The
Problem with Self-Righteousness
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out
that Job is justifying himself in our chapter today, does it? With his long
list of good deeds, one would wonder if they had not read the beginning of the
book why he was going through this terrible trial. Let’s pray and get right to
it, shall we?
Heavenly Father,
Thank You once again for the joy of spending time
in Your presence and in Your word. Father, I give You praise for the good
things that always come from You! Lord, in Your word You said that it is a lamp
to our feet. You also said that we can know the right path if we hide Your word
in our hearts. Lord, I ask You today to speak to me and speak through me in the
name of Jesus. May Your purpose and plan for each of us be revealed in this
lesson. May it go forth through me with utterance from Holy Spirit, unhindered
and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Father, I thank You in advance
for growing us up more and more so we can be more like Jesus today than we were
yesterday. In Jesus name I pray – Amen!
As we read this chapter it is sort of like
“Custer’s Last Stand” in a way, right? Job is making his final defense in front
of his accusers. He maintains his innocence and integrity with a litany of good
deeds that he has done. He makes it known that he fears God – that’s good. He
also knows that to do evil would leave him without explanation before Almighty
God because he knows full well that God is always watching his every move. He
knows nothing can be hidden from God. Finally, Job feels he is completely
innocent and is certain God sees this.
How many times have we ourselves been quick to
justify ourselves with our list of good deeds? Have we said or heard things
like this, “Look at what I did every week at the homeless shelter”, or “I
always give clothes to Goodwill and pay my tithes and give offerings at church
every single Sunday.” A person who feels a need to tell others of the ‘good
things’ they are doing may have some hidden things that they are not so quick
to admit. And that type of bragging sounds just like the Pharisees that Jesus
rebuked in the Bible! In the chapter today, Job says he fears God and if he has
sinned he has not hidden his guilt. So he thinks he is free and clear of any
and all guilt. But is he?
How many are quick to admit they are wrong? How
many want to have others see their ‘good works’ and justify themselves
publicly? Job’s explanation of his good deeds looks like a person reading from
the Ten Commandments, doesn’t it friends? So in that case, let’s review them
before we proceed, ok?
Exodus 20:1-17
And God spoke all these
words, saying:
2 “I am the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before
Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a
carved image—any likeness of
anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down
to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your
God, am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and
fourth generations of
those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to
thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of
the Lord your God in
vain, for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless
who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you,
nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female
servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s
house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his
female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Job touched on most
of the items on this list in one way or another. But the thing much of the
church doesn’t realize today is that adultery and stealing and lying go much
further than committing the actual act. A person can commit adultery in their
heart without laying a hand on the person they are lusting for. A person can
steal in countless ways, far beyond just shoplifting in a store. A person lies
when they don’t tell the whole truth.
People dishonor
their parents, thereby dishonoring God their Father in heaven. Many people in
the church today have a host of idols in their lives that they refuse to let go
of. Idols can be money, sex, cars, shopping, food, alcohol, drugs, status, self-exaltation,
and the list goes on. Sports can be an idol. Anything that takes God off the
throne of one’s heart is an idol. It can be our children or another family member.
It can be a friend, a job, a coworker. Whatever means more to us than the Lord
is an idol. In committing any of the other sins on the list of the Ten Commandments
we are really committing the sin of idolatry. Also, many do not understand
these principals at all. Church going folks do not even know the Ten
Commandments or where to find them in the Bible, if they even read their Bible.
That is very SADD-U-CEE!
One day as I was
teaching a group of 4th and 5th grade children a Bible
study, (and these kids had been raised in church) I asked them if they knew the
Ten Commandments or where they were in the Bible. Sadly, most could not quote
more than one or two; some couldn’t even do that – and they had no clue where
they are listed in God’s word. It broke my heart. I was over 50 years old
before I came to know them and it was too late. I had already ruined my life
and hurt many people before I came to know the words of life contained in these
commandments. But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ that I know
them now. Hallelujah!
As I read through
Job’s list of good deeds, Holy Spirit brought another example from the Bible to
my mind. It was the rich young ruler who had encountered Jesus one day. Look at
this…
Mark 10:17-22
Now as He was going out
on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the
commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do
not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your
mother.’”
And he answered and said
to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
Then Jesus, looking at
him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross,
and follow Me.”
But he was sad at this
word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
What many Christians wrongly assume from this passage is that
Jesus did not want this man to be rich. But that was not the case at all. What
Jesus did in this example was put His finger right on the one thing that had a
bigger place in the young’ man’s heart than God. It was the Father in heaven
who revealed this to Jesus and when Jesus told him to sell everything, he
walked away sad. Why? Because he was not willing to let go of his money and
follow Jesus.
