The Cross of Christ

2 quid in 5 versus 16 to 21. So from now on, we regard no 1 from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old has gone. The new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciled the world to himself in Christ. Not cabin people sins against them, and he has committed to us this message or reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconcile to God. God made him who was no sin to be sin for us, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. And then Luke, chapter 18 versus 9 through 14.

To some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable, 2 men went up to the temple to pray, 1 a pharisee and the other a task collector. The pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax letter. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breath and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Well, good evening from me. I love making you do it. I relish it now.

The awkward silence, when I say, good evening. And good evening if you're you're tuning in at home as well. We will be referring to those passages, but not just those passages as we go along as as many of you know, we've been going through the cross. I'm looking at the different aspects of that, and it is just phenomenal. I mean, people might think, oh, I'm gonna get a bit bored talking about the cross, but there's just so many angles that you can take.

With the cross. And tonight, we're gonna be looking at the topic of righteousness. So let's pray as we start. Father, we do thank you for tonight. We thank you that we're able to come and that we're able to hear from your words And we thank you so much for the cross of Christ.

We thank you for all that it is for us and to us. And we pray that as we reflect on this now, that you will help us to just understand the weight of it. They will understand the glory of it. That we will fall more in love with you as a result of it. And so as a result of that, we pray father and that we will endeavor to live righteous lives.

We prayed us in Jesus' name, our men. Now, I wonder what answer you would give me if I asked you, what is the greatest problem that faces humanity? What is the greatest problem that faces humanity. I am you know, when I start with these questions, I like to type them up on the internet and you get a whole of answers. There's always it's really doomy and gloomy actually.

It's like 10 things that are most threatening to humanity. Oh, goodness me. And so it's all it's all the the normal stuff. So at the moment, the big I I guess the big 1 on everyone's agenda is the environment. We need to save the planet.

In fact, we I mean, you might have seen on the news this week. Insulate Britain have taken upon themselves to saved the planet by sitting on the m 25. That is for them the greatest issue. Okay. Maybe it's not maybe it's not the environment For some, for others, it might be this whole issue of COVID.

I was I was surprised to see if we and Jerusalem went up to Candon yesterday, and there's still people walking down the streets holding placards, saying, don't inject my babies and all this sort of stuff. And actually, they've all gone at 1 point and there was still 1 woman holding a big yellow thing saying it's a fake disease. And and preaching at me that it's a fake disease, because it's the greatest issue that that is not real. For others, It's the other way around. COVID's the biggest issue because it's it's killed so many people.

Or maybe people say suffering or or poverty or or racism. I mean, that's been all over our TV. Say, no, say as as what the BBC, sky sports, it's all standing up against racism, standing up against discrimination. What is the greatest problem facing humanity? We've got all sorts of answers here.

But the bible and actually, the passage that we read in 2 Corinthians gives us a very different answer. The Bible says that our greatest issue, our greatest problem as humanity is war. It's war. Now you might be thinking, well, we're not at war at the moment really, are we? I know the Afghanistan stuff's happened, but technically, we're not really at war with anyone.

But it's not war with a people group with a tribe. It's and it's not war with another country. The greatest problem facing humanity is that we are at war with God. We are at war with God. That is the greatest issue.

Not only are we at war with God, but actually we're the guilty party in the war with God, we're the aggresses as it were. We're the ones that have started the fights. That's that's why in this 2 Corinthians passage, It's got all this reconciliation language. You might have seen the word reconciliation used time and time again. Well, we need reconciling When we're at odds with someone, when we're at conflict with someone, when we're at war with someone.

And the truth of the Bible is that we have gone to war with God. We have gone to war with God. We have entered his territory We have entered the place where he rules, and we have decided to wage war against him. We have decided to wage war against his rule. Because that is what sin is.

Sin, essentially, is me opposing God's rule That's what sin is. It's me saying, actually, I'm gonna be the 1 who rules. I'm gonna be the king. I'm gonna decide what's right and what's wrong. And so we are at war with gods, the problem is we cannot win this war.

