Hi, I'm David Bercot, and tonight we're going to be talking about, does God view our righteous acts as filthy rags? The question comes from the verse in Isaiah 64:6, which says," But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." Today, that passage from Isaiah is one of the best-known verses from the entire Old Testament. If you hear a sermon or read a tract about salvation, it will typically be quoted in there. Let me give you just some examples.
This first one is from a sermon delivered by a Presbyterian minister, Dr. J. Ben Sloan. He says," I have never met one person or even heard of one person who was not a sinner, except for Christ. I could include in this list Calvin, Luther, the Pope, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed. Doing good is a little bit like a ticket saying you have credit at the concession stand. It is nice, but it's not the same as the ticket to get in the door. The Bible even promises rewards based on good works.
But it's not the same as saying you get to heaven by doing good. After you get in, then your works count. In fact, the Bible speaks of our works being like filthy rags. Filthy rags that are good only to be thrown out, not clothes to be put on. Next one is from a Christian radio commentator, Dennis Finnon. He says nowadays many are trying to earn their own salvation by promoting and doing good deeds and works of righteousness in the Church and without.
However, God says all of this done by sinners under judgment cannot be accepted because it is flawed and wracked with sin. Isaiah 64:6 says," We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins like the wind sweep us away." A Christian writer, David Cloud, had this to say:" Calvinism humbles man and gives him no role in salvation and nothing to glory of." This is the flip side of the previous point, and in this, Calvinism is perfectly scriptural. I should explain the writer is not a Calvinist himself. The Bible gives man nothing whatsoever in which to glory. Salvation is entirely of God and nothing of man.
Romans 4:2 says that if Abraham's salvation were not entirely of God, he would have something to boast of. But of course, that's impossible because no man can ever boast of anything before a thrice holy God. Even man's righteousness, his very best deeds, are but filthy rags before God, citing Isaiah 64:6. Let me read to you a passage from Martin Luther, his commentary on Galatians.
He says it should make any person afraid to hear Paul say that those who seek to be justified by the law not only deny Christ, but also crucify Him anew. If those who seek to be justified by the law and its works are crucifiers of Christ, what are they, I'd like to know who seek salvation by the filthy rags of their own work's righteousness. Finally, I'd like to read to you what Matthew Henry, the famous commentator, has to say about Isaiah 64:6.
He says," We have all, by sin, become not only obnoxious to God's justice, but odious to His holiness. For sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates and cannot endure to look upon. Even all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The best of our persons are so. We are all so corrupt and polluted that even those among us who pass for righteous men, are but as filthy rags fit to be cast to the dunghill. The best of them is a Briar. The best of our performances are so.
Those which pass for the sacrifices of righteousness, when they come to be inquired into, are the torn and the lame and the sick, and therefore are provoking to God, as nauseous as filthy rags. He continues," Our performances, though they be ever so plausible, if we depend upon them as our righteousness and think to merit by them at God's hand are as filthy rags, rags and will not cover us, filthy rags, and will but defile us." And of course, those quotes I've just read to you are just a few examples.
I'm sure you've heard the same thing said many, many times before. And incidentally, I'm not disagreeing with everything that was said by those various Christian writers and speakers. But ever since the Reformation, Isaiah 64:6 has become one of the best known passages of the Old Testament. But you know, this is rather strange. Because Isaiah 64:6, that's the passage about filthy rags, was never quoted by Jesus. It was never quoted by any of his apostles. It was never quoted by any of the New Testament writers.
It's never even alluded to by them. Likewise, Isaiah 64:6 is never quoted by any of the pre-Nicene Christian writers. Even though we have ten large volumes of their writings, there's not one single reference there in any of them to this passage from Isaiah.
And yet this passage, Isaiah 64:6, about filthy rags, is presented to us today as one of the key verses of Scripture that tells us that God has no use for good works by anyone who is not yet born again, nor even by Christians if they think those good works play any role in their salvation. In fact, we're told that God even finds such righteous deeds foul and offensive. Well, this is what we're going to be examining tonight. Is all of that really true?
Now, there's a number of theological issues that are all intertwined with Isaiah 64:6, and we can't possibly cover them all tonight. For one thing, there's the issue of does obedience play a role in our salvation? I have discussed that issue at length in the messages that I gave in October on harmonizing Paul and James. I've also examined that issue in detail in the message that I gave a number of years ago on what the early Christians believed about salvation.
