TITLES OF GOD: JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU
DR. JIM DIXON
JEREMIAH 23:5-6
NOVEMBER 19, 1989
In the 19th century there lived a man who was known as Black Bart. Black Bart was of course one of the most famous or infamous outlaws of the old west in the latter portion of the 19th century. Perhaps some of you have heard of Black Bart, though that was not really his name. His true name was Charles E. Bowles. And the amazing thing about him was he didn’t really want to be an outlaw, at least not initially. In fact, he was a school teacher in California.
And one day he was walking in the country and he heard the sound of an approaching stagecoach and he knew the stagecoach driver. So, Charles Bowles decided to play a practical joke and he put a scarf over his face and he found a stick about the size of a gun and he put it in his coat pocket so that it looked like he was armed. And he stood in the road and he stopped the stagecoach and he pretended to be holding up the stagecoach. And to his amazement, his friend, the driver, didn’t recognize him. And his friend who didn’t have a shotgun rider panicked and took the Wells Fargo strongbox and just threw it down, put the whip to the horses and took off. And suddenly, Charles Bowles was just standing there with a Wells Fargo strongbox and he thought, you know, I might as well open this thing. And he did that. And to his amazement, he found a fortune in gold coins and bullion.
And he fought to himself, you know, this really isn’t a bad way to make a living and the hours are great and the pay is wonderful. So, he moved to San Francisco and he deposited all of his money in a bank there in San Francisco. And he pretended to be in the mining business, and he lived a life of luxury and wealth. And periodically about every four months, he’d go out and rob a stage. From 1875 to 1883, Charles Bowles robbed 28 stagecoaches. And every time, he used an empty shotgun with no bullets, no shells, and he wore a bag over his head, he never harmed anybody. And every time he left a note with a stagecoach, with a poem he had written, and he always signed it “Black Bart.”
Well, you see, the poems began to be printed and circulated in the San Francisco newspapers. And Black Bart became famous and his poetry became kind of entertaining. People began to look forward to the next robbery. But of course, Wells Fargo was not so amused. And the truth was Black Bart was the most wanted criminal in his time. There came a point where Wells Fargo found a handkerchief that Black Bart, Charles Bowles, had left at the scene of the crime. Inadvertently they traced it to Charles Bowles. He was arrested, he was put on trial, he was convicted. And he spent four years in San Quentin.
When Charles Bowles was released from San Quentin, it was only a matter of a few weeks, they began to have the same stagecoach robberies again. Only this time there was no poetry and there was no signature saying Black Bart. But the MO was the same. And Wells Fargo suspected that Charles Bowles was at it again. And so, they called him in, and a lifetime pension of $200 a month for the rest of his life if he would no longer rob the stage. And this he accepted.
Now this is an amazing story, but even more amazing, really even more amazing when you think about it is this, that Black Bart really viewed himself as kind of lily white. In fact, he said that he was relatively righteous. He said, you know, “I’ve never hurt anybody, I’ve never even had an armed weapon. I mean a loaded weapon. And I’ve never taken any money from anybody who couldn’t afford to lose it.” That’s what he said. In fact, at the end of his life, he said the only thing for which he ever should have been arrested was bad poetry.
Well, you know, the amazing truth is most people in this world view themselves as relatively righteous. In fact, most of you, if you’re really honest, most of you view yourself as relatively righteous, relatively good. And what does it mean? What does it mean biblically to be righteous? What does God mean when God speaks of righteousness?
Well, you see, biblically, as we look at the Greek and Hebrew words for righteousness, we understand the primary meaning is this: to be righteous is to be right with God. That’s what it means above all else. To be righteous is to be right with God. Now, are you right with God this morning? Do you know in your heart you’re right with God? See, the Bible tells us there’s only two ways, only two ways that we can be right with God.
First of all, we can be right with God by keeping the laws of God. We can be right with God by keeping his laws. Now we live in a world of laws. Some of these laws change. Some of the laws that were established long and ago seemed kind of strange today. I was reading recently where there once was a law in Atlanta, Georgia and made it a crime to tie a giraffe to a telephone post. Kind of a strange law, correct? We’ve all experienced a frustration of trying to make a phone call not being able to get through because the giraffe has eaten the lines.
Then in Cushing, Oklahoma, they once had a law which was actually enforced making it illegal to drink beer in your underwear. I got to honestly tell you, I don’t understand a law like that. I don’t know whether it was referring to the privacy of one’s home or a public circumstance or situation. We see even if it was public, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Was the problem the beer or the underwear or just the combination of both? And was it okay to drink milk in your underwear?
And then in Sterling, Colorado, once a law was passed, making it a crime to let your cat loose without a tail light. I think that’s a little strange. And then of course, a law in West Virginia, in Roderfield, West Virginia, that made it illegal, a crime, to ride a baby carriage if you weren’t a baby. See, a lot of most towns don’t really struggle with that, but apparently, they had a problem with that.
And I think we have to assume that all of these laws, I mean we have to assume, all of these laws were established because of specific circumstances that prompted them historically. Today we look back and they seem strange and they seem ludicrous, and they are. But of course, the laws of men are like that. The laws of men constantly change. Circumstances change and laws are established and then they’re removed from the books or the records or they’re not enforced anymore. And new laws are made. You see, the laws of God are eternal. The laws of God transcend time. The laws of God are binding on all cultures, on all generations, all over the world for all time. The 10 Commandments are just as binding today as they were 3,500 years ago when delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai.