There's only gonna be 1 winner, and that's gods. And I don't know If you know about what happens after wars, but usually what occurs is you get some war trials. Don't you? I don't know. After after the the second world war, we had the Nuremberg trial where chief Nazi figures were judged for what they'd done and judged to be guilty of war crimes.

Well, actually, it's the same in the bible. We are guilty of war crimes. We are guilty and we stand before him in his court of law, and we face condemnation. The verdict is a resounding guilty. Guilty, guilty.

So if that's the biggest issue, If that's our biggest problem, what is this Is there a solution? What is it? If there if there is a solution? How can we achieve an innocent verdict? How do we get away from not being guilty and being innocent?

How will we try and get right with God? How will we known to be righteous? How will it What will we rely on to justify us ourselves? You see the words righteous and justification are basically the same in the same words. What is it that makes you right with God?

What is it that will get you off the condemnation. I think there's 2 solutions that we might go for. 1 will work, 1 will not First 1, solution 1, self righteousness, self righteousness. Now, I guess we've all experienced at some point. Now when I when a child or a student or or someone like this does does something wrong.

Often often in teaching this, you give them attention, and then they try and work it off. Suddenly, you've you've given them the punishment, And then they've become the best behaved person in the world. And at the end, they go, oh, can you let me off now? Because look, after all this after that, you know, I worked really hard. I didn't I didn't talk anymore.

I did all my work. You know, the kid at home, I I I cleaned the room. I hoovered the floor. They try and get out of it by doing lots and lots of good things. Right?

And they they're always gutted when you go, yes, thank you for doing all that good stuff, but you still are getting punished, which is great. So this is self righteousness. Self righteousness is where I try and do lots and lots of good things to make up for my wrong. It's it's where I I do I keep lots of rules And in fact, I sometimes make rules to make sure I'm right. And there's loads and loads of people like this, people that try and run a family in a self righteous manner, where everything has to be done the way that they want to do it.

I remember hearing a story about 1 married man who on a on a on a certain day would make his family sit in a room with him while he watched his TV programs. That's a self righteous attitude right there. It's it's it's it's some people that religiously follow the laws of the land. In fact, I don't know if you've seen these kind of people. I saw a video the other day, and and they so want to follow the laws of the land, that they even try to make other people follow the laws of the land.

So they're they're on on the road when you're in your car. And you you're stuck in a queue. And there's people using this outside lane, how dare they? So what do they do? They drive into the outside lane, driving really slowly so no 1 get past them.

She will follow the rules. It's about keeping rules. It's about making rules. It's about doing lots and lots of good things, lots and lots of charity things. Hoping that that is what will get me right with God.

Some of you may remember we watched a film after the media fast. It was called Notz in May. It's a Woodcock favorite. It really divided opinion in this church. Some people were incredibly confused and angry about it, and others loved it.

But that 1 of the main characters in Nazi May is a bloke called Keith. Keith is a self righteous man. Keith is all about keeping the laws. You would Keith says that you have to chew a certain amount of times before you swallow your food. Chief is a vegetarian, and everyone else should be a vegetarian as well.

Keith makes sure that his wife follows the rules that he follows. This is the self righteous type. It's like that farrowsy that we just read about in Luke. Did you hear what he was saying? In verse 10 to 11 to verse 11.

Sorry. The pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I am not like other people. Robbers, he will do his adulterous, or even like this task collector, I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. It's all about him. This is what the self righteousness is like.

The problem with self righteousness though is that it usually leads to either pride or despair. It either leads to pride or despair. Pride when I have kept all the rules, and I've done all the good works, and I looked down at someone else not quite as good as me and say, I am greater than you. But despair that when you fail, you're devastated. When you fail, you're not sure if you're good enough.

And it's interesting if you read what God thinks of even these good works that they do, he is not best pleased. Isaiah says this. All of us have become like 1 who was unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf. And like the wind, our sin sweep us away.

That word, filthy rags, even the good works that people try and do, even the rule keeping that they try and do to God is like filthy rags. Now, that word is a lot stronger in the original. That word is mental class, and they're bloodied. It's disgusting to to God. This is filthy.

