Humble Righteousness

Humility

Good morning. Today we are going to continue our journey through Proverbs and no I don’t have a board game analogy today. At best you're getting the Monopoly cheaters edition this morning.

Today we are going to talk about righteousness but we have to travel through humility to get there. To get there I want to tell you a little bit of a story. This is a story of a guy who early on in his life was an alcoholic. Drank morning, noon, and night. Then he got clean and everything was rosy.

Then came the relapse. And it was a dark downward spiral. This guy didn’t bother with anything except the hard stuff. And he drank and drank and drank until he was a shell of who he was when he was sober. The thing that always bothered me was how did he go from his sober life back to where he was and worse. The answer came much later. He had no humility to ground him. In case you are wondering that guy is me.

The answer came in a conversation with my wife about something else entirely and i heard the words come out of my mouth That’s not something i have to worry about I don’t struggle with that. She reminded me that just by saying that I was giving the enemy a foothold basically revealing my pride.

So we are going to start here in Proverbs chapter 15. It says:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

31 One who listens to life-giving rebukes

will be at home among the wise.

32 Anyone who ignores discipline despises himself,

but whoever listens to correction acquires good sense.,

33 The fear of the LORD is what wisdom teaches,

and humility comes before honor.

You see my wife was giving me a life-giving rebuke but I had to be humble enough to receive it. The question we need to ask ourselves is are we humble. I mean we can try to be. But when someone gives you a life-giving rebuke do you get angry or do you self examine. Is there a possibility that this could be accurate.

And all of this discipline and wisdom is leading us and teaching us the fear of the Lord. Not fear like I’m afraid of Him and want to run away as fast as I can but reverence, trust, and honor. That is the end result of wisdom and righteousness but we can only get there by being humble.

Now we turn to righteousness. And this is going to be a tricky part for just a few minutes. Proverbs 12:28 say this:

28 There is life in the path of righteousness,

and in its path there is no death.,

So the question here is how do we square this with what the prophet Isaiah says in chapter 64 verses 5 and 6:

5 You welcome those who gladly do good,

who follow godly ways.

But you have been very angry with us,

for we are not godly.

We are constant sinners;

how can people like us be saved?

6 We are all infected and impure with sin.

When we display our righteous deeds,

they are nothing but filthy rags.

Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,

and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Is 64:5–6.

Filthy rags? At best our righteousness just doesn’t really add up does it.

So where do we attain righteousness. How can we be righteous if all of our “RIGHTEOUS” deeds are filthy rags? That’s an interesting question.

Let’s see what Paul has to say about our righteousness in Romans chapter 3 verses 10-18

10 As the Scriptures say,

“No one is righteous—

not even one.

11 No one is truly wise;

no one is seeking God.

12 All have turned away;

all have become useless.

No one does good,

not a single one.”

13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.

Their tongues are filled with lies.”

“Snake venom drips from their lips.”

14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15 “They rush to commit murder.

16 Destruction and misery always follow them.

17 They don’t know where to find peace.”

18 “They have no fear of God at all.”

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Ro 3:10–18.

Man that is harsh…but so very true. I mean Paul is just not pulling any punches with this. Paul is letting us know just how deep our sin goes. Just how far away we are from being righteous.

So what do we do how do we attain righteousness.

Let’s see what Proverbs has to say and maybe we will get a clue.

Proverbs chapter 15 verse 9 says:

9 The Lord detests the way of the wicked,

but he loves the one who pursues righteousness.

Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Pr 15:9.

Notice the action here we have to pursue righteousness. So how do we do that? How do we pursue righteousness. If everything we do is like filthy rags how do we get there. Basically there isn’t anybody that is righteous. None of us.

OH BUT THERE’S ONE WHO IS. Everybody say there’s one. Say it again there’s one.

So check this out Paul writes this in 2 corinthians chapter 5 verse 21:

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 2 Co 5:21.

