OPEN: Back in 1929, Chicago had a problem. In fact, the tentacles of that problem infested much of the nation around Chicago. The problem had a name. And that name was Al Capone.
Capone was a criminal. A wicked man who literally ran the city of Chicago. He owned most of the politicians and policemen, and those he couldn’t buy, he threatened or had killed. Capone and his mob ran prostitution rings throughout the city and sold bootleg liquor worth millions.
Then, one day, a young Treasury agent and eleven of his handpicked men decided it was time to declare war on Capone.
Does anybody know the name of this young 26 year old Treasury Agent? (Elliot Ness).
Ness and his team ran continuous raids on Capone’s operations and cost the mobster millions in lost revenue. As you can image, Capone was not happy with this and attempted numerous assassination attempts on Ness and succeeded in killing one of Ness’s closest friends.
But before Al Capone took out a contract on this Treasury Agent, he decided on a softer approach. He sent a messenger to Elliot Ness with an envelope. At the time, Ness was making $2,800 a year (this was back in 1929) and the envelope contained $2000 inside. The messenger made it clear that this could be a weekly salary for Ness… if he would just lay off Capone.
Ness put the money back in the envelope and sent it and the messenger back to Capone.
THEN he called a press conference. Ness told the assembled newspaper men all about Capone’s attempted bribe and of made it clear how much contempt he had for the man who had offered it.
The next day, the headlines read “Ness and his men are UNTOUCHABLE.”
And thus began the legend of Eliot Ness and his Untouchables.
In a day of corrupt officials and policemen who were on the take Ness and his Untouchables became heroes. They were righteous men who could not be bought. They were upright men of integrity who fought evil and corruption.
They were the men of legend.
In Proverbs 11, God says He is calling for His people to be men and women of legend.
He is calling us to be people known for our integrity.
People who can’t be bought
People who stand for righteousness in a land that is filled with evil and corruption.
In Micah 6:8 God declares: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
So, what God says He expects from us is…
• Righteousness
• Mercy
• And a Humble Spirit
He calls us to be legends in our world.
And so here in Proverbs 11 God tells us what a righteous person looks like.
As God often did in the book Proverbs God draws a contrast between the righteous and the wicked.
Verse 3 says “The integrity of the UPRIGHT guides them, but the UNFAITHFUL are destroyed by their duplicity.
Verse 5 says “The righteousness of the BLAMELESS makes a straight way for them, but the WICKED are brought down by their own wickedness.”
In verse 6 “The RIGHTEOUSNESS of the upright delivers them, but the UNFAITHFUL are trapped by evil desires.”
Verse 8 declares: “The RIGHTEOUS man is rescued from trouble, and it comes on the WICKED instead.
Verse 9 says: “With his mouth the GODLESS destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the RIGHTEOUS escape.
In verse 10 it says “When the RIGHTEOUS prosper, the city rejoices; when the WICKED perish, there are shouts of joy.
And in verse 11 God says: Through the blessing of the UPRIGHT a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the WICKED it is destroyed.
Did you catch the pattern here?
God is saying:
• These people are the righteous… these aren’t.
• These folks have integrity… these folks don’t.
• God loves the good guys… He despises the other guys.
• The upright He protects and honors… but the wicked will be trapped and destroyed.
God is making a comparison. And He’s telling us: MAKE A CHOICE.
DECIDE what kind of person you’re going to be!
ILLUS: Back in 2008, Barna did a nationwide survey asking about their views on “righteousness”. Now the survey organization didn’t put it that way. What they did was ask people to evaluate what they thought about 8 specific activities:
1. Watching pornography
2. Using profanity in public
3. Gambling
4. Gossiping
5. Engaging in sexual intercourse with someone to whom they were not married
6. Seeking revenge against someone
7. Getting drunk and
8. Lying.
What they found was that
• Evangelicals were the group most likely to follow to embrace morality, while atheists and agnostics were more likely to reject it.
• Liberals (compared to those who described themselves as “conservative and were often more religious)
o were 5 times more likely to participate in unmarried sex,
o more than 3 times as likely to view pornography,
o more than twice as likely to lie and to get drunk, seek revenge and gossip.
• And people associated with faiths other than Christianity were twice as likely as evangelicals to engage in these behaviors.
What that said to me was this:
Those who respected the God of the Bible were more likely to embrace righteousness that those who didn’t.
To paraphrase the great writer Dostoyevsky, once you remove the God of Scripture from your life… “everything is permissible”. Those who reject God’s righteousness do so because it interferes with what THEY want to do in their lives.
ILLUS: It’s kind of like the story I once read about a man went to see a psychiatrist.
He complained, "I’ve been doing some bad things, Doc, and my conscience is troubling me."
The doctor asked, "And you want something that will strengthen your will power?"
The man replied, "Well, no, I was thinking of something that would weaken my conscience."
Many people don’t want God’s righteousness.
They want something that will make them feel better about their own unrighteousness.
But God says: that’s not gonna happen.
God says: “I don’t care what your excuse is… wrong is wrong.”
ILLUS: The first church I served had a Deacon who was committing adultery and they just let it go. The guy was wealthy, related to those in leadership and he was likable guy.
When I refused to go along with their moral apathy they were appalled and ultimately asked me to leave.
In fact, one man even asked me: “If you were a preacher in San Francisco, you wouldn’t preach against homosexuality would you?”
Well, yeah!!! That’s where many of them live!
It doesn’t matter what sin we’re talking about – wrong is wrong.
Wrong is wrong, even if everyone else says it’s ok!
Exodus 23:2 says "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”
Wrong is wrong, even if you don’t get caught!
