I want to talk to you about something today, actually something that we talk about a lot. Almost every worship service we say something about it and yet, somehow, there are people who do not recognize it. I got a letter a while back from a Christian lady (not from around here but from another state) and she said to me, she said, You need to preach about righteousness by faith. And I said to myself, Lady, have you been listening to what we have been preaching about? We preach about that almost every week.

But people do not recognize it. They are used to certain terminology and if they do not hear the terminology they are used to, they think that you are not preaching about that subject. So, if that lady sees this video, she will know that we preached about that today because I told her so at the beginning.

I want to begin by telling you a story that I heard so long ago that I am afraid I might not get every detail right, but I will tell it the best that I can and I will trust your mercy if you know the story, too, and I do not get every detail exactly right.

I wish the boys name was something else, but his name was Johnny. That is what they called me when I was a boy, but I will call him by his name. There was something that Johnny wanted very, very badly. I believe it was a wagon. He wanted a wagon so badly that he just. . . . well, what do little boys and little girls do when they want something really badly? What do they do? They talk about it in the morning. They talk about it at dinnertime. They talk about it in the evening. They talk about it all the time.

And so, he was talking all the time about what he wanted, and he wanted to get a wagon. His grandmother heard about it. She did not live close by. She lived a long ways away and his grandmother wrote him a letter. In this letter, she promised him, I am going to get you a wagon. He went down and he announced to his mother, and he announced to his father, and he announced to everyone in his family, he said, I have a wagon.

They said, Where is it? Well, he could not show it to them, but he said, I have it. I know that I have it. They said, What do you mean that you have it? You do not have it. He said, I have it right now. I have it. How do you know that you have it? I have this letter. I have it!

You know, that boy understood what righteousness by faith is about. That is the whole concept right there. Jesus promised it to you and if you believe it, you have it. If you have committed your life to Him, if you have accepted Him as your Lord and your Saviour, you have it!

You may not have anything yet to show because people have accepted Jesus when they were slaves to evil habits and their whole lives had been a life of sin. They do not have anything to show, but they have it. If you submit your life to Him: there are two things. You accept these by faith. Faith simply means that you trust. If you accept Jesus as your personal Saviour from sin and if you accept Him as the Lord of your life--that is all, those two things.

You accept Jesus as your personal Saviour from sin, because you can never save yourself, but He can save you. If you accept Him as your personal Saviour from sin and if you accept Him as the Lord of your life, you have it. You may not be able to show anything. I have met people who were victims of all kinds of evil habits and had been the victims of those habits for years. There was no way they could get free from that life of sin.

I want to tell you as kindly as I can, friends, you never will be able to get free from your life of sin in your own strength. You will never be able to do it. The Bible says that when a person has been living a life of sin, that the sin binds him in cords. It says that in Proverbs 5:21, 22. The Lord looks at the ways of man and He sees that man is bound as a slave.

Jesus said that. He said, The one who is practicing sin (John 8:34) is a slave of sin. I want to tell you, friend, if there is someone here today and you realize that you are a slave, maybe you have tried to get free a thousand times. You know what Mark Twain said one time? Mark Twain was a slave to tobacco. One time Mark Twain said, It is easy to quit smoking. I have quit a thousand times.

What does that mean? That means that he started up again about a thousand and one times. If you are a slave, if you have tried to get free, and you cannot get free from whatever your besetting sin is, there is Somebody, friend, Who can set you free if you just put your trust in Him and say, Lord, lam going to acknowledge You as my Saviour from sin and I am willing to acknowledge You as the Lord of my life.

You do not have to understand all about what the theologians talk about. By the way, maybe I should make this confession. There are a lot of things that theologians say that I cannot understand either and I have studied theology most of my life. But you can be set free if you do not know anything about theology. If you just put your trust in Jesus and choose to follow Him.

By the way, what does it mean to accept Jesus as the Lord of your life? People in the United States sometimes have trouble understanding that. People in the Roman Empire did not have any trouble understanding that, because in the Roman Empire, only one-third of the population was free. Two-thirds of the population were bond servants or slaves. A slave had no rights. A master could kill his slave and not have to go to jail. The slave had no rights.

It was just like it was in colonial America down in the southland where they accepted slaves and they split up families. Slaves had no rights whatsoever. Jesus said, The one who is practicing sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not continue in the house forever, but the Son continues forever. If therefore the Son set you free, you will be free. But if you are going to be set free, you must acknowledge Him as the Lord of your life so He can set you free.

