Lord, we just again commit this time and ourselves into Thy hand. We ask Thee to bless this time and bless us. We ask Thee to break Thy Word to us, feed us, and transform us. We praise and thank Thee because Thy Word is life and spirit to us.
Therefore, Lord, we ask Thee to speak. Speak to us through Thy Spirit. And to Thee be all the praise and the glory. In Thy precious name, amen.
Two weeks ago, we started to fellowship on the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, but it is not the wisdom of this world. The wisdom of this world is a wisdom from beneath. It is earthly, it is natural, it is even devilish.
But the wisdom that is from above, from God, is first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, yielding, full of mercy, and good fruits, and so on and so forth.
So the Book of Proverbs tells us not of the wisdom of this world, but of the wisdom that is from above. And with this wisdom, we are able to live wisely on this earth as the people of God.
We mentioned last time that this wisdom is personified. In the Book of Proverbs, you find this wisdom personified in a woman. She has provided a feast of love, and she is calling people to attain to that feast of love.
She is calling to the simple, those who are ignorant. She is calling to the young people, those who need instruction and discipline. And she is also calling to the wise, that their knowledge and understanding may be increased.
Now, of course, we know the wisdom of God is a Person. The wisdom of God is not just a number of maxims, a number of wise sayings or teachings. The wisdom of God is a Person.
In the New Testament, we are told that Christ is God’s wisdom. He is not only God’s wisdom, but in 1 Corinthians 1:30, God has made Him wisdom unto us. Thank God, Christ is God’s wisdom. He is the wisdom that is from above, and that wisdom is now ours because God has made Him wisdom unto us.
He is in every one of us who believe in Him. He is our very life, and this very life is wisdom unto us. So, brothers and sisters, having His wisdom in us, we are exhorted to walk wisely.
There is a great difference between the Book of Proverbs in the Bible and the proverbs you find in every nation. The proverbs that you find in the nations are wise sayings; they are the accumulation, the product, of ages of learning.
But the proverbs of the nations serve as a kind of guide outside of you. When you remember these proverbs, you try to work up yourself to do the things that these proverbs teach you. In other words, it is all by your own effort, trying to do all these things in order to make you wise.
But there is a great difference between the proverbs of the Bible and the proverbs of the nations. The proverbs of the Bible are not given to us as external laws and rules.
God has first put wisdom in us as life, and then He gives us these proverbs to show us that, if we follow the life within us, we will live in this manner. In other words, it is not something imposed upon us from outside. It is something that flows from within, that it may be the fruit of our lives. That is the difference.
We know the Book of Proverbs. The first part of the Book of Proverbs, from Chapter 1 through Chapter 9, serves as an introduction. In the introduction, we find wisdom calling. Wisdom is calling us to come to her, to seek her above all things, to treasure her above gold and silver, and we shall be blessed.
The Lord is calling us unto Himself. The Lord is calling us to fellowship with Him. The Lord is calling us to sit down with Him at His table. The Lord is calling us to enjoy Him, to feed upon Him. And as we feed upon Him, we shall live with wisdom and with strength.
Now this morning, we would like to go to the second part of the Book of Proverbs, from Chapter 10 through Chapter 24. We cannot read all these chapters, but I will leave it with you to read them.
Chapters 10 through 24 are called the Proverbs of Solomon. The first nine chapters serve as an introduction; they are lengthy exhortations. But here you come to real proverbs, because proverbs are usually very short sentences which convey moral truth in a concise and pointed manner.
So when you come to Chapter 10 and read on through Chapter 24, you find proverbs throughout these chapters. These are called the Proverbs of Solomon. We know Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs, but here you find only some of them.
Probably they were either spoken by Solomon, or they were collected and arranged by Solomon. As a matter of fact, you find in all these proverbs the mark of Solomon’s wisdom.
Every proverb is worth more than gold. It is good if we can weigh every proverb, meditate upon it, ponder over it, and look to the Lord about it, so that the Word of God may really sink deep into our very fiber, into our very being.
