A couple of weeks ago we were looking at how God in His salvation plan came for sinners. There was a very good passage in Matthew 9 that is extremely encouraging for people who recognize that they are sinful and that they are in trouble with God because of their sins. It says in Matthew 9:10-13:
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
That is the statement of God. He has not come into the world—or ever since through His Word—to call the righteous. He did not come to find good people, to find people who were just in any way, but He came for sinners.
First, Jesus indicates that the whole do not need a physician but the sick. When Christ was going about Judaea in the days of His ministry, it was the blind, it was the deaf, it was the dumb, it was the lame, it was the leper, it was the diseased of any kind, the man with palsy, it was people who were physically ill, physically sick, near death at certain times, or actually dead on other occasions.
Never do we read that Jesus healed someone who was whole. At what point could He provide healing to someone who did not have a physical ailment? Of course, people quickly recognize when they have a physically problem, and it was only those people who recognized, “I have a physical infirmity. I have an ailment.” Physical infirmities are not easy to live with. It is not easy to live a life as a blind person—I think that we all know that; we do not have to be blind to realize that—or to live a life where you cannot hear. Whatever the ailment, it is an affliction and a trouble.
So when people began to hear that there was a great prophet, a wonderful miracle worker who was actually healing individuals from their sicknesses, whatever kind of sickness it was, they began to flock to Him. Remember, there was a man with the palsy and four people carried him to Christ. When they could not get near Him because the crowd was so great, they went up on the roof and they let him down through the tiling of the roof.
So that is what Jesus went about doing as the Great Physician. Physically, it was incredible. It was miracle after miracle that was being performed and people were being made physically well, physically whole.
So Christ first makes that statement, “The whole do not need a physician but the sick.” Then He says, “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” You see, He is trying to get us to think about our spiritual condition.
What state are we in? What condition are we in, spiritually, before God? There are only two options, two choices, either you are righteous or you are a sinner. You are righteous or you are a sinner—that is how the whole human race can be narrowed down. To say it another way is to be “just” before God or to be “unjust,” to be “clean” or to be “unclean.” Those are ways that the Bible puts this. Christ came for sinners. He did not come for righteous people.
That passage got me thinking and I thought that we could look at what it is to be righteous, what it is to be upright in God’s sight. The question for each one of is: are you righteous in God’s sight? Am I righteous in God’s sight? That is a question for every single human being. Are you righteous?
This is very important because in Proverbs 10:2, it says:
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
That means that we would not die if we were righteous. We would not be destroyed. We would live forever if we were righteous. Righteousness delivers from death.
Or go to Psalm 118:19-20. It says:
Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise JEHOVAH: This gate of JEHOVAH, into which the righteous shall enter.
That is the gate of Heaven. That is the entry point into the Kingdom of God, into Heaven itself. It is a righteous gate. It is “the gates of righteousness” and only the righteous may enter in.
Have you considered what God said of Noah in Genesis 7:1:
And JEHOVAH said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives were the only people who were saved out of the whole world, which means that no one else was righteous in all of the world. In all of the world—and we do not know exactly how many people, over a million or two million, who knows—but out of that number, Noah was righteous. His family members also, we can conclude, would have been righteous because they were delivered. Righteousness delivers from death. They did not die. They were spared the judgment of the flood and they were saved because God gave them safety and refuge in the ark, and it was because Noah was righteous.
How did Noah get righteous? How did he obtain righteousness? Remember when Abraham was pleading with God because he knew that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Abraham was pointing out, “Will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous in it?,” and God said, “No, far be it from Me! I will not destroy the city for fifty’s sake.” Then he counted down to 40 righteous, 30 righteous. Then it was left and God in the form of two angels went into Sodom. He destroyed the city, but He delivered Lot and his two daughters and his wife. His wife came out, to a certain degree; but then later, she was destroyed. Look at what God says about Lot in 2 Peter 2:4-8:
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness…
He was righteous and he preached righteousness.
…bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Do you see how God was emphasizing that Lot was righteous and he escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? A Biblical principle is that righteousness delivers from death, and the only possible hope for any person is to find righteousness in God’s sight, to become righteous in God’s sight.
You know, God does not make understanding the Bible easy. Remember with Abel, when Cain slew Abel and God had said that He was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice but not with Cain’s? Well, it says of Abel in Hebrews 11:4:
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
So Abel was a righteous man, and God says of Abel in 1 John 3:12:
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
Abel was a righteous man and he had righteous works. He had righteous works, and you can see how we could come close to thinking that Abel was spared because of the sacrifice he offered. He did a good work. Noah was spared because he was a morally good person, an upright man. He kept the commandments of God. He was righteous in himself. We could come pretty close to thinking that Lot was spared for the same reason. He was a righteous man.
Look at Luke 1, speaking of Zacharias and Elisabeth, his wife. It says in Luke 1:6:
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Doesn’t that really sound like Zacharias and Elisabeth kept the law, that they kept the commandments blamelessly, perfectly, and they were righteous?
I remember when I was having a discussion with the Muslims. They went to this verse to point out, “You see, you can get right with God through keeping His commandments.”
Zacharias and Elisabeth were righteous before God, but the problem is that we read the whole Bible. If we just had a few verses like that, we would say, “Well, yes, what we have to do is to keep the Ten Commandments and to keep the law of God at every point and to try to live as best as we can, to try to live a good life.” People like to say, “I am basically a good person.” So try to be a good person in this evil world and be better than others, and you will be blameless in God’s sight. No. No, the Bible will not allow for anyone to think that that is what God has in mind by being righteous.
Let us go to Romans 3. With all of the other verses we read, we have to compare it to this verse especially. Romans 3:10 says:
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
That covers everyone. That covers every human being. That is Noah. That is Lot. That is Zacharias and Elisabeth. That is Abel. That is David and Abraham and anyone else who someone might think is righteous because they did good, because they did good works.
Well, the Bible says that there is none righteous of themselves, not a single person, not one individual. Of course, apart from the Lord Jesus, of the human race, there is not one person—since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin—who can say that they are righteous in God’s sight.
So, again, we are back to that question. Are you and I righteous? Are you righteous? If so, how did you obtain your righteous standing? How did you get righteous before God? What makes you acceptable in His sight? What is the driving force behind that righteousness that is going to save you and cause you to escape the coming destruction and death, because righteousness does deliver from death? We know that it cannot be our own righteousness, that it must be something else.
Let us go to Romans 9. I think that God has moved the Apostle Paul to really address this question. In Romans 9:30-31, it says:
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
You know, you can see how this would really be upsetting to the Jews, to the Jews of Jesus’ day, to the Jews of the Old Testament. They were zealous for good works. They kept the commandments, they thought, diligently. They offered sacrifices. They circumcised their children. They tried to keep the Sabbath day holy. They tried to do all of these things because they were written in the law of God. They were a part of the Bible and so they saw these laws. Of course, they added many more of their own laws, but they tried to obtain and to get hold of righteousness through the law, through keeping the law of God.
Then God comes along, as Jesus enters into the human race, and He finishes His association with national Israel, as the veil of the temple is rent in twain and He reveals that He is going to send the Gospel into the world to the Gentiles who were not even seeking after righteousness. They were not seeking after the keeping of the law in any way.
You can see how upsetting that would be to the Jews. They would be angry about it, “How can this be that we have tried and tried and tried to get right with God by doing this and that and many things and now it is just being given to people who were never even seeking this kind of righteousness with God. They are heathen. They are living a sinful life. They are sinners out there in the world. How is that fair?”
