266 - ARE YOU DRESSED FOR ETERNITY?
March 1, 1964
PASTOR HENRY F KULP
Romans 3: 21 - 25 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Paul, in Romans up to this point, has shown the condition of mankind as being totally depraved. Now he brings in the remedy, and notice the remedy in verse 21 the righteousness of God. And he shows how sinners can have the righteousness of God, not human righteousness, because God isn’t going to save you just to make you better. He makes you a new creation. He makes you righteous.
1/ You know, in the 21st verse He says, Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. There is one witness of the righteousness of God in the Old Testament that I want to show you. Isaiah 61: 10 and this is a beautiful verse. And here God says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed Me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.
Notice what happens. Notice, God throws His righteousness about the sinner. And you are clothed with His righteousness. If you are dressed for eternity, you have to be dressed in the righteousness of God. If one is saved, he is already dressed for eternity in the righteousness of God.
With this thought in mind, let us notice, I Corinthians 1: 30 But in Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. Christ is our Righteousness. We are clothed with Christ Jesus, for Christ is the Righteousness of God. So Christ becomes the answer to our sinful condition, in as much as He becomes the robe of righteousness unto us.
2/ I am not going to be foolish enough to say that you don’t do some things that are good, there is none that doeth good, but you think you do things that are good. But, let me But, let me ask you honestly, are you willing to stand before God, robed in the things you have done, and the past year, the last ten years, the last twenty years, the last thirty years? I am sure you wouldn’t With that thought in mind, let me show you the most astounding and remarkable verse in the Bible. I John 4: 17 We read, Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgement. How can sinners have boldness in the day of judgement? This is truly astounding. But the answer comes back, as Christ is, so are we in the world, How can we be as Christ is? We are robed in His righteousness. He is righteousness unto us, and this gives us the right to stand before God with absolute boldness. If it were our own good works, we certainly could not be bold in the time of judgement.
3/ Even in the Old Testament, this truth is taught. Jeremiah 23: 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.
Here Jeremiah is talking about the time of the restoration of Israel and he tells Israel that their God, Jehovah God, who is none other than Jesus Christ, is the Lord, our Righteousness, and in the Hebrew, the Lord, our Righteousness is Jehovah -Tsidkenu. When Israel is restored as a nation, Jehovah, Jesus Christ will be their righteousness, and in this present day, He is righteousness unto us. He has been made righteousness unto us.
4/ Notice, at the end of the 22nd verse, we have four words that are important. There is no difference. Have you ever considered the things in which all men are alike as far more important than those in which men differ. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilized or savage, rich or poor, wise or foolish, cultured or illiterate—they breath the same breath. They all get hungry, they all become thirsty. They eat and they sleep, and they are smitten by the same diseases, and die at last the same death. They all have one human heart, they all have tears and grief, gladness, hope, fear, love. All are part of their life. But that is not what God is speaking of here when He says there is no difference.
5/ Men have different opinions of what it means that there is no difference. Some say that it means there is no difference among men when it comes to being sinners. When God looks down upon the human race, He sees sinners, that is all that He sees. Some may be a little worse than others, but they are all sinners. Then there are those who think that it might mean something else. It may mean that God has no other way to save. There is no different way to save. God doesn’t save one man one way, and another, another way. He saves every man one way. The President can be saved by confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and the most humble man in our country can be saved the same way. There is no difference—all must be saved by grace.
6/ Then we come to Romans 3: 23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Notice, everyone has come short. Short of what? The glory of God. Let us for a few moments look at the glory of God. Acts 12: 23 And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
Here we read that King Herod failed to give God the glory and it caused his death. It is recorded, and Herod made an oration and the people cried out, it was the voice of a god, and not the voice of a man, and because he did not correct them and give the glory to God, the Angel of he Lord smote him dead.
To understand glory by worldly glory we wouldn’t know very much about it. The only glory we know of is a glory to be famous or to be rich, or to be wise. I don’t know of any other kind of glory do you? And this glory is not lasting, for men lose this glory very easily. But notice, I Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. Here it talks about His eternal glory. That is a glory that shall never end. I can’t comprehend it now, but I know this—I’ve fallen short of it, and so have you.
