Foolishness and Nonsense

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the first Sunday morning following Holy Cross Day, the 19th of September, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

This past Tuesday marked a holy day few of us know much about.  September 14th each year is Holy Cross Day, which honors and commemorates the sacrifice that Christ Jesus made on the cross for our salvation.  Today is the first Sunday after Holy Cross Day, so I thought it fitting that we remember that great sacrifice.  After all, we really should think about what Jesus did for us more often than just at Easter.

So take a moment and look at our cross.  What message do you see written there?  What meaning does it truly hold for us?

Please listen and follow along to how the Apostle Paul describes the message that God sent all mankind through the cross when he wrote to the church in Corinth.  This comes from the 1st chapter of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, verses 18 through 24, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never know Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

--1 Corinthians 1:18-24 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for calling us to salvation through Your Son Jesus.  You have made the wisdom of this world - human wisdom - look foolish.  Only Your wisdom is true and in Your wisdom only by faith can we know You and Jesus.  Thank You, Father, for giving us the faith to believe.  Please help us not give in to what the world calls wisdom.  Help us to not suffer shame when the world calls our faith sheer foolishness.  Help us to do as You will and not just whatever it is we want to do.  Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who blindly do his work for him.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought and paid for by the blood of You Son Jesus.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Sam Goldwyn, the movie producer, used to mangle the English language so badly that his malapropisms and mixed metaphors came to be known as “Goldwynisms”.  Here are some that have become classics:

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named William.

Now, gentlemen, listen slowly.

For your information, I would like to ask a question.

Include me out.

Don't talk to me while I'm interrupting.

I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong.

I am sure that Mr. Goldwyn considered each of those to be pure nuggets of wisdom.  And maybe the thoughts behind them really were wise, but when he tried to apply words to them, they came out sounding a little foolish to us.  We couldn’t see into his head, but these gems come out sounding very close to being nonsense.  After all, if I’m not always right, I have to be wrong at least some of the time, right?  But to Sam, they all obviously made perfectly good sense.

So it is with human wisdom: in the final analysis, it’s all just foolishness.  Of course, the world sees things differently.

Paul says that God sent us a message.  When He allowed His only Son to be sacrificed upon that cold, cruel cross, God sent a message for all mankind to see.  For the story didn’t end there.  Jesus’ life did not end on that cross.  He was resurrected on the third day, brought back to life in the flesh, before returning to heaven.

So what is that message God wrote on the cross?  It is that we are washed clean by the blood Jesus spilled there.  It is the promise of our own resurrection to new life eternal in heaven.  It is the symbol of all that Jesus did just for us, that we might be saved.

This is the message that we preach.  This is the message that we share with the world as we carry out our Lord’s command to tell all about Him and make more disciples.  And this is what the world considers nothing more than foolishness and nonsense.

Too many people want proof.  They want to see it with their own eyes or have their science prove it for them.  Many are even offended by God’s message, calling us closed minded in our belief.  And then there are those who say that just being a good person, doing good works, will result in a life in paradise.  They don’t understand how we can believe something that we have no real proof of.  That’s just crazy thinking, they say.

But this is how God, in His wisdom, intended it.  He wants us to believe based on faith, not on proof.  He wants us to know, without a shadow of a doubt, based on faith and faith alone.  This is all in God’s plan, and the world calls it foolish.

I’d like to continue with today’s scripture, going back to where I left off.  Paul has a little more to say about this foolish message from God, and our belief in it.  Please listen as I continue with chapter 1 of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, verses 25 through 31…

25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

--1 Corinthians 1:25-31 (NLT)

God’s wisdom is far greater than man’s.  His foolish plan is wiser than even the wisest of man’s plans.  And His weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  I mean, after all, God created everything there is.  Could any man do that?

