Pastor Steve Hopkins delivers a sermon at Barnet Bible Church focusing on the theme of 'Christ our Righteousness' as part of his series on the book of Romans. He begins by setting the scene of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist, highlighting the importance of this event in the fulfillment of all righteousness. Pastor Hopkins explains that Jesus, being sinless, fulfilled the law of God perfectly on behalf of His people. This fulfillment is not just in His death for our sins but also in His life of perfect obedience, which is imputed to believers as righteousness. The sermon contrasts this with the futile attempts of establishing personal righteousness through the law, which Pastor Hopkins argues is impossible and leads to spiritual downfall. He emphasizes the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ's righteousness, warning against the pride of relying on personal merit. The sermon concludes with a call to trust entirely in Christ's righteousness for salvation, highlighting the danger of resting in self-righteousness and the necessity of faith in Jesus for eternal life.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. And I want to begin this afternoon by taking you to The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew chapter 3 and follow along as I lay down the setting here. Here's the setting.

There hasn't been a prophet in Israel for 400 years. God has remained silent for four centuries. Then all of a sudden There is in Israel this national stirring. There is heard the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Preaching repentance outside of Jerusalem, out in the wilderness of Judea.

And the news is traveling fast. Dishonest tax collectors, wayward soldiers, and even prostitutes are seen and heard repenting of their sins. Out on the banks of the River Jordan a fiery prophet has appeared, the forerunner of Messiah, and he's saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand prepare you the way of the Lord and he's clothed in camel's hair and leather, and he's been living on nothing but locusts and wild honey. And his name is John, and he's baptizing at the Jordan River. The Jordan River is the same river that the Israelites crossed over when they crossed over into the promised land.

And the people have began to flood in from Jerusalem in all the area of Judea and they're confessing their sins and the religious leaders of the Jews hear the news and they rush to the site. Representatives from both the Pharisees and the Sadducees show up on the scene. And when they show up, rather than praising the Jewish leaders, John rebukes them. John, clothed in camel's hair and leather and on a diet of locusts and wild honey coming out of the desert rebukes the Jewish leadership. O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come, who told you you could come here and be baptized.

John knows that they're not truly repentant. John knows their hearts are far from God. He knows that all they do, they do to be seen of men, that it's an outward religiosity, that there's just an outward show. The cup appears clean on the inside, The cup appears clean on the inside, the cup appears clean on the outside with these leaders, but the cup is all filthy within. And as John is preaching and baptizing tax collectors and prostitutes, all of a sudden Jesus appears on the scene, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he asked John to baptize him, but John initially forbids him.

He knows Jesus has nothing to repent of and he says I have need to be baptized of thee and cometh thou to me. In other words Jesus I shouldn't be baptizing you, you should be baptizing me. And Jesus responds to John suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.'" John knows that Jesus has nothing to repent of. He is not only the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he is the spotless Lamb of God without blemish. He is the holy, harmless, and undefiled in thought, word, and deed Lamb of God who has fulfilled the law of God perfectly in thought and in word and in deed.

And John doesn't want to do it. John doesn't want to baptize him. But Jesus says to John, let it be so. And he's saying, he's saying, John, you've got to do this. He wants John to understand that everything he is doing is a part of fulfilling all righteousness in the place of his people.

Brothers and sisters, I said in our last session together, if I could put a banner up here on the wall back behind me that would cover the entire wall from one end to the other, I would have written on it, Christ for righteousness, Christ for righteousness, Christ for righteousness. Christ is the end of the law, the purpose of the law, the aim of the law, the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who puts their trust in Him and what He has done. Or as the order of the sentence appears in the original Greek, the end of the law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes. The only righteousness that God will accept is the perfect righteousness achieved by his Son and received by faith. No righteousness avails save that which is of thee, the hymn says.

The end of the law is Christ for our righteousness. The end of the law is Christ for our righteousness. The end of the law is Christ for your righteousness if you've put your trust in Him alone and what He alone has done for your right standing before God. But what's the alternative? The alternative is to go about to establish your own righteousness.

The alternative is to go about to establish your own righteousness, which is exactly what Paul's Jewish brethren were doing at the appearance of Christ. They sought to attain a righteousness acceptable to God as it were by their own works, by human works, and not by faith. And so they tripped over Christ when he came. They stumbled over Christ, and he became unto them a rock of offense. And brothers and sisters, they started tripping over him before he even appeared on the scene.

As we see here in our text concerning John the Baptist, the forerunner said, I indeed baptize you with water under repentance, but he who comes after me, speaking of Christ, is mightier than I, and I'm not even worthy to carry his sandals." The Jews didn't see this, the Jews didn't acknowledge this. John acknowledges his own sinfulness and his own unworthiness and listen and listen after John Baptizes Jesus we read that the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Jesus and low a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Thoroughly Pleased. Perfectly pleased. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of His people.

