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Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. We're glad to have you with us as always. Now this is a study that I did about righteousness. So the Bible says, As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. The Bible also says that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, that we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So we're going to put those together and give you a good solid answer. And you're going to see why I make this statement during the sermon, which is people don't go to hell because of sin. They go there because they lack divine righteousness. See, the problem today is that everybody's focused on the sin. Oh, the sin, the sin. You got to repent of your sins. You got to turn from your sins. You got to help Christ. Yeah, he died on the cross for your sins, but you have to do your part as well. You're going to see in the study, obviously, why that's not true. Let me just kind of show you, show you an example. So I've got the globe here. Okay. Neon airplane. Now, let's start over here in Idaho, because that's where we are. Boise, Idaho. Now, let's say we get on this plane. Okay. We start flying east. We're going, we're going around the globe, going east. How far is it going to be until I start heading west? Oh, that's right. I'd have to completely turn around in order to go back west. So how far is that? How far is that distance? Well, it's infinite. You can't measure that. Now, what theoretically, okay, just, just bear with me here. Okay. North Pole. Okay. What if I'm at the North Pole? You know, how far would it be until I get to the South Pole? See that? Okay. What does that mean? What that means is that that is a finite distance, whereas east to west is infinite. Okay. Unmeasurable. So why are you bringing this up? Well, because the Bible says as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Now, some people say, well, it's just a figure of speech. Okay. Okay. Well, then why didn't he use north to south? Again, the Bible says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. You see, the sin debt is not an issue anymore. Christ paid for that case. That's not the issue anymore. There's nothing left that you and I can pay, which is why we have to have divine righteousness and find out how you get it, how long it lasts, all that good stuff. You already know where we're going with this. Enjoy the message, lean into this, and I think it'll be a blessing to you. God bless. All right. Amen. Romans chapter number three. So if you would look down at verse number 10, Bible says, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. And I know last week we talked about the fruits of false prophets, how to be a fruit inspector. And I said that we were going to come back to that and do the other side. But every year there's a certain amount of doctrine that I have to get through. And I'm looking at my calendar. I'm like, I got to do this now and start this. Otherwise I'm going to be way behind. So that's the reason for this. This is part of the ongoing series that I do, that I am doing called the person and work of Christ. Okay. And so what we're going to do tonight is we're going to study righteousness, more specifically what I call divine righteousness. Okay. Now you might be thinking, what is righteous? Now keep your place there in Romans three, but go to Genesis chapter number 15, Genesis chapter number 15. You know, we explain it different ways, you know, out soul winning. I understand everybody in here has got their way of explaining it. I think all of us are relatively the same, but if anybody else, you know, it's just, you're just not getting through to them. They're just like, well, it still doesn't make sense. Okay. I still don't get it. Hopefully the sermon will be a help in that regards. But one tip that I often will go to when trying to explain words like this is to have them think of the opposite. So I might say, okay, let's just peel back for a second. Okay. Okay. Forget righteousness. What is unrighteousness? And usually people like, oh yeah, well this, this, and this, and this. Okay. And they'll just rattle off things for you. It's kind of like holy. What does it mean to be holy? My preacher, my priest, God forbid, is saying all these different things. What does it really mean? What does the Bible say it means to be holy? What is the definition? You know, to start off, you could say, well, what is unholy? A lot of things are going to come flooding to mind because we live in an unholy, unrighteous world. We see these things every single day. Okay. Which, you know, by the reason for that is we have to go out and preach the true righteousness, true holiness to people. Okay. Because of that reason. So anyways, going back to what righteousness is, it's perfection. Okay. It is absolute 100% perfection. And you guys already know that none of us are perfect. None of us are righteous or I like to break it down like this. The word righteousness, meaning somebody who's right about everything all the time. So somebody who never makes mistakes, absolutely perfect, no sin. Okay. We all know that nobody fits the bill for that. So how'd you turn to Genesis 15? Because that's the first place in the Bible that we actually see the word righteousness. And when you understand this, you're also going to have a lot of ammunition now to combat the dispensationalist theology that's out there, which does spring up from time to time. Another important reason for this before we get into this verse, in verse number six, is you have to understand that people don't go to hell because of their sin. Okay. People do not go to hell because of their sin. They go to hell because they lack divine righteousness. Okay. I'm going to prove that to you. For example, just real quickly, John chapter number one, verse 29 says what? Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Not just the Christian, but of the world. Okay. You've heard me explain this a million times. We've keyed into this for years that our transgressions are removed as far as the east is from the west. I'm not going to get into detail on that right now. And then of course you get to John chapter 19. Okay. What are the last words of Christ? It is finished. So in other words, his sacrifice or payment for sin is described as past tense versus present tense. The problem that we have today is that everybody seems to be focused on the sin. We got to turn from the sin. You're going to die in your sins. And they have no idea what these things mean. And they completely blow over the real true sacrifice that Christ did. So back to a definition, I want you to look at a couple of things here. Very first time that this word is used in the Bible is in regards to Abraham. Okay. Genesis 15, look down at verse number six. So the Bible says, and he believed, this is Abraham. Okay. And he believed. Now I want you to look at this word here. In okay. Keep that in your mind. And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. So right off the bat, old, old Testament here. What do we see in regards to righteousness? Well, we see that man or Abraham does not have it on his own. It has to be given to him. How did he receive it? Was it by his works? Was it by his labors? Was it because he was just genetically gifted? Was it because he was the super race or was it because of what it says here? And he believed in the Lord. Okay. Now leave your place there and go all the way back to the new Testament and go to James chapter number two, James chapter number two. And remember that word in there, James uses another word in place of that. When he quotes this scripture, James chapter number two. And you were so right after the book of Hebrews, James chapter number two. You're going to look all the way over in verse number 23. Which says, and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God. And it was, now here's that word that he exchanges. Okay. Basically for in says, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. What does that word mean? What does it mean to impute? That word impute means to assign or to charge. So right off the bat, old Testament, new Testament, man is without righteousness, without perfection. Okay. We have come short of the glory of God. It doesn't matter which Testament you're in. That fact has never changed since the fall of man. Righteousness has to be given to us. It has to be imputed, assigned, charged to us. That is what James is confirming here. Okay. I've heard preachers read the first part of this verse and say this. They say in the scripture was fulfilled, which saith Abraham believed God. So he believed every single thing that God said and acted on it. And that's how Abraham got to heaven. Okay. Because they had to do works in the old Testament to be saved. But that's not true. If they would just go back and think about one verse, verse number six, they would see that is absolutely not true. Did anybody in here, anybody in here have a Bible that says anything about works in Genesis 15 verse six? If you do, you got the wrong one. We got Bibles in that red desk over there. You're welcome to take them for free. Absolutely no charge. Now go to second Corinthians chapter number five real quick. Second Corinthians chapter number five. So again, people don't go to hell because of sin. They go to hell because they lack divine righteousness. This righteousness, which comes from the divine, which comes from God. Second Corinthians chapter number five, verse 19. Look at what the text says. It says to wit that God was in Christ. Remember Christ fully man, fully God. We don't deteriorate that by saying, well, he was, he had a God part, you know, and then the man part. No, he's fully God, fully man. Okay. God was in Christ reconciling. Now look at these next two words. The world. Okay. Reconciling the world unto himself. Not, and here's that word again, not imputing their trespasses on to them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. God is not charging or assigning sin to people anymore. He already paid the debt for that. Therefore, the only thing left for a person to do is to receive the free gift of eternal life, which is divine righteousness. That is how a person is able to enter into heaven. And escape from hell. Now go back to Romans chapter number three. So again, people don't go to hell because of sin. They go because they lack divine righteousness. Okay. The world today would have you to believe otherwise. Well, you have to repent of your sins. You have to turn from your sins. And it's like, you're saying that the payment was not paid in full. That's what you're saying. You're saying that the payment still needs to be made and that is blasphemous. So back to righteousness again, Romans chapter three, verse 10 says this. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. Now, of course, he's quoting from the Psalms in that verse there. And you're going to find this over and over again when you study salvation in the Bible. It's the same process in every testament. Okay. No difference whatsoever. Now for sake of time, we're going to go ahead and skip all the way down to verse number 23. Okay. Very familiar verse. We all use this. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Okay. Everybody has sinned. Everybody has transgressed the law. Now keep your place right there, but just one, two chapters away. Go to Romans chapter number five, because he summarizes all of this up in verse number 12. And I just want you to look at this real quickly. Okay. This is basically the application here of righteousness. Verse 12, Paul comes to this conclusion here. He says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. So this is why we have to have righteousness given to us. Okay. Because all men are sinners. Now go to Matthew chapter number five. And we're going to look at a problem here and how to get out of it. Of course, what was it? A couple of weeks ago, we were in Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. And Solomon said, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sineth not. So again, you can always use that in your notes. If you need it to compare to Romans chapter three, verse 23, the same problem. Okay. Offerings, sacrifices have never been able to take away sins. You guys know that. Okay. So we've got the basics