JEHOVAH TSIDKENU
Jer. 23:5-6
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: 100 MILE AN HOUR GOAT
1. Two rednecks are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground.
2. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it. The first hunter says "Wow, that's some hole; I can't even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is."
3. The second hunter says" I don't know, let's throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom."
4. The first hunter says "There's this old automobile transmission here, give me a hand and we'll throw it in and see".
5. So they pick it up and carry it over, and count one, and two and three, and throw it in the hole.
6. They are standing there listening and looking over the edge and they hear a rustling in the brush behind them.
7. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole and with no hesitation, and jumped in head first.
8. While they are standing there looking at each other, looking in the hole and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old farmer walks up. "Say there", says the farmer, "you fellers didn't happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?"
9. The first hunter says " Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin' about a hunert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this hole here!"
10. The old farmer said "Why that's impossible, I had him chained to a transmission!"
B. TEXT
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’” Jer. 23:5-6. (also 33:16)
C. THESIS
1. There was not much righteousness in the last days of Judah’s kingdom. The King, Zedekiah (Hebrew, Tsidkiyahu, “The Lord is my Righteousness), did not live up to his name. 2. Instead his life was, like so many of the kings, “evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kgs. 24:19). In that very time, however, the Bible focused attention away from that king, to the Greater King, whose name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “The Lord our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6; 33:16).
3 That’s the title of tonight’s message, “Jehovah-Tsidkenu.”
I. ANCIENT VIEW OF ATTAINING RIGHTEOUSNESS
A. O.T. TAUGHT IT WAS BY KEEPING COMMANDS
1. Lev. 18:5; “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”
2. Moses taught that keeping the commands of God would bring you life, you would live by keeping them.
3. “Righteous” and “wicked” were designations for how many righteous deeds (obedience) people were performing.
4. Modern Orthodox Jews still conceive of God weighing their good deeds over against their bad deeds. On New Year’s Day the process begins and on the Day of Atonement it ends and judgment is sealed for the year.
5. The 10 days between are spent in an desperate effort by charity, prayer, and fasting to tip the scales in one’s favor, all though there is never certainty as to which way it may have gone.
B. BUT THEY WERE WRONG
1. You can’t be righteous by anything you do. “By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” Gal. 2:16.
2. Q – “But Paul, are you saying that even with a righteous life and offering sacrifices that we couldn’t be justified?” “Yes!” “But how can you say that?”
3. The ultimate answer is Gal. 2:21; “If righteous could be gained through the Law, then Christ died for nothing!” Point: the very fact that Christ had to die is all of the proof we need that there is no other way of salvation.
C. A NEW HEAVENLY, REVEALED RIGHTEOUSNESS
1. Rom. 3:20; “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
2. Phip. 3:9; “…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
II. SOURCE & MEANING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
A. MEANING & USE OF THE TERM “TSEDEK”
Tsidkenu is derived from tsedek – ‘righteousness.’ It meant originally “to be stiff or straight.” It’s used of honest business practices, but is also used in a spiritual sense of doing the right and moral thing in various situations. Failure to live up to the standard of righteousness established by God necessitated the bloody sacrifices of the O.T.
B. JEHOVAH: THE SOURCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
1. Jehovah Himself is acknowledged as “El-Tsadik, “The Righteous God” (Isa. 45:21; Ps. 129:4), whose ways are perfect; righteous and just is He (Deut. 32:4), -- there is none to compare with Him. Righteousness and justice are the very foundations of His throne (Ps. 89:14; 97:12).
2. In contrast to Jehovah’s perfect righteousness is man’s lack of righteousness and the evil of his ways. “There is none that doeth good, no not one (Ps. 14:3).
3. The prophet Isaiah regarded as filthy rags what he had once considered his personal righteousness (Isa. 64:6). “How can a man be righteous before God?” Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4).
4. Nor can Jehovah, who is perfectly righteous, overlook mankind’s lack of righteousness. For He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). The sinner is regarded as guilty in God’s sight. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:4).
5. It’s impossible that any man/ woman be righteous, since God is not satisfied with anything less than His perfect standard of righteousness.
C. GOD WILL IMPUTE RIGHTEOUSNESS
1. But Jehovah has provided a righteous for humans. “He is near that justifies me” Isa. 50:8. “Blessed is he…whose sin is covered…unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” Ps. 32:1-2.
2. But how was this righteousness of Jehovah to be applied to mankind? Isaiah spoke of a Righteous Servant who would bear the iniquities of His people (Isa. 53).
3. Zechariah identified Him as “the Branch” (Zech. 3:8-10) and God through Jeremiah declared He would be “a Righteous Brach and a King” and “He shall be called ‘The Lord our Righteousness’” Jer. 23:5-6.
III. JESUS OUR JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU
A. THE SON PROVIDES RIGHTEOUSNESS
1. Heb. 1:8-9; “But unto the Son he saith, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.’”
2. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” 1 Cor. 1:30.
B. HOW IS HE ABLE TO IMPUTE IT?
1. Jesus, as God and man, perfectly satisfied God’s righteous standard by His sinless life, and then, by His atoning work on the cross, He vicariously bore the penalty of the sins of all mankind.
2. “For He has made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Cor. 5:21. His righteousness is bestowed on us as a free gift through faith (Phip. 3:9).
3. Finally, the practical effect of the bestowal of the gift of His righteousness is to set our feet on the path of righteousness in conformity to His will (Eph. 4:24; Rom. 6:18).
C. OUR JOB: BE A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST
1. Our new man is created by Jehovah-Jesus in righteousness. “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” Eph. 4:24.
2. What a wonderful name that God has used to describe Himself. He is Jehovah-Tsidkenu: the Righteous God who has provided for our acceptance before Himself through the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb. He wraps us in His righteousness through Jesus Christ the Righteous One!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
B. THE CALL
