Introduction:
Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
The Cross in Isaiah (Isaiah 53):
- What is the prophecy of the messiah's suffering?
- How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?
2 Corinthians 5:21 - For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God.
- What does this prophecy mean for us?
Philippians 3:3-6 - For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
5 Things People Think Make Them Righteous - That Don't: (Philippians 3:5-6)
- Ceremony (Phil 3:5)
- Heritage (Phil 3:5)
- Understanding the facts (Phil 3:5)
- Motives (Phil 3:6)
- Perfect Record (Phil 3:6)
Philippians 3:7-9 - 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
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-01:27
So let's let's pray I'd ask you to pray for me To be faithful to communicate the Word of God while not dying of hypothermia And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive God's Word Let's just go quiet our hearts for a moment. Let's prepare ourselves again pray for me. I'll pray for you, please Fathers we come to your word now Open our hearts I'm sure everybody sitting here, streaming this, or watching this later, or listening to this podcast later, "Father, we're here because we want to grow in our faith." And your Word says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.
01:27-01:43
So Father, as we take a deep dive today and look at what Christ has accomplished, Father, I pray that our faith is increased, our faith grows stronger.
01:44-01:56
And for some, Father, I pray that today is the day of visitation, that they understand who Jesus Christ is and what He's done and what He's called us to do in response.
01:58-02:05
Thank you, Father, ahead of time, for what it is you're going to do here today in Jesus' name, amen.
02:06-02:08
Open up your Bibles with me, to Isaiah 53.
02:11-02:14
And we're studying the cross in the Old Testament.
02:14-02:17
You're like, wait, wait, I thought the cross didn't come till the New Testament.
02:17-02:24
Well, we're seeing that there's all these prophecies in the Old Testament that the Messiah would suffer.
02:26-02:35
And not only does the Old Testament tell us that the Messiah would suffer, but the Old Testament actually very specifically tells us what his suffering would accomplish.
02:36-02:42
And that's what we're doing with the series this month, taking us to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
02:44-02:47
So this month we've been doing some theology.
02:49-03:00
But today we're going to be studying what is in my mind, the most mind blowing doctrine of scripture.
03:02-03:05
And I don't even think there's a close second for me.
03:07-03:18
Because when it comes to things in the Bible that are hard to wrap your brain around, you know, like creation, the fact that God created everything by speaking it into existence, I believe that.
03:19-03:21
I've never wrestled with that, I just believe it.
03:22-03:35
Or doctrines like the Trinity, how is God one, but he exists as three persons, And I've never lost a minute's sleep wondering about that one.
03:36-03:50
Or what about the doctrine of election that the Bible says we are commanded to make a choice to follow Jesus Christ, but at the same time, God chooses us.
03:50-03:53
And both of those are true at the same time.
03:53-03:55
And you're like, can you explain that?
03:55-03:56
No, I can't.
03:56-03:57
Nobody can.
03:58-03:58
And it doesn't bother me.
04:00-04:01
Not at all.
04:02-04:11
But the one doctrine that I have just the hardest time wrapping my brain around is this one right here.
04:14-04:16
That Jesus makes us righteous.
04:20-04:23
You're like, well, what's so hard for you about that?
04:23-04:26
It's shocking to me because of how evil we are by nature.
04:27-04:30
Right, by nature, here's what the Bible says.
04:30-04:33
You know, if you ever get this idea that, well, I think deep down people are basically good.
04:34-04:35
Jeremiah 17, nine says this.
04:36-04:37
Can we have that verse on the screen?
04:43-04:44
We don't have that one?
04:45-04:45
Oh, we do.
04:49-04:51
Well, I'll read it to you, you can believe me.
04:52-04:53
(congregation laughing)
04:53-04:54
You can look this one up.
04:54-04:59
Jeremiah 17, nine, I must've forgot to put that one in the notes, but I got in mind.
04:59-05:09
Jeremiah 17, nine says, "The heart is deceitful "above all things and desperately sick." Who can understand it?
05:11-05:12
That's the condition of our hearts.