7/ Now notice, John 17: 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. The glory the Lord Jesus Christ gave up to come and save us. He didn’t only lay it aside, He gave it up. While He was on earth, He was without this glory. He had forfeited it, in order to become a curse for us, to be made sin, but when He went back into glory, back into the Heavens, His glory was given back to Him, and He was looking forward to that. He was the infinitely glorious One before He came into this world, but while He was on this earth, He was humiliated, He was even spit upon, He was hated, they even told Him to get out of their village. When Jesus cast the demons out of the swine, remember, they told Him they didn’t even want Him in their village. He came from the highest glory, and He came down here to have no glory at all, but to be despised of men.
8/ Now notice, verse 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.—Justification without a cause. Let us look at the word, justify, or justification. The English definition of justification, falls far short of what the Bible really means. The English dictionary says to absolve, to acquit, especially in theology to declare free from the penalty of sin on the ground of Christ’s righteousness. That is not what the Bible really means by justify. We must see that the verb, justify, is not a mere synonym for forgiveness. It is true it included forgiveness, but it is much more than that. For example, take a man who has committed a great crime. The man against whom the crime was committed might freely forgive the criminal from the wrong that he has done, but that man is still guilty of the crime which he committed. Forgiveness does not take away guilt. Nor, does it have in it just the thought of pardon. The law may pardon a criminal, but that man is nothing more than a pardoned criminal. Justification is far more than that. Justified means completely righteous, without sin.
9/ Then notice, being justified freely. The word, freely is a remarkable word. It is a word which Jesus Christ used in John 15: 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. There wasn’t any reason for people to hate Jesus Christ.They didn’t have a reason in the world. He didn’t come to hurt them, He came to do them good, but yet they hated Him. In other words, this Scripture should read, being justified without a cause in us.
10/ But then, let us look at this verse again, Being justified freely, or without a cause through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Redemption? Redemption means to pay a price. It is a word that means, purchased. We were purchased. Notice, Jesus Christ paid for all this that is ours—the righteousness of God—justification.
11/ There are three words in the New Testament, and we are not going to take time to turn to them this morning, that are translated, redemption. The first of the three words means a place where slaves are sold at market. It means to go into a market to buy. Then there is another word, with the little prefix, “ex” before it, it means to come out. To go into a slave market, buy a slave, and bring him out of the market. Then there is another word, the third word, that is translated redemption, it means to go into the slave market, buy a slave, bring him out of the market and set him free. That is our salvation, Jesus paid that we might be brought out of the slave market and be set free.
12/ Let us look at this matter of salvation that is ours. Let us look at it in another portion of Scripture. Acts. 20: 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
You see, the church of Jesus Christ has been bought. He bought it, He purchased it. When you go into the store in our city, you go to a counter and order something, and then you lay down the price of it—that is the purchase price—of what you want, and then it is yours. Jesus Christ came to this store, He came to this earth, and He laid down the price of us, He bought us, and it was His blood. Great red, rich round drops of blood. That is the purchase price, that is what the verse said. So at any rate, and so the redemption is in the blood of Jesus Christ.
13/ But I want you to notice in this portion of Scripture it doesn’t mention Christ. It mentions God, will you notice that—for Christ is God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. Who was it that died and shed His blood? It was Jesus Christ. Then Christ is God, this verse teaches the deity of Jesus Christ beyond any doubt, it was God who shed His blood.
14/ Then notice the word, grace, and actually it means everything for nothing. If any word can be called greater than any other word, I think I would say it would be the word, grace. I know the Bible says love is the greatest thing, in I Corinthians 13, but I think grace is love at work for sinners.
15/ Did you ever stop to think how much grace God has to save you and me? He has a super abundance of grace. He has enough grace to save the sinner who is way down on the human scale. He has enough grace to save the one who is up and out and doesn’t recognize it. He has a super abundance of grace—just for you.
AMEN
Ref: 03/01/1964 / 266 - ARE YOU DRESSED FOR ETERNITY? / 2020
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