I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3 as we continue our consecutive exposition of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. I'm going to begin this morning by reading verses 7 through 10. Philippians 3, beginning in verse 7. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. It's verse nine that we're going to particularly direct our attention to this morning. It focuses on righteousness and where this righteousness comes from. Paul expresses his desire to be found in Christ and being in Christ to have this new righteousness. I'm gonna approach this study this morning by asking three questions about our text and attempting to answer them both from this text and also from God's word as a whole. And the first question I want to explore is this. What is righteousness? in the way that Paul uses it here. And the second part of that question is important. In the way that Paul uses it here. In Philippians 3 verse 9, what does righteousness mean? The way that Paul uses it here is the way that it's often used in scripture and especially in discussions like this one. So I don't mean to suggest that there's some special meaning for righteousness here in this passage. In fact, I'm going to use a few other passages where the word has the same meaning that it does here to show this meaning. And the first place I want to go is the first time that it's used in the New Testament. At least in the way that we order the books of the New Testament. This is in Matthew chapter 3. It's before Jesus has started His earthly ministry. And John the Baptist has been preparing the way. John had been preaching repentance, pointing to the kingdom, and baptizing people. So Jesus came to John in Matthew 3, 13 and 14. It says Jesus came to be baptized by him. Now John initially was not on board with that plan. The text says John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? But look at what Jesus says then in verse 15. Jesus is saying that in doing this, by John baptizing Jesus, they will be working toward Jesus fulfilling all righteousness. I'm not going to get into why being baptized was part of fulfilling all righteousness for Jesus. That's a subject for another sermon. I just want to recognize here that it was part of Jesus fulfilling all righteousness because Jesus says so. And the point I want to make is that this righteousness, righteousness in this sense is something that needs to be fulfilled. It's a standard that needs to be met. It's a measure that needs to be attained. It's an objective that needs to be accomplished. This is why God the Son became a man. At least, this was the first part of his mission, to accomplish perfect righteousness, to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness, in this sense, is not just the quality of being disposed toward righteousness. Righteousness, again, in this sense, is not a quality. It's not just a characteristic. It's an accomplishment. And I keep emphasizing in this sense, because the word can be used to describe equality, and sometimes it is used that way in scripture. But here, it refers to what Jesus accomplished, to what Jesus fulfilled. This is why Jesus had to enter the world as a human baby and had to live for 30 some years and had to experience all human weaknesses and temptations in order to achieve this righteousness. He had to live it. He had to do it. He had to fulfill it. When Paul talks about righteousness in Philippians chapter three, he's not talking about Jesus' eternal righteousness, although Jesus certainly has been eternally righteous. But Paul means the specific righteousness that Jesus accomplished during his time on earth. And a third thing that we can extrapolate from this is that this righteousness is the basis of right standing with God. You must have this righteousness to be right with God. I see it as analogous to this. Now, every once in a while, an athlete will come along, in whatever sport you choose, who is described as a generational talent. He has all the ability in the world. He has the potential to break every record. The talent is undeniably there. He has the skill or the quality that will be necessary for the greatness that the fans expect from him. But until he actually wins some games, and some championships until he puts up the numbers. He hasn't accomplished anything. They don't put you in the Hall of Fame because of your potential, or your athleticism, or raw ability, or talent. You have to do it to get that standing. And in the same way, Jesus had to live the life. He had to fulfill all righteousness before he could impute it to anyone. Because that is where standing with God comes from. From someone actually doing it. Now, this is very much the way the Jews thought of righteousness during Jesus' time on earth and leading up to that. And particularly, this is the way the Pharisees thought of it. Righteousness, for them, particularly the law, had to be fulfilled. You had to do what it said. It wasn't just a quality that you possessed. They believed that the righteousness was in the doing, in the accomplishment of it. And then, they held, that righteousness was the basis for their standing with God. And so they were right as far as that went. The problem is revealed a little further on in Matthew. In Matthew 5 verse 20, while preaching his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The scribes and the Pharisees were right that righteousness had to be fulfilled, that it was an