Address—Don Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Return first to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5.
Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5.
And verse one.
And seeing the multitudes he Jesus went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.
And verse six Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
For they shall be filled.
We know these words were first spoken quite a while ago.
By the Lord Jesus in front of a group of people.
And I believe it's still the message in the heart of the Lord Jesus.
For you and me in this room this afternoon.
That the Lord Jesus himself would say to us, as he says in verse six, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst.
After righteousness.
For they shall be filled.
I suppose not all that's going to be said in the next hour is going to be equally understandable.
To all of us, some of it may not be said very clearly.
Possibly even not completely accurately, but I hope that each one of us.
Will have at the end of this hour a renewed.
Or a fresh desire to thirst after righteousness.
Not only here, we're not simply talking of being righteous before God.
That's important. That's essential. We're going to look at that.
But particularly the burden of one's heart, I trust, of the Lord, is that we thirst after a practical daily life of righteousness.
Before God.
Now turn with me to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 and verse 10.
As it is written.
There is none righteous.
No, not one.
Now over to Hebrews chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one and verse 8 But under the sun he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity or lawlessness.
Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Sadly, for thousands of years, God had to look down upon his creature, man on this earth.
Where he had placed him, and he examined, one by one, life by life, the people who were on the earth.
And accepting those in whom by His own grace He worked, He had to look upon man, and even those in their natural state before His work on them.
And he looked at each one, and he did not find righteousness.
Not one single person in all that history.
Naturally speaking that God looked at, could he say, ah, there's a righteous man, not one.
Until the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we just read about the Lord Jesus, that wonderful man that is God, watched him go through his life. He could report to us concerning that life as we have here in Hebrews unto the sun.
He says.
00:05:00
Thou hast loved righteousness.
We don't naturally love righteousness.
We are not as born of our parents.
Of a righteous nature or a righteous attitude.
We're not very aware of it. Most of the time we don't realize.
How unrighteous we really tend to be.
But here the Lord Jesus was a man who loved it.
And it's the desire of my heart that each one of us in this room that God could look upon our lives and say there's one who now loves righteousness.
He didn't. By birth.
Of his parents. But by new birth he has been brought into that place in life that he now loves righteousness.
And so it was of the Lord Jesus and the opposite.
It said hated lawlessness. That's the very root principle of what sin is.
Says elsewhere sin is lawlessness. He hated sin.
And if we truly love righteousness, the opposite will be true. We will hate sin.
Let's turn to.
Colossians. Well, now I'm going to go back.
Turn to Colossians Chapter one.
We're seeking this afternoon to lay a little bit of more groundwork underneath our Bible readings.
Which started in chapter 3 and went back to chapter 2. But I'd like to comment and make some comments on what's even more on the foundation.
And it's found in chapter one.
Verse 19.
For it pleased the Father, that in him should awfulness dwell, Speaking of the Lord Jesus, and having made peace through the blood of his cross.
By him to reconcile all things unto himself.
By him I say, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven.
And you who were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unbelievable, and unreprovable in his sight.
Keep your finger here.
I meant, and I want to do it now, but keep your finger here. We're going to return immediately after reading a verse in the Psalms.
Psalm, Chapter 85.
Psalm 85 and verse 10.
Mercy and truth.
Are met together.
Righteousness and peace.
Have kissed each other.
OK, now back to our chapter in Colossians.
What we read here in Colossians talks about a conflict between God and man.
Over the matter of righteousness.
We are naturally.
In conflict with God.
Over the matter of righteousness.
We sometimes resent.
God.
I'm speaking not as a Christian here, but man in nature we sometimes resent the way God deals with us.
Enmity, it says. That means ill will. There is an ill will between man and God. There is a constant conflict between man and God.
There's never peace in the relationship.
Because righteousness and peace go together in Scripture. If there's not righteousness, there will not be peace.
00:10:08
According to God.
And there isn't peace between God and man because there isn't a common acceptance of righteousness.
I want to use several illustrations because if this part of the message isn't understood.
Then I don't think the rest is going to mean very much.
When I was a boy.
My mother had a very strong rule in the house where I lived.
And that was all of us had to come to the meals.
Having washed our hands.
And most meals, My mother, when we got to the dinner table, she asked the question, Have you washed your hands?
After a while, if you hadn't, you usually didn't even answer, you just got up and went off to do it.
But against the record of my life.
I don't know how many times but.
A number of times there is sin recorded.
Over that matter.
Because sometimes when my mother said.
Have you washed your hands?
I answered yes out loud.
