In this piece we want to meditate together on something that I believe would be helpful to us. We want to consider: Fulfilling Righteousness. We will start from the Book of Psalm chapter 7 from verse 6 to verse 9; the Bible says,

 

“Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; Lift Yourself up because of the rage of my enemies;
Rise up for me to the judgment You have commanded! So, the congregation of the peoples shall surround You; For their sakes, therefore, return on high. The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me. Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just; for the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.”

 

“For the right righteous God tests…”, present continuous tense, ‘tests’ the hearts and minds. The question is: what is He testing the hearts and minds for? Or what is the yardstick or the standard for the testing? What does God use as the basis for measuring the state of the heart and the state of the mind? Now, the Psalmist said in verse 8: “The Lord shall judge the peoples”; whether they are Whites or Blacks, whether they are Asians, Africans, Americans, and the likes, the Lord shall judge the peoples. Whether they are Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas, Fulanis, or Igalas, the Bible says, “the Lord shall judge the peoples”. Whether they are Jews or Greeks, or Arabians or Romans, “the Lord shall judge the peoples.”

 

Haven established that God is the one who judges, he now said: judge me Oh Lord!” The One who has the authority, the capacity, to judge all the peoples, “Judge me, Oh God!”  David did not exclude himself from the judgement of God; he did not pray himself away from the judgement of God. He did not say, “Lord, I am a king under you, I function as a prophet and a priest, therefore, spare me from your judgement”. That is not his prayer. He said: “Lord, judge me.” Now, how will God judge him? What will be the yardstick of the judgement of God for his life? What are the indices, the scale that the Lord will use, and when God looks at it, He will judge him right or wrong?

 

See what he said again: “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me.”  So, what do we think is the measuring line for the judgement of God? Righteousness is the measuring tool of God. What then does the Word “righteousness” connote? There is a tendency for my righteousness to be little or average, and there is also tendency for me to be highly righteous. Look at it, I don’t want us to miss these two words together at this stage: “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me”. So, the righteousness that he was talking about is not equal or same as integrity, else he would have said, “Judge me according to my integrity” and that would have still been same as God judging him according to his righteousness. Or he would have just said, “Judge me according to my righteousness”, and move on, and that would have still covered for integrity. But he said, “And my integrity”.

 

So, when God who is the judge of the earth sits as judge over the earth, He is judging the heart of the people, He is judging the mind of the people, according to the righteousness of the people, and according to the integrity of the people. This is the reason we are looking at the matter of fulfilling righteousness — knowing that God is not only just our Father, He is also a Judge.  There is also a situation of life when you can have a particular standing as a husband to his wife, father to his children, president of a nation, a pastor to a congregation, and so on. Every time he is playing a role, he might not be playing the other role. So, even though we have come to know God as our Father, and we are the children of God; the Bible is opening us to the reality that God is not just our Father, He is the judge. He doesn’t just sit as the judge of our lives; He sits as the judge of the lives of all men; he judges all things. And when He sits to judge he does not do it randomly, He is looking for at least two things: your integrity within you, and your righteousness.

 

David said, “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity within me”.   The first thing I want us to quickly grab from this meditation of David is that, the integrity that David talked about, it is something within. And what about righteousness, it looks to me as something that is without. You know how that thing ought to be balanced; he said, “Lord, with my integrity within, judge me with it, because You are the only One who can see the extent of my integrity that is within me. When I lack integrity men may not know, but You will know. So, judge according to who I am inwardly that men know nothing about. And when it come those things that other people know me for through my interpersonal relationship with them which are not hiding from you; judge by them also. Judge me on my outside behavior, and judge me on my inward behavior also; the things I do within and the things I do without; judge me.

 

How many us, men of God: servants and followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, today can look at Jesus in the eyes and say, “Judge me according to what people know and see about me, and judge me according to what only you know about me?” this is something that we must really look at. Now, I want us to go to the book of Psalms 48:10 and Psalms 16, the last verse. See what the Bible says in Psalms 48:10, “According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; your right hand is full of righteousness.” So, every time you want to measure God, you want to judge God, you measure and judge God according to His name. So, anytime you hear the name of God, you are being exposed to the standard for measuring God. So, the things that people or nations praise you for are the things that are attributable to your personality. When you see God as provider, nations praise Him for provision. When you say “God, what is your name?” And He says “I am the healer.” Then it means nations praise Him for healing. So, the name of God that you do not know is the experience of God that you will not have as a people. That is just by the way.

