GOD, I THANK THEE, THAT I AM NOT AS OTHER MEN ARE While mowing the lawn a few weeks ago, I was praying and thinking about our church family and what the Lord would have me preach on after concluding the series on “Love in the Life of the Believer.” Two thoughts came to mind. First, the thought occurred to me that there are many words in the Bible that we do not use in our day-to-day conversations so we might not always understand what they mean. The second thought was this—I don’t know if you’ve been taught what they mean because I don’t know what you were taught before I came here! Those two thoughts impressed upon my heart the need to start looking at some of these Bible terms and rather than assuming you know what they mean, teach you what God’s Word says about them. The first one we are going to look at is the concept of “righteous” and “righteousness.” Why is it important to know what these words mean? Romans 3:10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…;” Romans 10:3 “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Matthew 5:20 “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Romans 10:3 declares that we can be ignorant of God’s righteousness and go about trying to establish our own; Matthew 5:20 says our righteousness must be greater than the righteousness of the Pharisees if we are to get into heaven at all! Understanding what these words mean, then, can literally be the difference between life in heaven with God—or life in hell without Him! This morning we are going to focus on the idea of “self-righteousness” and we have a well-known example of that in Luke 18:9-14. 1. The definition of righteous “Righteous” comes from the Greek word dikaios and is used in reference to men, God, Jesus, and sometimes things. When used of men, it carries two ideas. A. Righteous in regards to obeying the laws of men A righteous man is honest, law-abiding, and upright. Stated another way, he does what is right—he is faultless and guiltless. Can someone obey the laws of the land perfectly? Sure; someone can always pay their bills and taxes and obey all the traffic rules and signs—even if a policeman is not watching! Consider this, though—if a person keeps the laws of men perfectly, does that make them a perfect person? It doesn’t, does it? If a man is a perfect driver, but cusses under his breath because of all the “idiots” he has to share the road with and is jealous of his neighbor’s car and his neighbor’s wife, is he a perfect person? He’s not, is he? In other words, we can be righteous regarding the laws of the land, but not be righteous—guiltless and faultless—in God’s sight. A second way “righteous” is used of men is B. Righteous in regards to obeying the laws of God Notice what Paul says of his background in Philippians 3. Philippians 3:5-6 “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”
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