The first night that God is great, an
introduction to the subject, we saw that God
is holy.
And yesterday we were reminded of the sovereignty
of God, and actually we haven't begun the
subject.
And throughout all eternity the subject would not
be exhausted, would it?
We can know God through the Lord Jesus
Christ, but we can never fully comprehend Him.
And God is greater than the sum of
all His attributes, and we're only going to
be able to look at a few of
them this week.
And I'll have to take more than one
this morning.
First of all, I'd like to think with
you about the righteousness of God.
God is righteous.
And I think with a lot of people
that word does not convey a very specific
image to their mind.
What does it mean when we say that
God is righteous?
Well, I'm a very simple believer, and I
just try to take the first five letters
of the word right.
God always does what is right.
God is always fair.
He's always honest.
He always acts with equity.
He invariably does what is right.
Without exception.
Now, Daniel spoke eloquently about the righteousness of
God.
Let's turn to the book of Daniel, and
chapter 9, and I'd like to read a
couple of passages there.
Daniel, chapter 9, verse 7.
There we read these wonderful words.
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto
us confusion of faces as at this day.
To the men of Judah, and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that
are near and that are far off, for
all the countries wither thou hast driven them,
because of their trespass that they have trespassed
against thee.
Verse 14.
Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil,
and brought it upon us.
For the Lord our God is righteous in
all his works which he doeth, that we
obeyed not his voice.
Daniel is there giving his great prayer of
confession, and he's taking the sins of the
nation of Israel and making them his own.
Which is something, you know, we should do,
but we never do do.
We should take the sins of the nation
and the sins of the church, as well
as our own sins, and confess them to
God.
And what Daniel is saying here is, Lord,
you have made us take some very bitter
medicine, but you're right in doing it.
We deserve exactly what you've done to us.
We deserve exactly the chastening that you have
brought upon us.
Then turn to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah
chapter 45.
Isaiah 45 verse 21.
Tell ye and bring them near, yea, let
them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time?
Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord, and there is
no God else beside me?
A just God and a Savior, there is
none beside me.
That word just is a synonym for righteous.
God is a righteous God and a Savior,
and there is none other.
That is, there is no other God that
can compare with him.
And then turning over to the New Testament,
the Apostle Paul loved to dwell on the
righteousness of God.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 26.
In this particular section, Paul is giving forth
the doctrine of salvation, and he's doing it
in a marvelous way, the doctrine of salvation.
And he says in verse 26, To declare,
I say, at this time his righteousness, that
he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus.
Now, using the language of human appearance, the
entrance of sin into the world faced God
with a dilemma.
Now, really, understand me, God has no problem.
God has no dilemma, but from my standpoint,
it appears this way.
There's a dilemma here.
God is a righteous God, and we, his
creatures, have sinned.
His righteousness demands that those sins be punished.
But God is also a God of love.
He loves his people.
He loves his creatures, and he doesn't want
them to perish.
And this is the problem.
How can a righteous God justify ungodly sinners
and still be righteous in doing it?
I call it the divine dilemma, but when
I say it, I say it with tongue
-in-cheek, because as I say, God has
no dilemmas.
He has no problems.
But that's the question.
How can a holy, righteous God justify someone
like me and still be righteous in doing
it?
And, of course, the answer is the work
of the Lord Jesus on the cross of
Calvary.
The Lord Jesus came and took our sins
upon himself.
He bore the dread penalty for all of
our sins.
He paid the price of the broken law.
He died the death that we should have
died.
And now God can come out to us
in grace and say, Look, the penalty has
been paid.
I have found a ransom.
Come and trust the Savior, and you will
enter into the good of all that he
did.
You know, the fact that Jesus died upon
the cross and was buried and rose again
doesn't save me.
I still have to receive him as my
Lord and Savior.
God does not populate heaven with people who
don't want to be there.
God will not take people to heaven against
their will.
It would be like a gangster in a
prayer meeting.
It would be horrible, wouldn't it?
And heaven would no longer be heaven if
there were people there unwillingly.
But now God can justify all who believe
on his Son as Lord and Savior.
There's a hymn in our hymn book.
I think it's in this hymn book that
says it well.
It says the perfect righteousness of God is
witnessed in the Savior's blood.
It is in the cross of Christ we
see how God can save yet righteous be.
God could not pass the sinner by.
The law demands that he must die.
But in the cross of Christ we trace
his righteousness yet wondrous grace.
The sin alights on Jesus' head.
His end, his death, sin's debt is paid.
Stern justice can demand no more, and mercy
can dispense her store.
The sinner who believes is free can say
that Savior died for me, can point to
the atoning blood and say, that made my
peace with God.
But that's the solution to the divine dilemma.
God, a righteous God, yet a loving God,
has found a way by which he can
save ungodly sinners and still be righteous in
doing it.
