The Lord, Our Righteousness [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. I want you to know and cherish this. It will change your life if you believe it.

That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Brint, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Remade, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Don't miss it.

Contact us at PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860. We're going to give you more on all this later in the program. But right now, let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? Yes. Not only if you're a Christian, does it mean that Jesus has taken every one of your sins, bore it in his own being and paid for that penalty. But if you're a Christian, it also means that every one of his righteous deeds and every aspect of his perfect and holy life has been credited to you as if you had lived such a life. This is what was prophesied amidst many judgment oracles by the prophet Jeremiah. And we will see it fulfilled in many scriptures today as we continue in our series on Jeremiah and his restorative prophecies that we pick up reading today in Jeremiah 23, verse one. Woe to the shepherds. Shepherds here is used as a really a name for the kings, the leaders. Shepherd was often synonymous with the king. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord.

So political leaders and religious leaders probably included in this indictment. Verse two. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who care for my people. You've scattered my flock and have driven them away and you've not attended to them.

Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I've driven them. And we're speaking of restoration from exile, but also what I want you to see today. This is speaking of you and me, the ones who have been restored through the gift of Christ. I will do this, he's saying, and I will bring them back to their fold and they shall be fruitful and multiply. So God's saying, I've got a plan where in people, though they've been disobedient, will be restored in community and fellowship with me. And they will be restored to the original blessing that I gave to Adam and Eve, that they would be fruitful and multiply and have dominion in the earth. He's restoring what he always designed for humanity to be.

That's what he's promising. Verse four, and I will set shepherds over them who will care for them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed. Neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. And behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I'll raise up for David. And if you're familiar with your Old Testament, you know that in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord had told King David that he would never remove his steadfast love from David and that someone from David's family would forever be on the throne. And we're going to be today discussing the last earthly king of Israel on this earth. And so all of this is pointing to a spiritual fulfillment of this great promise for the giving of Jesus Christ to the world as a fulfillment of this.

Behold, the days are coming. I'll raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness. We've come into these words today, Hebrew words that are two of the most important and recurring Old Testament words whenever the covenant is mentioned, justice and righteousness, mishpat and tzedekah, mishpat and tzedekah. In verse six, in his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.

And this, here we are, this is the name by which he will be called. Speaking of this new Davidic king, he will be called the Lord is our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt? Speaking of the Passover, the deliverance from slavery, the exodus. But verse eight, they'll be saying, as the Lord lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he driven them?

Speaking of restoration inheritance, you see, and then they shall dwell in their own land. I wish I could describe to you how funny and odd it is to be a minister and watch people treat me differently than other human beings. You know, I've been doing this for a long time and I just need to assure you again, I am every bit as human as every other human being. And, uh, and yet people sometimes they just treat me up from the earliest days of being in the ministry. I realized they just treat me differently. When I first started any ministry, I was in youth ministry about a year out of college, I was actually living in Winston-Salem and renting a house with three other guys. And one day the landlord came in and, uh, and he was cussing, just cussing up a storm. And I walked in the room and he knew I was a youth director at a church. But even just for that, I walked in and he said, Oh, I'm sorry about that. You know, and he changed his language. And I thought, this is just weird. You know, I just come out of college.

There was nobody changing their language around me in college. And now you're a youth minister and I'm going to change my language because you're more holy. And it's just weird. It's just people to treat as if somehow I'm, you know, more righteous.

And I'll tell you the other funny thing where it shows up is that therefore, if anything good comes along in my life, then people often will credit it to me as because I've got, you know, special favor with God. I remember one time playing golf, I hit a shot, a tee shot so bad that it not only went toward the woods, it went over the woods. It went over the trees and it hit a roof of a house so hard that everybody heard it just go, boom, you know? And we just sat there and I'm thinking, everybody's like, huh, they got a lost ball on that. You know, he's going to lose this hole. And all of a sudden we saw this ball as if in slow motion, come back up over the trees going forward a little bit and landed right in the middle of the fairway.

