and offer thy gift. Agree with
thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him,
lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and
the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing. So, after having shown, he says,
therefore, in verse 23, and he's referring back to what he had
shown there, regarding the sin of murder that includes not only
the outward act of murder, but also thoughts of anger and malice
that arise over personal offenses and conflicts. So he's going
on here in these verses to show two things, I think. The first
is, is that the performance of religious practices and duties,
they can neither absolve us from our sin, and look, not even the
sin of murder, even the murder of the heart, anger and malice
that we might hold, it can't do that. Performing religious
duties cannot do that and it cannot replace our duty and our
responsibility that we have to love our neighbor as ourselves.
God's law says, love God perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself.
This command forbids even the thought of anger or malice towards
our neighbor. And when we fall short in this,
which we all do, no amount of religious activity will remove
the guilt and the defilement of this sin. The law says do
and live, disobey and die. So Christ again here, he's stressing
the fact that we need a righteousness that we can't produce. Sin has
to be dealt with, but nothing that proceeds from us can accomplish
that. Our only hope is in the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to remember, see, that
these religious practices and duties, they were required. They were commanded under the
old covenant. The people were required to bring
gifts and offerings to God, but they were required to bring these
with the right thoughts and attitudes and motives. Now, how do we know
that? Well, because we see in the scripture that when the thoughts
and the attitudes and the motives were wrong, God called these
things vain oblations. That word oblations meaning offerings. He said in Isaiah chapter 1,
he said, bring no more vain oblations. This is the God who commanded
them to follow this under the law of Moses, these offerings.
And he said there, he was basically saying I'm sick and tired of
these offerings. And why? He said the incense that accompanied
those offerings, that they were an abomination unto him, if you
want to read that in Isaiah 1. You see, they became worthless
sacrifices, worthless gifts, worthless vain offerings whenever
the people thought that these practices and these gifts recommended
them to God or contributed to their acceptance or to any part
of their salvation. These were things that were ordained
by God. They were given to God, given
to the people by God, but they were all given to do what? As
we saw last week in the verse, the law was the schoolmaster
to point them to Christ. These things were to point them
to Christ for all their righteousness in life. And so they became worthless
whenever the people thought that such practices replaced or made
up for their lack of obedience in the way of love to their neighbor
here. So what we see here the second thing I think that Christ
is showing really follows the first and that is it is important
that we seek to reconcile with our neighbors to express our
love and deeds and not think that religious activities and
practices can relieve us of our responsibility in these areas.
Verses 23 and 24 concern the person who comes to perform his
or her religious duty. In this case, it was the offering
of a sacrifice at the temple altar. But this one who had come
had offended his brother, and Christ shows them that it is
far more important that he be reconciled to his brother than
that he discharge his religious duty. So, religion, see, becomes
a sham. and a pretense if we believe
that by our participation in it, that we can dismiss our sin. In this case, the person had
performed or behaved so badly that his brother had something
against him. It's in keeping, I think, with what James wrote
in James 1.26. He said there, if any man among
you seem to be religious, and here he said, brotheleth not
his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, This man's religion
is vain. Now we know that we all fall
short. So what is the evidence that
our religious activity, our fulfilling our religious responsibilities,
what would give evidence that that's a sham, that it's in vain?
It would be in thinking that we could get some sort of relief
from our sin by attending to those religious activities. Even
those that are commanded by God, ordained by Him. I'll give you
an example. We're told in the Scripture we're
not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. That's
a command of God given to us. To worship together. And we should
do so. But your attendance here, even
now today, it doesn't do a thing to absolve you from your sins
in any of these other areas. And to think otherwise, it would
expose the vanity of your religion. Now, verses 25 and 26 there deal
with one who's in opposition to another as in a lawsuit. It
may be referring to one to whom you owe a debt, who has a just
claim against you of some sort. And Christ teaches it's imperative
that we make good on our debts and treat this person right.