I’m reminded of the old joke where a non-believer is standing before God and saying he can do all those fancy things God can do.  God replied, “I made man from nothing more than dirt and spit – can you do that?”  The man says, “Sure”, and reaches down and grabs up a handful of dirt.  “Wait a minute”, God says.  “That’s My dirt.  Make your own.”

God is wiser and stronger, and His plans are far wiser than anything man can even imagine.

Paul goes on to talk about God’s choices, specifically those that He chose to carry His message into the world.  Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t recall ever being considered wise before.   And I’m certainly not powerful or wealthy, not as the world measures wisdom, power, and wealth.  Yet God chose you and I – the nearly powerless of this world – to be His messengers.  He chose the despised of the world, what the world considers as less than worthless, to bring to nothing that which the world considers important.

For what is truly important in this world is to be united with Christ Jesus, to be one with our Lord.  For Jesus is wisdom itself.  Christ made us right with God, He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from the bonds of our sin.  We owe everything to Jesus.  So if we feel like boasting, may we boast only about our Lord and Savior.

Jesus said that in this world we will face trials, we will suffer through troubles.  When we profess our faith, our belief without proof, when we share the message of the cross with an unbelieving world, we will be laughed at, ridiculed, even persecuted and scorned.  The world rejects that message and it will reject us, calling it nonsense, calling us foolish.  The world will hate us because it hated Jesus.

But God called us to carry that message to the nations.  He chose us to bring the world’s wisdom and power to nothing.  For we who are called by God to salvation know that Christ is the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for calling us to salvation.  Thank You for allowing us to see and share Your great wisdom.  Father, please help us as we try to carry Your message of the cross to an unbelieving world.  Sometimes, Father, we fall victim to human wisdom, thinking maybe we know best.  Sometimes we let that human wisdom keep us from fully trusting You.  Sometimes we’re just too timid to share Your truth with others.  Please help us overcome our fear and temerity.  Remind us that You own us, that we are Yours, we were bought and paid for at a great cost: the very blood of Your only begotten Son.  Give us the full conviction of our promise to serve You.  Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to obey and serve our Lord Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You are God and You are God’s wisdom and God’s power.  Through You alone may we come to the Father.  Thank You, Jesus, for suffering our punishment, for taking our sin upon Yourself.  Lord, we ask You to help us be obedient servants.  Help us share the message of the cross to others.  Help us try to tell them all about You, what You did for us, what You mean to us.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in this dark world while we still tread this path.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Welcome Home

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Homecoming Sunday morning, the 12th of September, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Church homecomings, like pretty much everything else, have changed over the years.  It’s still an annual event, unless there’s a pandemic or some such going on.  There’s usually still food and fellowship.  But it seems to mean less to more and more people, even those who normally attend church most Sundays.

Historically, it was a time for folks who had moved away from their home church to come back for a “visit”, to see their old friends and Christian brothers and sisters again.  That part seems to have less importance these days.  And that’s a shame.

I like to think of church homecomings as a prelude to that glorious day when the church is called home to its just rewards.  Of course, those rewards will be determined by our Lord when He stands in judgment of us all.  Please listen and follow along to how Jesus describes what will happen on that day, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in chapter 25 of his Gospel account, verses 31 through 46, and I’ll be reading this from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 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; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 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.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

--Matthew 25:31-46 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Your Son Jesus and to follow Him.  Through Him and Him alone we are granted redemption from our sins, so that we can stand spotless before You at the last.  Thank You, Father, for Your great mercy and love.  Please help us be worthy of that love.  Help us put the needs of others before even our own.  Help us to do as You will and not just whatever it is we want to do.  Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who blindly do his bidding, whether they realize it or not.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning.  Write upon our hearts what we should do, how we should act, to be righteous in Your sight.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus Your Son.   Amen.

James Packer, in his book Your Father Loves You, wrote the following:

As I get older, I find that I appreciate God and people and good and lovely and noble things more and more intensely; so it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some form (what form, God knows, and I am content to wait and see), literally forever. In fact Christians inherit the destiny which fairy tales envisaged in fancy: we (yes, you and I the silly saved sinners) live and live happily, and by God's endless mercy will live happily ever after.

