Let's pray together, please. Father, thank you for giving us Holy Scripture. We pray you would help us understand it and also to recognize what a blessing it is to be able to read and to have the whole Bible in our language. We remember Luther's day, many of the clergy, many priests had never really read the Bible. And yet we're saturated with it every day. May we never, ever take that for granted and realize what a treasure to have the only words of eternal life, the only words by which a human being, no matter who they are or where they were born, by which they can be saved. We pray you would impress that upon us this Lord's day and every day from here forward until we're dead, that we would recognize what a treasure it is to have the word of God for in your light, we see light. In Jesus name, amen. Please turn your Bibles to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45. You know, when I was in seminary, An entire course of church history was devoted really just to the life of Martin Luther. And we had to read two different Luther biographies. And you think about what was Luther's problem? A lot of modern historians think he was neurotic, that he was mentally ill. Many people think that he was paranoid. The problem with Martin Luther was that he was trying to do the impossible. He was trying to become righteous. He was trying to become pleasing enough to God to get into heaven because he didn't understand the truth. He didn't understand the word of God. John Calvin said the very same thing. He said, the problem with man is that he's always trying to become righteous when really what he needs to figure out is how to be accounted as righteous. How to be considered as righteous in the sight of God by the gospel. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. Isaiah 45 verses 22 to 25. I'm going to read many more passages to you this morning and I've given you the thoughts for Sabbath meditation. All these passages are cited on there. But let's look at this text here. Let me read it. And you're hearing Isaiah 45, 22 through 25. This is God's word. Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself. The word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back. That to me, every knee will bow. Every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of me, only in the Lord are righteousness and strength. Men will come to him and all who were angry at him will be put to shame. In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory. May God bless the reading of his word. In the 24th chapter of the book of Acts, we read this Paul before Felix. And after some days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Now, as Paul reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid. Why do you think that is? Because Felix was not a righteous person. Felix was a very immoral man. Felix did not have self-control. So Felix was afraid and he answered Paul, go away for now. When I have a convenient time, I will call for you. If you read the rest of the narrative, it's pretty remarkable. Felix was afraid. He was afraid of what Paul said about righteousness and judgment and self-control, because he didn't have any of those things. And we know from the narrative also that Felix held on to Paul because he was hoping to receive money from Paul. Why? You ever wondered why? Because if Paul bribed him to get out of jail, it would turn down the volume of his conscience a little bit. You ever noticed how the non-believers just love it when Christians fall? Because it blunts the end of our message, doesn't it? We tell them you need to be godly and righteous. None of us are. And I want to tell you, I want to warn you, if you're a Christian and people know you're a Christian, people may pretend to ignore you, but I assure you they're watching you. They're watching to see if you will trip and fall. Will you laugh at the stuff that we laugh at? Will you laugh at dirty jokes? Will you speak up when immorality is being condoned? Will you stand your ground or will you just be absorbed into the crowd. Felix was afraid when he heard about judgment, when he heard about self-control, and he told Paul, go away. What an iconic picture. Isn't that what so many people do? We talk about the gospel, talk about heaven and hell, go away. But I'm gonna watch you. I'm gonna watch you and see if you're consistent. When the gospel is preached, it's always got a wide range of responses. Deep within the hearts of men, however, there's this nagging sense of eternity. There's a nagging sense of our day is coming, judgment day, whether men scoff at it or indifferent toward it, or like Felix, just try to put it out of your mind. Go away, Paul. When it's convenient for me, I'll call for you. Then you can come and talk to me more about this interesting stuff. But whether people are interested or not, it's coming. And Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17, 30, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. Everything in history and every passing moment of our lives is building toward this climactic moment. And there will be this one great event in the life of every human being. All will be summoned forth, most out of their graves. and all will hear their final verdict in that day. And the indifference and those who mocked Christ and mocked God's existence, the hypocrites, the heretics, the false teachers, the purveyors