THE SIN OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!
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For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10
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God has indeed commanded His children to be holy for HE is holy. Everything about The LORD Jesus is holy.
God has called us "unto holiness" -1 Thessalonians 4:7 "He hath chosen us...that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.." - Ephesians 1:4. God commands us: "Be ye holy.." 1 Peter 1:16. Holiness is required for admittance to Heaven!!! "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man can see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14.
But what does The Word of God say about self-righteousness? What does The Word have to say about Christians who look down upon other Christians as though they have a holiness of and by themselves? Self-righteousness is something brought to birth by the unsaved flesh.
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There is no righteousness outside of The LORD Jesus' righteousness, Beloved.
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Something occurred "once upon a time" in our personal life that caused us take a look at this matter of self-righteousness.
"Once upon a time", a Minister's pregnant wife, (who also claimed to be a Minister), shared with us "one winter's evening" that she had experienced female bleeding while at the same time voicing some concern for her unborn child. She was in the first trimester of pregnancy. This woman stated that she had been eating less and less in an effort to lose weight. She, being of a small dress size before becoming pregnant, did not have even one single rational reason to be thinking of losing weight! Common sense would negate continuing such behaviors. Loving an unborn child would negate such behaviors. Medical science strongly speaks against such behaviors during pregnancy. Most importantly, treasuring the child as a gift from God would negate such behaviors.
Much time was spent telling her of the potential ill-effects of such dieting while pregnant, but, unknown to us, she continued in bizarre dieting and hard aerobic exercises even after the bleeding episode. She had not shared with us that she was doing the hard aerobic exercises along with the dieting while pregnant. This woman had, however, previously shared with us that her husband, after finding out about this pregnancy, had told her the exercises would have to cease during the pregnancy.
It bears mentioning at his point that this woman had experienced anorexia in her youth and had been delivered of this bizarre abomination after being saved by The LORD Jesus. In fact, her husband would not even allow a scale to be in the home lest she be tempted back into the devil's darkness of anorexia. He was doing all he could to keep her from this sin. At some point, however, she did return unto the spiritual vomit that the gracious and merciful LORD Jesus had delivered her from so many years before. You will see this as you continue to read. How it happened, we have no clue.
An email arrived several weeks after the initial phone call informing us that the baby was dead. Massive bleeding had occurred with the expulsion of the little one. The baby never lived to see the light of day. It was in our follow-up phone-call to the emailed information that she stated that even if we had rebuked her even stronger for her dieting (prior to the death of the baby), that "it wouldn't have made a difference" (her words) for she continued in the abberant behavior with continued addition of hard aerobic exercise even after the initial bleeding episode.
With a baby now dead, did she admit remorse at what she had done to this baby? No, Beloved. Surely God got the blame! But just think about it, Beloved. Since when does God starve an unborn baby? He DOESN'T!!! Since when does God promote hard aerobic exercises during the time He has a baby is snuggled so warm and safely within the womb? He DOESN'T!!! Why is it that when we sin and suffer the wages of sin that we place the blame on God and pet ourselves saying "It was God's will" as though we were not guilty?
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This lack of taking the deserved blame (with genuine repentance) for the baby's death came as no surprise for this woman is well-known for her self-righteousness. She actually believes that she is holier than you. She actually believes she is holier than we are. She cannot and will not admit to sinning for to do so would cause her to lay down her self-righteousness. Self-righteousness abounds so much in the home to the point that the family does not even attend Church with others on the outside of the home unless the husband is invited to preach at a Church thus making him the "star of the show"!!! Her condemnation of those who abort babies, use birth-control pills, etc., remains great while refusing to admit that she has participated in the abortion of her own baby by her blatant selfishness and self-love. We had to separate ourselves from her til the time comes, (if it does come), when she allows God to really get hold of her and change her from self-righteousness and self-justification into the quest for HIS righteousness. We have loved her dearly. In spite of the self-righteousness, she and her family have meant so very much to us and will forever live in our hearts.....but this was too much for us to pet and ignore. A baby is dead and there is no remorse for sin. Self-righteousness has seared the conscience as with a hot iron. Self-righteousness refuses to hear the rebuke of The LORD and self-righteousness refuses to recognize the chastening hand of God.
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Witnessing this abominable self-righteousness, it became necessary to take an in-depth look at self-righteousness for it is something absolutely abhorred by God Almighty. The ungodly stench of self-righteousness is sickening. Let us ALL take a NECESSARY look at what God has said in His inerrant and infallible Word about self-righteousness. We all need to take a look at ourselves under The Holy Ghost's spotlight and see if we are guilty of the same abominable sin against Almighty God. If we find that we are guilty of this, we MUST repent as soon as possible for this sin. God will forgive us if we are truly sorrowful and repentant of this sin and He will do so ONLY because of The LORD Jesus.
In Isaiah 65:5, The LORD God Almighty Jesus Christ addresses those who practice self-righteousness "Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day."
In Isaiah 9a-11, God has made promises to those who forsake "putting forth of the finger" in their self-righteousness. "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."
God Almighty has commissioned His servants to go forth and teach the world about The LORD Jesus. He has instructed those in the Church to rebuke, reprove, edify, and comfort others in the Church. He has instructed His Church to judge righteous judgement. He has instructed His Church to flee the ungodly world and its lusts and sins. He has NOT, however, told His Church to stand as though we are righteous in our own right. It is ONLY through The LORD Jesus and His blood sacrifice on the cross of Calvary that we have His righteousness. When we lose our ability to bow to God and to His Word, we are in hypocrisy, delusion, and in danger of being cast away from Him just as He would cast an abominable branch away from His holiness.
It is ONLY Jesus' righteousness in and through us that impresses God Almighty!!! Our self-made acts of what we call "righteousness" (also known as abominable flesh acts done to impress God, self, and others) are as the rags of a leper filled with corruption. Have you not heard this? God has stated it plainly to all of His children in His inerrant and infallible Word in Isaiah 64:6........."But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
Our TRUE acts of GOD'S righteousness will be The Holy Spirit working through us to glorify Jesus ALONE.
Let us stay humble and contrite before The LORD God Almighty and forever grateful to Him ALONE for our forgivess and eternal salvation. It is ALL because of JESUS that we have been called into His eternal salvation. Jesus tells us in Isaiah 34:18, "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." And again in Isaiah 66:2b, He tells us "but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word."
Let it NEVER be forgotten that it is ALL because of Jesus that we can even call upon God's Name!!! Let us NEVER forget what God has spoken in Isaiah 53:10-11, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul (Jesus' soul!) an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul (Jesus' soul!), and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. (Emphasis ours.)
Beloved, let us all seek The LORD Jesus on this sin of self-righteousness and if He reveals to us that we are in such abominable sin, let us grieve sorely and repent and ask God for forgiveness. Let us not walk on in the blindness of our self-deluded hearts in such abominable sin against our LORD God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Will He forgive us? Sure, He will. He will allow us to truly repent before Him and turn from our sin. And why will He give us this merciful opportunity? ONLY because of JESUS!!!
May His Name be praised and glorified in our lives here on this earth, Beloved for He ALONE is worthy!!! We are NOT!!!
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The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Proverbs 8:13