That is a paradox in Christianity. You have to become His servant. In fact, in the Greek language they had several words for servants. Now, as the language develops, you develop words to express what needs to be expressed. So in English in America, we do not have many words for slaves and servants because we are not living in a slave/servant society. But in their society they had many different words.

For instance, they had a high-class servant who usually got wages and/or pay. The Greek word for that was huparetas. Those people were managers, but they still were servants to some boss. They were servants but they were managers. Many of them we would call executives today.

Then there was a lower level of a servant than that. The Greek word for that was diakonos. That is where we get the word deacon. The word deacon means servant of the church. That is a deacon, a servant of the church. That is what the word deacon means. The Greek word means that you are a servant. You are not as high class a servant as a huparetas. You are not an executive. You are a servant. That is our common word servant in English, about the equivalent of what they call a deacon.

But then there was a lower level of servant than that. That is what we would call a bond servant or a slave. That was the lowest level of a servant, a slave. Now when Paul described himself, (I have been interested in this in his epistles.), he describes himself as a servant of Christ. Which one do you suppose he describes himself as? A high-class servant? A middle-class servant? Or the lowest servant you can get? How do you suppose the Apostle Paul describes himself? He describes himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. That is the lowest level.

That is lower than a deacon, a bond servant. And it is when Jesus becomes your Lord, you are His servant. Then is when you are set free. Remember the two things you have to do if you want to be set free, if you want to receive righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. Two things: acknowledge Him as your Saviour from sin. You are not going to try to save yourself because you cannot. And second, acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of your life.

Both of those things are essential. One of the biggest problems in Christendom today is that there are many people who want Jesus to be their Saviour from sin, but they are not willing for Him to be the Lord of their life. That is one of the biggest problems in Christendom today. That is why there are so many people who have no power in their religious experience and they cannot figure out why their prayers do not get any answers. It is because Jesus is not the Lord of their life.

They are their own boss. They are not obedient to the Word. You see, if Jesus is the Lord of your life, then you will obey what He says. In fact, Jesus said one time to the Jews (Luke 6:46), He asked them this question. He said, Why do you call me Lord and you do not do what I say? It does not make sense.

Jesus says, Why do you call me Lord and you do not do what I say? You know there are many Christians today to whom Jesus is asking that same question. You say that you are a Christian. You say that you are following Me, but you do not do what I say. That is why there are so many people who cannot get free from their evil habits. They say, Pastor John, you talk about righteousness by faith and that if I put my trust in Jesus, He will put divine power in my life and nothing is happening.

Remember the two things: He must be your Saviour from sin. He must also be the Lord of your life. You must choose to follow Him. Choose to obey Him. Let us read a couple of texts in the Bible about that. The Apostles made this very clear after the day of Pentecost.

First of all, look at the sermon in Acts 2, the sermon that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36. Now the Christ is the Messiah or the Saviour, but He is both, he said. He is not just the Christ, He is also what else? He is the Lord. He cannot be your Christ, your Saviour from sin, if He is not also the Lord of your life. Do not ever forget that, friend. Do not let anyone deceive you on that point.

The Apostle said this over and over again. "Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him." Acts 5:31,32. The Apostle said, Jesus is a Prince. He is a Governor, He is a Ruler and a Saviour. Is He that to you, friend? Is Jesus the Prince in your life? Is He the Lord of your life and your Saviour from sin?

If you receive Him as your Lord and as your Saviour, you have righteousness. That is what righteousness by faith is. It is not complicated like many people think. It is not complicated. The way you receive righteousness by faith is by receiving Jesus into your life. Accept Him as your Saviour from sin and as the Lord of your life. Choose to follow Him; to obey Him and you will have it.

Is that complicated? Just remember the story about Johnny and the wagon. When do we have it? As soon as he got the letter in which his grandmother promised him the wagon, he had it--because he knew his grandmother was a moral person and she would fulfill her word. So he knew he had it. It is the same way with you.

Oh, friend, is there something that Jesus is just waiting to do for you? But He cannot do it for you if you do not acknowledge Him as the Lord of your life and as your Saviour from sin. And if He is the Lord of your life, you will obey. And if you do not obey Him, He is not the Lord of your life--no matter what profession you might make.

Then someone says, Pastor John, that is just the trouble. I try to obey and I cannot. If you choose to receive Jesus and to obey Him, He will give you the power to do what you could not do on your own. All right, we have already gone over the subject twice. Let us go over it the third time. I will give it to you now in completely different words.