Proverbs 15:3 warns "the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good". You can’t possibly do anything that God doesn’t know about!
Wrong is wrong, even if it doesn’t bother your Conscience!
The conscience can be trained to accept wrong-doing. You can build up a callous over your heart. Ephesians 4:18 tells us that’s what happens to people who live in sin long enough
“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
WRONG IS WRONG.
And God does not accept excuses.
God calls for… no, He DEMANDS righteousness from His people.
To those who would choose wickedness, God says:
• The LORD’s curse will be on your house. Proverbs 3:33
• You’ll be brought down by your own wickedness. Proverbs 11:5
• You’ll be trapped by your evil desires.” Proverbs 11:6
• And, when you die… people will rejoice. Proverbs 11:10
But if you choose righteousness… that’s a whole different ball game. God will bless you.
• God will hear your prayers. Proverbs 15:29
• You’ll sing and you’re glad - you’ll be a happy person. Proverbs 29:6
• You won’t go hungry. Proverbs 10:3
• You might get knocked down 7 times but each time you’ll get back up again. Prov. 24:16
So… God calls His people to righteousness.
But there’s a fly in the ointment.
There’s a problem we run into when we strive to be righteous.
Does anybody know what that problem is???
Romans 3:10 says "There is NO ONE righteous, not even one”
Job 9:2 agrees: "… how can a mortal be righteous before God?”
The fly in the ointment is – NO ONE is righteous before God. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So, let me see if I’ve got this right:
1. God wants me to be righteous
2. I want to be righteous
3. But I can’t be righteous, because NO ONE ever is righteous.
Did I understand that correctly???
(Pause) Yes I did.
So if I can’t be righteous, why would God demand it of me?
Why? Because God sets the bar high.
He says – this is what you are aiming for.
He’s not saying you’re always going to reach it, but that is your objective. You’re going to touch the bar now and again, but there’s no way you’ll constantly be able attain that goal in your life.
ILLUS: A man named John Smithson put it this way:
“Before I came to Christ, I practiced sin and committed acts of righteousness.”
In other words, before he became a Christian he lived for himself. God’s opinion didn’t matter to him. If he wanted to do it, he did it. Sin was a way of life for him. BUT, he saw himself as being a “nice guy” and so he would occasionally do “nice things” because that was what “nice people” did.
So Smithson said “Before I came to Christ, I practiced sin and committed acts of righteousness.”
Then he said “Now, I practice righteousness and commit acts of sin.”
In other words: Now that he belongs to Jesus he lives to please Him. But he’s realistic enough to realize that he still messes up. He falls short. He sins. But that is no longer the goal of his life.
ILLUS: As I was pondering this issue of our imperfect righteousness I was trying to think of some way to illustrate this truth. Then I came upon this thought.
How many of you have ever watched a High School baseball game?
Logansport has one of the best High School teams in the state, and one of our young men pitches for them. In fact, Bailey has pitched several no-hitters this season.
So, we have one of the finest high school baseball teams in the state… let’s say we take them down to Cincinnati and have them face off against the Cincinnati Reds. How do you think they’d do?
They’d lose? How come?
That’s right – they’re high schoolers. They can’t throw a ball as hard and fast as a big league pitchers. They can’t run as fast as the professionals can. They can’t hit a baseball as far as Brandon Philips or Miguel Cabrera. They don’t have the same skills in the infield or outfield.
They don’t belong on the same field as the Reds
So, if they wouldn’t stand a chance of beating the Reds… why should even bother to play baseball? They’re not as good as those professionals big leaguers so why even play the game?
Of course, that’s not how people think. Especially their High School coaches. Those coaches don’t care if their players aren’t as good as the professionals. All they want from their boys is the best each of them can give. And if those young players don’t give their best, they’ll be doing laps.
The Bible is telling us we’re not in the same league with God. You and I will never be as righteous as God.
As Job says: "… how can a mortal be righteous before God?”
We’re not on the same playing field as God is. We don’t have bragging rights to say we’ve been righteous enough to DESERVE to be on His team.
That’s why Ephesians 2 tells us “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved… not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:3-5 & 9
So, not righteous enough to be saved.
But if that’s true, how could I possibly make it into heaven?
Well, that’s what 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains to us: “God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
ILLUS: You see – when I’m clothed with Jesus – HIS righteousness compensates for what I lack. One man explained it this way: if all a Christian has is a 5 and God wants a 10… God supplies the other 5 for him. If the Christian has a 7, God supplies the remaining 3. God makes up the difference for what I lack in righteousness.
ILLUS: It’s kind of like this. Let’s say a high school player gets a chance to play for the Reds. There’s two outs, the bases are loaded and our young man is up to bat.
On the mound is one of the best professional pitchers in the league and our boy doesn’t stand a chance… and he knows it.
Suddenly, the coach calls time out. He pulls our boy aside and puts in a pinch hitter in his place - a fabled home run hitter.
The pitcher goes into his windup, the ball streaks toward the plate, the batter swings… and it’s outta there. The ball flies high and true and goes of the right field fence for a Grand Slam home run.
Then coach says to our boy “Now, you run around the bases. Just make sure you touch all the bases. That’s all you have to do.”
Philippians 3:9 says I don’t have “a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ— the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Or as 2 Corinthians 5:21 put it “God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
So, how do I get “INTO Jesus so I lay hold of His righteousness?” Galatians 3:26-27 says “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
You see, when you and I believed and were baptized into Christ, we suited up for His team. When that happened, God called us to live lives dedicated to righteousness. But in the righteous life we strive for, we need to realize that we’ll not get into heaven by our righteousness… but by His.