of false gospels, people who rolled their eyes at the gospel, people who persecuted Christ followers, as well as the repentance believers in the Lord Jesus, all of them will be there. You never lock eyes with a human being who will not be at the day of judgment, whether they've ever been to church or not, whether they've ever read the Bible, or not, whether they ever listened to you talk about Jesus or not. The very last sentence of the Westminster Confession of Faith says this, as Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity, so he will have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security and be prepared to say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, amen. When Moses first appeared before Pharaoh, remember Pharaoh's response? Remember the pride and arrogance of the wicked? It's very smug. Moses goes to Pharaoh. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh Exodus 5. Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is Yahweh? that I should obey his voice and let Israel go. I don't know any Yahweh around here, nor will I allow Israel to go. And by the end of the 10th plague, as Egypt is mourning over the deaths of all the firstborn in their land, and they're screaming and crying, coming from every house in Egypt, in Exodus 12, 30, so Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, And all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house, for there was not someone dead. He called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go serve Yahweh as you have said. You see, men will get away with scoffing, mockery, their pride and their arrogance, their happy, warm houses and their money, their vacations, their pleasures, their favorite restaurants for a time, but God will eventually bring them all to their knees. One of the ways that people will know who God is, is by his judgment. That's how Pharaoh knew who he was. By the judgment he executes. Psalm 916, Yahweh is known by the judgment he executes. God didn't begin by judging Pharaoh, but after God had judged him and judged his nation and judged all of his gods, Pharaoh knew who he was then. Yeah, Moses said, get out. Go serve Yahweh, as you said. For those who know Christ, the day of judgment is not something to fear. It's rather something we eagerly await. Indeed, we long for it. The more loony our society gets, the more aren't you saying, Lord, anytime you're ready, I'm fine. Please come back. The judgment of God against my sins was already discharged at the cross of Calvary. I have no need to worry. Romans 8 23, not only that, but we who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, listen, eagerly waiting. For the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. As a very godly man, I've recently discovered on the internet, which is getting harder and harder to do these days, discovered Justin Peters. Justin Peters. His video critiques of some of the most notorious charismatic wackos are extremely helpful. And he's also confined to a wheelchair because he's got cerebral palsy. And yet the man goes out into the public highways and byways in his wheelchair and preaches the gospel in public all over the world and does seminars and conferences all over the world. And many people just like that though, who have these kinds of physical ailments, they go to these healing services that are put on by Benny Hinn and Copeland and all the rest of them. And they're desperate for the healing of these physical ailments, but nothing ever happens because Benny Hinn can't heal anybody. He never has healed anybody. And these guys are liars. Justin Peters, like myself, believes God can heal today, but there are not people in the church who have the apostolic gift of healing. Justin Peters once made a wonderful statement in one of his seminars I listened to recently. He said, I don't worry about being unable to walk and having this condition anymore, because I have the rest of eternity to walk and run and be physically healed. promises of God for total physical wholeness and mental wholeness and a heart that is completely at peace always forever. They're not primarily for this life. They're for the next life. And that's why the scripture says we wait eagerly. It's really about waiting. We're waiting. We're waiting for it to get here. When blessed Job, when Job was in the depths of his physical and his emotional agony, having lost everything a man can lose, everything a man can lose. Even his reputation was ruined because everyone assumed he must've done something. My goodness, who has all 10 of his kids die in one day and his wife leaves him and he loses his health. He must've done something to make God mad. What is Job's hope in Job 19, 25? I know my redeemer lives. I know my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me, he says. He was so eager for it to be here. And so the true Christian sings out with Horatio Spafford in the last line of it is well with my soul. He says, oh Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the sky be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend even so it is well with my soul. Remember the heart of Paul's gospel of the only gospel, the true gospel. Paul described it Romans four, four through eight. He said, now to him who works, The one working, the wages are counted, not as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. You see, the Roman