Doesn’t that remind us of the prodigal son in Luke 15? If you remember, the situation was that there was a rebellious son who wanted his inheritance. The father gave it to him and then he went to a far country and wasted it all and spent his whole inheritance with riotous living. Then he was feeding swine because it was the only job that he could find for a little bit, and he was perishing with hunger. Then it says in Luke 15:17-19:
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
He has no standard of being just in God’s sight of any kind. He recognizes, “I have sinned and I am going to tell my father that: I have sinned and I am not even worthy to be your son, even though I am your son. I have wasted everything in my life. I have ruined my life and I sinned and I have done terribly. I have broken your law, but please, make me now like one of your hired servants because I know they eat well. They eat well. Out here where I have been in this world, it is just misery. There is no satisfaction. There is no fulfillment of any kind.” So he determines that he is going to say this and go to his father. Then it says in Luke 15:20-22:
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe…
The best robe, what is the best robe? In Isaiah 61:10, we read:
I will greatly rejoice in JEHOVAH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness…
You see, the father is taking the action, “Put on him the best robe.” It is very similar to what we read in Zechariah where the one garment was taken off of him and another robe was placed on him. This is the robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The robe of His righteousness was given to this rebel, this undeserving son. Did he do anything to deserve it? He did everything contrary to obtaining it, everything, but God’s plan is that He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. This man recognizes, “I am a sinner; I am a sinner!” He begins to go to the father and he got as far, really, spiritually speaking, as he could ever get or any of us could ever get, which is “a great way off,” and the father saw him and went running to him. The first thing he does, of course, if you are showing compassion in kissing him and falling on his neck, is to put on this robe.
Luke 15:22-23:
…put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
The fatted calf, let us slay an animal and partake of eating that animal. That is a picture of the Lord Jesus who is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. So they killed the calf and they made merry. If Christ has died for any one of us, then there is rejoicing. There is rejoicing because that indicates that we are a child of God.
But, really, the reason for coming here is because of the older son in verse 25, Luke 15:25-28:
Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.
You see, he is very upset. If we were to look at this with man’s eye, naturally, we can see why. Wouldn’t you be upset? “Here, this no-good brother of mine took everything that he could get his hands on and ran away and left me to work at home. He left me to do extra work because he was not there, and then he comes back only because he is in misery where he is. He spent everything because if he still had money he would not be there.” You can see how the natural mind works. It would be easy to start thinking that way if you were in that situation and you were the elder brother and your younger no-good brother came back in that kind of situation.
That is exactly how Israel felt about the Gospel going out to the world, to heathens, “We have been striving to obtain righteousness by keeping the law all of our life and now You are just going to give it away?” “You are just going to give a gift, clothing him with the best robe, letting him eat of the fatted calf and make merry, when I have been here trying to do right and do good?”
We really have to be careful because the natural mind is not the mind of God. It is not striving to do good that saves us. It is not trying to keep the law or to keep the commandments that saves us. It is the righteousness of Christ that saves and not our own righteousness. We can never substitute that. No matter how much a person might underhandedly try to make that substitution, it can never be made. The only way to escape death is by righteousness, and it cannot be our righteousness because not one of us is righteous. It has to be another person’s righteousness.
It goes on here in Luke 15:29-30:
And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
You see, he is revealing who he is representing because he is saying, “I have kept your commandments and you have never given me a kid,” so the calf was never slain for him. Jesus was never the sacrificial animal slain on his behalf, as He was slain on Abel’s behalf, which was the sacrifice that made Abel righteous. As He was slain on Abel’s behalf and it was His works that made Abel righteous, because that is the work of Abel, it was the work of Christ in dying for His people.
Let us return back to Romans 9. In Romans 9:30, I am going to read this again:
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
It is of faith and it is not our faith, because that is impossible, too. Faith is a work. If anyone thinks, “Yes, I know. We cannot be righteous in ourself, but we just have to believe in God; we just have to have faith in Christ,” the minute that you do that, you have substituted a little bit of your work for the grace of God, and it is ruined. It is ruined. You have now made your salvation a salvation of works plus grace or grace plus your own work—God’s righteousness with your righteousness is another way of saying it—and you ruined it. You just ruined it. We need the righteousness that is of faith, that is true, but not our faith.
