dream. Where we do our work in the word, we do the study that we have to do, and we do the exegetical work in the original language.

And yet in this passage, Romans three, 21 to 26, I have to tell you, it jumps right out and any preacher who could stand and present to you anything other than the righteousness of God and what Paul's saying about it here.

Righteousness being, of course, the subject here and throughout the book of Romans, but so particularly here, has really missed something. God's righteousness. This righteousness of God. This thing that Paul has been making us yearn for and realize how short of it we come.

This righteousness that men have tried to gain through the law, through their effort. This righteousness revealed by God in the very heavens, in the creation, in all that you see. And also more particularly in his word through the prophets and through the apostles.

This righteousness. We need to understand the righteousness of God and what it means to us and how we attain unto it. This righteousness of God, it has two equally important and seemingly conflicting aspects to it because God is righteous.

God in his righteousness hates sin because he is righteous. Because he's perfect in all he does. He's holy and he's just. His righteousness causes him to hate sin. And yet in his righteousness, the righteousness that we've been yearning for throughout this series in Romans and this righteousness particularly given to us here in Romans 3, 21 to 26 is seen in God's forgiveness of that which he hates.

He forgives sin. That simple statement doesn't come close to exhausting or even really scratching the surface of all we could say about God's righteousness. But it does describe to us how it's presented here to us by the apostle Paul.

Here in these verses, we see God's righteousness. It's revealed, it's resolved, it's reconciled. It does have to be reconciled, doesn't it? If God in his righteousness hates sin, God in his righteousness forgives sin, we need to see how these two work together.

These two sides of the same coin. What is righteousness? Again, we won't exhaust this subject very much. We need to only explain it enough that we are true to the scripture and to what Paul is saying here in these particular verses.

It has to do with, if you will, in a very simple way, it's just having right standing in a particular setting. It's a quality attributed to those whose ethics, whose behaviors are consistent with the demands that are placed upon them.

Thus, David, in Psalm 7, verse 8, he can plead his righteousness to God. Hear me, God, because I'm righteous, he says. Psalm 5, verse 8, he can then ask that God lead him in his, in God's righteousness.

He has his own righteousness which he pleads to God in one psalm and another psalm, he speaks of God's righteousness. Abimelech and Job likewise can, in certain places, claim that they were righteous.

They had met demands placed upon them by their positions, by their commitments. We speak of God's righteousness. In many ways, it's the same. As Conley pointed out in Sunday school this morning, one way we know God is by analogy.

So never think for a moment that I'm going to preach to you or imply, and if you get this at all from anything I say, well, I misspoke or you misheard, but our righteousness is not the same as God's. By analogy, by analogy, we have this righteousness.

And so by analogy, when we speak of God's righteousness, it's a lot the same as what I just said about meeting the expectations and the commitments in a particular setting. Well, with the great exception that no one puts demands upon God, no one places an expectation upon Him.

So it's by analogy, God acting freely and according to His own good pleasure, His volition. And because He is by nature righteous, every word He speaks is true, both in and of itself, and it is a perfect reflection of His person because of His righteousness.

His nature, His attributes come through in everything He speaks. And because He is righteous, every word He speaks is turned into works that are representations of Himself. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows His handiwork. It's like the heavens are speaking because God put them together, and what do they show forth? His glory. Keep that word in mind because we'll speak about glory and righteousness a little later in this message.

This quality of God, this righteousness of God, it means not only that everything He does is true to His own nature, it also means that whatever He does, He does fully. A completely reliable God who is righteous.

For man, for us, for you and me, for believers in Jesus, the definition is really not that much different. It's in the execution of it that we falter. In the execution of it, man by nature suppresses the truth in unrighteousness.

God in His righteousness gave us His law so that we might see His righteousness and how it must play out in us. What are the demands being placed upon us? How are we righteous by meeting those? It's what David pled in Psalm 7.

The law shows us the demands placed on us if we're to be in right standing with Him, with God. So the passage this morning, Romans 3, 21 to 26, righteousness, righteousness, righteousness. That's what this is about.

If we go up one more where I had Dale begin the reading, though our text for the preaching is 3, 21 and down to the 26, but I had him begin at chapter 3, verse 20 where that concludes a long argument that Paul's been making about the law as the way to righteousness, righteousness as that necessary, as that crucial goal.

