1Sam 17:1-11, 26-29
The Just Attributes
We have been studying character for a time. We have looked at three
foundational attributes of character, wisdom, love, and self control.
We started building on these three.
Last week, we looked at what I termed the gracious attributes,
gentleness, meekness, and kindness. These might also be called
"balancing attributes," attributes that keep us balanced. In
explaining that, I mentioned that our God has many balancing
characteristics, i.e. His holiness is balanced by His mercy and His
justice is balanced by His love. I think it is important that
we understand that godly character requires that we be balanced. Too
much of any thing can become bad. Love is the greatest of all
abilities, but if we love so much that we excuse evil, our love is
out of balance.
So we have three gracious attributes (and there are others which can
be added to that list), but what are the balanced against? They are
balanced against what I will term the Just Attributes.
Let’s consider them tonight.
I. The Just Attributes - Let’s name and define some of them.
A. They are boldness, anger, and righteousness.
B. What is boldness?
1. Boldness is doing the right thing at the right time
2. We see an example of boldness in this text.
a. I always find it interesting that David did not ask
should he fight the giant or could he find the
giant, but what is the reward for fighting the
giant!
b. David had made up his mind while thousands just
watched.
3. Boldness is a characteristic described as good in the
Bible.
a. Jesus was bold. In fact, it was a characteristic that
made some consider Jesus as the Messiah.
Joh 7:26 But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they
say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed
that this is the very Christ?
b. The disciples learned boldness from Jesus.
Ac 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John, and perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took
knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
c. But all of follow God should be bold.
Pr 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth:
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
4. There are hindrances to boldness, some external and some
internal.
a. Boldness can be stifled or stolen.
b. Some on the outside attempt to steal our boldness.
(1) peer pressure
(2) mockery
(3) rebuke
c. We can stifle our own boldness.
(1) fear
(2) failure
(3) uncertainty
d. It is our job and our duty to maintain a bold spirit,
a spirit that does right when it is time to do right.
5. How do we deal with these hindrances?
a. To combat fear - maintain our courage.
(1) I find it interesting how closely related so many
godly characteristics are.
(2) For example, boldness must stand on the back of
courage.
(3) No doubt one of the reasons Christians are not
more bold in their witness for Jesus is they are
afraid (i.e. afraid of what people might think
or what might happen).
(4) As Christians we must stoke our courage and
starve our fear.
b. To combat the external hindrances - don’t love the
world.
c. To combat failure and uncertainty - don’t think you
have to know everything in order to do
something.
(1) It is always nice to know where you are going but
it is not always necessary.
(2) Sometimes it is enough just to know you need to
go somewhere and it is time to get started.
6. God gave something to us to help us maintain our boldness.
I will discuss it in a moment.
C. What is righteousness?
1. Righteous is being right with God.
2. Every Christians should have the driving desire and goal
to be right with God.
Ps 11:7 For the righteous LORD loveth
righteousness; his countenance doth behold the
upright.
Ps 45:7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest
wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
2. Righteous is a word that can describe God, a believer, and
the actions of both.
a. Righteousness is one of the few areas in which we can
be like our God.
b. I can not be omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, or
holy.
c. But I can be righteous. That is a goal within the
reach of believers.
3. I am not going to say much about righteousness tonight for
I speak of it often, but I will say righteousness is the
goal of the Just Attributes. Without the Just
Attributes, we cannot obtain the goal of righteousness.
D. Anger is a driving annoyance, displeasure, or hostility that
demands action.
1. All of us are familiar with anger, either because we are
subject to it or because we have been the victim of it.
2. Can anger be used for God? Yes.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the
sun go down upon your wrath:
a. The Bible does not say, "Be ye not angry lest ye
sin."
b. It sins be angry and sin not so it is possible to be
angry and sin not.
c. The "Be ye angry" is actually a command to be angry at
some things.
d. How can we be angry and not sin? Several thoughts:
(1) We must be angry at the right things, namely the
things that make God angry. One source said
the Bible records God being angry 600 times.
http://70030.netministry.com/apps/articles/default.asp?
articleid=35223&columnid=3803
(2) Our anger must move us to do something.