So again, religious duties and practices will not make up for
such bad behavior. As commanded, we are responsible
to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Even so,
we have to always remember that even our very best efforts in
these areas still fall short of the righteousness that we
need in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven. We are all
sinners. Even those who do their best
or who do better than others by comparison, they're still
sinners, even in these areas of love and duty. Our best efforts
see at love cannot put away sin. And they cannot make up any part
of that righteousness by which God is reconciled to us and by
which we're actually made citizens of the kingdom of heaven. You
see, God does not grant us any part of the inheritance. It's
an inheritance. An inheritance is not something
you can earn. He doesn't, so he doesn't grant
us an inheritance. based on something that proceeds
from us. If he did, it wouldn't be called
an inheritance. We would have earned it, at least
in some degree. God's only going to find our
fitness for eternal life and glory based on the righteousness
established by Christ and then made the sinners by imputation. And believers, they discover
that they're fully redeemed and brought into his kingdom based
solely on his righteousness. And when they discover that,
they may have been religious before and going about to establish
one, but when they discover that at that point in time, it's before
they've even made any effort to obey God in any way in any
of these areas. Now, realizing that is motivated
by grace and gratitude. We ought to make sure that we
make it our business to treat each other the way we would want
to be treated. And we ought to be ashamed when we don't. Now
I want to digress just a moment on that point, and I just want
to share some thoughts that were impressed upon me in my study
of this section on the righteousness of the kingdom. So I do this
often. If I preach to myself, the lessons
I get out of it, I figure it might be useful to you as well.
But as we consider our responsibility as the scriptures command, as
we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, our responsibility to walk according
to the Spirit, to walk worthy of our vocation as believers.
And when I say believers, I mean those now whom God has graciously
given faith and repentance so as to have seen the impossibility,
see, of measuring up to God's standard of holiness in any area,
seeing, for example, that we are all murderers in heart, as
we saw in the previous message. and men and women who fall so
miserably short of the law of God's perfect love toward him
and toward our neighbor. Now, as sinners, knowing this,
we still might be tempted to think like this. If my compliance
with God's will, see, in any of these areas of obedience,
if it really doesn't advance me in any way, If it doesn't
have any meritorious value whatsoever, then we might be tempted, we
know that, and that's a fact, but knowing it, we might be tempted
to say, then striving to obey really just isn't as important
as I once thought it was. In particular, as we all once
thought it was back when we thought that it might have something
to do with gaining God's favor or not being found in his disfavor. And frankly, I think that kind
of thinking is just a reflection of our sinful nature, our depravity. Even the tendency, see, to justify
our sinful actions, our fine relief for them, simply because
we know that personally we can't come close, and we're right in
that, we can't come close to measuring up to this perfect
standard of righteousness. But if we take that truth and
by it decide that we can justify our sin or be comfortable with
our sins, then I think it's very telling on us. We might be tempted,
see, to become comfortable with our sins. Our conscience kind
of soothed over as we essentially, what we're doing is pitting two
truths against one another. The truth that one, we're responsible
to strive to obey and comply with God's revealed will. But
secondly, the truth that we're totally unable to measure up
to the standard that's required, the standard that penetrates
to the heart, the thoughts and the motives in any area before
a holy God. But here's what we should recognize,
that that inability does not exempt us from our responsibility. We may sometimes reason, see,
we can't meet the standard. So our character and our conduct
really don't matter. Or maybe we just imagine it's
just not quite as big a deal as I thought it was. And I'm
convicted that kind of thinking, as I said, is a product of our
remaining sin. It implies, see, it carries the
implication, and we know better than this, that that fault carries
this implication, that the only good reason that we would have
to strive to be obedient to our God and Father would be if we
get something out of it. And that's selfish, and that's
a base motive. And though those God has given
an understanding to, we know better, such thoughts, when we
entertain them, they really carry this suggestion, that the only
valid or compelling motive for me to really strive to comply
with God's will would be one that's self-serving, one that's
legal or mercenary. In other words, We're suggesting
while we're putting away thoughts that are legal and mercenary,
things, in other words, thinking that our doing can gain us something,
gain favor with God, reward, mercenary, or that they're legal,
we can avoid punishment or disfavor with God, we know better than
that, but yet the very idea is suggesting that if that's the
case, then there's no valid motive left in which we should be encouraged
or prompted to obey God. And I think that's just a reflection,
see, of how dearly we love ourselves. It's as if we're thinking, there's
no reason to do right if I don't get something out of it, if it's
not in my self-interest. And that's self-love. And that
kind of thinking is diametrically opposed to God's requirement
that we're to love Him perfectly with all our heart and soul and
mind and our neighbors ourselves. Now, even among us who profess
to be delivered from the bondage of sin, free in Christ, and that
is a wonderful thing to be free in Christ. I'm not trying to
bring you into bondage here. But we're free in Christ as undeserved
objects, see, of His mercy and His grace. And yet we find sometimes
that the gratitude that should be stirred up in us for having
received such undeserved and unspeakable riches, sometimes
that seems to be so weak that it would often appear to be inferior
or inferior by contrast to a legal and mercenary motive. And maybe
lacking some sufficiency that would adequately stir us up,
or prompt us to strive to live and act in accordance with God's
revealed will for our lives. And so, as this was impressed
upon me, I'll say to me and to you, look, when we're so tempted,
let's just not persist with such sinful thoughts, because they're
thoughts of ingratitude, not gratitude. But rather, let's
tap into that spirit of thankfulness that springs from the believer's
heart when he remains focused where he should, on things above.
