THE ORGAN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS – Part 2

              We have already made known that the struggle of righteousness is more than just obeying the commandments of God - it has to do with a rightness in our being, a sense of rightness and in the right things to do, even in areas stipulated beyond the Ten Commandments. In our daily life, there is always some righteousness to observe, some right way of doing certain things and some right thinking, right attitudes, right behaviors, and right perceptions to follow.

Rom. 5:17 says,  For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. In order to have victory in this life we must understand two things, the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. And we all are supposed to rule and reign in this life.

I Cor. 8:7 speaks about a conciousness that we must have.  

Verse 7 with a word substitution for clarification… However, there is not in everyone that knowledge, for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to idol; and their consciousness being weak is defiled. Also verse 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the consciousness of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died?

when you have spent a lot of time with God, or in the presence of God in a prayer meeting or in a worship service,or in your own prayer time, you carry that consciousness of God with you throughout whatever you do.

The secret to ruling and reigning in Jesus is to maintain that consciousness 24 hours a day. That consciousness is the result of the gift of righteousness that we can partake of in God. The gift of righteousness imparts a sense of consciousness of God.

Jn. 16:8 And when He has come He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  In verses 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of the gospel of John 16, there are three types of conviction. There is a conviction of sin, which many of us know experientially. We were convicted of sin. The conviction of sin brings certain feeling of remorse and brokenness and consciousness of guilt, condemnation and failures. Conviction always brings a part of the consciousness of God. Most of us know what a conviction of sin is like. We use our salvation experience as an example.

The conviction of righteousness brings to the situation a different dimension. The conviction of judgment, which is a sense of victory over the devil. Notice that these three types of convictions are progressive. We first learn to be sensitive to the conviction of sin. Then we learn to be sensitive to the conviction of righteousness. And as that becomes more and more a part of our first nature, we become conscious of our victory over Satan and recognize that Satan is completely defeated. So, these convictions are progressive.

Conviction of sin makes us conscious of what we have done wrong. Conviction of righteousness makes us conscious of who we are in Christ. Conviction of judgment makes us conscious of the defeat of the devil. Each conviction brings a different dimension of consciousness of God.

Verse 14 Solid food belongs to those who are of full age that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. I’ll call it the organ of righteousness that senses right and wrong. Because it has to be like a body part..that stays with us wherever we go and what ever we do. Beyond the law, there is that sense of righteousness that needs to come into our life. Now the good news in the New Testament is that this sense of righteousness, this consciousness and this gift of righteousness is a free gift. You don’t have to do anything to get it. You only have to believe and receive. You don’t have to pray twenty –four hours in order to get a sense of it. You don’t have to do good works for twenty or thirty some odd years to get a sense of it. Although praying and doing good works does help that sense. The fact remains that it’s a gift from God for us.

              Now observe carefully the progression of the gospel of Matthew. Matt. 3:15 Now Jesus always is developing that consciousness or the organ of righteousness in Him. He uses it in every situation and it will produce a greater consciousness of that righteousness. In the natural world, if you become conscious of any of your five senses, you tend to develop a greater sensitivity to that particular sense. Lets say you are a musician. You would have ears trained to hear the different notes, chords and scales. And right now, some of you are not hearing certain sounds because your mind would have filtered away these sounds to pay attention to the Word. But if you want to you could concentrate your hearing and begin to hear the humming sounds of the air-conditioner or the swimming pool filter, or the clock chiming. You would hear people flipping the pages of their bibles. I mean when you pay attention to these sounds, you become more conscious of them. In the same way if you concentrate in order to see certain things and you are paying particular attention to these things, then you will be able to clearly  see more details. In the same way, as we yield to the organ of righteousness it will develop a greater consciousness of righteousness in our lives.

