Jehovah Tsidkenu The LORD our Righteousness
Introduction: I wish I could do more justice to the substance of our message tonight. The Meaning of 'Tsidkenu' comes from the word 'Tsedek' which means “righteousness.” 'Tsedek' is translated hundreds of times as right, righteous, righteousness, just, justify, declare innocent. But to put it simply it means 'to do that which is right'. This name for God reminds us that God will always do what is right.
“And Pharoah sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are Wicked.” Exodus 9:27
“The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” Psalm 129:4
Notice that even pharaoh in his hard heart admits that the Lord is righteous. Some day every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Honestly, The Lord is the only one who is through and through righteous, as in perfect righteousness. Man can never attain that righteousness by his own efforts.
“As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;” Romans 3:10
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6
There was a time when lepers would cry out in the streets “Unclean” “Unclean” a warning to everyone that someone who had a horrible and infectious disease was coming through, and everyone that heard him his voice should move away or else you might catch his disease. Do you remember the humiliation and desperation intimated in the Tax collectors voice when he cried out “God be merciful to me a sinner”? With the same humiliation and desperation, we all should be shouting out to God like the leper “Unclean!” “Unclean!” because we all have a moral leprosy that is constantly infecting others, like a bad virus in the family that keeps getting passed around to one another.
Just as Adam and Eve tried to hide their shame with figs leaves, We try to hide our shame with works of righteousness and those clothes are but filthy rags before a Holy Lord that sees through them and into a heart that is deceitful and above all things desperately wicked. As one scholar put it even our repentance need to be repented of. Even in the best deeds of the best men, even in the most pious, God fearing, Bible believing, Church honoring men there is still some stain of evil on their lives. They can't run to an obscure monastery somewhere to escape it because it is on their soul forever. They can't wash that Satanic stain away with many good deeds and many good words and with many good qualities. This is like trying to wash your clothes with mud. The presumption that our works would make our sins go away makes our clothes all the more dirty in God's eyes.
I can already hear some clever person suggesting: “What if, at birth, you were separated from all of the sinful influences in the world and grew up alone in the wilderness like John the Baptist?” I can tell you that it still wouldn't matter. We have an inherent disease that has been imputed to us by our first father, Adam. The disease is sin. It doesn't matter how athletic some people are or how physically capable they are at doing hard tasks. They can be as 'strong as an ox' and 'fit as a fiddle' but if they've inherited a deadly disease they will be 'dead as doornail', as a result. We must understand that because of someone else we ALL fell. “For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” Because of an inherited disease we are doomed to die. There is no nice way to say it, just as there is no nice way to hear from our doctor that we have terminal cancer. We have a terminal spiritual cancer called sin and there is absolutely nothing we, ourselves can do about its terminal consequences! The wages of sin is death.
If we fell because of someone else then our only hope is that we must rise because of someone else. If we are condemned because of our sin nature that was inherited to us then we must be redeemed by someone sinless or there is no hope. If by our ancestor Adam we are condemned to die then by someone else we must be pardoned to live. I Corinthians 15:47 says “The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.” Jesus was son of man, he had flesh and blood like his mother Mary but unlike Adam with his sin nature, who is the father of us all; Jesus' received his divine nature from his divine father. Thus he was fully man and fully God. Jeremiah prophesied that such a person would come to redeem us all.
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:5,6
Now how can we separate the good men that we call righteous and those that are made righteous by the blood of Jesus. After all aren't we told to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and then glorify our father who is in heaven? Yes. But those good works are wrought by a renewed spirit that is only made possible by Jesus. 1 John 3:7 says “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.” At salvation, we are made righteous through Christ and then we are righteous to do good works for him.
While we can't possibly understand all of it, it is truly wonderful to understand the cross. Charles Spurgeon said “Even Adam himself was not as accepted as you are. He had human righteousness; your garments are divine.”
We put on his righteousness when we believe in him who died on the cross, when we deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow him. As long as we are willing to follow we will never be led astray. Men will lead us astray but Jesus won't. The world will lead us astray, but Jesus won't. The false teachers and wolves in sheep's clothing will lead us astray, but Jesus will never do it. When we stand before the Lord, wearing his righteousness, we are spotless and perfect like he is.
Someone might think “But I am so sinful” or “I have broken the law” - Jesus kept the law and was sinless for you! You might say “That's crazy! That seems impossible” well honor Jesus by believing in the impossibility. With men it is impossible but with Christ all things are possible.
Jehovah Tsidkenu
Robert Murray McCheyne wrote this poem
“I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidk nu was nothing to me.
“I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
Isaiah’s wild measure, and John’s simple page;
But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidk nu seemed nothing to me.
“Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over His soul;
Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidk nu—’twas nothing to me.
When free grace awoke me, with light from on high
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety, in self could I see,—
Jehovah Tsidk nu my Savior must he.
“My terrors all vanished before the sweet Name;
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free—
Jehovah Tsidk nu is all things to me.
“Jehovah Tsidk nu! my treasure and boast;
Jehovah Tsidk nu! I ne’er can be lost;
In Thee I shall conquer, by flood and by field—
My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!”
Jehovah Tsidkenu, The LORD OUR Righteousness. He is not their righteousness or my righteousness or your righteousness but OUR righteousness. Anyone who would believe in him, shall never perish but instead have everlasting life. What an amazing thought. In Revelation 4:4 it says the 24 elders will be dressed in white with crowns of gold on their heads. After a thousand years the stainless robe will seems just as bright and clean as the day you put it on. Hallelujah!