I will read to you a paragraph from a book. This is a paragraph, one paragraph, which will explain the whole subject of righteousness by faith and I will give you the reference. I will give you the references for the texts of Scripture so you can write them down and look them up in your Bible. It will explain the whole subject in just one paragraph.

Here it is. It is in the book Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing. This is a book that was written by Ellen White. It is commenting on this text of Scripture, Matthew 5:6 which says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 in the Beatitudes.

Here is a short paragraph that will explain it. Here is what it says, "Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and 'God is love." Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 18. Does the Bible say that God is right? Yes. Does the Bible say that God is holy? Yes. Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God and God is love. Where does it say that in the Bible that God is love? 1 John 4:16. That is the quotation. O.K.?

There are four sentences. We just got through the first sentence. Here is the next sentence:

"It (that is Righteousness) is conformity to the law of God, for 'all Thy commandments are righteousness. (Psalm 119:172) 'and love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:10)." Did you get that? That was a little bit of a mouthful, was it not?

Righteousness is conformity to the law of God because all of His commandments are righteousness. Psalm 119:172. and ". . . Love is the fulfillment of the law." Romans 13:10. Notice the concepts that are being put together. Righteousness is likeness to God, God is love, it is conformity to His law, and love is the fulfilling of His law. So, when you are talking about righteousness or holiness or godliness or love or law keeping, you are talking about the same thing.

That is why people get confused. They have all these different words and people cannot put them all together. Notice the words that are being put together: Righteousness is the same as holiness, which is God likeness and God is what? He is love. And in conformity to Gods law, love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10.That is what love really is.

In fact, that is another problem in the Christian world today. People talk so much about love and they have not the faintest idea what it really is. They think it is a sentiment or a feeling. The Bible says, let us read this. The Bible tells us what love really is, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. and His commandments are not burdensome." I John 5:3. If you really love God, you will keep His commandments. That is what the Bible says.

If you do not keep His commandments, you do not really love Him. Jesus said, "If you love Me," do what? "keep My commandments." John 14:15. So, righteousness involves keeping Gods law. Love is the fulfilling of the law. It is simple, but we need to explain it because we get mixed up in the words. Just think it through. If you love your parents, will you honor your parents? Will you? If you love your parents, will you honor your parents? That is the fifth commandment.

If you love somebody, will you kill them? No. That is the sixth commandment. If you love somebody, will you run off with his wife? No. That is the seventh commandment. If you really love somebody, will you steal what they have? No. That is the eighth commandment. If you really love somebody, would you want to get what they have? No. That is the tenth commandment, whether it is their wife or their house, or their ox. (That would be the equivalent of saying their tractor today, or their car would be the equivalent of their ass.) If you really love somebody, you would not want to get what they have. That is the tenth commandment.

If you really love God, would you take His name in vain and revile it? That is the third commandment. That is why the Bible says that love is the fulfilling of the law, because if you have love in your heart and you love God supremely, you will keep the first four commandments. And if you love your neighbor as yourself, you will keep the last six commandments. So that is what love is and that is what righteousness is.

Gods commandments are righteousness. We read that in Psalm 119:172. O.K. Now we are ready for the next sentence, the third sentence. It sums up what we have just been studying. "Righteousness is love, and love is the light and life of God." Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 18. That is simple, but it is profound. Righteousness is what? It is love, and love is what? It is the light and the glory of God, the life of God.

That is why, friend, if you deliberately choose to break any part of Gods law. you are deliberately choosing to separate yourself from His life, from His glory, from His light. You are deliberately choosing to separate yourself from that because righteousness is love and love is the life and glory of God.

If you deliberately choose to separate yourself from the law of God, you are deliberately choosing to separate yourself from the love of God. You are deliberately choosing to separate yourself from the life of God. Do you have life in yourself? No. We do not have any life in ourselves. Jesus told us that. We should be able to figure that out. All of us have gone to funerals. We do not have life in ourselves. We are subject to death. Jesus said, There is only one way that you can get life and that is through Me. That is in John 6.

There is only one way you can get life and that is through Me. Righteousness is love and love is the light and life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him. Now is that complicated? The righteousness is embodied in Christ and we receive righteousness by receiving Who? By receiving Jesus. It is simple, is it not? You choose to accept Jesus as the Lord of your life and as your Saviour from sin and you receive righteousness when you receive Him.