And under my breath I said yesterday.
That was sin.
And it was an issue of righteousness.
My mother had a rule.
And I didn't always like it.
At times, perhaps I resented it.
I thought my mother was saying something that was unnecessarily strong.
And it resulted in disobedience and lying in me.
That not only resulted in lying, but there were feelings within me.
Against my mother.
Because she insisted on something that I didn't fully agree with.
She was Mother. I didn't say it out loud, but the feeling was inside.
I didn't love righteousness in that.
I loved my own way.
I wanted my way.
And it put me in conflict.
Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the desire to have my own will.
Even if it's not God's will.
I noticed there's another example and it's not meant, although you some will find it a bit amusing, but it's not meant to be amusing, It's meant to show you and me to illuminate to us.
Sadly, the way we tend to be, even as believers.
And that's the point of this message in part, that we would thirst after righteousness and not be this way.
In practice.
I find it's in this matter I'm going to speak of. Much easier for me to appear righteous.
In Colorado.
Wyoming.
And Utah than it is in Illinois, where I come from.
And that's in the matter of speed limits.
I find that out here.
Typically for a given type of highway and road condition and so on.
The speed limit is typically 10 miles an hour faster.
Higher than where I come from.
I like that.
I like that.
So.
My will, my desire.
And that of these states fits together. Now, I suppose if I live here a while, that would change, because I'm not changed. When I move from one city or place to another, I carry myself with me.
00:15:10
But for a little while at least, it's nice out here speed wise.
But back home, where the rules are different.
There is that sense of do I have to, does it matter? And so on, because my will.
And the will of the lawmakers doesn't line up very well.
Suppose as another example.
Which some of you I know have heard, but if I put a yellow line down here on the floor in the front of the room.
And I say to you, don't cross the yellow line.
What do you want to do?
What do you want to do?
Who says so?
Who made the rule? Why does the rule exist?
What happens if I do?
Maybe I'll just cross it and find out.
That's lawlessness.
That's lawlessness.
That's a desire.
Against.
Righteousness.
And there's this constant conflict between man and God over the issue.
You can tell a man about the love of God.
You can tell a man he's a Sinner.
And it to some degree, it's hard to find a person that will say I'm not a Sinner.
No, everybody's a Sinner.
Usually a person, although they don't like the word Sinner, don't deny it, don't argue about it, they accept it.
Everybody is.
But it doesn't mean they want righteousness.
Why does God have to insist that we measure up to some standard called righteousness? Righteousness in a general way means acting consistent and proper with a relationship.
God has established a relationship with us. I had a relationship with my mother.
And my father.
We're all in relationships to the law and so on, and in those relationships there's a responsibility to act consistently.
But there's also innocent enmity and ill will when somebody is insisting on something that we don't agree with completely.
Marriages break apart over the issue.
Parents and their children get at odds with each other over the issue.
Because there is within us this so strong tendency and desire that we don't want to submit.
To righteousness.
Do we want our own way? And if God insists on it?
We would really like God to change.
We would really rather have a God.
That kind of agreed, we found some common ground that lowered the standard a little bit, perhaps to the level that we consider we could manage.
Because we don't want to come short.
We want to have an image of ourselves that measured up.
We want to think of ourselves as OK, a righteous.
But it isn't so.
And so, man, is that enmity with God, because God doesn't change because God doesn't.
Compromise the matter and come to some agreement with us or when we come short, say OK, I know you're doing the best you can.
So everything is OK.
No, he doesn't.
00:20:02
What's it say here that we read you were sometimes alienated and enemies?
In your mind.
That's what you were.
So what has God done?
So you changed the standard.
Has he accommodated us?
Has he given up being quite so righteous with us? No, he hasn't.
But does it say in verse 20 having made peace?
Through the blood.
Of his cross.
Righteousness and peace kissed each other.
At the cross.
God maintained his righteousness.
And for us, because he loves us, he did a work.
To establish between us peace on a foundation of righteousness.
He could not.
Compromise himself. He could not lower the standard of what's right.
Because we come short of it, because no one is righteous.
And so.
The Lord Jesus.
For God.
Established.
A righteousness.
For us.
Expensive.
Expensive.
You know, sometimes you do things and they're cheap.
Here it says, made peace through the blood.
Of his cross.
Cost the Lord Jesus his life.
To establish a way that there could be peace between God and man.
That cost him his life.
It was the cross involved.
Because man rejected it when it took place.
He didn't want it.
He didn't even thirst for it. He didn't say. Oh, it's wonderful. Man should have. If he had any sense of what it should have been. Men should have.