It is good if we ponder that before the Lord. But for our purpose, we are not able to do that; otherwise, we may spend the rest of our years pondering Proverbs.
So, for our purpose, we would like to gather up all the proverbs that you find in this book and try to deduce from them some essential factors.
In other words, let us use a parable borrowed from Proverbs. In Proverbs 9:1, it is said:
Wisdom hath builded her house;
She hath hewn out her seven pillars.
Wisdom has built her house, and she has hewn out seven pillars. You do not need wisdom to destroy, but you need wisdom to build.
Solomon was a man of wisdom, and therefore he was a great builder. You find his one great work: he built the house of God, the temple. He built the temple with huge stones, massive stones, three layers of stones. He overlaid them with wood and with pure gold, and he built pillars standing before the temple for testimony.
Solomon, as a man of wisdom, built to the glory of God. He built a house upon which God would put His name.
Now, brothers and sisters, we have One greater than Solomon with us: our Christ. He is greater than Solomon. He is wisdom itself, and surely our Lord is building His house.
The Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The Lord is that wisdom, and He is building His house. He is building His church.
How does He build His church? He is the foundation, but how does He build a house upon that foundation? He builds with us.
How does He deal with us? He is building up character in us. Or, to put it another way, as He builds Himself into us as our character, then with these characters He is able to build a house that is fit for God to dwell in.
People as we are, when you put us together without the work of Christ in us, we cannot be built together to be a house that is fit for God to dwell in. We may be able to build a house fit for us to dwell in, but not for God.
Christ has to hew the stones out. He has to work upon us. He has to build Himself in us. He has to build up a certain kind of character which is heavenly and not earthly. His character has to characterize us. With these characters built in us, He can build us into a house that is suitable for God.
We talk about character building. You know, character is not inborn; character has to be developed. We are born with nature, and when that nature is developed, it becomes character.
In 2 Peter, we are told that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God has given us His own life, His own Son. And with His own Son in us, there is a heavenly nature there. There is a potentiality there, but this potential has to be developed.
Even though we have the life of Christ, and that life has its own nature, if that nature is not given opportunity to be developed, to be rightly developed, it will not become the right character.
It is only as we follow that nature, as we cooperate with that nature, that you find His nature developed into character. And these characters are the characters of Christ. When you put all these characters together, you find a personality, and that personality is Christ.
So this is what you find in the Bible. It is not just some external teachings. It is the building of character. This is what the Scripture means by being transformed according to His image. It is not an external thing; it is character.
All that characterizes Christ shall characterize us. And with these materials, He is able to build for Himself the house where He can rest.
So wisdom has built her house, and she has hewn out seven pillars. This is a house with seven pillars, well supported. It is not just a hurried job, built quickly without support. When the wind comes and the water comes, it will collapse.
Now, wisdom has built her house with seven pillars. Brothers and sisters, we will borrow this as we fellowship together in the Book of Proverbs. In the Book of Proverbs, you find wisdom hewing out seven pillars.
What are these seven pillars? These seven pillars are seven characters—seven characters. The Lord is working out seven different kinds of character, different aspects of life and character in us. When He has developed these in our lives, He is able to build for Himself that house.
So, instead of looking into each one of these proverbs, each one of these maxims, we will group them together into seven pillars.
The seven pillars of wisdom are:
You find these seven things spread all over the Book of Proverbs, and they are repeated many, many times. So we will put them together and consider each as a pillar which wisdom has hewn, and with which He will support the house He is building.
Now this morning, we will take up the first pillar: righteousness.
In this part of Proverbs, you can find the word righteous used either as an adjective or as a noun. You find the word righteous repeated so many times. I do not think we are able to read all the places where the word occurs, but I will leave that with you. Probably I will just mention some verses as we go on.