You see, on what our Lord and our Savior has done for us in
justifying undeserving, ungodly sinners such as us. Well, I won't
keep trying to dig the pit to put you in here. Thankfully,
God does graciously shed abroad His love in the hearts of His
people. And if you, a sinner like me, if you are able to seek
to live in conformity to His will from that motive of gratitude,
in any degree at all, then thank God, because that's a product
of His love and His grace. You see, we're sinners, but sinners
saved by grace are also kept by His power and grace. We who
love Him, we can really only truly do so because He first
loved us. Well, I don't know about you,
but for me, that only magnifies my need for a righteousness that
is totally outside of ourselves. And the righteousness we need
is none other than that which Christ brought out, his perfect
obedience unto death in complete and full satisfaction to God's
justice on behalf of everyone he represented. All those whose
sins were charged are imputed to him so that he might redeem
them at the cross. pay the debt fully owed for all
their sins, including the sin of murder that we've looked at,
and the sin of adultery that we're about to look at, and every
other sin that is found in our naturally and desperately wicked
hearts. And in turn, what great news
that God imputed, reckoned to the account of every one of those
He represented, the merit of that very finished work, His
perfect obedience unto death, His righteousness, the righteousness
of God. Now we'll look at the next section
here and I'll try to move on because I want to get through
the end of the chapter today. This section deals with the issues
of adultery and lust. So look with me in verse 27 where
it reads, You have heard that it was said by them of old time,
thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee,
pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy
whole body should be cast into hell. Now this is in reference
to the seventh of the Ten Commandments. The oral tradition which the
Pharisees taught, they claimed that a person was guilty of adultery
only if he committed the outward act. And Christ shows them that
even the thought of lust in the heart makes a person guilty of
the sin of adultery. And every red-blooded American
man I know, or any man in the world that I know, That makes
you an adulterer. And therefore, that one is not
a doer of the law. Now this shows again, we're all
sinners in need of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace. Verses 29 through 30 are kind
of difficult verses. And you know, whenever you have
a difficult passage, it seems that you get all kinds of interpretations
by various commentaries. And that was the case as I studied
this, and some of them, frankly, bordered on the ridiculous. But
what I was able to learn is this, that Christ did not mean here
for us to literally take this as if he's commanding us to mutilate
our bodies. That would be contrary to what
Christ himself taught about sin. See, Christ makes it clear that
our sin springs from within, from the heart. It's the outcropping
of who and what we are, sinners. In Matthew 15, 19, Christ said
this, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, and he goes on. See, sin is not something we
can get rid of by outward remedies. It is a legal and a spiritual
problem, and it requires a legal and a spiritual cure. So plucking
out your right eye and cutting off your right hand would not
get rid of the sin. If we plucked out our right eye,
then our left eye would still look lustfully. If we cut off
our right hand, then our left hand would still act sinfully.