              Now Jesus is yielding to that organ of righteousness in Matt. 3:15 He knew it was right for Him to be baptized by John the Baptist although it was legally not required of Him since He was sinless. Verse 15 Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. We have mentioned this before, legally Jesus didn’t have to be baptized because John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and remission from sin. Jesus had no sin. Legally He doesn’t have to undergo the baptism but consciously it was the right thing to do. And He yielded to that rightness to build that consciousness of righteousness.

              In Matt. 5 Jesus says that people who want to live beyond the legal requirements, beyond the moral demands and beyond the theological boundaries to do what they know its right, they would have to pay a price for doing so. What is the price? Matt. 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. If you want to live your life right that way, you will definitely be different from the world. The world always misunderstands and persecutes those who are different. But it is your choice whether you still want to yield to righteousness or not. And God says yield because it has a reward. It’s O.K. to be different because Jesus was different. Or rather, you are different in a right way. Not different in a wrong way. But He says here if you want to live a life that is righteous because of that righteousness, you will receive persecution. But you will receive your reward and your inheritance in God.

              Matt. 5:20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. What is He talking about? Those who build righteousness and yield to the organ of righteousness will have a consciousness of righteousness in their lives, a consciousness of who they are in God and they will have a sense of authority, and it will be like heaven on earth. And wherever you are, you will have that consciousness that you are in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God rules and reigns through you. That is why those who have the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will rule and reign in Christ. Apparently, Jesus is interested in developing this organ of righteousness.

              Matt. 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In other words, yield to the organ of righteousness that you and I have received. The day we were born again the gift of righteousness was imparted in our life and we can sense it and yield to it. And when you yield to it, it will produce a consciousness of God. It is important to receive whatever the conviction is to produce. And the conviction of sin is to produce repentance. The conviction of righteousness is to produce the blessings of God and what God wants to bring about in your life. You don’t wait till the blessings come and then you receive the consciousness of righteousness. The consciousness must come first and then the blessings will come. The blessings will come for those who seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

              Lets look at Abraham according to Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  Not of works but its of grace. You keep yielding to what is right, you don’t see the reward yet, you are not trying to earn any reward either, you just know that it’s the right thing to do and you keep yielding to it. It will yield certain results. It says Abraham believed God and it was counted for righteousness. Now what is important for us is to see where this righteousness that was imputed on Abraham took place in scriptures. All you have to do is to look at your cross references and you will find that it ties you back to Genesis 15:6 and see how Abraham received the gift of righteousness in his life.

              Gen. 15:6 And he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Was God talking about anything to do with his past failures and his problems? No, all God was talking to him was about who He wants him to be. God gave him a promise. Abraham asked God a question, “Lord you have given me no offspring, indeed one born in my house is my heir.” And the word of the Lord came, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then verse 5 The Lord brought him outside his tent. Then the Lord told him this. How personally involved can the Lord be? He brings Abraham outside his tent. Remember Abraham could be conscious of his failures. Has Abraham failed up to this point? Yes, when God first told him to leave his homeland, he didn’t obey and leave the land of Ur. He followed his father, Terah to the land of Haran. It was only after Terah died that Abraham finally obeyed; the second time God called him again in Gen. 12:1.

 Acts 7 tells us that before Abraham dwelt in Haran God told him to get out of the land of Ur and he didn’t fully obey. He was still under the dominion of his father until Terah his father died. According to Joshua 24 Terah was an idol worshipper. So, Abraham was not fully obedient. Then when he came out he still was not fully obedient because Lot was with him. God told Abraham to leave his kinsfolk but he brought Lot along with him. He hasn’t fully obeyed the commandment of God. And God kept dealing with him. Then there was the time when he was in Egypt. He told lies to Pharaoh and he almost lost his wife to him. I mean Abraham had his share of failures and mistakes.