Now, Isaiah 64:6 also brings up the issue of the atonement and imputed righteousness. And I discussed both of those in detail last year in a series of messages that I gave, and all of those are available now on CD. So tonight's message won't be addressing those matters. Instead, it's going to focus on three questions. Number one, can fallen humans do anything righteous or ever be considered righteous? Number two, if we can do something righteous, how does God view our acts of righteousness?
Particularly to people who are not yet born again. Then number three, how do we harmonize the verses that seem to say contradictory things on those first two questions? But before going any further, I think we should talk about what's the point of tonight's discussion? Are we trying to determine whether someone can save themselves by doing good? No. Jesus said that no one can come to the Father except through Him. And He said that unless a person is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Without faith in the shed blood of Christ, there is no salvation. So our point isn't to try to prove that we can earn our salvation somehow. Rather, what's at issue is one of the oldest enemies of Christianity. It was around in Paul's day, and it was the most dangerous enemy of Christianity in the second and third centuries, far more dangerous than the persecution from the Romans. I'm talking about Gnosticism.
This was such a dangerous teaching that the Apostle John warned Christians not to even say a word of greeting to any Gnostic teacher. Well, thankfully, much of the false teachings of Gnosticism disappeared centuries ago and are no longer around. But some of their major tenets are still with us. And Origen spoke about one of them in his writings.
He said," They destroy free will by introducing ruined natures incapable of salvation, and by introducing others as being saved in such a way that they cannot be lost." In contrast to the Gnostics, what Jesus taught is that the essence of Christianity and the only way to salvation is through an obedient love faith relationship with Him. But Satan would have us believe otherwise. He wants us to believe that we humans have ruined natures incapable of salvation.
In other words, in the language of one of the persons we quoted earlier," Calvinism humbles man and gives him no role in salvation and nothing to glory of." This is the flip side of the previous point, and in this Calvinism is perfectly scriptural. The Bible gives man nothing whatsoever in which to glory. Salvation is entirely of God and nothing of man. And what is the end result of this popular teaching? Humility? No, it doesn't bring humility.
Rather, it causes professing Christians to imagine that they can safely ignore Jesus' commandments. After all, as the Gnostics says," We have ruined natures incapable of salvation, so we can't do anything righteous or good. We can play no role in our own salvation." This ancient, ancient corruption of the gospel of Jesus makes professing Christians think that the most odious thing to Jesus is the Christian who thinks that His obedience to Christ somehow plays a role in His salvation.
And the misuse of Isaiah 64:6 that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags is one of the key props that sustains this gnostic corruption. I recently read an evangelical Protestant tract on salvation that lists a series of proof texts from the Bible in an attempt to prove that mankind is totally depraved and that we can do nothing righteous or good. Let's read these passages together and talk about them. I'll start with the first three proof texts.
Romans 3:23," All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 5:12," Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned." And then finally, Isaiah 53:6," All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Now let me ask you something. Do any of those three verses say that we humans are incapable of doing anything good? No, they don't, do they?
Do they state that fallen humans are totally depraved? No, they don't say that either. They just say we have all sinned. Do they state that we can't perform righteous acts? Do they state that God views our attempts at righteous acts as an offense, as filthy rags? No, those passages say none of those things. Certainly none of us are denying or minimizing the fact that all humans have sinned, that the only sinless human was Jesus Christ.
And none of us are denying that we have all strayed at one time or another, that we cannot be saved by our own merits. We need redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. None of us are denying that. But it's a huge leap from what those three passages actually say to the claim that we're totally unable to do anything good or righteous, or that God views our deeds of righteousness as offensive, as filthy rags. Those verses simply don't say that.
Incidentally, I do want to explain one thing about Isaiah 53:6 that I just read there, because it is an important verse concerning the ransom. It reads a little differently in the Septuagint. The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and it's the Old Testament Bible that Jesus and His apostles used. It's what they always quote from. And it renders that passage this way:" All we as sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has gone astray in His way." Now that's just like our Bibles read, but then the last part, it says," And the Lord gave him up for our sins." A little different nuance there than saying the Lord laid our iniquities on him. Now let's look at three more of the proof texts that this tract uses in an attempt to show that no humans can be righteous.
