God's plan to make humanity righteous is explained through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who, though sinless, became sin for us. This transformation allows believers to be made the righteousness of God, reflecting His perfect nature. The sermon draws parallels from Old Testament figures like Zedekiah and Melchizedek to illustrate the concept of righteousness, contrasting earthly corruption with divine justice. Ultimately, believers will be presented spotless before God, clothed in Christ's righteousness, a state of perfect holiness and joy.
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How good it is to be back again at Park of the Palms. You are always a blessing to us. And already this morning we've had some very pleasant surprises meeting people we did not know. We're going to be here from other parts of the United States and Canada. Just a little foretaste of heaven when I'm sure we'll spend eternity meeting friends and loved ones and sharing the good things of God together. I think many of you know that Grace and I have a long time association with Park of the Palms, this very distinguished lady, my wife Grace, cooked the first meal in the upstairs dining room there when the Florida Gospel pioneers took over the park many long years ago.
And from that time until the present time we've dropped in now and then, and you have always been a blessing to us. I don't want to be sentimental, but I remember with affection Bob Willie, who was a great blessing to me as a much younger man, and many times we were here for weekend conferences and ordinary services. And then one day he kindly invited me for one of the week-long conferences, and I counted it a great honor to be invited. And I remember that before that day came, the Lord had taken him home into his presence. So we have many happy memories of this place, and we look forward to a good week together, and we know that you're going to bless us day by day, and I trust that God will bless all of us through his word as we look into the scriptures from each session as it comes up.
This morning I take you to Second Corinthians chapter five, one verse that has been mentioned already this morning in our previous service, Second Corinthians chapter five, the very last verse of the chapter. But I think, so that we can understand the verse a little more, we should go back and begin our reading in verse eighteen. Second Corinthians five and verse eighteen. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to which that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we, and I think primarily Paul is talking about himself and his associates, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ then, be ye reconciled to God. For many of us, That would have been a great point to finish the chapter and then begin a new section in this letter. But the translators went on and included verse twenty-one. In a sense it seems to be tacked on and you wonder just how it fits into the two previous verses.
For Paul writes, For he referring to God hath made him referring to Christ to be sinned for us, who, referring to Christ, knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But this is not just an additional thought. If we go just briefly again to verse eighteen and read, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
And if you ask the question, how did God do this? Verse twenty one is a great answer. For he hath made him to be sinned for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The subject is really righteousness. In our Spanish language, which I think is a little richer than our English language, the word really would correspond to the English word justice. We don't really have a word righteousness. We use the word hosticia, which is your word justice. It's a frightening word sometimes.
Because if you're driving too fast and along comes a policeman and pulls you over, then you know that you're going to have to pay a fine. You might even have to go to court. And that form of justice is not very appealing. But in the Bible, righteousness, justice has a warm feel to it. It's one of those good words. Righteousness is almost a synonym for salvation. It's what God does for us on our behalf to make us right with Himself. So Paul is going to tell us in these very few words how God can pick up people like ourselves and make us righteous and ready for His presence.
I want to take the phrase in the very middle of the verse, Who knew no sin and begin with that phrase. The phrase refers to the Lord Jesus. I still find it, as a mature Christian, a very difficult concept to understand. For like you, I was born into this world, and from my infancy I was conditioned to sin. I have realized, as the years have gone by, that because of the world that we live in, It is very easy to become more and more insensitive to sin.
After all, you can't put the television on without seeing it. You can't pick up the newspaper and read anything without being face to face with sin in some form or other. Your neighbors, your families, write into your own heart. Sin surrounds us. in the world in which we live. Then you try to imagine in your mind someone in the same world where you live who knew no sin. We can understand it theoretically, but it is very difficult to imagine how someone could walk the streets, much like the streets that you walk, live in a neighborhood with many different kinds of neighbors, and not be conditioned or contaminated by sin.