              Don’t you think Abraham should feel unworthy? Humanly, he could have. But yet, God never brought up his past. God didn’t come to Abraham and say, “I remember what you did in Egypt. I know that you are not obedient to me because you followed Terah your father to the land of Haran.” Did God know all these things? Yes. God knows every inch of us. He knows all your little naughty deeds and all your good points - He knows everything. But God was not concerned about these things. God wanted Abraham to develop the organ of righteousness on his inside. When Abraham said, “Lord, I have no heir,” God brought him outside and said, “Abraham, look now towards heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.” He didn’t just bring Abraham out and say, “Abraham your descendants will be like the stars.” God was very good in His presentation. He just brought Abraham out and said, “Abraham, can you number the stars?” and there was a pause. Abraham must have replied but the reply was not recorded in the bible.

              Remember you and I have the advantage of looking backwards. But Abraham didn’t know what God was going to say next. You may say that Abraham should know that God had promised that he would have many thousands of descendants when God called him in Gen. 12. Yes, it is true but apparently, that consciousness was not developed nor even placed in him yet. Because up to Gen. 15 verse 1 and 2 Abraham was still not assured. And he had no idea what God was going to say next. What would you do if God came to you and brought you to the S.P.C.A. and said, “Can you number the dogs and cats?” Would you be arguing with God? No. If you are a normal obedient person you would probably start counting. Most of us won’t be asking questions; we would start counting immediately. Now God brought Abraham out and didn’t tell him what the next  sentence would be…and God said, “Can you number the stars?” Then Abraham said, “Lord there are so many.”

              When Abraham experienced the overwhelming fact and truth of the great number of the stars and as he experienced the emotional feeling of the greatness of the galaxy and the stars in heavens, it would have sunk into his consciousness as God told him that his descendants would be as great and numerous as the stars. Let’s say, God brought you to Niagara Falls and said, “Look at this great river. Can you contain it? Well the financial blessings coming to you will be as great and flowing as this big river,” you would  be bowled over! You would be flabbergasted. It would take a long time before your consciousness could assimilate it and take it all in. It would be overwhelming.

              We realize that Abraham had that sense of the greatness of God.  “Lord, You mean all my descendants will be as numerous as these stars?” Remember there was a pause in between and that pause was for Abraham to experience emotionally the overwhelming number of the stars and then God said, “Your descendants will be like the number of the stars.” And Abraham chose to believe God. “Lord, You said it, I believe it and I receive it,” and from that day onwards it was counted as righteousness. As long as Abraham had consciousness of the facts that God brought to him, the promise will be fulfilled. And that consciousness must grow and develop in his life. What I want to show you here also is that by the time Abraham reached Gen. 15 there was a level of consciousness that he had grown into. He was yielding to the organ of righteousness and it was growing stronger and stronger in him. The more you yield to the organ of righteousness the greater the righteousness is developed in your life.

              Abraham had a moment of failure in Genesis 12 when he allowed Pharaoh to take his wife Sarai into his harem. God intervened by sending plagues to Pharaoh and his house so that he had to return Sarai back to Abraham. God had to protect Abraham’s seed in Sarai for His purposes. But in Genesis 13 Abraham did what was right when there was strife between him and Lot in verse 7 and 8. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.  What do you think is the right thing to do when two brethren are in strife? What is the right thing to do and what is the legal thing? Abraham legally had the authority over Lot. Abraham could have said, “Lot, you go off and take all your livestock away with you. We bless you - go.”  That would have been the legal thing to do. He could have exercised his authority by saying, “Lot, since I am older than you in age, I have this right to order you off.” He could be right and yet wrong. Legally he was right but morally he was wrong. He could have used hardness to solve this problem but Abraham didn’t. Although Abraham legally had the authority over Lot, he didn’t exercise that authority but instead gave Lot the first choice. He would not allow that strife to remain. He says, “Lot if you go to the left I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I go to the left. Lot I allow you to make the first choice.” Don’t you think that was very good of him? Don’t you admire people like that? We could say this man has integrity. This man has uprightness. I mean in the natural he may lose out by settling for second-best while Lot takes the best. But spiritually Abraham was a giant. He has something inside him that money cannot buy. He doesn’t have to do it. But he chose to do it. He was yielding to what was right. He knew that he couldn’t be short-changed because God was in control.