And most of us will be familiar with the first part of this next verse from Paul in Romans chapter 1.

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Ro 1:16–17.

Made right or attaining right standing or righteousness. You see the ONLY way that we can have righteousness has nothing to do with us accept for one thing.

We accept Jesus sacrifice and make Him the Lord of our Life. At that point His righteousness is placed into our account. We can only be righteous through Him. That’s it. That’s the only way.

And you see there is a juggling act of tension for us because in order to attain righteousness we have to pursue Jesus. When we pursue Jesus we have to be humble enough to submit to His authority in everything in our lives.

Anybody in here ever prayed for the Lord to do something but you were at the point where you didn’t care what He did or how He did it you just needed Him. It might have sounded something like this....

Lord I need you whatever you have to do DO IT. or Lord whatever you tell me to do wherever you tell me to go I’ll do it.

Those prayers require humility. Those prayers are prayers of submission to Christ’s authority over your life. Jesus whatever you want to do DO IT. God whatever you tell me to do I’ll do it. Those are prayers of faith and humility especially in the acceptance of God’s response.

I’ll tell you one of those prayers I prayed is what got me up here. You see I hate speaking in public. Or at least I did. I prayed the prayer God whatever you want me to do. And the answer was to minister to teenagers and young adults. And I fought that for a little bit because of my fear and anxiety of being in front of people and well all these years later the Lord is continually providing for me and stretching me and using me and I want you to know something.

The more you lean on God and rely on Him the more humble you will become. You will begin to realize that none of this is because of what you’ve done but what HE IS DOING!!!

In Proverbs 11 it says :

2 Pride leads to disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Pr 11:2.

The more and more you develop humility it leads to wisdom. And what did we say that wisdom teaches from earlier....It teaches the Fear of the Lord.

So you see these two things humility and righteousness go hand in hand.

You can’t get to righteousness without being humble. You can’t submit to God’s plan without being humble. You can’t obey without being humble. You can’t get to Jesus without being humble.

And I want you to hear me when I say this

You can’t love your neighbor as yourself without being humble.

You can’t take care of the least of these without being humble.

You can’t be righteous without being humble.

Proverbs 15:29 says

29 The Lord is far from the wicked,

but he hears the prayers of the righteous.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Pr 15:29.

He hears the prayers of the righteous and we know that we have to be humble first.

Here is one more as I’m wrapping up. God can’t use you to do His work if you aren’t humble and righteous. Now remember our righteousness is only found in Jesus.

But if you aren’t humble you won’t follow what He is telling you to do. You won’t share the Gospel, you won’t care for those in your community.

You know we played that song Rattle and it talks about the dry bones in the valley.

Now I’ve heard that passage and read that passage a number of times and just recently I saw something different in it. Here is just a part of that passage.

4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

7 So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8 Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’ ”

10 So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Eze 37:4–10.

You see God could have accomplished all of that on His own. He could have spoke to those bones. But He had a humble and willing person do it. He told Ezekiel to speak to the bones.

I will tell you right now that our city if full of dry bones. It is full of broken, addicted, lost and suffering people. If we are humble and clothed in the righteousness of Christ we can be used to speak life to the dry bones in our community.

Maybe God is telling you right now to speak to the bones in this community? Maybe He is telling you to do something for the least of these. Are you humble enough to follow His directions. Are you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

For the Christ followers in here now is the time to put down our pride and humble ourselves before God and say Wherever you send me I’ll go. Use these altars this morning seek Him and let’s lay our pride down and begin to speak to the dry bones in our community.

For those of you who are in here and you haven’t yet given your life to Christ haven’t found the righteousness that we have to have. What are you waiting for? I’m sorry to be blunt about it but aren’t you tired yet? Aren’t you done wondering and searching yet? The time is now to take that step of faith and stop being proud and turn your life over to the one who gave His life for you.

I will be up here to help you pray with you answer your questions so as the band plays come on. Don’t hesitate come now.