The first one is Genesis 6: 5, where it says," And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." And that passage was presented in this tract to show that we are totally depraved, that we can do nothing good. Well, what was the context of that passage? Well, it's right before the flood. But if you go down on that very same page, you see this in Genesis 7:1.
It says," Then the Lord said to Noah," Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." Aha. So people can be righteous according to God, righteous based on what they do. The next two passages that this tract quotes are both from Job. The first one is Job 14:4, where Job says," Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" And he's talking about man there.
And again in chapter 15, verses 14 and 16, Job says," What is man that he should be clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? How much more abominable and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water?" Well, that might seem to indicate that all of us are filthy and unclean. We can do nothing good. But again, let's go to the context. What is all of this about? Now Job is an unusual book of the Bible because throughout most of the book you are not hearing what God has to say.
Instead, you're hearing the conversation of five different human speakers. And none of them are represented in the book of Job as speaking on behalf of God. Now in the two verses we just read, Job is the speaker. But Job makes no claim of being a prophet. He didn't precede his words with thus saith the Lord. Job is very despondent because of all that has happened to him. And he makes a number of statements that I don't think any Christian anywhere would accept as being 100% accurate.
And yet Job, throughout the book, maintains that he is righteous. If you go to Job 34: 5, Elihu, the young man, at the end, he rebukes Job, saying," Job has said I am righteous, but God has taken away my justice." Well, okay, we've talked about what the human speakers in the book of Job have said, but what's important is what does God say about all of this?
Job 1:8, it says," Then the Lord said to Satan,' Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil." So is it true that there was no one who was good, no one who was righteous in the Old Testament times? Well, we've just seen two men who God specifically declares as being righteous. Noah and Job. You may be wondering, well, are those just exceptional passages?
Well, if they were, then I would be just as guilty of proof texting as the people I'm questioning. Incidentally, by proof texting, I'm referring to the practice of picking quotations here and there from the Scriptures, ignoring their context, and then sweeping under the rug any verses that say something different from those favorite verses that we've picked. But no, I'm not proof texting. I'm looking at what the totality of Scripture says on this whole subject of the righteousness of man, our righteous acts.
I want to give you a little challenge. When you have a free moment, get out a complete concordance of the Scripture, such as Strong's Concordance if you have one. Or use a computer Bible if you have that. And look up the following words: Righteous, upright, and blameless. Three basically synonyms. It's something that I've done myself, and this is what I found. There are a total of 241 passages in the Old Testament and the New that refer to fallen humans as righteous, blameless, or upright.
So it's not a matter of picking a verse here or there, it's a matter of what does it all say. And like I say, you have 241 verses. And if you looked up some other words like" good" and" righteousness," you would find even more passages. Now, obviously, we don't have time to read all of these verses tonight, but they are all on the CD-ROM that will accompany the recording of this message.
But I do want to read to you a representative portion of these passages, so you can get a feel for what the overwhelming majority of the Scriptures say about mankind and about our righteous acts. Now, I won't be giving the chapter and verse for all of these quotations, because on the CD-ROM, you will be able to find the full scripture citation. Okay, let's start with the word righteous. Exodus 23:7," Keep yourself far from a false matter.
Do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not justify the wicked." And it's interesting the use of the word" justify" there. It's being used exactly in the sense that most people understood it, to be accounted or declared righteous. And God says He will not justify the wicked.
Deuteronomy 25:1:" If there is a dispute between men and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked." 1 Kings 8:32:" Then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness." Psalm 1:6," For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Psalm 92:12:" The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Again, they gather together against the life of the righteous and condemn innocent blood. Again, rejoice in the Lord, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His Holy Name. Another one:" Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your name. The righteous shall surround me, for you shall deal bountifully with me." From the Proverbs, the tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The heart of the wicked is worth little.
The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom. The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. Again, the desire of the righteous is only good, but the expectation of the wicked is wrath. Another one, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray. A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame. The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. The righteous man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. Another proverb, he covets greedily all day long, but the righteous gives and does not spare. When the righteous rejoice, there is great glory. But when the wicked arise, men hide themselves.
The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked does not understand such knowledge. From Ezekiel, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you did not give him warning he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered. But his blood I will require at your hand.
Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning. Also you will have delivered your soul. The soul who sins shall die. The Son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father the guilt of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Hosea, who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right, the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. Amos 2:6," Thus says the Lord," For three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals." Malachi 3:18," Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him." Now we move to the New Testament.