 

Now, where we are going actually, is the conclusion or the concluding part of it in verse 10. It says: “so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; your right hand is full of righteousness.” So, when we come to your right hand, the only thing we see is your righteousness — no wonder He is called the Righteous God — why? Because his right hand is full of righteousness. That is why we don’t have other choice than fulfilling righteousness. Now, let us jump to Psalms 16:11. The Bible says: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” We are using Scriptures to understand Scriptures. Every time I come to the presence of God, I encounter joy, and at His right hand are pleasure evermore. Do we think that the pleasure the Bible is talking about here is about the pleasure of men or the pleasure of God? What do you think? My thought is about the pleasure of God (See Philippians. 2:13).

 

So, the things that God is calling pleasures might not be pleasure to some of us, but to God, they are pleasures. Every time God looks at His right hand, His right hand is full of righteousness and pleasures. So, we can see the link between the righteousness of God and the pleasures of God. Anytime we quote Philippians 2:13 which says: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”, what often comes to our mind? There is something I am going to do, there is a desire that is in me; there is a burden that comes from God in me that prompt me to doing things — it wakes me up, it keeps me awake — it makes me to pursue: there is something that I receive from God that I run with. This is similar the Word of God in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 2: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it”. The vision comes from God, but a man who reads it will run with it. Right! “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”. That good pleasure of God is a work for me. 

 

What is pleasurable to God is the demand of God on my destiny. And if I must fulfill my destiny, the demand of God’s pleasure on me becomes the necessary requirement towards fulfilling my destiny. And anytime I do the demand, God gets pleasure, and God sees me as a man that does righteousness, because the righteousness of God is the pleasure of God. So, there is a link between what God sees as righteousness and what brings pleasure to God. And we also see that there is a link among righteousness, the pleasure of God, and the work of men. As we are inspired to will and do, when we willing do what we are inspired to do, God gets pleasure. And we fulfill righteousness. That is very important for us to note. Now, let us go to Matthew 6, anther familiar Scripture for us, and I will read from verse 30. The Bible says:

 

“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore [because of what I have already discussed with you] do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble”.

 

When we look around the world today, when we see how people go about their daily activities; we sleep, wake up, some take breakfast before leaving for their offices, while others choose to eat at places of work, and they sit in their offices, or move around in their offices, till evening, and come back tired in the evening; we see people do these worldwide and we have been conversing with people, don’t you notice that what Jesus mentioned in Matthew chapter 6 is the basis for the work of men? I was somewhere today in town where I went to buy goods, there is a new girl I met in the usual shop I often buy things; I knew she just joined the team. I was in the shop before she entered, and after she greeted me, she told me, “Oga, I dey look for job ooo”. After she said that, the senior salesgirl that heard her became angry with her, and she said, you just came in and met a man, and the next thing you would say is that, you are looking for job; are you trying to embarrass your boss, or myself being your senior?

 

It was later in the conversation that I discovered that she has do some “Runs” or “Manipulations” before she could transport herself home each time; her salary doesn’t even cover her transport. I don’t know her reason for accepting to do the job in the first place, but I know that the reason she wants to go is the fact that what she is getting as salary is not enough to cover her bills, because if you can’t find money to transport, how will you be able to get money to eat? Or buy cloths and the rest? But before I left there, I discovered that the same lady who was asking me for job, I saw her buying eggroll, drinks. I then said to myself that, it is not another job she needs but ability to manage whatever she has currently. The other senior sales girl told her, “If you aren’t happy with the boss, talk to him directly instead of complaining here and there.”

