Jehovah Tsidkenu - The Lord Our Righteousness

October 21, 2018 Speaker: Tara Detiveaux Series: The Power of God's Names

Topic: Righteousness Scripture: Jeremiah 23:1– :8

Jehovah Tsidkenu The Lord Our Righteousness

I like doing well.  It is part of the innate person of who God made me to be in my mother’s womb.  I want to impress you.  I want to succeed.  I hate failing. 

I can still remember the two times that I failed a test in elementary school.  The first time in first grade when I forgot to put my name on the test, I faked getting sick just so I didn’t have to take that test home to my mom.  And the second time in 4thgrade where I failed the eye exam because I couldn’t see the big letter E. 

Failure.

Broken.

Never Measure Up.

It is part of the reason why it took me so long to come to Christ, I GOT THIS.

Jeremiah is one of the most discouraging books in the Bible.  If you’re feeling depressed, Jeremiah isn’t the book you want to read. 

Everyone has turned from God.  Israel and Judah.  Capitvy.

Yes, we are gonna follow you God but they don’t.  Yes, we are gonna change but we don’t.  Moments become patterns.  Now it is who I am.  The further you depart from God, the more you invite decline into your life.  All of this destruction in the culture leads us to the introduction of this unique name of God.

Failure.

Broken.

Never Measure Up.

Jeremiah 23:1-8  The Righteous Branch

23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.

The Lord wants His shepherds to know that HE is the standard by which everything else should be measured.  He is the bar that separates right from wrong.  His name is the name by which we distinguish good from bad.

The pulpit ministry is not measured by the pastor’s eloquence or knowledge.  Rather, the body of Christ is evaluated by its adherence to God’s standard.  God is righteousness.  His viewpoint is the right viewpoint.  Any deviation from that leads to chaos and the devolution of life.

Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

We will get to this a little later…

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lordis our righteousness.’ (Jehovah Tsidkenu)

And God tells us how He brings righteousness into the lives of His own.  “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land”

Not that the Shepherds will become righteous.  Not that the people will become righteous. But that He will raise up a righteous branch…

THIS IS JESUS.

Jesus came from the Davidic line—He is David’s offspring. Born without sin and having lived 33 years without sinning, Christ hung out on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind.  After His death, burial, and resurrection, The Righteous Branch had fulfilled His intended purpose as Jehovah Tsidkenu. 

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Said another way, the sin of humanity—yours and mine—was credited to Jesus Christ. 

Because of this credit on Him, the wrath of God—tied to the sin—was poured out on Him on the cross.  The beating, the nails, and the brutality were agonizing, but even worse, He bore the wrath of God on the cross because of our sin.

But He paid this ultimate cost in order that we might become “the righteousness of God in Him,” as we just read.  

Just as our sin was credited to Jesus’s accountwhen He hung on the cross to die, His righteousness is credited to each one of uswho trust in Him as our Lord and Savior.

You are Going To Heaven On Credit!!

You can’t get in, you can only enter through the forgiveness of your sin, which come through the sacrifice of Christ.  Because of Christ’s righteousness, you are credited with righteousness when you believe on His name. 

If you know Jehovah Tsidkenu (of righteousness), He become your tsidkenu (righteousness). 

Neither you nor I are righteous in our own standing. But through Jesus Christ, we receive a credit exchange. 

Our sin on Him and His righteousness on us.  Only His perfect righteousness gets you and me into heaven---NOTHING LESS THAN THAT.

God’s standard is righteousness.

So, then you might say well…I can keep on sinning because God will continue to pick up the tab.  Jesus, Paul, the apostles would say CERTAINLY NOT!!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

If you are in Christ, you are brand-new.  You’re not the same person you were before, even though you may be doing some of the things you did before.  Why is that?  Because your identity is in Him—He is your righteousness now. 

This righteousness HAS TO GROW!!

Sometimes because we don’t get an immediate consequence for our unrighteousness we feel like perhaps we have gotten away with it. You know God hasn’t struck me with lightening yet so I can keep on doing it. 

(Ex. of You Limuel)It wasn’t that I didn’t see, it was that I wanted his heart to change without correction so that I could know it was sincere.  I wanted him to hate it as much as I did.  The consequence was eventually coming because it was wrong, I was just trying to being kind.

“Put on the new self, which is the likeness of God had been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”  (Ephesians 4:24).  And “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust”

You are to wear His righteousness by seeking to live within His standards.  You are to view life through His perspective.  If you are serious about experiencing God and the fullness and manifestation of the power of His names in your life, you have to move toward righteousness in your daily life. 

“He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness made alive in you.”  Isaiah 61:10

Putting it On.

Clothing yourself with it.

As a breastplate and then…

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lordlives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lordlives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he[a]had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

There is a wonderful concluding thought to God’s introduction of the name Jehovah Tsidkenu. 

He performed verses 3 through 4.

God brought the Israelites back from where He had driven them. 

Israel stopped being a nation in AD 70.  Yet in May 1948 (almost 2000 years later), God brought Israel back to their own land and reestablished them as a nation. 

No other country in history had ceased to be a nation, been scattered worldwide, and then been brought back thousands of years later to become a nation without having lost their language or culture in between. God preserved Israel just as He said He would. 

Now if God did that for a country,

He can do that for your life. 

He can take pieces from here, there, and everywhere and reconstruct the beauty and strength that is you. 

BUT IT MUST BE BASED ON HIS RIGHTEOUS STANDARD.

If you will pursue righteousness, you’ll discover your spirit being fed. 

Your soul will expand, your body will change, and your life will be restored as God originally intended to be.

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