Let us look for just a few minutes at what that does for a human being when we receive Jesus by faith. We receive Him and when we receive Him, we receive His righteousness at the same time. Here is what happens: This happens immediately, instantly. When you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life and as your Saviour from sin, He does something about your past. Now do not change the expression on your face, do not raise your hand, just look the other way. I do not want to embarrass anyone, but is there anyone here who has something you are ashamed of or embarrassed for in your past? Is there anything in your past that you would like to get right?

You know you did something wrong. The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That is what it says in Romans 3:23. When that happens, then we have guilt inside. Guilt can destroy your life. Guilt can cause depression, despair, discouragement, hopelessness, until a persons life is destroyed. There is no hope. But when you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life and as your Saviour from sin, the first thing He does is take away all the guilt of your past.

Let us read that in the Bible, it says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." I John 17. It cleanses us. That means we are forgiven. We are not guilty any more. Now, if you want a nice theological term for that, if you like big words, theologians have a big word for that. It is called justification. Most people do not know what it means, but that is the word.

By the way, Theologians have been arguing about this for several hundred years. I am not interested so much in the argument, but here is what they have been arguing about. Some theologians say that it means that you were declared righteous and some people say it means that you were made righteous. I do not even care. All I know is that when you receive it, that you are righteous in Gods sight. You are not guilty any more.

Then, look at what Paul says about that, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1. We have been justified, that means we have been forgiven, that means we have been pardoned. Our sins have been washed away. We have been cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus.

Let me tell you something else about this. Do not let anyone convince you that there is any other way to have your sins forgiven, because there is not. That is the only way there is in the universe. There is no other way. You can not get forgiven of your sins by doing penance.

Do you remember what happened to Martin Luther? He was climbing up those stairs on his knees doing penance and all of a sudden, it was just like a thunder clap in his mind. "like thunder going off in his mind, and it said," The just shall live by faith. And he knew that was not faith. He got up, walked back downstairs and that was the last time he did penance. Your guilt cannot be taken away by doing good works--that is what penance is, doing some kind of work.

Your guilt cannot be taken away that way. It cannot happen. Only the blood of Jesus can take your guilt away. Have you ever thought about the fact that if you could take away your own guilt by doing some kind of work of penance, then it was useless for Jesus to have died on the cross? Have you ever thought about that?

But the point is, you cannot do it. God in heaven knew you could not do it, Jesus knew you could not do it and that is why Jesus voluntarily offered to go to the cross to pay the price for your sin and for mine. The first thing that happens when you come to Him and you accept Him as the Lord of your life and your Saviour from sin, He takes away your guilt. You are not guilty any more.

The thing that is incomprehensible to me about the whole thing is, that that is even true for the worst sinner. When I found that out, I was really happy, because I knew that I was included. If the worst sinner was included, I knew I was included, too. You are included, too. That is the first thing that happens when you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life and as your Saviour from sin, He takes away your past guilt.

But the righteousness of Christ that you receive by faith involves more than the past. I am glad about that, are you glad, too? All some people know about the gospel is about the past. I have sinned, sol had better go to confession and get my sin confessed. Nothing wrong with confessing. We should confess our sins. John said, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9.

We need to confess our sins, but that is not all there is to it. It involves not just the past, but it involves the present and the future. You have your Bible open to Romans 5, notice what he is talking about here. He is talking in the last verses of chapter four about the past, about how our offenses, our sins, are forgiven. That is the past. But it involves not just the past, but it involves the present.

Now notice what Paul says "through Whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, (Notice that is the present tense. The grace in which we stand, that is right now. It is going to talk about the future, too.) and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us." Romans 5:2-5.

Notice several points in this Scripture. When we are forgiven, it does not just involve the past, but something happens in the present. We stand now in grace, in grace. The grace of God is the power of God. First He takes away our guilt, but then to make a change in my heart and my life now. You see, unless my heart is changed, it will not do any good to forgive me for what I did in the past, because I will just keep doing it unless my heart is changed.

Paul says, The love of God is poured out into our hearts. The heart is changed by the Holy Spirit. It mentions that right here. Through the Holy Spirit the love of God is poured out into our hearts. That brings a change into the heart, a change in the life. I now have something inside. This is another argument, by the way, theologians want to argue about this subject whether it is something that is done for you or in you.

This text of Scripture in Romans 5 shows that it involves not just something that was done for you by Jesus on the cross, it involves something that is done in you by the Holy Spirit, in your heart. Your heart is changed.

