God Is My Righteousness

[00:00:00] Today we're talking about the Lord, our righteousness. [00:00:04] Now, I don't know about you, but every now and again I look in the mirror. [00:00:09] And when I look in the mirror, what I see looking back at me is not overly righteous. [00:00:16] There's a standard of righteousness that I would love to be at somewhere up here. And there's the standard of righteousness I see in the mirror, which isn't quite that. [00:00:28] Anyone else have a similar problem or is your mirror a little distorted and it gives you this wonderful image and you just look at it and go, oh, isn't that just so wonderful? [00:00:40] See, righteousness is a term that unfortunately isn't used a lot in the modern church. [00:00:48] Instead, what people want to talk about is, I came to Jesus, I got saved, I'm awesome, let's move on and let's not talk about all of those things that I'm not quite as good at as I would like to be. [00:01:04] I know, a little uncomfortable, isn't it, when you say things like that. [00:01:07] But that's the reality. [00:01:09] See, Jesus and Paul spent a whole lot of time in all of their teaching talking to Christians and going, you know what, you're serving Jesus, you're doing a good job, but you could do a little better. [00:01:26] Maybe you could consider this, maybe you could consider that. [00:01:31] And because so many preachers don't want to upset anybody, we don't say a whole lot of that sort of thing. [00:01:37] But it's good for us every now and again just to hold the mirror up, just to have a little bit of a look and just to go, yeah, yeah, I'm doing okay in this and in this. Yep. Perhaps I could do a little bit more work. [00:01:54] Our verse talks a little bit about being angry and not sinning. [00:02:00] Who has problems with being angry and not sinning? [00:02:04] You know, I can do the being angry bit really easily. [00:02:07] The not sinning part takes a whole lot of self control because when people make me angry, I would like to express to them exactly how they did it and what they should do with it. [00:02:21] Talks about not stealing, don't have a problem with that one. Not lying, pretty good at that. [00:02:26] Being sensitive to the needs of others that be on that one, Forgiving. [00:02:36] What about arguing? [00:02:38] Who's nice and contentious and likes to point out things and go, you said this and you haven't done it yet. [00:02:45] Who's seen the little joke that goes around that sort of says, you don't have to remind me when I said, I will do it, I'll do it every six months is Too often, because us men know, you know, when we said, we'll do it, we will get around to it. You see, the challenge is we as Christians want to live this life up here. Because we all know people outside the church look at us and go, is that what the church is like? [00:03:14] And we want to try and present the very best picture that we possibly can. [00:03:19] And we know our humanity means that that picture is not always what we would love it to be. [00:03:25] This is the great challenge we have for churches, that it's filled with imperfect people that just every now and again, very rarely, but just every now and again get on each other's nerves. [00:03:39] And I'm sure none of you have ever had a problem with anyone else in this building. You've all got on perfectly well and related brilliantly to each other, and you'll keep doing that forevermore. [00:03:52] However, in most churches, that's not the case. [00:03:56] So I know that despite our best efforts, we don't live the same way that God would love us to live. [00:04:05] We don't fully reflect God's sense of justice. [00:04:08] We don't fully reflect God's goodness. We don't fully reflect God's truth. And we would love to, wouldn't we? [00:04:17] That would be our desire. [00:04:20] So the first step in us getting our heads around, if these are the standard, is just to reflect a little bit on what is that standard. So I'm just going to read a couple of little verses about God and how God is just. How God is good, how God is truth. We'll start with the truth. 