John Thiel mp3
The last message that we shared was Christ Our Righteousness in Practice.
Today we are going to magnify the Righteousness of Christ under a magnifying glass and to examine it closely. We identified the words of God in the Bible in Psalms 119 to give us the definition of righteousness.
Psalms 119:172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.
Here is a magnification:
Deuteronomy 6:24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. 25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
Isaiah 48:18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Righteousness is inseparably connected with God’s commandments and in these days of multiple churches all teaching different issues in regards to God’s law, there is no preacher that can be trusted who in any way belittles the law. Is not that what Isaiah 8:20 tells us?
Isaiah 8:20 If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
As we are contemplating the subject of Christ our Righteousness, I want the Lord to make it abundantly clear by His own words from the Scriptures. The law is the definition of righteousness. Jesus Himself made it abundantly clear when He was asked:
Matthew 19:16 Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
How did Jesus answer in verses 17 and 18?
Matthew 19:17 If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Jesus is pointing directly to the decalogue that was given by God on Mount Sinai.
Isaiah 42:21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.
Here we have a magnification of righteousness, of the ten commandments that Jesus magnified so powerfully. If we want to understand righteousness, the Holy Spirit who is according to Joel 2:23 in the marginal reading of the former and latter rain, is the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. Righteousness is the commandments of God and if we would have righteousness, we need to be keeping the commandments of God. That is the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness. You see it very powerfully expressed by the words of Jesus in reference to the Holy Spirit in the gospel of John:
John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
The Holy Spirit is the teacher that convinces people of sin and of righteousness. If Jesus came to magnify the law, and make it honorable, what effect does that have on us? Apostle Paul met that very reality. As a pharisee of pharisees he came to claim that the apostles and the followers of Jesus Christ were contrary to the Jewish law. He came to justifiably in his own eyes to punish them and bring them together and kill them, stone them.
In Romans 7 we read what the magnification of the law does, because Jesus magnified the law to Saul of Tarsus:
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”
What does the magnification of the law do? It magnifies our sin. The Ten Commandments magnify our sins.
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
The effect of God’s commandments magnifies the sins to such a degree that we all stand as dead men. The pharisees focused exclusively on the law. What did they successfully do? They successfully accused everybody around them. We are all accused and dead as the law of God is magnified.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Cursed, accused. That’s what we saw in our previous message. There is none righteous, no, not one. We stand before the magnified law, with our sinful life magnified before our minds eye, and I have not any lack of experience as the law is brought to the people, they are disheartened. There is nothing comforting in presenting the law magnified. It magnifies the curse.
The Od Covenant and the Hebrews
It’s what the Old Covenant have achieved. What was the Old Covenant? God gave the Ten Commandments from the mountain and the Hebrews said, everything that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. What did they do next? Moses went up to pick up the tables of stone and what were they doing? They broke their promise.
When he came down, he took them through every commandment carefully and made it clear to them and they said yes, everything the Lord has said we will do. They drafted a document that they will do this. After they had solemnly covenanted, they fall into utter condemnation because their promise to keep the law was a complete failure.
King David
King David was a person who walked in the presence of God as the Hebrews did. Walking with God loving and proclaiming His law. He was a beautiful person who as a young man gave his heart to Jesus, to God, and he had powerful experiences with God. God anointed him to be the king and a prophet who wrote the book of Psalms in which are the prophecies of Jesus.
Then his wife gave birth to a son, King Solomon who was the wisest man on earth because he didn’t trust himself. He said to God, I need to have your wisdom and God gave him wisdom. Solomon wrote Scriptures. What were they? Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. A man of God. But what did they do? One who has been a real close representative of God on earth, sinned grievously, both David and Solomon. Is there any hope for those kinds of people? People so closely entwined with God, so much that every step David took when he became king in his early experiences. He asked God for guidance. He walked with God, but he sinned grievously.
What is Christ our Righteousness under the magnified law? The law that magnifies the sin of each individual exceedingly.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
What are God’s thoughts in reference to Him pardoning and dealing with men and women whose sins become magnified as their lives are examined by God’s law? What is God’s way in reference to His law?
Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Follow very carefully: what is meant that the law is our school master that leads us to Christ? We are trying to pick up on God’s thought, God’s way.
