Think on Things that are Just or Righteous

Oh, we appreciate Brother Tyler for the good job he did in leading our song service this morning, excellent selection, and we’re very thankful to him and to all of our song leaders and our worship leaders, all of those who participate. We do appreciate you so much on Sunday.

Well, let’s turn to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8, and we’re going to talk about some things that we need to think on. Who controls what you think? And there are many influences, you know, on our thought throughout the week. Strong influences.

We get influences from our peers. We get influences from the job that we work in. We get influences on our thought from the entertainment that we pursue. And we are in a culture that really demands our thinking be one way or another.

But the Bible teaches that we can control what we think. It’s not others who control what we think, but rather ourselves. I control what I think, you control what you think. And we can direct our thoughts to specific notions or ideas.

We read in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. Well, I got a little ahead of myself, but it says, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. And so, in Philippians 4 and verse 8 here, the Bible teaches us to think on some certain things, things that are true, things that are noble, Things that are just, things that are pure, things that are lovely, things that are a good report, things that are virtuous, and things that are praiseworthy.

And as we are pursuing Proverbs 4 and verse 23, keeping our heart with all diligence, we’re going to be thinking about all of these things that we see in the list here in Philippians 4 and verse 8. And this morning, we’re going to think about thinking about things that are just, things that are righteous, things that are suitable, things that are right.

And so, the word just here is from the Greek word dikaios, and the Hebrew word means exactly the same thing, tzadik, is how that’s pronounced. And so these two words have this idea, righteousness, justice, goodness, in the sense of that which is right or that which is suitable.

And the word is used 41 times in the King James Version, the New Testament, and 33 times it’s translated right, 41 times it’s translated righteous. Thirty-three times it’s translated just, I’m sorry, and then five times it’s translated what is right, and two times it’s translated meet, in the sense of suitable.

And when we think about this word, we think about our own behavior, because this word is really about behavior. It’s about how we act toward others primarily. But then, it’s also used in the Bible in relationship to God and how we act toward God.

And so we’re going to be thinking about three things in regard to thinking on things that are just or thinking on things that are righteous. And those three things are, first of all, when we think on things that are just, we’ve got to think about ourselves, our own behavior first.

And how we behave and our thinking about our behavior. But then secondly, we’ve got to think about our behavior in relationship to other people. And then finally, we think about our behavior in relationship to God. And that’s what justice is. And that’s what righteousness is.

You know, we use the word righteousness primarily to mean our relationship with God and justice to mean our relationship with mankind. But in the Bible, it’s the same word. We use two different words, but it’s the same word in the Bible.

So this is a concept that we’ve got to link these two things together in our culture, righteousness and justice, because they go together in the Bible. So let’s think about our own behavior, first of all. You know, when we think about our behavior, look at Deuteronomy 6 and verse 25.

Look at what this is. Then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us. And I want us to focus in on this careful to observe because righteousness and justice begins with me. It begins with my thinking I’m thinking about myself. It begins with my own behavior. And Moses communicated that to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 25 here. He said, it will be righteousness for us. And God will count it as righteousness if we are careful to observe His commandments.

I’ve got more to say about that later, but for right now, let’s just consider this thought and then pursue it a little bit because if we think about what it is that we need to consider when we are careful to observe God’s commandments, we’ve got to go to Scripture to get that.

And 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, “…all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,” and then notice this, “…for instruction in righteousness.” That’s our Greek word there, righteous, just, “…that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

So here, righteousness indicates the good that we do to other people and the good that we observe in relationship to God. And so we’ve got to think about God’s Word to be righteous. We’ve got to think about God’s Word to be just.

Notice Psalm 119, verse 172. My tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. That’s the standard for righteousness. That’s the standard for justice. It comes from God and from His holy word. Psalm 1, verse 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. This is the man who doesn’t walk in the paths of iniquity nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but rather his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And in His law, He meditates day and night. There’s that idea of being careful, right? Careful to observe. We take care to think about things that are just. And as a result, Psalm 119, verse 11 says, “…Your word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.” And all sin is unrighteousness or injustice in one way or another. So if we’re thinking about avoiding sin, we’re thinking about doing what is righteous and doing what is just. Because those things, sin and righteousness, are opposites.

