The Righteous Man

The world tells us many messages every day. From Facebook, to Twitter, to Pinterest, to the newspaper, to the street preacher, to the government, to the manager, we are inundated with news, with gossip, with advice. Whether we want it or not, we always get it. But the main message we hear is a confusing mixture, isn't it? On the one hand, we're told to live life as we please. Life is in our hands. It's our destiny to do what we want. On the other hand, we're expected to conform. We must accept that our view is only good for us. And if it comes up against another worldview, we must be in the wrong. which of course makes no sense. But the world tells us there are many ways to live. And so long as we keep our noses clean and we toe the line, we can do pretty much whatever we want. I want to say this morning, the Bible also presents two ways to live. However, according to the Bible, all the other ways are on the same path. Either we live God's way, or whichever other way you choose, you are living on the second road. We're either living in obedience or we're living in rebellion against Him. And if we are in rebellion against Him, it's because of our hatred of Him. And so as we come to our passage this morning, let's remind ourselves that God's way is narrow, but the way of the world is broad. There are many paths on the broad road, to be sure, but they all are traveling to the same destination. So open your Bible to Psalm 1. If you're using a Pew Bible, that's page 448. If you don't own a Bible, please take one that you've just reached for. Consider it a gift and read it, for as we're going to see, it contains the message of life, of safety, and of hope. And let's read together, page 448, Psalm 1. Verse 1. Blessed is the man who walks not on the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. A brief word of context. Our psalm this morning, there are two characters, the righteous man and the unrighteous man or the wicked man. And we need to note that this comparison is not based upon how we as humanity, how we as men view the world. This is God's bird's eye view of humanity, righteous and unrighteous. And the first Psalm, alongside the second Psalm, set out the pattern for the entire book of Psalms. The righteous man, of which we may think King David, is one for whom the law of the Lord is a perfect righteousness, a watering hole in the midst of a dry and sinful barren wasteland. On the other hand, The Psalms teach us that the unrighteous man is one who not only hates the Lord and is in rebellion against him, he is also at war against the people of God. This is not simply a principle in the book of Psalms. This is a fundamental theological principle for all of scripture. And the question we are forced to ask ourselves is whether or not we are a righteous man or an unrighteous man. So in light of that, we probably want to know what a righteous man is. How do we identify a righteous man? That's our first heading this morning, just the righteous man. And we'll look at that through verses one to three. The righteous man. Verse one reads, blessed is the man who walks not on the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. As we read that verse, I wonder if you noticed the escalation The righteous man is defined initially here by the things that he does not do. So there's something important about this three-part escalation that's given in the negative, and let's walk through them a little bit more carefully. He walks not in the counsel of the wicked. He's one who we might say has a moral compass. He's able to stand firm against the cunning plans of the wicked. He's a man, therefore, first of all, who's wise enough to seek counsel. No man is an island, and if there's anyone refusing to seek counsel, his counsel probably isn't worthwhile listening to. But the righteous man is not only wise to seek counsel, he's discerning enough to understand when the counsel given is wicked or good. Now, how does the righteous man get that discernment? Well, the second verse makes it clear. He gets it from the law of the Lord. Just as I can tell there's darkness only by the absence of light, so too can the righteous man only tell there's wickedness by the absence of holiness. Just as you and I can tell that there's darkness only by the absence of light, can the righteous man discern wickedness by the absence of holiness? And the law of the Lord, therefore, which is scripture, is what tells the righteous man right from wrong. And sometimes it's clear, such as, don't kill. Sometimes it's more like a principle, do to others as you'd have them do to you. But the key thing about the righteous man is that he understands the way the world works through the lens of the word of God. You could say he has scripture spectacles, to be very corny. As a society, this is something that we may want to consider for a moment. Are we in the church, are we Christians who jump on the bandwagon at the first sign of something that goes against our traditions? Or the things that we consider that we hold dear? Or are we more