Whatever was required of us was fulfilled by Jesus. Whatever the law required of us was fulfilled by Jesus. Whatever the law required of us was fulfilled by Jesus. You've heard me say it many times before, God didn't send his Son from heaven directly to the cross. He had to come in the likeness of sinful flesh, in our likeness yet without sin.

He had to be born of a woman and born under the law and fulfill the law perfectly on behalf of his people. He had to do on our behalf what we could not do for ourselves. He had to fulfill all righteousness in our place. Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 through 5 says, When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we could receive the adoption of sons and without which we could not. In order to place us as adopted children into the family of God, Jesus had to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf.

Jesus not only had to die for our sins to wipe out our sin debt, He had to keep the law of God perfectly for us that we've broken at every point. This is the righteousness of Christ. He wipes out our sin debt, He atones for our sins, and He keeps the law perfectly in our place. Imagine your heart black with sin. Jesus goes to the cross and suffers the wrath of God you deserve.

Everyone understands this. He pays the penalty in full for every transgression. And your slate is wiped clean. That darkened heart is now wiped clean. Every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful act you've committed is atoned for.

And your previously blackened heart is now white and clean. Your account has been settled. Your sin debt has been paid. But you still have no righteousness Because righteousness is by the law and you haven't kept it. Your transgressions were removed by Jesus' blood.

But your account lacks the positive balance of perfect obedience required by the law of God to be justified in his sight. The demand of the law is that he who would live eternally must fulfill its every precept, and None of us have done that. The demand of the law is the very words Jesus spoke to the lawyer who sought to justify himself and establish his own righteousness by the works of the law in Luke 10. The demand of the law is, do this and thou shalt live. Remember, that's what Jesus told him.

Okay, do this. What does the law say? Okay, do this and you'll live. But he couldn't. And neither can you.

And neither can I fulfill the righteous demands of the law? Fulfill all that the law demands of us in order to stand before God on the Judgment Day, un-condemned. Jesus showed that man that he couldn't do it, But Jesus did it all. By His death, He paid the penalty for our sins. And by His life, He obeyed perfectly on our behalf.

And when we come to trust in Christ, His righteousness is transferred to our account and his obedience in both his life and his death is imputed to us, which we'll talk more about next week, the doctrine of imputation. Dr. Sproul says, quote, Jesus not only had to die for our sins, He had to live for our righteousness. If all Jesus did was die for your sins, that would remove all your guilt, and that would leave you sinless in the sight of God but not righteous. You would be innocent but not righteous because you haven't done anything to obey the law of God.

Which is what righteousness requires. Brothers and sisters, Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly in his every thought, word, and deed, and motivation on our behalf and in our place. From the moment of his conception to the grave, from the womb to the tomb, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. Christ is our righteousness who have placed our trust in Him and what He has done for us both in His life and in His death. We sang it earlier, even then this shall be my plea.

This was Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf hundreds of years ago. Even then this shall be my plea. Jesus hath lived, hath died for me. He lived for us a life we couldn't live. He died for us a death we could not die.

Are you trusting in Jesus and what He alone has done? Or adding some work of your own to be accepted of God. Friends, the law screams at us perfection or death, eternal death. The law says to all who seek to establish their own righteousness by keeping some of the law some of the time. Right?

Because nobody keeps all of the law all of the time. It screams at those who would attempt to keep some of the law, some of the time, in order to establish a righteousness that they believe is acceptable before God, you're in big trouble. The law says to you, screams out to you, you're in big trouble if that's what you're doing. Because as the prophet Isaiah said, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. All our attempts at establishing, going about to establish a righteousness of our own, whereby we believe we will be accepted in God's sight and favored in God's sight, are like a pile of filthy rags before God, that is, polluted garment or covering.

The word is used to describe menstrual cloths. That's what it means. And so, what we need to understand is that relying on anything we've done or are doing or any part of our merit before God or accept to be acceptable with God is like standing before him clothed in menstrual claws and somehow thinking that by doing so we merit his favor. When in reality we're going about establishing a righteousness of our own and provoking his wrath. And the pride of man doesn't like to hear that because we want to feel like we did something.

We and Jesus got the job done. I said in our last session, there are so many professors of Christ in the churches of our land who are doing this, who are going about establishing a righteousness of their own, provoking God's wrath, and they don't even realize that they're doing it. Anyone who clings in hope to any vestige of personal righteousness to merit God's favor clings to death. You can't lay hold on Christ with one hand and cling to your own merit with the other. You can't lay hold on Christ with one hand and cling to your own merit with the other.