We cannot visualize heaven's life and the wise man will not try to do so. Instead he will dwell on the doctrine of heaven, where the redeemed will find all their heart's desire: joy with their Lord, joy with his people, and joy in the ending of all frustration and distress and in the supply of all wants. What was said to the child -- "If you want sweets and hamsters in heaven, they'll be there" -- was not an evasion but a witness to the truth that in heaven no felt needs or longings go unsatisfied. What our wants will actually be, however, we hardly know, except the first and foremost: we shall want to be "always... with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17).

What shall we do in heaven? Not lounge around but worship, work, think, and communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, however, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend.

Packer makes note that our "wants" will likely change once we get to heaven, where a million dollars or even a black, 2-door Maserati will be meaningless.  Instead, first and foremost, we will want to always be with the Lord, as Paul remarked in chapter 4 of his 1st letter to the Thessalonians.

Packer also challenges the popular image of life in heaven, often depicted as sitting around on clouds, playing harps, just peaceful relaxation.  Yes, above all, we will be worshiping, worshiping our God just as Jesus revealed to the Apostle John.  But we’ll also be working, although the tasks will likely be nothing like we experience today.  We’ll be thinking, about the wonders of heaven among other thoughts.  We’ll be communicating with one another, and with our Lord Jesus, whose face we’ll finally see.  And we’ll be enjoying all that heaven has to offer: the beauty, the buzz of activity, the people, and our Father God Himself.  We’ll enjoy finally being home, our true, eternal home.

Jesus tells us, though, that before that great homecoming can begin in earnest, there’s a little reckoning to be done.  All the peoples of the earth – everyone who ever drew breath – will be brought before Him as He sits upon His throne of glory.  From there He will render judgment, separating the people as a shepherd separates sheep and goats.

His sheep He sets to the right, those who believe in Him, obeyed Him, did as He commanded.  These are the inheritors of all that God has reserved for them, co-heirs with Jesus of God’s kingdom.  The non-believers - the goats, those who refused to accept and obey Jesus, who did as they pleased rather than serving their fellow man – these He moves to His left, to be thrown into the everlasting fire along with the devil and his servants, to suffer eternal punishment and separation from God.  Each person will receive the full measure of their due, whether reward or punishment.

We want to be among the sheep, don’t we.  If we listen carefully to what Jesus said, we should see that there is more to being a sheep than just believing in Jesus.  Satan and his demons fully believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, but they aren’t saved by that belief.  No, if we truly believe in Jesus, we will know He is our Lord, and that knowledge will guide our service to Him, our obedience to His commands.  We will love one another, as He loved, seeing to their needs even ahead of our own.

Obedience to Jesus is the key.  The author of the letter to the Hebrews affirms all this, in chapter 13 of that letter, verses 10 through 16, when he writes…

10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make His people holy by means of His own blood. 13 So let us go out to Him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace He bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to His name. 16 And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.

--Hebrews 13:10-16 (NLT)

This world is not our permanent home.  We are looking forward to a home yet to come, a great and glorious homecoming yet to be.  And it’s all through Jesus, all because of the sacrifice He made on our behalf while He was one of us.

So we need to do good, to share with others in their time of need, to continually praise our Father God.  For all this pleases God.

There’s one last bit of advice I’d like to offer, and this comes from the Apostle John in his 1st letter to the early church, chapter 2, verses 15 through 17…

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

--1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV)

Since this world is not our permanent home, we should not allow ourselves to be enticed by what it offers.  If we lust after things of the world, then we succumb to temptation, which gives birth to sin, which leads to the second and final death.  This world won’t last.  It is passing away, fading with each tick of the clock.  The world to come, our true home, will endure forever, whether it is in heaven, or the everlasting fire.

