Unworthy am I of the grace that
he gave. ? That a king would reach out to
a slave ? This love I cannot understand ? Unworthy, unworthy In bondage and alone But He made
me worthy And now by His grace His mercy has made me His own My sorrow and sickness, late
strife's on its back. My sins cost the blood that was
shed. My faults and my failures have
woven a crown of thorns that He wore on His head. Unworthy am I of the glory to
come, Unworthy with angels to sing. I thrill just to know that
He loves me so much. Upon her I walk with a king. ? Unworthy ? Unworthy ? Of anger
? In bondage and alone ? But he made me worthy ? And now by
his grace ? His mercy has made me If you will, let us open our Bibles
today to the book of Proverbs, chapter 10. Proverbs chapter 10. I'm going to point out some wonderful
truths that we find in this chapter today about the righteous. Some wonderful truths that are
declared in this chapter about the righteous. But before we
look at the first of these truths. I must remind us of these two
things. First of all, we begin by recognizing
as Romans 3.10 declares, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's no one who comes into
this world born righteous. We inherit the sin of our father
Adam, original sin. There's none righteous. No, not
one. Not by nature. Not inherently
is anyone righteous. The second truth we must recognize
is that God makes men righteous. Scripture says in Romans chapter
four and verse three, Abraham believed God and it was counted
or imputed to him for righteousness. And in Romans 5 in verse 1, the
apostle said, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So while none are born
into this world righteous, men are born again by the Spirit
of God and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are declared righteous,
that is, justified before God Almighty. So let's look this
morning at this chapter. I call our attention first of
all to the proverb in verse three. The Lord will not suffer the
soul of the righteous to famish. I came to this chapter this past
Thursday and began reading, and when I read that verse, because
I was somewhat discouraged and frankly, very disheartened for
the fewness of the people who attended our service last Wednesday
evening. I was discouraged and I was disheartened,
but then I saw this promise, this declaration here of God. The Lord will not suffer the
soul of the righteous to famish, and I thought to myself, What
better word could describe my state this morning? What better
word than this word famishing, hungry, could describe my state,
my being this morning, but here God says, he will not suffer
the soul of the righteous to famish. Well, I immediately began
to pray and ask the Lord to fulfill his promise. This is his promise,
this is his truth, he will not He will not suffer the soul of
the righteous to famish. And I reminded God as I prayed,
if one of my sons asked me for a piece of bread, I would not
give them a stone. Now, Lord, this is your promise. This is your word. You say that
you will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. And
as I began reading and continued reading through this chapter,
I noticed the other places, I believe there's nine other places where
we read about the righteous. And I marked each one of them
and we're going to look at them this morning. These are truths
about everyone who is righteous. If you are righteous this morning,
if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
and have been made just, been justified by God, we're going
to look at these wonderful truths that are true of us, of you this
morning. We're not going to look at them
in the order in which they're found in this chapter, and I'm
going to bring three of them together But first of all, if
you will, look down to verse 25. Look at this wonderful truth
about the righteous. As the whirlwind passeth, so
is the wicked no more. But the righteous, but the righteous
is an everlasting foundation. What a wonderful truth is this.
The wicked, like a whirlwind, comes into this world and soon
pass away, soon driven away. The wicked, but not the righteous. The righteous is an everlasting
foundation. Now you look at the word is in
that text. And you notice it's in italics,
which means the translators have added it. It could be the righteous
has an everlasting foundation. And we know that's true. We know
that's true. The righteous, the just has an
everlasting foundation and that foundation is Christ. The righteous
is built. upon Christ, has faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul told the church
at Corinth, and this was concerning ministers who came into the church
there and were teaching, and Paul made it very clear that
he had brought the gospel. God had used him in bringing
the gospel to Corinth. And other foundation, he said,
can no man lay. The foundation's already been
laid there in this church at Carm. Other foundation can no
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The righteous,
we have a foundation, and that foundation is Christ, as the
Apostle Peter said in Acts chapter four. Neither is there salvation
in any other. Well, there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's no
other blood. There's no other blood but the
blood of Jesus Christ that washes away sin. There's no other righteousness
except the righteousness of Christ that justifies it. God declares
a person to be just. when clothed in this righteousness. We have a foundation. The righteous
has a foundation, and that foundation is Christ. But let's look at
it as the translators use the word is. The righteous is an
everlasting foundation. Now what is a foundation? Well,
a foundation is something that's stable. Something that's firm,
something that's secure. And so yes, the righteous is
an everlasting foundation. His foundation is his interest
in God's everlasting covenant. God's everlasting covenant, which
David, the psalmist said, is ordered in all things and sure. The righteous is. Righteous is
a foundation. And that foundation is stable,
it's firm, it's never going to change. Not God's covenant. It's an everlasting covenant.