When he had first approached the Lord it sounded like he was doing
everything right, didn’t’ it? Isn’t that how a lot of people approach God to
this very day? But when Jesus, the word of God, stuck His fine needle into this
young man’s heart – the truth was revealed. What was really happening that day
with this man and Jesus? Well, the young man had a good heart in that he wanted
to do the right things, for the most part.
God had blessed him financially.
Everything that he had and the gifts he had been entrusted with by the Lord
could have been used for the kingdom of God and done many good things for a lot
of people. The money he had coming in could have funded the advancement of the
gospel around the known world. It is God who allows us to have wealth, and if
we will use it right, and for His purposes, we will have plenty and have
abundance for every good work…
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward
you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
So the problem wasn’t the money – it was his
heart. The money had his heart and God wanted his heart first – above all else.
This is just one example in the Bible of people who did not want to put God
first. This fine young man was self-righteous, in his own eyes…
Proverbs 21:2
Every
way of a man is right
in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.
Proverbs 20:6
Most
men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful
man?
I have witnessed to many people who, when asked
if they thought they were going to heaven said, “Yes, I have been a good
person.” It is a terrible thing that people have been blinded by satan – the
god of this world into thinking that they will get into heaven and inherit
eternal life based on their own goodness. If that were the case there would
have been no need for God to send Jesus to pay the price for the sins of every
man and woman who would ever live. But this is the fact on that matter…
Psalm 14:3
They
have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.
When we see the Lord on Judgment Day there will
not be one good deed we could ever offer up to Him that would enable Him to
grant us entry to heaven and eternal life with Him. God is holy – perfect and
pure. Jesus was the only man (and He was operating as a man, not God) who ever
lived a sin free life.
He always lived to please His Father in heaven
and as a result He was able to stand in our sinful place to present us before
the Lord God Almighty as clean vessels, fit for heaven – hallelujah!
How does the rich young ruler compare to Job?
Well, Job was proclaiming his own righteousness before God and man that day. He
didn’t think he had a single sin credited to his account. But here’s the thing.
If we think we have not sinned, we best check again. All of us have in one way
or another. The best thing to do where this is concerned is to draw near to God
with a humble heart. A sinner doesn’t have to run from Him – they can run to
Him. He is thrilled when they do that. And a child of God who has sinned, all
the more. Here is what the Bible says…
James 4:7-10
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you. Draw near to God
and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners;
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be
turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and
He will lift you up.
Every day we should have our hearts tender toward
the Lord so He can show us anything that we need to repent of or if there is
anyone we need to forgive. Just this morning as I was praying the Lord showed
me something I had been bitter about toward someone a long time ago. When that
memory flashed through my mind I stopped my prayer and forgave that person. That
was it. I forgave and then I could go on from there. There are many things down
in the canyons of the human heart that even we do not know. There are feelings
and issues that we may think we are over, but the Lord knows we are not.
The Lord wants us to run to Him. All we have to
do is admit we blew it and ask Him to forgive us. Then we stop doing what we
were doing. We stop holding grudges. We stop whatever it was and do things
differently. That is called repentance. Job was not yet aware of the sin that
caused all this. On top of the original sin, he had added some things to the
list as he proceeded through this terrible trial. Only God would be able to
straighten him out. It is going to be exciting to go through each of the
remaining chapters in this book. I hope you will ride it out with me. The
really neat thing is this. Where our sin abounds (lots of it) God’s grace is
more abundant. Look at this…
Romans 5:20
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where
sin bounded, grace abounded much more,
The law – the Ten Commandments makes us aware of
how we are supposed to live according to God’s standards, and it shows every
one of us how we have blown it in the past. It was those ‘ten canons’ pointed
at my heart that day at Northridge Church in Plymouth, Michigan in 2005 that
caused me to run home and fall to my knees and ask God to help me. It was then
that I became aware that I was not righteous at all.
Every good thing I thought I had ever done
suddenly melted away under the fiery heat of God’s perfection. He is perfect
and everything that is impure is burned up in His presence. He is a consuming
fire. But thanks be to God that because of Jesus and what His death, burial and
resurrection means to all of us who accept the free gift of salvation, we can
turn that self-righteous attitude into a heart that is humble and grateful for
the most amazing grace that there ever was or will be – hallelujah! Praise His
name forever!
Job is getting closer and closer to his ‘day in
court’ with God – just like all of us. Oh but there’s hope for Job and there’s
hope for you and me! Hope that will never disappoint! Maybe you can share this
with someone today.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore,
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this
grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And
not only that, but we
also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and
perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not
disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Friends, whenever there is bad news, the Lord
swings right back around and has a ‘boat load’ of good news for us. Don’t let
anyone tell you differently. In a world gone crazy there is always hope in
Jesus. No matter how long we have walked with the Lord, it is never out of date
to look at our hearts and then look up to His amazing grace and give Him thanks
and praise. Jesus came to bring us truth and shed light on all the darkness.
