This sermon emphasizes the personal righteousness of Christ for every believer, highlighting that God's acceptance into heaven is not based on dropping the standard but on Christ meeting the standard. It discusses how God's mercy fulfills His justice for believers, removing their sin debt and showering them with righteousness. The sermon warns against stumbling over Christ due to self-righteousness and emphasizes the necessity of merit through Jesus Christ for salvation.

The righteousness of Christ is personal to every believer. The righteousness of Christ means that when God lets me into heaven, He doesn't do it by dropping the standard. Not at all! He does it by meeting the standard. God's mercy does not ever set aside or contradict God's justice. It fulfills it. In other words, when God brings a believer to heaven, He does so justly. Look, when I get to heaven, I will be able to say, I deserve to be there. Not that I deserve it by the works I did in my life. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying I'll deserve it because of anything I did. If I were to get what I deserve, you know what I'd get. I mean, folks, think about it. What is it that makes us unworthy of heaven? What is it that makes us so much an object of hell? Sin! But when I believed in Christ, where is my sin? It's gone! My surety has paid for it. It's paid. The debt is cleared. God's received the payment at the hand of Christ by surety. A perfect payment. But more than that, more than just bringing my account to zero and removing the debt I owed, that whole funnel of perfection is showered onto my account. God puts a goldmine of credit. All that vastness, all that fulfilling of the law. Look, folks, God looks at His law and looks at me, and neither He nor anyone else can bring a single accusation at all. If God were to exclude a poor believer in Jesus Christ, covered by the blood, He would be unjust, utterly unjust. Why? Because He's already accepted the payment at my surety's hand. He cannot exact it from me. It's not possible. Look, any of you, at all, go to heaven. It will be because you deserve it. By the merits of Christ in my name. Because you deserve it. Romans 5, 17 speaks of the gift of righteousness. It's freely given to all who believe. Folks, you've got to understand this. You do not get to heaven without merit. So many people think that God is just too loving. He's too nice. He's too Santa Claus-like to throw sinners into hell. I'm telling you, the only ones who will ever be allowed into heaven merit it. They deserve it. They have the credentials to get there. If you don't have it, God will throw you into the fiery dungeons of hell for certain. As God's word is certain. You must have merit. You can't merit it in your own words. I'm telling you, you've got to look outside of yourself to find it. What in the world is being taught from the pulpits? I'll tell you what's being taught. Morality is being taught. Be good to the kids. Be good to your co-workers. Be good here. Don't lie. Don't do that. If you don't believe it, you have not been going to any other churches. What in the world is happening? I'll tell you what's happening. People are stumbling over the rock of offense. They're tripping on Christ. You remember this. You don't trip on Christ unless he's at your feet, folks. And there's some of you sitting in chairs right here, right now. And that's where you're stumbling. You want something to present to God. You want to make yourself beautiful in His sight. But you're ugly and you're defiled. And unless you're robed with what He has to give, you'll not be accepted. And people trip and they stumble over Christ all the time. I'll tell you what. There are some of you tripping right now. You know why? Because He stands in the way of your way. He stands in the way of your sin. He stands in the way of your selfishness, of your sexual pleasures. He stands in the way of what you want to do with your life. And you're tripping. But you just remember this. You trip over Christ. You will fall. You just remember where you fall to. You know what? That man, that woman, that child that puts their trust in Jesus Christ, that last verse there in Romans 9 says, they will not be put to shame. You know what that tells me? You trip over Christ and you fall. You fall right into shame. Matthew 7. Lord, we're here. We're ready. We're ready to go home to heaven. I never knew you. What trembling. We should tremble. Some of you are ready for home. To our party. You know who those people are, don't you? And the people that think lightly of sin, they think lightly of God's standard. God gave His law to man. And He means for you to keep it or die. And if you can't keep it, there's one who has. It's there. Some of you are tripping on Christ. All He is is a rock for you to trip over. With all the privileges that our country has had. There is some man, he calls himself a pastor. He's been teaching that girl. She thinks she can get to heaven by being in that choir. That man is going to burn in hell. Unless God shows him mercy. And He is going to pay for deceiving men and women. Most of the preachers and the pulpits today should not be there. They're not qualified to be there. They're deceiving people. May God purge the pulpits in this land so we can hear about attaining to righteousness again. By faith, in the great surety, Jesus Christ. You stumble. If you're ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of you. Get back. Two ways. You can only attain righteousness by one of them. Only one. There's only one way. On the merits of Jesus Christ. Amen.