And yet here is a very forceful testimony. The Lord Jesus, who was born into our world and was an authentic human being, Paul says he knew no sin. You could think of others like Peter. Peter said he did no sin. I think John takes us right up to the mountain peak when he says, in him there is no sin. But someone could come from the world and say to you, but they were his friends, they were his companions, they were on his side, they were prejudiced. But then you come to the very end of the life of the Lord Jesus and you see Pilate who comes up to Jerusalem from Caesarea where he lived right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
and he sits down in the judgment hall and he looks at this man and he begins a long series of questions. Jesus answered sometimes and sometimes he was quiet. But when it was all over, here's a man who was not a friend of the Jews and certainly not of the Christians. And this man had to say not once but many times, I can find nothing wrong with this man. So you have a testimony that comes from within the circle of his followers and a strong testimony that comes from outside of that circle and they come together and recognize here is someone unique.
Paul says he did no sin. He knew no sin. If that leaves you in a state of marvel, you feel somewhat full of awe as you think of somebody who never really knew by personal experience what sin is, then you move up to a greater wonder. For the opening part of this verse, referring to God, states very clearly that God has made him to be sin for us? That's another phrase I don't really understand.
I once heard in the Dominican Republic, it wasn't a malicious comment, it wasn't heretical comment on purpose. It was a new Christian who stood up once and said that Jesus became a sinner for us. Well, of course, That's not what Paul says. As a matter of fact, Paul goes on to say, he knew no sin. But in some mysterious way, God made him to be sin for us. There are other terms that I understand much more easily. For instance, in Isaiah, he carried our griefs and our sorrows.
Well, I can understand that. You've carried a heavy burden. I've carried a burden sometimes. Grace and I in the Dominican Republic moved over thirty times from one house to another, and we lifted burdens and we carried things. When you're under a burden and someone comes along and lifts it and carries it for you, it's a great relief, it's a great blessing. So when you listen to the words from the prophet, he carried our iniquities, our transgressions, our griefs, and our sorrows, We identify with that. Or if you listen to Paul in another place where he says Christ died for our sins, substitution, that's something we can understand.
But here's one of those phrases in the Bible which is probably best left just as it is without too much commentary, for in some mysterious way God made him to be sinned for us. Some have said to me, well, perhaps what Paul has in mind are the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Well, if he did, there's nothing in the portion that would suggest that. It's just one of those special phrases, dealing with something that God did for us to make us right with himself that probably goes beyond our understanding.
Now we have two wonders. He knew no sin. And then God in love and grace took this special, unique Son, His well-beloved Son, and He made Him sin for us. Now Paul takes you up to a greater wonder still. And that's right at the end of the verse where he says that we might be made the righteousness of God In Him, you really should start with the word we and think about ourselves. Most of us here today are mature people. We look back over many years. We remember failures.
We remember sins. We may not use the word very often. We know something of the awfulness of human nature in ourselves and in others. So we begin with ourselves that we In Romans five, Paul calls us weak. It really means you're an invalid. You can't do a thing to move yourself towards God. He also says ungodly, just the very opposite of God. He goes on to call us sinners, and then he adds enemies. Terrible list of terms that describe what we really are in our nature without God and without Christ.
Now Paul's talking about people like that, that we might become, might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. This is not some type of inferior righteousness. Like sometimes in old and times you heard about a king, a mighty king, but under that mighty king there were ten lesser kings. And then under the lesser kings you have other people of responsibility and authority. Each one has his own influence, his own glory, his own righteousness or power.
The King, of course, is the Supreme One. Paul is not talking about some lesser righteousness, some lesser glory, but he's saying that we might become the righteousness of God, the eternal, transcendent, holy gone, that in some way that righteousness would be brought into our lives. Again, we're left here in a state of wonder, and sometimes illustrations help us. So I want you to go back with me for a moment to Jeremiah chapter twenty-three. And in Jeremiah, there's a little phrase.
It has to do with the end of the monarchy in Judah. It's a very sad time. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. He saw what was happening. He knew exactly what was going to happen. There was nothing he could do to stop it, but he was God's witness in a very dark hour. Already the northern kingdom of Israel has been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. They were very wise people. They took that larger nation in the north, and they took them in small groups, and they scattered them all through the northern towns of Mesopotamia.
