Episode Transcript
I wonder if you would take God's precious word and turn to Proverbs chapter 12.
Proverbs chapter 12, God willing we will be expounding verse 28 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 12 verse 28.
Title of the message tonight is "The Way of Righteousness."
The Way of Righteousness. we begin with the three words "in the way."
In the way.
A consistent theme in the book of Proverbs has been the direction of travel that people go.
If you've noticed that, we've seen the way, the way, the way, or the path, something to that effect over and over again in the book of Proverbs.
It's a consistent, wonderful theme.
My wife is always speaking about marching toward the goal.
Aren't you, sweetie?
So let's march toward the goal.
And you know, that rightly describes the way that God has for us to travel, because every path, every road has a destination.
And if you could think of the destination as God's ultimate purpose or God's ultimate goal for His creation, then we'll understand that that is our destination.
And praise the Lord for that.
We do have a purpose and in Christ Jesus we will arrive at that purpose.
We will reach that goal. who are walking in the way of God that He established in His Word, they are literally marching toward the goal that He has for us.
God's goal for us is to know the Lord and live forever in His truth and grace.
And repeat it again.
God's goal for every one of us, every person He created, is to know Him and to live forever in His truth and grace.
And to reach that goal, God has designated a roadway for us to travel.
And that roadway is the gospel of Christ.
When a person walks their own way, because we're looking at the phrase "in the way".
When a person walks their own way and not according to God's eternal plan for them in the gospel, Then they're marching away from the goal, away from the purpose, and they will never reach everlasting life in Christ.
They'll never know God and live forever in His truth and grace.
Now, in our text tonight, Solomon calls this wonderful way that God has paid for us to travel, he calls it the way, look back in your text, of righteousness.
Of righteousness.
Now, the way of righteousness doesn't mean the path that God has for us to travel is a righteous path.
It doesn't mean that traveling God's path is a righteous thing to do either.
It is indeed a righteous path and it certainly is a righteous thing for us to do.
But what it's saying is, it's saying that it literally is the road of righteousness.
Not the righteous road, but the way of righteousness, the road of righteousness.
If I told you that you were going to walk on streets of gold when you went to heaven, then you would expect the street itself to be gold, wouldn't you?
Even so, the way of righteousness means the street or the way is righteousness itself.
You see?
Righteousness itself.
And this means, as we're deducting this wonderful truth from the Scripture, this means you cannot reach the goal, You cannot make it to the destination of knowing God and living forever in His truth and grace without righteousness.
Righteousness.
Unrighteous people cannot be accepted by a righteous God.
It's just plain and simple.
Unrighteous people cannot dwell in a righteous world.
Well, if they were there, it wouldn't be a righteous world, would it?
We know that now.
So unrighteous people can't be accepted by a righteous God, and they can't live in a righteous world.
Unrighteous people cannot live forever.
Why?
Because the wages of sin is death.
So a person must be perfectly righteous to reach the goal of knowing God and living forever.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
Righteousness, is the way to God, and Jesus is the way to Righteousness.
Righteousness is the way.
The way to God in the way of Righteousness.
Righteousness is the way to God, and Jesus is the way to Righteousness.
Romans chapter 4 verse 10 says, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes."
If the gospel only paid the penalty for our sins, if that's all it did, if all Jesus came to do was just to down the cross and pay the penalty for our sins, we wouldn't go to heaven.
Do you know that?
We wouldn't go to heaven.
If the gospel only paid for the penalty of our sins, then it would have failed to reunite us with our Creator.
By dying in our place, by paying the penalty for our sins, Jesus made us unqualified for hell.
He made us unqualified for death.
But by living in our place, Jesus made us qualified for heaven.
You see?
You have to have both. you must have righteousness to be accepted by righteous God.
Through the gospel, Jesus not only takes our sin, but He gives us His righteousness so we can be righteous people, accepted by righteous God, living forever in a righteous world.
Righteousness then is the way to a righteous God.
Righteousness is the way to a righteous God.
And Jesus is the way to righteousness.
Why?
Christ is our righteousness.
So Christ is the way to God.
That's why he said, "I am the way."
Remember?
"I am the way.
No man comes to the Father but by me."
Why?
Because he is the way of righteousness.
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 22.
The Bible says, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest."
That means to get right there where God's at, into the most holy place.
