When you turn back to Proverbs
chapter 21, while you're turning there, we're awful happy to have
Andrea Gruber with us. Look at her smile. She is Cody
and Winna's daughter, missionaries to Mexico. And they were here
recently. And we're just happy having you
with us. And I also see John Chapman back there. But John,
we're awful glad to have you here with us this morning, too.
He's pastor of the Hurricane Road Grace Church in Ashland,
Kentucky. This evening, I'm going to be
speaking from Second Corinthians, Chapter 10 on the weapons of
our warfare. I've entitled this mercy, this
message. Pursuing righteousness and mercy. Pursuing righteousness and pursuing
mercy. And I would request that you
would pray for me. As I attempt to bring this message. I know just a little bit about
what Paul meant when he said, I come. I came to you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And I am afraid of misrepresenting
the gospel. I'm afraid of misrepresenting
God. I don't want to preach my own
word. I want to preach his word and nothing but his word. I don't want to hear from a sinful,
fallible man this morning. I want to hear from the living
God. I want to hear the gospel. Don't
you? I want to hear the gospel. So
pray for me that I'll preach the gospel and pray for yourselves
that you'll hear the gospel. in the power of God, the Holy
Spirit. Pursuing righteousness and mercy. Now, I've been reading through
the Proverbs in the last couple of weeks, and it's been such
a blessing to me, and I would encourage you to do likewise,
to read through the Proverbs slowly, prayerfully, and carefully. And I wasn't looking for a message,
but the verse that I just read just hit me like a ton of bricks. Let's read it again. Proverbs
chapter 21, verse 21. He that followeth or pursueth. After righteousness and mercy. These are the two things that
he's pursuing. This is what he makes his aim.
This is what he desires to have, to possess. He that pursues after
righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness and honor. Now, this is what I want to find.
I want to find life. I want to find righteousness.
And I want to find honor. And here we have this promise
that that one who pursues, who follows righteousness and mercy,
he'll have life. Spiritual life before God. Life
before God's law. Righteousness and honor. Everybody is pursuing something.
There's never been anybody to ever live who didn't pursue and
follow after something. People pursue pleasure, the pleasures
of sin. People pursue popularity. We want to have this world think
well of us or people think well of us. People pursue power. People pursue security. I want security, don't you? People
pursue a peaceful environment. I don't want to be always living
in conflict. I want to have some peace in
my life. People pursue riches. The love of money. People pursue
a good relationship with somebody else. Everybody wants that. People
pursue their religious interests, trying to do something in order
to gain God's favor, to think all is well with my soul. Everybody
pursues something, but we read here of that one who pursues
righteousness. And mercy. That is his pursuit,
that is her desire, righteousness and mercy. Now, there are not
a lot of people pursuing those two things, are there? Righteousness. and mercy. But there are some
who pursue these two things, righteousness and mercy, and
those who do will find life, righteousness and honor. Now, before we can understand
this, we need to know what the Bible means by these two terms,
righteousness and mercy. I can't really pursue righteousness
and mercy if I do not know what righteousness and mercy means. Now, what does the Bible mean
by these terms? Now, the world's dictionary will
not have the same meaning as the Bible. As a matter of fact,
Satan is called and his ministers called ministers of righteousness. Did you know that? As a matter
of fact, turn with me now. I want you to see this. Hold
your finger on Proverbs 21 and turn to Second Corinthians chapter
11. Verse 13. For such are false apostles Deceitful
workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Now, don't forget this.
Satan's main sphere of operation is the pulpit. You believe that? His main sphere of operation
is the pulpit. In religious assemblies. What
about the bars? Well, those people are doing
what they want to do. What about drug addicts? Well, those people
are doing what they want to do, and there's no excuse of what
they're doing, but Satan's just going to leave them alone and
they're going to do what they want to do. But his main sphere of
work is in the pulpit. Look what he says in verse 15.
Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers. The ministers
of Satan. Devil inspired creatures also
be transformed as the ministers of what's that next word? Righteousness. Now, obviously, the meaning of
righteousness here, if it's. A Satan inspired minister has
a different meaning than the righteousness of God, same word. Same word spelled the same way.
But it means something completely different. So I need to know
what the Bible means by the word righteousness. The Hebrew dictionary
says rightness, rightness, rectitude. I didn't know what that word
meant, so I looked it up in the dictionary and it meant rightness
of principles and practice, moral integrity and honesty, justice
and moral virtue. But more than anything else,
righteousness means this, perfection before God's holy law. Sin is the transgression of the
law. Righteousness is perfection,
absolute blamelessness before God's holy law. Now, if you're righteous before
God, that means the Ten Commandments looks you over and says there's
no fault. Perfect obedience. Righteousness. Now, the world perhaps would
not disagree with what The definition of righteousness is, but the
world would disagree with who that definition describes. Turn
with me for a moment to Romans chapter three. Verse nine. Romans three, verse nine, what
then? Are we, speaking of the Jews, better than the Gentiles?