The self righteous good works are filthy. And see, when the self righteous person is challenged or exposed because of this, They are furious. See, going back to that going back to that film, nuts in May. Keith, when when he's exposed and when he's challenged about his self righteous by someone who's not as self righteous as of him, goes, absolutely create 1. He finds out that the man eats sausages and he says, you shouldn't be eating sausages.

That's a fine moment in the film. And then there's another good bit where he's got a big log in his hand. He says, I'll knock your block off. I mean, that's funny, but actually, self righteousness at its ugliest. Self righteousness at its ugliest in the Bible sees a brother killer brother.

As Cain brings his gift that he thinks is gonna get him right with guards, and he's not approved off because it's like filthy rad. And he sees his brother, able, accepted on the basis of faith. He murders his brother. Self righteousness is ugly. Self righteousness is angry.

Self righteousness in the new testament, those who are right who look good are so angry when they're challenged and when they're exposed by a real righteous 1 in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they send him to a cross. That is self righteousness. It cannot work. It cannot save you. Now you might be sitting here going, oh, great.

Well, I'm actually a rebel Not legalistic. I'm alright. Right? Well, no. Because look, even if you're a rebel, You're still you're still someone who's self righteous.

You're still someone that is trying to live in a way that gets you right with God. The book of judges is is a phenomenal book. If you ever get time to read it, 1, it's got a cracking stories, but it really reveals self righteousness because it says this at the end, it's got 2 repeating phrases at the end of judges. It says, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and in those days Israel had no king. And so they do what is right in their own eyes.

They do whatever makes you happy. They do what they think culture says is right. So just because you're a rebel, you're still trying to get right with god. You're just trying to do it in your own way. You're making your own rules.

And the the issue is there, you get just as much pride and despair. The pride of look at that saddle keeping the rules. I'm not like that. Yeah? The despair of, oh, I don't fit in, and I'm devastated.

See, the problem with this this solution of self righteousness, This is the problem with it, is it's actually repeating exactly the same thing that got you into the predicament in the first place. It's just repeating the same thing. You're all you're doing by trying to be self righteous and trying to do all these good things to get right with God, It's just adding to the case against you. You're just increasing that list of wrongs that you have done. Why?

Because self righteousness is sin. Self righteousness is at the very heart of sin because I'm deciding what is right. I'm deciding what's right. God, you're not the 1 who's gonna tell me what's right. You're not gonna be the 1 that tells me what rules to keep.

I will. That is sin. And so we get these amazing verses in Romans. Roman's 3 verse 10 to 12 says, as it is written, there is no 1 righteous, not even 1. There is no 1 who understands There is no 1 who seeks guards.

All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no 1 who does good, not even 1. And then 3 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. See, self righteousness will not fix your problem.

Self righteousness is the problem. Self righteousness is the very thing that makes you stand condemned before God. Self righteousness is how you're warring against God. So don't rely on self righteousness. Don't think that you can come to this law court of God, and he goes, well, Well, how do you respond to these these guilty charges?

And you can say, well, look, I sat on the m 25 to save the planet. Guilty. Well, look, I protested. I I I I I posted on my Instagram page against racism, guilty. I did I kept all your rules.

God, I prayed every day. Guilty. I went to church, religiously guilty. Don't rely. On your self righteousness to get yourself right with God.

And if you're a Christian, don't you dare go back to self righteousness? Don't you start trying to earn favor with God now? It's exactly what colossians 2 preaches against. So solution 1, not really a solution, is it? Self righteousness.

Solution 2, Christ righteousness. Christ righteousness. Now Usually after you've done that whole, there's no 1 good, no 1 is righteous. We're we're meant to feel, I think, pretty hopeless and pretty helpless here. Right?

Well, I've tried everything, and I still can't get right with God. That Romans 3 really paints out vividly that Romans 1 to 3, you're thinking, oh my goodness. Well, who can be right with God then? Because to achieve righteousness on our own is impossible. I mean, we shouldn't we should really know that.

I mean, The fact is that there's a whole books written about how to be right with God like Leviticus, and they still have to have a whole sacrificial system to try and do it. It's impossible to to to do this. But listen, it is really good to be brought down to this state. It's good to be to know the really, really bad news. You cannot be righteous with God.

