Once again the Lord's help as
I come to this morning. I'd like to direct your thoughts
to the chapter that we've read together. Proverbs chapter 14
and the text you'll find in verse 34. Righteousness exalts a nation
but sin is a reproach to any people. As I'm sure we're all aware,
there is no real context to the proverbs. They are proverbs and
statements that are made by King Solomon, who was given the wisdom
of God as he prayed. He asked the Lord for wisdom
to help him to govern the people of Israel. And God blessed him
with that wisdom, which is from above. And we read it in chapter
one of Proverbs, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David,
king of Israel, to know wisdom and understanding, to perceive
the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom,
justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the simple,
to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear
and will increase learning. A man of understanding shall
attain to wise counsel.' And so the reason for him writing
these proverbs is to help those who are simple, to help those
who have an ear to hear and to have a desire to gain wisdom
and knowledge and understanding. And it is a great blessing to
be given ears that hear, ears that have a desire to hear the
good, the truth that is written in the Word of God and to be
profited by that knowledge, that wisdom, that truth. Sadly, Multitudes
have no concern for the truth of the Word of God. Multitudes
have no concern for the wisdom of the Word of God. Multitudes
have no concern for the wisdom that is the way of salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world to die for sinners. And the scripture tells us that
is a great shame that they have no concern for the wisdom of
God, the knowledge of God, the truth of God and the Lord Jesus
Christ himself for the rejection of the truth of God will bring
people under the ultimate, the judgment of God himself. And so the proverbs
are written to impart wisdom to those who will hear and knowledge
to those who will listen and learn. And so what we have before
us then is a statement about how a nation may know the blessing
of the Lord and how a nation may fall under the disgrace or
the displeasure of God himself. And so it is righteousness that
exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. And so righteousness
is that which is right. The word itself means a full
weight or a full measure. a right standing before the law. A righteous person is someone
who has not broken the law and they stand right in the sight
of the law. In the scriptures the Bible tells
us there is none righteous, no not one. That all of our works
of righteousness are contaminated by sin. All of our works of righteousness
fall short of the holy standard of God's law. The righteousness
that God requires is a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees. This is a righteousness that
is I could say 100%. It has crossed every line and
every dot of the law of God. And we know that that righteousness
can only come from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a principle
of righteousness, there is a way of living that is pleasing and
acceptable to God. God has set that standard, he
has set that authority over the nations and those nations, those
leaders are to govern their nations under the principles of the scripture. And so the righteousness, a right
standing before God and living in righteousness is what is pleasing
to God himself. Ultimately no person can please
God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. They must all fall under
that righteousness, that perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus. And so righteousness is having
that right standard or that right obedience to the law of God. It is doing and being what God
commands in his law. Remember sin is not doing and
not being what God commands in his law. And so righteousness
is the opposite of sin. Sin falls short of the glory
of God. Righteousness sits where God
desires a person to be. It is living in complete obedience
to God's commands which ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ is the
only person that has ever been able to obtain that perfect standing
before God. But the people of Israel were
commanded to be obedient to the law of God. We know that in that
nation of Israel there were those who were people who were living
by faith, people like Abraham and Moses and Caleb, those who
truly trusted the Lord, those who truly obeyed the Lord. Yet within that nation there