Catholic religion have been telling Luther, God only justifies those who work really hard for it. And Luther looking at Romans said, no, it says he justifies only, justifies those who don't work for it. who refuse to work for salvation, will not work for salvation, but believe on him who justifies the ungodly. Rome said, God will justify you if you're righteous enough. Paul says he justifies the ungodly while they're still ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. Verse six of Romans four, just as David describes the blessedness of the man, listen, to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. That's the death of all of man's religions. That's the death of all pseudo forms of Christianity from Rome to the East, to the federal vision, to all the rest of it. That's the end of it. God imputes righteousness to us apart from works. And then he cites Psalm 32. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not charge wrongdoing. God justifies the repentant believer in Jesus Christ, even though they are still wicked and ungodly in themselves. To make getting into heaven based to any degree on our works, our subjective transformation, our sanctification, our fruit, or whatever, is to make it no longer grace. And Paul says in Romans 11, 6, and if it is by grace, it is no longer works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. God is able to pronounce the wicked to be just because he imputes, he legally charges the repentant believers' sins to Christ on the cross. And he imputes the perfect obedience and the righteousness of Christ to their account in exactly the same way God pronounced Jesus to be legally guilty of our sins at the cross and punished him accordingly. Now the Roman Catholic religion at the time of the Reformation and to this very day says that our doctrine of salvation, our doctrine of justification is a legal fiction. It makes God a liar. You guys make God a liar. You're saying God says that we're righteous while we're still legally inwardly wicked. You guys are turning God into a liar. I have a question. What did Jesus die for? Our sins, right? Does that make God a liar? That he held Jesus responsible for what I have done in my life? Does that make God a liar? Of course not. Of course not. Did he infuse our wickedness into Jesus? Did Jesus become inwardly evil on the cross? What a blasphemous thought. Jesus is sinlessly perfect throughout the entire ordeal. From the moment of his conception, all the way through the cross, he is inwardly, morally perfect the whole time. But he was legally treated. Legally treated as if he'd committed all of my sins Even the sins I have yet to commit today and for the rest of my life God legally treated Christ as if he'd committed my sins and he legally treats the believing sinner as if he was perfectly righteous in Jesus Christ and what I want to do this morning is What I wanna do this morning is walk through five wonderful consolations that we can gain from the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. The first one is this, in the imputed righteousness of Christ, there is enough to satisfy the justice of God and to put away all of his judicial anger against our sins. In the imputed righteousness of Christ, there is enough to satisfy the justice of God and to put away all of his anger against our sins. Listen to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10. By that will, we have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. By one offering He has perfected them. Isaiah 53, 4, listen closely to this. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him to be smitten by God and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The iniquity of God's people was legally imputed, reckoned, credited, charged to Christ's account. And that's why he was treated the way he was. Ezekiel 16, listen to Ezekiel, the gospel in Ezekiel 16, 61. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed. Isn't that a blessing to be ashamed? Well, I'll tell you, if there's one satanic cultural motif, it's that you shouldn't be ashamed of anything ever. No matter what it is, it's a blessing to be ashamed. Should we be ashamed of ourselves? Every day, we should be ashamed of ourselves. You will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and your younger sisters, for I will give them to you for daughters, but not because of my covenant with you. And I will establish my covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame when I provide you an atonement for all you have done. When the Lord Jesus died, we're told in the narrative that the land was covered with darkness and there was a great earthquake. In this book, the holiness of God, R.C. Sproul says it was as if God the Father grabbed the earth in his fist. and shook it because of his wrath against his people's sins. And then Jesus died, and it is finished. Worst final words. For the elect of Christ, for the church given by the Father to Jesus before time began, the anger of God is forever appeased. It is gone for eternity. And our sins are cast into the sea of forgetfulness and will never be brought against us. Yes, even our present sins and our future sins are gone, nailed to the cross already. By one offering He is perfected forever, says the text of Scripture. By one offering He is perfected forever. All those that Christ died for are perfected by that one