accomplishment, not merely a quality, and that that was what determined their standing with God. They got that part right, but their error. Their fatal error was that they thought that they had done it or that they even could do it. They thought they fulfilled the law and had achieved a right standing with God based on their righteousness. Jesus says no. You need a righteousness that exceeds that or you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The most devoted men do not fulfill all righteousness. The Pharisees were committed. They were dedicated. They studied the law. They broke it down. And then they devoted themselves to fulfilling it, to accomplishing all that it asked as they understood it. But Jesus said, that's not good enough. It's not good enough. I want to take you to a couple more passages. And we'll stay in Matthew for these two. First, in Matthew 13, when Jesus explained the parable of the weeds to his disciples, he concluded his explanation by describing judgment. saying, the son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. And notice what the basis is for judgment. The lawbreakers are condemned to the fiery furnace, while the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. The difference is righteousness. A little further down, still in Matthew 13, in the parable of the net, in verse 49, Jesus said, so it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again, the issue in judgment is righteousness. And finally let's go much further on in Matthew to chapter 25. Again Jesus is describing judgment and beginning in verse 31 he said, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And then, over the next several verses, He described what was going to happen during that judgment. And when he came to his conclusion in verse 46, he said, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. And again, the issue in judgment, the deciding factor between eternal punishment and eternal life, is righteousness. Judgment will be based on this righteousness. I understand that some understand the various accounts of judgment to refer to different judgments that will occur at different points in time. My point is, it all comes down to righteousness. Even in the passage we looked at a few moments ago, where Jesus pointed to the Pharisees. He didn't say unless your faith exceeds that of the Pharisees. He didn't say unless your belief exceeds that of the Pharisees or your acceptance of me exceeds that of the Pharisees. What Jesus said was unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not enter eternal life. Your judgment, whether you enter eternal life or eternal punishment, heaven or hell, comes down to whether the requirements for righteousness, for your life, have been fulfilled. So when Paul wrote these words to the Philippians, when he talks about this righteousness that he desires, It is first a righteousness that must be fulfilled. It's a righteousness that must be accomplished to have any value. It is not merely a quality. Here, Paul is not saying that he desires for himself the capacity to be righteous. He does want that, but that alone would not be enough to justify him, to save him. He needs the accomplishment of the required righteousness because he recognizes that that is the basis of his standing with God. He can only be right with God when God's standard of righteousness is met for him. Furthermore, he recognizes that the most devoted men cannot attain this level of righteousness, and that ultimately this righteousness, or lack thereof, will be the basis of his judgment. Heaven or hell, for Paul, and for all men, will come down to this question, whether God's righteous standard has been met. When you put it all together, it's sobering. And taken alone, without any outside intervention, it's terrifying. To consider what the requirement is and what's at stake and then our inability to meet the requirement. All people have a sense of this and innate knowledge built in by their creator of his existence and of their accountability to him. Romans chapter 1 says for what can be known about God is Plain to them because God has shown it to them For his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly Perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse Deep down, everybody knows this. They know that there is a God. And it gets worse for them. Romans continues, for although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And then further down in verse 32, it continues. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. And in chapter two, verse two, we know. that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. We know this. God says we know it. Deep down, all people know this, and it haunts them. They respond in various ways. Some just deny it altogether. And they go to great lengths to convince themselves that there is no God. There is no judgment. Morality is whatever they decide it is. And we are accountable to no one but ourselves. They know it's not true. God says they know. He says he has shown them, and yet they choose to live in this delusion. Others try to distract themselves from their horrifying fate by any means possible, by vices, drunkenness, sexual immorality, or by entertainments and other diversions. or just by busyness, work, and family, anything to fill their minds with except the reality of coming judgment. Others at least try to do something about it. They seek righteousness on their own. Virtually every religion