               Lot didn’t even think about Abraham. He is selfish. He looked around and chose the best land. Lot didn’t have the sense of telling Abraham, “I think you better take some of the good land as well.” Sometimes you go to a buffet lunch.  There is a particular dish that everyone loves. But the amount of food on that dish is such that if you take two or three portions, the dish won’t be enough for all, especially for those at the end of the queue. You know that for everyone to have a little of it you should only take one portion. But your stomach says, “Take three portions, please.” So what do you do? You could yield to your greediness and say, “First come first served,” and quickly with two or three scoops take five portions. But definitely, you have not yielded to the organ of righteousness. But you could also think of others, “Since this dish is not enough for all, I will just take one tiny little bit so that others will have a chance after me.” And that is your righteousness.

              That was Abraham’s character. But Lot was not like that. Lot would be that kind of person if there was only one drumstick and he loves drumsticks he doesn’t care about others. He says, “Thank you; first come first served,” and grabs that drumstick. So, Lot looks around and the bible says Genesis 13:10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan was well watered. He saw the best place. Have you ever had the experience when some profits by, inheritance or prize money or something and it has to be divided with a few others, the greedy person who grabbed a bigger share may seems to gain immediately but he loses ultimately. The person who is generous seems to lose on the short end but he gains in the long run. And Lot just doesn’t care about Abraham for he just grabbed the best part. Of course, he ended up the loser. He says, “Abraham you see that river there and all those lovely things. I want that part.”

              Did Abraham feel hurt? I know some of us will say, “Alright take your share.” We are trained with a social ethic to share and share alike. We know that we share the one dish that everyone likes. We know that it is the right thing for everybody to share. We know that it is the right thing for others to take first and for us to take last. We say to others, “Please take your share first.” Then that person actually takes you at your word and takes all his share including yours. Then you say, “I should have taken my share first.” No, you should not, Abraham never felt that way. If you are exercising the organ of righteousness in your life, you will not feel the loss. You will say, “Never mind it was a risk I took.” When you give people the freedom, it is a risk you take that they will take advantage of you. Lot just grabbed the best part of the land. That was one of the incidents the bible recorded. I am sure there were many more incidents that are similar.

              Abraham yielded to righteousness in giving the first choice to Lot. By the time Abraham reached chapter 14 of Genesis, he was more conscious of what is right. He is now trying his best to yield to righteousness. In chapter 14, a war took place and Lot was among those captured. Abraham was such a good man in spite of all that Lot had done to him. Look at verse 14 Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. Abraham could have just said, “It is none of my business. He took that part. He took the risk. It is now his problem not my problem. Remember I divided it and he took that part. He faced the risk. It’s none of my business now. What will be will be. Too bad for Lot, what will be will be.” NO, Abraham saw this thing happen to his Nephew. What was the right thing to do? To do nothing is wrong. He took upon himself the costs … money. It costs him time and he risked his life to go and rescue this Lot who didn’t care about him. It was the right thing to do. In the bible if you study the word righteousness, God Himself always rewards the righteous. Just to show you how highly developed his organ of righteousness was, he fought and he won and rescued Lot and the people who were with Lot.

              Then the king of Sodom came to Abraham in verse 21 Now the king of Sodom said to Abram,  “Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself.” Abraham had a legal right to take the loot. The loot was now actually his. He had won it in warfare. In those days, warfare was the way they establish territory and goods. He had fought and he won it. Abraham knew that although he fought and won it, it was actually not his. He just rescued them. And the king of Sodom recognized the law of the land at that time. So, he said, “Abraham, give me the people but all the goods and the spoils are yours.” Legally the spoils belonged to Abraham anyway…but morally he doesn’t want to keep it. His organ of righteousness keeps telling him… “No. I don’t want to prosper by going out in a war and fighting and killing and destroying and taking other people’s goods and making these goods my own. I would be sitting down at home looking at this loot everyday and knowing that it belongs to someone else.” So, Abraham says, “If I want prosperity, I want it to come from the hand of God.”