self-offering at the cross. When we sit and we contemplate ourselves and our thousands, our millions of offenses, our sins, our omissions, our failures, it's no wonder that we tremble. But the word of the gospel teaches us to look to Christ's satisfaction of God's justice against us. To remember his crown of thorns. Remember the mockery that he endured when they dressed him in a purple robe and put a scepter in his hand and bowed down to him. Hail Jesus, King of the Jews, high and mighty majesty. Remember that. Remember the nails that held him to the wood. Remember this part of the God-breathed narrative in Luke 9.51, when Peter confessed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, it says in Luke 9.51, now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. It was Christ's passion to be our Savior. He wanted to go do it. It was the joy of his life to go do it. It was gonna be a horrible ordeal, It was going to put him through the most unbearable agony imaginable, but he set his face, it says there, the Greek verb, to cause to be inwardly firm or committed. And the direct object of that verb, to cause to be inwardly firm is his face. His face became firm. It became like Flint. He set his face to go to Jerusalem. That's where I'm going to accomplish the salvation of my people. It was his passion to do it. It was the reason that he was born. He resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem. As much agony and bitterness and terror that were awaiting him there, he was resolute in going to do it. He loved us to the very end. He loved those disciples to the very end. Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, he willingly entered into that pact with the Father and with the Holy Spirit before the foundation of the world to take the fullness of divine justice upon his own body and soul at Calvary at just the right time in history. As that glorious verse of the word of God says, when the time had come for him to be received up after his resurrection, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. If you are a repentant believer in Christ and you trust only in him, and what I mean by that is you have pronounced a curse upon your own works. You have pronounced a curse upon yourself, upon your own works, your own character, your own life, so that you can have Christ's righteousness as your own. Then by his stripes, you have been healed. He was wounded for your transgressions. He was bruised for your iniquities. And the Lord has laid on him all of your sins. In the imputed righteousness of Christ, there is enough to satisfy the justice of God and to put away all of his judicial anger against our sins, and you and I can die in peace. We can die in peace knowing it's been answered. The curse is gone. The holy justice is gone. And the holy judge before whom all the world must appear has smiled upon us because justice fell in its horrible darkness upon Jesus Christ in our place. And that's what Luther finally saw. He finally saw what God demands from us in the law, we can't do it. but he provided it for us in the gospel. And what is faith? It's simply the beggar's empty hand by which we lay hold of Christ. The wrath of God is satisfied and the curse of the law against God's people is no more. Second thing, number two, the imputed righteousness of Christ presents us perfectly righteous in the sight of God. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, this church that was a cesspool of iniquity, pardon me, But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ became righteousness in our behalf, for us. The filthy rags of pretended righteousness we used to wear were taken from us and put on the righteous body and soul of Christ. And then he faced the judgment of the Holy Father. Think of this, dear congregation, think of it. Christ appeared before the holy judge, accounted legally as if all of our filth was his own. Legally speaking, it was. Christ was held responsible for all of our sins and the perfect white robe of his obedience that he earned, it was taken off of him and put upon us while our filth was given to him. Imagine how horrifying those moments were for him, to appear as if he had lived our sin-filled lives, and then to be condemned and sentenced to bear the full force of the curse of the law against us. Consider, dear congregation, all the careless ways that we sin, even as redeemed people. The strike of God's justice, it fell against him as our surety, our guarantor, our substitute, our dying lamb, whose blood makes the wrath of God pass over us, so the death sentence doesn't fall upon us. Consider with me what an accomplishment it was, what God did in sending Christ, and why it's so worth defending and emphasizing. Jesus had no human father. Do you understand why that's so important? This was essential because every human being descended from Adam by ordinary generation, meaning by normal male and female procreation, every single human being that has a human father has the guilt of Adam's first sin imputed to them. They have the lack of original righteousness in which Adam was created and the corruption of their whole nature, which is what original sin is, together with all the actual transgressions with sin flow from it. But Jesus enters into human history taking the substance of his humanity from Mary. But one of the central doctrines of Christianity is the virgin birth of Christ. Jesus did not have a natural human father. If he had, he would not have been sinless. He would have been just like us and therefore unable to represent us, unable to achieve the righteousness for which we get into heaven. 