Talking in our discussion of the 1689 Confession about what happens to us after we die. We looked at some of the issues surrounding that and then I thought before I talked about the doctrine of eternal punishment it would be helpful to talk about some of the attributes of God that are fundamental to this doctrine of eternal punishment. If you look at some of the various views of what happens to the wicked when they die. Those who deny eternal punishment tend to do so because they don't have a proper understanding of who God is. They want to sort of wish away the fact of sin, the fact of God's righteousness requiring a just penalty for sin. So I wanted to first spend some time talking about God's holiness, which we did for, I think, three Sundays. And that talks about God's transcendence over his creation and also his utter perfect goodness. He is unable to sin. He is untainted at all by sin. And now we move a little bit closer by talking about God's righteousness and justice. And so we're moving from holiness to righteousness and justice, and then in maybe two or three weeks we'll talk about eternal punishment, once we've laid this groundwork. And as kind of a theme verse for our talk starting this morning, I'm going to use Psalm 97 verse 2. Psalm 97 verse 2. In fact, let me start in verse 1 because it's talking about God. the sovereign Lord reigning over his universe. The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad. Clouds and darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. That term justice could also be rendered judgment. So there we have righteousness and justice. as the foundation of his throne. So we have this picture of God as king over the universe and also as judge and as that great king and judge he is righteous and just and his righteousness and justice drive all that he does and is as that judge. Now when you look at the definitions of the Greek and Hebrew words used typically for the idea of righteousness or justice they're hardly distinguishable. That is, the words can often be translated either righteousness or justice, and we'll talk about the distinction in a minute, but we have an Old Testament word that is translated righteous or just, or righteousness, and a corresponding Greek term that's also used to translate, or translated by the English words righteous and just. Now the term righteousness from the Hebrew comes from a root that may mean straight. That is, God or whoever might be righteous is considered straight, conforming to the law. And this righteousness, as I mentioned before, is connected with God's holiness. Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology says that God's righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right. So God not only does what is right, he is right, and because he is right, he acts in a right fashion. We sometimes, as human beings, may do what is right, but that doesn't mean we are righteous in and of ourselves. It may be by accident or by threat of punishment, we might do what is right. But because we are unrighteous, we ultimately can't do what is righteous without God doing a work in our hearts. But because God is in himself right and holy, he does what is right. So we have the term righteousness talking about this conformity to the law, excuse me. And we have justice. And this is sort of an outgrowth of righteousness. Justice, you might say, is applied righteousness. So we have this holy God with his holy standard, his righteous standard. And when God is just, that means he's applying his righteousness to that standard. So if we're going to do an analogy, you might say, not that all the laws of our land are just, but let's presume we have a just law. that law exists, as it exists, is righteous. When a judge, jury, or whoever applies that law, that is justice being done. So justice is, you could call it an application of righteousness. And when we see the term justice, we see that, as we saw in Psalm 97, we see that in terms of God as the king and the judge over his creation. This is God's official righteousness. So we've defined righteousness and justice a bit. Let's look at some descriptions of God's righteousness and justice. As you know, the Psalms are full of descriptions of God and His character. And of course, it's full of God's righteousness as well. And we'll look at several passages here. Psalm 11, verse 7. We can even go back. This is sort of a theme of this psalm. 4 talks about the Lord being in His holy temple, Psalm 11, "...the Lord's throne is in heaven, His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals, fire and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness, His countenance beholds the upright." So God is righteous and He also loves righteousness. Turn over a few pages to Psalm 33, verses 4 and 5. And in the context of Psalm 33, the psalmist here is praising God. It says in verse 1, Praise the Lord, verse two, sing to him a new song. And why are we doing this? Verse four, for the word of the Lord is right and all his work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. So here again we see God loves righteousness and justice. God isn't neutral about such things. If you think about the gods of the ancients, They were all very human. They were sort of superhuman in their abilities. They were also superhuman in their sinfulness. You don't have to read much Greek or Roman mythology to see how human their gods were. But God himself, our God, is a completely righteous God and he loves truth. He loves righteousness and justice. That's Psalm 119. Verse 137. It says, "...righteous are you, O Lord, and upright are your judgments." Verse 142, "...your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth." So we have another description sort of