If we are to be with God, if we're to be able to stand before Him, this is what we need. And then it sort of pulls the rug out from under us, doesn't it? By telling us that this standing, which we must have in unequivocal terms, it tells us that it just can't be done.

For by the works of the law, no human being shall be justified in His sight. The problem we have is that our righteous God will have in His presence nothing that isn't like Him, nothing that is not righteous.

That's a dilemma, is it not? That's a dilemma. If by the works of the law, if that body of law, those precepts, God's revelation to us that represents that righteousness that we must have, and yet by works of the law, by doing the law, by striving to become righteous through the works of the law, no human being, your King James says, no flesh, no one will be justified in His sight.

You have to have it. I've made you want it. And I'll yank it out from under you and say, you cannot do it. Here, in Romans 3, 21 to 26, is the answer to it. Here is the answer. Here we are told how the righteousness of God is met, how it is fully satisfied, and how this is to be known and how it's to be attained.

No contradictions. Works are still out of the question. Works are still useless here. You remember chapter 1 and verse 17. For in it, in the gospel, in this gospel we are declaring week in and week out in this place, and now especially from this book of Romans, in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. That's been our theme. When we started this study in Romans, I told you, for my analysis, I'm totally satisfied that that verse with 116 before it run through the entire book of Romans.

The righteousness of God revealed in this gospel. Now I've given a working definition of righteousness. I've told you how simple it is for a preacher to look at this passage and see what the main point is going to be and how it has to focus on this righteousness.

Starting at chapter 3 and verse 20, no human being shall be justified in his sight. Justified comes from the same word group as righteous. They have the same root, the same beginning point, if you will.

Chapter 3, verse 20, no human being shall be justified. Chapter 3, verse 21, the righteousness of God has been manifested. Verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 24, justified by his grace.

Verse 25, to show God's righteousness. Verse 26, to show God's righteousness. Verse 26, that he might be just. Remember, same word group as righteous. That he might be just. Verse 26, the justifier of the one who has faith in his son, Jesus Christ.

Eight times in six verses. The only verse that doesn't have this word is verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that tells us that we all need to be justified. We all need to be made righteous because all we have done is unrighteous.

All have sinned. Verse 21, chapter 3, verse 21, look at those first two words. But now. But now. What an incredible freight of hope these two words carry. After all the futility of trying to establish this righteousness on your own, or trying to achieve it through the law, which is really on your own, but now.

Man's pursuit of righteousness by the law has carried on for centuries, stretching all the way back to Adam. And our efforts have been uneven. Some did better than others. The person next to you might be much more righteous and much more obedient to the law than you are, or you compared to them.

But neither of you succeeded. None has done this. Not a single man ever achieved the righteousness of God by the works of the law. As a brief and as a quick excursus, I might even tell you that Jesus Christ did not achieve righteousness by the works of the law.

He didn't need to achieve it, of course. Jesus Christ is, was, always has been righteous. He proved his righteousness, we might be able to say it that way, by obeying the law perfectly. For us it's different.

It's something to be achieved, but it's impossible to achieve. But now. But now the gospel age has dawned. The righteousness of God has been manifested. It's been shown, it's been displayed, it's been broadcast.

The law and the prophets look for this day. The law set it forth in commandments and precepts on things to be done. The prophets referred to it when they made Israel see where they had failed. The rebuke of the prophets.

Prophets coming in as the prosecuting attorney, if you will. And showing Israel their fault against what? Against this law, their lack of righteousness because of their failure to the law. The prophets looked ahead for this.

And if we read the prophets rightly, the prophets still speak to us today. Speak of this righteousness to be attained, this righteousness where we have failed. But now. But now it does not open the curtain on a new kind of righteousness.

Understand this. But now the righteousness of God is revealed. It's not a different righteousness. That would mean God had changed, which of course is impossible. For I the Lord, Malachi says in chapter three verse six, I the Lord do not change.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The gospel did not introduce a new, a different, a better, an improved righteousness of God. The same righteousness of the same God. The difference is not the quality of the righteousness.

The difference is by means of its revelation and the means of the way we attain unto it. We live in the but now age. But now in the gospel. Glorious times in the church age. Understand, we are not apprentices in God's redemptive plan as the dispensationalists would have it be.