No, in no wise, in no respect, for we have before proved, both
Jews and Gentiles, that they're all under sin. Now, what does it mean to be
under sin? That means sin is over you. That means you're all
the way underneath. were all under sin. Now look what he says next in
verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. Your mom, she's not righteous. You, you're not righteous. Any son of Adam you know, You're
not righteous. There is none righteous. No, not one. Look what he goes
on to say. There's none that understandeth,
verse 11. There's none that seeketh after
God. Not one person has ever sought
God. Everybody's been religious, but
I mean seeking the living God. Not one person has ever done
it unless God put it in their heart. David said, When thou
saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said, Thy face, O Lord, will
I seek. But nobody left of themselves
has ever sought the living God, not one. He goes on to say in
verse 12, They are all gone out of the way, out of the way of
salvation. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. So when we use this word righteousness,
we realize that this does not describe even one son of Adam,
most especially me, most especially you. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
64, six, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Do you believe that about your
personal righteousness? that it's nothing more before
God than filthy rags. Now, that's God's testimony of
our righteousness. If I think of any man as righteous,
I'm thinking the wrong way. If I think of any man, including
myself, as possessing any inherent righteousness, I've proved by
that I have no understanding of righteousness. Turn with me
to Genesis chapter 6. This is what God sees. Verse five. Genesis, chapter
six, verse five, and God saw. And God sees things as they are.
Me and you don't. We see things according to appearance.
And what we see really, quite frankly, is never right. What
I think about you, I don't know the story. I don't know what's
going behind it. You don't know. We see through
a glass darkly, don't we? We don't know what's going on.
But God does. He sees so clearly. And look what it says, God saw.
And God saw that the wickedness of man, as all men, was great
in the earth, and that every, not most, but every imagination
Of the thoughts of his heart, everything that passes through
his heart, every thought was only evil. Continually. Now, that's God's testimony,
that's what God says, so when the Bible is speaking of righteousness. It sure is not talking about
some kind of human concocted righteousness, isn't it? It isn't
talking about some kind of obedience or moral virtue on my part or
your part. Now, there's something called
the law of first mention. If you want to know what the
Bible means by term, look where it's used the first time in the
Bible, and you can just follow that through. And that's what
it means. Now, I want us to look at the very first time the word
righteousness is mentioned in the Bible. Would you turn with
me to Genesis chapter 15? Verse 1, After these things the
word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram
said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me? Seeing I go childless,
and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And
Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one
born in thine house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, But he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said
unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord,
and he, the Lord, counted it to him for righteousness. Now, there's the first time the
word is used. Abraham believed God. He believed what God said, and
God counted that to Abraham for righteousness. And this is quoted
in Romans chapter four. Turn over to Romans chapter four. Verse 1, What shall we say then
that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found? For if Abraham were justified by works, by the things that
he did, he'd have whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If you work, that
means God is your debtor. That means he owes you salvation. That means he's obligated to
you. Do you believe God's obligated to you? Do you believe anything
about your works that would make him good enough to obligate God
to save you? I don't care what work it is.
Verse five, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness,
even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness. Without works, Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, when the Bible speaks of
righteousness, it's speaking of the great truth of righteousness
imputed. Now, what's that mean? I hope
you'll listen to me very carefully right now. Righteousness imputed. Now, I want you to notice the
order of the words I gave. Not imputed righteousness. But
righteousness imputed. Imputed is never used in the
Bible even one time as an adjective. What is an adjective? Well, it's
a word used to limit or to qualify a noun. If I talk about a big
ball and a little ball, I've used an adjective to describe
that ball. They're big balls and they're little balls. They're
big houses and they're little houses. They're smart people
and they're dumb people. Adjectives describing. Imputation
is never used as an adjective because that would imply that
there are other kinds of righteousness. Imputed righteousness, and then
there's imparted righteousness, and then there's actual righteousness,
and there's legal righteousness, and all that. I've used the word
imputed righteousness. Matter of fact, about every preacher
I've ever known has used that. I'm not saying that somebody
is a heretic if they use the word imputed righteousness, but
I am saying this. If I look at imputation as an
adjective as opposed to a verb, I don't have any understanding
of what righteousness actually is. Now, here's the point I want
to make. There's only one righteousness. That is the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only righteousness
there is. David said in Psalm 71, 16, I've
made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now, why did he say even thine
only? Because his is the only one there
is. Have you been convinced of that? Have you been convinced
that the only righteousness there is, is the righteousness of God? There's no such thing as human
righteousness. Particularly, there's no such
thing as you having any righteousness of your own. You know, the Pharisee
trusted in himself that he was righteousness. Self-righteousness
is any righteousness that comes from yourself. Any! All it is
is self-righteousness, and it is a lie. Because the truth of
the matter is, you and I have no true self-righteousness. Now,
we have plenty of pride. Plenty of things that we think
might be righteous, but no true righteousness before God. Paul said in Romans 1, 16 and
17, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God and
the salvation Everyone that believes in the Jew first and also to
the Greek for their end in the gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed. The righteousness of God, that's
