Sermon
Character Qualities Of A Righteous Man
June 2-3, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

Would you take your notes out of your bulletin? If you are new with us today it's a delight to have you. Each Sunday I prepare the entire sermon. I very seldom get an opportunity to preach it all. You can have something to read when you have lunch today. But we're taking a vacation from the gospel of John. It's taken us a year and a half or almost two years to get through the first four chapters because we're just going word by word, and verse by verse, and it's an in-depth expository time with us. And so I thought during the summer let's change a little bit and I'm going to call this a summer in the Psalms, and I've selected nine different Psalms we're going to study together. So the sermon, the preaching, will be totally different because we're back in the Old Testament and David is exceedingly practical. And so this will be a little different, but I think it will be refreshing and it will be helpful. And so let's begin today and we'll just start with the first few pages and then we'll branch out as we move along through the notes.

Psalm 15 is our Psalm, and you'll remember we read that when we started today. Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? Then he answers his question. It's he who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart: it is he who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. It's he who swears to his own hurt and does not change; it's he who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Now let's take a moment to get acquainted with the author of most of the Psalms. And I put the word most in there because you'll notice in your Bible that some Psalms are said the Psalms of Moses or others, and so there are various authors to the Psalms. But most of them were written by David. He's the son of Jesse, and he arrives on the scene of Israel's history as God's choice to take the place of Saul, the first king of Israel. The decline of Saul was a terrible thing to see. The Scriptures teach that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul but came mightily upon David. And here's the scriptural text: "And Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."

The story continues: Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord." But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe and it tore. So Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. "And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind." Then he [that's Saul] said, "I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and go back with me that I may worship the Lord."

Now shortly after this event, Samuel, the prophet of the Lord goes to the house of Jesse and there he anoints the shepherd lad, David. And here's the story: Psalms 78, "He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands." Now you can find all seventy of David's years wrapped up in these three verses. "He chose David His servant" when he was about seventeen. "He took him from the sheepfolds" when he slew the giant and first left the sheep. "He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people" at the age of thirty.

Between the years of seventeen and thirty, you will recall, David is on the run from Saul. Then, finally, at the age of thirty he comes to that pinnacle moment in his life when he takes the throne of Israel. And what happened then? "And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them with his skillful hands" for his final forty years. Now for the first fifty years of his life, David walked in the integrity of his heart. Though there were few temporary excursions in the flesh, most of David's young adult years were years of triumph. Then came the tragedy of the last twenty years of his life. The first part of his life is a model of character and integrity, and the last part of his life is a downhill slide until, I believe, David died a broken man with a broken heart.

You know, we who make our journey in life and as we come nearer to the end, and we become very sensitive to our mortality. And one of the things I pray for each day when I wake up; dear God, I'm almost to the finish line. Please don't let me fail You know. Because it's such a tragedy to come to the end of life and mess up everything you've done all your life. I've set down and talked with pastors of recent months who came to the end of their ministry, and so much of it was successful, and now they live the rest of their years in shame. You see, what they tell us is that a pastor reaches his apex in his ministry between the years of 60 and 68. In other words, he's had sufficient years to give him background and understanding in the Scriptures, but you know those are the years that pride settles in very quickly. And oft times, that's when the ministry fails. And here's David, a great king, but when it all ended-- I mean, he's got a family where the kids are killing each other, raping each other, and a son that's trying to take over his kingdom. I mean it's one mess-it's a mess. And David comes to the end of his life, I think, broken in many ways. You say, oh God, may it be that when I finish the race I will never brought shame to Your name. May that be the prayer of all of us.

Now on with our lesson. The Psalms we will be studying are the heartfelt expressions of a man reaching out for God, a man that fails deeply and yet never ceases to chase after God. That's what I admire about David. He may fall to the depths, but he knows he's got a God who loves him. Look at page 3. He says: As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, 0 God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. That was David. He was a man after God's own heart, and even though in all of his humanness he failed, he still chased after God. Now, he's a complex man. He's so gifted in so many ways; a marvelous leader, a terribly poor father, a musician, but he had a lot of wisdom. And he passes that wisdom on to us in some of these Psalms, and here's one of them. He starts this Psalm with what I think is the throbbing question that beats in the heart of every one of us. It's this, the Lord, who will abide in Your tabernacle? Who made dwell in your holy hill? Now let's put that in the language of our day so we can understand. Here's what he's saying; Lord, who shall be permitted to have fellowship with You? Who shall be admitted to be one of your household, to live in your presence, to be blessed with Your mercy and Your kindness? What are the characteristics of a person that enjoys the divine smile of approval? God, I want to know what kind of person, what are the characteristics of a person that You take great delight in.