were those also who did not fully believe. It was a mixed congregation,
we could say. Those who truly had faith in
the coming Messiah, those who truly had faith in the sacrificial
system, that it was pointing to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There were those who lived by
faith, but there were those who were still in the darkness. The
scripture tells us, not all Israel is of Israel. And yet as a nation, God blessed
them when they lived in accordance to his law. When they had a godly
king who sought to order and arrange things and to do away
with idols, he began to bless and prosper the nation. As the
wicked king came and brought in idols, the standard began
to decrease and they experienced the curse rather than the blessing. in Deuteronomy 26 and from verse
18 it says, And the Lord hath avowed thee this day to be his
peculiar people, not peculiar as we know peculiar, but a particular
people, a special people, a people who have been separated from
all of the other people upon the face of the earth. They were
his delight, his son, his special people. he hath promised thee
that thou shouldest keep all his commandments and to make
thee high above all nations which he had made in praise and in
name and in honour and that thou mayest be a holy people unto
the Lord thy God as he has spoken. And so the people of Israel were
to follow the laws of God they were to keep God as their object
of worship they were to keep his commands and he said if you
continue walking in obedience to me, if you focus upon me,
if you walk humbly before me and obey my laws and my commands
I will bless you, I'll bless you in the field, I'll bless
you in the family, he would bless you as a nation but as they turned
away from walking in obedience to God they experienced a curse
rather than the blessing. He says I'll make you the head
rather than the tail. He says if you disobey then I'll
make you the tail rather than the head and there would be that
overturning of the blessing and that blessing would turn into
a curse. And so their right standard of
living, their righteousness, God blessed and honoured and and encouraged them and provided
for them as they followed him and so the righteousness exalts
a nation. even today as we look over the
history of our nation, nation also of America, when the people
followed the Lord wholeheartedly, when the people and those who
were ruling over the nation feared God, and they sought to call
the people to prayer, they sought to encourage the people in works
of righteousness, they sought to encourage a holy standard
of living, they sought to punish sin and to call out sin and to
make the laws of this land and the land of America founded upon
the truth of the Word of God and the Bible. God blessed and
built up and used them as instruments in his hand for the advancement
of the gospel and so even today God cares for nations that are
righteous, that order their laws and their standard of living
by the truth of the Word of God. a nation that has the Bible as
the centre of its law-making system. The people who rule that land
fear God. As they make their decisions
they come to the Lord and ask for guidance and direction before
they establish a law or before they make decisions and God honours
that seeking Him. He is near to such as seek his
face. And so as the nation that seeks
after God, God blesses, that favour then moves down the different
authorities that God has given in this world. The scripture
tells us that it is God who puts men and rulers over the nations. It is him that puts them there
as a means of blessing or as a means of judgment. The next
authority that is given is in the home. God has put an authority
in the home. And the scriptures tell us the
husband is the authority in the home. And as the husband seeks
to lead by righteousness, to base his family principles on
the word of God, God has his blessing upon the family. The scripture says, doesn't it,
bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. Suffer the little children, bring
the little children to come unto me. And so there is that authority
that God has given in the government, in the home, and then searchingly
in the church. God has placed an authority,
an order within the church. There are pastors and elders.
There are deacons. And it's for those men to govern
his church according to the ways of righteousness. And under the
Lord's blessing there will be a building up and as it were
an exalting the nation. Righteousness exalts the nation. And it is set by the authority. The authority of the government.