thoughtful? Do we hold our traditions, the things that we hold dear, to the lens of scripture to see if, in fact, they are simply that, traditions that may be helpful, but not necessarily mandated in scripture? Too often it seems that the Christian is more influenced to heated debate by the gossip of daytime television, by the tabloids or the six o'clock news than by the standards in the living act of word of God. Take some time this afternoon perhaps and think about where you find the answers to the moral dilemmas in your life, at your work. at school, in your family, in your marriage? Do you run to God or do you run to the self-help section on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles? The second step of escalation tells us that the righteous man stands not in the way of the wicked. Now, this is similar to the first, but it is slightly different. Whereas in the first, the righteous man was discerning to understand poor counsel and advice, Here, the righteous man is careful to avoid unhealthy relationships that would bring out his own dangerous, sinful nature. Now, a little bit confusing for in our culture, linguistically, to stand in the way of someone means you're facing up against them. They want to go through you. You are in their way. That's not what the psalmist means. For him, it's the same as standing alongside the wicked man. is to identify with the wicked. It's like a fish within a shoal. It's being pulled along with the sheer force of those around it, moving with them whether or not it wants to. It's in the way. It's going in the pattern that they're establishing. To stand in the way, for the psalmist, means to go with the flow. And the righteous man will not do this. A word of caution. This does not mean, therefore, that we avoid sinners. That will be a difficult task. It does not mean that we avoid unbelieving sinful people by no means. Paul is clear about that in the New Testament. But it does mean that we have to be careful not to make our primary friendships be those where the righteous man cannot get loving rebuke for sinful behavior. His primary associations, therefore, must be with men who will help him on his road to being more godly, not less. So that when he does associate with those who do not believe, he will be able to stand in the way of righteousness. I think one of the ways and places we see this most clearly is in the workplace. Do we spend and find our primary friendships at work to be those in which they, our friends, refuse to consider holiness a priority. And upon that reflection, ask yourself, do you act differently around those colleagues? Do you laugh at inappropriate jokes simply because you're at work? In fact, do you act in a way that if they came to church on Donut Sunday, you'd be embarrassed by the difference they'd see in how you act around the coffee table in church than around the coffee machine in the office? After all, we must admit, it is easier to go along with that behavior than to have to explain that you're a Christian and that you find such things offensive. Perhaps they may not even know that you go to church, that you identify as a follower of Christ. Friends, it's easy to say you're a Christian when you're amidst the body. It's a challenge to live as a Christian the next, the rest, the other six days of the week. And it shouldn't be easy all the time. That's one of the ways in which we know we're living God's way is that we find opposition from the world. We'll see that in Psalm 2 next month. But consider that for most of us, 40% of our life will be spent in the office or the school or the cafe or the coffee shop or whatever it is we work. That's a lot of time not to be reflecting Christ, is it not? The psalmist asks us, are we standing in the way of the wicked? But the righteous man does not sit at the seat of scoffers either. The final step in this negative escalation is about scoffing. And this one seems a little misplaced. One is about association, one is about discernment. What does scoffing have to do with it? Well, I think scoffing implies a mindset, the influence you have received, and then it works out of your heart. It's how the two connect. Because those with whom we spend much of our time, they will inevitably have some kind of influence over us. One way in which we can discern whether the company we keep is godly or not, and healthy or not, is by the types of jokes we make. Are we people who scoff at, who mock at the things which God considers important and holy? If our friends are laughing at the prudes who refused to go and see Fifty Shades of Grey last year, and you find yourself joining in, it would suggest that you're not discerning their counsel, but rather you're standing in the way of the wicked. And why? Because God has a plan for sexuality, for marriage that is good, wholesome, safe, protected. That movie and those books do not reflect God's design. Or perhaps your friends, they don't quite understand why Christians feel so strongly about the Bible, why they read it every day. And you may find yourself deciding in that