For instance, in Proverbs 10:
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing;
But righteousness delivereth from death.The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish;
But He casteth away the desire of the wicked.Blessings are upon the head of the righteous;
But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
And again:
The mouth of a righteous man is a fountain of life;
But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.The labor of the righteous tendeth to life;
The revenue of the wicked to sin.The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver;
The heart of the wicked is little worth.The lips of the righteous feed many;
But fools die for lack of understanding.
Further:
The righteous shall never be moved;
But the wicked shall not dwell in the land.The mouth of the righteous bringeth forth wisdom;
But the perverse tongue shall be cut off.The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable;
But the mouth of the wicked speaketh perverseness.
So you can go on through each chapter, and you will find that the first pillar is righteousness.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, what was the one thing that characterized man? Sin. Sin is the opposite of righteousness. Sin is unrighteousness. That was the one thing that characterized mankind.
We had no righteousness. Well, we thought we had, but our righteousnesses were as filthy rags in the sight of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. And the wages of sin is death. That was our condition. That was our state. That was our character, that which characterized mankind.
But thank God, when we come to the Lord Jesus, He has not only forgiven all our sins and unrighteousnesses, but He has become our righteousness.
In other words, we can stand before God as righteous. Why? Not because we are righteous in ourselves, not because we have done something righteous. No, we have not. We can stand before God today because we are clothed with Christ.
Christ is our righteousness. When God looks upon us, He sees Christ. Because He sees Christ, He justifies us. We have a standing before Him. Christ is our righteousness.
But, brothers and sisters, Christ as our righteousness is more than a position. It is true: because we are clothed with Christ, Christ is our righteousness. We have a standing, we have a position before God. We can go to God; we can stand before God because Christ is our righteousness. That is true. But there is more.
Christ as our righteousness not only gives us that standing before God, but Christ our righteousness is also our life.
His life in us is righteous. The very nature of His life is righteous. You know, righteousness is more than conduct, an act, or a deed. It is true that there are righteous acts and righteous deeds, but righteousness in the Bible is more than just doing one or two things that are righteous.
Righteousness in the Bible is a character. It comes from a nature.
Therefore, in 1 John 2:29, it says:
If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him.
Here you find not only that God acts righteously—God always acts righteously—but God is righteous. The very nature of His life is righteous. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot do anything unrighteous. Why? Because it would be against His nature, against His very character.
We know our God is righteous. He can do nothing wrong. He cannot do anything unrighteous, because He has to do what He is. It is His nature, and it is His character.
So here you find that everyone who practices righteousness is begotten of Him. In 1 John 3:7, we read:
My little children, let no man lead you astray: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
The very life of Christ in us is a righteous life. Because we have this righteous life in us, therefore we need to practice righteousness. It would be against the nature of the new life in us if we sin, if we practice unrighteousness.
If we live by the life of Christ in us, then we will and we must practice righteousness. Dear brothers and sisters, it is not enough merely to have a position before God. We must live on this earth righteously. We must practice righteousness.
Not in the sense of keeping a law, but in the sense of living out that life. If we do anything unrighteous, it will be against the very nature of the life in us, and your conscience will not give you peace. Why? Because you are different from what He is.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, righteousness is more than doing something good or something right. Righteousness has its root in our life. If we follow this life and let His life be developed, it will become a character. So every believer should be characterized by righteousness.
I wonder if we know that the first thing in our Christian life is to be righteous. He has delivered us from sins, from unrighteousness. Then how shall we live? Righteously.
You remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6 that the believers in Corinth defrauded one another. They fought against one another and went to court against one another. Here Paul says to them:
Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified,
but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
The first, the most basic thing required of a believer is that he be righteous. Because God has delivered him from unrighteousness and has given him a righteous life, therefore he has to live righteously. He has to practice righteousness.
Do we have a sense of righteousness in us? We live our lives so loosely, so carelessly. We do not have a strong sense of righteousness. And if we do not have a strong sense of righteousness, we cannot live righteously. We compromise in every way.
But you remember our Lord Jesus said, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
The Pharisees and the scribes had their righteousness. What was the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes? They kept the letter of the law. They put on a good appearance. They seemed to do all that the law required.