the only righteousness there is. Now turn to Romans chapter
10. Brethren, verse one. My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Obviously, they were not saved.
And Paul says, I desire their salvation. I want for them to
know the living God. He says, I bear them record that
they have a zeal of God. They're very religious and very
sincere, but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. Now, this is the issue. It's
always been the issue, always will be the issue. God's righteousness. And these people were ignorant
of God's righteousness. Now, in what way were they ignorant
of God's righteousness? Well, if you think of yourself
as anything but a sinner, you're obviously ignorant of God's righteousness.
I mean, it really is that simple. If you see any righteousness
in yourself, any goodness, anything that could recommend you to God,
you're ignorant of the righteous character of God, because you
wouldn't think anything like that if you knew who he was.
These people are ignorant of God's righteousness in their
damnation. Would God be just if he sent
you to hell and didn't give you any mercy? He didn't, quote,
offer you salvation, but just sent you to hell. Would he be
just in doing that? They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and salvation in this sense. His righteousness is the righteousness
that a believer is justified by. My righteousness before God
is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. His personal obedience
is my righteousness before God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. You ever see that? You ever believe
that? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. And here's what happens when
somebody's ignorant of God's righteousness. They go about
to establish their own righteousness. And in doing that, they've not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, what is it to follow? What
is it to pursue after righteousness? We'll turn to Philippians 3. Paul says in verse 8 of Philippians
chapter 3, Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss. For the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom
I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them, but
done that I may win Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, I don't want to have anything to do with
that, because that means all I got is filthy rags. But that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God, is it God's righteousness that is received by faith. That when God comes looking for
me, there's only one way I want to be found. That's in Christ.
So that all he sees is the righteousness of Christ. How about you? Is
that what you want? That's what every believer wants,
to simply be found in Christ. Now, how can I know that his
righteousness has been imputed to me? To him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted
for righteousness. If you believe on him who justifies
the ungodly, do you? Do you believe that Christ's
work on the cross actually justified the ungodly, and you believe
that his righteousness is the only righteousness there is,
and you're trusting him only? Well, his righteousness has been
imputed to you. No doubt about it. Now, to him
that pursues righteousness and mercy. Now, wherever somebody
pursues righteousness, They're also going to pursue mercy. What's mercy? Mercy is God not
giving you what you deserve in and of yourself. You don't want
to have anything to do with that. You want mercy. Now, since all
the requirements of righteousness are satisfied, God can have mercy. My dear friend, that's exactly
what I want. I want the mercy of God. Now, let me tell you
when you want mercy. I can tell you exactly who it is that actually
desires mercy. Somebody whose sin is all their
fault. You're not a victim. There's
no sense of entitlement. You have no claims on God. All
your sin is all your fault. Now, if all your sin is all your
fault, you know what you need? You need mercy. Nothing else
will do you any good, because it's all your fault. What you
need is mercy. You need mercy when you have
absolutely no merit, not even a penny's worth. If you don't
have mercy, you'll perish. You're like Bartimaeus. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. That's all. Have mercy.
Now, anybody that's pursuing righteousness, you know what
else they're pursuing? Mercy. Mercy. And where there is the pursuit
of righteousness, there is the pursuit of rightness. And these go hand in hand. You
want to do the right thing. You know it's the right thing
to believe, isn't it? It's the right thing to believe
the gospel. It's the right thing to believe the truth. It's the
right thing to repent. repentance toward God. It's the
right thing to obey the gospel. It's the right thing for me to
take the lowest seat in the house because that's where I belong. It's the right thing to be honest.
Honest before God. Honest with you. It's the right
thing to be a servant. It's the right thing to want
to do the right thing. You want to love God. You want
to love your neighbor. Where there is the pursuit of
righteousness, and the only righteousness there is, is the righteousness
of God, there is also the pursuit of rightness. And where there
is the pursuit of mercy, there is the pursuit of being merciful. This is what you want. You want
to be a merciful person. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. These are the works of a living
faith, pursuing rightness and pursuing being merciful. And if I talk about pursuing
righteousness and pursuing mercy and I'm not pursuing rightness
and I'm not pursuing being merciful, this is all just talk, nothing
more. Where there's the pursuit of
righteousness, there's the pursuit of rightness. And where there's
the pursuit of mercy, There's the pursuit of being merciful.