If we go to Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul, again, is used by God to discuss this whole matter of righteousness, and he says in Philippians 3:3-6:
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Well, you see, he is talking about the righteousness that was developed by the nation of Israel, which was partly the law of God and partly their own traditions. In keeping all of those things, he was blameless. He was a good Jew; he was a Pharisee. If you were to ask any of his contemporaries, “How about Saul of Tarsus? Isn’t he a good man?,” they would say, “Oh, he is a very good man. He walks uprightly in all the law of God. Certainly, he will be in Heaven with God.”
Paul thought, “I kept the law; I kept the commandments, blameless,” but notice what he says following this. Philippians 3:7-8:
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss…
Now, he is talking about many things, but one of the chief things is his own righteousness. He was just talking about keeping the law blameless and being righteous within that system of national Israel, but now he is saying:
I count all things but loss 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,
He is talking about his own righteousness, because truthfully and honestly, that is an honest assessment of anyone who hopes to find favor in God’s sight by their own merit and in the things that they do in their own righteousness. Paul says that it is dung. It is dung because it will profit him just as much as dung that perishes forever. It is worthless. It is refuse. It is garbage in God’s sight. He will not accept it. He has never, ever in the history of the world accepted a person based on what they do in obeying His law, because the law finds everyone guilty before Him. You can keep the whole law and yet if you offend in one point, you are guilty of all.
Of course, no one can obtain to that kind of righteousness. Only by God’s grace and His mercy and His love, He showed Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, that this is not anything, “It is not going to help me spiritually. It is not going to be a shield from the wrath of God. It is not any protection whatsoever against destruction, against death. That is not the righteousness that delivers from death. It has to be something else.” So he counts it all but dung that he may win Christ, and then he says in verse 9, Philippians 3:9:
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law…
You see, everything else is worthless, and that is a strong statement, but remember what we read in Isaiah 64:6, which says:
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…
All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God’s sight. They are unclean, like dung. They are unclean and God gave many, many laws in the Bible to point out to people that, in themselves, because of their sin, they are unclean, “You are spiritually filthy in God’s sight because of your sin.”
Our righteousnesses would be when we try to keep the law at any point to be accepted before God. It is just like a menstruous cloth, a filthy rag. If we go to Leviticus 15, I will read a short passage. The word “unclean” is found repeatedly in the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus 15:19-23, it says:
And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.
You can see the emphasis where God is indicating that a woman’s time of the month would make her unclean. Of course, we know that God gave these laws to teach us that we are sinners. There were also unclean animals that were not to be eaten. Today, God has done away with that law. We can eat anything. So a woman ought not think that she is unclean because she has a flow of blood; however, God used that to teach that we, as human beings who have fallen into sin, are unclean in His sight because of our sins, and all of our righteousnesses, everything that we would to do to try to get right with God, are as a filthy rag.
The Apostle Paul was shown this. On the road to Damascus, he began to see the light. He began to see that he could not ever enter into Heaven based on anything that he did, no matter how zealous.
You know, we desire to do good works. The child of God wants to keep God’s commandments. We want to obey Him. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” We definitely want to do that, but the difference is that we never do it to get right with God. We never do it to obtain righteousness. We do it as a result of righteousness. We do it because we love God, because He has shown great mercy upon us and saved us from our many sins.
Well, let us go back to Philippians 3. Notice 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:
It is obtainable through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, not our faith. The moment we touch it, we pollute it, but it is through the faith of Christ, that He has done the work, that He was perfectly obedient and walked uprightly in all of the commandments of God and that He took our sins and paid the penalty for them. That is the righteousness that God makes available to sinners, “I came not to call the righteous,” because there are none, “but sinners to repentance.”
God came for those who are unclean and filthy and polluted and contaminated and are vile and wretched, and anything else you can think of. The Bible paints all of those pictures to describe us in our sin, and He comes with a robe of righteousness that He will give to His people. He will take off our filthy garments and He will place on us His righteousness.