 

The pay was not enough for her; what she is willing to spend the money on, is more than the money. She wants to eat and drink and wear whatever her soul longs for. As long as those things can be taken care of, we are good.  When you look at the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, when you are done with the first one you move to the next new, right? Physiological needs, is what drives so many people in the world. And Jesus is drawing our attention to this truth that, our life wouldn’t be founded on just daily needs, but we should desire and pursue after destiny fulfillment. The Gentles basically seek after those things; what to drink, eat, what to cloth themselves with and where to lay their heads. But for you, it must not be so. And if you won’t seek after what they seek, it is because there is something you are seeking after: if you are not occupied with something, you are preoccupied with something else. If you are seated anywhere in the world, you won’t be at another place at same time; you can only do one thing at a time. If you won’t worry after what the Gentiles are worried about — get one job or the other—, it is because there is something else you are doing.

 

What did Jesus prescribe that we should be preoccupied? He says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”. Maybe, if the Bible had stopped there, many of us might say, “Maybe, God wants me to ne a preacher, a teacher, a prophet, or any other possible.” Remember, we daily with the “And His righteousness”. I know that many of us when we are reading or studying our Bible and we come here, we might skip it, and run across it. But the Holy Spirit wants us to see it from another angle today: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to.” Don’t forget where we started from verse 30-31 of the same Matthew 6; we are dealing with the matter of income, get enough to pay the bills. And the Jesus is saying “Don’t seek those things, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. The Bible calls God, “The God of righteousness.”

 

The Psalmist said, judge me according to my righteousness, that is his own righteousness. But in the Book of Matthew, the Bible says, “and His righteousness”. The “His” is referring to a person; “and His righteousness [pleasure]”. But seek first the kingdom of God and His pleasure [the things that give God pleasures, the excitement of God]” There was a film I watched some time ago; the title is “Gladiators”. At a point a new emperor became king, and he sought pleasure by declaring about a period of 100 days for everyone to gather at the colosseum. And at the event center, he watched men killing one another. And as the men who gathered for the sport were killing each other, the king was so excited, his excitement was so much that his expression was like that of an animal.

 

What excited him was the death of others. Every time people kill one another, he will even rise up with so much happiness to see the act done. And he was getting pleasure. And see what the Senator said, he said he would give them death; the economy of Roman was seriously declining at this time seriously. And the people were all in the funny. That was the emperor, the Roman emperor, the pleasure of the king was going to ruin the land, that was an earthly king, a man, not God. The things that get God excited, it will not kill you, it will make you live; it gives you eternal life, it gives you significant. The Vice President of Nigeria was speaking at a birthday ceremony on a popular Politian, a southeastern politician, in Abuja, having look at all that the man has done, he spoke concerning the man in his words, “This man has attained significance; he is so rich, yet he is making many people happy.”

 

 

The things that give God pleasure are the things that will usher you to the place of significance. God says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The program of God for your life is to help you attain destiny so that when men see you 30, 50 years in the future, they will not just see a man that they always have known, but a man that God has built for His own glory and pleasure. And all that you have been doing is that, you have been fulfilling righteousness. Every time you fulfill righteousness, you have moved one step towards your destiny — not any kind of destiny but a glorious destiny. We can also see the righteousness of God as the purpose of God among men, or in His creation. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 that, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. Meaning, we are God’s perfect plan in Christ Jesus.

 

The Bible also says in Ephesians chapter 2:10 that, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We are His righteousness; we are the righteousness of God in Him, and His workmanship created in Him, in Christ Jesus, unto good works. When God created us, He created us in Christ so we can do good things; so, we can fulfill all righteousness. We are the righteousness of God, we are the workmanship of God, and the perfect pleasure of God in Christ Jesus. Let’s quickly look up a Scripture in Hebrew chapter 10:5-7; the Bible says, “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure [You had no plan]. Then I said, ‘behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— to do Your will, O God.’” Doing the will of God is fulfilling His righteousness.

 

God wanted Jesus to die on the cross for the sin of the whole world; that is the will of God for Him and that is what He did, and so it will be counted unto Him as righteousness. When Jesus was closed to the hour of drinking from this very cup, He prayed to the Father, “I wished this cup can pass over me, but nevertheless, not as I will but let your will be done”. Jesus got to a point that He could actually choose to move outside the Will of God, instead He chose to remain or walk in the will of God. What did He do? He fulfilled righteousness. What was it that the Father demanded of Him? Go and die on the cross, and that He did, so it will be counted for Him as righteousness. Also, in the book of Romans, the Bible says Abraham did something and God accounted for him as righteousness: God judged him faithful; you are righteousness, what I wanted you to do, you did it.

