The Believer's Righteousness

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:01
All right, if everyone would take out your Bibles, that's perfect.
00:04
Everyone take out your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 11.
00:14
As you know, brother Andy and I have been going back and forth through the book of Proverbs.
00:19
Last week, he looked at chapter 10 and tonight I'm going to be picking up at chapter 11 and I wanna say this.
00:31
We, from chapter one to chapter nine, we saw that the Proverbs were often extended allegorical narratives about the distinction between wisdom and foolishness and those narratives we were able to look at and sort of follow along in an extended story.
00:58
But now we have come to the portion of Proverbs where they are more individualized Proverbs.
01:07
Each one sort of stands on its own and that kind of, it caused me to pause for a minute when I was preparing the message because I was thinking any one of these could be a sermon.
01:22
Any one of these individual Proverbs could be its own message.
01:27
And we know that because oftentimes these individual Proverbs are the ones that we memorize and they become part of our heart and part of our vernacular as Christians.
01:45
But what I've decided to do tonight, and I don't know that I'm gonna do this every time because again, we're gonna continue to go chapter by chapter.
01:52
Some weeks I may take one and focus on that one, but tonight what I'm going to do is I'm going to look at the theme, which I do think that this chapter seems to hold to, at least as I understand it, because there are themes that run through Proverbs, we've already noted.
02:17
There is the theme of wisdom and foolishness, which brother Andy talked about for many weeks.
02:24
And then I've picked up here recently and been preaching alongside.
02:28
And so we see wisdom and foolishness, but also we see the themes of righteousness and wickedness.
02:36
So wisdom and foolishness and then righteousness and wickedness.
02:41
And in Proverbs 11, I do believe what we see here is a focus on the subject of righteousness and how do we define what righteousness is.
02:58
In fact, let me give you where I'm coming from on this.
03:01
Everybody, let's just read together verse one, because I do think verse one sets the tone for this chapter.
03:09
Proverbs 11, verse one says this, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.
03:24
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight, and the word just there could also be translated righteous.
03:31
A righteous weight is his delight.
03:38
That short Proverb tells us something about the nature of this chapter.
03:44
And I think tells us something about the nature of what righteousness is.
03:52
Righteousness, and I know every one of you are gonna be ood and odd at this definition.
03:58
Righteousness is what is right.
04:05
Righteousness and justice.
04:07
Now, by the way, there's two ways to spell the word justice.
04:11
There's J-U-S-T-I-C-E, which is the application of righteousness.
04:16
And then there is J-U-S-T-U-S, which is our son's name.
04:19
And that means righteousness.
04:21
So the word justice means righteousness.
04:24
And then justice with I-C-E means the application of that which is right.
04:29
And that's what we expect when you go to court.
04:31
You expect justice, the application of that which is right.
04:34
We talked about the Supreme Court, the application of that which is ultimately right should come from the Supreme Court.
04:40
It should be what's right.
04:42
And so righteousness is that which is right.
04:44
And we read the first verse of chapter 11.
04:47
It says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
04:53
What is a false balance? Well, at this particular time in history, and even to today, goods were measured with weights and that is how it was determined how much value something had was determined by the weight that that particular thing had.
05:14
And so the way that connivers and con men would make their money in a underhanded way was they would bring in weights that were not calibrated properly.
05:30
And so it would be like, and I tried to, in my imagination, tried to imagine what this would look like today.
05:36
And this is basically what it would look like today.
05:38
If you went to the grocery store, we all probably go to the grocery store and use the little scale that's there.
05:45
And we take our produce, whatever the produce is, and we put it on the little scale and the scale weighs the produce and tells us how much it weighs.
05:54
And then we have to pay in accordance with that weight.
05:57
And so if that scale is calibrated incorrectly, we're either going to pay too much or too little for the food because the scale has been calibrated incorrectly.
06:11
And you can imagine if a store owner were exceptionally unscrupulous, he might take his scales and he might make a half pound read to be a pound.
06:25
And so you put a half pound of potatoes on the scale, but it reads a pound and you have to pay the full payment for the pound, but you only get a half a pound.
06:36
We get, you get the picture, right? This is what this means.
06:38
That is an unjust weight.
06:41
It's an unrighteous scale.
06:43
It's a false balance.