And he does it through the cross work
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now there's another verse in connection with the
righteousness of God.
I'd like you to notice, and that's back
in Psalm 85 and verse 10, and this
will always be one of my favorite verses
in the Bible.
I have quite a few.
Psalm 85 and verse 10, it says, Mercy
and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Now first of all, I'd like you to
notice that there are four attributes of God
in that verse.
Mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace.
And there's no place where the attributes of
God met together in such sweet harmony as
at the cross of Calvary.
And whether the psalmist knew it or not,
he was really describing Calvary in this verse.
Mercy and truth are met together.
What does that mean?
Well, all of God's standards of truth must
be adhered to.
God is a God of truth.
If he says something, it must stand.
And he says the sinner, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die.
Ah, but mercy was married to truth at
the cross of Calvary because a substitute died
for this sinner.
And now God goes out to me in
mercy.
And he does it without condoning my sin.
He does it without overlooking my sin.
He does it without winking at my sin.
He does it because my sins have been
dealt with effectively at the cross.
Mercy and truth are met together.
And then it says righteousness and peace have
kissed each other.
It's really beautiful, isn't it?
God's righteousness was maintained at the cross of
Calvary.
I'm justified through faith in Christ.
And I have peace with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And I can say, oh, the peace forever
flowing from God's thoughts of his dear son.
Oh, the peace of simply knowing on the
cross that all was done.
It's really wonderful.
Now, we mentioned that every time we study
the attributes of God, there should be a
personal application.
Every indicative becomes an imperative.
Every statement of fact becomes a command.
What does the righteousness of God say about
me?
It says I should be righteous.
If I'm going to have the family likeness,
it means I must be just and fair
and impartial and honest in all my dealings.
I'm oftentimes amazed by the number of opportunities
that arise every week in life here in
the United States to do things that are
just a little bit off, you know.
To fudge.
To cheat.
Look at the opportunities to cheat on exams
in school.
If all the diplomas and certificates that were
earned dishonestly were ever returned to the schools,
the schools wouldn't be able to hold them.
They'd have to build sheds to hold them.
I think of all of the dishonesty that
takes place in business today.
Of all the bribery, of all the graft,
of all the corruption.
It's really appalling.
And the temptation is terribly strong for Christians,
especially when the dollar is involved, isn't it?
That's where it's keenest.
When the dollar is involved.
It might be a building permit.
It might be income taxes.
We're all faced with these temptations to engage
in shady deals.
Lawbreaking are false weights and measures.
But God wants us to be impartial.
He wants us to be absolutely scrupulously honest
in all of our dealings.
I think of many Christian friends of mine
who've had to give up jobs rather than
succumb to the corruption of the world today.
Think of the corruption in politics today.
You know, by its very nature, politics is
corrupt.
It really is.
It's really impossible to go by divine principles
in modern politics.
I hear you arguing and mentioning names to
me, but I don't care.
It's true.
Politics by its very nature is a system
of compromises.
You have to compromise if you're going to
be effective in politics.
And I'd like to suggest to you that
you and I as Christians can do more
for our nation on our knees than we
can do in the ballot box.
I really believe that.
I believe we can influence the destiny of
nations through prayer if we only use it.
We don't realize the power that's at our
disposal.
Then, I think that the study of the
righteousness of God should make us worshipers, too.
We should be thankful that he saves us
righteously, that he forgives us righteously even after
we're saved, and that he's righteous in all
his dealings with us.
You know, the longer I live, the more
1 John 1-9 means to me.
I don't think I could go on another
week if that verse weren't in the Bible.
If we confess our sins, he is what?
Faithful and tough.
He's righteous.
He's faithful to his promise, and he's righteous
in doing it.
He's forgiving our sins and cleansing us from
all unrighteousness.
It's really a tremendous blessing to know that
we have a righteous God.
But he's not only righteous, he's what is
known as immutable, and that means unchangeable.
God is unchangeable.
And let's think about that for a little
while this morning.
Psalm 102, verse 24.
First part of the verse.
Well, I'll begin in verse 23.
He weakened my strength in the way he
shortened my days.
I said, O my God, take me not
away in the midst of my days.
And the Father answers him.
There's a change in speaker there in the
middle of verse 24.
And the Father says, Thy years are throughout
all generations.
Of old thou hast laid the foundation of
the world.
The heavens are the works of thy hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure.
Yea, all of them shall wax old like
a garment.
As a vesture shalt thou change them, and
they shall be changed.
But thou art the same.
Thy years shall have no end.
Psalm 102 is really a beautiful psalm.
You hear a conversation between the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit at the cross of Calvary.
And here, in answer to the prayer of
the Lord Jesus on the cross, the Father
answers him.
And among the other things he says to
him is, Thou art the same.
This describes the immutability of God.