Quietly. Respectfully.
Accepted not with a cross, but the death of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to make peace.
Not only didn't accept it, he didn't look upon it respectfully, he said. We will not have this man away with him.
Now back to our reading meetings.
There is no ground of righteousness with God.
In the Adam race, none.
No man will ever be righteous.
As a child of Adam.
Only.
If he accepts the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because Adams Rice is.
At enmity. The nature of man is at enmity with God.
And only in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ can that problem be resolved.
And man can be made righteous with God.
And as a consequence.
Find peace.
With God.
Find peace on the ground of God's righteousness for him.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and we'll read starting at verse 17.
For if by one man's offense death reigned by one much more, they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.
00:25:07
Wherefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, Even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.
So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where the sin abounded, grace did much more abound, That as sin hath reigned unto death, Even so might grace.
Reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
The law entered verse 20 that the offense might abound.
That is, God gave man a set of rules to live by.
That if he lived by them, he could declare properly before God and say I keep the law that is my righteousness and God would accept that.
That is acceptable with God. If a man keeps the rules, he may call himself, and God accepts it as true that he is righteous.
Man's own righteousness he may have.
Sadly though, as we've been talking, no man has ever done it.
No man has his own righteousness as that measured up to God's standard.
So he falls short.
And sometimes people have solutions to the falling short and the idea is, well, yes, I do the best I can.
And then the Lord Jesus Christ does the rest for me.
And then I measure up to what God will accept.
It's not Scripture. That's not the thought of God.
But that's on the idea of man.
Here we learn without trying to explain it very much, because it's not the main point, but notice the wonderful words of verse 17.
The gift.
Of righteousness.
God has done a wonderful work through the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
That satisfies God in a way that he can say to us.
Now we can have peace because ioffer you the gift.
A righteousness.
And if you accept the gift of righteousness?
I will put to your account.
That you are righteous through the work of my son.
The word justification is that which God does to put righteousness on our account so that we stand righteous before God in the work of Christ.
And we receive it as a gift.
And it's permanent. It's perfect. It's eternal.
In that way, God will forever look upon us as righteous.
In his eyes, through that mighty work of the cross, it's our position in Christ before God now, as righteous in him before God. And so when God looks at us through Christ, he says he's righteous, she's righteous, and it will never change. It's permanent. It's eternal.
Verse 21 Says as sin reigned unto death.
Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord through righteousness. I believe here means grace reigns on the foundation of righteousness.
God establishes that foundation of righteousness and then acts in grace to bring us into the benefit of it.
And so grace reigns through that righteousness unto eternal life to us. And so we have not only the gift of righteousness, but we have the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Our Lord.
And so God is justified.
00:30:03
He's just in granting life as he says in verse 18 unto all men.
There is that for all of us to be made right.
And have the right to life.
With God.
This is an address to believers, says young Christians. And so we address you on the ground that you've received that gift.
But I'll just stop and say if you haven't.
Your unrighteous.
And if you die in that condition, you will be forever separated from God.
There will never be peace between you and God.
Solemn, isn't it?
You may have heard it 1000 times before, but God, in love to your soul, has told you once more this afternoon.
That you might be serious in your need.
And don't expect God to accommodate your sinfulness, God to accommodate your desire to have your own will.
But.
Except you are in need of the righteousness of God in Christ.
Now turn with me.
To first Peter.
Chapter 2.
First Peter, Chapter 2.
First Peter chapter 2 and verse 24, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
By whose stripes?
Ye are healed.
Do you do I appreciate.
That Jesus Christ took our sins on himself.
And bore them in his own body.
On the tree.
In our measure, we all do.
But do we embrace the rest of the verse?
That we being dead to sin we had this morning yesterday in the reading meetings.
That we are to be treat ourselves to recognize how God treats us. That we're dead.
Unto sins.
The sinful nature has been condemned and we're to put it in thought and practice in that place of death.
So he goes on, Peter goes on to say that we should live.
Unto righteousness.
That's the particular burden of my soul.
We live in a society.
That is so.
Unrighteous and ungodly.
That it is as easy to pick up the ways of.
The environment in which we live, almost as it is to breathe in the environment.
It is so easy to pick up the attitude unconsciously.
That we do not live.
A truly before the eye of God. Righteous life, dear young believer.
It's a foundation of life. It's a rock that needs to have the thirst in our souls to live it every day.
We can live for 50 years in the path of the Christian faith. We can have total understanding of our righteousness before God.
And yet, unconsciously.
Live a little unrighteous.