You have to let go of any and all dependence and reliance whatsoever on this thing of, I do this, oh I do that, and therefore God will accept me. No! You and Jesus don't get the job done. Justification in God's sight is on the ground of Christ's righteousness alone, which is imputed to us and received by a simple faith. Received by just simple faith.

Anything we add to what Jesus has done, thinking that by doing so our entrance into the presence of God is secured, is works righteousness. Our salvation is not a joint venture between us and God. Jesus did it all. All we do is sign off on it by faith, humbly receiving Him and what He has done for us that we could never do for ourselves. Embracing the righteousness of God provided in Christ.

The righteousness that Jesus worked out for us in his life and in his death. Again, you realize the alternative. You realize the alternative? The alternative is it's all on you. It's all on you.

The Jews were going about to establish a righteousness of their own, and many, many professors of Christ do the same thing in our world today. As I said, they don't even realize they're doing it. You want righteousness by the law? Okay. But get a big wheelbarrow, because you've got to take all of it.

You've got to take all of it. You've got to load every jot and tittle of the law onto that wheelbarrow and push it to the gates of eternity and While you're pushing it up that never-ending hill just so you know if anything slips out on one side of the other You're dead If you want righteousness by the law, eternally dead. Because the law is inflexible in its demand for perfection. If You want righteousness by the law, that's the method by which you think you'll stand before God. I've done some good, it's going to weigh out in the end.

You've got to take the whole load up the hill, and you've got to keep it all. And you've got to be prepared to suffer the curse that it brings down on your head for the least infraction, even the slightest deviation from its demand for perfection. And if you fail at any point, James says you're guilty of it all, if you want to be justified by the law. But thanks be to God that all who are resting in Christ and His obedience in life and death alone, His righteousness is our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.

Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted. So we're at the baptism of John, The Spirit descends in the form of a dove.

The voice comes from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am absolutely, perfectly, 100% pleased. He's perfect to my sight. Jesus begins fulfilling all righteousness. It happened before this in his whole life, but this is where the story picks up. And then the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted.

To be tempted. Has anyone been tempted? He must fulfill all righteousness on our behalf. If we will be tempted, Jesus must be tempted. If the world must be set before us with all its vanity and fleeting imitation glory, the world must be set before Jesus.

And where we fail at every point Jesus obeyed at every point achieving righteousness for us where we have not he must fulfill all righteousness and he did and he did The law was never given to mankind as a possible means of saving souls, says Lloyd-Jones. As if God were conducting some kind of an experiment to see if people could be saved by keeping it, the law was given to quote, show the utter impossibility of salvation by trying to keep it. The law shows us our sin and our need for a Savior. We are too weak to save ourselves because we can't do what the law demands, which is to keep it perfectly. But Jesus is the end of the law.

Jesus is the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And thus in the words of John Calvin, the law leads us, as I said in our last session, by the hand to another righteousness, even the righteousness of Christ. Again, the law is not the means of our salvation, but the means to show us our need for salvation through the only one who could save us, Jesus Christ the righteous. Christ is our righteousness. Paul likens the law of God to a schoolmaster in Galatians 3 24.

He says wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us under Christ, to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. The law was given to lead us by the hand to Jesus. The law was given to cause us to despair of any supposed righteousness whereby we may commend ourselves to God, to bring us to utter despair of trying to work it out ourselves to be accepted of God by our own works, to establish a righteousness before God whereby we may commend ourselves to God. The law thunders against us in all our various codes of moral achievement and exposes us to the wrath of God who would rely on personal merit for his favor. The law of God exposes our sin and utter inability to meet its demands for perfect obedience.

Brothers and sisters, relying on One's own works is like a man standing on a rug called personal achievement. And then the law comes along and pulls the rug out from underneath his feet and lets him fall. But listen, even failures, yes even falls, can be a blessing in the end if, when a man falls, he falls to his knees. If by falling a man comes to understand or a woman comes to understand and acknowledge his or her desperate need for a righteousness outside of himself or herself and reaches out to Christ and His righteousness on his way down. There's hope.

There is hope. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. Helpless to atone for our sins, helpless to keep the law of God as the law of God demands Which is perfectly in order to stand before God Uncondemned And with his favor upon us Trusting in inhuman effort and human merit in our own works is like person standing on quicksand. Anyone ever been on quicksand before? We had it we had it in Arizona on the Santa Cruz River.

It's terrible. You're going along you think you're just everything's fine and all of a sudden you realize whoa this is not solid ground under my feet. Trusting in human merit for a right standing before God is quicksand and it swallows every soul who presumes to stand on it and it will swallow him alive to the grave. Christ is our righteousness, the only rock on which we may stand before God, although the ground is sinking sand. I fear, because I talk to a lot of professing believers in this country, I fear that a vast majority of professors of Christ in the churches of this land are treading quicksand.