comes down to some form of this, often badly misunderstanding the nature of God and His righteous requirement. and yet they pursue some form of righteousness that they think will appease God, however they understand Him. Sometimes they do this with great devotion, sometimes in a more perfunctory way, but always with the vain hope that they can somehow improve their fate. This is what Paul meant by righteousness in Philippians 3. This is what he understood when he wrote that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. the righteousness from God that depends on faith. So I want to dig a little deeper into this verse and understand what he said about this righteousness. He said he desired a righteousness not of my own that comes from the law. Now earlier we looked briefly at Matthew 5 verse 20 where Jesus said, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. While our Lord makes it clear that the righteousness of these particular dedicated men did not fulfill what God requires, does that mean that no one can fulfill it? No, I suppose that this verse doesn't say that. So let's consider a second question. Can any man fulfill the righteousness that God requires? We've already seen in Romans 1 and into Romans 2 the case that Paul makes against man, establishing man's guilt before God. But Paul was only just beginning with what we read there. Listen to what he writes when we get to Romans 3 and beginning in verse 10. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Paul continues from there. And the picture he paints doesn't get any better. So can any man, can any human being fulfill the righteousness that God requires? No. According to God, no one does. No one has fulfilled the righteousness that is necessary to have right standing with God. No one's righteousness is going to be judged adequate to enter eternal life. And this passage in Romans makes that abundantly clear. But Paul's still not done. A few verses later, in Romans 3, verse 20, he writes, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. All the law can do for you is to show you how sinful you really are. The law can diagnose your problem, but it can't cure it. And any attempt to attain the righteousness required by God just by keeping the law is futile. It's too late. That ship has already sailed. You've already broken the law. Even if you could keep it now, which you can't, but even if you could, it wouldn't make up for the guilt that you already bear. So Paul isn't interested in a righteousness of his own that comes from the law because that righteousness isn't righteousness at all. That's why Paul calls it rubbish or dung just a few verses ago in Philippians. It's worse than worthless because it will land you in hell. Then what hope is there? What hope is there for anyone? If God requires a certain righteousness that has to be lived out, that must be fulfilled in order to have right standing with Him and to avoid condemnation in judgment, And if we are all wholly unable to meet that requirement because we've already failed to do so, what hope is there? Is it any wonder that so many people go to such great lengths to avoid dealing with this reality, the reality of sin and judgment and condemnation? And yet there is hope. A hope that Paul has realized and that he points us toward. A righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. I want to use Paul's statement here to answer one more question. Our third question. And that is, how can I attain this righteousness? This righteousness that is something that must be fulfilled, that's more than just a quality, but is an accomplishment, that is the basis for my standing with God, that even the most devoted men cannot attain for themselves, and that will one day be the basis on which I am judged. How can I attain that righteousness? There are three things that I want to bring out from our text to answer that question. First, this righteousness must be received from God. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says it plainly. I know most of you know those verses well. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. It is a gift of God. That is the only way that you can receive this righteousness. by the grace of God. Or let's go back to Romans. The last verse that we looked at in Romans was Romans 3 verse 20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The next verse, verse 21, says, but now The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it. This is a righteousness that does not come from you obeying the law, although the law and the prophets validate it. They bear witness to it. But how is this possible? this is a righteousness that must be fulfilled, how does God supply it to me? If it must be accomplished, lived out, then how does that happen if I can't do it? Well the second thing that I want to bring out then from our text in response to this question is that this righteousness is accomplished by Christ. It's all Christ. Man couldn't do it. Because of man's sin he could no longer fulfill the righteous requirement of God. Man's standing with God was demolished. and man was destined for condemnation, eternal punishment, hell, because the standard was not met. So God the Son became a man. He entered into the human race as the Messiah. As we saw earlier, He fulfilled all righteousness. Do not think, Jesus said in Matthew 517, that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Now man had a problem, that he could not