00:35:01
A little below the mark.
You know, we had that, the standard.
God's standard is always consistent with himself.
We can say just like the people around us that we would condemn and say no, you can't go to heaven.
By doing the best you can and then having the Lord Jesus come in and do the rest.
But you know, in principle.
Unconscious, perhaps we can say.
Or act out the thought that.
No, I'm not perfect.
But thank God his grace will take care of the rest.
Thank God, the grace of God will make up in my Christian life where I come short.
Of the mark. In principle we are doing the same thing.
We are setting a standard that suits us.
In our daily, practical, everyday lives. And then we're counting on the grace of God to take care of the difference, to make up for it.
It's not.
It's not the life of Christ.
He loved righteousness he hated.
Lawlessness. God has given to us that life that loves righteousness and hates lawlessness.
And would desire of us to walk it carefully, prayerfully, dependently, daily.
The grace of God does not set aside righteousness.
In the first place, the grace of God has brought us into God's favor through the work of Christ on the cross.
But in our daily lives, it's the grace of God that works in us to enable us.
To walk consistent with our God.
To the full extent.
Of that consistency which was in the Lord Jesus Christ, do we fall short? Yes, we do.
But let us not lower the standard. Let us not dishonor God.
By living a little carelessly.
Because it's easy. Because everybody does it.
I don't want to make an issue with this, I'm not trying to make any comments about speed.
It's just an easy example, that's all.
But I'll tell you touch my conscience and it happened many years ago and it's still on my conscience at times.
But I was behind a brother going to meeting one time.
And I thought he was driving awful slow.
You seem to be driving awful slow.
When I looked at my speedometer and oh, he's driving the speed limit.
I watched him.
I saw that it was the habit of his life.
To be righteous.
In what?
Who is?
That's the thought. That's the attitude. Come on, let's not be too careful. Again, I'm only using that as an example because it touches my conscience. Maybe it touches yours. Maybe it's that which enables you to see.
The bigger picture.
Of what's at stake here?
Now turn over with me to second Peter.
Chapter 2.
Second Peter.
Chapter 2.
There are certain places in the Word of God in which.
The day in which we live particularly is brought before us. Second Peter, two and three. Second Timothy, Jude.
And so on are such places.
We're going to read a little bit in Second Peter Chapter 2, and we're going to see how in the day in which we live, how significant is the fundamental issue.
00:40:03
Of righteousness.
Peter says, but there were false prophets come in among the people.
Even as there shall be false prophets among you.
Who privily shall bring in damnable heresies and so on. The point in the first verse is simply that we're talking about in a general sense in Second Peter 2 about people within the profession of Christianity.
We'll see that in many cases there's not reality. It's a profession only, but they're within the what we would call the Christian profession or Christendom.
And.
They kind of bring in in a sly way.
Things that are wrong.
And dishonouring to God, it says in verse two, many shall follow.
Maybe we condemn them in a general way, but follow them in a small way without even knowing it, because it becomes so pervasive and common.
But as Peter says, God didn't lower the standard. God didn't change what he expected of man when the angels in verse 4.
Sandy didn't spare them.
In verse five, he didn't spare the old world. That's the world before Noah. From Adam to Noah. He didn't spare it.
But he saved Noah verse 5A, preacher of righteousness.
By God's grace, there was a man that did live righteously in an unrighteous world. He didn't spare that world, but he did spare that one righteous man and his family.
Then he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah and verse seven he delivered.
Just lot.
Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man, you know we tend to put lot down.
Because he wasn't Abraham.
We tend to put Lot down because he didn't live a separated life.
But I want to give a good word of warning here.
It strikes my conscience when I see lot mentioned here as righteous.
Abraham lived in separation and righteousness.
Not lived righteously, but not in separation.
But there's a third possibility.
And that's to live in separation without righteousness.
That's the one that speaks to my own soul.
It's one thing to take an outside, separated place.
Not be lot in that way.
But then live a life.
Where the conscience is not tender toward God, as Lot's was about that which was inconsistent with what is honorable and proper before God.
So he goes on to say.
Of those verse 13 who shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, there's a reward for being unrighteous. We won't comment much on it, but it's there. You can read it.
And then it says in verse 14 having eyes full of adultery.
Verse 15 which have forsaken.
The right way?
And then it goes on and speaks also about covetousness. Two things that were commented on this morning in the reading meeting adultery or fornication and covetousness. Those are characteristics of lawlessness.
Those are the characteristics that are the opposite of thirsting and hungering.
After righteousness.
