Sermon Notes - March 10, 2024
Sunday, March 10, 2023: Chris Pletcher
If Jesus came to fully reveal the Father, what did He reveal about Him?
Hebrews 1:1-9 // LOOK AT JESUS
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.” Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” But of the Son he says,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” (Quote from Psalm 45)
THE FATHER LOVES RIGHTEOUSNESS. And He HATES wickedness...
Psalm 9:7-8
The Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice,
and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.
Psalm 89:14
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Psalm 11:4-7
The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Psalm 145:17
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.
Righteous = just, right, clean, correct, lawful
• Speaks of government, of cause, and of conduct and character
• God is a just judge who dispenses justice and fulfills His promises
• God is morally clean and loves what is good
“Righteous/Righteousness” in the Bible - 535 times
• Genesis (10) - Abraham & Lot
• Deuteronomy (10) - Driving out the wickedness of Canaan
• Job (15), Psalms (126), Proverbs (87), Isaiah (60)
• NT: Romans (42)
Let God be God. This is who He is. He LOVES righteousness and he HATES wickedness.
• The Spirit of the age is relativism... anything goes, except for having the conviction that NOT ANYTHING GOES.
• As the people of God, we must understand that there are "things" that the Lord hates.
• GOD'S WORD MAKES A CLEAR DISTINCTION BETWEEN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND WICKEDNESS
• We are living in days where the world is rising up to call evil good and good evil. If we are not careful, we will be swept into the current of culture and DECEIVED. Much of the church has already been. The thing about deception is that you DON'T REALIZE you are being deceived...
• We need to be open to the possibility that we may already have some areas of our lives where we have been tricked and led astray from the truth.
OIL OF GLADNESS // RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE FOUNDATION FOR PEACE & JOY
Psalm 35:27
Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!”
Psalm 118:19-20
Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
Romans 14:17
The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
If you have a JOY problem, you may have a righteousness problem.
SALVATION // We all have a righteousness problem without Jesus.
1 Peter 2:24-25
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
GRACE EMPOWERS US TO LIVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Having been saved, we are commanded to stay in PARTNERSHIP with righteousness through OBEDIENCE. Partnership... what you partake of, participate in, and cooperate with.
Luke 11:33-36 // Guard your LAMP!
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
Ephesians 5:1-14 // CHILDREN OF LIGHT
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Revelation 2:18-23 // JEZEBEL AND THE SICK BED
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I willgive to each of you according to your works.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!