 

In the purpose and plan of God, anything God wants you or anyone to do is preplanned: there is a way He wants it done. And when God wants you to do a particular thing in a particular way, you are like saying, “God, you want me to do it, but I will do it my way”. That is not fulfilling righteousness; that is not completely the perfect plan. God wants you to do something, and you are doing it, but He wants you to do it in a manner, in a way, at a place, but you are saying, “God, I won’t do it in that manner, I won’t do it in that place, but I will do it in my way and in my place”. Then you are fulfilling some righteousness, but not all righteousness. The areas you are not fulfilling righteousness; you are fulfilling unrighteousness in those areas. And all unrighteousness is sin. That is how we sin; we the opposite of what God asks us to do, so we sin. Let’s go back to Hebrews chapter 1:8-9, the Bible says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter [symbol] of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.”

 

In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus told the disciples, when you pray, pray in this way, “Our Father who is in heaven…let your kingdom come”. Our Father that is in heaven, we are the citizens of your kingdom, let your will be done in our as it is in heaven. As it is in heaven — righteousness prevails in heaven — every God that will endure is established in righteousness. And the kingdom of God won’t be an exception. In many things, we like to ask, why is God quiet, why is God not saying anything? Why is God not arising anytime there is an enemy? Things are not done anyhow by God in heaven. The inhabitants of heaven depend on God for supply, and that is God expectation for us as rightly taught in the Lord’s prayers:

 

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom comes. Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation. but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

 

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom; that is the culture: the culture of the Kingdom of Christ. When you go to the Koreans, there is a way the people of the place behave. When you go to France, there is a way of life of the people different for the way of other nations. Every nation or kingdom you go has culture, when you come to the kingdom of God, righteousness is the culture of the Kingdom of Christ: we do the pleasure of the Father. In Nigeria for instance, there are some Federal workers that serve at the pleasure of Mr. president. Meaning, it is only the president that has the right to remove them. Such an individual who works at the pleasure of the president, functions and performs his duties to delight the president. And even when Nigerians may be asking the president to remove, he will stand his defense for such staff; “no way, he goes nowhere, he is my boy.” And this people think less about what we have to say about them. Their only concern is on what the president has to say about them. They will rather hurt Nigerians than to offend Mr. president. That is what it means to fulfill his righteousness.

 

Fulfilling His righteousness, fulfilling His pleasure, making Him happy. Even if everybody will not make Him happy, but you live to make God happy: that is fulfilling His righteousness. Say yes to God, and no to everyone else; except they align to the purpose of God for your life, you say no to everyone else. “And You have love righteousness”, it is a culture that you don’t hate; You love it. And because the king loves it, everyone in the kingdom has to love it. Therefore, God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.” So, what separate you from other people? It’s your righteousness. What makes any of us to differ from another is the righteousness of every individual. And it does not fall on anyone like ripe pawpaw. If a father is righteousness but the children are not, the righteousness of their father does not fall on them like ripe pawpaw.

 

Also, when we look at a general overseer Nigeria today that is making wave, what could be his difference from every other one around him? It is his righteousness. There is no favoritism with God. There was a word that apostle Peter used when he was in the house of Cornelius, when he saw what God did, he testified that God is not partial in His judgment, but to everyone who calls on Him, depend on Him, He shows Himself strong; He shows Himself righteous. That’s it! God is not like Politicians that will say, “I am for nobody, but for everybody”. God is for the righteous. Be righteous and you will see God in your life. When Adam and Eve fell from grace, they actually fell from righteousness; they stopped doing the pleasure of the Father, and they were chased out of the garden. If we will not be chased out of our inheritance, we must love righteousness. Not righteousness in some things, and unrighteousness in certain areas, but fulfilling all righteousness.

 

When Jesus came to John the Baptist, to be baptized by him, but John said to Him, “I am the one whom should be baptized by you, why have you come to me?” And Jesus said to John, “Permit it to be so for now, for thus we will be fulfilling all righteousness.”  So, there is no pride in righteousness, there is submission in righteousness.   

 

Hallelujah!

 

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI!

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