Mutilating our bodies will neither remove the guilt and the defilement
of sin, nor cleanse the heart. And that's where Christ said
the sin was the root of the problem. So obviously we see here he's
speaking figuratively. He is not suggesting that we
should literally mutilate our bodies or that that is the cure
for the problem. Remember, Christ is speaking
here to self-righteous legalists who are doing their dead level
best to attain righteousness in life by their efforts to keep
the law. We have to remember he's showing
them the main purpose of the law towards sinners, that is
to slay them from any hope of pardon, any hope of forgiveness,
of salvation. based on their best efforts to
keep the law. Therefore, if any are seeking
to attain righteousness by their law keeping, then whatever would
cause that to be offended, whatever would cause them to not be able
to measure up to that must be removed. So he employs a figure
of speech here, hyperbole or exaggeration, to show how far
a person who is seeking righteousness by his efforts to keep the law,
how far they should be willing to go. You see, anything that
would hinder such a person from yielding perfect obedience to
God, it ought to be cut off. If the minds they were pure,
the eyes and the hands, they would follow suit. The blame
is not with our body parts. It's with us because of who and
what we are. Sinners, none righteous, no not
one. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags the scripture says. We come into this world with
desperately wicked hearts, our minds, our affections, our wills,
all opposed to God by nature. And since it's our minds which
really cause us to use our eyes and our hands and use them pretty
readily and easily in all the enticements of sin, Then we have
to recognize we could not attain the righteousness of the law
even if we did pluck out our eyes, both of them, cut off both
your hands, get rid of all your limbs. It's not going to do you
any good. The point here is this, if it
would, if the plucking out of your eye and cutting off your
hand would take care of the problem, that's what you should be willing
to do. And if you're approaching God on the idea that he's going
to, you're going to gain favor with him based on anything you're
doing, then that's how far you better take it. And that's the
message. It reminds me of what Christ
taught and said in Matthew 19. You know, the man came to him
and said, Master, you know, what what is the commandments? What
must I do? And Christ answered and said,
you need to keep all the commandments. And he started naming them. And
he said, and love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man
presumed to think he said, well, I've done all of those things
from my youth up. Now Christ doesn't literally
command each and every one of us to sell everything we have
and give everything we have to the poor. That's precisely how
far he told that young man he needed to go. And I think he's
speaking here in the same context. He's saying, look, He exposed
that young man's self-righteousness. He set out there something that
the man was not capable of doing to show him the futility of having
believed that he could somehow measure up to the standard of
perfect righteousness in this area of loving his neighbors
as himself. When he told him, sell everything you have then
and give it to the poor, he went away sorrowful. You see, the
problem is with the guilt and the defilement of sin. The problem's
with the heart and the only cure is to have that guilt and defilement
of sin totally removed and be given a new heart. And the only
thing that will do that is perfect satisfaction to God's law and
justice that's found only in the obedience and death of Christ
and made yours by God's judicial application of it to you, the
sinner. That's what the Bible calls imputation. So the bottom line is this, it
would be ridiculous for any sinner to pluck out his eye or cut off
his hand. But listen, not as ridiculous
as a sinner to seek justification in life, seek to attain or maintain
salvation based on his efforts to keep the law. That is, it's
based on this false notion that any condition or requirement,
that's what it's akin to keeping the law for us, is if we think
we may meet any condition, or any requirement whatsoever so
as to contribute even one iota to our salvation. Why do we cling
to the idea, why do men cling to the idea that you must contribute
something to make the difference, even one iota, when you know
Christ said that's what he came to do in verse 17. He said he
came to fulfill every jot and tittle and as we saw that's what
a jot is, it's an iota, the smallest letter of all. And not only can
you not contribute one iota, there's not one jot or iota left
to be done if you're in Christ. And I don't know about you, but
I'm glad. Verses 31 and 32 deal now with the issues of divorce
and adultery. And so look with me in verse
31. It says, It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto
you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the
cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever
shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery." Now here
Christ set straight another false teaching that was promoted by
the oral tradition concerning the issue of divorce and adultery.
And really this section could have been part of, as I broke
this down into sections, it really could have been part of the previous
one because it's still dealing with the sin of adultery. Apparently,
they had come to believe that if a man divorced his wife, that
he was exonerated from any wrongdoing as long as he gave her a certificate
of divorcement which freed her up to marry someone else. But
that was not so according to the Old Covenant law. Divorce
was never condoned under the law of Moses. However, provision
was made for it, an exception in the case of a wife committing
fornication. But even that did not absolve
the parties involved. Those who married and divorced
and then remarried According to the law, they became adulterers. And again, the reasoning brought
about by this oral tradition, it just displays low views of
sin and low views of the righteousness we need. Now, as we saw in the
preceding verses there, we're all adulterers in heart. Okay. And if you'll think about the
issue of adultery as it relates to the spiritual application
of this aspect of the law, you'll see that we are also adulterers
spiritually speaking. Consider that those whom Christ
has taken as his bride, and that's to use the biblical language,
the Bible speaks of the church being the bride of Christ, all
those he redeemed at the cross of Calvary. Then think how wonderful
it is that it can be said of all who are married to Jesus
Christ that not withstanding all of our spiritual adultery. And that's what we were doing.