moment, do I try and correct them and explain it or do I just shrug it off and admit, yeah, you know what, some Christians are Bible bashers. scoffing at the things of God are traits of the unrighteous man, not the righteous man. Perhaps you find yourself drawn into long, arduous debates about politics and political theories and ideas, even on social media. But rather than being constructive in your discussions, your attitude is to tear down, to mock, and to ridicule, to lament the demise of a Christian country. Friends, God places whomever he chooses upon the thrones of the kingdoms of the earth. We must be wary of assuming that we know what God ought to do. And the attitude of lament suggests that our faith in the sovereignty of God doesn't rest so much about the sovereignty of God as to what we want for our own comfort. Scoffing at the plans of God are acts of the unrighteous man, not the righteous. So those are the three negative aspects that the psalmist gives about the righteous man. So what are the positive? Well, verse two, let's read verse two together. The righteous man, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. So he delights in the law. Are you beginning to see how it all fits together? Scripture is the foundation of this man's character. It's the compass for his morality. It's the platform for his identity. It's the gauge of his whole existence. And so he delights in it. Many here are married. You perhaps remember those early days of dating or courtship, perhaps even into your engagement where you weren't simply happy. or even in love, you delighted in your partner. They couldn't do anything wrong. Even when they did something wrong, they still couldn't do anything wrong. If you had a bad day, that was the person you wanted to go to, to support you, to encourage you, to build you up, to make the rain go away. If you had a good day, that was the person you wanted to share with. to know about, to join you in your joy. Your world revolved around them because how you are affects them and how they are affects you. So it is with the righteous man. His love for the Lord means that he will include the Lord in his life. This means that he'll spend time reading scripture to know best what God likes and to know best what God wants of him. It means that he'll pray because he wants to dialogue with the Lord. He wants to hear what the Lord has to say. It means that he'll spend time with godly people because he wants to experience the communion of others who bask and enjoy the Lord. And this in turn means you won't simply open your Bible to take a few boxes to say you've done your duty for today. No, when you read love letters from your spouse, you meditate over every single word. You revel in what they say about you. You revel in what they say about them. You delight in the relational love that is shared in those words, and you spend time thinking them through. That's how we're to read Scripture. This is God's letter of love to you. Reading. Studying, reveling in the words that God, the sovereign God of the universe, has placed into your small, your weak, your human hands. He's given it to you as a way to show you the depth of his love found in Christ. And perhaps a brief word ought to be said about how we ought to use scripture to help and counsel others. In the Bible, scripture speaks of itself as a sword, not as a club. You use a sword with grace and with poise. You strike and pierce a killing blow to the unrighteous man at the right time, carefully, with precision. It's not a club. You do not beat down on someone with it and bludgeon them. We're to know more than a few key select verses that back up our preferences. We strike carefully and we draw the blood of sin, but we don't bludgeon. and risk destroying the seed of faith. First and foremost, we must use scripture to pierce the poisonous boils in our own heart before we ever assist in surgery on someone else. And even then, we must do so carefully, compassionately, in love and with great care, lest we strike an artery of faith in the midst of the surgery and bring about serious repercussions. So he delights in the law of the Lord and he uses the law effectively, carefully, but he also meditates in the law day and night. And just like the engaged couple who lay awake at night contemplating a forever with the person they love, the righteous man will give real, he'll give dedicated time to the word. Why? Because in the word, he can find the very mind of God. He understands who God is, he understands who he is in God's eyes. And so rather than finding counsel from the wicked, the righteous man seeks it from the Lord. Rather than swimming with the tide of sinfulness, the righteous man discerns what is good and true by knowing the creator as he has revealed himself. rather than scoffing at the things and ideas of God, the righteous man enjoys them, seeks out the good things of God as he was designed to do. The righteous man worships appropriately. So Christian, a brief moment to think through what this looks like. How do we understand, discern, use