But it was superficial. It was dead. It was hypocritical. They broke the spirit of the law altogether, but still they had what they considered righteousness.
And the Lord said, unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Why? Because our righteousness must not be just surface righteousness; it has to be deep.
Our righteousness is not according to the letter of the law, but according to the spirit of the law. Our righteousness is not hypocritical; our righteousness is real. It is not dead; it is living.
So you find the Bible describes the righteousnesses of the saints as white, shining, living—not only white, but shining. In other words, not only pure, but alive. Why? Because it is the life of Christ.
It is not just our doing, trying to put something on. Even if we can do it outwardly, it is pale; there is no life in it. But as we follow the life of Christ within us, and that righteousness begins to come forth, it is not only white; it is shining, full of light.
The Sermon on the Mount teaches us righteousness. How should a Christian live on earth as if he is in the kingdom of the heavens?
You find in these three chapters—Matthew 5, Matthew 6, and Matthew 7—the Lord said, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Following that, the Lord used many illustrations. He said:
Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill;
and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment;
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council;
and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is the letter of the law: “Thou shalt not kill.” As long as you do not kill a person, you think you have righteousness. Oh, but how they hated people. They dared not kill because the law forbade it, but in their hearts they were full of anger.
And the Lord said, “You should not be angry with your brother without cause.” When you are offering your gift and remember that you have wronged your brother, go and make it right with your brother before you come to offer your gift.
You read these three chapters. We do not have time to go through them, but you find that the Lord is teaching His own how to live righteously—not only not to commit sin, but to live righteously, right in the sight of God and witness.
The Lord says:
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
How do we live our life on earth? We live our life on earth occupied with the things of this earth: “What shall I eat? What shall I drink? What shall I be clothed with?” But the Lord says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
It is the righteousness of the kingdom, and this is the righteousness that is required of His people.
Some people say you can never, never keep the Sermon on the Mount. No one can keep it. That is true. No one can. It is only by the life of Christ in us that we can live righteously as described in these chapters.
But do we have the life? We do. Is the life of this nature? Yes. And why is it not practiced? Why does it not become a character in us? Because we rebel. We fight. We struggle. We do not yield ourselves. We do not cooperate with the Spirit of God.
Oh, brothers and sisters, this is the first thing in a Christian. If a Christian cannot live righteously, how can he live spiritually?
You know, sometimes we divorce the two things, as if to be spiritual is above being righteous. You can do many things if you are spiritual. That is pseudo-spirituality. If we cannot live righteously on earth, we are not spiritual at all—at all.
Again, righteousness is a character, not just doing a few righteous things. It has to be developed into a character. And, of course, in the development of character, you have to pay some cost.
Character does not come easily. When you first try to be righteous, it may be very hard. You may suffer for it. But the Lord said, “Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”
To be righteous will not make you popular. Not only will you not have such an easy life, but it will not make you popular at all, because the whole world is unrighteous. When they see you do not follow them, they will hate you. That is why the Bible says, “Persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”
If you are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven.
Why is it that we do not live righteously? Or how can we live righteously? What is the secret of it?
You know, when we are saved, God has quickened our spirit from death into life. He has purified our evil conscience from dead works.
What is the work of the conscience in us? We had an evil conscience. Our conscience was seared. Even though it still felt something, we did not feel too much, too deeply.
But He has purified our evil conscience. He has given us a new conscience—a conscience that is open, clean, clear, and sensitive.
What is the use of conscience? The conscience tells us what is right and what is wrong in the sight of God. It is very important for a Christian to live by his conscience.
Before we were saved, we could not live by our conscience because our conscience was dead, unreliable, without a standard. When the Holy Spirit quickened our conscience, then it awoke a little and began to see. Otherwise, our conscience was sleeping.
Many people say, “I live by my conscience. I am good.” But when the Holy Spirit quickens the conscience, then he knows.