Hormonally trusting in a counterfeit Christ, not one who met every
condition, but one who we presume just maybe made it possible for
us to get the job done at our faith, at our work, at our willingness
to be more compliant, whatever it is. It was a counterfeit Christ,
is what the Bible calls another Jesus. And that notwithstanding
all that unfaithfulness by us, even our spiritual fornication,
our husband never put us away. And if you get the thinking,
you can take some solace or comfort because you've been able to refrain
from the outward act of adultery. And then consider the heart sin
that gives birth to all our sinful actions. Look, the fact that
the thoughts of the heart may not have broken out in you, in
your actions for this particular sin, or for this other particular
sin, you can count on it, it's broken out somewhere. Plenty
of places, if you're like me. But it's not, the fact that it
hasn't broken out, is not because you're any different in your
nature. The Bible's clear. We're all
at enmity against God. We come into this world with
minds against God, opposed to God. And yet, in Romans 5, 8,
we're told, he commendeth his love toward us. While we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he bought us, see, and
he took us to be his bride even then. And it goes on in verse
10 of Romans 5 to say, for if when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, and he goes on, and
that righteousness that he established in his obedience unto death,
the one by which we're reconciled by the death of his son, that's
an everlasting one. It's from an immutable, unchangeable
God. And on that basis, he never divorces
us. Though adulterers in heart and
in spirit, he never puts us away. So if you've been shown the reality
of your own sin, of being a murderer and an adulterer, and frankly,
failing in every area when it comes to the heart, if you've
seen that, then this is pretty good news. Now, it's not pretty
good news. It's wonderful news that he won't
put us away. Well, let's look at verses 33
through 37 now, and we'll talk about the issues of oaths and
truthfulness. I hope you see, as we're dealing
with different aspects here of the law and the extent of it,
just keep in mind, as I suggested at the onset here, he's saying
over and over again, through these examples, you're in need
of a righteousness you cannot produce. In verse 33 it reads
again, you have heard that it hath been said by them of old
time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto
the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the
earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black
But let your communication be, yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever
is more than these cometh of evil." Now, these verses can
be a little confusing if you don't consider them in the context. The issue here is one of truthfulness
and honesty. But by this time when Christ
is speaking here, there was this whole legalistic system that
had developed around the issue of swearing oaths. And as I studied,
I mean, it was uncanny how many of these different things men
would swear by. Swear by this and swear by that.
It became a terrible code by which the people knew when they
could get away with lying and dissection and when they could
not. If you swore by this, you had
to kind of be at this level of truthfulness, you know. And it
was kind of uncanny to read about that. It reminds me of our modern-day
schoolyard pranks and stuff, at least for my generation, where
We would tell a lie and we'd cross our fingers, hide it behind
our back, you know. And somebody caught us in the
lie, we'd say, oh no, I didn't lie, I had my fingers crossed.
And it was about that silly, the way they had justified their
actions. And later on in chapter 23 of
Matthew, Christ calls them fools, not in the sense that's used
here in the Sermon on the Mount, but as foolish people, like we'd
normally think. He called them fools in describing
how they would swear by this. or swear by the other. He's showing
here the high view of the law and how it binds us to be truthful
in all things. You see, there's no rationale,
there's no justification by which we can get ourselves off the
hook, so to speak, when we lie or when we do not keep our word.