You can't be righteous with God. You're condemned. It's good to know the bad news. Why? So we can revel in the good news.

We can revel in the good news. Look down at verse 21 of of 2 corinthians 5. And and read read this with me. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

Now did you did you read that I don't think you did because I didn't hear any breath being taken away. So let me read that again. Maybe it was a bad read, probably was. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

Thank you, though. You took a breath in. That is stunning. That is 1 of the greatest I mean, I I I I should I don't know. I haven't memorized that verse.

It's so good. See, how do we fix the problem of our our condemnation before God. How do we fix the problem of being at war with God? We don't. You can't.

God does. It is he that goes forward to reconcile us he takes the first step to reconciliation. Even though, I'm the aggressor, I'm the 1 that's gone into the territory and tries to have war with God, God said, I'll take the first step for reconciliation. I will make the peace treaty. And it's not like the a a peace treaty If you ever studied history, which you all should do, by the way, the treaty of Versailles after the World War 1 was crippling to Germany.

But God's peace treaty is glorious. It doesn't cripple us. It makes us it makes us right. I mean, just these these words are just fantastic. Look what it said.

First 21, he made him who had no sin to be sin. He makes Christ who had no sin. He makes Christ, who is the perfect, pure, innocent, righteous lamb of God. We just sang. No stay, no trace of sin.

We saw when we read the nicene creed the other day, that that pilot could find no fault in this man. This is the most foughtless, righteous man in the world that has ever existed. But He makes him who had no sin. He makes him sin. He makes him sin.

All of my self righteousness. All of your self righteousness. All of that times where you said, I'm gonna rule myself. Christ becomes that sin. All the times that that you've manifested the self righteousness, whether that's Whether that's keeping the rules or whether it's doing something wrong, Christ becomes that sin.

And he is judged for it. I mean, can you get your heads around this? Can you get your heads around this? The 1 that has never had sin ever is made sin. So alien to him, and he must have felt so dirty.

And he is judged. He's judged for sin. Why? Well, 2 words there in verse 21 for us. For us.

He's made sin, the 1 who was pure faultless, sinless, was made sin for us. But listen, there's more. It doesn't stop I mean, it just gets better and better this verse, doesn't it? Because there's more. Because he doesn't just stop there.

It doesn't just stop at Jesus being made sin. Look with me at the second part so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Our biggest problem is that we're at war with God. Our biggest problem is that we try and rely on our self righteousness, which makes us worthy of condemnation, and Christ comes in. And he says, I will take your sin, and I will become your sin, and you will become righteous.

You will be the very righteousness of God. You. You. The filthy sinner, the 1 whose good works alone are filthy rags to God. The 1 who stands condemned, the 1 who was of the aggressor, the 1 who is totally deserving of condemnation, can be known as the righteousness of God.

We can be declared innocent. We can walk away justified. Our biggest problem dealt with brought into a right relationship with the God of this universe, the God who created all things, and we can now be in relationship with him as he as he digs joy in us, and he delights in us. This is phenomenal. Now some people see these verses, and they just they just view this as as forensic.

Oh, it's great. Now now it's just a a law thing. But this is beautiful, isn't it? That we can be known as the righteousness of God. Martin Luther on these verses said this.

It's a fantastic quote. This is the mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners, wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours, but Christ and the righteousness of Christ, not Christ, but us. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it. And he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them. In the same manner as he grieved and suffered in our sins and was am founded in the same manner we rejoice and glory in his righteousness.

This is a wonderful exchange. See, we cannot solve this problem, but god can, and he does so with his free gift of righteousness. That's a glorious thing. It's not even not even costing you anything. It's free.

Look at these next verses. All we have to do, by the way, like you do when you get a present, you don't have to pay for a present, do you? I mean, unless you're doing Christmas wrong. Yeah? What we have to do is just take it.

Thank you. That's what that's what it is with this righteousness. This is a gift of of grace. It's a gift to be received by faith. We just take it.

Look at these verses in Romans really get Paul really goes for this in Romans. But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. The righteousness is given through faith. We just have to receive it by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. 4 verse 4 to 5.