scripture effectively. Well, for example, many of us can quote Proverbs. By their very definition, they are short, pithy statements that are meant to be memorable. But if we cannot place a proverb over and against the human frailty of lamentations or the undeserved suffering of Job, then we aren't grounded in the Proverbs correctly. What are proverbs? They're short, pithy statements that speak of general truths. Not every proverb is suited for every single circumstance. That in no way makes them untrue or false, but we need to harness that truth of what a proverb is in light of scripture rather than impose our understanding of what it might be or ought to be and then place that upon the proverb. Or another example, we often take verses out of context. Consider Jeremiah when he writes from God, for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. We love this verse. It's a beautiful verse. My mom has it on her fridge at home as a magnet. It's a promise of hope and God's goodwill for us. But can we just lift that verse straight out of Jeremiah and apply it to us today? Well, obviously, you know my answer is no. In the context of the passage, Jeremiah is speaking God's word to a people who are in exile for their idolatry, their disobedience, the rebellion. They're in exile. They're not where God had wanted them to be at that time. They feel abandoned by God. They feel their God has been destroyed by the pagan rulers of Babylon. And this promise comes to them in the midst of that harrowing brokenness. And only by grasping the context can we truly grasp the full beauty of that promise that, like Israel, God brings us trials, God disciplines us definitely, but those trials are for our good. And we can apply that to Christ and then in Christ claim that promise to ourself. We can't just rip it out of context. We have to understand scripture and how to read scripture effectively, correctly. And that means we cannot read scripture through me-focused spectacles, to use our earlier analogy. We need to read it in the way God gave us scripture. And only then can we truly grasp the full depth of what God has revealed about himself. A fair question to follow up, therefore, would be, what's the result of this? Because that sounds like hard work. It's nicer to take Jeremiah and just put it in a fridge magnet and encourage ourselves every day. Well, let's read verse 3. The toil of struggling through scripture correctly is that the righteous man is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its seasons and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The righteous man is like a tree, not just any tree. He's a healthy tree, a tree that fulfills its purpose in producing healthy fruit in season at the right time. He can stand against the trials of the world. But a tree like that doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of growing. It takes years of sunshine, rain, and wind to develop that tree. can remember in Northern Ireland as a child, I used to drive, I didn't drive, someone else drove, I was in the car, and we passed this field, and there was this really wide open field, and right in the very centre of the field was this tree, and it was a huge tree, maybe it wasn't that big, I thought it was huge, but what really struck me was this tree was uprooted and it was on its side, And the tree, although as big as it was, what really got my attention was the size of the hole that had to be dug up to pull this tree out. The tree was big, it was strong. It could have withstood storms because of the roots and how deep they went down. The roots of the tree, they went down much deeper than the tree was tall. And the righteous man is just like this. Because his delight is in the law of the Lord, he is rooted into the very character of God. And this means that when the storm of the world has come, he's able to stand firm and to stand strong. Although the wind blows and although the wolves, they come and they huff and they puff, he won't be shaken. He will not fall over and he will not be destroyed. It's the roots that keep the tree standing firm. It's scripture that keeps the righteous man grounded when the world seeks to blow him away. And we see this in the New Testament as well. James speaks of this. Being a believer, he doesn't doubt. A doubter is one who's tossed around by the seas of change, like a ship on the sea, just without a rudder. I mean, it must be real. There are very real, very painful, very difficult trials and storms out there. Just consider the challenge of illness. We cannot truly prepare for it, but it will come, and it can break us. We can become bitter and angry with God, and it's in the pain of illness that the proverb seems somewhat out of place, and where a knowledge of the suffering, the trial, the pain, the confusion of Job is most appropriate. It's the deep understanding of the richness of the testimony of Job that can give help and encouragement. Having deep roots in the law of the Lord will help us work through the trials of illness. We may never recover physically, but when