So Christ forbids such evil reasoning and he shows them, as the psalmist
wrote, that God requires truth in the inward parts. Well, the
final section I want to look at begins in verse 38, and it
deals with the issue of perfect love. And we really see the extent
of the law here, I think. You have heard that it hath been
said, it says in verse 38, an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil. But whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel
thee to go a mile, go with him twain." The king's men used to
commandeer their horses and their carriages and make them take
them places. And he says, they make you go a mile, take them
too. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would
borrow thee, turn not thou away. You've heard that it hath been
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you," he's saying, no, your enemy is your neighbor. Love
your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans, those
despised tax-gatherers of that day, do not even the publicans
the same? And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Therefore be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect. Now, I think this section here
is spoken, I think, in the same sense of the passage we mentioned
earlier in Matthew 19. Just as he spoke to that self-righteous
religionist who thought he had kept God's law from his youth
up, he's speaking here to the same kind of folks who either
imagined that they were righteous enough to be called the children
of God or who imagined that others, such as the scribes and the Pharisees,
had attained such a righteousness. And here we see the strictness
of God's law, not in requiring religious practices and duties,
but in requiring perfect, continual love. This perfect, continual
love requires us to never have any thoughts of personal vengeance,
never to have the least thought of any kind of harm toward our
very worst enemies, but in fact to do good to them and pray for
our very worst enemy. So if anyone seeks to attain
salvation or maintain salvation or seek access to the kingdom
of heaven, seek to become a child of God, to be found in his favor
based on his personal character and his conduct, or look, based
on anything that proceeds from him, any work of obedience, any
requirement or condition that you may presume to add to the
mix, will then clearly hear here what he's saying is required.
That's what you think, be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect. As I said in the preceding
message, I think there's a natural question that pops into the mind
of those that God begins to deal with when he starts to show them
the extent of the law, the righteousness, that a perfect righteousness
is indeed required. And that question goes something
like this, well, whoa, if that's really what is required, how
can anyone measure up? How can anyone be saved? And
I think that's posed, it's natural that it would be posed at some
stage by everyone who eventually shall inhabit the Kingdom of
Heaven. You see, I say that because you
must come to see the impossibility of being accepted before Holy
God based on anything you can produce, anything done by you,
anything done through you, anything that you think God enabled you
to do. You see, because all of those
are works, works of the law, requirements or conditions that
you met. Even if you give God the credit like the Pharisee
who was of praying in the temple. I thank God I'm not like other
men. If you, you have to see the impossibility
of that meriting you anything before God and discover in the
gospel message that nothing, absolutely nothing, other than
the righteousness of God found in Christ will suffice. That
is His perfect satisfaction to the law and to God's inflexible
justice. So all the religious ceremonies,
all the reformations, all the rededications, all the tears
of remorse, all, listen, all the obedience that the most dedicated
among men can muster. And I'll tell you, there are
men out there in religion far more dedicated than any of you
and me put together. But all of the obedience that
they can muster cannot make up for any transgression or shortcoming
in our failure to love God perfectly and our neighbor as ourselves.
If we seek salvation based on our love, then we're debtors
to do the whole law. It's true now that this standard
of perfect love, it is the goal for which all of us should aim.
All people should aim. We should all without exception
seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we should never
ever think that our best efforts to do so, to attain that goal,
You should never think that that contributes anything to our salvation
or to our fitness for heaven. We truly, see, need a righteousness
that exceeds the righteousness of the very best of men put together. We truly need salvation, see,
by God's grace based on the righteousness of God in Christ without our
deeds. And so when Christ says here in verse 48, therefore be
ye therefore perfect He's reflecting back on the things that he has
just said in the preceding verses, where he has shown the impossibility
of that perfection being found in me and in you, the sinner.
So, considered in context, the clear message is this. He's saying,
be ye perfect in me, in him, the one who came to fulfill the
law and the prophets, the only one who ever walked on this earth
under the law in perfect obedience. In closing, some of you may have
read the article that Jim put in last week's bullet, and I
think he has one by Trott in this week too, but it was written
back in the 1800s by a gentleman named Samuel Trott. And near
the end of that article last week, in reference to 2 Corinthians
5.21, he commented on the language of that verse. The verse reads,
it's one many of you are familiar with, for he hath made him to
be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God out of him. It's not how that reads, is it? And that's what Trott pointed
out in his article. He said it doesn't read that
we might be made the righteousness of God out of him. It reads that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. My prayer is that
all who hear this message, likewise, that they might find their perfection
in him. In agreement, really, with what
the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 1 when he said, Surely
shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
Well, that's the righteousness of the kingdom.