There was no way they would ever come back as the nation had gone. Again, they were lost. People still talk about the ten lost tribes of Israel. Now, the southern kingdom went on for some time. There are good men like Jeremiah, the kings are weak. The last king, the last legitimate king, is not a very great man. And along comes Nebuchadnezzar, and he violates the city. And he takes that king prisoner. And then he did something very unusual. He took the uncle of the king and made him king over Judah.
Very strange thing because he ought not to have been king. And then Nebuchadnezzar changed his name, gave him a new name. He called him Zedekiah. It's a word that means the righteousness of God. It's one of those ironic stories in the Bible of a man with a beautiful name, but a life which was totally different. There was nothing in his life that spoke of the righteousness of God. Now that's the moment. And Jeremiah feels it. And God comes in his grace and he gives him a word of encouragement, a word of hope.
And you find it in chapter twenty-three and verse five. Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper. Now I think you can feel there the tension, the contrast. in one of our Spanish versions, that following phrase is, he will rule as a proper king. Not like this king with his good name and his bad life, but God is going to raise up in the house of David a branch of righteousness, one who's going to show in his own life the righteousness of God.
And then you read on towards the end of that verse, and he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely." Have you noticed in your reading of the Bible that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, peace, prosperity always flows out of righteousness? Melchizedek, he was a great man. Another mysterious character from the Old Testament, his name means the king of righteousness. And his kingdom, Salem, a kingdom of peace.
Where you've got a righteous man, you're going to have a righteous nation, for the nation will reflect the righteousness of the king. Just so that we don't talk about olden times, down in Latin America where Grace and I live, in the last few years, two presidents who have been elected and put into places of power and authority by the people have been thrown out of office because of corruption. If you wonder sometimes why we have all of our problems in Latin America for so many years with corruption and so on, it's because often our rulers set the example.
Fortunately, in recent times, two have been thrown out. Some of us could make a long list of others who are eligible for the same treatment in Latin America. The problem is, if you don't have righteousness at the top, it will not flow out through the nation. Melchizedek was a righteous king. His kingdom was a kingdom of peace. You can go on into the prophecy of Isaiah, where the prophet says the same thing, peace and prosperity flow out of righteousness. Well, here you have in this verse that we've read this morning at the end that judgment and justice in the earth will be executed by this branch of righteousness. Verse six, In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.
This is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. It's his name. but in the name is the promise that the righteousness which belongs to him by right will be shared with his people, the Lord, our righteousness. That's the seed. If you move over to chapter thirty-three of Jeremiah, the promise is confirmed. Jeremiah thirty-three and down in verse fourteen. The prophet says, Behold the days come, Jeremiah thirty-three, fourteen.
Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. What is the good thing? Chapter twenty-three, he's going to raise up a branch of righteousness out of the house of David. Verse fifteen, in those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem, mentioned for the first time, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely.
And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. That verse in our King James Version borders on interpretation. The little word is either it or he. If you take it as he, then you go back to the previous verse and it refers to the branch of righteousness. If you take it as it, as these translators have done, Then it refers to the city of Jerusalem. That's why they use the word she. The thought is in the verse that on that coming day, the Messiah, whose name is the Lord our righteousness, will be king over his people represented by Jerusalem, and the name of Jerusalem will be the very same, the Lord our righteousness.
Beautiful thought. The righteousness of God, which is perfectly shown forth in Jesus, will fill all of those who surround Him forever and ever. Jerusalem had a number of moments of great glory, and then it began to go down and down until finally the Lord Jesus came into our world, and outside of that city, He was crucified. John has to write about it in the book of the Revelation. I don't want to exaggerate, but I can almost see John, he just cannot write the word Jerusalem.
He was there. He saw all that happened. He was in the courtyard during some of the trials. He knew how the great leadership of that nation had rejected the Lord Jesus. And then how he was brutally put to death. John was an eyewitness. He knew it all. That was the ultimate moment of apostasy in that city. Now in the book of the Revelation, he's got to write about it. It won't come out of his pen, so he writes the city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified.
