Shall we turn to Romans, Romans chapter three? Romans three. And we're going to be looking at the ground floor of all God's blessings, the foundation of all of God's blessings. Romans chapter three, verse twenty one. But now It literally reads, A righteousness of God, and we'll see why that's important. But now a righteousness of God without a law is manifested, revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, that is, by the Old Testament. Even a righteousness of God which is by faith concerning Jesus Christ, or faith in Jesus Christ. This is an objective genitive here in the Greek, and where you have of Jesus Christ, it's not his faith, it's faith in him, or faith concerning him. And so we'll read that again. Verse twenty-two, even a righteousness of God is which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned, and falls short. It's in the present tense, and falls short of the glory of God. The ground floor of all God's blessing is this matter of righteousness. Let me show you the verses that tell us that it is. Romans chapter five and verse twenty-one. Romans five twenty-one, that is sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. Grace reigns through righteousness. righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord notice grace reigns because of righteousness through righteousness in other words we must be righteous before God before he can shower his grace upon us look in the same chapter repeating the same thing chapter five verse one therefore and the greek reads having been justified and the word justified is the same greek word as righteousness but it's just the verb of it and so it therefore having been declared righteous by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. Notice the foundation of it all is to be righteous before God. And then everything else, God's hands are untied, and he can lavish his blessing upon us once we are righteous in his sight. Look at Romans eight. And that'll suffice, I think, to show that this matter of being righteous before God is foundational to all his other blessings. Romans eight and verse ten. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life. That is, he comes in and he produces life because of righteousness. In other words, the Holy Spirit couldn't come into you and me and lost sinner tonight. He can't come into you until first you stand righteous. before God. The Spirit is life, and that's what He produces, is eternal life, the divine nature in us. He is life because of, on the basis of, righteousness. There's a lovely illustration of this in the flood. You remember after the judgment waters was subsiding, and Noah let the dove out of the ark. Well, first he let a raven out. The raven is an unclean bird, and the raven immediately found some corpus floating on the judgment waters, and he was happy to light there and remain, and the raven didn't come out to the ark. But Noah let out the dog, which is certainly in God's word a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the clean birds. And the dog is not unclean. It will not light upon a corpus. And it returned to the ark. And then Noah let the dog out the second time. This time the dove came back with a leaf plucked off. Notice it wasn't a dead leaf floating on the water. It was plucked off. It was as if to say the judgment is over and here is resurrection, newness of life. Here is the token of the judgment over. The leaf plucked off and he brought it back to Noah. And then Noah put the dove out the third time, and it remained. The Holy Spirit cannot produce in you and me the new birth. He cannot make us God's child. He cannot give us all these blessings of God until first we are clean ground. He cannot light upon us. and abide with us until we are righteous, clean in the sight of God. That's the type of the dove in connection with the ark, and that's the statement of Scripture here in Romans eight, ten. The Spirit is life because of righteousness. And in view of what Paul has been saying about righteousness, We know he's talking about this special righteousness of God. So let's go back now to Romans three and look more carefully at this subject of how to be righteous before God. Romans three, verse twenty one says, But now a righteousness of God is manifested. Those words, but now, are signifying a change, a contrast. He's been speaking about one thing, and he's switching now to the very opposite. He doesn't say, and now, he says, but now. What has he been talking about? In these first two and a half chapters of Romans, he's been talking about the sinnerhood of humanity. Our deep-died sinnerhood, every child of Adam, and he takes every category of the human race, the heathen, the moral, upright Gentile, and the Jew who is steeped in his religion. And he paints the darkest picture possible of human nature and of our condition before a holy God. Like we used to say in Georgia, it's as dark as midnight in a jug. It is dark. Look at it. Romans three, verse nine. What then? Are we better than they? That is, are we Jews? If anybody's got an inside track with God, it's the Jews, not the Gentiles. Are we Jews better than they, Gentiles? This is Romans three nine. No, in no ways. For we have before proved, that is, in these two and a half chapters, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. what a dreadful statement what an awful place to be in before God in heaven they are all under sin and notice verse ten as it is written there is none righteous no not one and we just got through noting that the only way God can come to us and bless us, the only way we can have peace with God, the only way we can have the Holy Spirit and the new birth is by being righteous before God. And yet it says there is none righteous. No, not one. And he certainly paints a terrible picture there. You know, the sad thing is that we do what we notice the Africans do characteristically. And that is, the African finds it almost impossible to say he's wrong, that he's made a mistake. The first year that we were in Africa, as missionaries, I remember my job was primarily to help with the schoolwork because I didn't know the Swahili yet, and I could do the schoolwork using French. And so I would go out into the bush and check the schools and try to be a help to the Christian schools. And I would check the boys and their materials that the mission had provided for them. their reader, which was the New Testament in Swahili, and their notebook, and their pencil, and that was about it. Invariably, I would come to a boy, and he didn't have a book. And so I would ask him, which means, where is your book? And invariably, I got the answer, Alisa, how on me, brother? which means it forgot me, why? He would never say, I forgot my book. He would say, the book forgot me. Now, you young people might try that at school this week, but I kind of doubt it'll work because it didn't work on me. But don't you notice that even their language... is built around, and language is this way, you know. Our language reveals much about us, and the African language is constructed so that they don't say, I forgot it. They say, it forgot me. In other words, they don't like to take the blame. One day, a table boy was coming out from the kitchen with a bowl of, we call it oatmeal. I don't know, what do you call it? A porridge or what is it? I don't know. And he had