Listen to what Jesus says." Assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it." Again, talking about Zechariah and Elizabeth, it says," And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Hebrews 11:4," By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous." 1 Peter," For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are
open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Again, now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Second Peter, he talks about and delivered righteous lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. 1 John 3:7," Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he, God, is righteous." And again, not as Cain, who was one of the wicked ones, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?
Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Finally, Revelation 19:8," And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." And again, those were just samples of what the Bible says. So how can anybody say that we humans can do nothing good and are not righteous? If you noted, the vast majority of those passages dealt with people before the time of Christ.
So let no one say," Oh, this is talking about imputed righteousness," or" Only a Christian can be righteous," because the vast majority of these were people who lived before Christ. Now let me read to you some of the passages talking about blameless and upright. Genesis 17:1," When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him," I am Almighty God.
Walk before me and be blameless." Proverbs:" For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it." 1 Thessalonians," So that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of His saints." 1 Timothy 3:2," A bishop then must be blameless!
The husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach." And again, please don't say this is Christ's righteousness, that we all have a blameless standing because of the blood of Christ, then why would he say a bishop must be blameless? That would be true of all Christians. Or why would he tell Timothy, 1 Timothy 5:7," And these things command that they may be blameless." And again, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing.
Or 2 Peter, therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless. So it's not something that just automatically comes with being a Christian. Now a few passages dealing with the word upright or uprightness. From the Psalms," Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous, and shout for joy all you upright in heart." Again, oh, continue your loving kindness to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Again, praise the Lord.
I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright. Again, do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name. The upright shall dwell in your presence. From the Proverbs, the righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust. Again, he who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his way despises him.
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul. So unless somebody simply has a perverse heart, how could he or she possibly deny the testimony of so many passages of Scripture, and I only read to you a fraction of them. The Bible clearly teaches that from Abel until now, there have always been righteous men and women. It teaches that these servants of God were quite capable of obeying God and doing good.
The only thing they weren't capable of was living sinlessly and thereby saving themselves. So maybe someone will come back and say this. Well, see, in the end, they still weren't sinless, so we're all still in the same boat. Their efforts to obey God and to live righteously didn't please God. In fact, their righteous deeds were repulsive to him like filthy rags. Really? Well, let's go back to scripture again and see what God Himself says about this. Psalm 5:12," For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous.
With favor you will surround Him as with a shield." Again, all the horns of the wicked I will also cut off. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. Certainly doesn't sound like he was viewing their righteous deeds as filthy rags. Surely he will never be shaken. The righteous will be an everlasting remembrance. And again, from the Proverbs, the Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked.
The labor of the righteous leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin. The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not inhabit the earth. The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. Or again, those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord. But the blameless, in their ways, are his delight! Another proverb, whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he himself will fall into his own pit. But the blameless will inherit good.
How about this passage from Kings? And Solomon said," You have shown great mercy to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this great kindness for him, and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day." Does that sound like a God who was offended by the filthy rags of somebody's righteousness? That's not what it says at all.
Again, it's 1 Kings 9:4, where God tells Solomon," Now if you walk before me as your father David walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you. And if you keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever." Sounds to me like a God who is very pleased with our righteous acts when we obey Him. And this was true even before the time of Christ.
From 1 Chronicles, I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things from the Psalms. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. Again, the Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. Again, mark the blameless man, and observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace. Again, his descendants will be mighty on earth.
The generation of the upright will be blessed from the Proverbs. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. And finally, from the Proverbs," The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight." So does God view the righteous acts of His people as filthy rags as an affront? Not at all. He tells us He delights in them and takes pleasure in these acts.
So don't ever again let anyone misrepresent God to you on this matter. Your righteous acts are not filthy rags before God. But then, what is the meaning of Isaiah 64:6 you may be wondering? It says," But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." Well, we certainly don't want to sweep this verse under the rug. That's never the right approach.
On the other hand, I think we need to recognize that it's a rather obscure passage of the Old Testament that Jesus and the New Testament writers never saw a need to quote when they delivered the message of Christianity. And as we've seen, Isaiah 64:6, at least on its face, seems quite out of step with the vast bulk of Scripture.