Creation will be changed, but he knows no
change.
It's an amazing thing, isn't it?
Creation will be changed.
I've been traveling a lot this summer.
I've gone to cities that I visited 20,
30 years ago, and they were beautiful cities.
And today, they're run down.
They need rehabilitation.
They're tired.
They're dirty.
Really.
And that verse of a hymn has been
going through my mind all summer.
Our earthen vessels break.
The world itself grows old.
But Christ, this precious dust, will take and
freshly mold.
He'll change these bodies vile.
He'll fashion like his own.
He'll bid the whole creation smile.
And hush, it's grown.
That's exactly what he's going to do.
Let me read some other verses to you
that deal with the immutability of God.
Malachi chapter 3.
You don't have to turn to them.
I'll be going rather rapidly.
Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6 says, I
am the Lord.
I change not.
James chapter 1, verse 17b, speaks of God
as the Father of light.
With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.
Wonderful to have such a Father.
In Darby's translation of Isaiah 3716, he uses
the word the same as one of the
names of God.
He capitalizes the word same and uses it
as one of the names of God.
It says, thou the same, thou alone art
the God of all the kingdoms of the
earth.
Interesting, isn't it?
That's Isaiah chapter 37 and verse 16, and
it's also found in Isaiah 41, verse 4.
If you check Darby's version, you'll see that
he uses the word the same as a
name of God.
Well, that's a wonderful thing, that God never
changes in his being, his attributes, or his
purposes.
We want to think of that and qualify
it.
He never changes in his being.
He never changes in his attributes.
He never changes in his purposes, but he
does use different methods, doesn't he?
He does use different methods down through the
history of the years, and that's why we
study the dispensation.
Dispensational truth is under tremendous attack today, I
know.
But I want to tell you, I couldn't
understand my Bible apart from the study of
dispensation.
I really couldn't.
And God has tested men under certain conditions
in various ages.
He tested men in the Old Testament under
innocence, under conscience, under promise, under law.
Today, he's testing men under grace.
And man is a colossal failure under each
dispensation, isn't he?
Only the Lord is the answer to the
problems of this poor old world.
He tests men in different ways with regard
to sin and responsibility, although the way of
salvation has always been the same.
As far as the way of salvation is
concerned, there's no change.
Men were saved by faith in the Lord
in the Old Testament, just as we're saved
by faith in the Lord in the New
Testament.
They were saved by faith in the Lord
with regard to whatever revelation he made to
them.
I don't think they saw Calvary, I really
don't.
But God saw it.
That was what was important.
And when they put their faith in the
Lord in the Old Testament, God saved them
on the basis of the work of Christ's
still future.
We look back to the work of Christ,
and God saves us on the basis of
that work that has already taken place.
But you know, the subject of the immutability
of God raises another problem, and that is
God never changes.
And yet, there are verses in the Bible
that speak about God repenting, aren't there?
And we want to look at those for
just a minute.
This seems to be a contradiction, but there
are no contradictions in the Bible.
Let's turn to Numbers chapter 23 and 19.
It says,
God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent.
Hath he said, and shall he not do
it?
Or hath he spoken, and shall he not
make it good?
And also in 1 Samuel 15 29.
1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 29.
And also, the strength of Israel will not
lie nor repent.
For he is not a man that he
should repent.
Okay, hold those two verses in your mind,
and then turn to Genesis chapter 6 and
verse 6.
And you read, it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth.
Contradiction in the Bible?
Not really.
Genesis 6 6, it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth.
1 Samuel 15 11.
It repenteth me that I have set up
Saul to be king.
Two verses that say God doesn't repent, and
two verses that say that he did repent.
What is the explanation?
Well, by his very nature, God must reward
obedience and punish disobedience.
Keep those two things in mind.
God has set certain decrees in the universe,
and by his nature, he has to reward
obedience, and he has to punish disobedience.
Okay, here's a people, they're obeying the Lord.
He rewards them.
But they turn around and they change.
And all of a sudden, they start becoming
disobedient.
And perhaps they abandon the Lord and turn
to idolatry.
Now, there's no change in the character of
God when he punishes them.
There's no change in the attributes of God
when he punishes them.
There's no change in his being.
There's no change in his purposes.
It's the very thing he's purposed from the
beginning.
But the change that has taken place in
his people necessitates a corresponding reaction from God.
It doesn't affect his immutability at all.
It doesn't affect his changelessness at all.
It seems like repentance to us.
And that's why I often use the expression,
the language of human appearance.
It appears like change to us.
But it's only God reacting to a change
that has taken place in his people.
It certainly doesn't mean that any of these
things took God by surprise.
God knew exactly what was going to happen.
It doesn't mean that he's acting out of
regret or resentment or irritation.
There's no irritation with God.
It simply means that what we think of
as repentance is God acting in a manner
that's consistent with his own character.
