Wisdom and Righteousness
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to Proverbs chapter 1. We have spent our summer in the Proverbs the past couple of months working through it.
We've made it all the way to chapter 1. And Proverbs is a collection of wisdom sayings, and so we've approached it differently than when we usually work through a book of the Bible. Usually, you know, the book of the Bible progresses intentionally. Proverbs has some stuff that kind of anchors it at the beginning, some stuff that anchors it at the end. But we've walked through kind of topically addressing some of the ideas that Proverbs addresses over and over.
And so today we're going to finish up our series in the book of Proverbs talking about righteousness. So at the beginning of Proverbs, we read this section in chapter 1, and we said that some of what the Proverbs is getting at is that it wants us to grow in wisdom and that it's going to teach us how to be wise, that it's going to develop us in wisdom. And as we read through it, we got to Proverbs 1-7 that says this, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. And so the beginning of growing in wisdom is that we would actually fear the Lord, that we would trust Him.
In some ways, God's coming and saying, This is how to live in the world to enjoy the world I created. In some ways, it's like unboxing a board game, and then you get the instructions out and you read, How do I play this board game? You don't unbox it and go, Instructions are for losers and throw those away and then say, Let's do this. And so what He's doing is He's saying, I created the world. Let me give you wisdom on how to live in it and live in it well. And so He says some things we don't necessarily agree with, and so that's where we begin with the fear of the Lord.
That we trust Him. That we want to honor Him and obey Him and that we want to follow Him. And so that when He tells us how to live and to live well, we listen. That's the beginning of wisdom. But if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and we follow through and listen to wisdom, the end of wisdom is righteousness.
It says that in chapter 1. It says that twice in chapter 2. I want to show you Proverbs 2.9. It says basically if you listen, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path. Or Proverbs 2.20, it's saying again, if you listen, it says, So that you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. That if we follow wisdom, we walk in righteousness.
If you go to the school of wisdom, you graduate with a degree in righteousness. If wisdom is your sensei, you get a black belt in righteousness. Now, that's how that works. And so that as we've talked through all the things we've talked through over the course of the summer, which has been a good bit. We've talked about parenting, manhood, womanhood, friendship, words, anger, money, work, decision making, sexual purity, lying. If you're like me, as I read through that list, you had a little PTSD because some of those weeks weren't that fun.
We've walked through these things and we've said this is what wisdom looks like. We could have also just said this is what righteousness looks like. This is how to live rightly in God's world. But as we finish up the book of Proverbs, we want to develop our understanding of righteousness a little better. So that we can really appreciate and kind of understand what it's calling us to.
Because the reality is we have kind of a natural draw, a desire for wisdom that I think is a little distinct from our desire for righteousness. Here's what I mean. If we said, hey, would you like wisdom? You'd say, yes. I'd love wisdom. I'd love to be wise.
And if we came and said, hey, would you like righteousness? You'd be like, sure. I guess. What do you mean? Where? How much?
Like, what are we talking about? What do you mean by righteousness? How's that going to affect my life? There's this general, it's a little bit like chivalry sometimes the way we use the word righteousness. You kind of know what it means. And you know that people used to care about it a lot.
But you're not sure how it affects you. And y'all know that since I'm a pastor, I'm supposed to care about it and talk about it. But I'm not even sure I'm doing it right because I'm a Baptist pastor in the South. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to pronounce it like righteousness. You really got to grab the word and break all the syllables out of it. You know, you got to shake them out to get to really talking about it the way you're supposed to.
There's this general sense of like, what do we mean by righteousness? What? How does that benefit me? And in some ways, what God is doing when he teaches us wisdom, he's calling us into righteousness. And it's not that Toto ran around and pulled the curtain back for us. But that God himself is pulling the curtain back and saying, do y'all want what's good in life?
Do y'all want to see how I designed this? Do you want to have joy? Do you want to have hope? Do you want to have security? Do you want to have things work out well for you? Then come follow me in wisdom and righteousness.
It makes things better. Wickedness usually works well short term. Makes things easier quickly. Righteousness, we're told, often makes things more difficult at first, but then ultimately leads us to life and betterness. And that's what he's saying. The other thing is I think we have a vague picture of righteousness that affects us.