Should they lead in a right way? The authority of the father,
should he lead and govern his family in the right way? The
authority of the pastor and the elders and the deacons, should
they lead and govern in a right way? And that nation that has
the Lord as his God, that it will flourish. That family that
has the Lord as their God, it will flourish. That church that
has the Lord as their God, the scripture as the centrepiece,
God has promised it will flourish. But sin is a reproach to any
people. Sin brings down. Sin is the hole in the ship that
sinks the ship. Sin is the hole in the life that
sinks the life. Sin is the dirt on the righteousness. Sin is the dirt on the clean
garment. And as the government, as they
turn away from righteousness, as they turn away from the word
of God, they will experience the displeasure of God. and the
nation will begin to plummet and to fall. As a father turns
away from the word of God so he will see his children turning
away from the word of God. I was speaking to someone even
this week and they were telling me of a young man who left the
church, had his own family and then now his children don't go
to church. And so as the father sets that
bad example, as the father does not bring his children up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord, there is no hope, as
it were, for those children. Who is going to teach them about
God if their mother and father or if their father doesn't teach
them about God? They won't learn of it from school
because the government doesn't want Christianity to be taught
in the schools. So when the government fails,
the family fails and then the church begins to fail because
everything around about her is infiltrating in and so there
is that constant pressure to remove the Word of God and to
step aside from the Word of God to conform to the society that
is round about. and sin brings shame. Sin brings a downfall. Sin sinks
nations. Sin sinks families and sin sinks
churches. Isaiah tells us. Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20 it
says, when Jesus is speaking in his sermon on the mount he
says blessed be. Well the opposite of blessing
is woe. He says woe unto the scribes
and the pharisees but here it says woe unto them that call
evil good and good evil. That put darkness for light and
light for darkness. They put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in
their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them
that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle
strong drink. And so there is that swapping
of what God calls righteous, what God calls godly, what God
calls according to his law, holy. He says, woe unto them that change
what I have said. Woe unto them that swap around
what I have said. I have said there should be sin
and there is sin and sin is evil. But then comes somebody who claims
to be wise, who says there's no such sin, there's no such
thing as sin. And those things that God claims
to be sinful, they call good. And so they are of a reprobate
mind. A mind that is void of all truth. As the Lord tells
us in Romans. Romans chapter 1. there are those
who God abandons. He gives them up to a reprobate
mind. He allows them to continue on
in their spiral of sin, in their mad career downwards into hell. He abandons them so that they
are just left to call good evil and evil good. Romans 1 it says,
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Righteousness exalts a nation but the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has
showed it unto them for the visible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things
that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they
are without excuse. He says that they have no excuse
because my creation speaks of a marvelous creator they reject
him because they don't like his law, they don't want to walk
in righteousness, they want to call good evil and evil good. They didn't glorify him as God. For this cause God gave them
up to vile affections for even their own women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature likewise also
the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their
