Where Is Your Righteousness?
Sermon Notes
Righteousness is defined as the state of being morally correct or justified.
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 the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is contrasting the external righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees who did not practice the law they knew and taught. In other words, saying one thing but doing another. With the internal righteousness that comes from the heart, and which is characterized by us his followers. Jesus is telling his disciples how to be righteous not how to just look righteous. Unless our righteousness exceeds in this way, that we do according to the teaching of Jesus, we shall not enter the Kingdom of heaven. I have said many times if you are right, stay right. Don't be discouraged by the action of the world or about what someone else say or do.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Here Jesus is talking about the unrighteous. To those that claim to be righteous.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Some people claim to be righteous when they are not. Jesus says there is none good but God. What Jesus is saying is when we experience a deep desire for righteousness that’s the proof of our spiritual rebirth. They hunger and thirst for that which only God can give them. “They shall be filled” refers to complete satisfaction. Righteousness will overcome, and corruption will give way to the highest moral standards.
Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD, and he counted it to him for righteousness.
He judged or accounted that Abraham measured up to the standard, and conformed to the norm. So, what I am saying is that all we must do is measure up to the norm to be righteous and not try to make ourselves to be something that we are not. Again, all our righteousness is as filthy rags.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
What Christ is saying is this; a person should crave, starve, and thirst for righteousness. A person must seek righteousness more and more if he or she wishes to be filled.
Conclusion: What is it to hunger for righteousness? To earnestly desire all that God offers and requires, and to fervently long to see right prevail.