1 Isaiah 45, 19. [00:04:44] I have not spoken in secret from somewhere in a land of darkness. I have not said to Jacob's descendants, seek me in vain. I, the Lord, speak the truth. [00:04:57] I declare what is right. [00:05:01] Now, who is really, really good at being honest? [00:05:05] Me. [00:05:07] Excellent. [00:05:08] Who is good at being honest at inappropriate times? [00:05:18] Because sometimes there's a being too honest, sometimes there's telling truths that don't need to be told. [00:05:26] And God is really, really kind and gentle. But he tells us the things that we need to know. Who's ever read verses and struggled to go, how does this verse align with this verse? [00:05:40] And questioned, how is the consistency through the Bible? How does that work? [00:05:46] And yet we have this overlying principle that God tells the truth. [00:05:51] So we know that if there's inconsistency, it's inconsistency in how we have read, how we have translated it, the various doctrines we formed around it that make it appear that something is wrong. [00:06:06] Because we know God is True. [00:06:09] Now, I don't know about how you've traveled with your journey in Christianity, but I've had problems from time to time. [00:06:18] I used to go to the potter's house. I used to be a pastor in the potter's house. And they taught me all sorts of things that were not quite as correct as they should have been. [00:06:28] And it took years for me to work out that what they had taught me and how they had said, you interpret this verse was not actually how 99% of all the other Christians on the planet interpreted that verse. [00:06:43] And I had to work through and figure out actually what that means is this. [00:06:50] And as I slowly did that, I. I started to realize that the problems I saw and the inconsistencies I saw were all about me, not about God. [00:07:03] That can be a challenge. [00:07:06] God is just. [00:07:09] You might struggle with God's justice sometimes and exactly what that means. [00:07:14] Deuteronomy 32. 4 says, he is a rock. His works are perfect, and all his ways are just. Anyone ever sing a song about that? Yeah. [00:07:26] A faithful God who does no wrong. Upright and just is he. [00:07:34] Some people look at where we're going and how God does justice, and they question, is God really just, you know, how do people get away with this and God's not doing something about it? [00:07:48] How does that take place and God's not fixing it? [00:07:52] Will the justice at the end, when we all stand before God in the great judgment, will that be fair? [00:08:00] Have you ever wondered that, or is it just me? [00:08:04] I have wondered these things. I have thought about them and pondered them and gone. [00:08:10] But what I know and have come to accept is, is that when I step back and I see the big picture, God will be seen to be totally just. [00:08:21] And when we look at how things have all played out, we will go, that was perfectly fair and appropriate. [00:08:29] The problem we have with it right now is that we have a limited perspective. [00:08:36] All I can see is my point of view. [00:08:41] I can't see it how you see it. I can't see it how the person over there sees it. I can't see what's going on in that person's heart right there. And I can't properly understand why this person did that thing, because somehow to them, it made sense at the time. [00:09:03] We have a challenge with justice because of that. [00:09:10] Likewise, we have a challenge with God's goodness, don't we? [00:09:16] We know God is good, but we look at the stuff around us and we go, but if God was good, why did that look, if I'm preaching just to Me, that's fine. [00:09:30] But I suspect other people have had this challenge and have asked this question. [00:09:35] James 1:17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. [00:09:48] God is good and gives us good things and pours out blessings upon us and helps us. [00:09:55] But I have been at points where I've gone, but God, if you're so good, why did you do this? [00:10:02] And I reckon most of us have been through there somewhere. [00:10:07] And the common thread all the way through that is all my perspective. [00:10:13] Because I know God is good. I know God is just. [00:10:16] I know God is true. But my perspective of that is sometimes very, very questionable. [00:10:24] How I have read some verses is not what any good Bible student would read them as. [00:10:32] Perhaps I'm not a good Bible student. [00:10:36] Perhaps I'm just a little bit twisted by my own sinfulness, my own wants, my own needs. [00:10:45] See, the great problem we have is we have desires and needs within us that we need to meet. [00:10:53] I don't know about you, but I like eating each day. [00:10:56] It's a habit I've formed, and I want to keep doing it. [00:11:01] The problem is that eating can easily move over one step into a thing called gluttony. [00:11:11] None of you would have a problem if I ate breakfast, I hope. [00:11:15] But if I ate all the breakfast that I could possibly eat while five people sat there hungry and I shared nothing, you'd have a problem with that, wouldn't you? [00:11:27] So there's nothing wrong with my desire to eat. [00:11:30] But if I put that above other things, there's an issue. [00:11:35] James 1:12 says this. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. [00:11:50] When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. [00:11:58] But each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. [00:12:05] And after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. [00:12:09] Sin, when fully grown, gives birth to death. [00:12:13] I say again, desire is not bad. [00:12:16] But desire taken to the wrong place can become evil and can lead us to bad decisions. [00:12:24] Nothing wrong with having money, is there? [00:12:29] But if I take that money and make it my goal and I become greedy and I use that to exclude others, then that's a problem. [00:12:40] Nothing wrong with wanting a good bed to sleep in. [00:12:44] But if I own all the beds and make everybody else sleep outside, that's a problem. [00:12:50] See the desires we have are not evil in and of themselves. [00:12:56] It's when we express them in poor ways. [00:12:59] And being human like we are, I think we all struggle with keeping them in the right line, don't we? [00:13:06] You know, we'd love to just be perfect and keep it right here, but we don't. [00:13:13] And this isn't a problem just for us here or a problem back when Jesus was walking. It was a problem right through history. [00:13:22] Ever since Adam and Eve, humans have had this challenge of trying to keep their desires and stuff in the right places and not go too far in the wrong direction. [00:13:37] Remember King David, how he was called a good king? [00:13:43] And we hold him up and go, yes, he's a man after God's own heart. A great example. [00:13:50] Who can remember some of the slightly less good examples of David, Uriah, and Bathsheba maybe come to mind and some of the other things that happened in his life. [00:14:02] See, the Bible tells all of these stories of people that desired after God, that sought after God, that stumbled, that fell, that made all of these mistakes. And God says, well done, my good and faithful servant. [00:14:18] Who finds that a bit of a contradiction. [00:14:23] The reason it's a contradiction is because the Lord is our righteousness. [00:14:30] He freely gives us his mantle to wear and says, hey, you're righteous not because of who you are, but because of who I make you. [00:14:44] You come to me and I give you this, and you are deemed righteous. [00:14:51] Wow. [00:14:52] I. I love that exchange. [00:14:55] I love that idea. [00:15:00] Jeremiah 33, 15, 16. [00:15:04] In those days, and at that time, I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line. [00:15:11] He will do what is just and right in the land. [00:15:15] In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. [00:15:21] This is the name that it will be called, the Lord, our righteous Savior. [00:15:28] And the understanding that God is our righteousness, that's the foundation of our Christianity, isn't it? [00:15:34] That we don't survive based on how great we are. We survive because of how great Jesus is. [00:15:42] And this amazing divine exchange where Jesus took the price of our sin on him and gave us his righteousness. [00:15:54] I reckon we got the better end of that deal. [00:15:58] I really do. [00:16:01] But the challenge for many of us is living in that and accepting when we look in the mirror, that, yes, we're imperfect, that yes, we stumble, yes, we fall, but God still loves us. And that's fine, because I don't know about you, I look at some of the things I do and I go, it's not fine. [00:16:21] And I struggle with them because Sin has two levels of impact. There's the level that's up with God, that causes distance and challenge in our relationship with God, and then there's the outward level. [00:16:37] Because when I sin, it doesn't just impact me, it impacts the people around me. [00:16:43] And God's righteousness is really awesome when it comes to my relationship with God, that God has stepped in and healed that and given me access to the throne room. I can pray and God will hear me and all of those wonderful benefits that come from a right relationship with God. [00:17:02] But that righteousness of God doesn't really help me. [00:17:08] When my wife is angry with me, I can't just go to her and say, jesus forgave me. What's your problem? [00:17:18] That's not going to help, is it? [00:17:23] There's a fair chance that if I did that, what was a scale 2 problem becomes a scale 10 problem. [00:17:34] How we handle those sideways things comes down to, are we listening to God? [00:17:44] Because when I read the New Testament, I read Paul, and I read Jesus saying a lot of things about, live together in unity, forgive one another, be compassionate to each other. [00:17:59] And why does he keep saying those things? [00:18:03] Cause we keep treading on each other's toes. [00:18:07] Because we're really good at doing