WILL THE RIGHTEOUS LIVE 

EZEKIEL 18:24-32

          The children of Israel are complaining here that the ways of God are unfair and unjust.  They wanted to know “how could a man who had lived righteously for most of his life become a sinner again and die because of his sin.”  They wanted to know “why would he not just be allowed to continue to live since he had done more good than evil? Why would he not just be rewarded for his righteous deeds? Why should he die for committing only one sin?”  God did not like their way of thinking and wanted them to understand that sin is sin no matter when it occurs or in whom it is found.  God is making the point that those who call themselves righteous are no more exempt from punishment for sin than are the wicked.  Sin is a deadly thing that will damn the soul whether a man call himself righteous or wicked.  The people called God unjust but God held his ground stating that his ways are just because he deals with all in the same manner, without respect of persons.  God says that the ways of man are unequal because man expects justice when injustice has been done, he expects to be seen as righteous when sin has been committed and he expects God to reward him with live when he is killing himself with sin.  The truth of the matter is we call ourselves saved, we call ourselves the righteous ones, children of God but we don’t do righteously and we often live like Children of the Devil.  Well it is not what you call yourself that counts, but rather what you do.  This mornings message is “Will the Righteous Live?”

          When a group of people have something in common we tend to give the group a name.  If the commonality is in beliefs then we have denominations.  If it is in jobs duties then we give them professional or occupational names like engineers or busboys.  It to me is getting harder and harder to know what to call God’s people.  We can’t use Christian because from the world’s view that now refers to anyone who believes the Christmas and Easter stories.  We moved from saying we were Christians to saying we are saved, but those who are claiming to be saved are now living just like those who know themselves to be unsaved.  We can’t be the righteous ones because that in and of itself would imply that we are going to uphold a right way of living.  Whatever it is that we call ourselves doesn’t matter, because they are all just words.  Hear me.  You are not righteous if you are not committed to living righteously.  You are not a Christian if you are not committed to following after and living a lifestyle directed by Christ. You are not saved if you are not committed to submitting to the will of God for your life.  Some of us think that because we call ourselves saved, Christian, Born again, whatever, that we are exempt from punishment for our sins.  Well it is not the name that you tag yourself with that counts, but rather it is what you do.  God said in Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”   Will the righteous live?  Well the question is who is doing righteously because those are the people who will live. 

ROMANS 2:5-12

We know God’s judgment to be right.

We can not possibly think that we are going escape the judgment of God when we are doing the same thing the sinner is doing.

We know that God is going to render to every man according to his deeds and yet we continue to do unrighteously.  Verse 5 says that we are storing up God’s anger against ourselves. 

Verses 7-10 are clear on what the standard of judgment will be and the resulting rewards.  To receive eternal life we see terms like continuance in well doing, seeking glory and honor of God and to live with him in immortality, doing good works.  To receive punishment and wrath we see terms like contentious (quarrelisome, disagreeable), disobeying the truth, living unrighteously, and doing evil. 

Notice, whether blessing or punishment it was to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, i.e., to God’s people first and then to those who are outside of relationship with Him. 

There is no respect of persons with God.  He does not regard sin in our lives differently from sin in the lives of others.  Take an honest look at your life, your actions, your commitment to God because your actions will play into your eternal destiny.

I PETER 4:17-18

          God will judge each and every one of us and yes we know that for the believer it is a judgment of our works to determine rewards.  But I want to urge you to day to make sure that you are fulfilling the requirements to be in the group called believers.  Even those who are righteous are going to barely make it in.  And I don’t think that your merely calling yourself righteous, or holy, or save or whatever is going to be enough if those who are making every effort to live righteously just barely make it in. 1 Peter 1:17 says “if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:”  Your works are your actions.  Look at your actions.  Ask yourself  “If I had to stand before God today, would He be pleased with my actions”. 

MATTHEW 7:21-27

          It is time out for knowing what God says do and then doing what you want to do.  Just because you are praying and calling on the name of Jesus means very little.  You can try whispering sweet words to Jesus all you want to but if you don’t have actions to back it up you ain’t saying nothing.  If you love God, then do what God says to do.  Otherwise don’t claim to love him.  And notice you can’t just do the part of serving God that you want to do and leave the part that you don’t like.  You have to do that which is the Father’s will.  These people that Jesus is speaking of here did good works.  They prophesied (or preached), they cast out devils and did many wonderful works all in the name of Jesus.  But the question becomes is this what God assigned them to do?  They obviously did not do God’s will?  You can’t do what I want done or what you want to do and leave the work that God has for you to do undone.  I can’t tell you specific actions that God wants you to do but I can tell you for sure that it is God’s will for you to be saved and that it is His will for you to live holy and to walk upright.  You don’t need me or anyone else to tell you that.  Jesus said in John 9:41 “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remains.” And in John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”  If we did not know what to do that would be one thing.  But we know right from wrong, God’s will from our own will, Holy living versus unholy living and we know what is truthful and right to do.  And in fact, we know what is a sin in our lives.  The question is, “what do we choose to do with that which we already know”.   If your answer to this questions is “purge myself or be purged of sin” then you may one day be a part the righteous who scarsely make it in and live.  If you

Are not committed to living what you already know, purging yourself of anything that is not like God, then you really should question your commitment to God and thus your salvation.

GALATIANS 6:7-8

          This scripture did not say “do not try to deceive God.”  It said don’t deceive yourself.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are saved and on your way to Heaven.  If you are being pulled along through life by your flesh, then it is pulling you straight to destruction.  But if you will choose to follow continuously as God’s Spirit leads, you will one day experience everlasting life with God. 

          You hear me preach a lot about living the standard God has set before us.  That is because I don’t want to miss heaven myself or get there and find that any of you have missed it.

COLOSSIANS 3:25

To me this is just as much a promise as I John 5:14-15 which says "and this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us whatsoever he ask, we know that we have the petitions we desir of him". If we as believers do wrong we also shall receive for the wrong we have done. The fact that there is no respect of persons with God says that we too must be very careful in what we allow ourselves to become involved in.

LUKE 12:47-48

Again we are held accountable for what we both know to do and what we do not know to do. If I do not do what I know to be the will of God then my punishment will be greater than when I miss doing what I was not aware that I should do. For us to confess that we know God and then to continue to do that which we know to be contrary to his will is to request greater punishment.

Will the righteous live forever with God? The answer of course is yes, becasue those who are truly righteous will scarcely make it in. Let me warn you. Just because God imputes righteousness to us and calls us righteous does not eliminate the need for us to live uprightly, submitting to the will of God and living holy in word and deed. Living upright and holy lives has always been God's standard for mankind. God called the Children of Israel his chosen people. However, when they failed to live up to the standard God set before them, He cut them off. Will the righteous live? Yes, those who meet the standard of righteousness set by God will live. Commit yourself to striving to be one of those righteous ones who make it in.