And I mean, it had to travel a long way to get back over the trees and out middle of that fairway. And, and, and all the other, the guys are playing with me just looked at me like, they were like, so that's, that's, that's the favor you get from God right there, all that right living. And, so it's like, if anything goes, goes well, it's like, yeah, that's cause you've got, you know, you've got a little extra connection with the big guy upstairs. I mean, that's the way, you know, a lot of secular guys think about this and the irony is when anytime anybody looks at me and go, well, I guess that's what that right living gets you. What I really want to say, and every now and then I will is if you only knew, it's not just that I'm a minister and every now and then I do something a little bit holy in Christ, I have become the righteousness of God. It's not a matter of some kind of special favor.

It has already been purchased on my behalf. We are talking today about what theologians call imputed righteousness. And I just want to tell you, I have sat in my study at home repeatedly this week and wept for joy at every thought of it. And I want you to know and cherish this. It will change your life if you believe it.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. So this text begins with a great problem that the northern and southern kingdoms had faced. And that was in the divided monarchy after Josiah who made many righteous reforms.

One king after another bad king came, four in succession. And that's why this chapter begins with woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. So the image of the king is the image here of a shepherd. And I think we all understand that sheep need the shepherd so much to be a good shepherd because if the shepherd is inattentive, the sheep will scatter, the sheep will be destroyed by the enemy. And so in order to understand imputed righteousness, you need to start with this. There is a connection so close between the shepherd and the sheep that you cannot really separate them. This is a little offensive to the modern mind. That as the shepherd is, so goes the people.

But this is the biblical image. If a shepherd is good, his sheep are going to not be scattered and lost and perishing and being devoured by wolves. If the shepherd's bad, the sheep will be afraid. They'll wander down ruts. They'll follow each other off cliffs.

They'll drink polluted water and they will scatter and be lost. That's the nature of a sheep. So in order to understand this and understand who Jesus is as our king, there is a relationship that is inseparable between the king and the people.

And that's what's happened. So the people have in a sense found that they have suffered because of the unrighteousness of the king. And in chapter 22, if we were to read it all, what you would see is a succession here of three kings who followed Josiah, who all are rebuked by the Lord and Jeremiah 22.

I'm not going to read all of this, but I'll give you a few verses. The first was a son of Josiah. His name was Shalom, or he was also called Jehovah has Jeremiah 22 13 woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness. Speaking of Jehovah hats and his upper rooms by injustice who makes his neighbor, serve him for nothing and does not give him wages. Who says, I'll build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms, cuts out windows. So he's talking about a luxurious palace that is built on the backs of the oppressed. And he says, listen to this rebuke verse 15.

Do you think you're a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father, speaking of Josiah, eat and drink and do justice and righteousness mishpat and Seneca. And then another son of Josiah follow that was Jehovah Kim. We read of him in Jeremiah 22 21. The Lord said, I spoke to you and your prosperity, but you said I will not listen.

And this has been your way from your youth and you've not obeyed my voice. And then to a third, a son of Jehovah Kim, Konya or Jehovah Ken. Verse 29.

Oh, land, land, land. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man down.

Joya Kim as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days. He's saying this man and his family will not fulfill the lineage of David. And then there's a fourth king whose name is not specifically mentioned here, but is the one who is the forefront of these two chapters, though he's not mentioned by name. And that's what I want to show you because his name is Zedekiah and he rained for 11 years right up until five 86 BC. And it was in five 87 that the Babylonian sacked Jerusalem and people are deported. And Zedekiah is the last natural king of Israel on this earth.