But John does talk about Jerusalem. And right at the end of that last book of the Bible, it's the new Jerusalem that comes down from gone. It is a beautiful, dynamic city. And John says, and no dogs are allowed in that city. You may have a pet today, but you know, two thousand years ago, dogs were scavengers. They were symbols of uncleanness, impurity. They are not allowed in. And you can go on down the list of those things and those people who are not allowed into the new Jerusalem. Because in that new city, the symbol of God's people, the atmosphere that we breathe is righteousness.
For then God's people will bear the name, the Lord, our righteousness. The same name that belongs to our Savior by right is given to us by grace. The theological explanation is in Second Corinthians. For God made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. In our closing moments this morning, how can you describe that righteousness? What does it really mean?
What you'll find in Hebrews chapter nine and down in verse fourteen, words like this, referring to the Lord Jesus, that by the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without spot to God. I won't quote more of the verse because the basic thought right now is that the Lord Jesus offered Himself without spot to God. That's righteousness. If you ask the question, when did He do that? Well, scholars wonder, some go back and take a messianic message out of Isaiah, a portion that deals with the call of the prophet, and they hear the question, Who will go for us?
And then the answer comes back, Here am I, send me. And they take that message, at the reflection of a conversation within the councils of the triune God in the past eternity when God was planning the salvation of our lost human race. And within that council the question was raised, Who will go for us? And it is the Son who answers, Here am I, send me. That has been one of the greatest explanations of Hebrews nine and fourteen for many, many years. Others would suggest, and perhaps I would join them, that it's very possible that the phrase refers to the Lord Jesus right down here in our world where you live and where I live.
It would have been easier, a way back in a past eternity in a realm of spotless righteousness, but He came down into our world. and he rubbed shoulders with the people that you see every day. He saw round about him the whores of our human situation, but it was here that he offered himself to God without spot for this great work of salvation. We've already noticed this morning the United Testimony of the Apostles, the words of Pilate. Here was one in our situation. who offered himself without spot.
The thing is, in his person, there was no spot. There was no blemish. Peter says, We're not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. No, we're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot. So probably there's no other place we can go to see righteousness that springs out of God. than to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus, to look at him in the Gospels. When you see him walking, when you see him teaching the things of God, when you see him taking up the children on his knee and putting his arms around them and blessing them, when you see him weeping as he thinks of the death of his friend Lazarus.
You can go all through and as you look at His life, you see someone without spot and without blemish. That's righteousness. Now listen, as I read just one or two verses this morning, first of all from Ephesians chapter one and down in verse four. Ephesians chapter one and verse four. according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame.
There's the same phrase, without spots before him in love. That is, before there was a world, before there was a cosmos, into the heart of God was born this great thought. I would like to see around my unique and special son, a great family of sons and daughters. And we were chosen for that purpose, so that on a coming day we would stand around the Lord Jesus in the presence of God and there wouldn't be in any of us a spot or a blemish.
His name is the Lord our righteousness. We will surround him in that same righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. The price that was paid is referred to in Colossians chapter one and down in verse twenty two, where Paul says, in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. That's the price He died for our sins. And then He rose again from the dead, and the whole point of that work is on a coming day you will be presented before God, and there will be no spot, no blemish.
The great doxology in Jude takes it just one step farther. He's able to keep you from falling, faultless, and to present you in that state without a spot before His presence with great joy. And I wonder sometimes in whose heart will be that great joy, and I think of myself and I think of you And I think of what it's going to be like someday to move into the presence of God without any fear, clothed in righteousness, and really feel at home no more stains or spots or blemishes, perhaps not even the memory of those things.
Surely our hearts will be filled with joy. But then I think of God. You see, it was His thought. It was His plans. He paid the price by sending His Son. What great joy will fill the heart of God on that coming day when we all stand around the Lord Jesus in that righteousness that belongs to God. Please take your hymn book as we conclude our service this morning and we'll sing a verse or two of hymn number twenty-nine. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head.