The law is broken but cannot pardon the transgressor. It is our schoolmaster, condemning to punishment.” 1SM 341.2
What is meant by the schoolmaster? Condemning to punishment.
Those who focus on the law and nothing else, become accusers. They make the Ten Commandments the only source of righteousness, like the pharisees, what do they do?
Psalms 64:6 They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery. They thought they found somebody, they did a diligent search. They brought this poor woman right in front of Him. They judged her and threatened her to be punished. Censured, no release, doomed, disfellowshipped and so on.
The law condemns each one of us. We have no hope with the law alone but Christ our Righteousness. What does the teacher of righteousness according to righteousness will continue to do?
John 16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
He magnifies the law, and as He magnifies the law to you, your sins are magnified to your eyes. But then He takes it of Jesus and shows it unto you. You see yourself totally bereft, totally hopeless, you read:
2 Corninthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Do you understand this text? We who are sinful, we have no hope that we can ever keep that law. Jesus was made to be sin. Why is He made to be sin? Because I am sin. He who knew no sin was made to be sin, so we who knew no righteousness, may be made the righteousness of God in Him.
1Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;
Here is contained Christ our Righteousness in words that need meditation. Jesus bears my sins, your sins, everyone’s magnified sins magnified in His own experience, that we may be the righteousness of God in Him. Sister White puts a beautiful explanation on this: He, the sin-bearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake became sin itself. Are you comprehending, the enormity, the magnification of the law, and the magnification of the sin in Jesus Christ who took your and my place? Let’s magnify it a little further, that He bore it in His own body. I was in Him with all my sins; that’s what He experienced: You and me in Him.
Psalms 40:11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
The evil works, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon his divine soul…..Though the guilt of sin was not His, His Spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men.” RH December 20, 1892, par. 7
What was His experience? Yours and mine, but worse.
If He drank of the cup of suffering, He must open His breast to the griefs and woes and sins of humanity.” ST November 25, 1889, par. 2
This is Jesus in a magnified way.
Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, DA 753.1
I never forget the sermon I preached many years ago in the Reform church. I entitled it “Jesus the Transgressor” and did I get into trouble?
…that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart DA 753.1
Tthe Father withdrew from His consciousness.
…with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.” DA 753.1
We make a lot of the physical suffering of Jesus, the crown of thorns, the whipping He received, hanging on the cross. But how much is made of this suffering?
Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.” DA 753.2
…My heart faileth Me. Ps 40:12
Horrifying stress!
Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God. SC 13.1
One greater magnification still, Sister White describes the death of the martyrs with all the physical sufferings that they went through and she says that is not the death that Jesus died.
But bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of God’s dear Son. The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father’s wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul. It was the hiding of His Father’s face—a sense that His own dear Father had forsaken Him—which brought despair. The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He had not one ray of light to brighten the future. And He was struggling with the power of Satan, who was declaring that he had Christ in his power, that he was superior in strength to the Son of God, that the Father had disowned His Son, and that He was no longer in the favor of God any more than himself. If He was indeed still in favor with God, why need He die? God could save Him from death. 2T 214.2
Can you comprehend this magnification of the sufferings that Satan throws at you? And he threw much worse at Christ.
Why did Jesus experience all that, this detail of the condemned condition that is magnified to the mind by the law?
Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Are you understanding Christ our Righteousness? He went through an experience that satisfied Him. Because it is by His knowledge that He (God’s righteous servant) knows that He shall justify many. He is righteous still, but experienced enduring my sin, so that the righteousness that He wants to impart to you and me, if we will accept it, then we are justified.
Many
How many? Whosoever believeth this, His suffering, His travail, as we have been magnifying it. If we will believe that, we are justified.
David
I am going to show you now Christ our Righteousness in magnified application.
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
What are the sure mercies of David? The very man who knew God and walked with Him. He was a prophet and had enlightenment of God in his mind. God says that He wants us to study him as your witness of Christ our Righteousness.
Psalms 119:172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness. 174 I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight. 175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me. 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
David still had God’s commandments dear in his heart. But he had gone severely astray. We can read Psalm after Psalm to show David’s contrite mentality.
Psalms 38:1 O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. 4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. 6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
The law has magnified his sinfulness. He’s crying out.
Psalm 38:17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. 18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
Psalms 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. 13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
Compare these words to the words of Jesus. You can’t often tell them apart.