06:46
And I have to tell this story.
06:48
When I was a, when I was a kid, my dad, his company had a trip.
06:56
It was a deep sea fishing trip.
06:59
And we went out on a charter boat with all of the people from Metal Container, which was the company that he worked for.
07:05
And we went out on this deep sea charter boat several miles off the coast of Jacksonville.
07:11
And when we got onto the boat, there was a little place where you could, you could get in the pot.
07:18
And what that means is you put a little money in the pot and whoever pulls in the biggest fish wins the pot.
07:27
And everybody put in five, 10, $20, whatever, whatever it was, the amount that was supposed to go in would go in the pot.
07:33
Well, we put our money in when we got on the boat.
07:35
We all went out to fish, deep sea fishing.
07:38
While we were fishing, I hooked a 23 and a half pound amberjack.
07:45
Amberjack.
07:48
Now brother Andy, that's fairly impressive.
07:51
Okay, brother Andy is our resident fisherman.
07:54
A 23 and a half pound amberjack.
07:57
It was so big, I think I was probably 12, 13 years old.
08:00
I had no muscle ability to pull it in on my own.
08:03
So dad had to grab and pull it in.
08:06
And we both pulled it in together and we reeled this monster fish up.
08:11
And I was just certain that I had won the pot because my fish was much larger than anyone else's fish that was in the cooler.
08:20
When we laid it in the cooler, had my name tag on it, it was much bigger than anyone else's.
08:26
But, and oh, and I was having these fantasies because I had just recently at the time gone to the flea market and saw a ninja sword that I wanted to buy and it cost almost $100.
08:36
And there was $100 in the pot and I was gonna get that ninja sword.
08:39
I was so excited.
08:41
Had to add that part in.
08:43
At the end of the day, they begin to pull the fish out of the cooler and they hang them from a weight or from a scale.
08:51
And mine reads 23 and a half pounds.
08:55
Well, they pull a fish out that looks much smaller than mine.
08:59
And they hang it from the scale and it reads over 24 pounds.
09:05
Looks much smaller, but was much heavier.
09:08
And to this day, I am certain that man force fed that fish fishing weights so that he could get my pot.
09:17
Now, I really don't believe that that happened, but when I was a kid, I did.
09:21
I remember thinking that man cheated.
09:23
He put weights in the fish and that's why he won and I didn't.
09:30
Well, that's the idea here is unjust weights are when someone uses an unscrupulous method for taking something that does not belong to them.
09:45
And what's interesting is this is not only found in this proverb, but this is found throughout the proverbs.
09:51
In his commentary, Ellicott says this.
09:55
He says a similar proverb is found in chapter 20, verse 23.
10:01
And the praise of just weights is found in Proverbs 16, 11, Proverbs 20, verse 10.
10:05
And the repetition suggests that this form of cheating had become so common during the time of Solomon when the commerce of Israel began to develop.
10:15
And if so, there would be a good reason for these frequent warnings.
10:20
For it would have been useless to raise the superstructure of a religious life as is the intention of this book without first laying the foundation of common honesty, man to man.
10:32
And that's what verse one is about.
10:34
It's about common honesty.
10:36
It's about common decency.
10:39
If men are gonna do business with other men, there has to be a trust that we're not going to use dishonest weights.
10:46
There has to be a trust that we're going to have fairness in how we do business with one another.
10:53
The pulpit commentary, which is just another commentary on this text says, honesty and integrity are the foundation of social duty, which the author is teaching, which is why this comes up so often in Proverbs.
11:09
This is the foundation of social propriety.
11:13
If I pay you to do something, you're gonna do it.
11:15
If you pay me to do something, I'm gonna do it.
11:17
If you pay for something for me, I'm gonna fulfill that payment and I'm gonna do it right.
11:26
And that's the foundation of this chapter.
11:30
But what's important to recognize, and I said all that to say this, what's important to recognize is that the righteousness that this chapter deals in is not just the righteousness of an orderly and just society.
11:52
That's important and it is part of what we see here.
11:57
But this also, this chapter also deals with righteousness before a holy God.
12:05
Because one of the things that we must understand, if I take an unjust weight and I use an unjust weight to measure out what I'm selling you, and I sell you something where I take money from you that doesn't belong to me, I've done evil to you.
