Proverbs 21 - Follow after Righteousness

When I'm reading the scriptures, especially scriptures like this in the Old Testament scriptures, I love thinking of what it was like to be on the road to Emmaus. It's a long journey, isn't it? Seven miles. Imagine walking almost all the way from here to Bury and the Lord Jesus Christ opening up the scriptures.

Do you reckon he skipped over Proverbs and said, that's not about me? nowhere in the world. These proverbs have been a blessing to me for many years and they are, like so much of the scripture, there is a real and personal and wise application of them to our lives. but there's another spiritual application of them which is much, much sweeter and much, much more profound and is much more causing the cause of us to look to our Lord Jesus Christ in all things. So I just want to go through some of them. I want to take some careful note of a few of them, but I'd like to spend the final part of my time in this brief time looking at verse 21.

And that word followeth there means pursue. He that pursues after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour. I love the fact that righteousness there is a noun. It's describing a person. It's describing the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to find life. I want to find righteousness. I want to find honour before God, not in anything I've done ever. But anyway, let's go back to the beginning of this because I love how this proverb starts. The king's heart. Who is a king? Satan made, in the fall, all of Adam's children to be king. All of them. We come into this world saying, I will, I will, I will. They're the words of a king, aren't they?

I reign over my life. I have the right to do as I see fit. I've got a beautiful granddaughter in England. I'm missing her enormously because she's getting cuter and cuter and she's just about to walk and talk and do all those things. It only takes a heartbeat for rebellion to come out of that sweet little girl, isn't it?

Because that's bound up in the very hearts of men. We are kings and every man, as Proverbs 30 says, every man will proclaim his own righteousness. There is a generation, how lofty are their eyes, their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation Verse 12 in Proverbs 2, there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes. That's all the generation of Adam's children. They're pure in their own eyes, yet not washed from their filthiness.

Walter Groover and a couple of friends spent three days in a penitentiary in America. They were allowed to go in and actually live with the prisoners, obviously cared for and protected, but they lived with the prisoners for three days. In three days, you know what? They didn't find one sinner. Not one sinner.

Everyone, just as we read in the Proverbs, everyone was a king and everyone was proclaiming the fact that this might have been bad, but it's not all my fault and I can blame someone else. The king's heart, but don't you love the fact that the Lord proclaims his sovereignty, the King's heart, the heart of all humanity is in the hand of the Lord.

Don't you love his prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ's prayer the night he was betrayed and the night he began to shed great drops of blood? He says, Father, you've given me power over all flesh. You've given me power. He's got power over all flesh. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. Thy people, Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in the day of his power, in the day of his purpose. Don't you love to think about the sovereignty of God? You can't think too highly of the sovereignty of God. Why are you here? Why are we here today? Why is the sun shining?

He upholds all things by the word of his power. Nothing wriggles in this universe outside of his command. Don't you love the fact that the king's heart's in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water? His will is done all the time. I love what my friend Todd says, God is absolutely sovereign over the free and uncoerced acts of all fallen men.

Men do as they want to do. They did as they wanted to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And what happened? God's sovereign purpose and plan in glorifying his Son and saving his people was performed perfectly and they are fully responsible for their actions. And God is absolutely sovereign. Man's will is not free, but God holds it. Every man, verse two, every man is Every way of a man is right in his own eyes. But the Lord pondereth the heart. The Lord is measuring the heart. He's weighing the heart. He sees our hearts. The Lord doesn't look.

When Samuel went to Jesse's family, there were these strapping young men, these very fine and handsome men, and surely they are the Lord's anointed. And one after the other came along, and God told Samuel, Samuel thought they were the ones. Jesse thought they were the ones. They thought themselves the one. And God says, I don't see as other people see. I'm looking at the heart. There must be another one here because Samuel's been sent there. And there he was, a shepherd boy cast out. Let's go to verse three.

To do justice. and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice, to do justice and judgment. Who did justice and judgment? If that's what man is, who's the only one that did justice and judgment? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one that was acceptable to the Lord.

And we are accepted in the beloved. a high look and a proud heart, and the ploughing of the wicked is sin. Isn't that a remarkable verse of scripture? I did a lot of ploughing. If you go over the hills out here now, they're ploughing and ploughing and ploughing and planting and planting and planting. God says it's sin. God sees sin so differently to the way man sees sin. Why is it sin? Because man's doing it. Because man's doing it without a thought to the glory of God Almighty.

The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but every one that is hasty only to want. The Lord's is the one who is diligent to obey his Father in everything. and it leads to plenteousness. Spiritual plenteousness comes from the thoughts. He thinks about us, he thinks about his people, doesn't he?

The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. You think about that spiritually. The getting of spiritual treasures by a lying tongue is vanity, is just emptiness, is just absolutely emptiness in every way. From them that seek death, the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them.

