Sovereign Grace Church

I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.

PSALM 71:16

According to the vain imaginations of man there are two types of righteousness. The righteousness of man and the righteousness of GOD.

According to our LORD and GOD there is only one righteousness. The righteousness established by GOD himself. The righteousness produced by men is declared by GOD as nothing more than “filthy rags.” (Read ISAIAH 64:6)

The next time you find yourself in a bathroom, consider those filthy rags along side you in the waste basket. GOD declares the righteousnesses of man to be just as offensive and unacceptable before Him as that stench coming out of that waste basket!

Why is that? Because there is only one type of righteousness that pleases our holy God, and that’s a holy righteousness. Not this pretense that men trust in! King David, our brother in CHRIST, wrote “I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” Why does David add the words “of thine only”? Because the only righteousness that pleases GOD, is the holy and perfect righteousness of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. As a man, HE established a holy and perfect righteousness on the Earth on behalf of His people to save them, and satisfy our Heavenly Father. What is it to be righteous? In order for someone to be righteous, the Holy Law of GOD can look at that person, both inwardly and outwardly, and say of him that he has perfectly obeyed the 10 commandments, both the letter and the spirit of the law.

For someone to be righteous it would mean that a person’s thoughts are always pleasing and acceptable to GOD. The sad truth is that our thoughts are not pleasing or acceptable to GOD! In fact our thoughts, apart from the mind of CHRIST, are only evil continually. (Read GENESIS 6:5, JEREMIAH 17:9)

GOD declares in His word “O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” JEREMIAH 4:13

The natural man vainly thinks that his thoughts are pleasing and acceptable to GOD, what vanity! Let me tell you plainly, GOD says of your thoughts and mine that “every imagination of your heart is only evil continually.” (Read GENESIS 6:5, PSALM 56:5, HEBREWS 4:12)

GOD’s word declares “by Him actions are weighed” and He says of them that continue to trust in their own actions that “they shall not profit thee.”

Reader, I pray that it is not you and your filthy works that you will be weighed in and found wanting; but rather that you will be found in CHRIST and His finished saving work and not your own! May GOD make you to know, in the light of His glorious Son, that all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags before Him. If GOD has opened your heart, your one ardent desire will be to be found in CHRIST and His finished saving work, and not your own! To be found in CHRIST and His life, and not your own!

Friend, if you are to be saved — you will be saved by His righteousness. The work of His righteousness is peace with God. If you are to be saved — you will find yourself resting in quiet assurance, resting in CHRIST and His righteousness, not wanting to be found in a righteousness of your own making, but rather in His only. (ISAIAH 40:1-2, PSALM 71:16)

I trust beloved, your heart has been comforted and you have been made to know, afresh, that your warfare is accomplished, that you have received a double portion from your Lord for all your sin and iniquity, that you are no longer found in your filthy rags, but are now found in the clean and white righteousness of His Son, the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Amen. (Read ISAIAH 40:1-2, REVELATION 19:6-10)