12:19
But I have also sinned against God.
12:24
And so righteousness has a horizontal element, but righteousness and unrighteousness also has a vertical element.
12:35
What if I cheat you every day for years and you never know it? What if I take advantage of you for decades and you never know it? Well, did I get away with it? No, because there's also the vertical dimension of my righteousness.
12:52
I don't just do my righteousness for men, but I live righteously before God.
13:00
And that is important.
13:03
But there's something even further than that.
13:06
Not only do we have our righteousness before men, and not only do we have our righteousness before God, but there's also something else that we need to keep in mind.
13:13
And I want to read to you four of the Proverbs, and I want you to notice a key theme in these four.
13:19
This is verse four, eight, nine, and 21.
13:22
As I said, we're not gonna get to look at every one, but I am picking out a few.
13:27
Listen to these four in succession, and I want you to see if there's anything you note within these four.
13:33
Proverbs 11, four.
13:35
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
13:42
Now down to verse eight.
13:44
The righteous is delivered from trouble and the wicked walks into it instead.
13:51
Verse nine.
13:52
With his mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.
14:01
And finally, verse 21.
14:04
Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.
14:12
You notice one thing that's consistent in those four passages, what is it? The idea of deliverance.
14:19
So within this passage about righteousness, there's something that is even deeper than our relationship with one another.
14:29
And even, I would say even deeper than standing righteously before God, but it's how our righteousness acts in a sense as our deliverance.
14:40
You say deliverance from what? Well, in the context of this chapter, it is deliverance from the, the, what will happen on the day of wrath for those who are unrighteous.
14:57
Notice again, verse four.
14:58
Riches do not profit when? In the day of wrath.
15:03
Well, what's the context? If you think of it from verse one, this is a person whose riches have been gained unrighteously.
15:09
This is the person who's used unjust weights and now he stands before the Lord as a rich man, but his riches promise are nothing in the day of wrath.
15:20
Judgment.
15:22
I can't help but think of the story that Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus.
15:28
Remember, there were two men.
15:30
The one was the rich man and he ate sumptuously every day.
15:34
And the poor man, Lazarus, waited, hoping to catch even the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.
15:40
And it said the dogs would come and lick his sores.
15:44
And it says the poor man died.
15:46
He was ushered by the angels to Abraham's bosom, but the rich man closed his eyes and he opened them in hell.
15:57
And he found in that moment that all of his riches could not purchase his way out.
16:09
All of the good that he had in this world was not worth anything because he was unrighteous.
16:21
So as I'm trying to point out, there is more to this chapter than mere social commentary about the behavior of men with men, but it is about how we are viewed in the eyes of the Lord.
16:36
And I wanna say something that I hope that you understand because I'm gonna try to make it clear and I don't want anybody to leave with a misunderstanding.
16:46
There is a connection between righteousness and salvation, specifically in this sense.
17:00
Go back to verse four.
17:01
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
17:10
The wicked man takes security in his riches, but the righteous man is saved not by what he has materially, but the fact that he is righteous.
17:21
And so the question becomes, how is he righteous? Because we're all a bunch of card carrying Calvinists.
17:28
Well, maybe not all of us, but I am.
17:30
And I believe in a little something called total depravity.
17:33
And total depravity tells me that there is none righteous, no not one.
17:39
And so if I'm relying upon righteousness to produce my salvation, if I'm relying on righteousness for the day of wrath and the Bible tells me my righteousness is as filthy rags, then I'm in trouble.
18:01
And this is where I hope you understand.
18:05
There are those who believe that the Old Testament and the New Testament present two different ways of salvation.
18:12
There are those who believe the Old Testament picture salvation by works and the New Testament picture salvation by faith.
18:22
But if you hear nothing else tonight, hear this, that is completely wrong.
18:31
There are not two ways of salvation.
18:34
There is not a different way of salvation in the Old Testament and a different way of salvation in the New Testament.
18:39
You are saved by being declared righteous in the Old Covenant.
18:47
You are saved by being declared righteous in the New Covenant.
18:52
And both of those, whether you are under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, are based upon the work of Christ.
19:03
In fact, I wanna show you this.
19:04
Hold your place in Proverbs 11.
19:07
And just for a moment, turn with me to Romans 1.