But, dear brothers and sisters, after we are saved, we ought to live righteously. How? Not by being told all the time, not by putting rules on the wall. No. We are to live righteously because God has given us a pure conscience.
This conscience, this conscience that is renewed, has God as its standard. God is speaking to us in our conscience, telling us what is right and what is wrong. So Paul said, “I live by my conscience before God.” It is very important.
The reason why we do not live righteously is because we are not attentive to the voice of our conscience. We have habits. We have all kinds of things that we did before we were saved, and after we are saved we still want to do these things.
Probably we do not even know that these things are bad in the sight of God. But when you do these things, you know—your conscience will tell you. But you push it aside. You neglect it. You try to reason against it, and gradually the voice becomes unheard.
That is the reason a Christian must learn to live by his conscience. With a conscience without offence, he can live before God and before man.
Why is it that many Christians do not live righteously? Because they think spiritual life is composed of big things. But a life with God is composed mostly of little things.
Because you are careless in little things, you say, “Now, what is that? Oh, that is nothing. It is all right. Why should my conscience bother me? Other Christians are doing that. Why should I not do it? Everybody is doing it.”
“Oh, these are very minor. They do not amount to much.” And because you are very careless in little things, the result is that you are careless in big things too.
To live righteously before God, we need to be careful in little things. We need to walk before God with a good conscience. We need to deal with our conscience, to have dealings with our conscience.
Brothers and sisters, if you learn to do that, I have to say, in the beginning it is not too easy. Let me use an illustration.
Have you ever gone through your shelves and seen whether there are some books that you borrowed but never returned? That is unrighteous.
Have you ever searched your house to see whether there is anything that you obtained unrighteously—anything that does not belong to you, but you take as your own?
Does it ever bother you if the meeting begins at ten-thirty and you come at eleven? A small thing, but in these small things you develop a character.
I am just using a few illustrations. They show us how we Christians are careless. We do not live righteously before God and man.
Sometimes we are even worse than the people of this world. If you are going to see someone of importance and have an appointment, you never dare to be late. But how often we have appointments with God, and we are late, and we do not think anything of it.
Small things. We are not used to listening to the voice of our conscience.
Brothers and sisters, this is the first pillar upon which the house of God is to be built. God wants to build within us a righteous character, just like He is. Our Lord Jesus is not only righteous, but He is called the Righteous One. That is His character.
Not only should we not defraud one another, but we have to be righteous. But, you know, there is a strange verse in the Bible: Ecclesiastes 7:16.
Be not righteous overmuch;
neither make thyself overwise:
why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
We should be righteous, but can we be over-righteous? Probably, when we are under the light of God, we say, “Well, we are not righteous. We are under-righteous.” But here you find Solomon advising us, “Do not be over-righteous or overwise. Why should you destroy your life?”
Now what does that mean? To me, I feel what is meant here is not that we really can be over-righteous. We are always under and not over.
But when we try to be righteous by our own effort, in the manner that the Pharisees and scribes were righteous, we develop a sense of self-righteousness. Our sense of self-righteousness becomes so great that we think everybody is wrong and we are the only ones who are righteous.
Then we begin to look down upon everybody. We begin to criticize everybody. And, you know, the result is that you destroy your life. You are too righteous.
Oftentimes there is a danger, as we are trying to live righteously, that we may go off on a tangent and become self-righteous. That is what is meant here: do not be over-righteous, thinking that you are so righteous that you become hard, harsh, and critical.
You set yourself up as a judge of everybody. The Bible says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that the Lord is building up His church. And as He builds His church, He has to build up His character in us. That is the pillar to support the house.
So may we really humble ourselves before the Lord and be very practical, willing to go through practical issues and let the Lord bring us into creating and developing a real sense of right, a real sense of righteousness. I think this is what the Lord wants.
Our heavenly Father, we do acknowledge that we are unrighteous. We are far under what Thou art. Lord, we just put ourselves in Thy hand. Ask Thy Holy Spirit to work Christ into us and work righteousness out from our life.
We want to be righteous because Thou art righteous. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.