Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verses 3 and 4. Please join me as we read this together. For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock, His work is perfect. Let's pray together. Holy Father, through the recognition of our own weakness and ignorance and knowing very much about your own righteousness that we come to you this morning. Lord, we know you are the righteous God of heaven and earth. Your scriptures are rich with the revelation of this attribute of your divine being. Guide us today, we pray. Instruct us from your scriptures. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Today we're going to study an attribute, a characteristic of God that Martin Luther hated. The righteousness of God. Martin Luther at one point in his life hated God because he knew God was absolutely righteous and he knew he was a miserable sinner. And he knew he could never measure up to the standard of God's righteousness. Well, Luther was right about God's righteousness and about his own spiritual state. But by the grace of God, he came to understand that a sinner like him could receive the very righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Now this is amazing. This man was in absolute spiritual, mental, emotional misery. Because he realized his precarious spiritual condition. But he kept reading the Word of God, and finally light shined, and he realized that he could believe in Jesus Christ. Luther, before the Lord saved him, was in a state of mental anguish. He was angry at God. But God gave him faith to believe the gospel, and he was saved. And the light shone upon his soul, and he rejoiced. He was a new man after that. He was a German sinner man. But through faith in Christ, he became a saved and holy man. It was a miracle of the grace of God. Luther learned that God was a righteous God by reading the Bible. Had he never studied the Bible, he would not have understood the perfect righteousness of God. This knowledge is only given by divine revelation through the Word of God. It's the same for you and for me. The only way we'll get this knowledge is to take up and read the Bible. Today we're going to consider God the Righteous One. In other words, the righteousness of God. What is your favorite attribute of God? Maybe it's His eternality, His almighty power, His perfect knowledge of Himself, His holiness, His separateness from sinful people, His great love in Christ, His wisdom. Well, we can't really separate these attributes of God from one another. They're all interlocked together. They all comprise the very essence or the being of God. You can't take His holiness, for example, and leave His righteousness aside. You can't take His wisdom and leave His truth behind. It's all a package deal. God is perfect and infinite in all of His attributes. as Joel Beakey and Paul Smalley say in their book, I quote, God's perfection means that his acts display the whole spectrum, the whole range of his moral excellencies in unblemished spiritual beauty. Unblemished spiritual beauty. Well, that's what we're after today to catch a glimpse of God's unblemished spiritual beauty, particularly in His righteousness. I think we need to pray again, because we're on holy ground here. So let's pray. O Lord our God, We can never really understand You and grow in You unless You enlighten us by Your Holy Spirit through Your Word. So we pray You'd teach us today about Your righteousness. We ask with thanksgiving in Christ's name. Amen. Well, the Bible actually has a lot to say about God's righteousness. So where do we begin? Well, we're going to begin at Deuteronomy 32, which we've already read. But let me read it again. 32, verse 3 and 4. For I will proclaim, this is Moses speaking, I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. just and upright is he. Well, what is the context here? When did Moses say this and why did he say it? Why is he proclaiming to the Israelites the name of Yahweh? The name includes what's within his being, what he is within himself. Well, if we look at the context of this It's really a song, he says. It's a song that Moses wrote and presented to the people. We see in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy that he had just finished writing down the words of the law. And he had the Levites carry the book that he had written and to set it beside the Ark of the Covenant. It had the Ten Commandments and so forth in it. to be a witness against the people. Because he knew they were not going to carry out the law. They were not doing it at that time and he knew when he died it would get worse. And they would suffer judgment because of their sin. So Moses proclaims the name of God. He states several great truths about Yahweh's being His nature. Four things he says here in this passage. Yahweh's work is perfect. Yahweh's ways are justice. Yahweh's nature is righteous. And Yahweh's judgments are upright. So let's look at these. Verse 4. says, The Rock, his work is perfect. Now some of my remarks I'm going to say here are taken from Joel Beakey and Paul Smalley's presentation of their discussion of what's called the Moral Excellence of God, happens to be chapter 32 in their volume one of Reformed Systematic Theology. It's amazing. information that they've put forth there. It's really not something you can really absorb in one sitting. It's really a great study reference. Anyway, Yahweh is called the rock. Why is he called the rock? He's called the rock, the unmovable rock, because his work is perfect. Now this word perfect has the meaning of whole or complete. It's often used of a sacrificial animal in the Old Testament, Leviticus and so forth. When it was brought to the temple as an offering to Yahweh, it had to be a perfect specimen. It could not be diseased, it could not be lame. It had to be a perfect animal. It had to be whole, complete. It had to be perfect. So this is the same basic word used to describe God. Nothing inferior was eligible to be used as a sacrificial offering to God. It had to be perfect. This is just a picture of the meaning of the word. Yahweh is perfect. He's whole. He's complete. He's sinless. He's of perfect, absolute, moral integrity. This is what King David said about Him in 2 Samuel 22, 31. He says, this God, His way is perfect. It's whole. It's complete. The Word of the Lord proves true. He's a shield to all those who take refuge in Him. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 5.48. Speaking to the people, He says, You therefore must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. So Jesus affirms what the Old Testament is saying, what King David says. God the Father is perfect. He's our model. We as Christians are supposed to be perfect. We'll never attain perfection, but we've got to reach for it, we've got to strive for it every day. Let me repeat this statement again from these brothers' book. God's perfection means that his acts display the whole spectrum, the whole range of his moral excellencies and unblemished spiritual beauty. This is what we're after today. To get a glimpse, a moral glimpse of God's unblemished spiritual beauty particularly in His righteousness. Well, God's work is perfect. It's whole. It's complete. All that He does is done without flaw, without error, in order to carry out His will. God does not make mistakes like we do, okay? Whenever he does anything, he performs the action in perfect execution so every detail is perfectly carried out. When he created the universe, he made it perfect. The solar systems, the galaxies, the balance of gases on planet Earth so that humanity could live. When he made man and woman, He made the human body a perfect biological self-contained organism with all its parts functioning in perfect harmony. Even non-God-believing scientists and physicians are amazed at the complexity and the intricateness of the human body. So likewise, God gave humanity a mind and a soul, emotions and will, so that we people can relate intelligently and personally, not only with one another, but with God. He so allows us to. How did this come about? It's because he made us in his image. Where do we get our personhood from? It's from God's personhood. That's the source. It's not from evolution. It's from God himself. He made humanity, Adam and Eve, as full persons. Thinking, feeling, meditating. He made us so we can express our thoughts, our emotions. We're creatures made in the image of God himself. God looked at all that he had made. After six days of creation, he said, he didn't just say it's good, he said it's very good. Because his work was perfect. There was not one flaw. Well, secondly, we see that Yahweh's ways are justice. What does that mean? Well, the idea here is really judgment, right judgment. God is fair and he only judges righteously. You remember in Genesis 18 when Abraham was considering God's coming judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, it says in Genesis 18, 22, he stood before Yahweh And then Abraham drew near and said to Yahweh, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city, will you sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing. to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that all the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be that from you, O Yahweh, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just." You see, Abraham knew God's nature, Yahweh's nature. And he knew that Yahweh would not put any of the righteous people to death along with a judgment that would befall the wicked. His ways are just. His judgments are just. Again, I want to quote to you from these authors that I've mentioned previously. They state that the absolute sovereign God encourages us to trust Him by revealing that He is not arbitrary or morally indifferent, but exercises His authority and power with perfect judgment. Now, we can be assured of that. God's judgment will be perfect judgment. One of the great scriptures about this is Psalm 89, 14. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. What's God's throne of rulership and kingship based upon? It's based upon his righteousness and his justice. This is a great truth, that this is the kind of God that's ruling our lives and ruling the universe. He's not a fickle God, he's not a God that winks at sin, but he's a God of righteousness and justice. John Calvin wrote this, he says, it's impossible for God, who's the judge of the world, and who by nature loves equity, that is, he's fair and impartial, yea, His will is the law of justice and rectitude or rightness. It's impossible that he should in the least degree swerve away from righteousness because of his nature. He can't do it. He's not going to do it. Now, although it's true in our lives, we often do not see justice being carried out. We often see oppression, abuse, cruelty, and unfairness in life. Calvin makes this statement, he says, but what we can do as Christians, we can pour into God's bosom the difficulties that torment us in order that He may loosen the knots that we cannot untie. We're talking about the providence of God here. Right, Ty? We were talking about that this morning. We don't understand things that happen, but sometimes, in God's providence, we see there's a purpose behind them. Ultimately, we'll know the purpose behind all the things that happen, good and bad. So we see here that Yahweh's work is perfect, that His ways are just judgment, and next we see that Yahweh's nature is righteous. Says, Deuteronomy 32, 4, A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He. The word translated just here in the ESV English translation carries the related meaning of righteousness. In fact, these words judgment and righteousness often appear together in the scriptures. They intersect. They're intertwined with the same meaning. To say that God is just or justice means practically the same thing as saying He is righteousness. For example, we've already looked at Psalm 89, 14. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. These two truths are Connected interrelated or communicating pretty much the same idea Psalm 99 for says the king and his might loves justice you have established equity that means fairness you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob and Israel God has what he's carried out and He's executed justice and righteousness. These two terms are often linked together in the scriptures. So Deuteronomy 32.4 is telling us that God's work is perfect, His ways are justice, and His nature is righteous. Now, there's another key thought here in these two verses. And that is, it states that, it says, just and upright is He. So, God's judgments are upright. Upright. What does upright mean? Well, it means to hold up what is right. To say that, for example, Mr. Smith is an upright man means that he lives and he acts with integrity. He lives a moral life. He conducts himself with fairness with everyone. He does not cheat anybody. He's an example of a man who lives by a righteous moral standard. He's an upright man. There's so much more when we speak of God. He always holds up his own moral standard. He always supports it. He always promotes it. And he requires it of his creatures. We must remember that God, as the Eternal One, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, He's the Judge of humanity and angels. We must remember that there's no law, no standard outside of Him. that he has to seek to conform to. No. He's the one who sets the standard. He's the one who sets the law. He's the one who determines what is right and what is wrong, what is righteous human behavior and what is sinful human behavior. He's the lawmaker. He's the lawgiver. Whatever he determines is right and wrong is what is right and wrong, whether it conforms to our own conception of what is right and wrong or not. Paul said this, who are you, old man, to question God? What right does the pot have to say to the potter, why did you make me like this? Some people say, for example, I cannot accept a God who would send people to hell. Well, you're just a man, you're not God. You don't realize the seriousness of sin. You do not realize that sin means you're shaking your fist at God and criticizing Him for His righteous judgment. God is holy and righteous. And he must, because of his nature, he must confront and punish all rebellion against his good and perfect will and law. If he did not do this, he would compromise his holiness and righteousness. We don't want God to compromise anything. We want him to stay pure and holy and righteous. That's the foundation of the universe. Thank God we have such a foundation. It's not a shaky foundation. It's a rock. It's a firm foundation. Three times in the sacred scriptures, Yahweh is declared as upright. That is, He upholds His own perfect and righteous standard. Psalm 25a, good and upright is Yahweh. Therefore, He instructs sinners in the way. Look at that. Even though he's upright, he looks down at us poor sinners and he instructs us. Hallelujah. That's our hope. Psalm 92, 15. Declare that Yahweh is upright. He's my rock and there's no unrighteousness in him. No unrighteousness. Not the slightest taint of unrighteousness in God. Psalm 9, 8. He judges the world with righteousness. He judges the peoples with uprightness. Notice Psalm 98. God's judgments on the world and its people are described as both righteousness and with uprightness. They're practically synonyms with one another. God Himself is upright. In addition, His Word is upright. Psalm 33, 4, For the Word of Yahweh, the Word of Yahweh is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. Well, this is what we would expect, since His Word flows out of His righteous character. God's Law is a reflection of His character. Therefore, when men and women flaunt, when they rebel against His law, they're rebelling against God's person. To respect God's law is to disrespect God Himself. A child who would disobey his father and mother and slap them in the face deserves to be punished. And so we humans, if we slap God in the face, we turn away from Him and pursue sin. Instead of Him and His will, we deserve to be punished. As we think about this, of what a high-handed affront to God our sin is, our sin becomes more graphic and terrible. And we understand that, yes, we do deserve punishment. To put it mildly, God is not happy with our sin. Psalm 711 says, God is a righteous judge. He's not an impartial judge that can be bribed like some human judges we have. He's a righteous judge. A God who feels indignation every day. You see, He's not just a cold judge making decisions, he has indignation against sin. It affects him emotionally. God is upset by human sin. He feels indignation every day. That's what the scriptures say. So, this text reveals to us four things about God. about Yahweh, as Moses was speaking to the Israelites, that His work is perfect, that He is perfect, His ways are judgments that are just, His nature is righteous, and His judgments are upright. Well, where does that leave us? Are we to be like Martin Luther? Hating God because we cannot meet his righteous standards? No. There's a way out of our dilemma as sinners. It's what Luther discovered as he continued to read the Bible. He hung on to the Bible. He kept reading. And he came across this scripture, which he probably read many, many times. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit revealed to him the depth of its meaning. Romans 1, 16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, wrote the Apostle Paul. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Who believes. You don't have to work, you just have to believe. Who believes? To the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Well, so here's this phrase, the righteousness of God. Probably the key phrase in the book of Romans, the righteousness of God. This phrase echoes the great display of Yahweh's righteousness in the Old Testament. Psalm 145, 17 says, Yahweh is righteous in all of his ways and kind in all of his works. So there's two aspects to Yahweh's being. He's not only righteous, but He's kind. And Isaiah 5, 16 says, But Yahweh of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows Himself holy in righteousness. See, God's holiness, His righteousness, His justice are all tied together. His truth, All these things work together. Well, how can such a righteous God bring sinful humans into fellowship? Well, Psalm 71, 1 and 2 gives us the key in the Old Testament. It says, And you, O Yahweh, do I take refuge, let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me. Incline your ear to me and save me. So here's a man writing Psalm 71, and he knows he needs desperate help from God. And so what does he do? He says, in your righteousness, not my righteousness, O God, but in your righteousness, deliver me, rescue me, incline your ear to me and save me. Our only hope as sinners is for God himself to come and deliver us and rescue us. How is this possible? Well, it's impossible, humanly speaking. But God has done the impossible. Romans 8, verse 3 says, God has done, He's done it. What the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Our sin kept us from obeying the law of God. But God sent His Son who took upon Himself our human nature. Our sin was condemned in Christ. And the Spirit of God worked within us to bring us to faith. God sent His Son to do something radical. to bring us to himself. Remove our sin. Replace it with his righteousness. Righteousness for sinners. God's righteousness. This is amazing. Paul understood this. He wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake. For our sake, He made, God made Him, God made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin. So that we, there's a purpose to this, so that, the purpose is so that in Him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God. This is the great transaction of God. The great mercy of God, the great trade-off. The great exchange. Jesus took our sin and he gives us his righteousness. Amazing. When God looks at us, he sees Jesus' righteousness. The eternal, perfect, impeccable righteousness of God is applied to sinful humans. Hallelujah. This is the mystery and the glory of the gospel. This is why we rejoice that God has done such great things for us. Oh, the righteousness of God. How unimaginably blessed is this universe that we live in because it's ruled by a God who is altogether righteous. That means there's a moral basis for the universe. There's right and there's wrong. There's an all-ruling God who is perfect in all of his righteousness. He can be trusted with our lives and our souls for time. and eternity. Psalm 71 15 says this, the psalmist says, my mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day. You see, God's righteous acts, but God does more than that. He performs deeds of salvation to save us, sinners. Bring us to himself. Now, Psalm 51 says, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Guilt because of my sin. O God of my salvation, my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Hallelujah. I will sing of your righteousness, O God. Because you've delivered me from my sin. I will sing of your righteousness all my days. You are the righteous God. I rejoice in you. Well, we've seen some things about Yahweh God today. His work is perfect. His ways are just judgments. His nature is altogether righteous. And all of His judgments are upright. So as we look at these scriptures today, I trust that it'll help us understand more clearly that God is righteous, so that we might more accurately understand Him, so that we might worship Him and serve Him more intelligently and more wholeheartedly. Let's seek to do this as we continue to study the word by the help of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray together. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your holy word delivered through your servant Moses to the people of Israel, which such great truths regarding your nature, your righteousness, your just judgments were laid out We thank you, our God, that you have made a way for us sinners to be delivered from our sins and to be clothed with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ because of his great sacrifice on Calvary's cross for our sakes. We thank you, Lord, for bringing us into your eternal righteous kingdom. For the great work of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, we give you thanks and praise today. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.