05:14-05:23
And the fact that the Bible teaches that God pronounces us righteous is mind-blowing to me.
05:26-05:27
Because I know what I've done.
05:29-05:32
Sinful thoughts, sinful attitudes, sinful actions.
05:32-05:36
I can look at the landscape of, there it is.
05:36-05:37
Thank you very much.
05:39-05:40
The fact checkers, thank you.
05:44-05:48
When the temperatures is cold, sometimes it takes a while for the information to get to the screens.
05:51-05:55
But this is our condition and I look at this And I'm like, yeah, by nature, that's me.
05:56-05:59
My heart is sick and it's a liar.
06:02-06:05
And you're like, well, hang on a second, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
06:05-06:10
Didn't you talk about last week, didn't you talk about how Jesus takes away our guilt?
06:11-06:14
Is this like more of that same subject?
06:14-06:15
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
06:16-06:25
See, this doctrine we're looking at today is so much more, So much more than the glorious truth that He takes away our guilt.
06:27-06:36
The Bible says that not only does Jesus take our guilt away from us, but He gives us His righteousness.
06:40-06:42
It's staggering.
06:42-06:47
It is absolutely staggering what the Bible says about what Christ has accomplished.
06:47-06:48
So I'm gonna try to get through this.
06:50-06:56
on your outline, same outline, all month, just different passages we're looking at.
06:56-07:01
But today we're looking at the cross in Isaiah 53, asking the same three questions, all right?
07:01-07:04
So what is the prophecy of the Messiah's suffering?
07:06-07:11
Isaiah 53, I need to tell you this so you understand why it's written the way that it is.
07:11-07:24
But this passage is actually a future quote of what the Jews will say when they finally realize who the Messiah is that they rejected.
07:25-07:31
Okay, so this is a prophecy of what the Jews will say when they recognize the Messiah.
07:31-07:34
So that's why it's written the way it is.
07:36-07:39
But it says, "Who has believed what he has heard from us?
07:40-07:42
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
07:44-11:11
For he grew up before him like a young plant a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now that's a chunk. And in this passage, I would say, first of all, we learn some things about us in this passage, specifically in verse six. Look at verse six again. It says, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way." That's who we are by nature. Listen, the problem with us as human beings is not that we do bad things. Our problem is by nature we are bad people. It's a nature problem, our nature problem. And he says we're like sheep who wander away, each to his own way. What do you call the guy who's in charge of babysitting the horses? What do you call that guy? Well, you're like, there is no such guy. You're right. What do you call the guy that's in charge of babysitting the chickens? Like, well, there is no such guy. You're right. What do you call the guy that's in charge of babysitting the sheep.
11:11-11:12
Oh, shepherd, I know that one.
11:12-11:13
Yeah.
11:14-11:14
You know what that tells me?
11:15-11:17
That tells me sheep are stupid and wayward.
11:18-11:20
That they require, true or false?
11:20-11:22
They require somebody to babysit them.
11:24-11:26
And that's what Isaiah is saying here.
11:26-11:28
He says, we are like the stupid sheep.
11:29-11:31
We just go our own way.
11:31-11:43
And I like how it says, "Each to his own way." What that means is this, your sin tendency is going to look different people's. It's going to look different than mine. We all go our own way.
11:45-11:59
So, we learn some things about ourselves, but I think more importantly here for our series we're learning some things about the Messiah. And boy, we could, maybe someday we'll do a whole sermon series on this passage because it says so much about the Messiah.
12:00-12:07
Here's the short version. It says here regarding the Messiah that God picked up our guilt and and laid it on the Messiah.
12:07-12:10
It says, "He bore our sins in silence.
12:12-12:31
The Messiah would have no defense because he was guilty, not of anything that he had done, but because of everything that I had done and everything that you had done." The Messiah, it says in this passage, the Messiah would have a trial that would be a farce.
12:32-12:50
And it says here that the Messiah would be killed "in a rich man's tomb." And it says here that this was all God's doing, that it was the Lord God who crushed the Messiah, killed him for our guilt.