Now, when I come across a verse that seems out of step with the rest of Scripture, I've always found that the best place to begin is to carefully examine the context of that Scripture, because usually that will clear everything up. Who is the speaker? Is it God speaking or Jesus speaking? Or is it a prophet or apostle speaking on behalf of God? Or is it just a man or woman expressing their own feelings and conclusions? Also, I'd like to know, is this verse part of a larger discourse or discussion?
If so, what else does the speaker say? Okay, with those questions in mind then, let's examine the context of Isaiah 64:6. That verse is actually part of a prayer of penitence and a request for mercy that begins way back in chapter 63 of Isaiah verse 7. Isaiah is the speaker here, not God. Isaiah is praying to God, and he recounts what God had done for Israel in times past.
He then says in verse 10," But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit." So he turned himself against them as an enemy, and he fought against them.
Okay, moving through the prayer down to chapter 64:1, Isaiah prays," Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence." Picking up with verse 4 of chapter 64, we read," Since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any god besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him.
You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers you in your way." Well that's a rather different message than what is commonly preached today from Isaiah 64. There Isaiah says that God meets the one who does righteousness, who remembers God's ways. He doesn't say anything about God being offended at someone's attempts to do righteousness. Okay, picking back up in the middle of verse 5, we continue," You are indeed angry for we have sinned. In these ways we continue, and we need to be saved.
We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. Do not be furious, O Lord, nor remember iniquity forever. Indeed, please look. We all are your people. Your holy cities are a wilderness. Zion is a wilderness.
Okay, so what is the context? As we've mentioned, God is not the speaker, and this isn't a prophetic utterance from the Lord. Rather, this is a prayer of national penitence that Isaiah is making on behalf of the apostate nation of Israel. His prayer follows the typical prayers of penitents of the Israelite people. When they're petitioning for mercy, they always amplify their wrongs, magnify their smallness in comparison to the greatness of the Lord.
Isaiah 64:6 is not a statement about the condition of humans in general, and it's certainly not a pronouncement that God detests the righteous acts of those who love him. In contrast, let's see how God expresses himself in the book of Isaiah. What he says about righteous deeds. Just starting way back in the first chapter of Isaiah, beginning with verse 15, we read," He's talking to the Israelites:" When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow." Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord." Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." So God is obviously not saying that we can't do anything good, and that all of us are like filthy rags before him, or our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. In fact, he tells them to cease to do evil, to learn to do good, to seek justice. If they don't, they're going to be devoured by the sword. He continues, verse 21," How the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice.
Righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers." Go over to chapter 3, verses 10 and 11," God is still a speaker." He says," Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him." See, that's a direct contradiction of this teaching that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags to the Lord. No, He says that to the righteous, tell them it will go well for them.
Chapter 5:7," God is still speaking." He says," For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression. He looked for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help." So God wants to see righteousness. Verses 20 and 23 of chapter 5.
He says," Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man." So there are righteous men in his eyes, as we've already seen from all those other verses we read earlier. Okay, moving down to chapter 48, verses 17 and 18, God is speaking again. He says," Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded my commandments.
Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Still speaking in chapter 51:1 he says," Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults.
Finally, chapter 56 verses 1 and 2, he says," Keep justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is about to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the Son of Man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." Can you now see how dishonest it is to quote Isaiah 64:6 and imply or say that God views all of our righteous acts as filthy rags? He obviously doesn't feel that way at all.
And we haven't even been reading about born-again Christians. We've been reading about righteous Israelites. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What God has always wanted are people who love Him and who demonstrate their love by obeying Him. But now we Christians are privileged to receive the new birth and to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And we've been admitted into God's kingdom, something the Israelites could only see from afar off.
So if men and women of the Old Testament could walk faithfully with God in an obedient love-faith relationship with Him, how much more are we able to do so today with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Rather than being an offense to God, the righteous acts and good deeds of those who are not yet born again ascend to God as a memorial. Notice what the scriptures say about Cornelius.
We read in Acts," There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always." About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him," Cornelius!" And when he observed, he was afraid and said," What is it, Lord?" So he said to him," Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before
God." So God didn't view Cornelius' almsgiving as filthy rags.