              Look at his organ of righteousness. Don’t you think it was highly developed? And he told the king of Sodom in verse 22 I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap. I wouldn’t want to take one tiny shoelace. Abraham said, “I do not want it. Take it and go.” Why did Abraham do things like that? He was yielding to his organ of righteousness. There may be many occasions but I have shown you how three times, Abraham yielded to the higher consciousness of righteousness.

              Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That means, when you have this kind of righteousness, you won’t care about your legal rights that the laws of the land entitle you to. You won’t care what the king of Sodom is offering you. You simply want to be conscious of the righteousness in your life.  If you are not sure whether it’s right or wrong ask God. I know something can be legally mine but it may not be spiritually mine. And Abraham yielded to that consciousness three times. And when God see these things God is pleased. If you want to please God and gladden God’s heart, yield to the organ of righteousness. There are countless situations around each one of us when we have to face the same challenges of righteousness that Abraham faced - in the ministry, in the business and professional world, in the marketplace, at home, in court, with the government, in international relations – the list is endless.

              But if you will yield to the organ of righteousness one day God will say this to you like He said to Abraham in chapter 15:1 After these things, what things? After all these opportunities for Abraham to test out his organ of righteousness. After all these tests and trials where God was watching him to seehow he will re-act in those situations. When Abraham kept choosing the higher law God said, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” If you yield to this organ of righteousness, God is your reward. And when God is your reward, there are no boundaries. Your reward is as big as God. It may take time to come but when it comes, it’s going to be powerful. God is watching. And that was when Abraham got these golden opportunities that we talked about.

              When God now wants to reward him, then Abraham looked around and said, “Lord it’s not much that I have. I may have all this wealth in goods, livestock and servants but I have no heir.” And to Abraham that was the most important thing in his life. What is the most important thing to your life that you consider as a reward? I mean all the herdsmen, the cattle, the gold and the fame meant nothing to Abraham because he had no son. That was Abraham’s reward that he wanted so much. What is the reward that you are looking for that is most important to you? God brought Abraham outside the tent and said, “Abraham, look up. Can you number the stars?” And Abraham may have just paused for a moment and said, “God they are too numerous.” God said, “Abraham your descendants will be like the stars.” Remember Abraham is childless up to that point. Everything in the natural was not in line with what God showed him. Sarah was barren and he was an old man. In the natural, there was no way that could have taken place. But Abraham believed God and it was counted for righteousness.

Now you see what righteousness is. It is believing what God says about you. Even though in the natural it looks like it;s not true, it looks like a lie but righteousness is believing what God says about you. Righteousness is access through faith. Rom. 4:21-22 And being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And there it was accounted to him for righteousness. That’s the key that God brought out… the gift of righteousness. Now we go to Romans 3:21-22 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the Law of the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference. That is the gift of righteousness that He seeks to impart. Then Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. It’s very clear from all the statements in the book of Romans that the righteousness of God is received through faith.

              This means that if you have faith in what God promised you of the stars in heaven, you will have the gift of righteousness that will cause you to reign in life. Each one of those stars represents a part of God’s will in your life. All you have to do is believe it. Even though in the natural everything around you doesn’t look like it but if you believe it, it will bring you into the position of righteousness and will bring a consciousness of that righteousness into you and God can then work in your life to bring His grace. The first step is believing by faith followed by the consciousness of righteousness and then receiving the abundance of grace from God. So through faith you have access into the consciousness of righteousness. And in the consciousness of righteousness, it produces the abundance of grace. And grace is based not on your works but based on the works of Jesus. It is called the gift of righteousness.

              Each one of you is standing like Abraham outside his tent. And God has asked you to look up and see whether you can number the greatness of God and all the stars in the heaven. God is not asking you to look into your life but to look up to see all those things that God can do in your life. And God says these are all the things He has for you. Can you believe it? If you can believe it, it is yours. And He will work it out for you.