that, aren't we? [00:18:11] And guess what's going to happen? In about six to eight weeks time, you're going to have an interim pastor. [00:18:21] And guess what's going to happen? [00:18:23] He's going to act in ways that annoy you. [00:18:28] He will say things that frustrate you. [00:18:32] He will probably do some good things as well. And you'll probably go, yay, that's really great. I'm glad he's like that. [00:18:38] But he's also going to be not you. [00:18:43] And the very fact that he's not you means there will be some tension. [00:18:49] And you'll have to use this thing of grace and forgiveness and mercy and walking together with one another, just like you do to everybody else in this church that from time to time may do something that annoys you. [00:19:07] It can be hard and it can be difficult because sometimes what people do goes deep and it hurts deeply. [00:19:18] It's really easy to brush off. [00:19:21] They forgot my name. [00:19:24] It's harder to brush off. They've called me by the wrong name five times. [00:19:31] It's harder to brush off some things than others. [00:19:37] And I don't know about you, but sometimes we can be really hard on ourselves. [00:19:44] Because I have this standard up here and I know I live here, and sometimes when I do that, I get really, really, really Annoyed with myself. [00:19:58] You mightn't. I don't know. [00:20:01] 1 John 4:16, 19 says, and we know and rely on the love of God has for us. [00:20:10] God is love. [00:20:12] Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. [00:20:18] This is how love is made complete among us, so that we have confidence on the day of judgment. [00:20:24] In this world, we are like Jesus. [00:20:28] There is no fear in love. [00:20:30] But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. [00:20:37] The one who fears is not made perfect in love. [00:20:40] We love because he first loved us. [00:20:45] When we understand how loved we are, how precious we are in God's light, it helps us to see everybody else as precious. [00:20:59] When we understand how loved we are by God, it helps us to be able to love others. [00:21:09] So often when we look at sin, we get so caught up in it that we forget that God can see it too and loves us. [00:21:19] That God can see all the fallings and the issues and the stuff and just goes, it's okay, I've got you. [00:21:33] When we understand God's love, the fear of rejection, the fear of failure can disappear. [00:21:41] Because no longer do we have to strive to succeed. No longer do we have to strive to prove ourselves. [00:21:48] We can simply walk and go, God has got me. [00:21:54] And we can simply do the best we can and know that God carries the rest. [00:22:02] And I don't know about you, but that's a relief to me. [00:22:09] Because I need that cover. [00:22:13] I need to know I'm okay. [00:22:20] I need to know that I am seen to go back a few weeks. [00:22:25] I need to know that God provides for me. [00:22:28] And I need to know that God is my righteousness because those things keep me stable, those things keep me trusting, and those things keep me walking forward. [00:22:45] And I hope these few little sermons have been a blessing to you. [00:22:51] And I hope they help you know that God has got you, that God has seen you, does see you, that God has provided for you. [00:23:03] And that God is your righteousness and covers the gap and keeps walking with you. [00:23:10] Let's pray together. [00:23:14] Father, I thank youk. [00:23:17] I thank youk that before the foundation of the earth, you saw us and you'd loved us and you'd cared for us and you'd said in plans that boggle our minds. It really does. [00:23:37] But I just thank you that you have redeemed us and shown us your love. [00:23:44] Help us to walk in it, help us to see ourselves as we really are, to be honest about our shortcomings, to work on those, and to give it the proper balance between your love and your grace and our need to show the world that a fair reflection of who youo are. [00:24:06] Help us when we struggle with youh truth and you'd goodness. [00:24:13] Help us, Lord. [00:24:16] Because every now and again we get these things wrong. [00:24:20] Every now and again we struggle with justice. [00:24:26] Help us when we do open our eyes. [00:24:30] Help us to see things beyond ourselves. [00:24:36] Father, fill us with your love. [00:24:39] Fill us with your spirit. [00:24:41] Fill us with your power. [00:24:44] And as we look ahead to what you are doing in this church and through this church, we thank you for that. [00:24:52] And we so look forward to what you're doing and the doors you're opening. [00:24:58] Lord, you are awesome. [00:25:01] We just praise you in Jesus name. [00:25:04] Amen.