We don't have as clear a picture as we should. But my wife and I, when we first got married, we started watching through the Band of Brothers, which is a TV show. We had borrowed a DVD box set from my brother because that's how you used to watch things if you were going to watch them. You often bought box sets. It used to be VHSs. We had DVDs because they were moving up in the world.
And so we were watching this DVD box set of the Band of Brothers, and we were thoroughly enjoying it. And it worked really well for us for the first couple of episodes until they went to war. And when they went to war, we ceased to be able to watch. Not because it was too violent, but because my wife could no longer follow the story. Because they were all wearing the same uniform. They all had on helmets.
All of their faces were dirty. And she could no longer tell who was who. She was using other clues to know. Haircuts. Hair color. But like we would have these discussions all the time where she would go, wait a second, wait a second.
Why did he just kill his best friend? I'm like, who killed? What are you talking about? Who's best friend? His best friend. He just killed him.
They were best friends. I was like, wait, wait, the guy that just died? She's like, yeah. This is a legit conversation we had. I said, he was a German soldier. We just met that guy.
She was like, no, that's the guy from... I was like, no, it's not. She would get surprised because people would come back from the dead. She'd be like, I thought that guy died. I'd be like, what guy? She'd be like, that guy.
I'm like, that guy just showed up. It was tearing our young family apart. So we just had to give up on it. We watched the Marvel movies work really well for us because Captain America and Iron Man don't look anything alike. It's easy to keep up with. And so whatever she uses to categorize people, it apparently isn't like nuanced faces.
Which I'd like to think I was handsome, but I married a person who doesn't even notice faces, so I don't know. But she had a general picture of each person and then when they became too similar. And I think in some ways that's the way we are with righteousness. If someone asked you to define righteousness, you'd be like, you know, doing right. And if they pressed you, you'd eventually kind of usually flip it to just saying negative statements. And not negative like righteousness is bad, but we define it by what righteousness doesn't do.
Well, you know, you don't lie and you don't pursue like sexual sin. You don't sleep around and you don't, you know, like cuss or chew tobacco. I don't know. There's a lot of things you don't do and that makes you righteous. And if that's your only definition, some of you own old dogs that would make excellent Christians. Because they don't do anything.
But righteousness has to be more robust than that. What God's calling us to has to be a bigger picture. And when he calls us into wisdom and he calls us into righteousness, we need to have a better definition. And so that's the hope this morning is that we would have a more full definition of righteousness. And the first thing I want us to see as Proverbs paints this picture up for us is that righteousness has a social aspect. That it is not simply personal morality.
That is a part of righteousness, but it's not simply personal morality. Let's look at Proverbs 11, 10. Proverbs 29, 10. To benefit those around them. It is not simply that they're personally going to do what is right, but there's some benefit to being surrounded by, being led by, being cared for by the righteous. That if you are righteous, it's not just a benefit to you personally as you relate to the Lord.
It is that it begins with a fear of the Lord, but that in some ways God then commissions us in righteousness to be his agents in the world to make the world better through righteousness. Through doing what is right. Not simply not doing what is wrong. Now the wicked do what's wrong and they harm others, but the righteous do what is right and they benefit others. Bruce Waltke, who we've used his commentary. Goodness, that word just ran out of my head.
Commentary on the Proverbs throughout this series says this. He says, That's a helpful, memorable way to understand how righteousness and unrighteousness work. How wickedness and righteousness work. That righteousness will disadvantage, the righteous will disadvantage themselves to advantage those around them. To make things better for those around them. That they'll go out of their way.
They'll take up their time. They'll take up their money. Their energy will be spent at their own expense to benefit others. And the wicked do the exact opposite. They're trying to figure out how they can get out of others to benefit themselves. That's a really good, simple test for am I living righteously in my relationships?
Am I trying to advantage myself out of this relationship? Is it about what I get out of it? Or am I disadvantaging myself for the sake of my roommate? For the sake of my friends? For the sake of my spouse? One of the only places we do this very easily and clearly and have some of the most joy and some of the best relationships is with children.
Parents to children naturally do this because you just have to disadvantage yourself for the sake of your children. And you'll notice that you really love your children. You've been around parents and they adore their children. And their children are the worst. You've seen their children and you're like, what? But that's because they've set themselves to act righteously in that relationship.