What's the greatest robbery that we're committing all of the time? We're robbing God of his glory. That's robbery, isn't it? We're robbing God of the glory of who he is, robbing God of the glory of his providence and his provision. We're robbing God of the glory of his son.

The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do judgment. The Lord is known by judgment, the judgment that he executes. And the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. The way of a man is froward. That word froward means crooked and perverted.

Do you remember what Peter said on that day of Pentecost? He said, save yourselves. Save yourselves from this perverted, this crooked generation. What was going on in that crooked generation at that particular day? They were there to celebrate the Passover. They'd come from all over the world, that part of the world anyway. They'd come from all of those nations. They were religious. And Peter says, save yourselves from this crooked generation.

But as for the pure, who's the pure? His work is right. The pure, his work is right. All, all of our works are the works of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he works in part of his people to work. Isn't that wonderful? What about, I love the, the absolute holiness of God, the pure. There's just one pure, isn't there? The Lord Jesus Christ is the one pure one. He's the one who does justice and judgment. He is pure and his work is right. It's righteous and it's just. It's better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a contentious woman. That word is what the word brawling was.

And we'll find down in verse 19 that there's an angry woman there. Who's the one who's angry? Who's the great woman who deceives the souls of humanity, has made them drunk with the wine of her adulteries? It's the great whore of Babylon in Revelation. The whole world is captivated by her. her intoxicating wine of false religion, man-made, free will, works religion. And listen to what the anger of this woman is.

He speaks of the lamb. The saints of God overcame this brawling woman by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testament. They loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, ye heaven, at they that dwell in them, and woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea.

For the devil This brawling woman has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath a short time. Where is all, where are all of the arrows of his wrath? Aimed at just one place, the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified is where all the arrows of this brawling woman are aimed. And she might have a white house. She looks like she has a big, big church. I want to go to verse 11.

When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise, and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge. And verse 12, the righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked, this white house of this brawling woman, but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness. God is going to do justice and God is going to do judgment. and his right, all who are righteous in him are going to consider, they're going to wisely consider the house of the wicked. Verse 15, it is a joy to the just to do judgment, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. It's joy, it's joy. For the joy set before him, the Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross of Calvary and he endured all of the judgment of God and all of the sins of all of God's people. It's a joy to the just to do judgment.

But destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. What's the way of understanding? The Lord Jesus Christ is the way. He's the way of life, he's the way of truth. He is the way, as we saw in Proverbs 7 a couple of weeks ago. He is wisdom and he is our understanding.

Now let's go down to verse 21 because I wanted to spend some time here just before we close and have a break. Verse 21stly, there is a treasure to be desired, an oil in the dwelling of the wise. The righteous man wisely considers the house of the wicked. and doesn't have any participation in it at all. There is a treasure to be desired, an oil. That's the will of the Holy Spirit in the dwelling of the wise. But the foolish man spends this up.

The verse 21 is just so wonderful, I wanted to spend a little bit of time looking at this. He that followeth, that word is pursue. He that pursues after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness and honour. I love the fact that these are all nouns.

They're descriptions, they're declarations of the, who is the righteous one? Psalm 71 verse 16, David says, I'll speak of your righteousness and yours only because there is only one righteousness. The first time that word righteousness is mentioned is in Genesis chapter 15. And according to the so-called law of first mention, which is a very wise thing, when you want to find out the meaning of any word in the scriptures, you look for the first time it's ever mentioned and then you'll have an understanding of what it is. Because all of what is further said about it is built upon that foundation. And you know the story, Abraham's taken outside and he's had his name changed and he's called Abraham now. And the Lord said to him, I'm your shield and your exceeding great reward.

And Abraham turns to the Lord and said, I don't have any children. How on earth can I inherit? How can my family inherit all of these things? You give me no seed. And he brought him forth, verse 5, and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if they'll be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. Abraham, you're 90-something years old. Your wife? past menopause a long time ago, everything physically about this promise coming to fruition is impossible. There's not a single thing that you can look to in your flesh or Sarah's flesh for this to happen.

What did he do? He believed God. We have this book full of the most extraordinary and wonderful promises and so often we don't have to have and we don't need to have physical reason for them to come true because they're true, because God said they're true. He believed in the Lord and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness.

That's what righteousness is, isn't it? It's looking to the Lord to perform and fulfill exactly what he has promised. Pursue righteousness. Pursue righteousness. What is righteousness? Well, it comes, obviously, from the word right, and the root of the word has to do with justice as well. To be righteous before God is to be perfect before his holy law. Righteousness is an absolute like holiness.

You're either 100% righteous in God's sight, you're 100% holy in God's sight or you're 0% righteous and 0% holy. You can't be 50% pregnant and you can't be 50% dead. You just can't be, it's impossible. You can't be a little bit righteous. You either have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, credited by God to your account, having given you the faith to believe him and to trust him, when there's no evidence in your flesh to believe so, which is what Abraham was.