19:16
I wanna show you there is no contradiction between how the Old Covenant saint was saved and how the New Covenant saint was saved.
19:25
Now I will say this, I will say there's a different administration of the gift of the Spirit.
19:29
I do think that that is different in the New Covenant because we have the gift of the Spirit who comes to live within us the moment we believe, the Bible says.
19:39
That's part of the blessing of the New Covenant is that the Spirit now makes his home in the heart of every believer.
19:47
And if you don't have the Spirit of God, you're not a believer.
19:51
Romans 8, verses seven and eight clearly say that.
19:54
If you don't have the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of Christ, you don't belong to him, right? So there's a difference in distinction there.
20:00
But whether you're under the Old Covenant or whether you're under the New Covenant, you are saved the same way.
20:05
And that is the application of righteousness that has been declared to you.
20:09
Let's look at Romans 1, verse 16.
20:12
Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
20:28
For in it, that is in the gospel, because that is the antecedent of the word it, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God, the righteousness of who? Of God is revealed from faith for faith.
20:47
Now, I hate that in the ESV.
20:49
I don't like that they use for as the preposition there.
20:53
It should be to.
20:55
So I'm gonna retranslate it, even though I'm reading the ESV.
20:59
Because what it should say is the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
21:05
And the reason why I make that argument is because Paul's point here is that the righteousness of God is revealed by faith alone.
21:14
Faith in the beginning to faith in the ending.
21:16
That's what from faith to faith means.
21:18
It means from faith to faith.
21:20
And then he goes on to quote the Old Testament.
21:23
Notice that, please don't miss that.
21:26
He quotes the Old Testament to prove that you're saved by faith.
21:30
He says, as it is written, quoting Habakkuk chapter two, verse four, as it is written, the just, what is just? Just is righteous.
21:42
The righteous shall live by what? Faith.
21:47
So Paul tells us here, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
21:53
It is revealed from faith to faith, from faith first to last.
21:58
And he quotes the Old Testament to prove that this is the case.
22:03
It is in this passage and many others that Protestants understand the doctrine that is called imputed righteousness.
22:11
Do you know what imputed means? It means to be charged to your account.
22:16
It means something that you were bankrupt and God charged it or gave it or imputed it into your account.
22:28
This is why you are declared righteous, because your righteousness has come by faith.
22:36
And here's the thing, it didn't start with Christ.
22:39
It started in the Old Testament.
22:42
All the way back before Moses, we have Abraham in the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 15 and verse six.
22:50
It says, and he, that is Abraham, believed Yahweh, that is God, and he, that is Yahweh, counted it to him, that is Abraham.
22:58
Sorry, let me just read it.
23:00
And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.
23:05
What did he count to him? He counted his faith as righteousness because his faith was in the promise of Yahweh and the faith that is in the promise of Yahweh, he declares to be righteous.
23:22
And you don't have to go there, but if you were to go over to Romans chapter four, it actually explains all that.
23:32
Because in Romans chapter four, it asks the question, what shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
23:44
For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness.
23:49
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.
23:53
And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
23:58
Hear that again.
23:59
His faith is counted as righteousness.
24:01
Why? Because it's the righteousness of Christ that is imputed by faith.
24:08
Let me tell you something, there's something out there, this is not in my notes, so I don't wanna take a heart aside, but there is a very, very insidious teaching that has made its way within the academy and it's called the New Perspective on Paul.
24:26
I talk about this in our New Testament survey class.
24:30
So if you were part of that class, I mentioned it when I taught on the survey of Paul's letters.
24:34
It was popularized, well, it was popularized by several scholars, but most notably it was popularized by, oh goodness, his name just left, it doesn't matter.
24:49
But the man who popularized it has basically put out the idea that it's not imputed righteousness that provides us our good standing before God.
25:07
And that's the danger of the New Perspective on Paul is the idea that it still holds to somewhat of a penal substitutionary view where our sins are applied to Christ, but that's not enough.
25:22
Understand this, I'm gonna begin to freak out a little.
25:24
It's not enough to have your sins applied to Christ because then you are neutral.
25:28
You don't stand before God and enter into his glory by being neutral.
25:33
You stand before God and enter into his glory by being made righteous.
25:37
That's how you stand before God.
25:39
Not neutral, your sins are removed.
25:43
That doesn't save you.