Now he asked the same question in Psalm 24 almost, David asks, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. He asked the question, gives the answer, and then he says; He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. What kind of person has entry into the presence of God in times of prayer and worship? What kind of a person who comes here on Sunday morning, finds the worship service so delightful, and knowing that the heart of God is open to him? What kind of person that God really wants to bless and pour out His grace upon?

Well, our Psalm today gives us the characteristics, some of the characteristics of a righteous person, the person that God is going to take delight in. Let's go through them, shall we? First, he's a man or a person who walks uprightly. That is, he does what is right in the sight of God and in the sight of man. Now that's called righteousness. Or he's a person who has a passion for godliness, for holiness, for rightness, for purity. That's the man God's really interested in. Doing what's right in the sight of God under all situations, and doing what's right to his fellow man. That's righteousness. David said that's the kind of person God's interested in.

Let's go on. Two, he's a person who doesn't backbite with his tongue. He is a person who understands that the day will come when he must give account of every idle word, thus he will watch his tongue with all diligence and his words will be spoken with the sense of accountability, not only to man, but also to God. In the New Testament we've learned that the day will come when we're going to give an account for every idle word. So how I use my tongue is going to somehow regulate my relationship with God. God is going to listen to my speech, and if we spend all week long gossiping and backbiting, how do we ever expect to come to the house of God and have Him listen to our worship? And yet so many churches are filled with people gossiping, backbiting, and hurting each other. Why don't they stay home, lock the church up, and a burn it down? It's such a poor testimony to our Christian faith.

David said the man that God's going to take delight in is a man, or a person, who has learned to watch his tongue. Gossip, you know, it's the art of saying nothing and leaving nothing unsaid. Gossiping and lying go hand in hand. Gossip is like mud thrown against a clean wall; it may not stick but it's always leaves a mark. And David said if you want to stand in God's presence watch your tongue.

Well now I'm on page 4. The next one is--our text says; nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. And we would say it this way; a righteous person will protect the character of others, especially his friends. He will not allow gossip to be spread. He is one that contrives to do all the good he can to his neighbors, but is very careful to do hurt to no man, and is, in a particular manner, tender of his neighbor's reputation. He makes the best of everybody, and the worst of nobody. If an ill-natured character of his neighbor is given him, or an ill-natured story is told him, he will disprove it if he can; and if he can't, he shall die with it and it will never go any further. David said a righteous man is a man who will never allow the character of his friends to be diminished, and he will do everything in his power to neutralize and to stop that story; and if it's true, he'll tuck that truth deep into his heart and take it to his coffin, but he'll never heard another person's character or destroy another reputation. David said a righteous man is one who does not destroy another personality or reputation. Wouldn't that be something if every one of us was so protective over what people thought of everybody else, never allowing any unkindness ever to be said against another? That's the marks of righteousness.

Let's go on. In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord. Now we could say it this way. A righteous person is one who has a hatred of sin and a love for what is right and godly. Now this one gets a little tricky. It's natural for us as Christians to have deep convictions, and we say that's sin-it's wrong-it's ungodly-and we know it's sin. But what happens is we transfer the hatred of the sin to the sinner, and that's what's wrong. Now I'm honest with you from the bottom of my heart--I have a problem in this area that I've got to deal with all the time. You say, what is it Pastor? I have a deep passion for God and righteousness, but some sin really gets to me; such as the sin of homosexuality. I know it's an abomination to God and those who commit such sin will go to hell. I know that. And if I go down the street of San Francisco almost every step I've got to say, God, You've got to help me, because I transfer my hatred for the sin to the sinner. And I know that once I do that I've stopped the channel of love and that person will never be reached with God's love through me, because on allowing my hatred for the sin to be transferred to the sinner. And many times we do that.

There may be other areas that people sin and it really gets it right down to us, we say, that's wrong. When I have people come in and I realize that one has transgressed the sacred rules of marriage and has committed adultery, I hate that! And I have a tendency to transfer that hatred to the one who's committed the sin, and I say, God, please tell me. We all have this feeling. And one of the things that we've got to be very, very cautious is God wants us to despise the vile sin, but not hate the person and pass it on to them. And I'll tell you, say, God, please help me to love the sinner, because when you have a passion for purity it's very easy to move the hatred to the individual. And I ask God to forgive me for that over and over again.