we have a heavenly perspective, we can praise God in the midst of the pain of that storm, knowing that he has prepared a place for his faithful where sickness will have no place. Another storm we often have to weather is the changes that life throws at us. In time, we all will face death. And the death of a loved one has the possibility to shatter our world, to force us to confront our own mortality and to consider life without the person we love. The sudden loss of a job, it leaves us worrying about how to provide for ourselves and for our families. The changes in our society, they're beating against the door like a raucous mob outside the church. And that can be terrifying. And we can consider what it will mean to stand for Christ in a world increasingly at war against him. Even within churches, sudden change cause anger, hurt, resentment, fear, and sadness. Only by having deep roots in scripture can we stand strong amidst the trials of change. When the wind blows a different direction, the roots keep you standing firm. Doesn't mean you're not affected, but it means you'll be able to survive the trial. You'll come out of it battered and bruised, to be sure, but still standing, having weathered the storm. But the most poisonous, I think, of all the storms is the storm of temptation, the daily, hourly storms of temptation. Some temptations, they suffocate us, don't they? So strong is the assault against us, it's like we can't breathe. We feel like we're drowning with no end in sight. Our senses, they're facing a barrage of fiery darts as the enemy and the world in our own sinful nature. They're trying to break our resistance and our will, calling us, forcing us to sin against a holy God. Our minds, they're filled with the fury of the fight, one moment trying to battle the desires that are threatening to consume us, and the next we're indulging in the fantasy having given in. Suddenly we find ourselves at the laptop, clicking the all too familiar links. Suddenly we find ourselves lashing out, our temper having gotten the better of us once again. Suddenly we find ourselves unwilling to trust anyone because of the resentment we harbor. against certain people, no matter who it is or what they do to try and make amends, we're unable to free ourselves from the prison we have constrained around ourselves. Some temptations, they suffocate us, but some tickle our fancy. Rather than feeling under assault, we secretly derive pleasure. Feels good to hold a grudge, to harbor ill feeling, We'll ever admit to it, perhaps out loud, but we love the delightful feeling of being self-righteous that allows us to hold on to whatever it was that caused us offense. And in time, we'll find we become intoxicated by it. But all we've done is lost control. We're no longer delighting in the law of the Lord, but we're delighting in the law of the world. And there are temptations that encourage us. Jealousy, instead of jealousy, it feeds our pride, telling us we deserve something or someone that another person does not. And therefore, we're taking it upon ourselves to say we're more worthy than they are. And that soon breeds resentment. And if we allow that to mature into active action, we can end up trying to manipulate or take that which was not ours, but which we crave. Could be an object like money. Could be an ideal such as purity or innocence. Could even be a relationship or a friendship. Only by having roots in the gospel can we fight against such poison. Some temptations they suffocate us, some tickle us, and some encourage us to greater sin, but all temptations deceive us. And with a list like that, that only just scratches the very top of the surface, we might be hard-pressed to truly think about ourselves and wonder if we are the righteous man at all. Perhaps, just perhaps, if we're honest, we'd find it easier to identify with the unrighteous man, which brings us to our second heading, the unrighteous man. Let's read verses four through six. The wicked are not so. They are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. The unrighteous man is like chaff. I mean, the comparison's clear, isn't it? Whereas the righteous man has roots that grow deep into the nourishing, life-giving Word of God, the unrighteous man, he's rootless. In fact, not only is he rootless, he isn't even on the ground at all. He's picked up, he's tossed around by the wind. He has no foundation. Now, what is chaff? Well, the farmers amongst us will know, but for those of us who don't, it's the bits of fluff and loose leaves that are blown away when you thresh wheat. You throw the wheat, the grain, up into the air. The seeds in the grain are heavy, so they fall down back into the threshing pan, and the chaff just blows away. So not only is the psalmist calling the unrighteous man as one who has no roots and no foundation, he's actually not even useful. He has no usefulness. It must be got rid of before the grain can be harvested and used. Dear friend, perhaps this is your first time in a church building. It may be your first time ever hearing the gospel. It