Lost in Self-Righteousness

Devotional Classics, Charles Spurgeon, Excerpts from "Spiritual Revival the Want of the Church"

We too often flog the Church when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders.  We should always remember that we are a part of the Church, and the our own lack of revival is in some measure the cause of the lack of revival in the Church at large.

Many people have recently joined the Church in our country.  But are there any fewer cheats than there used to be?  Are there less frauds committed?  Do we find morality more extensive?  Do we find vice coming to an end?

Pay attention to the conversation of the average professing Christian.  You might spend from the first of January to the end of December and never hear them speak about their faith. 

But even if our conduct and conversation were more consistent with our faith, I would still have this third charge against us: there is too little real communion with Jesus Christ. . . .  Men and women, let me ask you, How long has it been since you have had an intimate conversation with Jesus Christ?

Our problem is this: there are many who say they want revival but they do not groan for it, they do not long for it.

To say, "I will revive myself," reveals that you do not know your true state.  If you knew your true state, you would just as soon expect a wounded soldier on the battlefield to heal himself without medicine, of get himself to hospital when his arms and legs have been shot off as you would expect to revive yourself without the help of God.  I urge you: do nothing until you have first prayed to God, crying out, "O Lord, revive thy work."

In this present era there is a sad decline of the vitality of godliness. . . .  When you heard [George Whitfield] preach, you felt like you were listening to a man who would die if he could not preach.  Where, where is such earnestness today?

The absence of sound doctrine. . . happened when ministers in the pulpit stopped preaching sound doctrine for fear of how it would be received.

"O!" says one person, "if we had another minister.  O! if we had another kind of worship.  O! if we had a different sort of preaching."  You do not need new ways or new people, you need new life in what you have. . . .  It is not a new person or a new plan, but the life of God in them that the Church needs.  Let us ask God for it!  (pp. 317-320)

O Lord, I have heard of your renown and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.  In our own time revive it. (Habakkuk 3:1-2) 

 Recently I read that the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is about two lost sons.  The younger son, most people are familiar with.  He is the one who runs off and thinks better of it and comes back.  He is the son of unrighteousness.  The father longs for his return and comes to him while he is still far away.  What picture of God's merciful assistance to people caught in unrighteousness!

But there is another son.  He is the one who stands outside the party for the younger son in anger and disbelief.  He is the son of self-righteousness.  Again, the father goes out to him.  Does the father withhold anything that he gave the younger son?  No, "all that I have is yours," he says.  The story ends abruptly with the question, "What will the older son do?"  We all know what the father does.  He clothes and honors the lost sons, wherever they come from.

I have no trouble seeing how the older brother misses out on his father's love because of his envy toward his younger brother.  I have no trouble seeing his self-righteousness and seeing how it warps his view of his father.  What I have often missed is the father's love for this older brother.  The father goes out to him as well.  He is also invited in.  I have usually left the older brother out in the cold.

I have missed the point of the story.  God finds and saves what is lost. I have not thought the older brother was lost.  No one asks about how to invite the older brother inside.  It seems that instead of having the older brother berating his younger brothers for wasting his money on loose-living, nowadays it might be more appropriate to have the younger son berating the older brother.  Maybe he would say, "What, him?  Don't invite him in!  He would only ruin the party with his 'work ethic' and 'piety.'  He's a fake anyway. . . ."

So I look at Spurgeon and I wonder if my attitude has been to flog the church like that older brother.  Really the troubles come from both unrighteousness and self-righteousness.  Neither of them bring a person back the Father.  Only when I turn my back on them am I pointed in the right direction.  And Jesus says that is all I need do: turn.  Turn (repent) and the kingdom of God (his loving arms and blessings) is right there.

The kingdom of heaven is the party.  Even though the full celebration is yet to come, Jesus came to say that the party has already started.  Anyone who joins in will find that it just being there with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and in the communion of party-ers (saints) will find the conduct, conversation, and communion in their lives changed.

In conduct, parties call for certain behavior.  They call out joy and celebration.  A person not in the spirit of the party would be said not to belong there.  So it is with God's kingdom, the gathering of those who follow and obey him.  Excitement in following and joy in obedience characterize this party.  Outside there is only feeding on pig's food (unrighteousness) and miserable self-justification (self-righteousness).

In conversation, when a celebration approaches,  it becomes the "talk of the town."  Eager planning is part of the party.  Even in the party, there is eagerness to talk about what is good and enjoyable even as we do it.  A party that no one talked about would not be much of a party.  So with the kingdom of God - his loving influence in these days and into the days to come - conversation revolves around what goods thing are happening and going to happen.  In contrast, unrighteousness talks about all the ways it will fill its desires, only to come out empty  Self-righteousness talks about how hard it works and how it deserves more appreciation.

In communion, what can be better than being with people who are celebrating?  The kingdom of God is a celebration and the most important part is the company of celebrants.  At the heart is the Trinity, and such celebration is continual as praise and worship.  Unrighteousness, however, starts with friends, but ends up with pigs.  Self-righteousness ends up cold and alone.

I have beaten that analogy to a pulp.  Although the church does not encompass the kingdom, it certainly is an important part of it.  When I have retreated from the church, I find that what I am saying is "I will revive myself."  Often as I have attended I have wished for changes in programs and positions rather than in the hearts of those who come, worship, and serve.

Lord, let me find the party in the church.  Teach me how to celebrate.  My heart is often cold.  I find I am not expectant, but weary.  I need you to show me how to hope.  Pity me!  Amen.


I am humbled by Spurgeon's point about wanting revival, but not groaning for it.  This is where I am.

