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.