may be the case, however, that you've attended church and church gatherings all your life. You can recite scripture until your heart's content. Do you know every hymn in the hymn book backwards? If you're not in a life-giving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, then no matter what you think you know, you are like the chaff in the farmyard. And you see it in your life. When you reflect, you'll see it in your life. You know that you're tossed around by the winds of change. You see the change in society and perhaps you're beginning to feel the pinch of persecution because you go to church. And seeing this, you thought about leaving church altogether. I mean, religion's really between God and me, right? Perhaps you see some things in your life that you know the Lord would not approve, but it doesn't matter to you. Well, hear the words of the psalmist. Unless you become a righteous man, you will not and you cannot stand in the judgment. You will not find a place in the assembly of the righteous. Rather, you will stand before God on that day and you will find that all your scoffing at His moral law and all your scoffing at His goodness will count against you. Every lie told will speak of a disregard for truth. Every lustful glance will tell of a disinterest in the image of God that we all possess. Every biting remark and cruel insult speaks of a hatred for others. Every instance of pleasure derived at the expense of others is evidence of a love for ourselves that is idolatrous. Every moment spent in willful rebellion proves that you hate God and you're at war with him. You are choosing to continue to be his enemy. Every sin committed will be shown and revealed as an act of worship, but not of God, of yourself. And you, dear unbelieving friend, you worship yourself and you're unable to save yourself. You are in a cage of your own design, of your own desire. You're imprisoned in sin and you cannot save yourself. You need a savior. You're unable to stand before God and say, I wasn't as bad as that person or that person. God will look at your heart and say that you are evil because you hated me. But Christian, we're not off the hook either simply because we call ourselves Christian, are we? I mean, none of us can genuinely look at the actions we commit, the thoughts we have, the desires of our hearts, and truly say that we fit the picture of the righteous man, can we? I mean, after all, we don't look to scriptures at all times. Too often, we revel in the hidden and even the visible sins that we commit. The bitterness we harbor, it still resides, even if we want to forgive. In the midst of temptation, too often, we fear God rather than trust him, and we run from his mercy. At the end of the day, we, too, struggle with worshiping ourselves. You see, for the righteous man, Sin is abhorrent. It's disgusting. But we all have a sick fascination with it. We love it. We enjoy it. To be sure, we don't all love the same sins, which produces even more sin, as Keith taught us in Romans 14. But we are all addicted to the gluttony, the feast of sin. And that is why we all, Christian and unbeliever, we fit into the camp of the unrighteous man. because we all worship ourselves. We're unable to stand before God and say, look at me, I was good enough. I read your Bible occasionally. This Psalm is very clear. There are two ways to live. We can live in utter, complete obedience to God, or we live in rebellion against him. And the way we know which path we have chosen is sin. And that brings us to our third and our final heading. The righteous man must be the imputed man. The righteous man must be the imputed man. This is why we need Jesus. He's the only human being who ever existed to be without sin. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2, he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. That fulfills Psalm 1 6, the Lord knows the way of the righteous. He is righteous. The author to the Hebrews tells us that Christ was the one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. And so what? When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, after 40 days of fasting, he did not sin. He successfully walked through, traveled through the fiery trials of temptation, the suffocating desire to satisfy his hunger after 40 days of no food, he resisted. The encouraging temptation to prove who he was to the world, he resisted. The tickling temptation to be considered king of the world, the easy way, a crossless king. He resisted. And how? Do you remember how Christ resisted? He was grounded in the law of the Lord. At every temptation he resisted because Christ knew the foundation of life is not in sin but in obedience. No matter his intensity, no matter how it plagued his senses, no matter the lie that was told, Christ overcame the temptation. And Paul tells us why this matters in 2 Corinthians 5. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Did you hear that? Because Christ was sinless, and only because Christ was sinless, are we able to be forgiven. We're all self-worshippers. We're all obsessed only with what we can get. We're all sinners. We are against God. We deserve judgment. In our base human state, we hate God. Only the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross Only through that death and that resurrection of a sinless Savior are we able to come before God and admit our guilt, to repent from our sins and to turn to Him for forgiveness. That's the gospel. The gospel is Christ, the Son of God, became man, indwelt flesh, went to the cross, bore the wrath of God in our place. But we must not dissolve the relationship between the cross of Christ and the life of Christ. We need Christ to be sinless. He's the only righteous man, but because of his righteousness and by placing our faith in him as the only way to get to God, we're able to become righteous. But that means we must come to the cross and recognize that we cannot come to God on our own. We're not good enough and we can never be good enough. The only way we get to access God is by wearing the righteousness of Christ. And that means we place upon him the sins we commit daily. And as we do that, we'll notice that our own understanding of sin increases. We see it as horrible because it placed Christ on the cross. It hammered our sin. It hammered the nails that held him there. It mocked him as he hung there. I'm a sinner. This past week I have sinned in ways that I need your forgiveness and I need the forgiveness from the Lord. I need the gospel just as you do. We are not beyond that realization. We need the gospel daily. But when we repent, When we come to faith in Christ, we receive his righteousness. We become as he was, in a sense. In God's eyes, our sins are no longer visible. He does not count them against it. The debt has been satisfied, and we're free from the bondage and the prison of it. This is called the doctrine of imputation. This is one of the key doctrines the Reformation brought about 499 years ago. When we follow Christ, we aren't simply forgiven of our sin, although that is true of the utmost vital importance, but we also receive the righteousness of Christ. It's imputed to us like a robe of righteousness. We get to wear a robe of Christ's righteousness when we approach the throne room of heaven. Now we can stand as the righteous man, only now because of Christ. And therefore, sin is indeed conquerable. Not because we're strong, but because we know we're weak. And so we rely upon the strength of the Holy Spirit that has come to indwell us, that sanctifies us, that purifies us. And that brings us back to the start, doesn't it? There are two ways to live. As a righteous man whose roots are dug down deep into the gospel of Christ, or as an unrighteous man who has no roots. and is destined for destruction. If you're a Christian, then you are a righteous man, not by your own strength, and yes, you will sin again and again, but you wear the perfect righteousness of Christ. Nothing can take you from His hand. You are His forever. If you're not a Christian this morning, then know that nothing you can ever do will be enough. You will fail. You are in open rebellion against the Lord and you hate Him. No matter the language you use, no matter how often you come to church, if you are not submitting to Him, you are at war against Him. But you don't have to be. He beckons to you. See the danger of destruction. The psalmist says, you cannot stand in the judgment. You don't have to stand in the judgment. Repent. Hear the call of Christ from the cross, declaring, this was for you. Respond to the promise of Christ after the resurrection. This can be yours. Hear Him. Repent and taste the glory of new life in him. Look to Christ alone. Live for him alone. Be rooted in him alone. If you do, unbelieving friend, if you do that, then no matter what you face in this world, you will be grounded in eternity for eternity with the God of eternity. Don't leave this morning without talking to someone. They will be delighted to show you how to submit to Christ. It will be a pleasure, a joy, a privilege. And Christian, if you continue to submit to Christ, then no matter the storms of life that assail you, you can stand firm in the gospel. You will stand firm in the gospel. He will continue to perfect you to that good and perfect work and present you blameless at the end. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you that we're able to read your word, to learn about the way in which you have made a way for us to be righteous through the sacrificial death of Christ and by giving us his righteousness in place of our sinfulness, that you have no longer sought to count our debt against us, but you have looked at your Son, your perfect, sinless, righteous Son, and considered it a debt fully paid. We pray that as we reflect on what it means to read your scripture, to read your word, to bore down deep, to dig down deep, to get the gold from it, that we would be willing to work through the trial, the task, so that we can be like trees planted by the spring. Trees that bring fruit in season. We pray this for your glory, not for ours. Amen.