Let us just go to a couple of verses that describe this. In Isaiah 54:17, it says:
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of JEHOVAH, and their righteousness is of me, saith JEHOVAH.
Also, let us go to Jeremiah 23, and I think this was referred to earlier. Jeremiah 23:6:
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Let us also go to Romans 5:19, where it says:
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…
That “one man” was Adam. As a result, every person since, except for Christ who is also God, every person is a sinner, but we cannot blame Adam because we were in his loins and we would have done exactly the same thing. We are all sinners. As a result, you cannot bring a clean out of an unclean, it says in the book of Job. A snake will give birth to a snake, and so a sinner will give birth to a sinner.
Romans 5:19 goes on to say:
…so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
And that is the Lord Jesus Christ who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It is through His obedience in fulfilling all righteousness, fulfilling everything that the Father intended for Him to do, that many are made righteous.
That is how Noah was called a righteous person. That is how Lot had a righteous soul that was vexed day-by-day. That is how Abel was righteous. That is how God can say that Zacharias and Elisabeth were both righteous, “Walking before Me and keeping the commandments.” God wrote it that way to allow people who are not His elect but who come to the Bible for their own purposes to have the idea that they would have to do some work to get right with Him, and yet it is only indicating that whenever the Bible says that a person is righteous, it is always because they were made righteous through the Lord Jesus Christ, through His obedience.
Let us just look at one last verse in Matthew 6, and I would like to go there because I had never noticed this before. I am sure other people have, but I never noticed this in Matthew 6:33. It says:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God…
I have noticed that part, but I never saw the next part:
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…
His righteousness, not ours, not anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ’s righteousness, and they go hand-in-hand.
You seek the Kingdom of God. If you have the desire to live forever, if you desire to go to Heaven and be with God, if for some reason in your mind that is what you want—and, of course, if you have a sober mind and a sound mind and you are in your right mind, you would want that because it is far better than being destroyed and it is far better than experiencing 5 months of torment on earth (we just cannot imagine how glorious and wonderful it will be to enter into the Kingdom of God)—well, the gate is His righteousness. His righteousness; there is no way around that. There is no other way. That is the only door. The only entryway into life eternal is through the righteousness of Christ and not our own.
Let us have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for the Gospel. It is a relief that our spots, our blemishes, our stains of sin do not prevent us from entering into Heaven. But, actually, if we see them, if we recognize them and we go to you and we just simply cry out that You might have mercy, then we are acknowledging that we qualify. We are qualified as a sinner to be a recipient of your grace and your mercy in salvation, and we do ask that there would be no self-righteousness, that there would be no attempt, no matter how deep-down within us, to grab hold of righteousness and favor through efforts of our own. And, Father, we pray that we might be clothed with the fine linen of the saints, the fine white linen, which is the righteousness of Christ. We ask that You would have mercy on our children, that they also might learn that they are sinners, that there are no exceptions. Father, we pray that in the short time that is left, we might not only see that we are sinners but that we are great sinners; we are chief of sinners. It is those who are forgiven much who love much. If we are forgiven little (and only someone who is not honest with themselves would think that they are forgiven little), then we will love little. Father, we pray that You would show us the unpleasantness of our soul, of what is going on within us, that our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked if we are not saved. We pray that You would wash away all sin and cover us anew. We pray for the rest of this day. We ask that You would bless everything that we do as individuals, that anything said might be faithful to Your Word. We pray these things in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Chris: If anyone has anything, you can just raise your hand, whether here or on Paltalk. If you are on Paltalk, you can also raise your hand and Bob will relay any question or comments that you might have. Lester.
1st Question: When we seek God for His righteousness, we have to read the Bible to find God through His righteousness, right?
Chris: Yes, we have to read the Bible because that is how God saves. We do not know how He works. We know that He works through the hearing of His Word. Through hearing His Word, He saves us. If He saves us, then we receive His righteousness.