12:52-12:53
But look at verse 11.
12:53-12:56
This is the verse I really wanna zero in on.
12:56-12:59
And one phrase in particular we're going to look at today.
13:00-13:06
Verse 11 says, "Out of the anguish of his soul, "He shall see and be satisfied.
13:10-13:25
"By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, "make many to be accounted righteous, "and he shall bear their iniquities." And this verse here tells us the result of the Messiah's suffering.
13:27-13:31
I love this, it says, do you see it there in verse 11?
13:32-13:43
It says, "He shall be satisfied." that the Messiah was going to suffer, and when he was done suffering, he was going to say, mission accomplished.
13:45-13:46
I did what I set out to do.
13:47-13:48
I'm satisfied.
13:50-13:58
He went through all of the pain and suffering on our behalf to get what he wanted, and he got exactly what he wanted.
13:58-13:59
And you're like, well, what did he want?
14:00-14:04
It tells us right here, And this is our phrase of the day, phrase of the week.
14:05-14:07
Look at it again, verse 11.
14:07-14:09
You should have this highlighted in your Bible.
14:11-14:22
It says, "Make many to be accounted righteous." So the prophecy of the Messiah is this.
14:22-14:25
Prophecy of the Messiah's suffering specifically is this.
14:25-14:38
The Messiah would be rejected by man, crushed by God so that He could bear our sin and make us righteous.
14:42-14:44
It's mind blowing.
14:45-14:46
It's mind blowing.
14:48-14:51
But I'll tell you what's even more mind blowing is Jesus Christ did that.
14:53-14:54
So that takes us to number two.
14:54-14:56
How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?
14:57-15:08
Well, I could walk you through this whole passage and show you very specifically how Jesus fulfilled every single word in this prophecy.
15:09-15:16
But today I just want to focus on that one phrase that he will make many to be accounted righteous.
15:18-15:19
Let's zero in on that.
15:23-15:24
What is the gospel?
15:26-15:59
The gospel is this. We are sinners by nature, alienated from God, and we deserve hell, but we are reconciled to God through the death of Jesus. That's the gospel, right? All in favor? Opposed? Okay, that's like the short version, right? But we're going to dig a little deeper today, because what we're going to see here in Jesus' fulfillment is the how.
16:00-16:13
If we say Jesus died on the cross for your sins so you can have the promise of heaven, okay, that's the gospel, but how does Jesus' death on the cross accomplish that?
16:14-16:17
Because you realize throughout history, there have been a lot of people that have been crucified.
16:18-16:27
What makes the crucifixion of this man any different than anybody else who was executed in that way?
16:28-16:37
How does the death of Jesus accomplish everything that is in the gospel?
16:39-16:56
Well there's one verse in the New Testament that sums up Isaiah 53, and it fully explains the how and the why of Jesus' sacrifice being the only way that we can be accounted righteous, therefore saved and reconciled to God.
16:57-17:00
And that one verse is 2 Corinthians 5.21.
17:02-17:03
Boom, it's getting warmer.
17:06-17:08
I'm going to help you with the pronouns here.
17:09-17:13
It says, and everybody should have this verse memorized, by the way.
17:15-17:41
It says, "For our sake, God," it's God the Father specifically here, "For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God." Let's unpack that verse for a second.
17:42-17:45
First of all, it says, Did you see the first three words?
17:45-17:47
For our sake, for our sake.
17:47-17:53
All this suffering that the Messiah went through, all the suffering that Jesus went through on the cross, who was that for?
17:54-17:54
Who was that for?
17:55-17:58
It was for our sake, right?
17:59-18:06
You see, every other religion in the world, and I've studied them, I have studied them.
18:06-18:18
Every other religion in the world teaches that there are some things that you have to do because the God or gods up there are angry with us, so we gotta do some things to make the gods happy.
18:21-18:32
The Bible teaches that it's God who took action to love us and to save us.
18:32-18:50
So for our sake, it says, "God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin." That last phrase there, I just quoted, "Knew no sin." Jesus, there's a spotless Passover lamb callback from a couple weeks ago.