Oh, friend, this is so important that Jesus told Nicodemus, He said, Unless a person is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It is impossible. The Holy Spirit has to change my heart. The love of God has to be poured out into my heart. That is righteousness by faith.

Righteousness, remember, is love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. The love of God has to be poured out into my heart by the Holy Spirit. So I have a new heart. That is, I have new desires, I have new purposes. I want to do different things. Instead of wanting to break Gods law, now I want to keep Gods law. Instead of rebelling against Him, I want to follow Him and serve Him because I have a different heart. My heart is changed.

And, I want to tell you, friend, this is something Jesus told Nicodemus, He said, You cannot see it. It is like the wind. You cannot see the wind, but you can see the results. I have seen the results many times. You cannot actually see what the Holy Spirit is doing, but you can see the consequences in a persons life.

The person who was impure: the music they were listening to, the magazines they were reading, the videos they were watching, the programs they were watching, and all the impure pornography that they were involved in--that comes out of their life. Now you cannot see what the Holy Spirit is doing in their heart, but you can see that something is changed in their life because their life is different.

The person who was impure becomes pure. Their language changes. I have seen that over and over. The language changes. They have a different vocabulary. They are not telling dirty jokes any more. Their speech becomes pure. Why? The Holy Spirit is working in their heart and pouring the love of God into their heart. That is righteousness. It is changing the way they think, and the way they talk, and the way they act.

The person who was pilfering; you know, we live in a land where one of the biggest thieves in the United States is simply employees stealing from their employers. Have you read about that in the news? We have billions of dollars being stolen from employers every year. What is the problem? We need a change of heart.

The people who were cheaters and liars and dishonest, all that changes. The ten commandments forbids that sort of life. They forbid lying and stealing both. All that changes. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is working in a persons heart and changes their heart.

Something else that happens. People who were impatient, they learn to develop forbearance. That is another evidence that the Holy Spirit is doing something in the heart. They are becoming forbearing. You all know what that is. When you make a mistake yourself, you want someone to be patient and forbearing with you, do you not? And people who used to be hard and rough and sharp, they become gentle. That was one of the characteristics of Jesus. He said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28, 29

These changes in heart, that is what is happening through the Holy Spirit. That is righteousness by faith. I want to read you a statement that I have been meditating about. This is another short paragraph, this is written by Ellen White. This was written, by the way, to some people who were in dire difficulty of sin. Here is what she wrote to these people. She said:

"Righteousness of Christ imputed to man means holiness, uprightness, purity. Unless Christs righteousness was imputed to us, we could not have acceptable repentance. The righteousness dwelling in us by faith consists of love, forbearance, meekness and all the Christian virtues. Here the righteousness of Christ is laid hold of and becomes a part of our being. All who have this righteousness will work the works of God." Counsels to People with Moral Problems, 134.

See, it works. You receive it. It changes your life. You talk different. You think different. You act different. Your life starts to come into harmony with Gods Word and especially with His law. Friend, do you want to have the righteousness of Christ in your life? Do you want it? Do you want Him to take away all your past guilt? Do you want Him to give you a new heart through the Holy Spirit? And to give you grace to live a new life?

You see, the Christian religion is not just improving your old life. That is not what it is about. Your old life is not worth improving. Jesus said, I will give you a new heart, a complete transformation in your character. You will live a new life. You will have a new heart and a new spirit. You will live a new life. It is not an improvement on the old one. You are going to get a different one. A different heart. A different life.

The result will be different speech, different actions. And if you will put your trust in Me, I will give it to you. Remember these two requirements: if you will acknowledge Him as your Saviour from sin and you are willing for Him to be the Lord of your life, He has promised to give it to you.

The past will be forgiven. You will not be guilty any more and in the present you will receive a new heart, a new character, a new spirit, a new mind. That has to happen if you are going to go to heaven. Jesus told Nicodemus that. And friend, I want that to happen in my life. I am praying for it to happen in my life every day. How about you? Do you want it to happen in your life? Do you want this experience to happen in your life?

This is not an experience, by the way, that happens just one time in your life when you truly accept. This is an experience that happens in your life every day in the morning when you get up. You start making choices. Is Jesus going to be the Lord of your life today? We should all do that every morning.

Do you want this experience? Do you want the righteousness of Christ to be in your heart and in your life through the Holy Spirit? Do you want this to happen to you? If you do, before we sing our closing song, I want to invite you to kneel down and pray with me. Let us ask the Lord to work this miracle out in our life.