So to think about what is just and righteous, we’ve got to think about the gospel, because that’s where God’s righteousness is revealed. Now look at Romans 1, 16 and 17. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

For in it, in what? In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. So God reveals His righteousness to us in the gospel. And from faith to faith, as it is written, now notice this, the just shall live by faith. Now think about that for a minute.

The word just, we’ve already looked at, this word is the same as the word righteous. So you could just move the word just out of there and put the word righteous in there, and it’s more understandable that way because the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, and the righteous shall live by faith. Do you see the connection there between those two things?

It’s in the original language, but it gets separated in English. Why? Because we think about our relationship with other people as being just or concerning justice, whereas we think about our relationship with God as concerning righteousness. But really, they’re the same. It’s the same idea, righteousness and justice. We live, the just live by faith, the righteous live by faith.

So Romans 3, verses 21 through 22 tells us what that gospel message is, right? When we think about the gospel, what is it? We think about Jesus Christ and what Jesus did on the cross as we just remembered in the Lord’s Supper a moment ago. And that was God’s righteousness as displayed toward us.

And Romans 3, verses 21 through 22 says, “…but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,” notice, “…through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference.” So, when we think, think on these things, Paul says. Think on things that are just. Think on things that are righteous.

How do we do that? How do we start doing that? By thinking about my own behavior first. What is the standard for that behavior? It’s the Word of God. It’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we’ve got to go to the Bible to study it and learn what it means to be righteous and to be just.

Now, let’s talk about our behavior toward other people because we can’t stop with just thinking about the standard and our own behavior and relationship with the standard. The point is to think about things that are righteous and just so that when we interact with other people, our behavior will be righteous and just.

That’s what God wants. Now, God does want that, despite what many other people say. God wants righteous and just behavior out of our lives. Now, Christians no longer conform to the world’s behavior, and that’s mentioned in many passages, but I wanted to look at 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11 real quick, because this talks about unrighteous behavior.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, nor the fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified. The word justified means to be made righteous there in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So we were once unrighteous, but then we became righteous through Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

We were justified, or made righteous. And the Christian doesn’t behave in an unrighteous way anymore. He’s been washed. He’s been sanctified. He’s been justified, made righteous. Think about Ephesians 2, verses 20 through 23, where Paul is listing a bunch of things that Christians ought not to do, and he says, But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that we’re supposed to put off that old man, right? That you put off concerning your form of contact, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, and how is this new man created? According to God, in true righteousness.

So God created the new man, the Christian, in true righteousness and holiness, and that’s what He wants out of us. That’s what He wants our behavior to be. Not unrighteous, not behaving like that long list we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, but rather in a righteous way, in a way that is going to demonstrate true holiness.

And so we act toward other people according to the standard of Christ’s righteousness. And that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to behave like Christ. And how did Christ behave? He was sinless. He was perfect. He never did anything that was wrong in His words or in His deeds.

And so he lived a completely righteous life. And as Christians who identify with Christ and who are created after Christ and to be righteous, we need to live like Him. Think about Romans chapter 12 here in verses 9 through 16 as exemplifying the righteous life of Christ that we then incorporate and display.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, rejoicing or serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, be of the same mind toward one another, do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own opinion. So those are good things to do, righteous things to do, just things to do in our behavior toward other people. And it’s important then that we live in this way, that we follow Christ’s example within our lives.

Another way to put it, Paul puts it in Galatians 5, 22 through 25, as being the fruit of the Spirit. What is it? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is living like Jesus. This is displaying the righteousness of Christ. Against such, there is no law.

And those who are what Christ, belong to Christ, are Christians. What have they done? They’ve crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, that unrighteousness that we talked about earlier. And so, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

And so, righteousness is to be observed in our behavior toward other people. And there’s many other things we could say about that. We could probably just make a whole lesson on that, looking at righteous behavior and what is it in relationship to other people. And we could probably make two or three lessons out of that, actually. There’s a lot of material about righteous behavior in the Bible.

But let’s talk about our behavior toward God for just a moment when we think about righteousness. Think about things that are righteous. Think about things that are just. That’s what we need to think about. And what is just and what is righteous in our relationship to God? Well, there’s a problem. And the problem is summarized here in Romans chapter 3 and verse 10. There is none that is righteous. No, not one.