They've got something else they're trusting other than Christ and His righteousness alone. Something that they're doing. I go to the Charismatics. You know what they talk about? I speak in tongues, I speak in tongues, I do this, I do that, I do that.

Works righteousness. Roman Catholics who believe that if they do these things, If I just confess to my priest, I go to church once a year on Christmas or Easter or whatever. If I just do, do, do, do, do, you will not be saved. You cannot merit your own righteousness before God. Evangelical Christian churches, I go to church, I got baptized, I receive of the Lord's table.

It's supposed to be a fearful thing for you to receive of the Lord's table if you're not truly trusting in Christ alone for your righteousness, discerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Never ceases to amaze me that the very souls who trust in some level of works or some religious activity they do or some measure of personal merit for secure footing, turn out to be some of the worst sinners and among the most prideful people you will ever meet. I do this. They don't do this, I do this. Simple faith in Jesus and what He has done to save souls.

And the evidence which we will get to next week follows. Justification first, sanctification immediately after. You can't get the two mixed up. If I am sanctified and I am holy, I am growing holy, then I will be saved. No, justified by faith in Christ alone and what He has done alone.

And then our growth in holiness begins. I said in our last session, zeal. We talked about zeal. The Jews had a zeal for God. Zeal's a wonderful thing.

I wish everyone had zeal for God, who was a believer, but zeal without knowledge is damning. No one will ever enter the gates of the celestial city apart from a perfect righteousness, whether Jew or Gentile, no matter how zealous or spiritual that person may seem to be. No one goes to heaven apart from perfection and righteousness, and Christ alone achieved it, and those who believe alone lay hold on it. Taking hold of Christ and his righteousness by faith alone justifies sinners in God's sight. This is the doctrine.

This is the doctrine. This is the teaching of Scripture. By Him all that believe are justified from all things, whereby they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13 38. As many as are of the worst of the law are under the curse.

Galatians 3 10. Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things whatsoever are written in the book of the law to do them. Get your wheelbarrow, but you're gonna fail or put your trust in Christ. The primary purpose of the law is to send guilty sinners fleeing outside of themselves to Christ for righteousness. No man is justified by the law, Galatians 3.11, in the sight of God.

The just shall live by faith. It's only when a man or a woman comes to trust the full weight of their sin burden along with all their past sins all their present failures and all their lack of positive righteousness in obeying the commands of God and comes to trust the entire weight of one's life, and life's sins, and moral failures, and inability to keep the law of God as the law of God demands. Only when all of this is cast upon Christ in faith and what He has done. Only when the trust is completely, reliance is taken from our own selves, trust is withdrawn from ourselves and put completely in Christ and what He has done in both His life and His death and is dying for our sins and living for our righteousness, then a man is saved and justified in God's sight. Only then.

Now you're saying to yourself right now and then maybe some, maybe there's someone who says, I'm too great of a sinner to be forgiven. I've done all these things, if you only knew. If you only knew. I'm different from the others who are sitting around me here if you only knew the things that I've done in my life. And the things that I yielded to yesterday and last night.

And last week and the month before that and the month before that I'm too great of a sinner to be forgiven I've done all these things and haven't done all the things that I should have done If that's you you see that you're still believing that you can be saved by law keeping. You're still putting your trust in yourself and what you can do, what you've done and have not done. Go back to the Jordan where John was baptizing and hear the voice from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and lay hold on Christ and his righteousness by faith and then follow Jesus into the desert where he was tempted of the devil 40 days and overcame where Jesus succeeded where Adam failed and where you failed and where I failed and where every one of us has failed and stop brothers and sisters friends stop trusting in the filthy rags of your own works righteousness, and reach out with both hands and lay hold on Christ and His righteousness alone by faith, on Christ who not only died to pay the penalty for your sins, but live the life of perfect obedience to the law for your righteousness, for your righteousness, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him by faith.

Can you say right now, Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. I have no righteousness of my own. Can you admit that and confess that and believe that? I have no righteousness of my own.

Christ is my righteousness. I'll trust Him with everything I've done and everything I haven't done because Christ is the end of the law. He's the end of it all for my righteousness. All my hope is in Him. Let's pray.

Father, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And if that's not the case with everyone here today, I pray God by the omnipotent Holy Spirit I have the work that only you can do that this would be the day of salvation for that soul who's been resting on a false hope. This would be the day when they would lay it all on Christ. Everything that they've done and everything that they haven't done and say Christ is my righteousness. My trust is in him alone.

Amen.