Where they are disadvantaging themselves for the advantage of the others. And the truth is we can have joy and righteousness in all relationships if we'll approach it that way. So that's why it says, when the righteous increase, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people groan. I want to show you a couple places that it shows up. Proverbs 12, 26.
One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor. But the way of the wicked leads them astray. So that by righteousness, those who are around you benefit. That if you work with righteous people, it's not just that they show up and do what they're supposed to. They do. But they make the whole place better.
All the people around them benefit. They help others. They give extra time to work on projects that aren't theirs. They stay late to help fix things that they didn't cause. They disadvantage themselves for the advantage of others. That's righteousness at work.
That if you live in a neighborhood with righteous people, it's not just that they tend to their own stuff and they mind their own business. They do. But they also help tend to the things around them. They keep an eye on things. They care for other people. That's righteousness at work.
Proverbs 29, 7 says, A righteous man knows the rights of the poor. A wicked man does not understand such knowledge. The poor, as a whole class, aren't much benefit to anyone. The only way historically people have benefited from the poor was to enslave them. To take away what they had and use it for their own gain. But it says, The righteous knows that what makes you valuable isn't what you offer.
It's not how I can take advantage of you. That's not where value comes. That you have rights intrinsically. And the righteous understand that, but the wicked don't. So the righteous care about those that are around them.
Care about those that can't pay for things. Care about those who can't get along on their own. Care about those who are weak and who are poor and who are in trouble. One of the ways to understand if we are righteous as an individual or as a church is, Do we care about the poor? Do we care about those who are hurting around us? Or is it just, If you can carry your own weight, great, you're welcome.
And if you can't, Sorry. It's one way to understand the righteousness of your group. Is does your group rally around those who are hurting and disadvantage themselves for their sake to help them? Or do they just get overwhelmed by them and burdened by them and bothered with them? It's not just the poor. It says this, Proverbs 12, 10, Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, But the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
That the righteous are a benefit to everything that's around them. They care for their animals. They tend to their animals. They love their animals, even if they don't like their animals. One of the tests of righteousness is how do you respond when you are the one in power? How do you respond when you're the one in control of the situation?
How do you respond? Not when you're an employee, but when you're a boss. When you're the supervisor. When you're the older sibling. How do you respond in the situations in your marriage and in your friendships and in your roommate situations where you're the one who has the most control and the most say? Does your strength benefit those that are below you?
Does your wisdom benefit those that are unwise? Does your money benefit those that don't have money? That's righteousness. That it's not simply I behave and don't do the things I'm supposed to don't do. But it's actually that we're at work as agents of the Lord to benefit those around us.
So the righteous benefit and care for those that they have the opportunity to care for. The option to care for they do. The other thing that the righteous do is they oppose wickedness. Proverbs 12, 6. It says the words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them. Proverbs 20, 26.
A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them. That wisdom and righteousness at work oppose wickedness. And it's difficult to oppose wickedness. Proverbs 24, 24 and 25 says, Whoever says to the wicked you are in the right will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations. But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them.
But so often the wicked are very difficult to deal with. They're problematic. They cause drama. They lie. It's often much more easy to appease the wicked than it is to stand up to the wicked. It's often much more easy to convince the other nice people around you to help you appease the wicked rather than to stand up to the wicked.
I was reading recently a story of a husband and wife. They were getting a divorce and the husband had basically led the family into this through a lot of rebellion and sin. And then as they were going through the divorce, the husband was doing absolutely everything he could to destroy the wife. Borrowed heavily against their house. Quit making payments on the house. Eventually locked her out of the house.
Took all the kids' toys away. Locked them up. Lied to the kids about the mom. Was trying to get her saddled with a lot of debt. Was just, I mean, at every turn was doing everything he possibly could to cause problems. And the wife has a lawyer.
The wife has a therapist. The kids have a therapist. They're working through all this. And the guy who was one of the therapists in this situation said that as he was dealing with the wife later on, he began to realize that everybody around her, although they knew the husband was wrong, was telling her, why don't you just meet him halfway? Why don't we just, like, let's just try to work this out with him. The banks, the police, the lawyers, the people who were dealing with the therapy for the children were saying, well, look, can't we just, and the reason was she was easier to deal with than he was.