18:50-18:54
Jesus was perfectly sinless.
18:54-19:02
Jesus, the only person that's ever walked this planet that you could say was innocent in the truest sense of the word.
19:03-19:08
You see, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he wasn't being punished for his sin because he didn't have it.
19:09-19:10
That's important.
19:11-19:17
If Jesus sinned, if Jesus did something wrong, and we look at him on the cross, we would just say, well, he got what was coming to him.
19:18-19:27
But the fact that he was perfectly innocent in all ways tells us that he was being punished for something that he didn't do.
19:28-19:35
That takes us to that phrase, says for our sake, God made Jesus, look at this phrase, to be sin.
19:37-19:38
to be sin.
19:41-19:44
If God was to punish the sinner, we would all immediately go to hell.
19:46-19:52
So what God did was put this innocent substitute in the sinner's place and he punished the substitute.
19:52-19:57
And I have to say here that on the cross, Jesus didn't become a sinner.
20:00-20:01
Okay, he didn't become a sinner.
20:03-20:16
What happened, like we saw in the Isaiah 53 passage, was God took our sin and put it on Jesus when Jesus was on the cross.
20:18-20:24
You know, the fancy theological term, you can use this, write this down, impress your friends and neighbors, but the word is imputed.
20:25-20:27
It just means to put on the account.
20:27-20:32
When Jesus was on the cross, our sin was imputed onto Jesus.
20:32-20:33
that was put on his account.
20:34-20:37
And that's the sense that this means, that God made him to be sin.
20:37-20:47
Jesus became somehow like the embodiment of sin, because my sin and your sin was put on him, as Isaiah prophesied.
20:49-20:57
And then God treated Jesus as a sinner by making him pay the penalty.
21:01-21:07
And you know, we can hear that truth and maybe not feel any kind of emotional attachment to that.
21:07-21:09
So let's get real personal.
21:10-21:11
Shout out your favorite sin.
21:14-21:14
Just go ahead.
21:14-21:16
Just shout out your favorite sin.
21:16-21:18
Maybe you shouldn't do that.
21:19-21:24
But I want you to think about your favorite sin, sheep, the way that you go astray.
21:27-21:27
What is it for you?
21:27-21:28
What's your favorite?
21:29-21:30
Is it some kind of addiction?
21:33-21:34
Something to do with lust?
21:39-21:41
Is your sin hatred and unforgiveness?
21:45-21:48
What is it that makes you go astray?
21:52-21:53
And understand it's that sin.
21:54-21:58
It's that sin that Jesus took on Himself.
22:00-22:08
Somehow becoming the embodiment of that sin, to be sin, so that God could judge your sin.
22:12-22:15
Don't detach yourself from how personal this is.
22:20-22:22
But you see, the last phrase is where we want to land.
22:23-22:24
Look at this.
22:25-22:36
So that in Him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.
22:39-22:44
So we talked about the imputing, putting the, you know, crediting to the account, right?
22:44-22:47
Our sin was imputed on Jesus.
22:48-22:58
And as a result, and this is the mind blowing thing, I believe, listen, I believe it, but I don't know if I'll ever fully be able to wrap my brain around this.
23:00-23:06
It says that the very righteousness of God was imputed on me.
23:09-23:16
So God imputed our sin on Jesus so that God could impute Jesus' righteousness on us.
23:18-23:39
Or to say it another way, listen, when Jesus was on the cross, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, God treated Jesus as if He lived your life so that God could treat you as if you lived Jesus' life.
23:45-23:57
It's staggering, but I just want you to see that Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled this doctrine from Isaiah.
23:58-24:01
He will make many to be accounted righteous.
24:03-24:06
We might become the righteousness of God.
24:08-24:16
The righteousness of God, by the way, not the righteousness of your dear sweet grandma, who was a wonderful person.
24:18-24:21
Not the righteousness of your favorite TV preacher.
24:22-24:34
The very righteousness of God himself is put on your account so that because of Jesus, when God sees you, he sees you as perfect as himself.