lust one towards another, men with men, working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves the recompense for
of the error which is meet or suitable. so righteousness exalts
a nation but sin is a reproach to all people. Sin is the hole
that sinks the nation which causes the nation to spiral out of the
favor of God and plummet into a waste howling wilderness because they reject God. Although
the evidences of God are all around about, they are so blind
in such enjoyment of sin. God leaves them and abandons
them. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah. Full of wealth. They prospered. There was no
plains like the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was well watered. and because of the well-watering
they didn't have to work hard, they had plenty of pleasure,
time and they indulged themselves in all manner of evil. They didn't
do or rule righteously. They turned from God and so though
we could say they were blessed materially They were not blessed
spiritually because God had given them up to a reprobate mind and
they experienced the judgment of God. What brought that judgment? Sin. Not doing or being what
God commanded in his law that they should do. Righteousness
exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to all people. But a nation is made up of people. A nation is made up of people. It is said, as the people go
so goes the nation. As the father goes, so goes the
family and the solemn one. As the pastor goes, so goes the
church. As the elders go, so goes the
church. You see, leadership and authority
have the ability to ruin a people. We live in a democratic society
and so as the people spiral into having a reprobate mind they
choose leaders that will pat them on their backs and encourage
them in their sin and allow them to continue on in the pathway
that they want to go. The children of Israel when the
king was righteous he conformed the nation to the laws of God
And so it was him that had the authority. A top-down society. We live in a bottom-up society
where the people choose the leaders and when the people are of a
reprobate mind they produce or they choose leaders also that
are of a reprobate mind and have no concern for the righteousness
of the nation or for establishing the laws of this nation upon
the word of God. And so the nation is made up
of people. And so people who reject God
choose leaders who reject God. People who love sin will choose
leaders who allow them to continue on in their sin. And that's what
we see, isn't it? In our nation. Once the majority
went to church. If you just drive around Hastings,
And you see the amount of churches and chapels that there are. Massive
buildings. When the majority of the people
of Hastings went to a place of worship on a Sunday, all of the
shops would have been shut. Everyone would have made their
way to church. Everyone had an understanding
of what pleased God. Everybody had an understanding
of what was right, what was sinful. We could say not everybody was
born again, but at least the majority and the moral standard
of the nation was a lot higher than it is today. But as fathers
didn't raise their children to love God, so there was a falling
away. As there was failures in the
church, failures in the family, failures in the authority, so
there is a falling away. As goes the nation. As goes the
people, so goes the nation. We could say as goes the leader,
so goes the nation. Our schools. used to be taught
the Word of God. Even when I was younger every
single morning we had an assembly. Every single morning someone
would bring to us the Word of God. We would sing hymns right
even into senior school. It was grounded, a nation grounded
on the truth. And God blessed us as a nation. God blessed America. And from
these little nations were sent forth missionaries into all the
world to proclaim the truth of the gospel. And other nations
were changed because of this preaching of righteousness that
exalts a nation, that exalts the family, that exalts God himself. And so you remove God, you remove
Christ, you remove the Bible. It's just a downward spiral into
sin. There's nothing to hold us together. There's no foundation for which
people to build on because the foundation is always changing.