the bowl so full that it was running over and spilling as he came and left a trail of oatmeal from the kitchen out to the dining room. And when he put the bowl on the table, the oatmeal ran over on the cloth. And naturally my wife said, Why did you fill that bowl so full? And his sober answer was, Sahani, which means the bowl's too small, madam. No, he wasn't to blame. It was the bowls fall, think. for being so small. And yes, we laughed, we laughed so many times as we saw this trait in the Africans. And then I realized, oh, I lived in Sheridan, that's you. That's your nature. You don't like to say I'm wrong either. My wife says, don't you think you're driving too fast? And you know, I kind of... You know, I just don't like that. Because she's putting the finger on me. I'm doing wrong. I don't like to confess I'm wrong. And much less does a human being like to say, God be merciful to me, be sinner. But all my friend, that's the only way in. is to confess what you are. As God has told you, they are all under sin. There is none righteous. No, not one. And so that takes you in as well as me. And the best dose of medicine you ever took was to say, I'm the sinner. The sinner who will go to hell. if I get my just desserts. But, oh, thank God, the sinner for whom Christ died. So now we come to Romans three, verse twenty-one. But now, ah, here comes the change. Here comes the contrast. And if we had dark as midnight in a jug, up to this, Now we have the sun shining at noondays. For now he says, a righteousness of God has been manifested. Not the righteousness of God. The Greek is A. It leaves out the definite article. The righteousness of God would be talking about God's character. that he is righteous. And if he's talking about that here, he's only plunging my soul the deeper into hell. But thank God he's talking about a righteousness of God. That is a special righteousness that God has provided for sinners, for the ungodly. And therefore he calls it a righteousness of God. It's his because he's produced it. And at what infinite cost? That is why Christ died on the cross. Look at chapter five, please. Romans chapter five. Verse nine. Much more than being now justified. And again, I would remind you that word justified is simply the verb form of the noun righteousness. And so he sings much more than being now declared righteous. How? By his blood. That's how. That's why he died. The death of Christ answers to a holy God for all our sin and guilt. And God is satisfied. His throne is propitiated, satisfied by the work of Christ on the cross. And in view of that mighty work, the judgment waters having rolled over him, and the Lord risen from the dead. victory over sin and death, and there at God's right hand, God now announces to sinners, sinner, I justify you, I clear you, I declare you righteous by what my Son did for you on Calvary's cross. What a good news that is. Look back at Romans one, a very familiar scripture to us. But I wonder if we really put the two verses together there. Romans one, sixteen and seventeen. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, the good news. Remember, this is good news that God is announcing to us. I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is the power of God. unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it in the good news is a righteousness of God revealed out of faith unto faith or in other words on the principle of faith to the person exercising faith Why is the gospel God's power that saves everyone that believes it? Because in it is a righteousness of God revealed. This righteousness that God has provided for sinners, for the ungodly. That's what he did at Calvary. Oh, praise his name. And he's coming out today. to sinners, to the ungodly. And he's announcing the good news. Christ has died for you sinner. And in view of what he did at the cross, taking your judgment, God is saying, I declare you righteous. And all you can do is believe it. Look at Romans five, verse one. But I'd like for us to compare that again with verse nine, which we read a moment ago. Romans five, verse nine says much more than being now declared righteous by his blood. Verse one says, therefore being declared righteous by faith. Why does he have those two different statements about how we are declared righteous, counted righteous by God. Well, the basis of God counting you and me righteous, sinners that we are, is the blood of Christ alone. That's how he can do it. And then... It's yours and mine on the condition of faith. That's the point. That's what he said in Romans one. Seventeen. For therein in the gospel is a righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith or on the principle of faith to the person exercising faith. That's how we come into the good. of this righteousness personally is by faith. When we came back from Africa the first time, TV had just gotten in, and a lot of things were new to us after being in Africa for five years. This country changed a lot, and that was one of the changes. And I remember my wife seeing a program on... TV called The Millionaire. Some of you probably don't even remember that program. That's so long ago. And, you know, the story was the layout of it was practically the same in every story, but different people and little different applications and all, but basically the same. And that was that this gentleman would come to your door with his satchel and he would knock and in those days people weren't afraid to let strangers in now you wouldn't let them in probably but this man would come and he would let him in and he would say I have a gift for you and it would turn out that he had a check for a million dollars from someone who wanted to remain anonymous And the rest of the story was what this person did with a million dollars. That's the way it went. I think my wife really looked for the millionaire and is still looking for him, but he hasn't arrived yet. But suppose he arrived at your house and you said, oh, this has got to be some sales pitch. This is not real. But the man is so nice, and you say, well, I can't lose. So you take the check for the million dollars. Monday morning, you're the first one in line at the bank. And you shove that check for a million dollars into the teller's cage. And lo and behold, he slides it back. And you said, I knew it was a joke. The teller says, a joke. And you say, well, then it's a bad check, isn't it? The teller says, no, it's not a bad check. I just want you to endorse it. And you put your name on the back of that check, your name, and the million dollars is yours. And my friend, God Almighty has provided righteousness. For you, a sinner, the ungodly, as you are, the ungodly. And he offers it to you tonight as a free gift, an infinite cost to himself and his son. And all you need to do is put your name on it. Say, yes, Lord, you are my Savior, my Redeemer, my righteousness. And I claim you tonight. And go your way rejoicing. Because you are righteous. Before the Holy God. And every blessing. Is lavished upon you. From that second. Always. For grace reigns. Through righteousness. And the Spirit is light. Because of righteousness. Can you say tonight. Yes, I am righteous before God. Praise His name if you can. And, oh, my friend, if you can't, stay behind tonight. And let's settle this wonderful, wonderful offer of God for yourself.