A good way of seeking after God for His righteousness can be seen in Luke 18 with the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. They are both going to God and they are going in very different ways. One is going self-righteously, as it says in verse 9, Luke 18:9-12:
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
So he is looking at other people. That would be easy for us today, too, because we read the newspaper or hear the news on TV and think, “I am not a mass murderer. I am not a terrorist. I do not abuse children,” and so we can think that we are not that bad and we can think of ourselves as being basically good.
This Pharisee was using religion to justify himself and to put a cloak of righteousness, which was not God’s righteousness, on himself. But a way of seeking after the righteousness of God can be seen with the Publican. Luke 18:13:
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Why his breast? He beat his breast. Because in Ephesians 6, where God speaks of the armor of God, He terms it “the breastplate of righteousness.” So he is striking it and saying, “I do not have any righteousness,” just like when the Apostle Paul learned that his righteousness would not do.
The publican is not even looking up to Heaven and he does not come saying, “Well, I do this: I hand out tracts, I give money, and I keep the Sunday as the Sabbath, these things I do.” He does not say any of that. He says, “I am a sinner! God be merciful to me a sinner!,” and he is going to God and he is acknowledging the facts.
It could be that God would save a person who goes to Him like that. We do find here in Luke 18:14:
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
In Proverbs it says, “Righteousness exalteth a nation,” and that is referring to the righteousness of Christ and the body of believers. So we will be lifted up to Heaven based on Christ’s righteousness.
2nd Question: Mark and I were talking to someone yesterday who was arguing about accepting Christ in your heart and that we have to do a little work to get ourselves saved. Accepting means that you are joining up with something, “You are invited to come in Lord and take over my life,” and all of that, you know, and that is wrong.
Chris: That is not the true way of salvation. That would be adding works. Like the man in the book of Numbers who picked up a few sticks on the Sabbath, if we do the least bit to get saved, if we think that we are contributing in any way, then the condemnation is to be stoned, to die, as that man did for picking up a few sticks.
There is no way to grab hold of righteousness and bring it to ourselves in accepting Christ. The only way is the way outlined by the publican: to go to God confessing that we have no righteousness, “I am a sinner and God be merciful,” and then it could be that God would grant mercy.
3rd Question: When a person cries out to God for mercy so that God will make it His business to save that person, does he have to have real tears coming out of his eyes? Does he have to have emotion?
Chris: God says that we should rend our hearts and not our garments, so outward things are not necessarily what God is looking for. We can pray to God that He would give us a true brokenness, a true broken spirit, and that we would go to Him, yet crying for mercy also is not, in itself, going to save anybody. You cannot look at that as a means of getting salvation.
We just go to God and we beseech Him for mercy, recognizing that there is nothing that we can go. That is all that does, “I cannot achieve salvation in anything that I do, so God be merciful to me a sinner,” and then we wait, like the Ninevites. Remember the people of Nineveh? They repented. They put on sackcloth and ashes and cried mightily to God…because He definitely would save them? It does not say that. It says in Jonah 3:8-9:
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
3rd Question (continued): How long do we have to wait?
Chris: Well, we only have until May 21st. That is all that we have. That is the length of time that we have, so we cry out to God for mercy.
3rd Question (continued): Every day, right?
Chris: It would be a good idea to start today. People do this and I tend to do this, too. We say, “Well, I am going to do this every day for the next 6 months or year,” and it does not work out that way. But today is the day of salvation and today is a good day to go to God and to cry, “Have mercy on me, O Lord,” and then tomorrow is also a good day.
Yes, Mark.
4th Question: Before, you quoted Jeremiah 23:6, if you could please read that.
Chris: Jeremiah 23:6 says:
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
4th Question (continued): There is an interesting verse that ties in that seems to be speaking of the transfer of His righteousness to His people, if you could read and comment on Jeremiah 33:16.
Chris: Let me read verse 15 because it does tie in to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 33:15-16:
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, JEHOVAH our righteousness.
“She shall be called” is speaking of the Bride of Christ. Yes, I never noticed that before that it said “she.” Is that what you meant, “She shall be called”? Okay, yes, that is interesting.