It's what every man does in his own mind. in his own sight. The scripture gives a foundation
for governing a nation, for running a family, for running a church,
for daily living. Righteousness exalts a nation
but sin is a reproach to any people. Jesus says in Matthew chapter
5 in his Sermon on the Mount Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed
are they. And although the nation is spiralling
out of control going further and further into sin there is
a group of people who hunger and thirst after righteousness
who hunger and thirst to have the nation restored back to a
righteous nation, to have the nation and the laws of this land
established upon the truth of God's holy word, who have the
heart of this nation in their heart. They have a desire to
see that righteousness will once more be proclaimed in this land
of ours. And Jesus says, blessed are they
Those are the blessed not those who love sin, woe Jesus says
or the scripture says about them. Woe that call good evil and evil
good but blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness
for they shall be filled. Remember Jacob, sorry Abraham, when the three
angels came to him and he was made aware that they were going
to destroy Sodom. What did he say? Did he say good
they deserve it? Or did he say hang on a minute?
Even if he went down he says if there be ten righteous will
you destroy Sodom for ten righteous? God said, I won't. If I find
10 righteous men in that city, I won't destroy it. But as he
went down into that city, he only found Lot, Lot the righteous
man. And he dragged him out of the
city along with his wife and two daughters. His wife turned
back and turned into a pillar of salt and his daughters, they
were unrighteous. They'd been corrupted by the
environment that they were in and they were sinners. but Lot was the only righteous
man left in that city and God had destroyed it. But Abraham
pleaded with God, please do not destroy the city. If you find
10 righteous people there, please don't destroy the city. Do we
plead with God not to destroy this nation? This nation is made
up of people, individuals. And individuals have souls, eternal
souls, that will spend either eternity in heaven or an eternity
in hell. And if Abraham was able to plead
with God, God, if you would spare it, please spare it for ten righteous. Ezekiel. tells us the very solemn
account of the image that he had, the vision that he had in
Ezekiel 9, of when the six men came into Israel and they went
through the land with a writer's inkwell. We go from verse 1. He cried also in my ears with
a loud voice saying, Cause them that have charge over the city
to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in
his hand. And behold six men came from
the way of the higher gate which lies towards the north, and every
man a slaughter weapon in his hand. And one man among them
who was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And they went in and stood beside
the brazen altar. They went into the temple. And
the glory of the Lord, the glory of the God of Israel was gone
up from the cherub, whereupon he was to the threshold of the
house. And he called to the men clothed
with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side. And the
Lord said unto them, go through the midst of the city, through
the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of
the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done
in the midst thereof. The mark was to go on those who
are sighing and crying for the abominations that were done in
Israel, in Jerusalem. The idol worship that was taken
apace, the turning away from the true and living God and there
were those within that city who it concerned them so much they
cried unto God asking for mercy and God marked them out. Abraham
cried to God, can you please spare Sodom for ten righteous
people? God said, I will do it. But he
only found one. And to the others he said, in
my hearing, go ye after him through the city and smite. Let not your
eyes spare, neither have you pity. Slay utterly old and young,
both maids and little children and women, and come not near
any man upon whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary. And they began at the ancient
men which were before the house. And he said unto them, defile
the house and fill the courts with the slain. Go ye forth. And they went forth and slew
in the city. Where was it to begin? In the temple. What does Peter say? Judgment
must begin at the house of God, the people of God. Because the
people of God are the people who understand the righteousness
of God and the righteousness of God's law and the holiness
of God and the holy standard of living that they should be
living. They're the ones that are to
be light shining in a dark place. They are the ones who are witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ, ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, representatives
of God on this earth. The temple was the place where
the people went to meet with God, where God spoke through
his prophets, where they sacrificed the sacrificial systems and in
that temple there was corruption, there was sin taking place and
that sin infiltrated and affected the whole of society. As the
leader is, so are the people. As the father is, so is his family. As the pastor is, so is the church. Judgment must begin at the house
of God. So solemn this is. Begin at my sanctuary. Remember Daniel when he was in
captivity as he prayed to God those three times a day he prayed
for his own sin and the sins of the nation. You see when we
have a true concern for something it moves us to pray When we have
personal needs it moves us to pray about those needs. When
we have family problems it moves us to pray about those family
problems. But how often are we moved to
pray? for the righteousness that is
to be found within the church, the righteousness that is to
be found in the family, the righteousness that is to be found in the nation. How often do we lay the nation
before the Lord and ask the Lord to spare us, to hear the sighs
and the cries of the abominations that are done in this land, to
hear those who cry for this nation. How often do we cry for this
nation? How often do we cry for our leaders
that they may be changed? That God would transform their
hearts? That the laws of this land would be abandoned and that
it would be established upon the truth of the Word of God?
How often do we pray for the families? the little children,
not just our own but these little children that go to school. Day
by day we see them and they're being taught things that are
contrary completely to the Word of God and they have no hope.
No one is bringing them up to fear God. They are being brought
up to turn away from God. There is no God there at all.
Recently I spoke at a meeting and my text was, suffer the little
children to come unto me. And the thought was this, that
every child that is born into the world is brought in with
the tag, bring me up to know the Lord. But millions, millions
are killed in the womb, but millions are born and their dads never,
ever, ever tell them about God. What is needed? A move of God. What is needed
is for we who know the truth to get down on our knees and
intercede for those who do not know their left hand or their
right hand. intercede for those whose only hope is that God moves
on this nation and that people are drawn in to hear the truth
of the Word of God. Righteousness exalts a nation
but sin will bring this nation down to its knees and we are
seeing it. It is like sin adding a overloading
a cargo ship, just keeps adding and adding and adding and slowly
and slowly it sinks, sinks down in the end it will disappear.