To be righteous is to be without sin. To be righteous to have perfectly obeyed God's law. Don't you love that? That's how God describes righteousness. Men have their own view of righteousness. But what a righteousness to pursue. What's pursuing righteousness? Pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ. It's pursuing him and his righteousness. There is none righteous. Romans 3 says there's none righteous. Isaiah 66 says that all of our righteousness, 64 verse 6, all of our righteousness are filthy rags. To pursue righteousness is to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ and him only.

Don't you love, I love reading Philippians chapter three. It's just such a glorious, glorious passage of scripture. And what was Paul's great desire? He was pursuing, and Philippians 3 is a passage, the beginning of it is a passage of pursuing, isn't it?

Listen to what he says. He wants to win Christ. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And when he looks at all the things that he lost, I do count them but done, that I may win Christ, this is pursuing righteousness, that I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. Pursue righteousness. Pursue the Lord Jesus Christ.

And how are God's children righteous? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. We need to read this verse. I pray that we might read it and contemplate it so, so often. It's just such a glorious description of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and its application in the hearts and the lives of God's people.

We're ambassadors. We're just telling the story from the King. This is coming from the King's court. We're ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's name, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God because he, God the Father, has made him the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin for us. Who knew no sin? that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How are we righteous? We're made righteous, declared righteous. Righteousness is credited to our account by God Almighty.

There's such a controversial verse of scripture and every time one of our brethren preachers on it in clarity and distinction there's a wave of opposition comes up to it and they immediately say well you're saying that the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinner we're not saying the Lord Jesus Christ was a sinner we're saying what the scriptures say about him God made him sin for us who knew no sin. He knew no sin, he did no sin.

But on the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous one, on the cross of Calvary, he took that cup. Think about that cup that the Father gave him. This is the cup that my father has given me and I have to drink it. Unless I drink it, this won't go away. How does the wrath of God on all of the sins in that cup go away? He could hold in his hand that cup full of poison. and it be his, and he not have touched it.

It's a glorious picture, isn't it, of how the Lord Jesus Christ could be made sin. And under the law of Moses, as soon as that cross was lifted up from the ground, the law of God said he's cursed. And in that cursed state, he could drink that cup and he drank it dry and the wrath of God was poured out on all of those sins until God Almighty said, I'm satisfied.

He'll see the travail of his soul and he will be satisfied and my righteous servant is gonna save many. What a glorious saviour, what a glorious saviour. Pursue righteousness and pursue mercy. There's only one righteousness, we just pursue him. We seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And this religious world is doing what Romans 10 said, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God. declares his Jewish brethren, multitudes of them, brethren, my heart's desire, Romans 10, and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.

He's praying that they might be saved. They're not saved. He wouldn't be saying that if they were already so. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of God's righteousness. This is a great description of man-made religion. Being ignorant of God's righteousness. Ignorant of how God was righteous in what he did to his son on the cross of Calvary, ignorant of how all of those united to the Lord Jesus Christ eternally and with him when he died on the cross, crucified with him as Paul said, they're all made righteous. for ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness.

That's what religion does. Go about, go about, go about, go about. Off you go, off you go. Go and go and go and do and do and do. Going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves. There's a bowing involved. There's a bowing, isn't there? unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We pursue the Lord Jesus Christ to be found in him, to know him. Pursue righteousness and mercy.

What's mercy? Mercy is God not giving you what you deserve. What do you deserve? We know what we deserve. If we're honest about ourselves and honest about what we are, if God makes us honest with ourselves, we'll be mercy beggars. And as we saw in Psalm 57 and as in many, many other places throughout the scriptures, the child of God never stops begging for mercy. I need mercy now. We need the mercy of God. We need the mercy of God To preach, we need the mercy of God. To hear, we need the mercy of God. To believe, we need the mercy of God. To rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pursued, God says. And it can be pursued because God has made his people righteous.

Who will seek? Who's gonna seek for mercy? The only people who ever plead for mercy are those who are made to be sinners. The only people. It's like the publican, isn't it? Lord, be merciful. My problem's not out externally. Even though I'm a traitor and I'm a rebel and I'm a thief and I've done all of these evil things, my profession is notorious for evil, such that the Pharisees weren't even allowed to look at me without defiling themselves. That's how evil I was. My problem's not all those external. I have a heart problem.

And the only solution to my heart problem is what happens in that temple under the shadow of those wings on that mercy seat. I'm pleading the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The true mercy beggars are going to pursue mercy and they'll keep pursuing it. Where there is righteousness pursued, there will be a pursuing of mercy.

