“ONLY A RIGHTEOUS MAN IS REMEMBERED FOREVER,”
PSALM 112:1-10
JOKE--- Two elderly women were eating at a restaurant one morning. Ethel noticed something funny about Mable’s ear and she said, "Mable, did you know you’ve got a suppository in your left ear?" Mable answered, "I have? A suppository?" She pulled it out & stared at it. Then she said, "Ethel, I’m glad you saw this thing” With that she jumped up and started running for the restroom. Ethel asked, “Where are you going in such a hurry Mable?” She looked back and yelled, “I just realized where my hearing aid is."
INTRO--- I was relieved to find out that I’m not the only one who forgets things. Everyone does at one time or another, according to Karen Bolla, A Johns Hopkins researcher. These are the top 5 things people most often forget:
1. Names 83%
2. Where something is 60%
3. Telephone numbers 57%
4. Words 53%
5. Faces 42%
And if you can’t remember what I just said you join 49% percent of the population.
Memorial Day has traditionally been a day of remembering the many heroes who have fallen so that you might have freedom, and justice.
Most of us would like to be remembered for doing something noble in this world. But most of us will not because the Psalmist proclaimed in our message today: Only a righteous man will be remembered forever!
You see, too many people are slaves to the sinful desires of their own hearts. My friends, we cannot pickup a musket and fight this oppression. We cannot pass a new law that will free us from ourselves.
Like the soldiers who fell in service to this country so that we might have physical liberty, Jesus Christ spilled his blood so that we would find spiritual liberty and everlasting life from his death, burial and resurrection. This Memorial Day we celebrate freedom. This morning ask yourself: “Am I free? Am I really free today?”
PRAY---
TRANS--- Psalm 112 follows Psalm 111 in a special way. Psalm 111 is about a *righteous God. Psalm 112 is about the man or woman that God makes *righteous.
Now the word ‘*righteous’ in the Bible is a special word. It means ‘always doing what is right’. Now we know that only God *righteous because we humans do not always do right, in fact most of the time we do wrong.
But did you know that the people who love and obey God are also called *righteous in Psalm 112? How can this be?
I. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FEAR GOD
A. Look at v. 1--- A better English word for ‘fear’ is ‘awe’.
1. You see awe is a mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by the authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, and the might of God.
a. And you see only when you realize just how awesome God is can you truly be sorry for your unrighteousness against God and others.
2. Standing in awe of God is demonstrated by acting upon His Word.
a. When God gave His Word to Israel they were to show their awe, love, and respect for Him by keeping His Word.
b. In our day and time we are still to keep the Word of God written to us:
ILLUSTRATION---Romans 10:9-10---“if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
3. My friends if we will stand in awe of God and keep His Word we receive great benefits from God.
a. The great benefits of standing in awe of God proclaimed in the Old Testament include: His pleasure, care and attention; His protection and help; His blessings, love and mercy; riches, honor, satisfaction, health and life and eternal remembrance.
b. The great benefits of standing in awe of God proclaimed in the New Testament are even greater and include eternal life, holy spirit, sonship, spiritual gifts, relationship with the risen Christ and eternal salvation.
ILLUSTRATION--- In the book of Ecclesiates, Solomon considers all of the works of man and concludes that all man does is vanity.
All that happens to man - birth and death, planting and harvest, killing and healing, building and tearing down, riches and poverty, getting and losing, love and hate, war and peace - all of the work of man is vain.
Eccl 12:13---Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
I. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FEAR GOD
II. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE ARE FULL OF COMPASSION AND GENEROCITY
A. Look at v. 4--- God’s "light in the darkness" is the guidance God gives us in Satan’s dark world. This includes, what to do with our families, what to do in the affairs of life, as well as what to do with our finances.
1. My friends, people don’t become adulterers or bank robbers over night.
a. When we dig our immoral graves, it is not with a big backhoe but with a teaspoon, one small choice at a time.
ILLUSTRATION--- You know until just recently everyone believed that the Titanic sank because it received a huge gash in its side when it collided with that ice berg back in 1912 sinking and killing 1500 people.
Well scientists now say that it was not a large gash that caused the 900-foot ship to go down. They discovered that the damage was surprisingly small....comprised of only 6 relatively narrow slits across the six watertight holds.
You see it was the small damage, below the water line and invisible to most, that sunk the huge ship.
In the same way, small compromises, unseen to others, can ultimately sink a person’s character.
2. People in the world like to think that through their power and wealth in this life they will be remembered.
a. In Ecclesiastes 2:18-21 Solomon points out that the wealth we leave behind often ends up in the hands of fools who mishandle it.
3. The reason this man in v. 4 is prosperous is because the ultimate goal of a compassionate person is not self gain, but to be able to give to those in need.
a. To those who are too poor to take care of themselves, a compassionate person will give generously without thought of repayment.
b. To those who simply need a temporary loan, a compassionate person will loan freely and without abusing the borrower with explosive interest and unreasonable terms.
c. And because of compassion and generosity, v. 6 says the righteous person will be remembered forever.
I. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE FEAR GOD
II. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE ARE FULL OF COMPASSION AND GENEROCITY
III. RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE TRUST IN THE LORD
A. Look at v. 7--- Imagine yourself you are off by yourself somewhere and there is a severe pain in your chest and your breath leaves you. Death will be upon you in 90 seconds.
Maybe when you get to work tomorrow morning the boss calls you in and says, "We are making some changes in the company and our plans no longer include your services. Here is your final paycheck."
The doctor calls you and tells you that the tests he ran last week have the worst possible news. You have terminal cancer.
If any of these circumstances or worse were to occur to you today: “Are you confident that everything is all right between you and the Creator of the universe?”
1. You see the psalmist is talking about a person whose faith is such that even when bad news comes, he or she could say, ’It is well with my soul’.
2. My friends in order to be able to say, “It is well with my soul!” there is something you must possess:
a. Assurance Of Salvation
1) I am not talking about cheap religious titles and $10.00 words that you heap upon yourself… “Yeah I am a born again Christian!” Really, do you know what that means?
b. I am also not talking about walking down some aisle or signing a card.
ILLUSTRATION---(Eph 2:8-9) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: {9} Not of works, lest any man should boast."
1) In other words as the old Gospel Hymn asks: “Have You Been To Jesus For That Cleansing Power?”
2) “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
CONCLUSION--- A man’s daughter had asked the local pastor to come and pray with her father. When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The priest assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. "I guess you were expecting me," he said.
"No, who are you?"
"I’m the new associate at your local church," the pastor replied. "When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the pastor shut the door.
"I’ve never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it always went right over my head.."
"I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, ’Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ’I’ll be with you always.’ Then just speak to him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful, though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm." The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he seem to die in peace?" he asked.
"Yes, when I left the house around two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him leaned over the chair beside the bed."