Not been one since. And he is here implicitly in this text. And I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you why. But then in Jeremiah 23 five, we see that all of those bad kings are contrasted with the days that are coming when I'll raise up for David, a righteous branch. He shall reign as king and he shall execute justice and righteousness. If we had time, I would take you through the Old Testament and show you all the places where these two words Mishpat, which is justice and Zedekiah, which is righteousness. And justice has the idea of God does not let evil go unpunished and does not let wrong just keep on happening. And righteousness Zedekiah is all wrapped up in showing kindness to people and doing the right thing. It is a huge concept.

Here are two examples. Amos 5 24. Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. God is saying, here's what I love is I love Mishpat just rolling like a huge waterfall. And I like Zedekiah flowing like a beautiful never ending river. Let justice and righteousness flow everywhere in the earth.

That's what he wants. And Psalm 33 5. He loves righteousness and justice. He loves Zedekiah and Mishpat. And yet with those kings of Israel, bad shepherds who didn't attend to the flock, who didn't care about the flock, who built their palaces and didn't care if the people were starving, who built their cedar homes and couldn't care less about the well being of the people who consulted false gods and worshiped idols when the people needed their leadership. They had no Mishpat and no Zedekiah. God has said, I'm going to send you a king who will administer Mishpat and Zedekiah.

So here is the king who's not mentioned, but is all implied here by way of the sharpest critique. And that is Zedekiah, Zedekiah, whose name comes from this word Zedekah. Zedek, righteous. Zedek, and the second part of his name is Yah, which is short for Yahweh, Jehovah God. When you see in the Old Testament a name, if it has El in it, El is short for Elohim, which is God.

But if it has Yah in it, it is short for Yahweh, the personal covenantal name of the Lord. So Zedekiah means the Lord is righteous and implied in this name, therefore, in this king who did evil in the sight of God and reign for 11 years and then eventually was not only dethroned and deported but killed. Zedekiah, the Lord is righteous, stands in utter contrast to who Zedekiah was. He was an unrighteous king, but the Lord is righteous. So the move you're going to see in this text is from Zedekiah, the Lord is righteous, to the promise of God to bring a king whose name will be the Lord is our righteousness. The Lord is righteous, and that is true whether for sinner or saint. There is none righteous apart from Christ, and the Lord is righteous.

He is Zedekiah. Everything wonderful and powerful and glorious about the gospel of Jesus Christ depends on moving from a knowledge that the Lord is righteous, and I'm not, to this remarkable and imaginable truth that Jesus has come as the fulfillment of the promise to David that someone from his throne, from his family would be on the throne and that now in Christ we do not speak of God simply as the one who is righteous, but we actually dare to say we have become his righteousness, for the Lord is our righteousness. So there comes a great promise. There was a great problem, now a great promise, bad shepherds, but he says, verse 3, I'll gather the remnant of my flock. Out of all the countries I've driven them, I'll bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. This is what was blessed of Adam and Eve.

This is what the design was for humanity. I'm going to restore all of this, and in verse 5 he speaks of this righteous branch like a fallen tree that then develops a new shoot that comes off of it. This phrase that in the ancient world was commonly used to speak of the one who was the rightful heir, that's the righteous branch. I'm going to raise him up, and this new king will be called the Lord is our righteousness. So here it is, tzedekiah means Yahweh is tzedek, but the coming king for God's people is Yahweh is our tzedek.

What a promise. Alan Wright and today's good news message, the Lord our righteousness in the series Remade. Stick with us, Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here now in the studio with Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. We're getting some terminology. We're getting some words and the word in the title there, righteousness. That's kind of a religious word for the most part.

I mean, outside of maybe an 80s slang, we're righteous dude, right? But there is an amazing depth to that when you realize that Jesus is our righteousness. This message and this point and this theme that theologically we call imputed righteousness. This marvelous gift that is part of the gospel great exchange where Jesus becomes our sin and we become his righteousness. This imputed righteousness means that God, when you're a Christian, God looks upon you, not just as if you'd never lived, but he regards you, he looks upon you as if you had lived the meritorious life of Jesus Christ.

That changes everything. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.