January 29, 2006

For Thee Have I Seen Righteous
(Credit for many of the thoughts of this sermon to Steve Brown of Key Life Ministries)

Read Gen 7: 1 -5 if you will.

I want to dwell on a teaching topic today. Doctrine is the core of our faith and if you have poor doctrine, you will have poor living.

Many people pooh-pooh doctrine, or teaching, but do not miss this: "your theology determines your world view, your world view determines your attitudes, and your attitudes determine your actions" In other words, the meat of God's word is gotten by studying God's word. I need to spend a few minutes getting this driven home in your hearts.

I fear we live in a day when the escape from obedience, the excuse for disobeying the revealed truth of God is this: "That's your interpretation," and people think that a warm feeling when they read is what determines truth. They feel, as many sitting right here do, that interpretation is "up for grabs" somehow.

But let me tell you what that breeds, that breeds, or begets a view of a very disordered, confused, unstable God. The Bible plainly states 1Corinthians 14:33 For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, !as in all churches of the saints. And in James 3:16 For where envying and strife [is], there [is] confusion and every evil work.”

Listen people! Confusion is evil!!! And to think that God will speak and then say, Well, you can take that any way you like" is the height of arrogance and accuses our God of ambiguity. There is only one correct interpretation of God's word. I may not always find it, but I know how to LOOK for it. And I know that God wrote this book as revealed propositional truth. That means truth that requires active response. Proverbs 30 states that "every word of God proves true, do not add to His words lest HE rebuke you and you be found a liar." Paul wrote to Timothy in his second epistle," all scripture is GOD BREATHED and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness...But for that to be so, then this book must be God's revealed word, and we have to stand on it apart from the confusion and Babel of the false philosophy that we somehow have NEW revelation and different interpretations.

Listen to Augustine, great theologian, "Who does not know that the Holy canonical Scripture is contained within definite limits and that it has precedence over all letters of subsequent Bishops, so that it is altogether impossible to doubt or question the truth or adequacy of what is written in it"

You see, he understood that in order to be truly taught, there had to be a fixed and unvarying truth. God is not the author of confusion. PLEASE get this! Scripture determines doctrine, doctrine defines experience, not the other way around . Some say experience determines doctrine and that is falsehood. So if someone dislikes a church because there's too much "doctrine" then that person better see who they are following. If they are followers of the lamb then they will (according to Jesus) “ Hear my voice (word) and follow after me“...So that is why we teach DOCTRINE HERE and that is why we teach theology, because we want you to know GOD and His ways and word.

Now with all that said, lets come to our point of doctrine for this Lord's day. Notice if you will the statement in verse 0ne: “Thee I have seen righteous.”

I want to note several things about being seen righteous here and I want you to take note of them too, taking notes assures that you will retain more of this truth, and that you can refer to it later to better learn it and check it out for yourselves.

First I want you to notice that There is NONE righteous. Rom.3: 9 -20 (Please look that up) Notice there that NO ONE IS RIGHTEOUS No one can be good enough to earn or merit heaven and eternal life .

Secondly I want you to note that while there is none righteous, we can have righteousness but it has to come from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Rom.3 21 -4:8 (Please read)

So this is what those and many other verses teach, it is ONLY faith in Christ Jesus, (and that title indicates that He is God in human form) It is only as we submit to Him, become followers of Him, trust Him alone for our righteousness that we become righteous.

I want to note one word from that last set of verses in psalms. IMPUTE: To consider something as belonging to someone. So God in Christ does two things with that .

He does NOT impute sin to us. That means that the Great God of heaven, the righteous judge, the one whose justice has to be satisfied, looks at those who have personally accepted Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary, and says "SIN DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM" In God's account book, you see, Jesus Christ on the cross BECAME SIN, that means that all of your sin, past present and future, was written down that day as belonging to Jesus. So when He died, you died as far as sin's penalty was concerned. That is also called identification, God identified you with Christ when He died. We see the implications of that in Roman's 6 which we will visit in a little while. So the first part of this "imputation" is that God does not say that sin belongs to us.

The second part is that He does impute (what does that mean?) Right. He sees the very righteousness of Christ as actually belonging to us.

Recall the verse, "He made Him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."(2 Cor. 5: 21 ) Note what the word teaches in other places Isa 53:6 all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all..

Daniel 9:26 ...after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:

Ga 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

1Pe 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the Unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

1Jo 2:1 -2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world. .

Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Jer 33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this [is the name] wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

Ro 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Ro 8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Ro 10:4 For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, 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:

You see? While we have no righteousness by ourselves, nothing that would make God say, "Yeah, you'll pass", God's love provided a perfect plan that would be foolproof. He made a plan that depended not on this creature of dust, but on the Lofty Loving Son of God who switched places with us. This "being seen Righteous” is a free gift. You can not in any way earn it nor can you in any way work to keep it. But there are some implications for behavior if you have it.

Look for a minute at Romans 5:19- 6:18

Paul does a pretty fair job of answering the "yeah buts" of people who might say, "well, if its a free gift and if Grace does not depend on me then I can just pray a prayer and sin it up right?"

Don't be foolish, If you have saving faith, faith that turns you into a follower of Jesus Christ, you probably won't even think that way. Why do I say that? Because you have been changed, Christ has taken away your sin, and removed its dominion over you. You have a new Boss. Sin used to be your boss, now Righteousness in Christ is your boss.

So God saw Noah as righteous; now listen Lu 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

Look up Proverbs 10:6-7 , 10:9 , 11:4 Isaiah 3:10-11

Philippians 2:15 -16That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

1. If you were to die this very day, would you go to heaven or hell?

2. If you were to stand before God and He were to ask you, "why should I let you into heaven?", what would your answer be?

3. After this message about the only way to get in, do you think your answer will hold up?

4. Are you willing to stake your eternal future on it?

5. Would you like to know for sure that you are going to go to heaven?

If you are reading this on the net, e-mail me at the address below and I would like to help you know for sure you are going to Heaven when you leave this old world.