Not the most holy place in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
I mean, no man could even get in there except for Aaron and that was just once a year.
But so that would have even been an achievement in and of itself just to be able to walk into there.
But we're talking about into heaven itself.
We now have boldness to enter into that most holy place.
It says in verse 19, "By the blood of Jesus."
Watch now in verse 20, "By a new and living," what?
"Way, a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, ordained for us, through the veil, that is to say His flesh."
The veil that we pass through, That veil in the tabernacle that separated the holy from the most holy place, that is the veil of Jesus' flesh.
And the only way to get to God is to get there through Jesus' death on the cross.
And so, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil that is, say, His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
Sprinkled, washed, made pure.
Now we can get to God through Christ, the way.
Since being righteous allows us to live forever.
Solomon says, "In the way of righteousness," look back in your text, "is life."
"In the way of righteousness is life."
Here's a kingdom truth.
There can be no life without righteousness.
There can be no life without righteousness.
By Jesus giving us His everlasting righteousness, He gives us His everlasting life.
1 John 5:11, "And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
"In the way of righteousness there is life.
This life is in His Son."
You know another way of putting that?
"In the way of righteousness there is life.
This life is in the way."
There can be no life without righteousness.
And there can be no righteousness without Jesus.
For there is none righteous, no, not one."
Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray."
But then we have to ask ourselves, "Astray from what?"
I'm sorry, I guess my allergies are starting to get me.
I didn't have this trouble until I shook Brother Shepherd's hand earlier.
Amen.
But all we like sheep have gone astray.
Astray from what?
The way of righteousness.
We have all gone astray from the way of righteousness.
Having departed from the way of righteousness, Isaiah says, we have turned everyone to his own way.
So there is the way of righteousness and then there is our own way, our own way of unrighteousness.
We turn to our own way of iniquity and thus the Lord hath laid on him, Jesus, our way, the iniquity of us all.
He laid our iniquity on Jesus that he may lay Jesus righteousness on us.
Remember, without righteousness there is no life.
Look back in your text, and in the pathway thereof, that is in the pathway of righteousness that we just described, there is no death.
I've been meditating on this verse off and on throughout the day.
And every time I roll that over in my mouth, it just gets sweeter and sweeter.
It's so liberating, it's so powerful.
In the pathway of righteousness, there is no death.
There is life in that path of righteousness.
In that way that God has given us, there's life.
But there is no death.
There can be no life without righteousness.
That was our first kingdom truth.
There can be no life without righteousness.
Here's our another one.
There can be no death without sin.
There can be no life without righteousness.
There can be no death without sin.
By taking our sins on the cross, Jesus made it absolutely impossible for us to die.
Absolutely impossible for us to die.
In the pathway of righteousness, in the path of Jesus Christ, that is the gospel, the way that God has ordained, that He has consecrated for us to draw near to Him, and to come into the holiest place of all.
In that way there is no death at all.
There is only life.
John chapter 8, verse 51, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."
Never.
Never.
Why?
Because in the pathway thereof, there is no death.
It is impossible to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and die.
Absolutely impossible.
John chapter 11 verses 25 through 26, "Jesus said unto her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.'"
Jesus is the life.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the righteousness.
He said, "I am the resurrection of life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
Why?
Because the moment you believe in Jesus as your Savior, you just entered into the veil, which is the way to God.
The Bible says the veil is how we enter into the holiest place.
The Bible says, "The veil is his flesh which he gave for the life of the world."
The moment we believe in Christ as the crucified Savior for our sins, the means by which we shall be accepted by God, when our faith gets put in God's Son, at that moment we are on the path to heaven.
And in that path, there is life, everlasting life.
And in that path, there is no death at all.
None to be found.
It'd be like saying in the path of righteousness, there is unrighteousness.
A little unrighteousness.
Remember, you can't have death without sin.
You cannot have death without sin.
So in the path of righteousness, there can't be any death.
Because there's no sin.
There's only Jesus who is our righteousness.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, he says, shall never die.
He says, believest thou this?
There can be no death without sin, and there can be no sin with Jesus.
In the way of righteousness there is life, and in the pathway thereof there is No death.
Listen now to this amazing prophecy.
This Old Testament prophecy of Jesus being our way to God.
And it's good old Isaiah again.
Isaiah chapter 35 verses 8 through 10.
Now before we read it, think about our text tonight.
