INTRODUCTION
• Righteousness. What do you think of when you hear that word? Holier than thou? Think you’re better than others? Those things reflect self-righteousness?
• What does it mean to be righteous? The word in our usage means, purity of heart. Doing the right thing, being “upright”
• There is more to the meaning than just doing good deeds. In the biblical sense it deals with maintaining a standard of behavior which is in keeping with the two-way relationship between God and man.
• A righteous person is one who in thought and conduct reflects their relationship with God through Jesus Christ! God desires us to be righteous. Being a righteous person is a good thing in the eyes of God. Noah was called a righteous man (Genesis 6:9). In Genesis 18, God said He would spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if just 10 righteous people existed. God desires righteousness!
• How do we know how we are doing in this area? How do we know if we are being successful? The world has its ways of measuring success. They look at your power, prestige and position. Measuring your spiritual success is a little more difficult. Often, there is little tangible, visible evidence, which you can put your hands on to prove you are living a successful Christian life. Generally, success for the believer is more internal that external.
• One of the difficulties of the Christian life is we do not wear a badge on our sleeve that tells other people where we are with God. Because of the fact that much of our relationship is internal, we can make people think what we want them to think concerning our relationship with God. The Pharisee’s in the New Testament were good at this, they looked good on the outside, but inside they were dead. Matthew 23:27.
• Thankfully Psalm 1 exists. In this worthy doorkeeper to the psalms, we find insight into what makes a believer successful. We can see what God wants from us, what He says we need to do to be right in His sight.
• The book of Psalms is a book that we should all spend time in because we get insights to the heart and character of God, we get to read about the real life struggles of those who wrote them and how God answers them. Psalm 1 is the preface to the rest of the book.
• Today we are going to look at “The Righteous Man.” The Psalmist gives us a road map that will help us to be a righteous person.
SERMON
I. CHARACTER OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 1-2
Your character is what makes you what you are, the distinctive qualities that make you, you. What is it that makes your character?
A. The counsel you seek. 1
1. The righteous person does not seek the advice of the wicked. Who are wicked people? The bible tells us that a person who does not walk with God is wicked. That sounds harsh, but when you realize that there are only two sides, God or Satan, and then you can see why this is true. By man’s standard not you have to be pretty rotten to be wicked, but in God’s sight all it takes is a person who does not walk with Him to be considered wicked. MAL 3:18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. (300 References to “wicked” in the bible)
2. When you belong to Jesus, you should seek the counsel of other Christians. I believe that mean’s in all matters possible, whether they are legal or martial.
3. The Bible asks us the question in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
4. The person who does not know Jesus will not give you the best advice in life; they do not know God’s ways.
5. Who do you go to for your counsel? To be right in God’s sight, you should not get it from the wicked.
A lot can be said about you by:
B. The path you take.
1. If you read the passage carefully, you will see a progression. Take your advice from the wicked, then next thing you know you are walking the way they are.
2. The NASB says that the righteous will not take “stand” in the path of sinners. In the bible, to stand means “to be firm”, “to be fixed on”. What this means is that the righteous will not become fixed on the way of the wicked.
3. READ 1 JOHN 1:5-7
4. MAT 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
5. Which path are you on?
A lot can be said about you by:
C. The company you keep.
1. The progression goes like this:
• Take wicked counsel
• Walk a wicked path
• Teach others how to do the same
2. In the Bible, a teacher would sit down and the students would stand around them. When a person takes the wicked advice and then starts on the wicked path, they will then start teaching others how to do the same.
3. 1CO 15:33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." You are don’t feel comfortable in the company of the scoffers (2 Cor 6:16)
4. Why does this happen? My opinion is that we are more interested in doing what the world does than the world is interested in doing what God wants them to do.
A lot can be said about you by:
D. The delights of your heart. Verse 2
1. This verse speaks of the person who loves God’s word. That person sees the Word almost as a love letter from a person who they miss. For those of you who fought in wars, the desire for the word would be like the desire you would have to read a letter from home or from your wife whom you have not seen for months. At mail call, you would not say, “Well, I do not have time to read this”, you would drop it all and read the letter.