24:40-24:44
Number three on your outline is what does this prophecy mean for us?
24:48-24:50
What does this prophecy mean for us?
24:53-24:55
Well, simply this, you plan on going to heaven?
24:57-24:58
Because there's a requirement.
24:59-25:04
And the requirement is holiness, perfect.
25:05-25:13
You have to be holy, you have to be perfect, you have to be 100% righteous to be in the presence of God.
25:16-25:17
You don't got it.
25:18-25:25
And I don't got it in and of ourselves, but Jesus and Jesus alone can make that happen.
25:28-25:41
But somehow church, somehow we still think it's more about what we can do to be right with God than about what Jesus Christ did for us.
25:45-25:50
And I just get to take a few moments and address this because look, this is a struggle in the church.
25:52-26:01
This is a real struggle in the church that people who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior still wrestle with this.
26:01-26:03
'Cause I talk to people all the time.
26:03-26:11
And you try this, ask somebody, ask your good church going friends, how do you go to heaven?
26:13-26:26
And I've been shocked at the number of times I've heard people say this, "I believe that Jesus died for my sins." And to go to heaven, you need to be a good person.
26:28-26:30
You never try to hurt anyone.
26:31-26:34
And you gotta try to get involved and you gotta give to charity.
26:35-26:37
And then they start adding all these things on.
26:39-26:40
Why do we do that?
26:41-26:42
I'll tell you why we do.
26:44-26:45
You know why we do that?
26:45-26:46
It's pride.
26:47-26:48
It's pride.
26:49-26:55
It's like, surely I have to shoulder some of this righteousness load here, right?
26:58-27:09
But look, according to the Bible, either Jesus made you righteous, or you can try to make yourself righteous.
27:12-27:14
But both of those can't be true at the same time.
27:16-27:20
That's why I want to take a couple moments to look at Philippians chapter three.
27:24-27:27
You can turn there if you want, but we're gonna have the verses on the screen for you.
27:28-27:41
But Philippians chapter three, he says, "Look out for those who undermine the work of Christ "by preaching that some religious work makes you righteous." That's what he's talking about, Philippians three.
27:41-27:44
You gotta watch out because there's people that want to undermine the work of Christ.
27:45-27:49
You know, you got to do this religious stuff to make God happy with you.
27:50-28:13
But then Paul goes on and he goes, "And by the way, if you think you got this resume that's like impressing God, if you think you got this awesome resume that you can point to and say, 'Look at what a good little boy I am,' if you think you got that, Paul said, 'Let me share my resume with you.' You think your resume can make you righteous?
28:15-28:21
He goes, I promise you it can't because even a resume as impressive as mine can't do it.
28:22-28:38
Philippians chapter three, verses three through six, it says, "For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." That's what he's talking about.
28:38-28:40
trusting yourself to be righteous.
28:42-28:43
Then he gives us his resume.
28:44-28:53
He says, "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also." If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.
28:55-29:08
Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
29:11-29:15
Looking at Paul's resume on your outline, I want you to jot some things down here.
29:15-29:20
Paul gives us five things people think make them righteous that don't.
29:23-29:26
Five things people think make them righteous that don't.
29:27-29:29
The first one in verse five is ceremony.
29:30-30:02
That's why he says, "You think doing religious acts make you righteous?" was circumcised. And in our day we might say, "Am I righteous? Well, sure, I was baptized. Sure, I went to confirmation class. Sure, I had my first communion." And we want to put some kind of stock in some religious ceremony that we've done. You think that makes you righteous, but it don't. Number two is of heritage.
30:04-30:05
Do you see that?
30:05-30:07
Some people think it's their heritage.
30:09-30:15
That's what Paul says, you know, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
30:17-30:22
And some people today think that they're righteous because of their heritage, right?
30:24-30:26
My father was a deacon in the church.
30:26-30:27
Are you a Christian?
30:27-30:27
You go to heaven?
30:28-30:29
My father was a deacon in the church.
30:30-30:31
My uncle was a pastor.
30:32-30:33
My grandma was a nun.