1 Corinthians 15, 45, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. There's only been three people who have ever been sinless in the entire history of the world, Adam, Eve, and Jesus. The attribute of God which causes the biggest problem for us is the holiness of God. And it's accompanying justice and the accompanying wrath against sin. The first Adam in Eden represented all of humanity and he failed as our representative. And that's why whether you wanna believe in original sin or not, it doesn't matter, you're going to die. That's what Augustine said to the Pelagians, to the people in the early church that said, no, no, no, no. Adam just set a bad example for everybody. Adam set a bad example, but we can all be sunlessly perfect. Adam's actions did not affect us at all. Augustine said, the greatest refutation of what you're saying is the fact that you and I and everybody in the world are going to die. Yes, we are guilty of Adam's sin. Yes, we do have a nature that's corrupt. Yes, we are in bondage to sin, completely and totally enslaved to it, unable to free ourselves from it. God imposed the covenant of works upon Adam and upon all of Adam's posterity in him. And the question of our catechism, did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. And that's why everybody dies. And that's why everybody of all ages dies. And that's why the idea that there's an age of accountability is a lie. If babies and the unborn and little kids were not guilty, if they really didn't need a savior until they were six or seven, do you realize they would be immortal? What is the wages of sin? Death. If somebody can die, it can only be because they're guilty of sin. Is God able to save the unborn, the mentally incapacitated, and kids of all ages? Of course he is. Of course he is. But there will not be anybody in heaven who's there because they deserve to be there. Anyone there, no matter how old they were when they died, will be there because Christ saved them. The greatest problem facing humanity is that every single one of us, right now in this room, is just as bound to render perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to God the entirety of our lives as Adam was. And we don't. We don't. We don't do it. And that's why Jesus had to be born of a virgin with no human father, so he would not have original sin. And that's why Jesus had to be born under the law, under its obligations, in order to fulfill all of its righteous requirements vicariously for us, in our behalf. Romans 8.4, that the righteous requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. No human being ever led a godly life like Jesus did. Every temptation that he faced, he defeated. How many of you succumbed to temptation this week? Every righteous requirement of God's laws was obeyed entirely by Jesus in his heart and thought, word, deed, and motive. and disobedience led him all the way to the cross of Christ. Philippians 2.8, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Everything that God's law requires, Christ did perfectly in his obedience to it. And every one of its curses for our disobedience was laid upon Him. And that's why the Word of God teaches us, Ephesians 1, 4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Why is it that Jesus can present even the vilest of sinners who repents at the last moment of his life? He can present that sinner holy and without blame because Jesus achieved that holiness vicariously for them. It's legally imputed to them. That's how. Ephesians 5.25, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Our appearance before God without spot, without wrinkle, as glorious, as holy, as without blemish, is because Christ was regarded as having already had all of our spots. wrinkles, sins, and blemishes when he died. And thus, the imputed righteousness of Christ presents us perfectly righteous in the sight of God. Point number three, the imputed righteousness of Christ answers all our fears, doubt, and troubles of our souls. How many of y'all this morning have come in here with fears, doubts, and troubles of soul? While Christians are at varying degrees of sanctification, justification has no degrees. The righteousness of Christ has no degrees. It is identical to everyone that's justified. The justified person has had all their sins pardoned. And Christ's real righteousness has been truly imputed, credited to their bank account before God and the sight of God, such that they are once and for all eternity pronounced righteous before God's judgment, and therefore the justified person is truly happy and blessed. The Puritan writer Thomas Brooks wrote this wonderful paragraph. I've included this in your thoughts for Sabbath meditation. Listen to this. How shall I look up to God? The answer is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How shall I have any communion with a holy God in this world? The answer is in the righteousness of Christ. How shall I find acceptance with God? The answer is in the righteousness of Christ. How shall I die? The answer is in the righteousness of Christ. How shall I stand before the judgment seat? The answer is in the righteousness of Christ. Your