And are you keeping the law? Are you right with God? And you might ask yourself, can you, can you really keep the laws of God? Is it possible? Is it possible to be right with God through the keeping of God’s laws? Well, in history, there have been people who tried, and the Pharisees were such people, and you’ve all heard of the Pharisees, the name Pharisees comes from an old Semitic word, an old Hebrew word, which means “separated.” Separated ones. Their history is a mystery. Jewish historians look back and they really don’t know how the Pharisees even came to be. Some think the Pharisees originally separated from Judas Maccabees 162 years before Christ. Some think the Pharisees originally were the Hasidim, a Jewish sect, but no one knows for sure. This is known however this is known. The Pharisees were a group of people who thought they could become right with God by keeping the laws of God.
And in the year 50 A.D., a book was published called the Psalms of Solomon. This was not the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is of course an Old Testament book written hundreds of years earlier. But the Psalms of Solomon was a book written by Pharisees 50 years before Christ, an intertestamental book, pseudepigraphic. And in that book, it is said that there are only two types of people in the world, Pharisees and sinners. Can you imagine that view of the world? Only Pharisees and sinners. The Pharisees actually believed, at least some of them, that they were not sinners. They had become holy. They had become righteous by their obedience to the laws of God. They had become right with God.
Now of course, Jesus came along and he had a different view of the Pharisees. There were no people that angered him more than the Pharisees. And Christ called them hypocrite. Christ called them a brood of vipers. Christ said that they were blind guides, they were whitewashed sepulchers. And Christ said, “How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” Obviously in the view of the Son of God, the Pharisees did not keep the law of God.
And we understand this when we look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter five, six, and seven, because in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ makes it very clear that the law of God really cannot be obeyed. It’s not possible for any of us in this fallen world to truly keep the law of God. Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ I say to you, anyone who even looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart. You’ve heard it said of old, ‘Thou shall not kill, whoever kills shall be liable to hellfire.’ I say to you, whoever’s angry with his brother is liable to judgment. You’ve heard it said of old, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him get a certificate of divorce.’ I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except on the grounds of adultery, makes her an adulterous. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. You’ve heard it said of old, ‘An eye for an eye.’ I say to you, if anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other. You’ve heard it said of old, ‘Love, thy neighbor as thy self.’ But I say to you, love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those that abuse you.”
A standard of righteousness no one could keep. In fact, Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, if you really want to fulfill the law of God, I’ll tell you what’s required. “If your right eye causes you to sin, you’ve got to cut it out, pluck it out. And if your right hand, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Impossible. Impossible for anyone to measure up to the laws of God and thereby become right with God.
Well, fortunately there’s a second way the Bible tells us we can become right with God, a second way that we can become righteous, right with God, and receive the promise of heaven and eternal life. And the second way is we can become right with God by believing in the Son of God. Now you know this. You’ve heard this. Surely, you’ve heard this many times. The Bible says you can become right with God through believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through believing in Christ as Lord and Savior. You become righteous.
How does this work? Oh, see, the Bible tells us Jesus Christ came into our world and he lived a righteous life. He literally fulfilled the law of God. Every detail of it, even the Sermon on the Mount was expressed perfectly in and through his life. He fulfilled not only the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law, perfect, utterly holy without sin. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And he was right with the Father because he was righteous.
And then the Bible says he went to Calvary’s cross. And on Calvary’s cross, he took upon himself the sin of the world. He took your sin and he took my sin upon himself. Though he knew no sin, though he had committed no sin, he became sin for us taking the sin of the world upon himself. And now you see the Bible says an amazing thing. And this is the very essence of the gospel itself. The Bible says, if you’ll believe in Jesus Christ, if you’ll embrace him as Lord and Savior of life, two things will happen. Two things. First of all, your unrighteousness will be forgiven, and secondly, his righteousness will be imputed to you.
Do you realize what a bargain that is? If you embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, your unrighteousness, your lack of righteousness, will be forgiven you by his shed blood and his righteousness will actually cover you, be imputed to you.
Now you know your heart. You know whether you’ve embraced Christ as Lord. See, if you don’t want Christ as Lord, if you want to be your own Lord, and if you don’t want to admit you need a savior, then you can’t be right with God. It’s not possible. But if you reach the point in your life where you’ve been willing to say, come Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sin, be my Savior, come be my Lord, I want to live for you. If you’ve reached that point, an amazing thing has happened. You’ve been declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven and the righteousness of the Son of God has been imputed to you and your sins are forgiven.
You see, it says in Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole. By his stripes we are healed.”
And that is why in our passage of scripture for today, the Messiah, the branch of David, the righteous branch, the Lord Jesus Christ is called Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord is our righteousness. See, it’s not simply saying that he is righteous, it’s saying he is our righteousness. And what an amazing and precious promise that is.
Well, this is communion Sunday. And communion has many titles. Sometimes it’s called the Lord’s Supper. In the Catholic church, it oftentimes is called the mass. Sometimes it’s called the oblation. But oftentimes of course communion is called the Eucharist. And this title Eucharist comes from a Greek word, which literally means “thanksgiving.” How appropriate. This is our thanksgiving communion this morning.
It was 200 years ago when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in the White House under the leadership of George Washington. And here we are today gathered, an opportunity to give thanks to God through the taking of communion, which is meant to be above all else a time when we give thanks. As we take of the bread and the cup, I’m sure there’s many things you would want to thank the Lord for, but above all else, you should thank him for this, that he is called Jehovah-Tsidkenu, that he is our righteousness. That by his bloodshed and his body broken our sins are forgiven us and his righteousness given to us, that we might be made right with God and have access to the very gates of heaven. Do you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? We invite you to partake this morning of the bread and the cup. And if you have children with you and they’ve reached an age of understanding and they love Christ, you should encourage them to partake with you of this bread and cup. Before we have communion this morning, let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.