25:45
It is the application of the righteousness of Christ that saved you, that he, through his passive and active obedience provides for you.
25:57
Every moment that Christ lived on this earth, he lived a perfectly righteous life.
26:02
He didn't sin for 33 years in thought, word or deed.
26:07
And the application of that active and passive righteousness becomes your righteousness whereby you stand.
26:17
And I get so, this to me is the gospel.
26:20
And when I hear someone teaching an opposition to the gospel, I get upset about it because here, I will have you look at this.
26:30
Turn with me to Philippians chapter three.
26:33
I promise we're gonna get back to Proverbs because I do have a lot more to say about the Proverbs, but let's go.
26:40
I cannot help but to point this out.
26:45
We are righteous in Christ, first and foremost.
26:48
But listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3, eight.
26:54
Paul is a man who has done so many things from a religious perspective that one would think he is a super Israelite.
27:03
He even says, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, right? But look what he says in verse eight.
27:08
I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
27:16
For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things.
27:18
Count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
27:34
That's the key.
27:35
It's from God.
27:37
Your righteousness is not what you present to God to be saved.
27:41
It is what God provides to you so that you can be saved.
27:51
So having said that, this leads to a question.
28:01
If the righteousness that we have before God is not on account of our works, Paul just clearly said it's not, in what way does our lifestyle matter? Some people would say it doesn't.
28:20
In fact, Paul anticipates that objection when he writes Romans six, because in Romans six, what does he say? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? Certainly not, God forbid, for how can we who died to sin still live in it? So what happens when we believe and we are declared righteous by God, we receive the imputed righteousness of Christ and we receive a new heart whereby we walk in the newness of life, which provides a daily practical righteousness that is our calling to live by every day.
29:20
I tried to think of a cute way of saying it, not cute, but that made us wrong.
29:24
Where I tried to find, I'm love alliteration, and I was thinking imputed, imputed.
29:29
The Methodists have a thing called imparted righteousness, but it's not the same, be careful.
29:35
Because what that is, if you look it up and you study what they're talking about, their view of imparted righteousness is actually very similar to the Catholic view of infused righteousness.
29:44
Be very careful with that.
29:46
Because basically it says the imputed righteousness of Christ gets you part of the way there, and then the imparted righteousness gets you the rest of the way there.
29:55
That ain't, that don't jive, that's wrong.
29:58
Imputed righteousness is how you stand before God.
30:01
But what happens is after that, the process of sanctification begins whereby we have a practical righteousness.
30:11
In fact, I'm gonna tell you a quick story.
30:18
Years ago I was in a conversation with another pastor, a much older pastor, very sweet man, and we were talking about the question of the breastplate in the armor of God.
30:29
You know the armor of God, you have the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, all those things.
30:35
Well, the one part of the armor that I get a little, not confused, but a little question mark is the breastplate of righteousness.
30:45
Because the breastplate of righteousness, if you think of what a breastplate does for a soldier, it protects the heart, right? Like a belt holds everything together, a shield is what you get behind, but the breastplate protects your heart.
30:59
And so is the breastplate of righteousness the righteousness of Christ, or is it our practical righteousness? And that was the conversation we were having.
31:06
And I want to say it's the righteousness of Christ, and that's the only thing that can truly protect my heart.
31:12
And I still hold, that's pretty much what I think.
31:15
But there's always that part of me though that goes, but Paul is telling me to put on righteousness every day.
31:23
The righteousness of Christ is there.
31:26
Why is he calling me to take up this armor? And I do think there is a sense in which there's this practical daily righteousness that I'm called to walk in.
31:35
And when I don't, when that armor fails, that daily righteousness, I expose my heart to all kinds of evil and wickedness.
31:45
And so I think that there's a sense on a practical level where it can be dealing with the practical daily righteousness, where if I'm not following Christ, if I'm not being obedient in my walk, I'm opening up my heart to the stabbing, sword of the evil one, right? So that was the conversation we're having.
32:06
Y'all go home and do your family worship and talk about that but ultimately what we must understand when it comes to righteousness is there is a cause and effect relationship in our salvation.
32:18
The cause of our righteousness is Christ and the imputed righteousness.
32:24
The effect of that is a life walking by faith.
32:31
Righteousness means to walk by faith.