In the way of righteousness, there is life.
And in the pathway thereof, there is no death.
Isaiah 35, 8-10.
"And in highway shall be there..."
This is talking about the gospel.
"And in highway shall be there..."
What highway?
The way of righteousness.
The way.
The highway.
Listen, the only highway, the only way that God paves for man.
It only has one destination and that's God.
The only highway that God will ever give man brings man to himself.
The Bible doesn't say all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to the other ways that God has.
The other pathways God has.
No!
All we like sheep have turned astray we've turned every man to his own way.
So if you go to hell It's because you're not coming through Jesus.
It's because you're not coming God's way.
And if you come through the cross, it is God's way.
And so when we're looking at a highway here, it says, "And a highway shall be there."
This is a highway that God has paved.
He says, "And a highway shall be there, and a way," you see that?
A way.
"And it shall be called the way of holiness."
Y'all see that?
The way of holiness.
Could we say the way of righteousness?
It's the same thing.
The Bible says, "Without holiness, no man's going to see the Lord."
Without righteousness, no man's going to see the Lord.
Remember, without righteousness there is no life.
And so, "And highway shall be there."
God's going to provide a highway.
It's a way, a road, and it shall be called the way or the road, the highway of righteousness.
Now watch about this highway of righteousness or holiness.
"The unclean shall not pass over Why?
Because it's the path of righteousness.
The unclean can't pass over it.
The unclean can't get to it.
Why?
If the unclean could get on this way, then there would be unrighteousness on the way.
If there's unrighteousness on the way, there's going to be death on the way.
And in this way, there is no death.
The unrighteous cannot get on this.
The unclean cannot get on this, unless they commit to walking that way.
And if they commit to walking the path of the and going to God through what Jesus has done, they're not unclean anymore.
Then they're sprinkled and washed clean with pure water, just like the book of Hebrews says.
So nobody's gonna sneak in through the gospel as an unbeliever.
No one's gonna slip into heaven apart from faith in Jesus Christ.
It's not going to happen.
So, "The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those..."
Who's it going to be for?
The wayfaring men.
The wayfaring men.
Now, now, notice that word "wayfaring."
Do you see the word "way" in it?
Oh, man.
You know what wayfaring means?
Huh?
Yeah.
It means to walk on foot. on the way, like she said.
Yeah, he's walking down the road.
Wayfaring.
Every person who is a believer in Jesus Christ is a wayfaring person.
We are.
We're all the wayfaring people.
Each and every day that we go through life, we are simply marching toward the goal.
We are simply getting up each and every day and saying, "No matter what this world throws at me, I am safe and secure in Jesus Christ.
No matter what the devil tells me about myself, no matter what frailties I have, no matter what problems I have, I have chosen to come to God through Jesus Christ."
We're wayfaring people.
We recognize through the gospel message that God has given us a way to Him.
We recognize that Jesus is the only way.
We recognize that that way is paved with the blood He shed for us on the cross.
And that He provides everything we need that we get to God on His merit.
His blood, His sacrifice, His righteousness, His conquering death, everything, the whole works is balled up in Jesus Christ.
And when we decide that we are going to get to God through Jesus Christ, and we believe in Him as our Savior, at that moment we become wayfaring people.
We're walking a road, and in that road there's life, because the road's Jesus.
Jesus is life.
In that road there is no death, because Jesus has conquered death.
In that road, the road is righteousness itself, because Jesus has made us right with God.
We are justified by our faith in Him.
He is atoned for us.
He has clothed us with the robe of Jesus' righteousness.
So, he goes on to say, "The wayfaring men, it shall be for those the wayfaring men, "Watch, the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
How many of y'all ever been foolish before?
Right here.
Right here.
And if you're not raising your hand, then you're being foolish now.
But, can you get this?
There is a highway that God gives, Isaiah said.
He said, "It's the highway of holiness."
He said, "It's for wayfaring men."
You know what that means?
Whoever will walk on it.
Whoever will walk on it.
You can't get to God unless you get there on the highway.
So you can't sit there and say, "Well, yeah, I see that highway right there, but I choose not to take it."
No, it's for those of us that say, "Man, there's no way I'm going to go to hell.
There's no way I'm going to miss out on what God created me for.
There's no way I'm going to stand before God in my own righteousness.
Get me on that highway right here, Jesus and His cross."
