A Call to Righteousness

Intro

“What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their Finest Hour.’”

—House of Commons, 18 June 1940, following the collapse of France. Many thought Britain would follow.

This is a famous speech from Winston Churchill. How eloquent the words of the great Prime Minister of Great Britain during WW2 were.

However, did you know that Winston Churchill didn’t just get up one day, write a good speech, and go deliver it. No, Winston Churchill had a speech impediment that not many knew about; therefore, his confidence in public speaking was relatively low.

“Churchill drafted his speeches several times and wrote them out in a way that would help him deliver them effectively. He rehearsed passages, again and again, pacing his rooms, repeating them out loud, learning whole speeches by heart. He developed a unique oratorical style that both covered up and employed his speech difficulties so that his ‘lisp’ – or ‘stammer’, which could occasionally seem like a groping for words – became a prop, not a hindrance.”

Excellence. This is what Churchill was striving for. Excellence.

Excellence for fallen man has not, does not, and will not ever come naturally — so we must train. Rehearse. Practice excellence.

The Call to Excellence for a Christian is a serious one and for the next 4 weeks I want to take a short passage of Scripture and pull principles for you and I to use as we answer the call to excellence in our Christian walks.

The first call to excellence is a call to righteousness

So, what does a call to righteousness look like? What do you and I need to do in order to answer this call?

Proverbs 31:14–16 (KJV 1900)

She is like the merchants’ ships; She bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth meat to her household, And a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

What are we doing talking about Proverbs 31 outside of Mothers day? You see, although Scripture was written to a very particular audience in very particular contexts and has only one true interpretation, we can glean wonderful principles from each and every passage of Scripture for our lives today. We will pull 4 from this passage over the next 4 weeks.

This passage will work as our theme verse for the next month while we take to other passages throughout as well.

Firstly this morning, a call to righteousness is a call to morality

Morality

In Proverbs 31, we see the excellent women, the excellent follower of God is righteous, how? Because she is right with God and holds to His standards.

We have all throughout Scripture, moral code and standards by which to live. The 10 Commandments, the Beatitudes, the story of the good Samaritan; each of these speaks to the morality by which a Christian or follower of God is to live.

We are to hold to the morality of the Bible.

And, unlike our culture in the world, in Kingsport, the Bible does teach that there is good and evil, they are objective meaning that they are not reliant on our opinion, and they are distinctive.

There is such a thing as goodness, there is such a thing as evil, and our world, though it disagrees, is the main evidence of such.

On January 1, 2025 a terrorist attack in New Orleans where a man drove a truck through a crowd of people killing 14, this is evil. This is not goodness. This is a proof among many that there is evil in this world and you and I need to be watching for what is good to do it and what is evil to avoid it.

Morality is your choice to do what is right or to do what is wrong, and it is entirely up to you to seek good through God or to do evil through Satan and the work of your sinful flesh.

Psalm 25:6–15 (KJV 1900)

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; For they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to thy mercy remember thou me For thy goodness’ sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord: Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name’s sake, O Lord, Pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; And his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; And he will shew them his covenant. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; For he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Good and evil are choices. Right and wrong are choices.

And in your call to excellence, your call to righteousness, you must choose biblical morality. It will not come naturally to you as Romans says, none are naturally good. But, you can choose the morality, the goodness of God in circumstances.

Obedience

As you choose morality, you will find yourself in your search for righteousness, being more obedient to God.

John 14:15–21 “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

We used this passage a few weeks ago in talking about God continuing with us through His Holy Spirit, but did you catch that call to obedience in this passage?

A call to excellence, a call to righteousness, is a call to obey God.

Now, when Jesus speaks to His commandments, He is going beyond the 10 famous commandments found in Exodus, He is speaking to the whole council of Scripture. Each and every commandment spoken by God through his mouthpieces.

Obedience is more than just avoiding certain wrongs, it is doing what is right. Not so that we can boast in our acts, but so that God can be glorified in us. A call to excellence is making Christ known to all generations, tribes, tongues, and nations; wherever God has called you.

Obedience is listening to the Scripture, it is listening to the Holy Spirit. As we will talk about momentarily, it is loving those you struggle to understand.

Obeying the commandments of God is choosing other people first, it is taking the opinions of others and placing them higher than your opinions, it is taking the preferences of others and placing them higher than yours, it is taking the wants and needs of the least of those around you and placing great importance on them.