fulfill the righteousness that God required. So God intervened to solve man's problem. But God didn't do it by abolishing the standard. He didn't do it by waiving the requirement. Instead, he fulfilled it. God himself fulfilled the requirement of righteousness that God had placed on man. That's what Jesus meant when he said, don't think that I came to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it. In first Corinthians one verse 30, Paul writes, and because of him, you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God. And what does that include? Righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Sanctification is making us holy. It's setting us apart for God. Redemption is to buy us back by paying the penalty for our sin. We haven't talked about that this morning, but it is essential that Jesus paid our penalty. But what I wanna focus on here is that Jesus became to us righteousness. He provided for me what I could not provide for myself. He accomplished righteousness such that the Father could look on that righteousness and say, yes, that is deserving of reward. That righteousness deserves a right standing with me. That righteousness passes judgment and opens the door to eternal life. That is the righteousness that Paul desired and needed. And it is the only righteousness that will save any one of us. All that remains of the question is how each one of us can receive this righteousness. Now that Christ has accomplished it, How is it credited to my account? Paul says it twice. Faith. It is the righteousness that comes through faith. And it is the righteousness that depends on faith. So how can I attain this righteousness? Through faith in Christ. Now, it's important to understand. It's not the faith that saves you. God has chosen to use faith as the means by which he transfers the righteousness of Christ to you. But it is the righteousness, that righteousness of Christ, that will be judged worthy when you stand before him. And it is on that basis that you will enter into eternal life. And the righteous, Jesus said, will enter eternal life. Now, of course, they always go together, faith and righteousness. Righteousness is always credited to those who put their faith in Christ to save them from their sin. So where you have faith in Christ, then you always have the righteousness of Christ. Back to Romans chapter three. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. for all who believe, for there is no distinction. So whether or not you have faith, true faith in Christ is a perfect indication of whether or not you are saved. But it's not the faith that saves you. We are saved by the righteousness that Jesus accomplished on our behalf. and his sacrificial death that paid the penalty for our sin. If it was only about faith, then Jesus could have just sent another prophet to tell us to believe. Or he could have just ignited this faith in us by his Holy Spirit. But he had to come as a man in order to live the life and die the death so that we could be saved. All of this happens when we are in Him. When we are in Christ. Paul continues to hammer home this theme that he trumpets over and over in Philippians and in all of his epistles. It is only when we are in Christ, when we are dressed in His righteousness, that we will have right standing with God. And Paul looks forward to that day when he, Paul, stands before the throne of God and being found in Christ, he will be judged blameless and worthy to enter eternal life. We're going to close in just a moment by singing, On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. The sweetest frame here, that is the best a person could possibly be. That's what it means. The best form that a human being could ever have. but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And I'd like you to pay particular attention to the final verse, which will be the third verse that we're going to sing this morning. It is a blessing to sing hymns that were written by those who clearly knew the Word of God and who, through their lyrics, point us to God's Word and to the truth that God reveals there. And I want you to take note of how this hymn reflects the truth that we've studied this morning. when he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Because Jesus' righteousness is the only righteousness that will stand up under judgment. And if on that day you are found in him, you will be clothed in his righteousness and you will be judged worthy according to what he has done. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this magnificent truth. Father, thank you that we do not have to attain the standard on our own because we can't. Thank you that your son was willing to come and do it for us, that he lived a perfect life, that he met the standard that you had set out, that he fulfilled all righteousness. Father, thank you that he then died a redeeming death to pay this penalty for our sin, for our failure to do what you require, and that he has made this available to us by faith. Father, if anyone here has failed to do that, to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you would open their hearts, that you would quicken their sense of sin in their lives and cause them to put their faith in Christ. And for the rest of us, Father, I pray that you would continue to remind us. that it is nothing of what we do, but only based on what the Lord Jesus accomplished in his life and by his death that we can be saved. In Jesus' name, amen.