Psalms 40:11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
The words of David were also the words of Jesus in these Psalms. As you read, you can’t tell apart David and Jesus. I never forget when I was in the Reform, I had this trouble time and time again, that the ministers preaching that Jesus did not suffer in sinful flesh like we have to suffer. As I read psalms 40 to a minister, he said, this is David. Then I read to him the words that clearly identify Jesus and he said this is Jesus. People can’t tell the words apart. Because David and Jesus were going through exactly the same experience. Do you now get the meaning of atonement? David and Jesus were at one with one another.
David is made an example of atonement. God said in Isaiah 55:3 that he is the one who is a witness. Indeed every time you read about King David and Jesus, it’s synonymous.
In Ezekiel 34 we see sheep that have been scattered by false teachers.
Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24 And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.
Who is the true Shepherd? Jesus! He was equated with the words “My servant David”. Brethren, can we comprehend the lesson? You and I are illustrated by David. The one who loved God, who wrote the Psalms, who was a polygamous, who was a man of war and blood. Imagine him killing his ten thousand. In those days it wasn’t just a gun from a distance, it was with a sword and a spear and there was blood flowing as he slaughtered these people. A man condemned again and again by God’s law. What about Solomon? The same thing. David was a murderer, a faithful soldier because he had to cover his tracks.
Can you trust anything from such a sinner? When Nathan came to David, see how he condemned himself:
Psalms 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
If you do this for me Father, then I will be able to help sinners such as me. Did God hear his prayer? We know He did. You and I see the magnification of the law in front of my eyes. My sin is always before me.
A Coal from the Altar
Is it possible that you may believe like David did? What did we study last week about the coal that touched Iasiah’s lips? When he said I’m undone because I’m a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of unclean lips, the coal was taken from the altar in the heavenly sanctuary. This is the place of the throne of God and the coal came from the throne of God and touched his lips. What did the burning coal do? It purged his sins. Who is that burning coal from the throne of God? None other but Jesus.
Conclusion
The law is magnified, sin is magnified, and Jesus is the recipient of your experience. You in Him in the living reality of what we have been magnifying here. What does this do if you permit yourself to go into the depth of this in your own experience as your sin chokes you, as your hopelessness chokes you, because the law is magnified to you and you see yourself in the eyes of the law? You see the recipient of you in Jesus. What impact should that make if you let it touch you? What does it do to our conscience? What is the living application of this?
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
I am letting the word do its work in our hearts.
Isaiah 4:4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
When your mind is red hot, realising your true condition and you know that you are doomed to be condemned forever, no hope, it’s burning. You see Jesus burning with your suffering. What does do to your conscience? It purges you, it burns through your mind and your conscience.
Hebrews 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
What were the promises of the first testament? I have promised to obey God. I have walked like David. He believed and trusted God, he depended on God, he loved His law, and then he does something so drastic. Jesus died for the sins that were done after we have walked with God. What does all this have to do with your lips? The unclean lips were touched with coal. It is the burning of Jesus on the conscience.
Proverbs 22:17 Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. 18 For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips.
What we are absorbing from the words of the wise, from David, from Solomon, from the wisdom of God, as He says that my ways and my wisdom are different from yours. Look at what I have done for David, look what I am prepared to do for you, if you believe all these things will be fitted in thy lips.
Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.
The covenant is our hearts and fitted them in our mouth.
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Christ our Righteousness has been magnified before us in God’s word and he who understands the magnification of this, Christ our Righteousness, has it burnt into his system. God will send him forth as His servant, one with David, who was able to communicate his experience as an abject sinner justified by Jesus Christ.
As we look at Jesus and we concentrate on Him and compare ourselves with Him, it is burnt into our conscience, our mind is completely burnt out and replaced. This person, David could go out and teach sinners and help them to be saved. While the Laodicean ministry, merely know their shallow moralisation of all this, which fail to go deep into the soul.
Shall we push on with our faces like a flint, discarding the judgments of a Laodicean ministry that says, we are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;knowing not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked?What will these law people do? They will search out and will say see, we got it. These people are terrible sinners.
Hold on to Christ our Righteousness. Talk and think of Him. Leave each other alone. And they will condemn us as a church and in their eyes justifiably so.
They don’t know Christ our Righteousness.
Amen