Solomon says very wisely, chapter three, chapter seven verse 10 of Ecclesiastes, say not why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. They weren't better. The former days are not better than these days.

The temple days with all the gold, golden accoutrements, and the wonderful clothes that the priests wear and all the beautiful pictures of Jesus Christ that that represented, those days were not better than these days.

Because we're in the but now days. And those days weren't better because they had the law and all their effort to attain to the righteousness that the law demanded ended in frustration. If you are one who has labored to make himself or herself right before God, I want you to hear these two words.

And we've barely even touched on righteousness yet, have we? Hear these two words. If you're one who felt like you are going up a hill and then you step on a piece of ice and you go down six feet further and then you went up and you go up again, you step on a piece of ice and down you go and you just can't do it.

The messages have been you can't do it. Hear these two words. But now, but now, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, you don't measure up, he does. You can't do it, he did. But now, all the obstructions to our vision of him are removed by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ named here for the first time since chapter two, verse 16.

He being the purveyor of this righteousness, the achiever of this righteousness, the giver of this righteousness, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, this glorious prize displayed in all its brilliance, not by works, not by effort, not by wanting, by faith, a righteousness of God, God himself, God almighty, his righteousness known by us by faith in him, the son of God.

The law contains it. No one is ever able to take away the veil so it could be seen clearly. But now, the obstructions are removed. But now, by faith in Christ, this is yours. No limit here. Understand there's no limitation given here.

We are believers in predestination. Ephesians 1, 3 would say that God elected the believer in Christ before the foundation of the world. By name, each individual, before the world even existed, God determined who would benefit from Christ's sacrifice.

God is sovereign. Notice I didn't say 100 sovereign, 110 sovereign. Fully, he's just sovereign. Just let the word stand on its own. And yet, Paul says, for all who believe. Does not mean everyone will believe this good news.

I pray everyone here will leave here believing this good news. But it's not a guarantee that everyone will. It does mean that if you will believe this gospel, if you will believe this good news, if God has given you a heart to accept this gospel, then this manifestation of his righteousness is yours.

Where verse 21 speaks of the righteousness of God as something intrinsic to himself, here it speaks of it as attributed to the believer. It is for all who believe. We'll come back. We'll talk about this in more detail a bit later.

Paul goes on to say there's no distinction. There's no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which means what? Now, is Paul pulling the rug out from under us again? No, he's not doing that.

I think Paul is at this point satisfied that self-effort has been repudiated and that anyone reading this letter of his to the Romans, to us today, would understand, okay, I've got the point now, Paul.

It took a few times. Most of us are slow to give up our pride. Most of us are not easy giving up that and accepting humility and inability. But we do have the point now. And he says there's no distinction.

Remember this. All have sinned, fall short of the glory of God. We're all in the same barrel. We're racing, as it were, in a barrel. We're going headlong to the precipice of Niagara Falls, and we don't even know that the falls is ahead of us.

All have sinned, meaning at least once. All it takes is one. If you violate one jot or tittle of the law, says James, you may as well have violated the entire thing. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, meaning that because of that one digression, you are currently, here and now, and consistently short of that glory.

Now you might hear this from Paul. Talking about righteousness. Righteousness has been the theme since we opened this up in chapter one. And also he says you've fallen short of the glory of God. There's your problem.

You fell short of the glory of God. And you might look at Paul, if he was standing, and say, wait a second, you just changed the rules. You got me going after this righteousness thing. I'm getting it, I'm understanding I can't do it, that God's providing it in his son.

And all of a sudden you say, now I have to have God's glory. Did you suddenly change the rules? Not righteousness we lack, but glory. And we know Isaiah 48, 11 tells us that God will not give, he will not share his glory with anyone or anything.

His glory is his and his alone. What are you saying to us, Paul? Which is it? Righteousness or glory? What is it you want me to have in order to be before God? Consider these passages. I'll read them very quickly.

Psalm 97 verse six. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Isaiah 46, 13. I bring near my righteousness. It is not far off, and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

Isaiah 58, eight. Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Isaiah 62, two.

The nation shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory. And you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. Jeremiah chapter four verse two. And if you swear as the Lord lives in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nation shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

Second Corinthians chapter three verse nine. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Philippians 1, 11. Finally, Paul prays for the church to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.