32:34
I do believe that's what Habakkuk meant when he said, the just shall live by faith.
32:37
I think that's the practical daily walking out of our faith.
32:41
Now, with all that in mind, with all that in mind, we go back to Proverbs 11 and we see all of this is what it looks like to live that life.
32:58
What does it look like to be the man that Jesus says has the fruit of righteousness? Remember what he says? He says, you shall know them by their fruit, right? And what's the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
33:15
Against such there is no law.
33:17
That's the fruit of the spirit.
33:18
What does that look like on a practical level? Proverbs 11 tells us.
33:22
Proverbs 11 tells us a bunch of different ways that that looks like on the practical level.
33:29
And we're not gonna read the whole thing.
33:30
I'm gonna give you about seven or eight different verses that I think really point to a picture of what it really looks like to have that practical righteousness.
33:40
So very quickly, we're gonna begin to draw to a close soon.
33:43
But look here, go to verse three.
33:47
Back in Proverbs 11, verse three.
33:49
The integrity of the upright guides him, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
33:54
I listened to Brother Andy's message last week.
33:56
I didn't feel good, so I wasn't here.
33:57
But he talked about how the word but there makes that contradistinction between the two, and you have the positive and then the negative.
34:04
And we see that here, right? It says the integrity of the upright guides him, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys him.
34:12
So what's the parallel there? Integrity and crookedness.
34:15
So what does a practically righteous person look like? He's a man of integrity.
34:20
He's not a crooked man.
34:22
By the way, if you ever wonder what integrity means, it's the same root word as the word disintegrate.
34:31
Because integrate and integrity, it's all the same.
34:34
So what does it mean to disintegrate? Means fall apart.
34:38
So what does integrity mean? Means to have it together.
34:42
Means a man who if he says he's gonna do something, he does it.
34:45
It's a man who's a man of his word.
34:46
He's a man of dignity, of honor, integrity.
34:50
He says he's gonna do it, he does it.
34:54
That's what integrity is.
34:56
And what's the opposite in this, in the context of this crooked? The crooked man doesn't do what he says.
35:01
The crooked man is always trying to pull one over.
35:03
He's always trying to con you.
35:05
He's always trying to take something that's not his.
35:07
He's a crooked man.
35:09
He's not a righteous man.
35:11
The righteous man is a man who walks by integrity.
35:14
Let me tell you something.
35:15
That's what a Christian man is supposed to be, and woman.
35:19
The Christian man and woman should be the best man and woman.
35:27
Breaks my heart when I see the news come on and it says, you know, pastor caught with a prostitute or a Christian leader caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
35:45
I ache about that.
35:46
I mean, I'm not surprised when the world does it.
35:50
You know, my wife and I talk about this sometime.
35:53
Wretch is gonna wretch, you know.
35:55
Unbelievers are gonna act like unbelievers.
35:57
They're never gonna surprise me.
36:00
Every time they come out with something new, it's just more and more of the same.
36:04
But when the believer does these things, that's shameful, as we're called to a higher standard.
36:16
Verse nine, with his mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.
36:27
What is the godless man doing with his mouth? He's gossiping, he's slandering, he's using his mouth to destroy his neighbor.
36:35
But notice the contrast, at least the way it reads in the ESV, but by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.
36:42
What does he know? He knows enough not to do that.
36:45
He knows enough not to use his mouth to hurt people.
36:48
He knows enough.
36:49
Let me tell you something.
36:50
The hardest thing to control in your body is your mouth.
36:53
If you don't believe me, go to the book of James, when it says the tongue is like the rudder on a ship, this small little thing that controls everything else.
37:03
And it says the righteous man is the man who knows enough to keep that under control.
37:09
Go down to verse 12, it's almost the same thing.
37:13
Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
37:19
You ever heard somebody say, if you don't got something nice to say, don't say anything.
37:23
Well, this sort of says the same thing.
37:26
If you have the choice to belittle or be quiet, then be quiet.
37:34
Verse 14, where there's no guidance, a people falls, but in the abundance of counselors, there's safety.
37:43
I love this passage.
37:44
This is one of those ones that could have been its own sermon.
37:47
The King James says it very well.
37:49
It says, where there is no, tell me brother, I forget the word, but that's right.