Let's go on. Let's go down to number 6: He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Now this one--David says a righteous person will be a person that once he makes a promise, whatever it costs him, he's going to fulfill that promise; even if it hurts him, even if he miscalculated the results and the results are devastating. You keep your promise to your own hurt. All right pastor, how does this one apply? Well, they send us these credit cards and there are contracts all over the backside, just read them. And then we foolishly spend those pieces of plastic until we're deep, deep in debt. I had somebody come the other day they said, Pastor, you've got to help me. What's your council? I'm $40,000 in debt with credit card. I've been thinking about bankruptcy. I said that's not righteous. You used that card, you enjoyed the benefits, you used the products, you benefited by the service, you said you'd pay for it--if you only eat one meal per day for the next five years, you pay that back because you'll be a better person for it and you won't spend your money like that again foolishly. But our society, our secular society, makes it very easy for us to abandon our contracts and our word has very little value. It used to be, years ago, that a man's word was his bond. All he had to do was say it. You could count on it. Now we've got to have a contract for everything.

Let me take it a little further. When I say something--when I stand at that alter and say I will, I do, for better or for worse--that's a contract. I picked up a book the other day at the bookstore. George Gallop did a survey on spirituality. He calls it the next American spirituality-fantasy. His conclusion in one area is this, commitments to us as Christians mean no more than the sinner, because there's just as many divorces and the church as there are in the world. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. When I stand there and say I will--David said the man that's a righteous man will be a man that when he says something he'll live it even though to his own hurt. You say, Pastor, I wish you had preached on John today. (Congregation laughs) That, isn't this right down where we live though? It really is, isn't it?

Go to number 7. I'm on page 5. He who does not put out his money at usury. A righteous person is one who does not take advantage of another person in the matters of finance. In Exodus 22:25, it says: "If you lend money to one of my people, among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender, charge him no interest." Here's a spiritual truth. If a person within our family of believers comes to a crisis in life, not because of his own making, but something tragic as happened and I know he needs help-- I have a Christian obligation to help to that person and take this attitude; if he pays it back, wonderful, and if he doesn't, wonderful. If he pays it back I can lend it, give it to somebody else. But never take advantage of a man who's hurting. Never. David said the man who has a sensitivity to the hurting and to the poor God smiles upon him.

Let's take the next one. In the Psalm we're studying David adds one more character quality that marks a righteous man, he says, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. A godly person will never become a part of any plan that perverts justice. We have a saying in our day--Every person has a price--which suggests that when there is enough benefit assumed, a person will do anything to obtain that benefit. But, a person who desires fellowship with God will not take a bribe, for "a bribe doth blind the words of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous," Deuteronomy 16:19. Proverbs 17:23 says, "A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice." What's the bottom line? A righteous person will follow the rules, regulation, and the laws of his land and not pervert them.

Now here's David's point; a man that has these qualities of righteousness is a person that God's ready to listen to. Let's go to the back page and we're all done. What are the manifold blessings that result from righteousness? Number 1, the righteous are surrounded with divine favor. That's good, isn't it? Psalm 5:12 says, "but Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt Thou compass him as with a shield." Ah, that's good. God watches out for the righteous and He protects us. Number 2, the righteous are blessed with prosperity. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. David said, never have I seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed ever begging for bread. You do what is right before God, and God will always to what's right with you.

The righteous enjoy peace, and quietness and assurance. Isaiah 32:17, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace." I like that. "And the effect of righteousness quietness." Isn't that great? I mean, you go to bed at night to sleep and you've got a clear conscience. That's good, isn't it? And assurance forever. Fourth, the righteous experience deliverance from affliction. It says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." That's good. It's worth being righteous, isn't it? Now look at the fifth, the righteous are constantly guarded. Peter says, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers." That's what David said, didn't he? Who's the man that's going to stand in God's presence? Who's the person that God's going to take delight in? Who's the person that God's going to answer their prayer? A righteous man.

And the ultimate blessing of righteousness by faith is eternity with Him. The day will come when our eyes shall close and the trumpet shall blow and the righteous shall forever be in His presence--the righteous. A good practical Psalm, isn't it? Now the Lord willing, next Sunday we're going to take Psalm 73 so you can read it. It's the trial of faith. What happens when your faith comes under tremendous pressure, and you're about ready to throw it all in and say, God doesn't care? It's a fabulous Psalm. And let's study that next week, shall we?

Father, some of us need to take these characteristics very seriously because some of us live in violation of righteousness, and some of us feel sometimes that we're a million miles from You. Now we find it very clear that the way we live affects Your response to us. So You take our life very seriously in the way we live it, and when we do what pleases You, You open Your heart wide to us. Please forgive us in our failures, and please help us to strive for righteousness. Thank you dear Jesus, and everybody said? Amen. God bless you all. God bless you.