This is where I'm at.
It's wayfaring men.
"I'm going to walk the path to the cross, not my own way.
My own way is not going to make it."
Now watch now, "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
Do you know what that's saying about the gospel?
Literally it's saying it's foolproof.
Are you getting this?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is foolproof.
An absolute moron, an absolute fool, that stands, that puts their feet of faith on the truth that Jesus Christ died for their sins on the cross.
Though he's a fool, he can't go wrong there.
Isn't that good?
You may think to yourself, "I'm so stupid, I'm so crazy, I get so mixed up in the head all the time.
I'm this, I'm that, I have so many temptations, I go astray so much."
If you've got enough sense to let Jesus die for you and you not die for yourself, even a fool can figure that out.
Even a fool, if he just stands there, puts his feet of faith on the truth of Jesus Christ dying in His place, dying and overcoming death, and making a way for Him to come to God, even though he's a fool, he won't err therein.
Even though he's a fool, it's foolproof.
You just put your faith in Jesus, and you just let God do all of it.
Why is it foolproof?
It's not our work, it's His.
We can't err in the gospel because it's not our work.
And Jesus sure isn't going to err in the gospel.
Isaiah said in verse 9, is it still up there?
No lion shall be there, that is in that way where we put our feet.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon.
It shall not be found there.
So once you put your feet on the way of Jesus and His cross, and this is the way you're going to God, In that way there's life, there's righteousness, you can't err.
That means it's absolutely impossible for you to slip up and mess up and fall back out of the way and go to hell.
It's absolutely impossible.
Once you've chosen to put your faith in Christ, absolutely impossible.
And once you're on that way, no lion's going to be there.
What's a lion?
It's a predator.
It's a predator.
What's a ravenous beast?
It's a predator.
What do they do?
They kill, don't they?
Why aren't they going to be there?
There's no death in the way.
The Apostle Paul worded it this way, "That things present, or things to come, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
There is absolutely no predator, no enemy, great or small, that can be in the way of the gospel and defeat God's purpose for you in Jesus Christ.
Once you place your faith in Him.
No predator.
No problem.
You can't mess it up.
Now the devil will tell you you can.
But Isaiah says, even though he's a fool, he's not going to err in that way.
So there's no enemy in that way.
Look back at the text.
You know what's going to be there though?
I'll tell you what's going to be there.
The redeemed shall walk there.
You see that?
The redeemed, not the righteous in their own works, but those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
That's the people who walk there.
The people who say, "Man, I'm ungodly."
But Christ died for the ungodly.
"The redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed..."
That's us, we're ransomed, right?
We're ransomed.
God paid a ransom to buy us back from our bondage and sin.
He paid a ransom to deliver our souls.
It says, "And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way.
But then we realize one day that we're lost in that way.
And someone tells us the gospel.
We hear the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has done.
When they tell us that gospel, you know what they're doing?
The Scriptures take our face, Turn it, and the Holy Spirit points us to the way.
He says, "Now you're lost over here.
If you stand before God like this, you're going to die and go to hell.
But look what Jesus did for you."
We say, "Well, look at that."
So we leave our way, and we come to God through Christ.
And when we come to God through Christ, what happens?
Those of us who departed from God through sin, Now return to God.
Why?
Because the way that God pays always takes you to Him.
That's why you return.
Sin drives you away.
The cross brings you home.
So he says, "The redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion."
That's God's kingdom.
"With songs and everlasting joy upon their heads."
Everlasting.
They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
That's what we have to look forward to, brethren.
Aren't you glad you've heard the gospel?
And aren't you glad you've made that choice?
Not my way, but only the cross for me.
Only Jesus for me.
Jesus brings me home.
Jesus saves my soul, ransoms me, redeems me, delivers me from death, gives me His righteousness.
And though I am a fool, if I will just stand in the highway of the cross, I can't err therein.
Lord, we thank you so much for your precious Word, that in the path, in the way of righteousness, there is the promise of life.
And Lord, if that wasn't good enough, there's the guarantee of no death.
He shall never die.
Lord, what a wonderful, wonderful truth, right here in the book of Proverbs.
If there is a way of righteousness that gives life with no death, as the Proverbs say, then surely your word will tell us the way.
And when Jesus came, it's exactly what he did.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me.
Thank you Lord for Jesus in his name we pray, Amen.