37:56
Where there is no counsel, the people fall.
37:59
And the idea behind this is the Christian man, the godly man, the righteous man, the man who's been declared righteous by faith and walks by that faith is the man who takes counsel in the words of other wise men.
38:15
He doesn't think he is, as Brother Andy often says, the tip of the spear.
38:18
He's the only one who knows what's going on.
38:19
You know, we talk about those people who think they're it, but they take counsel in other wise men.
38:27
And they understand the value of counsel and listening.
38:34
Verse 17, a man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
38:41
That's interesting.
38:42
Notice it doesn't say he hurts others.
38:45
It says a cruel man hurts himself.
38:48
Now he certainly does hurt others, but in this context, the wicked or the righteous man, the kind man benefits himself.
38:59
The cruel man hurts himself.
39:02
I wanna say this, kindness is a fruit of the spirit and we have got to be careful and I'm preaching to myself.
39:21
We have got to be careful that righteousness doesn't become self-righteousness and being in right standing with God doesn't make us jerks to those who aren't.
39:34
And now I'm gonna look at myself in the mirror when I get home and repent.
39:38
Because sometimes we have a tendency to be jerks and that's not being kind, is it? That's what it says right there.
39:49
It says a man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
39:58
Just a couple more and we'll close with prayer.
40:01
Verse 20, those of a crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those of blameless ways are his delight.
40:09
I just like the way that, those whose ways are blameless are the delight of the Lord.
40:19
Verse 22, another one that could be its own sermon.
40:23
Like a gold ring and a pig snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.
40:28
I just let that be on its own.
40:30
I don't need to add any commentary.
40:32
But think about what it's saying about how we adorn ourselves, not only with our clothing, but with our words.
40:43
Verse 24, one gives freely, yet grows all the richer.
40:48
Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want.
40:52
There've been so many stories of men who have made vast fortunes and have given away most of it because of their faithfulness to God.
41:02
I don't know the whole story of J.C.
41:04
Penney, but as I understand that was part of the way that he would give and give and give, and yet still he had a fortune.
41:13
Last one, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and whoever, and the King James says, winneth souls is wise.
41:25
Whoever winneth souls is wise.
41:28
Now that one is often used as a passage that should encourage us to evangelize.
41:34
And it should, and I'm not saying that's wrong to use it that way.
41:37
But understand this, the point of it is not so much evangelism as much as it is that when a person lives a righteous life in the world and people see that righteous life, that is to the world a picture of the glory of God.
41:57
And in that people are pointed to God.
42:03
They become a sign that points people to the Lord.
42:07
Now, I will say this, don't think I'm saying don't evangelize, just go out and live your life before people, that's not true.
42:15
The gospel doesn't go with a mute button, right? We don't just show people, atheists hold doors too.
42:21
We gotta not just live righteous lives and do nice things, but we gotta preach the gospel.
42:25
But the point of this is the righteous, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
42:30
We have the ministry of the gospel.
42:33
We have the ministry of life and we're called to share it.
42:37
And we're called to live it.
42:39
And don't let what you're saying be destroyed by what you're doing.
42:44
Don't share the gospel and then be a jerk.
42:50
Don't give a gospel track to a waitress without giving her a tip.
42:54
I know that's not exactly the same thing, but it's, I gotta say, we are called to be the best of people, we are.
43:06
We are called to be good men and women.
43:12
Do we fail? Yeah, Martin Luther had a term.
43:17
Must never forget it.
43:19
The term was this, simul justus et peccator.
43:21
It was Latin and it means at the same time, righteous and sinner.
43:26
And that is true.
43:28
We are declared righteous by God, but we are sinners.
43:33
And that's why when I say to you tonight, your righteousness before God is what saves you.
43:40
Understand this, your righteousness before God is by Jesus Christ and him alone.
43:45
But if you have been made righteous by God through Jesus Christ, you have been called to walk in his ways.
43:54
For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, that is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them.
44:11
So let our righteousness that's been declared become the righteousness that is walked out.
44:17
Let's pray.
44:19
Father, I thank you for your word.
44:21
I thank you for your truth.
44:23
And I thank you for the righteousness that comes through Christ.
44:25
May we walk out this righteousness daily as you give us grace.
44:29
In Jesus name and for his sake, amen.
44:35
All right.