So let’s do good.  Let’s praise God with every breath.  Let’s truly recognize Jesus as our Lord and obey His every command, loving all others and helping them in their time of need.

And then, some sweet, beautiful day, God will look at us, smile, hold out His hand and say, “Welcome home!”  What a homecoming that will be.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for preparing a home for us in heaven.  Thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your own Son to offer us redemption of our sins so that we might live forever with You in paradise if we only accept Jesus as our Lord and Master.  Father, please help us be more obedient to Jesus.  Sometimes, Father, we let our foolish human pride get in the way and think we have no master, that we don’t need anyone telling us what to do.  Sometimes we make our idols of things of this world rather than worshiping only You.  Please help us remember that You created all there is.  Remind us that You made us, that we are Yours, that everything we have we owe to You.  Give us the full conviction of our promise to serve You.  Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to obey and serve our Lord Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, one day when we least expect it, You will return to the earth to set things right.  Everyone who ever lived will be brought to stand in judgment before You, where You will separate Your sheep from the goats of this world.  Thank You, Jesus, for bringing us the means of salvation, for redeeming us with Your own blood so that we can be counted among Your sheep.  Lord, we ask You to help us be obedient servants.  Help us try to tell others all about You and what You mean to us.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in this dark world while we still tread this path.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.

Righteousness

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered Labor Day weekend, on Sunday morning, the 5th of September, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

In the middle of the first century, only around 15 or so years after the death and resurrection of our Lord, James – the brother of Jesus – wrote a letter to the early church.  Like the letters of Peter, John, and Jude, it was intended to be read by all believers, and not just those of any given locality or city.  The letter primarily deals with the practical aspects of Christian conduct.  James’ purpose was to provide objective ethical instruction, to show how faith works in everyday life.

While He still walked this earth, Jesus warned us that in this world we will have troubles.  Well, one of the things James talks about is how to react when we are faced with tribulation, how to act when we come under trial.

Please listen and follow along to some of the instructions the Apostle James leaves us in the 1st chapter of his letter, verses 12 through 27, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us His true word. And we, out of all creation, became His prized possession.

19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

--James 1:12-27 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for all the good and perfect gifts You rain down upon us.  Thank You for being the one constant we can always depend on.  We know that we will face trials and tribulations in this life, and we know we will be tempted by our own desires.  Thank You, Father, for never casting temptation into our path.  Please help us stifle our desires when they interfere with our serving You.  Help us resist the temptation to do wrong, even if we think it might be for the right reasons.  Help us to do as You will and not just whatever it is we want to do.  Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who so willingly do his bidding, whether they realize it or not.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning.  Speak softly with simple words so we can grasp what it truly means to be right in Your eyes.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus Your Son.   Amen.

Back in 1908 and '09, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters.  They set off with four ponies to help carry their supplies.  127 days later, with the ponies all dead and their rations nearly exhausted, they were forced to turn back toward their base without accomplishing their goal.

In his book about this ill-fated journey, Shackleton wrote that the whole time during the long walk back to the base camp, the men talked about little more than food.  They went into great detail dreaming up elaborate feasts, gourmet delights, and sumptuous menus as they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive or not.  All they could think about was eating.

Jesus also knew hunger and the ravages of food deprivation.  He spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting, eating nothing, all the while being tempted by Satan.  Jesus knew what it meant to be hungry, to hunger.  In His Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."  (Matt. 5:6 (NKJV))

We can probably understand Shackleton's party's obsession with food, if we've ever known hunger ourselves.  This should offer us at least a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends for us in our personal quest for righteousness.  He wants us to hunger after righteousness as if for a meal when we haven’t eaten in months.

James says we will be blessed if we patiently endure the tribulations we will face, and we can do that if we realize that temptations come not from God but arise from our own desires.  God gives us the good stuff, the perfect stuff, not temptations to do wrong.