Now look what our text says, back to our text in Proverbs
21. That person who pursues righteousness, I just want to be found in Christ.
Christ's righteousness is the only righteousness and I dare
wouldn't plead anything else. And I'm pursuing mercy. I want
God to be merciful to me and not give me what I deserve. Proverbs
21. He that pursueth, he that followeth
after righteousness and mercy, findeth. Life, righteousness
and honor. Now, here's the promise to that
one who pursues these two glorious things, which are actually the
same thing, righteousness and mercy. You're pursuing that.
What's he find? Life, righteousness and honor. Life. Now, the reason you pursue
these things in the first place is because you have life. That's
why you pursue them. You wouldn't pursue them if you
didn't have life. Whoso liveth, our Lord said in John 11, 26,
and believeth in me. Now listen real carefully. Logically,
life has to come before faith, doesn't it? You can't believe
unless you live. It's impossible for man dead
in sins to believe. Logically, life comes before
faith. But in our experience, and this
is just as important, In our experience, they come at the
exact same time. You don't live until you believe. When you believe, you live. The evidence of spiritual life
is the pursual of righteousness and mercy. Now, if you're pursuing
righteousness and mercy, you know what you have? Life. Life
before God. Spiritual life. And you hath
he quickened who are dead, it trespasses in sickness. Now what
about a dead man? I know this about dead men. He
can't see. He can't see any glory in Christ.
He can't see the gospel. He can't hear. He can't hear
the gospel of good news. He can't smell the sweet savor
of Christ. It's nothing. He's dead. Dead
men can't perform the functions of life. He can't feel the joy
and peace of believing because he's dead. He can't taste that
the Lord is gracious. He's dead. Dead in trespasses
and sins. But when you're given life, you
know what? You hear the gospel. Now, the dead man hears the same
words, but he doesn't hear them as good news. Perhaps you don't
even like them. But when God does something for
you, you hear the gospel as gospel. It's good news. Is it good news
to you that salvation is all of grace? Is it good news to
you that the righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness
and all you needed to make you accepted before God? Is that
good news? You hear the gospel as gospel. You see the beauty
of Christ. You see how God can accept you
for Christ's sake. You don't understand it all,
but you see. You feel the joy and the peace of believing. You
taste it that the Lord is gracious. That's what happens when you're
given life. When you pursue righteousness and mercy, you know what you
find? Life. Life before God. Life before
His law, spiritual life. You know what else you have?
He says in verse 21, you find righteousness. If you're pursuing
righteousness, you'll find righteousness. You'll be righteous before God.
Isaiah 54, 17 says, Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Their personal righteousness.
Now, if you're a believer, you have a personal righteousness.
You have a personal righteousness before God, and that righteousness
is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. Now, because of this, God says
regarding Abel, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was
righteous. God testifying of his gifts. It was said of Lot, just Lot,
that righteous man. It speaks of his righteous soul.
Now, this is what that one who pursues righteousness has. He
is righteous. Righteous. You're looking at a man. And
I say this with fear and trembling, but you're looking at a man whom
God looks at. and says he's righteous. That's true of every believer. That one who pursues righteousness,
you know what he finds? Righteousness. He's righteous
before God. And not only do we find life,
not only do we find righteousness, but we find honor. Look what
it says. He that followeth after righteousness
and mercy findeth life, righteousness and honor. Now, that word honor. Is the same word that's usually
translated in the scripture, glory. Remember when Moses said,
I beseech thee, show me your glory. That's the same word,
show me your honor. Now, remember the way God answered
him. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before you. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and I'll show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Now, God's honor,
God's glory is His capacity to save somebody like me and to
forgive somebody like me and to accept somebody like me and
to love somebody like me. That's God's glory. That's God's
honor. And do you know, my dear friend,
that the most you and I can be like the Lord is to forgive. That's God's glory. His ability
to forgive and to save for Christ's sake and that we show more the
most likeness to the Lord like this. The Lord said, the glory
that thou has given me, I have given them his glory as the Savior. Now, this honor that is being spoken
of is this capacity that only a believer really has to forgive
somebody for Christ's sake. No other reason is needed to
love somebody for Christ's sake. No other reason is needed. That is the honor that every
believer is given in the new birth. So anybody who pursues
righteousness, and there's only one righteousness and mercy,
what are they given? They're given life. The reason
they pursue is because God gave them life. They're given righteousness. They have the very righteousness
of Christ, and they're given this honor. And you know something
that's throughout the Proverbs? Before honor is what? Humility. Now, before a fall,
there's a proud and haughty spirit. But before honor, there's humility. And may the Lord enable us to
humble ourselves before him. And so know this glorious honor. Anybody that pursues righteousness,
Anybody that pursues mercy, they're going to have life, they're going
to have righteousness, and they're going to have honor. That's a
promise of the Word of God. Let's pray.