SPEAKER_00: It just feels really hard to start.
SPEAKER_00: Just so holy and so deep what we've just um experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Um I w I wanna talk about um I wanna talk about righteousness and being made right with God and um Righteousness actually means that it I guess like the beginning of the word is right and it's about being made right with God that that when God looks at us we're right in his sight, we stand approved in God's.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that being like right in the eyes of a holy God and that's that's kind of that that's the human dilemma, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like the Bible tells us that we've all sinned we all sin and so we fail to measure up to a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: And um but you know, God in his goodness doesn't leave us in that state, and he knew what we were like, he knew that we would fail and that we would each turn to our own ways.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it like in Isaiah?
SPEAKER_00: We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own ways, but the Lord laid upon him the sin of us all.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm just doing it.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even I didn't um he laid upon him the sin of us all.
SPEAKER_00: And um the thing about sin, it separates us from God.
SPEAKER_00: And we were created in his image, we were created to have relationship with him, and it's you know, I think that's why that when we have sin in our life and it blocks us, there's no peace because it's not how we're designed.
SPEAKER_00: We're not designed to live in rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the idea, the thought of righteousness, you know, is um comes right in the early parts of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And Abram was called by God to get up and leave where he was, and God was gonna take him to a land that he would show him on the way.
SPEAKER_00: And um in that journey, we have recorded three times where God um makes a covenant and with God, and you know, and I'm sure like if you think about it, it's probably it's just three times like I'm sure there were lots of more conversations about it.
SPEAKER_00: But God says, I will make you into a mighty nation.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the conversations in um Genesis 15 talks about that um Abraham says, Um, but God, you know, I don't have any offspring, and the person who's gonna inherit all that I have is my servant.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, that's not how it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He says to him, Um, like, look up at the stars, see how numerous the stars are, that's gonna be your offspring.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing was that Abraham was old, and he um his wife Sarah was barren, but the Bible says that um he believed God and it was credited to him as right as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So it was about his faith in the promise of God that made him righteous.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't he didn't look at the fact that he was he and Sarai, they were Abram and Sarai at the stage.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't matter that they were past, you know, they had no children, they'd have a life of barrenness, but God said it, Abraham believed it, and it was credited as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So right back there we get this you believe, and it was credited as righteousness to him.
SPEAKER_00: Um if we now fast forward into um Romans into the New Testament, um, Romans is written to the church in Rome, and they had had persecution, um the Christians were cast out, they came back, and the church got back together, but there was division amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: The church was made up of Jewish Christians, it was made up of um Gentile Christians, and there was like, you know, you have to do this, you have to be circumcised, you have to follow the law, and um and so Paul writes to them, and he said, um, but now actually just actually just something back on Abram.
SPEAKER_00: Like he was credited with righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That was actually before the law, it was before circumcision, it was before all of those things that he was credited with righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Um back into Romans 3.
SPEAKER_00: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for as there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as the propitiation by his blood, sorry, to the received faith.
SPEAKER_00: This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he has passed over former sins.
SPEAKER_00: It was to show the righteousness at this present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So God had to be just, he had to punish the sins.
SPEAKER_00: But he also was just, he punished the sins, but it wasn't in us, it was in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The weight and the wrath of his sin.
SPEAKER_00: Um that word propitiation means um averting the wrath of God by the offering of a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It refers to the turning away of the wrath of God as the just judgment for our sin by God's own provision of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So he punishes our sins on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took the wrath, he took our punishment, and what do we get?
SPEAKER_00: We get righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: How amazing, how how glorious is that.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we get.
SPEAKER_00: We are made righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And um as I was thinking about this, that gift of righteousness, my thoughts also went to Ephesians chapter six, where we get the um Paul writing this time to the Ephesian church.
SPEAKER_00: Um he says, in this life you'll have trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, you know, you've got the armor of God, and he talks about different pieces of armor.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about the breastplate of righteousness that we have, not because we did anything right, but because of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I was thinking about that, I was thinking, what else there was?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's the shield of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you put that shield of faith?
SPEAKER_00: You put it in front of that breastplate of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So as we take, God has given it all.
SPEAKER_00: We we don't deserve it, he's given it all.
SPEAKER_00: So as we take communion, let's thank God for his gift of righteousness and the shield of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we just thank you that you did it all.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't anything, it's not anything we do.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about circumcision, it's not about keeping the law and being good enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's about righteousness, your gift.
SPEAKER_00: And so we thank you for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that he came to bear the weight of our sin to pay so that we could have a relationship with you, God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, we thank you that it's all about Jesus that while we can stand righteous before you and have relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.