30:36-30:38
It doesn't matter what heritage you're from.
30:39-30:40
That has nothing to do with righteousness.
30:41-30:41
Nothing.
30:43-30:43
Nothing.
30:45-30:47
You think that makes you righteous, but it don't.
30:47-30:49
Five things people think make them righteous that don't.
30:49-30:51
Number three is understanding the facts.
30:52-30:53
Understanding the facts.
30:53-30:54
This is a huge one in the church.
30:55-31:03
Paul says, "As to the law, a Pharisee," Realize like the Pharisees had the entire scriptures memorized.
31:05-31:08
And some people think that that's what makes you righteous.
31:09-31:09
Right?
31:10-31:10
Look, I've read the Bible.
31:11-31:12
I know what it says.
31:13-31:19
And they think just having the knowledge is what makes you righteous.
31:21-31:22
And you think that makes you righteous, but it don't.
31:25-31:29
Number four, five things people think that make Him righteous that don't as motives.
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It's another big one.
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He says, "As to zeal," verse six, "a persecutor of the church." Like really, that's on your resume?
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Why would you put something like that on your resume, Paul?
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Here's his point.
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He's saying, "You could never question "how passionately I believed what I believed.
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"I believed it so much that I was dragging Christians off "to jail and to execution.
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"That's how much I believed in it.
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"I was like, 'Let me hold your coat "'while you stone Stephen.' "That's how dedicated I was, "and this is speaking about motives." You're like, "Are people still there, Pastor Jeff?" Well, absolutely they are.
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You know how many times have you heard somebody say, "Well, it doesn't really matter what you believe "as long as you're sincere." You heard that?
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Doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere.
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Well, that doesn't wash biblically.
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That's what Paul's talking about here.
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He goes, "You wanna talk about motives?
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"Mine were really pure." But you can be sincere, but you can be sincerely wrong.
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Okay?
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You think that makes you righteous, but it don't.
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Then the last thing here, verse six, is a perfect record.
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Perfect record, he says, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
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Some people think, again, it's their record.
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First of all, come on, nobody has a perfect record.
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But people somehow think they do.
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Well, you know, are you a righteous person?
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Well, I don't drink.
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I've never been arrested.
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I've never cut the tag from a mattress.
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Okay.
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You think that makes you righteous, but it don't.
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See, these are five things that people are sort of banking on.
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Are you a good person?
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Are you a righteous person?
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you deserve heaven.
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And if you're banking on one of these things or a combination of these things to get you to heaven, I'm sure somebody at this point was like, hey, these points are in a cross stick.
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Wait a second.
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(congregation laughing)
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That's what you are?
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If you're trusting these things, this is in the Bible.
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(congregation laughing)
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Well, not the acrostic, but the points are.
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He goes on, he goes on, verse seven, "But whatever gain I had," thinking, oh, I got all these things on my resume, "Whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ.
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Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
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For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish." That's a very nice way to translate that word.
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You can look up what that word literally means.
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He says, "In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him." Hey, here it is, here it is.
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"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." And Paul says, "I used to think that the things on my resume "made me righteous and I was wrong.
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"They weren't a gain for me at all.
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"They were actually a loss because these things "kept me from trusting Christ alone." There's a righteousness from God that depends on faith.
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Isn't that great news?
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That it depends on faith.
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Do you know what it means that it depends on faith?
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It means that this righteousness is available to anyone, to anyone.
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Because when it comes to receiving Christ, when it comes to the gospel, you don't have to be wise.
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You don't have to be wealthy.
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You don't have to be creative.
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You don't have to be good looking.
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You don't have to be famous because if that was the criteria, that would exclude a lot of people.
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What you have to have is faith, which is believing that Jesus Christ fulfilled Isaiah's promise that the Messiah would make many righteous.
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So this is what Isaiah prophesied that Jesus perfectly fulfilled.
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The Messiah would be treated like sin, so that we could be treated like a son.
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The Messiah would be rejected, so that we could be accepted.
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Have you ever been mistreated?