And eventually, the guy who's writing this book said he asked one of the people, why didn't you say all this about how he'd handled the children? And they said, look, frankly, I just didn't want to have to deal with it. I didn't want him attacking me. And the truth is, isn't that how it works? You have someone in your family who causes problems, and it's just much easier to tell everybody else in the family, can't y'all just deal with it rather than us standing up to this person? You got someone at work that causes problems.
You got a boss, a supervisor, and it's like, isn't it easier to just do what they ask? Can't we all just, let's just bear with it rather than standing up to them? The reality is the righteous step in at great cost to themselves to defend the weak. Most people who stand up to bullies end up with a bloody nose. That's just how it works. And there are times where you, in the midst of righteousness, should end up not getting a promotion because you stood up to somebody for the sake of others, not just for your own name and your own pride, and I'm going to make sure I look awesome.
That's not what this is talking about. But that you did some work that took some backbone to stand in righteousness, to defend and to care, and it's hard to do. So the righteous care for those around them, they benefit those around them, they defend those around them, and they care for the long-term souls of those around them. Proverbs 11, 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Whoever captures souls is wise.
Now the tree of life, in the scriptures, is the tree that gives eternal life. And so then it says capturing souls, and what this is saying is that the righteous help others live eternally. It keeps going. It says again in Proverbs 24, 10 through 12, it says, If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, Behold, we did not know this. Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work? Part of what the righteous does is that they step in in the day of adversity and take on some difficulty for the sake of carrying and defending. Now, that proverb includes things like World War II.
To step in in the day of adversity to help those who are being carried to the slaughter. But for us, who have been sent with a mission to see people redeemed from hell and wrath because of their unrepentant sin, it also includes your co-workers that work the night shift with you who are stumbling to the slaughter and that later we can't say, well, I didn't really know that we were meant to care for their souls. That includes those that live in your neighborhood. That it includes those that go to class with you. That it includes those in your community group who are choosing sin currently over loving Jesus.
And it's so much easier to just say, well, let's love them. Let's be nice to them. Let's hope they figure that out rather than to sit them down and say, you are wrong and you're headed in the wrong direction and we love you enough to oppose you because you're stumbling to the slaughter. As the chorus of America says, if you say anything to correct them, you don't love them. We have to fear the Lord and trust His wisdom and stand in the way even though it's difficult and it costs us. As the chorus of America sings that you should mind your own business and not try to convert people and not try to get in their way to talk to them about the Lord and not harass people and not do any of these things that they're going to add these labels to and that somehow we're oppressing people by helping them submit to Jesus.
And we'd say, I don't care. I can't let people stumble to the slaughter. I can't stand before the Lord later and say, I didn't know because I knew. I knew. It says, does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it and will he not repay man according to his word? Now, as the Proverbs paints up for us and fills in for us what righteousness looks like and as we've done this this whole time being called into wisdom and as we've been called into wisdom been called into repentance and righteousness.
I don't know about you but it turns out I'm a sinner. Some of these weeks were very difficult. There were weeks where in preparation I had to repent before I could get up here and even say these things. I had to continue repenting afterwards. We talked about parenting. Manhood and womanhood.
Friendship. Words. The rejection of correction and the pursuit of foolishness. We talked about anger. Money. Work.
Decision making. Sexual purity. And honesty. And we've looked further today at what righteousness looks like and I'm inclined to say I don't think I'm righteous. And maybe that's what you're thinking. I may not be righteous.
I don't know if I'm doing this. Honestly, when righteousness was just don't do bad things I didn't even do that. I just picked some of the bad things I didn't do and tried to act like those were the most important. But as soon as it becomes I've got to defend people and I've got to care for those around me and every time I'm in a position of power I'm supposed to use it to defend and care for those who are disadvantaged around me. I'm supposed to be disadvantaged to advantage them. I don't know if I'm righteous.
And if that's you and if that's been you throughout this series that you've consistently come face to face with your own foolishness and sin I'll have something that might make you feel a little better. The New Testament also talks about this. Romans 3 says this. Next one. As it is written none is righteous no not one. You're not righteous but at least you were right about not being righteous.
That make you feel better? You're not big capital R right but you were right about this. Thank goodness for small victories. that the reality is as we come face to face with our sin we aren't righteous. And so then you go okay hold on a second what's it say next? Because our general tendency is okay then I better get it together. I better get to work.