Rather, Cornelius' righteous deeds went up to God as a memorial. At the same time, almsgiving wasn't going to save Cornelius. He still needed Jesus Christ. But because of his good works, God sent a special ambassador to Cornelius and to his household because of the righteous life they were living apart from knowing Jesus Christ. So if you're a youth who is growing up in a Christian home, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do anything good, or that any righteous acts you do are only filthy rags to God.
At some point in your life, you do need to surrender your whole life to Jesus Christ and be baptized. You cannot enter the kingdom simply by being good. You need the new birth. But in the meantime, until you're ready for that step, God definitely takes notice of what you're doing with your life right now. Before closing, I want to address a couple of passages in Scripture that specifically say that no one is righteous. The first passage is Psalm 143 verses 1 and 2. Let me read that.
It says," Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications. In your faithfulness, answer me. And in your righteousness, do not enter into judgment with your servant. For in your sight, no one living is righteous. Well, let's look at the context of that passage. Again, the Lord isn't the speaker here. This is a prayer of David. And like the passage in Isaiah, it follows the pattern of Jewish prayers for mercy or deliverance. David says that in God's sight, no one living is righteous.
And yet we've discussed the fact that well over 200 verses of Scripture say just the opposite. Now, we certainly don't want to sweep this verse, Psalm 143, 1 and 2, under the rug. But on the other hand, we don't want to sweep the other 241 verses under the rug in exchange for this one verse. Well, there is an answer, but before we talk about that answer, I want to read to you a similar passage.
It's also from the Psalms, from Psalm 14, and Paul quotes it at Romans 3, verses 10 through 12, saying," There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one." So what do these two passages mean? They seem to contradict so much of what is said throughout the rest of the Bible.
Well, ironically, the answer lies in a passage that on the surface seems even more puzzling than those two verses. And I'm talking about Matthew 19 verses 16 and 17, where we read," Now behold, one came and said to him," and this is talking to Jesus," Good teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life?" So he said to him," Why do you call me good? No one is good, but one. That is God." Now, if Jesus can't be called good, what hope is there for any of the rest of us?
Well, I think most theologians would say that this was Jesus' humanity talking right there. Well, that's certainly not what the early Christians believed, that you can divide Jesus into two different people inhabiting the same body. But even if we could divide him up, it still presents a huge problem. Because Jesus was perfect even in His humanity. So even His humanity should be considered good. After all, when God had created Adam, He declared that it was good, as well as the rest of the physical universe.
So if Adam was good, certainly Jesus Christ was good. So what did Jesus mean? We know that Jesus has the exact same nature as the Father. There's nothing lacking in Jesus, no imperfections. If the Father is good, then Jesus is automatically good as well. But what Jesus was doing here was referring all goodness to the Father, because the Father is the source of the Trinity. Jesus is begotten from the Father, not the other way around. Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. Again, it's not the other way around.
So Jesus is good only because the Father is good. Without the Father, there would be no Son of God. The source of everything is the Father. But the Father's goodness is no greater than Christ's goodness. Jesus said," If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." And there are numerous scriptures that describe Jesus as being perfect, as being good, righteous, innocent, and on and on. I don't think anyone would pull out Matthew 19:17 and quote it in an effort to say that Jesus isn't good.
So if Jesus could say," No one is good, but one, that is God," merely because He is the begotten, not the begetter, how much more can it be said that none of us are good or righteous? As the Scriptures say, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So in an absolute sense, none of us are good or righteous.
That's why David pleaded with God," In your righteousness, do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous." If we were judged by an absolute standard of righteousness, which would be the righteousness that God possesses, every one of us would be condemned. But the good news of the Bible is that God, in His mercy, does not judge us by an absolute standard. He justifies or declares righteous, those who walk with Him in faith and righteousness.
People like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, David, Zechariah, and Elizabeth. Both the Gnostics and the Reformers painted a picture that since we all fall short of sinless perfection, then it doesn't matter if we live obediently or disobediently. It's all the same to God. But no, it's not all the same to God. Before we're born again, our righteous acts performed in love go up before him as a memorial.
And after we're born again, our righteous acts are an essential part of maintaining an obedient love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ. They are an essential part of abiding on His vine. On Judgment Day, Jesus is not going to say," Come you blessed of my Father, for you ascribed all goodness to me and none to yourself, and you place no trust in living righteously. Therefore, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." No, Jesus has spoken once for all time on that matter.
And this is what he's going to say on Judgment Day." Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying," Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?" And the king will answer and say to them," Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me."