I don't think that we should think of
the immutability of God or any other attribute
of God as simply a dry doctrine.
To me, the changelessness of God is a
source of immeasurable comfort.
Because we live in a world of change.
Change and decay in all about I see.
All thou who changest not, abide with me.
It's interesting like Solomon in Ecclesiastes.
You live your life and you're young and
then you're middle-aged.
And then you see a whole generation passing
off the scene.
And then you see your generation coming into
position to pass off the scene.
And you cry out, all thou who changest
not, abide with me.
How we should worship him for his unchangeable
character and his faithfulness to us in all
his dealings.
But you know, we should be like God.
We should bear the family resemblance.
And we shouldn't be fickle and moody and
changeable.
We shouldn't say one thing and do another.
We shouldn't be a Dr. Jekyll one day
and a Mr. Hyde the next.
We shouldn't be kind and gracious and outgoing
to strangers.
And mean and harsh and cruel to our
family.
You know, one of the, to me, one
of the perversions of human nature.
Is how we can have a teasy, a
scintillating personality with outsiders.
And yet treat the ones we love the
most, we treat them the worst.
Can you explain that to me?
It's true.
We should be willing to change where progress
is indicated.
But we should be unchanging when it comes
to standing for what is right.
And let's think just now briefly of the
faithfulness of God.
The faithfulness of God means that God is
absolutely trustworthy in all his ways.
And he's absolutely true to his word.
What could we do today if he were
not a faithful God?
It means that no promise of God will
ever fail.
No word of God will ever fall to
the ground.
It means if God says a thing, that's
the surest thing in all the universe.
It means that truth is what God says
about a thing.
Best definition of truth I've ever come across.
Truth is what God says about something.
And it's no risk, there's no risk in
believing God.
People say, I forget the man who said
it's like stepping out into the dark and
finding the solid rock underneath.
That's not faith.
Faith demands the surest evidence in all the
world and finds it in the word of
God.
And I say there's nothing more reasonable than
for the creature to believe the creator because
he's a faithful God.
And he cannot go back on his word.
A man would be a fool not to
believe God.
A fool.
He believes everybody else.
He gets on that elevator to go up
to the 57th story.
He doesn't know whether that elevator's going.
He's driving along the freeway.
How does he know about what those people
are on drugs that are coming the other
way?
Trust.
He exerts trust every moment of his life,
but he can't trust God.
That's so irrational because God is the only
trustworthy one in all the universe.
Let me just read you some verses on
the faithfulness of God.
Deuteronomy 7, 9.
Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he
is God, the faithful God.
Psalm 119, verse 90.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.
Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 and 23.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we
are not consumed because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness.
1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 9.
God is faithful by whom ye were called
under the fellowship of his Son.
1 Corinthians 10, 13.
God is faithful who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able.
Revelation 1, 5.
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness.
It's because our God is a faithful God
that we can know that his salvation is
the correct one.
The world says many roads lead to God.
Many spokes lead to the set-apart of
the wheel.
But it's because God is a God of
truth, of faithfulness, that we can know that
his way of salvation.
It's because of the faithfulness of God that
we can have assurance of salvation, isn't it?
How do you know you're saved today?
Because he's a faithful God.
It's because he's faithful that we can know
that our sins are forgiven.
The faithfulness of God guarantees the fulfillment of
every promise.
You know, I've never been in heaven, but
I'm as sure of it as if I
were already there.
Oh, I think it's God said it.
I have eternal security today.
Why?
Because Jesus said it.
And his word is true.
It's the faithfulness of God that accounts for
our preservation day by day.
You know, you could really have a nervous
breakdown if you thought of all the things
that could happen to you.
Driving along the highway, there are all the
germs floating around you.
And here you are eating white sugar and
white flour and all the rest.
I hope I'm not stepping on toads.
No, but it's the preservation of God.
Think of it in the midst of battle,
how God guides every bullet.
And he does.
He does.
There's not a random one as far as
God is concerned.
We see his faithfulness in the seasons of
the year, don't we?
Genesis 8, 22.
Seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer
and winter, day and night.
In fact, we might well ask ourselves the
question today, what do we not owe to
the faithfulness of God?
Something to ponder.
But I want to tell you that this
divine attribute should serve not only as a
pillow, but as a prod as well.
Dear friends, we should be faithful.
We should be men and women of our
word.
If we say a thing, that should be
our bond.
If we say we're going to be there
at a certain time, we should be there
at that time.
People can be very careless, you know, about
keeping appointments.
But if we're going to be people of
our word, we should keep our promises.
We should be true to our marriage vows.
Once having made a commitment, we should stick
to it, even if it costs us plenty.
Because the man of God swears to his
own hurt and change is not.
We should be scrupulously honest, avoiding exaggerations and
half-truths.
Thank you.