Some of us as we've come through this series that some of your response is okay I'm going to get to work I'm going to do this better I've been bad at it but I'm going to do better I just need more of me and the problem is as you found that as you pressed into I need more of me is that the problem was you so more of you makes it more better. So this is what it says next. It doesn't say get to work. It says this Romans 3 20 is 10 verses later it says for by works of the law no human being will be justified justified in his sight to be justified means to be made right. No human being will be righteous in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
So we've seen more of what he wants from us and what did we see? More of where we sin. Through the law comes knowledge of sin the more we've seen what he desires of us the more we've seen oh I didn't realize that was a category look at that it's like at the end if you started school and then at the end of the semester when they gave out grades there were a couple classes you didn't realize you were supposed to be taking so you have F's in them. That's what this feels like sometimes you're reading the Bible and you're like oh look at that I'm failing at other things I didn't even realize that was a class I was supposed to be in.
That's what this feels like sometimes you're reading the Bible and you're like oh look at that I'm failing at other things I didn't even realize that was a class I was supposed to be in. For some of us that's a nightmare. You have a recurring one of those where you realize it's the end of the semester and you didn't realize you were in that class and sometimes that's what the Bible's like it's like oh I didn't even realize that was a thing. But by works of the law no one is made righteous
Which means that you cannot leave here and go okay I'm going to get bigger I'm going to get better I'm going to get stronger I'm going to do this I'm going to find out give me the rules I'll do them. The reality is what you will find is that maybe you can keep that going for a while but what it ends up doing is leading you into further sin and further seeing your sin or that becomes so unbearable you cease to be able to see your sin and you begin
To convince yourself you're fine and you begin to promote your own self-righteousness which is not the righteousness of God so how do we become righteous well the New Testament has more to say than just this we become righteous through Jesus Christ the righteous who actually perfectly embodies righteousness he fears the Lord and submits to his Father and comes sent by him he says this multiple times that I do the will
Of the Father a thing that we're incapable of doing at least consistently and perfectly that he has perfect personal morality that he's tempted in every way that we are but he's without sin that he does not sin that he does not pursue sin that he was a blessing to those who were around him and every time he came into contact with someone who needed something from him who was downhill from him
He blessed and cared for and worked in that he opposes the wicked personally in his day to the point of them killing him and ultimately eternally to the point of facing off with Satan sin and hell taking the keys from death and ultimately crushing death through the power of the resurrection so that he rules forever because he defends the weak
And opposes wickedness and that he has a day of wrath that is coming for the wicked and he cares about the souls of those on earth that he so cares about your soul and the fact that you're stumbling to the slaughter that he would come and not stumble to the slaughter but walk headlong into it that he would set his face towards Jerusalem so that his disciples
Would say come let's go die with him that he would ultimately be sacrificed brutally beaten murdered and die so that the unrighteous could be made righteous by the blood and the work and the resurrection of Christ the hope is not that the book of Proverbs would give you wisdom so that that's
All you'd need and you could walk out of here and get it together the hope is that the book of Proverbs would get you wisdom so that you would fall at the feet of the Lord in fear that he might rescue and redeem you so Galatians 2 says this yet we know that a person is not justified made righteous by works of the law
But through faith in Jesus Christ so we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified you are not good enough Jesus is that's why it's good news there's a thing that we have the Baptists do they go to
Schools and they have a thing after school called the good news club it's not the good behavior club if it were Baptists wouldn't be allowed in it this isn't the good behavior club we don't gather on Sunday to grow in good behavior we gather to grow in good news and we gather at times
To see our sins so that we would more dearly love our Savior that we would have the wounds from a friend that would lead us to redemption and to joy and to hope and to worship that's why we raise our hand and sing that he redeemed us that he saved us that he rescued us I once was
Dead in sin alone and hopeless that's a weird thing to sing y'all y'all ready to sing something good I deserve to die I'm the worst yeah but then we get to the joy of a risen Savior who so loved us that he would die for us and do you want to know the primary thing that the Proverbs have to say about
Righteousness I want to show you two more passages in the New Testament and then I want us to see that it says 1 Corinthians 1 30 it says because of him you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God the wisdom from God righteousness he became
To us righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that it is written let the one who boasts boast in the Lord that we would walk out of here today and people would say are you righteous and you wouldn't go yeah because I took the Proverbs class and I got it together you'd walk out of here and go yeah because Jesus is great let's go get some chicken and have some lunch