sure and only way under all temptations, fears, conflicts, doubts, and disputes is by faith to remember Christ and the sufferings of Christ as your mediator and surety. Say, O Christ, thou art my sin. in being made sin for me. And thou art my curse, being made a curse for me. Or rather, I am thy sin, and thou art my righteousness. I am thy curse, and thou art my blessing. I am thy death, and thou art my life. I am the wrath of God to thee, and thou art the love of God to me. I am thy hell, and thou art my heaven. Christianity is not primarily a religion of ethical improvement. It's a religion of substitution. Substitution. And anyone who smudges the line, anyone who blurs the line between being right with God and being inwardly transformed and sanctified, that person's gonna be a false teacher and it's gonna confuse people straight to hell. When you're plagued with doubt, depression, grief, because of ongoing sin in your life, what's the answer? The imputed righteousness of Christ. I remember many years ago when the White Horse Inn first came on the radio, and these men were crazy enough to think that a talk show on the radio where they talked about theology would actually sell well. And it did. People loved listening to it. And they did like a 25-part series on the book of Galatians. And one of the phone calls that got, it was just heartwarming to listen to. This poor woman called in and said, I have been tortured my entire life with depression and anxiety, depression and anxiety, and nothing has ever helped me. And the church I go to has never really helped me. But to think that Jesus would actually give me his righteousness? My depression disappeared forever after I heard that truth and saw it in Galatians. It's a recipe for good mental health. When you've sinned, yet again, so stubbornly, so defiantly, and you are in mourning because of how evil you are, and you wonder, again, how can God possibly still love me? How can he put up with me? What's the answer? The imputed righteousness of Christ. If you know the grief and the anguish of soul that comes from God-given repentance, and if you trust only in Jesus to save you from the danger and the filth of your sin, then take heart. The imputed righteousness of Christ is in your heavenly account before God. Just as surely as the guilt of your sins were born by Christ at the cross there outside of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, the perfect righteousness of Christ now covers you as a garment and gives you full and bold access to the heavenly courts. Number four, the imputed righteousness of Christ gives us a title to these treasures, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, riches that neither moth nor rust can destroy, an inheritance of the whole world that does not fade away, and a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Hebrews 12, 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1, 3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 2 Corinthians 5.1, for we know that if our earthly house, this tent, our bodies, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. Indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed. but further clothed that mortality may be swallowed up by life. When you buy tickets to go to something and those tickets come in the mail, you got to keep those tickets safe somewhere, right? And you got to make sure that you remember to bring them to the show or else you're not going to be let into the show. The great wedding banquet that's been planned by the triune God, paid for by the blood of Christ, the table's been set by the Holy Spirit, and those who are broken in their sin and are repentant and who have received and are resting upon Christ alone as he's offered us in the gospel, they have their wedding garment on already. You're already wearing it. You're already declared righteous. In the great parable of the wedding banquet, when a man enters without that garment on, Jesus describes that scene, Matthew 22, 11. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to them, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. And the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So I want to tell you, dear Christian, whatever troubles you brought in here, if you are a repentant believer and even just have the tiniest little bit of faith, the tiniest little glowing ember that's clinging to Christ, no matter what else you may or may not have, nothing can compare to the garment of salvation. Nothing can compare to what Isaiah called the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61 10, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation. He has covered me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. You see, all of human history was waiting for the promised seed of the woman to crush the serpent's head and to bring that salvation to us, to bring us the fulfillment of the Passover, the fulfillment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the fulfillment of the redemption of the firstborn, what everything pointed to, that wonderful pristine white robe of righteousness that God imputes to us and covers over our sins with so that when we die, knowing we're wearing it, we can have perfect peace, no anxiety at all. I'm about to cross over into the presence of Jesus because it does not depend upon me. When Jesus finally came, he achieved what Adam failed