an enhancement of our understanding of God's righteousness, as we would expect because God is an eternal God, He's eternally good, that His righteousness is everlasting. It doesn't just come and go on a whim, but it is always there and He always acts in accordance with His righteousness. We may, as humans, be good from time to time, but that certainly is not an everlasting quality in us. And one last verse talking about the righteousness of God for the moment. Daniel 9. Now, you may recall this chapter. Daniel is praying. to the Lord because he noticed, verse 2, that the number of the years specified of the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet had been fulfilled, that there would be 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So Daniel sets his mind to pray as he sees these prophecies being fulfilled. And so he prays to the Lord, and this isn't a prayer of pray so much as a prayer of confession, because he realizes how sinful his people were and still are. He says, verse 4, he prays, O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants, the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O LORD, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those near and those far off, and all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You." So here we see in stark contrast the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of, in this case, the Israelites and all of mankind. God, in verse 4, keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and yet He is also righteous when He judges the sin of His people. So we have many descriptions of God's righteousness. Not only is God Himself righteous, but as you would expect, His works are righteous as well. Let me just read Psalm 103, verse 6. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. So this righteousness is not just something that he keeps to himself, but he applies it on behalf of those who are oppressed. He executes that righteousness. Jeremiah chapter nine. Jeremiah 9 verses 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord." So, all the things that we might be proud of, the wisdom, might, riches, are nothing in comparison with understanding that God is this righteous, loving, just God. God delights in these things, and those who know that are really the richest, and the wisest, and the mightiest in the world. Yes. One of my favorite verses concerning this is, it's in Psalms 85, and it's talking about his salvation. Verse eight says, I'll hear what the Lord will speak before he will speak peace unto his people, and his saints will let them turn to him and follow him. Certainly this salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may grow in our land. Then it says in verse 10, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have Yeah, that's true. And that's, we'll look at that some later too, is how can God forgive sinful man, because he can't just forgive because he's a nice guy. We can do that because we're fallen creatures, but God can't just sort of erase it because he wants to. He requires a just penalty for sin, and that was met in Christ. So we have God Himself is righteous. We know His works are righteous. That is, all He does is in righteousness. And His Word is righteous as well. Psalm 19, which is a great psalm talking about both the heavens declaring the glory of God and also God's law being just and perfect. God has revealed Himself in the world. He's also revealed Himself in His Word. And this Psalm of David celebrates that. Psalm 19 v. 9 says, The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And these terms fear and judgments in this context are referring specifically to God's Word. And back to Psalm 119, which also is full of descriptions of God's Word in all but two verses of 176, it talks about God's Word. Psalm 119 verse 138 says, "...your testimonies which you have commanded are righteous and very faithful." So God Himself is righteous, His works are righteous, His words are righteous. We also see in Isaiah that His promises are fulfilled in righteousness. God keeps His promises because He is a righteous God. Isaiah 46. You can see how different attributes of God are really linked together. You see his faithfulness, you see his goodness, you see his righteousness, justice, his holiness, all kind of intertwined where it's really hard to distinguish them sometimes, except in the minds of theologians who want to make those distinctions and write systematic theologies. But we see the psalmists and other writers of scripture glorying in all these interlinked attributes of God. Isaiah 46 verses 9 through 13. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is unlike me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a bird of prey from the east, a man who executes my counsel from a far country, Indeed, I have spoken it, and I will bring it also to pass. I have purposed it, I will also do it. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness. I bring my righteousness near, it shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. that we have God here talking about the fact that He's going to bring judgment upon the land of Israel. They are far from righteousness, and yet God is bringing that righteousness near, and He will bring them salvation ultimately. And, of course, that righteousness comes in Christ, and I think the final fulfillment of this comes at the end times when God saves Israel as a large group of of Jews at that time that Christ returns and that he will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. One final comment about the righteousness of God as we would expect the son himself that is Jesus is righteous and he's called that several times in Acts. Acts chapter 3 verse 14 This is Peter preaching here. And Peter says, you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and kill the Prince of life whom God raised from the debt of which we are witnesses. So he calls him here the Holy One and the just one. Acts 7 verse 52. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. So again, he's talking about Jesus himself here. This is Stephen speaking and talks about the just one. And then Acts chapter 22. Acts 22 verse 14. Then he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will and see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth. So this term, just one, is often used to refer to Christ himself. And we'll see later, not only is Christ just in himself or righteous in himself, but he also will be a righteous judge. We'll see that particularly in the book of John. Let me ask you a question. What makes an action of God right or wrong, or of anybody right or wrong for that matter? Does God's choice make it right? Does God say, let's say before he created the world, let's see, I'm gonna create a bunch of laws and I'm gonna say, let's see, no lying, no stealing, no committing adultery, no covening, and that's just the way it's gonna be because I say so. Or, does God choose what is right because it is right? That is, is there some sort of external standard that God says that, well, this is right because there's a law that says it's right, and so I'm going to make that my law as well. Or, a third option is, an action right or wrong because it is in conformity with God Himself. The truth is, God is righteous because he is acting like himself, not because of some external standard. God has no external standard or law imposed upon him. He is that standard. And so God has created these laws for us to keep because they reflect his character. As Paul says in Titus, God cannot lie. And so if God cannot lie, he requires the same standard of his own people. coveting and stealing, things like that, those are all antithetical to who God is and his character of love. So when you look at the laws of God, especially the eternal moral laws, those are reflections of who God is, not just some standard, but God himself. And so when we are breaking God's law, we're not just breaking his law in itself, but we are an affront to the holy God who made that law. Does that make sense? Sounds kind of philosophical, maybe, but we want to make sure that we don't let God be conformed to any standard outside Himself, but that God is Himself that standard. Well, we're about out of time, so next week, Lord willing, we will talk more about justice. How does God's righteousness manifest itself in His judgeship over the world? Any questions before we conclude this morning? Yeah, God not only gives a standard, he is a standard. And that's, I think, important in context for those of us who are parents to communicate as well, is you're not just disobeying mommy or daddy when you're disobeying God's word. You're not just disobeying a law, but you're disobeying a person and not conforming to that person. That way you see not just a law being broken, but you see a fellowship being broken. So when you are sinning, you're not just doing something that's not following a particular law, but you are breaking your fellowship with God when you do such a thing. keeps people from wanting to be Pharisees and just doing what's right and wrong on a list, but seeing sin as an affront to God and disrupting our fellowship with God. Just like our children, when we discipline them, we want to make sure that we have some reconciliation so that they see once their forgiveness is there, that the relationship is restored. And so they see breaking a law in terms of a breaking of a fellowship, not just a breaking of a standard. And that's what we teach them in relation to us, so that when they get older, we trust they will transfer that in their view of what sin is in relation to God. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, we can also make sure that we communicate that to our children when they're older, is that there are some laws that mom and dad give that aren't absolute moral standards, like you go to bed at 7, 8, 9 o'clock. Those aren't part of God's moral law. They obey it because mom and dad say so. But we also want to make sure to distinguish that lying and disobedience and those sorts of things are the root kinds of things that we will not tolerate because they are an affront to God himself. So they see God's laws versus mom and dad's laws. Any last questions? Okay, let's pray. Father, we praise you as the psalmist did for your righteousness and your justice. We praise you for that righteous standard that you not only have given to us, but that you are we know that everything you do is righteous and just, even if we and our humanness may question your purposes, we see, as the psalmist does in 73, that the righteous, or the unrighteous rather, seemingly being blessed by you, they have good lives with no troubles, they're wealthy and they're happy, while the righteous struggle day to day, and yet we know that you are the righteous judge and you will to make all the accounts right in the future. And most of all, you have granted us the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. And you have made it possible for us to be righteous because Jesus Himself paid the penalty for our unrighteousness. You have granted us righteousness each day as we walk in You and someday You will grant us perfect righteousness where we will always perfectly conform to Your holy standard because we will be like Christ Himself. Thank you for that beautiful truth that is the heart of the gospel, that you have made us righteous in Christ. Help us to walk in righteousness as a result. For Jesus' sake, amen.