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ISAIAH 32:15-18

"THE EFFECT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" 

Intro: There are many idealistic goals people are striving to attain, Peace,
       happiness, calmness. These qualities Seldom realized by direct pursuit, by-product.

I. THE NEED FOR QUIETNESS AND ASSURANCE.
        A. We are living in a restless age.
                1. Life has taken on a frenzied pace.
                2. Look at people around you.
                        a. In restaurants, shopping malls, freeways.
                        b. Study their faces.
                                1. See the tension and strain.
                3. So geared up they need pills to slow them down.
        B. We are living in an uncertain age.
                1. You really don't know who you can trust.
                        a. You read of corrupted police dept.
                        b. You read of judges receiving bribes.
                2. You don't know where your money can be safe.
                        a. Banks fail and the cost of living is rising faster than
                           the interest rates.
                        b. The stock market is uncertain.
                3. Beside this we have dwindling fuel supplies, or do we?
                4. Our governments giant give-away program of wheat to Russia has
                   created shortages here, causing food prices to spiral upwards.
                        a. You say "we sold them the wheat."
                        b. Oh yes, on credit, and they have never been known for paying
                           their bills.
        C. We have Learned to accept this restless anxiety as a way of life.
                1. And with the help of cigarette, booze and drugs we have learned to cope.
                2. But is this the way God Intended man to live?
                        Listen as God tells us how He wants us to live.
                        Vs. 18 How do you get there?

II. THE NEED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. BEING RIGHT WITH ONE ANOTHER.
        A. Certainly we can consent to it as an ideal.
                1. What if everyone as completely honest.
                2. What if no one was greedy.
                3. What if we in love considered the needs of one another and
                   sought to help.
        B. Many seeing it as ideal seek to attain it.
                1. They make their resolutions and take their vows.
                        a. If they attain any degree of success they become
                           self-righteous, intolerant and impossible to live with.
                        b. Fortunately most of us just fail.
                        c. Unfortunately man despair, stilt consenting yet maintaining
                           the impossibility of attainment.
        C. The gospel declares you can be righteous.
                1. God will do for you what you can't do for yourself.
                2. Through the power of the Holy Spirit He will change you, and remold
                   you after Christ.
                3. To be right you must start right.
                        a. If you started with yourself and are still trying, forget it.
                        b. Start again with Jesus Christ as you yield more and more
                           you will find yourself saying, "that's all right."

III. THE RESULTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 17.
        A. The work in your life will be peace.
        B. The effect.
                1. Quietness.
                2. Assurance (For Ever).