And it's right, isn't it? It's a right thing. It's right. There's a right thing in our life. It's a right thing to believe. God commands us to believe. It's a right thing to believe. He commands us to repent. He commands us to obey the gospel. He commands us to love God. He commands us to take the lowest place. He commands us to be a servant. In this passage of scripture, earlier on we saw it's to be pure.

There's a pursuing, there's a pursuing of righteousness and with it there's a pursuing of mercy. Blessed are the merciful, blessed are the merciful. The merciful are gonna be merciful because they know what it is for God to show mercy on. That's why those forgiven are going to be forgiving. The past is history, we just live right now. We live right now. We live right now before God and before our brothers and sisters. And listen to what the promise of God is. They shall find life. They'll find spiritual life.

Where does the desire to do all this come from? The desire comes from the work of God in the hearts of his people. It's the new heart that pursues righteousness because it knows what its old heart is. It's the new heart that pursues mercy because it sees the old heart and they find life.

This is spiritual life. We live. We live. To have spiritual life is to pursue righteousness. To have spiritual life is to pursue mercy. The dead don't pursue any of that. They can pursue their own righteousness. We have to be born from above. He's speaking about the new birth. It's the life of God. lived and born a living testimony in the hearts of his people. You're born from a God above, and you can hear the gospel as gospel, and you can see God as being just, and you see God as justifying the ungodly.

We see the righteousness of God. That's what Paul met with on the Damascus Road, didn't he? He met a holy God, and he met a righteous God, and he met himself for the first time in his life, he met himself. And the first meeting's not a pleasant meeting, but the first meeting's an absolutely essential meeting. To be born from above is to die to self. And God's people have the gospel come to them as a sweet savour. Listen to what they find. They're pursued. Pursued righteousness and they're pursuing mercy. They shall find righteousness and they'll have it.

What God declares his people to be is what they really, really are. In Romans 6, he says, reckon yourselves, reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Reckon yourselves, why reckon yourselves that? Reckon yourselves to be righteous? Because God says his children, his believing children, are righteous.

They've found it. Their righteousness, Isaiah 54, I'll be closing. Isaiah 54 speaks of the righteousness that all of God's children have. Come on over. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.

This is the heritage of the saints of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. I like that righteousness. One of the great glorious freedoms of believing and being a child of God is that all of my righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ, and I don't have to defend any personal righteousness of mine at all. I don't have to establish it before people and pretend that I'm religious in some particular way, I can just be honest because all of my righteousness is God, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the righteousness that God accepts, it's the righteousness that is won for us on the cross of Calvary, it's the righteousness that is supplied to us and he causes us to seek after it. I love it.

The Lord declared Lot righteous, Lot. You read the history of Lot in Genesis, you can't find a righteous thing he did, hardly. And you can certainly find some very seriously unrighteous things he did. Why did the Lord call him righteous? Because he was. It's as simple as that. Lot is righteous. In the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lot is righteous. What's his righteousness? Not Lot's doing, it's the Lord Jesus Christ's doing.

They shall find honour. They shall find glory. They shall find life. They shall find righteousness. They shall find honour. They shall find glory. It's the glory of God. They will, like Moses on Mount Sinai, say, show me your glory. Show me your glory. I want to see the glory of God. And as I said at the beginning of the service, Moses found the glory of God and got to see the glory of God in that very one place that anyone can ever see it, and that you have to be put by God in the cleft of the rock. And hidden there in the Lord Jesus Christ, hidden in Christ, we see his glory.

And the great glory of God is in the way he forgives sinners and declares them righteous. And he moves their hearts to pursue after righteousness, to pursue after mercy, and they find life. They find life. I'll just read these last few verses and then we can have a cup of coffee and have a break.

A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty. The wise man's the Lord Jesus Christ. He has to scale the city of the mighty and he has to cast down the strength and the confidence thereof. He's got to cast down everything that we have our confidence in in this world. It's exactly what Philippians 3 was saying. That's what happened to Paul. The wise man, the mighty man scaled that refuge of lies and tore it all down.

The proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination. Verse 27. How much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind. The sacrifice of the wicked. Who are the wicked? All of those outside the Lord Jesus Christ are wicked. A false witness shall perish, but the man that heareth speaketh constantly. As David said, I believe, therefore I have spoken. A wicked man hardeneth his face, but as for the upright, As for the right, he directeth his way.

God directs the way of the righteous. There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared against the day of battle. That's the greatest armament that they had in those days. But safety is in the Lord. Don't trust in horses. Don't trust in men.

Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Pursue righteousness. Pursue mercy. Find life and righteousness and glory. Mark the perfect man, says Psalm 37. This is a picture of the perfect man and what the perfect man does in the hearts of his people. He makes us hunger and thirst after righteousness. After Christ. After Christ. Thank you. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts.

Proverbs 21 - Follow after Righteousness

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Proverbs 21 - Follow after Righteousness

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