The Right Use of the Word

Devotional Classics, John Chrysostom, Excerpts from A Sermon Titled "Dead to Sin"

When the fornicator becomes chaste, when the covetous person becomes merciful, when the harsh become subdued, a resurrection has taken place, a prelude to the final resurrection which is to come.  How is it resurrection?  It is a resurrection because sin has been mortified, and righteousness has risen in its place; the old life has passed away, and new, angelic life is now being lived.

The love of money, the slavery to wrong desires, and any sin whatsoever, makes us grow old in soul and body.  Our souls become rheumatic, distorted, decayed, and tottering with many sins.  Such, then, are the souls of sinners. Not so those of the righteous, for they are youthful and strong, always in the prime of life, ready for any fight.  Not so for the sinners, for they are subject to fall at the least resistance.  The sinful lose their ability to see, to hear, and to speak, for they spew forth words that are foul.

When the prodigal [son] was willing, he became suddenly young by his decision.

How am I to go back [to God] again?  Start by avoiding vice, going no farther into it, and you will have come home.  When a person who is sick does not get any worse it is a sign that he is getting better, and so is the case with vice.  God not further and your deeds of wickedness will have an end.

God is not so well pleased with being our Master as he is with being our Father; he is not so pleased with our being slaves as he is with our being children  This is what God truly wants.
God's exceeding desire to be loved comes from loving exceedingly.

What is there to fear?  Losing all your money?  If you bear it nobly, it will be as great a reward to you as if you gave it all to the poor - as long as you freely lose it because you know you have a greater reward in heaven.  What else is there to fear?  Having people revile and persecute you?  If so, those people have weaved a great crown for you if you bear it meekly. Rejoice and be glad, Jesus said, when people speak evil against you falsely, for great is your reward in heaven.    And even if they speak the truth against us, it is to our advantage if we bear it humbly, just as the Pharisee spoke rightly about the publican, but only the publican went home because he bore it in humility.

If we were suddenly aware of a serpent nestling in our bed, we would go to great lengths to kill it.  But when the devil nestles in our souls, we tell ourselves we are in no danger, and thus we lie at ease.  Why?  Because we do not see him and his intent with your mortal eyes.  (pp. 309-312)

While [the prodigal son] was still far off, the father saw him and was filled with compassion;  he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.  (Luke 15)

Sometimes I am lazy.  I use a spoon or knife as a screwdriver.  Or I use the end of a screwdriver as a hammer.  Or I use pliers instead of a wrench.  It just seems too difficult to go and locate the right tool for the right job.  While some improvisation can be innovative, I usually end up breaking something or hurting myself.

Sometimes I am lazy with my family.  I use condemnation instead of encouragement.  I point out other people's problems most often when they are my own problems as well instead of showing mercy.  I try to give good advice instead of listening for what is needed.  Again, I find the wrong tools for job and I break things and people get hurt.

The Bible is a tool notorious for misuse.  I am tempted to pull it out on the wrong occasions.  I use it to prove how right I am instead of how good God is.  I use it to point out other people's sins and shortcomings rather than reveal my own need for a Deliverer.  I treat it like a contract instead of an ongoing conversation.  The main purpose of the Bible is as Chrysostom says, to make me dead to sin and alive to God.  (Romans 6:10)  For this reason, I need to be immersed in it as I am in the presence of God.

Dead to sin?  I like the picture of sin creating soul-decay.  The part of me that holds me together as a unified whole - my soul - becomes frayed and eventually ruined by sin.  And so, as with the body, I start to fall apart.  How do I fight this disease?  Simply, do not get sicker, and I will get better.  This takes into account the basic truth of sin: sin kills.  If I am getting better, then sin is losing its foothold.  The focus is on spiritual health and vitality, not on how much sin can I stand before I really fall apart.  I am tempted to remain a little sick, but it shows through under stress or when I am attempting to follow Christ.  With sin-sickness, I am quickly winded and giving up.

The one who encourages sin is like that snake in the bed.  There is no compromise.  There is no "managing" or "coping."  Simply sin and its accomplices must die.  Getting better is at the heart of killing sin.

Getting better is going back.  The very decision to return to the Father will bring hope and vitality.  The picture that Jesus wants us to have is of a father longing for a son, not a judge gathering a jury.  Perhaps the journey back begins as obligation to a master, but when I draw near, I find that really I am responding to the love of a parent.

Fear hangs over the image of a master waiting for a slave.  That is where the prodigal son started.  Even with that image, the son realized that his treatment under such a father would be better than the treatment he was now receiving in his runaway status.  I see that even a God as judge and master has more appeal than the cruel treatment of sin form my flesh, the devil, and the world.  My fear is what I may lose: money or reputation, for instance.  I am encouraged by the idea that if I lose them well, they will assist me in drawing close to God and living in his love and power.

This fear is unfounded, though.  What I find is not a master or a judge, but a father.  This father does not wait for me to make my way back, but comes to me while I am still far off.  This is the story of grace:  I turn and God is there.  I am never far from him because of his mercy and grace.

Lord,


I am always going into the far country,
  and always returning home as a prodigal,
  always saying, Father, forgive me,
  and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
  every evening return in it,
  go out to the day's work in it,
  be married in it,
  be wound in death in it,
  stand before the great white throne in it,
  enter heaven in it shining as the sun.


Amen.


(The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers &Devotions)

The Bible is then the light and the trumpet that makes me turn around and go home.  It shows the darkness of the world's night and the dawn of God's goodness and grace.  It shows the sickness of sin and the healing of Jesus hands in my life.  I announces the futility of living on my own for myself and whispers the call of family and home in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I want to not be lazy and use it incorrectly, but let it be a light, a medicine, and good news in the hand of God.