And as I said, David said, it's ordered in all things. And sure,
the righteous is firm. The righteous is stable. Because
the righteous is loved with an everlasting love. And that love
will never change. And nothing is able to separate
the righteous from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Righteous, as this proverb says,
is an everlasting foundation. We're firm, we're established. were built upon the rock, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The second verse, verse 30, so
there's the foundation. Verse 30, the security. The righteous shall never be
removed. The righteous shall never be
removed. Removed from where? Righteous
shall never be removed from the Good Shepherd's hand. The righteous,
he or she, we did not put ourselves in that hand, in the hand of
the Good Shepherd. God did. God did when he chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The righteous,
his name shall never be removed from the Lamb's book of life.
When was that book written? Before the foundation of the
world. In God's decree of election,
the name of each and every one of his chosen people is written. They'll never be removed. Righteous shall never be removed. When God chose his people, He
gave them unto Christ. He gave them unto Christ for
Him to be our surety. Our surety. You know, you read
the word surety more in the book of Proverbs than any other book
in the Bible. Because most of the book of Proverbs,
or especially the first part of it, is given as a parent,
as a father or mother, giving instruction to their children.
And the wise man, Solomon, who wrote most of these proverbs,
he gave a very clear warning about being a surety for a stranger. Now, of course, if you become
a surety for a person, that means you're obligated to pay their
debt. And Solomon told his son, if
you become a surety for a stranger, then you deliver yourself as
quickly as possible from that obligation. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he became our surety, he knew, he knew, that we were
all bankrupt, that we had nothing to pay, that we were slaves to
sin. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. Do you know what it means to
be lost? We all were. You may still be. Do you know what it means to
be lost? It means to be helpless and hopeless. Helpless and hopeless. Lost. Unable to help myself. Unable to save myself. And hopeless, having no reason
to hope that I could ever be reconciled to God. Lost. He became our surety. He is our
surety. The righteous shall never be
removed. Sometimes people say, well, you
know, that kind of preaching and that kind of teaching, it
just encourages people to live in sin. We've got to tell people
what you must do and preach the law to people. No, God's people
serve him out of love, out of love. because he loved us and
gave himself for us. We want to honor him and glorify
him. And the fact that we can never
be removed, it doesn't take away from the warnings the scriptures
has to watch, to pray. We recognize that we are warned
as God's people to be careful as we go through this world.
But at the same time, we're thankful for the security that we have
in Christ. The righteous shall never be
removed. Now third, I want to combine
three of these verses together because they all deal with our
words, with our lips, with speaking. The first one is in verse 11. The mouth of a righteous man
is a well of life. It tells us that the mouth of
a person who is righteous, who's been justified, he has that knowledge,
that ability to speak of Christ. Remember, our Lord told the Samaritan
woman at the well that the water that he gives is a well that
springs up onto everlasting life. Water springing up. And the righteous is able to
speak good words which concern this life and even better words
concerning eternal life. A righteous, a man who's just,
he doesn't need a doctor's degree in theology to witness. If we
could say no more than once I was lost, but now I'm found. Once I was blind, but now I see. Witness, as the scripture here
says, the mouth of a righteous is a well of life. It's a well
of life. And I thought about the fact,
the day that I saw this, read this in the scripture, I
thought about the fact Dave Ramsey, most of you I'm sure have heard
of Dave Ramsey. He's a financial advisor, I guess
you'd say. And he has helped so many people
just by common sense advice about financial things. I mean, things
that some of us just take for granted that, you know, if you
spend more than you earn, you're going to end up in bad trouble.
But evidently, there's a world of people out here who have these
cards and they just spend and spend and spend and find themselves
and dead, and there's nowhere to go. But this man, the point
I'm making, his mouth, his lips, his words are a well of knowledge,
a well of knowledge about life, about things of this world. But
a believer, the righteous, his mouth is a well of life about
eternal things, about eternal life. And then look down to verse
21. The lips of the righteous feed
many. The lips of the righteous feed
many. Opportunity is given to help
and instruct others in the things of God. Some people are able
to teach in the Bible class. Some people are able to preach
the gospel. But the lips of the righteous
feed many. And then one other place, if
you look down to verse 32, the lips of the righteous know
what is acceptable. The righteous know what acceptable
speech is. Over the years, I've heard Many
testify to the fact that before they were saved, before God saved
them and brought them to know him, they couldn't speak a sentence
without using unclean and foul language. They just didn't know
how to do it. And yet, when the Lord saved
them, maybe not immediately victory over that, but they knew what
is acceptable. There's speech that is just not
acceptable. And I hear from teachers, school
teachers, of small children and the speech of small children
today. And it grieves me to see how
coarse this society has become. And the reason is, is because
The Christian influence is not what it once was. And it's because
so many churches, rather than preaching the word of God, are
engaged in entertaining people. Last week, I believe it was,
I saw this large church out in California, the pastor, what
was he preaching on? The toy story. the movie, the
toy story. And he announced that he was
going to have a series of messages from various movies. And I thought to myself, there
was a time when the church warned believers about the movies. And
now they brought the movies into the church and were given away