to achieve, and he paid the penalty for Adam's failures, and he did so perfectly, leaving nothing to us. Praise God. The salvation he accomplished is portrayed and pictured to us in scripture as a robe of righteousness. as a garment of salvation with which we are clothed. When the prodigal came home, what was the first thing the father said? Bring the best robe and put it on my son. Hark back to the garden of Eden. Remember this after Adam sinned and they're hiding in the garden and God, what have you done? In Genesis 3, 7, the eyes of them were both opened and they knew that they were naked. Listen, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. There you have all of man's religions, all pseudo forms of Christianity described in a phrase. Thick leaves sewn together to cover themselves. And then later in Genesis 3, 21, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord made tunics of skin. They had to be clothed by something God would give them, something he made. An animal blood would have to be shed. You see the foreshadowing there, you see that? God ripping off the thick leaves of their self-righteousness and giving them a garment that he made. when Augustine was struggling, because he just loves sin. Even in the confessions, he says, Lord, sanctify me, but not yet. When he was struggling with sin, and he knew it was true, and he doesn't want to repent, and he hears those kids singing in the garden, tololege, tololege, take up and read, take up and read, and he sees a copy of Paul's letter to the Romans, and his eyes fall down on the page, and he reads this. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Put on the garment of Christ. Colossians 3.3, you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You wear him like a garment, like a robe. Colossians 3.4, when Christ who is our life appears, you will appear with him in glory. No matter how you were doing in your Christian life, when you died, you will appear with him in glory. And so I would ask you, is your life hidden with Christ in God? Is Christ your life? When he appears, will you appear with him in glory? Only if you have the imputed righteousness of Christ. Have you renounced your fig leaves? Or how about this? Do you believe in the imputed righteousness of Christ, but you think that you're gonna be finally saved by the fruits you've worn in your life? If that's the case, you're not wearing the garment yet. Have you renounced the fig leaves? Have you recognized that what you think is righteousness is to God a filthy rag that stinks of death? Have you repented that you ever thought you were good enough to get into heaven? Have you repented of that? Have you abandoned all hope in your own garment of alleged good works? Are you wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness, but one little patch in the bottom is the fruits of your faith? Have you trusted in the cross alone? Or will the king Will the king of the wedding banquet see you wearing your filth and say, friend, how'd you get in here? You can only come in here wearing one thing, the robe that I made, the righteousness of my son. And you can't mix that righteousness with anything you've done because you will spoil it. Thomas Brooks said this, listen to this quotation, the righteousness of Christ cannot be lost. His righteousness is like himself from everlasting to everlasting. When once this white raiment is put on a believer, it can never fall off. It can never be taken off. This splendid, glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ is as really a believer's as if he had wrought it himself." End quote. So I ask, everybody in this room is wearing something. You're all going to the banquet. What are you wearing? What are you wearing to the banquet? There's only one ticket to the banquet. Only one garment will do, the imputed righteousness of Christ. The imputed righteousness of Christ gives us a title to all the treasures of the banquets, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, riches that neither moth nor rust can destroy, an inheritance of the whole world that does not fade away, and a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Fifthly, and finally this morning, In the imputed righteousness of Christ, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In the imputed righteousness of Christ, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1, 3, wonderful text. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. You see, man, in the final analysis, is a covenantal creature. Every one of us is just as bound to perfect, personal, and perpetual, as our catechism says. I just want to make sure there's no way of getting around it. Perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to the law of God as Adam was. And because of this, apart from the effectual power of the grace of God in Christ, we are under the wrath and curse of God. With God and his dealings with men, there is blessing and there is curse. That's it. There's blessing and there's curse. There's no other option. We are either under God's blessing or we are under his curse. I want you to turn to this passage with me. Turn to Galatians 3.10, please. Galatians 3.10. Paul, who used to be so impressed by his own resume. Paul, who thought he had borne a lot of fruit for God, and it was all listed out in Philippians 3. what he used to think was so great about himself