Worship Call 0686 Seeking Rightoeusness

The sermon on the mount

Monday June 11,2022

Hungering for righteousness

Robert, sheep or goats! Matthew 25:37-39 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ A friend sent us this story about a young lady named Sally and her experience in a recent seminary class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons. On this particular day, Sally walked into the class and knew they were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture. Sally's friend drew a picture of a girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another guy drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend. The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students were throwing their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart and everyone was laughing hysterically. Finally, Dr. Smith asked all the students to be seated. He came to the front of the class with a less-than-amused look on his face. As he began removing the target from the wall, there appeared underneath a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture; holes and jagged marks covered Jesus' face, and His eyes were pierced. Dr. Smith said only these words. "In as much as you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40. Robert, what a powerful analogy. Phew. When we "throw darts" at our brothers and sisters, friends, and even strangers, we are actually piercing our Lord too. Let's get right with the Lord and others today. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah Baltimore, Maryland

There for Adam and Issha was not only a physical garden but a spiritual garden as well as they two enjoyed a perfect relationship with the Lord.

He provided everything for man. bu

Righteousness is a moral ethical and social religious and or spiritual standard of a person. That is the standard of right within a certain boundary of established norms.

Within those expressed and identified boundaries a person is deemed to be right. Outside of those boundaries one is said to be unrighteous.

When the meaning of Righteousness is applied to God , then it is that one’s standard is based upon the absolute.

It is a quality of Character, righteousness, that is the very essences of God. That is Righteousness is what God is and not what God aspires to be. And that righteousness is infinitely pure from eternity past to eternity future. So pure that the violation of Righteousness through the act of personal sin, even of taking a piece of fruit from a tree brought death to man and all of mankind.

1 John 5:17 (NASB95) — 17 All unrighteousness is sin

ON the human level there any different standards that constitutes right. And the standards of right changes from culture to culture in any given historical setting. Like in this current world TRUTH is accepted as relative that my truth may be different than your truth and truth is whatever one establishes it to be.

In the same matter man has set himself up as God to be his own arbitrator of Right. And we may have heard someone chastise a Christian for being bigoted for claiming that, “ONLY the Christian WAY FOR GOING TO HEAVEN IS RIGHT!”

It was all the way back in the garden that man was tempted with the possibility that man himself could be the arbitrator of what was right.

Genesis 3:4–5 (NASB95) — 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Yes, you will be like the spiritual beings and you yourself, for the rebellious Elohim spiritual Creatures had already decided for themselves in their own rebellion to reject God’s standard of Right to establish and chose for themselves. IN the temptation the woman led to question God’s standard to reject God’s standard and come up with her own standard.

When the woman acted upon this temptation she stepped away from the absolute and was the first to fall short of the glory of God.

The definition of the noun for sin is

“TO MISS THE MARK”

Sin means to come short of an objective. Man as a moral creature seeks a certain standard of moral rectitude.

Oh, this is so important. For there are so many that seek to be right in the eyes of God that they lift up their own personal morality or behavior to get right with God.

There are so many, and so often have I asked a person in their belief and Salvation and it is in the terms of that they believe in God and that they are trying to live right by him. They are a pretty good person and, on that basis, they feel like God will let them into heaven.

The fact is that they have missed the mark just as any immoral person has. The mark is the Righteousness of God’s person. To miss the mark one has fallen short of the very character of God.

So, a sin is not just what one does immorally but also it is the condition of the moral who lifts up his own standard of right without regard of the absolute standard which is of God.

To live with God forever, it is that we must be declared as obtaining the very standard of God within the framework of his own perfect character.

Outside of that man is subject to condemnation.

1 John 5:17 (NASB95) — 17 All unrighteousness is sin

Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death

It does not matter how good a person thinks he is and morally that person may stand side by side with Mother Teresa (I don’t know her status) but if that person does not meet God’s standard of Right then that person is as lost as the most hardened sinner.

The righteousness of God is not that which man can obtain on his own. It is nothing that man can rise to. But it is something that man must desire.

Matthew 7:7–8 (NASB95) — 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 6:33 (NASB95) — 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 5:6 (NASB95) — 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

The greatest need of man is the righteousness of God. without God’s rightoeusness man remains outside the boundaries of a right relationship with God and without it, man is condemned to eternal judgment the second death. It is man’s greatest need but one that unless one seeks it hungers and thirsts for it there will be no obtaining it.

25.17 διψάωb; πεινάωb: (figurative extensions of meaning of διψάωa ‘to thirst,’ 23.39, and πεινάωa ‘to hunger,’ 23.29) to have a strong desire to attain some goal, with the implication of an existing lack—‘to desire strongly.’ μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην ‘happy are those who desire intensely to do what God requires’ or ‘… to see right prevail’ Mt 5:6. In Mt 5:6 the two terms διψάω and πεινάω mutually reinforce the meaning of great desire.[1]

The two conditions may be very much understood in the time of writing. Hunger may have been one of the daily conditions that people were suffering with along with clean drinking water. People understood clearly what physical hunger and thirst was and the strong desire they had to be fed and drink to be satisfied.

The greater need that Jesus teaches is the need for God’s righteousness. And it is those when they seek for it when the ask for it and when they keep knocking and pestering God for it they will then be satisfied.

25.82 χορτάζομαιb: (a figurative extension of meaning of χορτάζομαιa ‘to eat one’s fill,’ 23.15) to be satisfied or content with some object or state—‘to be satisfied, to be content with.’ ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται ‘because they will be satisfied’ Mt 5:6.[2]

Matthew 7:7–11 (NASB95) — 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 290). United Bible Societies. [2]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 298). United Bible Societies.