And I know what you’re thinking at this point. Well, you’ve been talking about being righteous the whole time, but this says there’s none that’s righteous. No, not one. What’s going on there? Well, there’s a problem. Sin came into the world. Romans 5, verse 19 says, By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners. But then look at the rest of that verse. It says, He says, “…so also by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” I can’t be righteous on my own. That is, apart from God’s standard, apart from Jesus Christ, I can’t offer anything to God and say, you know, on my own sort of merit and offer that and say, see, God, I’m a righteous. God says, nope, you’re not.

But, through Jesus Christ, God will account the good things that I do for righteousness. He will mark it down on my account as being righteous if I am in His Son, Christ Jesus. And that’s how Christians can be righteous today. We don’t establish our own righteousness, we don’t lift up our own righteousness from the standpoint of saying to God, God, look at all the good things that I’ve done and therefore you owe me something. No, we can never say that because we’ve sinned.

But Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. He lived a sinless life and so God accepted His life and now He offers us the same life through Him. But we’ve got to live that life. We’ve got to choose that life. And we’ve got to follow Jesus Christ so that we can be accounted as being righteous.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says as much. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And so through Christ, we can be righteous. Think about Romans 6, 16 through 18. It says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one slaves whom you obey? Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God bethank that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Now that’s where we’re at. As Christians, we’re slaves of righteousness. And when we do what’s right and good, we’ve just done that which is our duty to do. And we can’t say to God, therefore you owe me something. We can never say that.

But we can be faithful Christians and do righteous things, and God will account those things for righteousness for us. Now, John tells us in 1 John 2, verse 29, that there’s a real aspect of righteousness to this. It’s not just God pretending that we’re righteous, but when we’re forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, we get a new life.

We get to start new. And as we have ongoing forgiveness, 1 John 1 verse 7 says, we walk in the light as He is in the light. The blood of Christ cleanses our sins. We keep getting cleansed of sin as we’re being faithful to the Lord. As we have that, then God looks at us and said, that’s a righteous guy. That’s a righteous woman. 1 John 2 verse 29, if you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices, Righteousness is born of Him. And look at this, 1 John 3, 7, My little children, let no man lead you astray. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

Now, righteousness doesn’t earn us salvation. I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that God looks at us and He can say, in Christ, we are righteous as Christians. And that’s something the Bible teaches. Now look at 1 John 3, verse 10, “…in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” And so righteousness is something we do. We do to other people in our behavior toward others. We do in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And righteousness then is something that we need to think about on a regular basis.

So, how does one become righteous? Well, God gives us His plan, and He says, if you will follow this plan, you can be righteous. What do we have to do? We’ve got to hear His Word, Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The just shall live by faith, Romans 1, 17. We’ve got to believe the Gospel, Mark 1 and verse 15. We’ve got to repent of our sins, Acts 17 and verse 15.

Verse 30, times of ignorance God once winked at, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent. We’ve got to confess Jesus as Lord, Romans 10, 10, where with the heart man believes, and with the mouth he confesses, right? And so we believe, we confess, and we identify with Him in baptism. Galatians 3, verse 27, as many of you who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.

That’s the identity. We identify with Christ, and when we identify with Christ, if any man is in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5 says, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And in being made new, guess what? We can live a righteous life. How do we continue to be righteous? Just some practical things here. This is not an exhaustive list.

But think about these things. We’ve got to study God’s Word. The Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Why? Because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether the things taught were so. We need an active prayer life, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17. Pray without ceasing. We need to worship. We don’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together, Hebrews 10, verse 25. We are involved in evangelism, taking the gospel to others somehow, some way, Matthew 28.

We’ve got to be a good example. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, Matthew 5, 13 through 16. Rear our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Ephesians 6, 4. This is just a few things, but this is righteous behavior. Think about things that are righteous. Think about things that are just. Folks, we’ve got to think about those things and we’ve got to practice them within our lives.

Do you need to become righteous this morning before God so that He will account your good deeds as being righteous? He will put them down in His ledger. This was a righteous act done if we are in Christ Jesus. How do we get into Christ? We talked about that a minute ago. Maybe someone wants to be in Christ this morning. We can help you do that. Whatever your need may be, you can come right now while we stand.

And sing this song of invitation.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!