Here is another false idea that we can throw out
with the trash. People say, “Ya, that’s the Ten Commandments and all but who
can really live up to that standard anyway? Why not just keep living our life
like we want and know that God will forgive us?” Friends; that is the devil
talking. We can live as perfect men and women of God. Jesus said it, and I
believe it. How about you?
Let’s look at the rest of the events surrounding
the rich young ruler that day and how Jesus responded to His disciples
questions about that very situation…
Mark 10:23-31
Then Jesus looked around
and said to His disciples, “How
hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at
His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those
who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God.”
And they were greatly
astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”
But Jesus looked at them
and said, “With
men it is impossible,
but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Then Peter began to say to Him,
“See, we have left all and followed You.”
So Jesus answered and
said, “Assuredly,
I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or
father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the
gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and
in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
The disciples were very concerned about what they
had just witnessed. And why? Because they had money and lands and families. But
Jesus showed them that no matter what they had or did, they could not enter the
kingdom of heaven – that is, without Him. He revealed truth to them that day
that would set them free. That is what truth does. It makes us free. Free from
the lies of the enemy. Free from the traditions of men and religion…
John 8:32
And you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Truth always brings us freedom while lies always put us in
bondage. The devil became self-righteous and it got him kicked out of heaven.
The root of that is pride. So when we humble ourselves before the Lord – He can
lift us up at the right time. No matter how long a person has been saved,
humility is the key that unlocks the heart of God for us. You remember in our
study of Job that he has been back and forth. He was asking God to show him his
sins at one point and the next thing we saw is him defending himself before God
and man. That would get him nowhere with God.
For Job, he would have to find this out in the fullness of
time. We said a long time ago in this study that he would have been better off zipping
his lips and opening wide his ears to hear from God so he could gain wisdom
about this whole ordeal. But he didn’t. Job and his friends just kept going
around and around. Each of them made a display of their own perceived
self-righteousness, didn’t they? But we can’t be too quick to point the finger at
them, can we? When have we behaved the same way?
The boss I had when I worked in a brokerage firm in Naples
taught me some very wise things while I was there. One time when we were at a
meeting with a client, we realized that we had made a mistake. When we got back
to the office he graciously told me this,” Hanny, when you are the one in the
wrong, that is the time to just get quiet and listen. Do not try to defend
yourself or say a word. Just listen.”
Later when I tried this I found that I was given a lot more
grace because I was not sitting there running my mouth trying to defend myself
and explain why I had made the mistake. A dear friend of mine taught me several
years ago not to excuse, explain or justify myself before others.
That was wise advice and it has helped me greatly when I put
it into practice. Job, the rich young ruler and all of us can remember this as
we conclude our discussion on the self-righteous…
1 Timothy 6:17-19
Command those who are rich in this present age not to be
haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us
richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready
to give, willing to share, storing
up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay
hold on eternal life.
Job had been a very wealthy man. The rich young
ruler also had a lot of money. But money was not to be the focus. This verse
doesn’t tell us not to be rich with money. What it does tell us, no matter who
we are is that right living before God is what matters most. There is no room
for haughtiness (pride or self-righteousness) and our wealth can’t save us.
Only Jesus could do that. Regardless of what we have we need to be faithful
with it and have a heart that is tender toward the Lord at all times.
Questions:
What was Job
primarily focusing on in this chapter?
Did he think he had
done anything wrong?
What should he have done in God’s sight rather than all his talk?
When is the last time you stopped all talking and just got quiet
before God to see what He has to say about your circumstances or your life in
general?
James 3:2
For we all stumble in many things.
If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the
whole body.
There are three main points to consider
from today’s study…
There is none who do good – no, not one
Jesus is the only sinless man who ever lived
Our righteousness comes when we accept Jesus who makes us right before
God
Let’s pray…
Heavenly
Father,
Thank
You for sending Jesus to make me right with You. Father, I ask You to forgive
me for any time that I have acted like I am ‘righteous’ before You or others.
Help me to see it and help me to know how to make it right Lord. I will repent
and draw nigh unto You. Thank You for Your amazing grace through Your Son Jesus
Christ who is the only righteous man who ever lived. Help me to be a vessel of
Your grace to the world around me. In Jesus name – amen!
In
what way have you had a ‘self-righteous’ attitude lately?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
1
Corinthians 4:1-5
Let a man so
consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of
God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found
faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by
you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know
of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me
is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes,
who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the
counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
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