(a) Sitting on anger is never a good thing.
(b) In this text, God tells us that our anger is
indication that something needed to be done
and done immediately—before the sun goes
down.
(c) This explains why God gave us this
emotion.
i. I mentioned a moment ago that God has
given us something to overcome the
hindrances of boldness. Anger is it.
ii. Anger is a motivating attributes.
iii. Some say that angry is sinful, but they
fail to see that some need motivation
to move.
iv. Those who say that anger is a sin would
say that reason and righteousness
should motivate the Christian to move.
i. That is true.
ii. But it does not always do so.
iii. Sometimes what is needed is a
spark of emotion to get us
moving. (Car is driven by a
motor but the motor is moved
by the spark!)
v. Anger is to righteousness what love is
to commitment.
aa God did not have to give us the
emotion love.
bb. People could and should be
motivated to keep their
commitments because of reason
and righteousness.
cc. But God gave love as a motivation
to help us remember our reasons
and righteousness.
(3) Our anger must take us closer to God and not
further from Him.
(a) All emotions have the power to move us: love,
anger, jealousy, loneliness, and more.
(b) If we are angry at the things that God is
angry at and moved to do something, we must
make certain that what we do is what God
wants and not what angry flesh wants.
(4) We can see all three of these in an Old Testament
account of Phinehas.
Num 25:6 And, behold, one of the children of
Israel came and brought unto his brethren a
Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in
the sight of all the congregation of the
children of Israel, who were weeping before the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the
son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from
among the congregation, and took a javelin in his
hand;
8 And he went after the man of Israel into the
tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of
Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the
plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
9 And those that died in the plague were twenty
and four thousand.
10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of
Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from
the children of Israel, while he was zealous for
my sake among them, that I consumed not the
children of Israel in my jealousy.
II. There is a lacking of the Just Attributes in the world today and
it brings into focus the need for anger.
A. You see it in the church. Everyone is preaching love and no
one is preaching righteousness. If anyone speaks up for
righteousness they are often labeled a trouble-maker and
judgmental.
1. As a result, many Christians have lost their boldness and
the church is becoming a den of sinfulness.
2. We are out of balance and coming short of righteousness.
3. We need to get angry about sin.
B. You can see it in the world. The world preaches love and
tolerance toward anti-God people and causes. Anyone who
speaks up for righteousness is labeled a bigot and racists.
1. Again, the peer pressure has caused many to lose their
boldness.
2. The liberals and politically correct have carried our
nation into the valley of sin.
3. We are out of balance and missing righteousness.
4. We need to get angry at sin again.
C. Love, patience, gentleness, kindness, mercy—and all of the
other Gracious Attributes have to be held in balance with the
Just Attributes or else we are left pandering to the whelms
of the wicked.
1. David was not going to be patient or tolerant of Goliath.
He was not interested in why Goliath was the way he
was. David did not assume Goliath had been picked on as
a boy in school because he was big for his age. He did
not wonder if Goliath had been beaten as a child.
a. I think David got angry at sin.
b. He said, "That man is mocking God. He must die."
2. Phinehas did not warn the Jewish man who hooked up the
Midianite woman. He did not assume the man was homely
and this was the only woman he could get. He did not
consider the issue of genocide against the Midianites.
a. I think Phinehas got angry with sin.
b. I think that is what is meant when God said in
\\#Num 25:11\\, "he was zealous for my sake…."
c. Phinehas said, "You are breaking God’s commands and
you must die."
D. God is never out of balance.
1. He loves but He is also just and while God is just, at the
same time, God loves.
2. For God, loving and being just are not "either/or"
attributes, but rather "and" attributes.
3. We must find the spot of God’s balance in every situation
and with every person.
4. We must rely on the Holy Ghost for guidance and
instruction.
E. So how do we balance these two baskets of attributes?
1. We remember, God did not command us to figure out WHY
sinner commit sin.
2. He commanded us to:
a. confront it,
b. to condemn it,
c. and to convert people from it,
d. and He commanded us to do this in love.
3. Hence God calls us to be salt to slow corruption and light
to fight against darkness.
4. We can do these with kindness, mercy, patience, and
meekness, but we must still do it.
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