In the sight of God.
You have Balaam.
Brought out here and it says in the end of verse 15 who love the wages.
Of unrighteousness.
00:45:02
He loved what he could get.
By being unrighteous.
We sometimes will bend a little bit. Strict righteousness.
At least some of us might.
To gain something.
To gain something.
You know, we've been hearing the last couple of days about.
Benjamin JA in West Bengal, India.
His life is on the line.
Because he won't give up.
A matter of righteousness.
He's put his life on the line. He's put his wife's life on the line, He's put his children's life on the line.
Because.
In righteousness, he will not contribute to a community fund.
Because it's in support of a Hindu festival.
And the idol involved in it.
But it's so easy to say. Oh, I'll give a little bit.
And then everything will be at peace. But what would he sacrifice?
Righteousness.
And so here.
Verse 19 It says. Verse 18 Whom they when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh. Verse 19 While they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.
That.
Is we live in a culture in a world that promises liberty?
By people who are slaves of that which they promise.
Man is a slave of his own lawlessness. He promises liberty. Do this, do that. Have fun.
And what is the expense?
He's a slave.
Of the very things that he wants you and I to treat as exercises of liberty.
The warning to us verse 20 after they escape the pollutions of the world. Speaking of some.
Like some of us in this room who have escaped to some measure the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Knowledge of truth, knowledge that's gained in a meetings like this and at home, has its beneficial effect in an outward way at least, and should have its effect on the heart.
That has a preservative character to it.
They it says verse 21. It would have been better for some that have known that and then go back.
And say no, I want the world.
It says it would have been better if they had not known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from it.
Solemn, isn't it?
A true believer will not lose his life or his righteousness before God. But if there's a professor in this room and you turn away from what you're hearing in these meetings and you say I want the world, it would have been better for you never to have known.
What you heard here, it'll only make your ultimate judgment that much more serious and severe for you.
Now finally, let's turn over to one last verse.
And on a positive note.
In second Timothy.
Chapter.
3.
Chapter 4.
These may be at least they're near, if not the last words of the Apostle Paul in his own life.
I want to encourage you and I.
To have the same desire that the apostle Paul.
Had and believed concerning himself.
At the end of his life.
You know, it was so sad at home.
The other day there was some reading on. I guess it was. No, it wasn't the other day. It was Wednesday night in Colorado Springs. The reading meeting was in First Kings and it had to do with Solomon.
00:50:04
And it says these words about Solomon, this fantastic king, and all the glory and honor that was his and his Kingdom. But then it says and when he was old.
When he was old, he knew it all, He had it all. He was blessed of God in everything. But when it was all his life was coming along toward the latter parts of it, it says when he became old.
He went after.
Strange women and spoiled the testimony of his life. And it says he was not perfect before God. May God preserve us from that and may we go on. Young people start out that way and in that way, as Paul could say in verse 7.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith, the Christian faith, henceforth what there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
Which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love is appearing.
Right now, as it's often said, righteousness suffers because it's an unrighteous world.
The Lord Jesus who loved righteousness and hated iniquity, God says, I'm going to put in your hand the scepter of righteousness and I'm going to have you reign in that character over the earth.
You shall reign in righteousness.
And there will be those who are living on earth today who at that time will wear a crown of righteousness because they embraced it.
They lived it out.
As Peter encourages.
That, and Paul knew he was going to receive it. He kept the faith.
He had fought the fight.
He'd gone against this current, if you will, and he says there's going to be for me a crown of righteousness.
It's impossible for me, of course, to know.
But with all my heart, I'm quite confident.
That I'm going to see some of you someday.
At the appearing.
Wearing that crown.
Would to God it was all of us.
Wouldn't it be wonderful?
Young people.
Don't.
Put your life in a practical way. Live it out. Don't compromise it. Don't give it up.
In the measure in which you walk in it, you will walk in peace, practically speaking, in a daily way with God. The moment you give it up, there's going to renew that tension. Even though your soul saved, there will be that tension.
We don't live in peace with each other.
That lasts on any other ground.
And living with one another on the ground of righteousness. And it's honoring to God He delights in it.
Tells us in Proverbs he He finds pleasure. You might say, what can I do for the Lord?
That's commonly asked question. Every single one of us in this room can please God, can please the Lord Jesus by living a daily life.
That is consistent.
With God.
In righteousness and enjoy it.
Last comment I would make is that thank God he's given us a life.
That delights.
Delights in willing obedience.
The life of Christ.
The life of willing obedience, happy obedience. May we embrace it.
Or God in.