And I love what James says in verse 18, that God gave us birth by giving us His true Word.  This is our rebirth, our being reborn, through Christ Jesus!  We are God’s most prized possession!  Maybe we should try a little harder to act like it.

James tells us that God desires righteousness.  God wants us to be righteous.  In the simplest terms, to be righteous is to be right with God, to be right in God’s eyes.

So what does it take to be right with God?  In his 15th Psalm, King David gives us a little insight into what is required of righteousness…

1 Who may worship in Your sanctuary, Lord?

Who may enter Your presence on Your holy hill?

2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,

speaking the truth from sincere hearts.

3 Those who refuse to gossip

or harm their neighbors

or speak evil of their friends.

4 Those who despise flagrant sinners,

and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,

and keep their promises even when it hurts.

5 Those who lend money without charging interest,

and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

Such people will stand firm forever.

--Psalm 15 (NLT)

Lead a blameless life.  Do what is right and proper.  Speak the truth in sincerity and don’t gossip or speak evil of your friends or neighbors.  Honor faithful believers but reject those who flaunt their sinfulness.  Keep all promises made, even when it hurts to do so.  Don’t expect personal gain from helping another.  Don’t lie about an innocent person, even if bribed.

I think most of us do most of this, but sadly not all.  Gossip, especially, is hard to resist.

James offers a few more clues to living a righteous life.  Be quick to listen, but slow to speak.  It’s like the old saying that we have two ears but only one mouth because God wants us to listen twice as much as we talk.

And perhaps more importantly, we must be slow to get angry.  Human anger does not result in the righteousness that God desires of us.  In fact, James says that while we claim to be religious, if we can’t control our tongues, then we’re only fooling ourselves and our religion is worthless!

God wants us to do good, to care for widows and orphans in their time of need.  He wants us to refuse to let the world morally corrupt us, turning us against Him.

In a nutshell, James says, we must get rid of all the spiritual filth and evilness in our lives.  We need to humbly accept the word that God has planted in our hearts, for it has the power to save our souls.  But James warns us to not just listen to God’s word, but to do what His word says.

God’s word is in our Bible.  How can we do what God’s word says if we don’t read and study our Bible?  The Apostle John tells us that Jesus is God’s Word.  How can we know what Jesus tells us to do except by reading our Bible or by listening intently and sincerely to those who speak God’s word to us?

God says, “To be righteous in My eyes, believe in My Son Jesus.”  To truly believe in Jesus means to accept Him as our only Lord and personal Savior, and to follow His commands.  Fortunately for us, He asks very little of us, only that we love one another and go into the world telling everyone all about Him, making more disciples for Him.

This is righteousness.  This is being right in God’s eyes.  Loving one another just as we love ourselves.  Going out of our way, if necessary, to tell other people about Jesus and what He means to us, what He has done for us.  Planting the seed from which a new disciple might spring.  Doing what is right.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for bringing us to new, eternal life through Your Son Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Lord and Master.  Thank You for Your word, which we can read and study in our Bible and follow in Jesus.  Thank You for never changing, for never leading us into temptation, for providing us with everything that is good and perfect.  Father, please help us as we strive to do what is right in Your eyes, to live a more righteous life.  Sometimes, Father, we fail to live as we should.  Sometimes we fail to conduct ourselves as Christians, appearing to others as just another person and not someone who has given our life to You.  Please help us truly be worthy of bearing our Lord’s name as we walk through this life.  Give us the full conviction of our claim to the title of Christian.  Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to serve our Lord Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You are our Lord, and the Lord of all.  Even when we don’t accept that, even when we fail to act like it, You are still our Lord.  And yet You took the beating we deserved and You gave Your earthly life so that we might have everlasting life with You and our Father God in heaven.  Thank You, Jesus, for taking on our sins so that we can be seen as spotless when we stand before God at the last.  Lord, we ask You to help us be more righteous in our daily conduct.  Help us do as You command in all aspects of our walk along this path.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in a world still stained by hatred and distrust of one another.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.