Anybody else have anything? Yes, Gary.
5th Question: Thanks for the message, Chris. I keep hearing the story of Cain and Abel and sometimes I would hear about the sacrifice being offered, but this is a good example to show that Abel’s sacrifice was given with humility. He did not trust in his sacrifice, but he trusted in God. Cain trusted in his sacrifice and that is why he had such great anger. He had a great anger, very similar to the older son in the parable of the prodigal son, not to mention that killing a lamb must have been so crazy. Abel must have thought, “How am I going to offer a sacrifice?” He offered a dead animal, so he was probably trusting in the good Lord to accept it.
Chris: I think that we can be sure that Abel’s sacrifice, where God says in 1 John 3:11-12:
For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him?
God even gives us the reason:
Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
People like to think that Cain just did not bring the proper type of sacrifice. He did not bring a sacrificial animal—he brought of the fruit of the ground—and that is why his works were not accepted but Abel’s work was accepted. But it had nothing to do with that. Both offerings were acceptable, as God has given laws that would allow for other kinds of offerings other than sacrificial animals. The problem was what they were trusting in and in what they were looking to get right in God’s sight by. Cain was thinking, “Okay, God told me to do this. God wants a sacrifice because I am a sinner.” It was early on but we are all sinners because Adam and Eve ate of the tree; therefore, we are all infected sinners, “Since God wants a sacrifice, some kind of appeasement for my sin, I will offer this.” Abel also is offering a sacrifice, and then God says in Genesis 4 that He does accept Abel’s sacrifice. Genesis 4:4-5:
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And JEHOVAH had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
You see, God is the One who is making a distinction between accepting one man and not accepting the other, and it is easy to conclude that the reason is because of the type of offering, but it is not that. It is because Abel was trusting in the Messiah, in the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world, in Christ’s blood, which was as able to cover sin even at that time because He had already died for His people. Cain was trusting in carnal ordinances, we could say, in outward things, in good works, and that is why his works were evil.
No matter what kind of work you try to offer to God, if you are tying to get right with Him by your work, it is evil. The thing itself may not be wrong—handing out tracts is a good thing, going on a mission trip to India is a good thing, giving a great deal of money to Family Radio is a good thing—but if you trust in those things, they become evil works. They are evil because you are using them in a way to get right with God.
On the other hand, a person could do the exact same things: hand out tracts, go on a mission trip, and give money to Family Radio. It is all acceptable and God has a respect to it because it is coming from a good source, which is that the person is trusting in the only possible sacrifice, who is Jesus; He is the only possible righteousness.
Okay. We will take one last one real quick. Sally.
6th Question: I just wanted to be updated on what we are doing as a fellowship because a lot of people do not know that we offer things through the ministry that we have not publicized that much. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Chris: Yes, I will try to explain a couple of things. I have to make a distinction, because you said, “as a fellowship.” I do not know if this is too well-known, but there is Delco Bible Fellowship, which is what is going on right now, and then there is EBiblefellowship, which is an Internet ministry, and they are two different things. Here is a place where we come as individuals and there is no other connection, except some of the messages are used and put on EBiblefellowship’s website.
Ebiblefellowship offers Bibles and tracts and CDs and has been offering that for a few years now, and there is a great response to those things on the Internet. We have given out thousands of Bibles, tens of thousands of CDs and a large number of tracts. There are people who are coming to us from all over the world in hearing about a free Bible—and we give a very good-quality Bible—but they are also hearing the Gospel as they do visit the site.
So we are just trying to do whatever we can. We are also on a few radio stations. We are purchasing time on radio stations in Africa and in the Caribbean. I cannot think of what else is going on, but our desire is to get the Gospel out as much as we can. We also want to be an assist to Family Radio, as much as is permissible, and so we do feel that if someone comes into contact with us, they will also learn about Family Radio. We have a lot of links and things that connect Ebiblefellowship to Family Radio, so that they can hear more information about the Gospel.
Okay. Why don’t we stop here.