tickets to go to the movies. The righteous, as this verse
said, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. There's
certain language that is not acceptable. Unclean words. The apostle Paul admonishes the
believers in the church at Ephesus about this. Let no evil communication,
unclean words proceed out of your mouth. The righteous, the
lips of the righteous know what is acceptable. By the way, I
had to go on YouTube and see that. And here comes the preacher
and his wife. They're both pastors, which tells
you right off the bat, this is not of God. Because God doesn't
call women to be pastors. He just doesn't do that. But
she comes out on the stage. And I had to look through about
15 minutes of what they call praise, which it's the farthest thing from
reverence and praise I've ever seen. And she comes out as Little
Bo Peep. And he comes out as Andy. What are we doing? We're entertaining. The lips of the righteous know
what is acceptable. The mouth of the righteous is
a well of life. The lips of the righteous feed
many. It's a sad day for me, and I
know it is for you as well, when I see the thousands of people
today, not hundreds, but thousands of people in this country who
are being entertained on their way to hell. And the scripture
is not being preached, not being taught. Or here's the fourth, if you
look in verse 16, the labor. Verse 16 says, the labor of the
righteous tendeth to life. Now the righteous, the just,
he labors. or she labors, works to take
care of their family. He labors to provide things needful. And he does so with the knowledge
that not only a man must provide for his family the material things,
the physical things, the food and the clothes and the shelter,
but spiritual. He labors, the righteous, the
labor, of the righteous tendeth to life. He's concerned for eternal
things, not just for temporal things, but things that are all
important, eternal things. You know, the Apostle Paul in
Romans, he said, provide things honest in the sight of all men. The righteous, he labors, and
his labor tendeth to life. His priority is not to get rich
in the things of this world, but to be rich in faith, rich
in joy, rich in love, rich in the characteristics of Christ. The apostle said, if a man does
not provide for his own family, he's worse than an infidel. Yes,
the righteous labor. but their labor isn't a mass
wealth in the sense that the people in this world are looking
for. And here comes an opportunity.
I can move here and I will make more money. I will earn more
money, but there's no gospel church there. What am I going
to do? Am I going to choose More money
over the gospel, over the fellowship of the believers. In other words,
his priority is right. The righteous is. The labor of
the righteous tendeth to life. And then here's the fifth thing
in verse 24. The desire of the righteous shall
be granted. The fear of the wicked, it shall
come upon him, but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. Now, when I think of something
being granted, I think of prayer. I think of prayer. In prayer,
we bring our desires. It says the desire of the righteous
shall be granted. In prayer, we bring our desires
to this touchstone. to this touchstone. Our Lord
taught us to pray thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven
and he prayed not my will but thine be done. This is a touchstone. We have our desires, yes, but
we bring them to this touchstone and that is the will of God.
And John tells us in his first epistle if we ask anything according
to the will of God he heareth us And if he hear us, we have
that which we ask. The desire of the righteous is
what God desires. That's the desire of the righteous,
what God desires. That's what I mean when I say
we bring our desires to the touchstone of his will. What is His will? We pray according to His will. Our desires, we ask to be granted
according to His will. Not our will, but His will. And then there's one other, verse
28, rather. The hope of the righteous shall
be gladness. The hope of the righteous shall
be gladness. Let me ask you something this
morning. What is your hope? Now when the scriptures were
translated, the word hope, man expectation, that was a primary
meaning of the word hope expectation. I know it's somewhat changed
over, over what four or 500 years now. But the hope of the righteous
shall be gladness. What is the hope of the righteous? Well, I believe it's twofold. Our hope is, our expectation
is to be like Christ. To be like Christ. And we, we
have a good hope. Why? Because For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. That's our expectation, one day
to be like Christ. Can you imagine that? To be like
him in holiness and righteousness and always doing the will of
the Father. And not only to be like Christ,
but to be with Christ. We know that's a good hope because
the scripture says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. How is he? Not how was he, but
how is he? How was he? He was crowned with
the crown of thorns. How is He? He's crowned with
glory. He's crowned with glory and honor
and praise. We shall be like Him. We sang
that hymn before the preaching a little while ago, Lead Me to
Calvary. You know, there's three words that we think of, Gethsemane,
Gabbatha, Golgotha, they all begin with G. Gethsemane, the
Lord in the garden praying, declaring to his disciples, my soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Gabbatha, judgment hall,
a pilot. Golgotha, the place of a skull,
Calvary. We should never forget these
three. It's the hope of the righteous
is to be like Christ and not only to be like him, but to be
with him, with him, where he is. Look with me in Psalm 16,
11, just a moment and I'll close. This is the expectation of the
righteous here. Verse 11, thou wilt show me the
path of life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore. Aren't these wonderful truths
about the righteous, about the just? Many times people Say,
well, I don't get much out of the book of Proverbs. Well, it
speaks to us of Christ. It speaks to us of eternal life. It's just presented in these
Proverbs, usually contrasts one thing with something else. But
all of the word of God is good. And all of the word of God is
for us to read and to profit from. And I encourage you to
read read the scriptures and when you're maybe discouraged
about something, as I was, open up the word of God and ask God
to bless you, to teach you, to show you. And by his spirit,
he encourages us, doesn't he?