2. This is an area that most of us fall. We do not delight in the Word. We spend 2 or 3 hours watching TV and less than 5 minutes in the word of God.
3. 1JO 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
4. JOS 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
5. PSA 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.
6. PSA 119:16 I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.
7. PSA 119:35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.
II. THE CONDITION OF THE RIGHTEOUS v3
A. His Position – By the River! Always close to the life giving resources. (This was meaningful to Israel with her mostly arid conditions.) The tree planted by the river is never dry and wilted, but is green, lush and lovely. (The believer who lives close to God will never be dry and wilted either. He will be vibrant, lively and productive.) The droughts of life and the dry seasons never seem to affect the believer who is planted near the river. He is connected to an unfailing source of life and strength. Notice that the passage says that the tree was planted. JOH 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’"
B. His Productivity – "Brings forth fruit" – The successful believer is a blessing to all those around him, because his fruit is plentiful. (John 7:38) (Ill. You may never know just who is feeding off your life!). The righteous man will be productive for God.
C. His Permanence – "leaf shall not fade" – The successful believer is like an evergreen. He is always surrounded by the green of life. (The trees in the wintertime. The hardwoods and leafy trees look dead, but the evergreens stand out as islands of life in a sea of deadness. They are unaffected by winter or weather, but they are always the same.) God will always be with us. Our labors will be able to pass the test of fire. 1CO 3:13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.
D. His Prosperity – God will bless the one who walks with Him. Whatever He does, God will be with him.
III. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED 4-6
This contrast will help underscore why we want to strive to be righteous before God.
A. When you look at the righteous person, he is planted by the river, he is fruitful and useful. The wicked are like chaff.
1. Chaff has no roots; it is blown by the wind.
2. It is dead, good for nothing.
3. MAL 4:1 "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."
B. The wicked will not be able to stand with the righteous.
1. It is funny; the people that they are scoffing at, they will not be able to stand with in the judgment.
2. PHI 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
3. There will be a time when they will not scoff any longer.
4. The wicked will be separated at the judgement. Matt 25:32.
C. The wicked are not getting away with anything.
1. Not only will they perish; their way of life will perish with them.
CONCLUSION
• Are you right in God’s sight? Are you right in man’s sight? Which one is more important? Looking good before man, or being right with God?
• In Matthew 6:1-17 the Pharisee’s did many religious things to look good to other people, but Jesus said they all ready received their reward, the applause of man.
• Is that all we want out of our faith, the applause of man?
• If we are going to be right in God’s sight, we must first make Jesus our Lord and Savoir. After that, we must not take counsel from the wicked, walk in or teach their ways.
• Our delight should be in the Word of God. Spend time getting to know the God whom you profess to love and serve! Make God your passion. You will not be disappointed.
• In the movie Karate Kid, young Daniel asks Mister Miagi to teach him karate. Miagi agrees under one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction and never question his methods. Daniel shows up the next day eager to learn. To his chagrin, Mister Miagi has him paint a fence. Miagi demonstrates the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down. Daniel takes days to finish the job.
• Next, Miagi has him scrub the deck using a prescribed stroke. Again the job takes days. Daniel wonders, What does this have to do with karate? but he says nothing. Next, Miagi tells Daniel to wash and wax three weather-beaten cars and again prescribes the motion. Finally, Daniel reaches his limit: "I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is have me do your unwanted chores!"
• Daniel has broken Miagi’s one condition, and the old man’s face pulses with anger. "I have been teaching you karate! Defend yourself!" Miagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself with an arm motion exactly like that used in one of his chores. Miagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow with a motion used in his chores. After Daniel successfully defends himself from several more blows, Miagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to discover what the master had known all along: skill comes from repeating the correct but seemingly mundane actions. The same is true of godliness.
• I want to encourage all of you to read through the Psalms, you will be confronted with the real life struggles of the writers and with the way God answers them.
• Psalm 1 lays out a pattern for our lives, how are you doing?