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or maybe not treated the way you probably deserved.
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Has that ever happened to you?
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I think many years ago, I did a wedding.
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I've shared this story with you before, but it certainly is appropriate here.
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But I did a wedding and they had the wedding reception at the Days Inn on Route 8.
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Is that still a thing?
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I don't know, but they had the wedding reception.
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It was a thing then.
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And Erin was with me.
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And we went to the wedding reception.
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And Erin looked like-- she looked like a trillion dollars.
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I looked like about $0.75.
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But we walked in the door.
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And there was a table set up, you know, has the seating assignments.
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So we walk in, and we're like, all right, where are we sitting?
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Probably like a really important table.
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And we looked, and we looked, and we weren't invited.
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We weren't on the list.
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Like, wow.
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The gut shot.
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So we ended up going down to the Hardwood Cafe.
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Is that still a thing?
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OK.
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We went there.
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It was a thing then, too.
37:53-38:00
But we went there, and so we had our own little date at the Hardwood.
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But when we left the Hardwood, and I opened the back door of the car, I I saw that the couple's marriage license, the papers were still in the backseat.
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I forgot to give them to them.
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So I went, oh man.
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I get to walk into that reception.
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The reception, I'll remind you, where I was not invited.
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And I get to give them their wedding papers because they needed them for traveling for their honeymoon.
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So I just walked in, went up to the head table, and I said, "Hey, I'm so sorry, "I forgot to give you your papers, here they are." I said, "Have a great honeymoon." And I was turning to walk out.
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The groom said, "Hey, Jeff, I think there's some leftovers "in the kitchen if you're hungry." Ouch, is right.
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And I'm like, "Do you realize what I've done for you?" I, all the premarital counseling, all the wedding planning, and the rehearsal, and the actual wedding, and at the end of the day I was treated like a dog.
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And I like dogs.
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But not being treated like one.
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And that feeling I had of just like, wow, that didn't feel very good.
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That's not even a drop of water compared to all the oceans on the planet when you line it up with how Jesus was treated.
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Do you realize Jesus was treated like a cursed man by Israel?
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Isaiah's prophecy, he's been stricken by God, he's smitten by God, he's...
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He was treated like a cursed man by Israel.
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He was treated like a heretic by the Jewish religious leaders.
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What did they say when they saw Jesus?
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He has a demon.
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Jesus was treated like a maniac by His family.
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His own family said, "Hey, He's out of His mind.
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Come on, come on Jesus, come home, come home.
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You're crazy." by His heavenly Father, as He bore our iniquities, and the Father crushed Him, so that we could be not only accepted, not only adopted as children, but accounted righteous, perfect in the eyes of God. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, there's no way, Father, if I had 36 hours standing up here to explain this, there's no way that I could even do it justice.
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This incredible truth from your word that Jesus Christ not only takes away our guilt, but he gives us your righteousness in our account that Father somehow you see us as perfect as yourself because of what Jesus did on our behalf.
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Father, I pray, if there's anybody here that's been trusting their own thing, their own resume, that they take a hard look at the cross of Jesus Christ and realize there's nothing that we can do.
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But Father, even in the church, We tend to drift and we start to think that you're mad at us when we do bad and you're happy with us when we do good.
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And the reality is, Father, according to your gospel, you've pronounced us perfect because of what your Son has done on our behalf.
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So Father, I just pray today that this is a glorious truth that we as your people would rest in.
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It's in Jesus' name that we thank you, we praise you, and we cry out to you today.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Isaiah 53:11, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:3-9
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What truth from Scripture amazes you the most, personally? What’s so amazing about Isaiah 53:11 saying he will make many to be accounted righteous?
Why do you think people have a hard time believing that righteousness comes only from Jesus? Why do you think so many people insist that there is something WE must do to make God accept us?
Look at the list of 5 Things People Think Make Them Righteous - That Don’t (from Philippians 3:3-6). Which of these have been the biggest temptation for you to trust instead of / in addition to Christ?
How would you respond to someone who says “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.”
Breakout
Pray for one another.