He's good I have hope that we ought to see our sin we ought to be broken of our sin and then we might turn to see that Jesus became for us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification which means he makes us good and redemption which means he gets rid of all of our old bad then he pulls us out of it and then we might boast in the Lord we would praise Jesus because he saves sinners
That we really can sing a song that's I'm the worst Jesus is great thank you Lord 2nd Corinthians 521 says for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God Jesus Christ came to redeem you so that at the end of all eternity he might be praised not you so that as you try to get it together and you say what he really wants from me is to get it together so that I might stand in front of him later and have
Done this and that's to the praise of your own glory but he made him to be sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God through the work of Christ to the praise of his glorious grace and his name for all eternity you say well I'm a terrible sinner yes he's a glorious savior let's praise him for all eternity I shouldn't be in heaven no you shouldn't and that honors and glorifies Christ who can redeem a sinner like you so that he receives glory but do you want to know the primary thing that the
Proverbs has to say about the righteous says it 28 times the righteous endure the righteous make it to the end and in Christ that is fully forever true for you you can read the Proverbs it'll tell you 28 times if you've been made righteous by Christ you will not be lost you will not be crushed you will not be defeated not because you're good enough or you're strong enough but because Jesus is good enough and he's strong enough and you are in him if you climbed in a tank and then bulldozed through the city you wouldn't say look at how
Strong I am you would say look at how great this tank is and we have climbed in Christ and in his righteousness he bulldozes through everything and gets us to the end Proverbs 24 15 says lie not in weight as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous do not do no violence to his home for the righteous fall seven times and rises again but the wicked stumble in times of calamity you know the righteous have seven lives some of you are like I've fallen I'm in the middle of sin I'm broken I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this you can find anybody
In this church has been following Jesus for some time and they'll go yeah I was there in 1992 yeah I felt that in 2002 yeah I thought that last year but the righteous fall and rise again because Jesus fell and rose again and ultimately we will rise again Proverbs 10 25 when the tempest passes the wicked is no more but the righteous is established forever Proverbs 10 27 the fear of the Lord prolongs life but the years of the wicked will be short Proverbs 10 30 the righteous will never be removed but the wicked will not dwell in the land Proverbs 12 7 the wicked are overthrown and are no more but the house of the righteous will stand 28 times
The righteous will stand the righteous will make it the righteous will not fall the wicked will be destroyed and one day there will be a kingdom that belongs to the righteous those made righteous by Christ and we will stand forever to the glory of Christ may we grow in wisdom by loving Jesus and following him in righteousness and freedom now this wisdom is practical and it's helpful and the hope is that you would live a life of wisdom and righteousness in your relationships that you would live a life of wisdom and righteousness confessing your sexual sin confessing your anger confessing and repenting of lying that you would walk in wisdom and righteousness so that you might be a good agent of Christ on earth
Disadvantaging yourself to the advantage of others which he ultimately did fully and beautifully in the cross that we might be righteous people and we might be the type of free righteous people who do not have to be righteous on our own to be okay so that we are free and enjoy following Christ and at times mourning our sins so that we might more fully praise the Savior band's going to come back up and as we close the book of Proverbs the hope is that we would see our sin so that we would repent and be redeemed and be rescued that he would become to you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption and salvation and king do not leave thinking I'm good enough I'll be okay do not leave thinking well I'm not good enough but I can get there leave in Christ made good
Through his work to his glory for all eternity that you might stand with the unconquerable righteous redeemed of Christ because Christ is the unconquerable righteous king and you come to him by faith which means you ask him to save you you come to him by faith saying I trust that you did this and I trust that my hopes in you you come to him by faith not works the only reason you'd bring a resume was to show why you shouldn't be included so that he might take it and cover it by his grace to the praise of his glorious name we get to endure forever let's pray God I pray that nobody would leave here unrighteous because righteousness is given to those who hide in your name that nobody would leave here in their own strength that nobody would leave here trying to do better at the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be made righteous we know that that will not redeem it will not save and Lord may we leave rejoicing as we see our sin may we rejoice not that we're sinners but that we have a savior who redeems and sanctifies and fixes and as we feel low and destroyed and like we have failed so many times over may we rejoice that the righteous fall and rise again because you're the king fell and rose again and with you we will rise again we ask all this in Jesus name amen