But righteousness exalts a nation, God favours the nation, God blesses
the nation when its leaders seek to establish the nation upon
the truths of God's word. Sin brings us down. Sin will bring people down to
hell. sin that people will be in hell
because of sin they have sinned against God and God must punish
sin but sin will also bring saints to despair sin affects the blessing of the
Lord's people sin affects us growing in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is a reproach to any or all
people. Is it sin that is stopping you
and me from the blessing of God? When was the last time you read
the word of God and was blessed? was brought to tears over the
things that you have read? Is it sin that is stopping the
blessing of God on your life? I'm not talking about whether
you've got a new car or whether you've got a new house, it doesn't
matter. What I'm talking about is spiritual
blessings that cannot be taken away, that are engraven upon
your very heart. When God steeps down and touches
you, how long ago did you experience that? How long ago was it that
you last experienced real freedom in prayer? That it was, as it
were, the doors of heaven were opened and you had free access
to God through his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it
sin that is stopping that in your life? Is it unconfessed,
unrepented sin, hidden sin in your life that is blocking, as
it were, a barrier between you and God? Sin exalts a nation, a family and a church. What is it that is hindering
the blessing? There was a lady that I read
about. Her name was Miss Bertha Smith. She was a missionary in
China. and she laboured there for many
years until she was an old lady and then she retired and she
retired back to America and as she was sitting there she thought
well I'm just wasting away in retirement and she felt that
the Lord still had a use for her and she used to sometimes
speak to ministers and say to them get yourself a notepad and
some pens and go away and write down everything you think that
God is displeased with in your life. Some would think well why
do I have to take a notepad? You know it's only going to be
a few little things but she said to them go away and pray and
ask God to show you what he is displeased about in your life
and so they would go away and they'd begin to write and they
would write and they would write and they would write God would
keep showing them things that were displeasing to him and it would reveal to them their
sin, they're not as perfect as they thought they were. The scripture
tells us doesn't it that we are to examine ourselves to see whether
we're in the way or not. The scripture tells us to look
at ourselves how often it is we can be contaminated with unconfessed
sin we can think that we're going on okay or everything is okay
that we're just as it were burdening ourselves with this melancholy
lukewarm state and become content with that. we become content
with just going to chapel and getting nothing, just reading
the word of God getting nothing, just going through a cycle of
prayer and getting nothing. We have to get down to the root
problem to scrape away those barnacles that have grown around
our hearts and to become sensitive again to sin, confess our sin,
and to pursue after godliness and righteousness and holiness
and God has said righteousness exalts a nation, a family and the church. So I would encourage you to look
at yourself and I look at myself see what is stopping the blessing
See what is hindering the work of God in our lives. How much
sin we have accumulated, which is slowing us down. Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people. Be like Abraham. Lord, spare this nation for the
ten righteous. There is more than 10 righteous
people in this nation of England. If we were to lay this nation
of England before God, maybe he will look down with mercy
and move again in this land of ours, open the windows of heaven
and pour out a blessing that will not be room enough to contain
it. But it must begin with us. Revival must begin with us, examine
ourselves, confess our sin, turn away from sin, from our lukewarm
condition and focus again, refocus ourselves upon the pursuit of
holiness and godliness. May the Lord help us each. Amen. Let's sing our final hymn this
morning from Gadsby's No. 7. No. 7. God shall alone the refuge
be and comfort of my mind, too wise to be mistaken he, too good
to be unkind. Hymn No. 7, tune 211. To wise to be mistakenly, To
wise to be mistakenly, To wise to be mistakenly, He is our daily bread. Too wise
to be mistaken, too. Too wise to be mistaken, too. Too good to be mistaken, too. ? That we here today ? ? Trust
upon thy light ? ? Too high to be a seeker's shore ? ? Too high
to be a seeker's shore ? ? Too low to be a guide ? Too wise to be mistaken. Too wise to be mistaken. ? By God's great mercy ? ? All
his persons died ? ? Too wise to be mistakenly ? ? Too wise
to be mistakenly ? After he will make me well, and
I shall surely die. He ought to rise to heaven. He ought to rise to heaven. Heavenly Father and Almighty
God we do thank thee for the warnings of thy word and we pray
that thou help us to be found amongst those who sigh and cry
for the abominations that are done in our own hearts and in
our own families and in our own land. Lord we pray that thou
hear us in heaven our dwelling place and revive us in our own
selves and revive our families and revive the church and revive
this nation if it could please thee. Do give us, Lord, the spirit
of prayer. Do give us the spirit of repentance
and sorrow for sin. And do give us, Lord, the concern
of Abraham to intercede for our nation. Forgive us, Lord, of
our sin. Enable us to confess our sin.
For Thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do dismiss us, we pray, with
thy blessing. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us now and
for evermore. Amen.