Note, I didn’t say placing opinions over the truth of Scripture, but the truth of Scripture tells us to place high value on even those who you disagree with, those living in sin, those who have had gender reassignment surgery, those who marry the same sex, those addicted to drugs, those you wouldn’t naturally in your sin nature love, those are who we are to place value on. Not approving or affirming their sin, but loving them in it. Why?

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Love

Love, a call to love is a call to righteousness. A call to love is a call to excellence.

Love is the call, love is the commandment. Will you answer? Will you obey?

We all know the passage from Matthew 22. Love is the answer to the question: What commandments should I follow, which is the greatest? Love God above and beyond all things or feelings and love those around you, not just Christians, second.

How will we build the kingdom of God? We won’t scare people out of Hell anymore, statistics show. No, but we can love them closer to Christ. We can love them so much that when they see us, they see the love of Christ. And, when they see the love of Christ, they will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Holy Scriptures and will surrender to Christ as Savior in repentance.

We will only build God’s Kingdom by doing what God says, loving them! Yes, people need to know the realities of Hell and the consequence of their sin, but what do we expect them to do with that information if they don’t also know Romans 5:8. If they don’t also know that a Savior loved them enough to die for them. What do we expect them to do with the knowledge of Hell if they don’t also know the love of the Savior is for them!

The love of the Savior will be most clearly seen through you and your actions toward them.

You are not called to hate. You are not called to picket at rallies with signs of unborn children who have ben aborted. You are not called to shame people into heaven, but to love them there.

Justice

You are called to Justice.

This is a nasty word to many because when we think of the word justice, we think of allowing sin to reign in our lives and our country, this is not what biblical justice is.

Biblical justice is pleading the cause for the least of these, not just the ones we agree with.

John 8:1-11 is biblical justice personified.

In this passage, who we believe to be Mary Magdalene is caught in sin and Jesus stands up for her. Jesus pleads her cause. Why? So that when he said “go and sin no more” it meant something to her.

We cannot expect people to believe the Gospel of Jesus is we do not help them in their time of need. I do not mean we go and vote for the right to live and practice sin. I don’t mean we go protest against biblical truth. What I do mean though, is even if someone is living in sin, we can love them, we can protect them, we can show them the love and justice of Jesus.

This is not to say we drive our friends to the abortion clinic, but it is to say that if one of our friends gets an abortion that we remember that they are still someone Christ died for and they still need our love. We don’t support their sin, but we support them as humans who need redemption or restoration.

Here me closely: a call to righteousness is a call to Justice but a call to justice is not a call to affirm sin, but to love the sinner.

Conclusion

Winston Churchill, the famous orator, sought excellence in his speeches. How? Practice, rehearsal, painstakingly even at times, he sought the closest thing he could to perfection.

And this is the call for you.

On this first Sunday in 2025, set some goals for your spiritual life. Be more disciplined, be more righteous. How can you do that? Strive… strive for morality, the morality of Scripture. Strive for obedience to God and His word. Strive to love the way God loves you. Strive for justice to reach the least of these, biblical justice.

SONG

You have a call this morning, a call to righteousness. Will you pick it up?

The excellent Christian, like the Proverbs 31 woman, will strive for righteousness. She will will fear God and honor His commandments. He will keep a desire and mind set on Christ and His word.

Are you following righteousness this morning? If not, would you begin? Would you come pray?

Remember, Christian here today, this altar is for sinners and a sinner you are. Don’t look at prayer in front of God’s people as admission to a hell bound state, look at prayer at an altar as admission to desperation and love for God. Come pray.

Righteousness, as you seek it, is never going to be your own. You are not righteous alone, no, but righteousness has been imputed on your this morning child of God and because of that, because you are covered with the righteousness of Christ, strive to live it out. Strive to seek it more and more.

Maybe you aren’t here as a Christian this morning, I encourage you to come pray as well.

*salvation plea*

I want to leave you with this as we end this first message: a call to excellence is just that, a call to do your very best for God. I challenge you to remember with me though: you are not going to succeed at excellence every day, you will rarely have a day that you look back and think “you know what, God must have been pleased with me all day.” Don’t get discouraged when days like that present themselves, rather remember: we are called to excellence, but have a graceful and merciful God for when we fail to reach it. Rest in that, but challenge yourself to live as closely to Christ as you can.