religiously. When he saw the gospel, when he understood it, he understood you can't mix anything with that garment. You can't mix anything with faith in Christ. Galatians 3.10, Paul wrote to those churches who were playing with a false gospel there. He said, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. What does he mean by that? For a person to be of the works of the law, that means that they die trusting in their own obedience. Anyone who says they believe in Jesus and they die, relying upon their own obedience to the law, are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. You want to go to heaven by your works? You got to start out sinless and never sin and always obey God your entire life from the moment you're conceived in the womb to the time you draw your final breath and die. That's the way of getting into heaven by obedience. And that's why Paul says, as many, anyone who believes that is cursed of God because the law does not allow any room for failure. Curses everyone who does not continue to do everything. Verse 11, but that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident for the just shall live by faith. They're citing Habakkuk 2.4. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. You see that? To be saved by law, you got to do it. Any doers of the law in the room? No. Look at verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse in our behalf. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That's the cross. Verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Jesus Christ is cursed in order that we would be blessed. The curse of the law for our disobedience falls on Jesus in order that the blessing he earned by doing the law would be imputed to us. And therefore in Christ, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What we've described here this morning and this precious truth of the imputed righteousness of Christ, dear congregation, listen, it's the only provision. It's the only provision that the Holy God of heaven and earth made for sinners to be able to go to heaven. It's the only thing. It's the only way. And that's why when Peter stood up and asked for, he said, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved in Jesus Christ. So I would ask you, do you have the righteousness of Christ imputed to your account? Are you trusting only in Him. You know, some people want to have everything in the world. They want fame and power, money, possessions, the praises of men, and even believers, even us in this room. How quickly do our affections and our hearts love and long for worldly things. Isn't it sad? How quickly we're attached to this world. When Paul described his ministry, a man who gave up a lot, a man who gave up what probably would have been a pretty posh life of making lots of money, being a rabbi and teaching students and having everybody love and respect him. 2 Corinthians 6.10, he said, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. He also said in 2 Corinthians 4, 17, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And Jesus taught us the very same truth in Matthew 16, 26. What profit is it to a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? So I would ask, where is your treasure? Where is your hope in the face of your most certain appointment with death and judgment? The person who dies without the imputed righteousness of Christ dies not only with nothing, he loses even his eternal soul and is sent to hell under the curse of God. But he who has the imputed righteousness of Christ has every spiritual blessing. He has the true riches. He has God as his portion in this life and the next. He shall inherit the earth. He has full pardon of all of his sins. He's been judicially pronounced righteous already. He shall never perish, but shall have eternal life. He looks to the day of judgment with eager expectation because Christ is his all in all. He has, as the great hymn says, no guilt in life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell and no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home. Here in the power of Christ, I'll stand. Where is this glorious expectation found? Where is this wondrous hope found? Where is the entirety of our hope for a happy eternity after death? The imputed righteousness of Christ. He who has Christ's righteousness imputed to their legal ledger in the heavenly book, that one has the true riches. And he who does not have it, in the final analysis, no matter who they are, or what they are or what they have in this world or in the eyes of mankind, they have nothing. Let's pray. Father, we bless you for the gospel. We don't value the gospel the way we should. May our hearts be lifted up to your throne of grace this day to truly express our gratitude for saving our souls and for taking off the tattered filth of our pretensions at righteousness. for taking away the sewed together fig leaves and dressing us in the garments of salvation and arraying us in a robe of righteousness, indeed, the very gift of righteousness achieved and performed by Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ alone. May we, together with all believers through all the ages, pronounce a curse on ourselves, on our works, on our righteousness, even on our fruits as Christians, and trust and rely only upon the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ to get us into heaven. We ask in his name, amen.