down here. We understand that no one is righteous, but we need righteousness to get to heaven. Matthew chapter number five, Jesus says this here, look at verse 20. He says, for I say unto you that except, okay, sermon on the Mount right here, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. What I find interesting, and we don't have time to break down verse 19, is that verse 19, you learn a very important fact. And that is people that break the commandments and teach others men to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Okay. So what does that tell you? That tells you that there are people in the kingdom of heaven that break the commandments. Okay. It's obvious and it should go without saying, but people love this verse here by itself. They don't want to read to you verse 19. They don't want to read verse 21. They want this by itself. In fact, a couple of years ago, when we were having a protest out here, this guy had come up to the door and said, yeah. And I've told you guys the story before, but he's just like, you know, you preach Ku Klux Klan, Jesus, you've never read through Matthew chapter five. I could tell you don't know anything about the sermon on the mountain. He said, Jesus said this, that your righteousness has to be better than the religious leaders, like the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These are his words. This is what he said. And I said, well, what does that mean? How does that look? Okay. Cause you're dressed pretty poorly right now. I told him, you look like a bum. Okay. That's why I told him, so you look like a bum. So, you know, how's that work out? Because the Sadducees, the Pharisees, we're told that they had really good garments, long flowy robes with enlarged borders. And he's like, well, God doesn't judge based off of looks. I was like, Hey, but they were righteous, weren't they? I mean, that's the type of righteous that he's talking about. And of course it just got into a heated unprofitable discussion after that. Then go to Matthew chapter 21. Okay. And obviously what you're going to find, you know, is that it's not very hard to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees because their righteousness is really unrighteous. Okay. That that's what you're going to find. That's what it is. In fact, we've already covered this. When a person gets saved, what happens? They get righteousness imputed, gifted to them. Okay. So it's very easy for our righteousness to exceed the righteousness of these types of people because ours comes from God in the blink of an eye when a person hears the word of God and believes the word of God and asks to be saved. We understand that. Matthew chapter 21, look down at verse number 32. So again, we have this problem though, because somebody might come to you and throw this at you. Okay. Well, your righteousness has to exceed theirs. And they did a lot of works. They tied off of the men. They did all these works. Hey, they did a lot of works. They had issues, but they did a lot of works and you have to do more than them. That's what people will say sometimes. Okay. You need to have this verse right here. Matthew 21 32. The Bible says this, this is Jesus speaking here. He says for John came unto you. Now he's talking to those people that had righteousness. Okay. He says for John came unto you and look at this in the way of righteousness. What did Paul say? He said for that way, which I preach, I'm called into question. Okay. Meaning Christianity, our faith. Okay. That's how it's described here. It's called the way of righteousness. So for John came unto you in the way of righteousness. Now look what he says next. And ye believed him not. What's the focus? It's the belief. It's the trust. And he says, and ye believed him not, but the publicans and the harlots believed him. And ye, when he had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him. By the way, another good definition of the good verse to go to, to explain repent, meaning to turn from what you're trusting in to trusting in God, to believing in God, believing in Christ. But notice when Jesus brings up the publicans and the harlots, notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, okay, John came to you in the way of righteousness. And afterward you didn't stop doing all your sins so that you could inherit everlasting. He doesn't say that. He says for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not. But the publicans and harlots who are filled with sins to the brim, externally into the whole mind, what did they do? What does he say? Believed him. They put their faith and trust in that message. They received God. And he contrasts that by saying, and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him. And again, just for saying this is pre-cross. You're reading that in the New Testament books, but that is still Old Testament because the death of the testator had not yet happened. Okay. Now back if you would to Romans chapter number three. And so what we're going to do is we're going to sail through a few verses all the way into chapter number four, and then we will be done. So let's move on here. Let's go back up if you would. We already did Romans 3 23, but back up to verse number 21. And we're going to, you're going to hear all of these words impute, righteousness, justice, these types of words. We're going to get into it. Look at this here. Verse 21. So Paul says, but now the righteousness of God. Okay. Very important there. I want you to hone in on that, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, is known, is published, is preached. That is what he is saying. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. So again, Paul saying here, look, even I growing up in the old Testament, having that old Testament knowledge can still see salvation now between understanding the law and the fact that nobody can follow it. And what the prophets had said, he's under he's, he's admitting that there. So verse 22, even the righteousness of God. And again, this is another great verse you could use for a definition. Okay. The righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference. Okay. What is missing there? Works. Your own self, your own self-interest, your own deeds. Okay. That is what's missing there. So what is righteousness? It's through faith in Jesus Christ. Okay. Unto all that believe for there is no difference. Okay. Look at verse 23 now with that in mind. So he hammers this again and says for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace. This is why we get so mad when people are just really adamant. You know, there's, there's teachers out here. You knock on their doors, you talk to them, they're in your family, they're in your workplace. Sometimes they come in here and they're just like, yeah, but if you're really saved, you're going to do X, Y, and Z. It's just the way it is. You have to do it. Okay. The reason why that bothers you so much and bothers me so much is because how much more clarity do you need, right? How much more clear than this being justified freely. Okay. You are justified freely by his grace through his mercy. Our, I mean, we don't deserve this, right? We don't deserve this. It's unmerited. It's a free gift through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, not through redemption that is in Christ Jesus and in us and in your deeds. Free verse 25, whom God has set forth to be, and here's an $8,000 word, propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. What does propitiation mean? It means satisfaction. Okay. We're told that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, but not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the entire world. Again, the only thing left for a person to do is to believe and receive the free gift. That's it because he paid and put away the sin debt. He's not imputing sin into the world. What he's trying to do, what he wants to do is to impute righteousness to people. Okay. That's the goal. That's the idea there. So verse 26 says this, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him, which believeth in Jesus. So when people say to you, Hey, nobody can know for sure. And it's kind of arrogant that you say, you know, for sure, you're going to heaven. How do you know? In fact, my church says that's a sin. That's the sin of presumption. You could use this verse right here. Okay. We have permission to declare. I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him, which believe in Jesus Christ. That would be a good one for you to use. Verse 27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works? Nay. Okay. Nay means no, nada, zero. Okay. Nay, no, but by the law of faith. Hey, see how he keeps contrasting that? Like there's no works involved. The righteousness that a person has is given to them. It's charged. It's assigned to them from God himself. Verse number 28. Another conclusion. He says, therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Anytime I bring that up to a super charged up works guy, it's just, you know, they just start eyes roll in the back of the head. It's just like, well, you don't know the Greek. You don't know the Hebrew. You don't know the, that's their default card that they want to pull out at you. Or it's just, you know, you're being rude. I've had that one before. You're being awfully rude right now. It's like, I just read to you a verse. I didn't even explain it. I just read the verse and I'm being rude. I'm a jerk. And now I got to leave. Okay. No problem. Verse number 29. Is he the God of the Jews only? There's a lot of people who'd love to have you believe that. Wouldn't there? Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes. Of the Gentiles also. Okay. All one. You guys already know there's tons of people out there that wish the rest of that verse wasn't there and would love to go as far as to say, well, in the originals, that's probably not there because we know that really it's all about the Jew. We got a lovely Jews. That's what it's all about. Verse 30. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. Again, you know, so when you, when you guys knock at the Mr. Messianic's door and are just like, well, I'm a Messianic Jew. It's like, you're not special, dude. There ain't nothing special about you. In fact, I'm concerned for your soul because if that's your answer, if that's what's bubbling out of your heart, okay, it sounds to me like you're trusting in your religion or your supposed ethnic background. And again, I don't really believe, and people want to say this, that's totally fine. I'm not going to, I'm not going to argue. Well, Jew, being a Jew is a race. How did people in a hazardous kingdom become Jews then in the book of Esther chapter eight? How did that happen? Hey, can I become African? Can I become Chinese? No, I was born an American. I will be an American until the day that I die. That's what it is. So hopefully that makes sense. Okay. There's the circumcision. He's referring to the Jews and the uncircumcision, which were the Gentiles. Okay. But of course we, we understand there's only one plan of salvation for both and both are equal in Christ. Verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yay. We established the law. Okay. We established law. We use the law to tell people, Hey, no one can meet this. And of course from the law is wisdom. Of course, from the law are our standards that we get in applications that we get for wisdom. And that's not what this is about, but the law still has its place and its purpose. Okay. Now go over to chapter number four. So verse number one, Paul says this, what shall we say then? That Abraham was our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found. Again, now we're back in time here. This is pre law. Remember Abraham was pre law before Moses had gotten the law and the commandments and all that. This is pre law. So pay attention to what he says next. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. And of course, all of the great things that we read about Abraham doing in his life are definitely great things are great lessons for us. We get that. We understand that, but those things in and of themselves do not earn him a ticket into heaven. We've already looked at that and he keeps going back to that for a reason. Okay. So again, he says for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. What did Jesus say in me without me? Rather, you can do nothing. Same doctrine in the old Testament here. Verse three, for what saith the scripture. Now look at this. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. That is how he got saved by believing in the Lord. Very clear. You go all the way back to Genesis 15. Go read James chapter two. It's the same thing. He believed, therefore he was saved. Righteousness was charged, assigned to him, sealed deal, done deal. Okay. Verse number four. Now to him that worketh. So now we're going to talk about the person that decides, you know what? I want to work my way to happen. Okay. So it says now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Okay. So now the person who decides to work, even though the debt's already paid, they're basically just adding to that. Okay. They're just heaping unto themselves damnation. Verse number five. He says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Here it is. His faith is counted for righteousness. Okay. We have to understand this. This is a very important point in the Bible for doctrine, that we get righteousness by putting our faith in God, our faith in Christ. And it is given to us from him. Okay. Any deviation from that, we have red flags. We've got a problem and it needs to be addressed. Look at verse six says even. Okay. So now he's going to go post law, but pre-cross. David, verse six, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God, and here's that word again, imputeth righteousness without works. So even in David's time, so you got Abraham, you've got David's time. Then of course, the context of, you know, his day, which is our time. It's the same process. Man, sons of Adam are without righteousness. They need to get divine righteousness to inherit eternal life. Okay. So he says, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man onto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, without works. Okay. Most people today, and you guys know this, they're saying that they have righteousness with their works or because of their works or they, you know, some combination thereof. That is a false gospel. That is wrong. That is not true. That is how we know people are not saved. Now between verses seven and eight, you're going to find this. You're going to find again that we are forgiven for past, present, and even future sins. And of course, this all goes back to that $8,000 word because Christ is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. The lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the whole world. It is gone. There is no way you can be like, oh, well, let me just chip in. Well, let me, let me get the tip at least. Right. And that's what people do. Let me just get the tip though. Okay. I just got to leave the tip. And then I got to do something to earn this here. Wrong. Verse seven saying, blessed. Here's the first one. Blessed are they whose iniquities, what are iniquities? Sins whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Okay. So your sins are forgiven, are covered. That would be your past and your present. Verse eight. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not, and there's that word again, impute sin. Okay. He will not impute sin. Now, obviously when a person is trusting in the works, kind of like we read last week out of Matthew chapter number seven, you're doing this, you're, oh, we're preaching in Christ. I'm casting out devils. I'm doing many wonderful works. Okay. When those people die, what happens? Go to hell. Okay. Well, great white throne judgment comes around. They stand before God and they don't understand like, Hey, what's going on? I did this, this, and this, and this. And yet I've been burning in hell for the last however many years. And God says, depart from me. I never knew you. Okay. So they die in that sin. Okay. They die because they rejected that payment for sin. So blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So of course being saved, he's not charging sin to us, especially us. Okay. Which is a good thing. And of course, later on we learn, you know, so what do we, what does that mean? Just keep on saying, Oh, God forbid. Of course, there's a chasing process that we have to go through. If we're just going to be like, cool, free. I'll do whatever I want. You know, God chases every son in whom he receiveth. And of course that takes its own sermon to explain its, its value. We'll do that another time. Look at verse nine says, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only. So you can see what he's dealing with here. Okay. These guys spent a lot of their time fighting Zionism. Okay. Being what is called today anti-Semitic. Hey, basically this is what's going on. So he has, has to keep bringing this up. And so he says, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also. Great question. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. Remember this. Okay. I always say this to people that are like really just confused or super Zionist out. I say, look, the first Hebrew was who? It was Abraham. Well, guess what? The first Hebrew was a Gentile. Okay. There's no way around that. There's no getting out of that one. There's no, oh, but there's a special raisin apple. No, the very first Hebrew, the very first one was a Gentile. And then of course you can always play games and be like, okay, well, what about Noah? Since you're so fixated and so focused on Jew, Jew, Jew, being a Jew, let's talk about Noah. What about Enoch? What tribe was he from? In fact, you want to play that game? What tribe was Abraham from? Think about that one for a second and let me know what the answer is. I think you already know. Look at verse 10. How was it then reckoned? How was this then solved? How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Then he gives the answer. Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. So again, okay, every saved person was a Gentile. Every saved person was lost. That's basically the message here. That's what he's trying to communicate. And we're getting closer to being done here, but look at verse 11. He says, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Remember, God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, okay? And that is true physically, but obviously within the kingdom of God, within the kingdom of God, which is made up of every Saint that's ever lived, every Saint that will live, okay, we come from all over the world. There is no difference between Arabian, a Mexican, a Chinese person, an African, an American, somebody from North Korea, it doesn't matter. Once you're in Christ, you're in Christ, you're all the same. Our nation now is the Israel of God. That is the focus. That is what we are about. And what do we do with that? Well, we take that ministry of reconciliation and we preach it to others so that they too can have a chance at receiving this righteousness, okay? So he says, let's read verse 11 again. He says, and he received the sign of circumcision, okay? So remember, physical circumcision was a sign. I stumped this, it was like some Southern Baptist, old IFB hybrid guy one time. And this was around, he was actually right up the hill here a couple of years ago. And he was just like, you know, doing the normal soul and knocked on his door and just, hey, do you go to church? Oh, of course I go to church. Do I go to church? I'm a, he was like the second pastor in charge, whatever they call that, assistant pastor. And I was like, oh, okay. Oh, I'm pretty proud of that. I could tell by the way he responded. You know, and then of course he just wanted to get like right into Israel. Right into the Jew and all of these things. And I think he probably had sniffed out what we were about. He kind of had knowledge of Pastor Anderson and these things. And he just right on the Jew, just want to focus on the Jew, you know? And he was just like, well, let me ask you this. Do you teach by any chance that people got to heaven any other way in the Old Testament than circumcision, sacrifices and offerings? And I said, that's not how people got saved in the Old Testament, dude. And he's just like, really? What Bible college do you go to? I didn't go to Bible college, but I know I'm smart enough to know this. Okay. You saying the circumcision was a part of getting to heaven? So wasn't that what the Bible says? How do women get circumcised, pal? So you don't know what you're talking. You know, you started getting all huffy and puffy. I'm out of here, dude. You're a jerk. And of course that's not the right way to respond. But I mean, just think about this. It's like, are you on drugs? How like, like think things through. Okay. Think it through. How does that happen? Show me one woman that's circumcised in the Bible. You can't do it. So who's lacking understanding. And if that's what Bible college teaches you, I want nothing to do with it. Or people that have gone there for that matter, or at least the one that you went to. So now that I got that off my chest, let's look on verse number 12. So he goes on to say this, and the father of a circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but also walk in the steps of that faith, of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. The point is the very first Hebrew was a Gentile. Okay. The very first, do you want to call him a Jew? That's fine. The very first Jew was a Gentile. You want to call him a Christian? Fine. The very first Christian was a Gentile. It does not matter, you know, how you, how you label him. Abraham was lost and then he got saved. He was Gentile then became Hebrew. That's how it works. Okay. Now two more verses and I will stop ranting. Verse 13 says this, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. But yet how many people have never read this? Or how many people have read this and doubted this? How many people have read this and just wonder what this really said back in the day? If I could only go back in time and see the original manuscripts, I'd be so much smarter, but I don't have that opportunity. So I'll just have to go with the Jews are better than us. And that's how they read the Bible. Okay. Verse 14 for if they, which are of the lobby heirs, faith is made. What, what does that say? Void, void, meaning none effect. Look at, in fact, that's what he says next. And the promise made of none effect because the law worketh wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression. And we'll have to develop that another time, but we're going to go ahead and stop it right there. And again, I wanted to just bring this up and preach this because this is an important doctrine that we have to understand. Okay. The person and work of Christ, very important doctrines. You know, it's not something you can do all in one time. I mean, it takes, you know, you could do series for like a year on the miracles of Christ. Preachers have done that before, you know, and people get bored and leave the church. So you got to be careful and bring these things up over time. But again, this is what people are lacking today. They don't understand though. Well, people will go to hell because they're sinners. People go to hell because they don't have divine righteousness. They never got saved. They never got righteousness imputed unto them. Very, very, very, very, very important to get that. So now hopefully you've got a very good, a better understanding, some things to work with for definitions, where to go to. You can prove in any age and time that righteousness has always been from God. Man has always lacked righteousness. And you'd be able to teach that to people that might be struggling. Okay. Because again, we know there are people out there that are not trying to fight you. They're not trying to put up, you know, resistance. They just don't understand. You know, they're going to one of these clown shows and they're confused. They know that inside something's wrong and you have the answers to clear that up. So with that being said, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you again, Lord, for this church, for all that you do for us. Just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service. Lord travels and the services weekend and bring us back again to our respective places safely in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. All right, one more song and then we'll be dismissed.