Now to the 1 who works wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the 1 who does not work, but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, Their faith is credited as righteousness, the free gift of righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. It's a free gift of grace Take it. Take it by faith.

Another verse in Philippians, 2 verses. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, not getting justified by self righteousness in this Paul. But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Paul saying, I'm not relying on self righteousness. I'm relying on the gift of God, the gift of Christ, the gift of righteousness.

And so my question is, have you done that? Have you accepted this gift of righteousness? Have you done it? If not, why not? It's free.

Doesn't cost you anything. It's free. Take it and know a right relationship with God. Here's an old song. We we sometimes sing this in church.

It's fantastic. Rock of ages. Here's the the second and third verse. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill by law's demands. I can't self righteousness doesn't work.

Could my zeal no respite no? Could my tears forever flow? All could never sin a raise. Thou must save and save by grace. And then nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling Make it come to thee for dress, helpless, look to thee for grace, foul.

I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior. Or I die. No amount of good works, no amount of rule keeping, no amount of doing what is right in your own eyes. Can get you right with god. We must like the tax collector say, God have mercy on me a sinner.

Solution 2 is Christ righteousness. Last point, being God's righteousness. Being God's righteousness. See, it doesn't just stop at receiving this got this gift once and for all of them, and we're right, and then we could just do whatever we wanna do. Go back to doing some self righteous stuff.

It's not like I'm now righteous in God's court so I can do whatever I want. No. In verse 17 of to Corinthians, it says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The oldest gone and the new has the new is here. In other words, you're a new person.

You have a new heart You have new desires, you have new affections. We're now, as it says in verse 20, Christ's ambassadors, were his representatives, and so the new testament exhorts us. It tells us to live righteous lives. It doesn't just stop. It's it's not just I've been given right but I've also been given righteousness and grace to live a righteous life.

And so we get verses like these on the screen for we are God's handy work created in crises to do good works. Timothy, flee the evil desires of youth and pursue you, righteousness, faith, love and peace. 1 Peter he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds you have been healed. We've seen in in previous sermons on the sermon on the mount where to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Were commanded by the Lord Jesus to be perfect.

So we don't just stop at trusting in Christ once. We must continually live and progressively live a righteous life and and day by day, put off sin, and and live for Jesus, and and and and and and love him, and obey him. We'll have a desire to do that, and we'll have a desire to, like, be like Paul and appeal to those around us and say, look, you're at war with God, but there's reconciliation on offer. There's a wonderful gift of righteousness on offer. It doesn't stop.

We must continually live the righteous life until that day when we will be perfectly righteous with the father forever. So how are you getting on with this? How are you getting on with this? Maybe Maybe you're sitting here and you come in week in week out, and actually you've grown numb to this. And this is just a a forensic thing.

It's just a a doctrine that I know. Well, can I urge you revel in this this this glorious news that you have been made right with God? Maybe you've realized that actually you're trying to justify yourself, and actually you've gone away from Christ and you're gone to do and self righteous stuff. Well, can I urge you, repent? Turn back to God.

Turn back to the Lord Jesus. Turn back trusting him and him alone. Luther says in in the second half of that quote actually says, Learn to know Christ and Him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say, Lord, Jesus, you are my righteousness. I am your sin.

You have taken upon yourself, what is mine, and given me what is yours, you have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not. Lant to sing that song. Learn to pray that prayer. Learn to trust in Christ's righteousness. Maybe you're here, or maybe you've tuned it online, and you've never ever accepted that free gift of righteousness.

Well, can I like the apostle Paul in these verses? In verse 20, can I implore you Can I implore you, be reconciled to god? Can I plead with you to come and know the free gift of righteousness? Can I plead with you to let Jesus be your sin and take his righteousness? Let me pray.

Father, we thank you for this awesome news. We thank you that that we were at war with you once, but you took the steps for reconciliation so that we may be the very righteousness of God. And so we pray father that we will not live self righteous lives, but we will trust and obey the Lord Jesus that we will accept this free gift of righteousness and out of love and out of amazing amazement and out of wonder. We will live a righteous life. We pray this in Jesus 9, amen.