Good to see you, everyone. If
you would be turning, if you have your Bibles, to Matthew
chapter 5, we're going to be continuing a series of messages
that were taken from the Sermon on the Mount there. And while
you're turning, I want to thank you all for coming, too. Today
it's good to see you here. Today we're going to look at
just four verses, but there are four verses that contain some
vital information. In this passage, Christ himself,
he sets forth the requirement for eternal life and admission
into heaven itself. And he answers probably as important
a question as we'll ever consider. And that is this. What does God
require for a person to enter into the kingdom of heaven? What
does God require for you and for me to enter into the kingdom
of heaven? That's a good question. And it's
a vital question. And it's one that the scripture
text for today gives a clear and an unmistakable answer to.
So accordingly, I've titled this morning's message, The Entrance
Requirement for Heaven. Look with me in Matthew 5, beginning
in verse 17, and there Christ is continuing his delivery of
the Sermon on the Mount by saying this. He said, Think not that
I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Well, as you can see,
that last verse, it speaks directly to this question. That is, what
is required if you're to enter into the kingdom of heaven? It
makes it crystal clear that if our righteousness does not exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no
case, it said, That means we shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. But also, we can infer from this
verse, granted when considered with the whole of scripture,
we can infer that one can be assured of entering into the
kingdom of heaven if his or her righteousness does exceed. That is, that it meets this entrance
requirement as it's understood here in the text today. And it's
really that simple. This morning, that's what we're
going to do. We're going to examine what this requirement of a righteousness
that exceeds is all about. It'll help you understand a little
more here if you consider some background. Christ here, keep
in mind this, that the Pharisees, they had accused Christ of being
a lawbreaker. That is, when he came on the
scene, he spoke of putting an end to the law as it was given
by Moses, what the Bible calls the Old Covenant. found in the
Old Testament. He wasn't coming to destroy,
as we just read in our passage today, but rather he came to
bring an end to that by fulfilling it. The Pharisees, see, they
thought that the Old Covenant, that that law was eternal, that
it would never end. And they thought that their salvation
was conditioned on their keeping it. And Christ, He came along
and He said, no, you would be condemned by your works of the
law. It's consistent with what Paul
wrote in Romans 320 when he was writing to the Romans. He said,
therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified. So anyway, the background here
is this. We have a confrontation between
the Pharisees and their self-proclaimed self-righteousness and the righteousness
that exceeds. And as we're going to see today,
that's none other than the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. So
it'll help if you'll keep in mind when the Bible speaks of
righteousness in this context, speaking of the justice of God,
that is when it speaks of it as an entrance requirement into
heaven or it talks about the righteousness that reconciles
a sinner unto God. It means or it refers to this.
Perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. And you're going
to hear me mention righteousness a lot today because that's what
our text for today is about. And that's what I'm talking about.
So keep that in your mind. Perfect satisfaction to God's
law and justice. That is, that's the requirement
for entrance into heaven. And that's what Christ specifically
here said he came to accomplish for his people. Now, when I say
that righteousness is perfect satisfaction to God's law and
justice, first keep in mind that means that everything in the
law must be fulfilled. Now, there's one sense and we
know that he certainly fulfilled the Old Testament law in that
he fulfilled all that it had prefigured and had prophesied. We know that the ceremonial law,
the killing of animals on the altar, the shedding of blood
there, the scapegoat, all those things pictured Christ. And so
he fulfilled what they prefigured. And then secondly, he fulfilled
what the prophets foretold about him. But this morning, I want
you to consider these two aspects of his fulfillment of the law.
First of all, one, just very simply, he had to fulfill the
precepts. And then secondly, if justice
was to be satisfied, where sin was found, that is where the
law was broken. The prescribed penalty had to
be extracted. And Christ met that twofold requirement
as a substitute for all that he represented by what he accomplished
in both his life and in his death. You see, that's that's what the
law of God is. It's it's akin to our laws today. There's a rule. There are conditions
and requirements that must be met. And if you don't, you pay
a penalty if you do the crime. You pay the fine, so to speak.
Well, Christ met that with regards to the very law of God. He walked
on this earth without sin in complete and perfect obedience
to the will of God, the father. In other words, he satisfied
the precepts of the law simply by obeying it and obeying it
perfectly. Secondly, he paid the prescribed
penalty of the law because sin demands death. God's word says,
the soul that sinneth shall surely die. And his death, it paid the
debt, see, in full for all the sins that were laid upon him.
Now, where sin is found before God's bar of justice, there must
be death. Romans 3.23 tells us, for the
wages of sin is death. That's what sin deserves. That's
what sin can earn. That's what it merits. But listen
to this, if the debt that is owed is owed to an infinitely
holy God, then for His justice to be satisfied, for the debt
to be fully settled and paid, the payment also has to be of
infinite value. And that's why it took the death
of a God-man, God and man in one person. His deity, His Godness,
so to speak, giving infinite value to the sacrifice of his
humanity. So when the Bible speaks of a
righteousness that's required for entrance into heaven, this
is what it's talking about. Perfect satisfaction of God's
law and justice. That is both perfect obedience
and the payment of a penalty. And that payment being of such
value that it would satisfy the debt that is owed to a holy God. Well, Obviously, as fallen sinners,
we don't have a chance of meeting this requirement. As sinners,
we are tainted in all that we do by our sin. Our self-love,
even our very best efforts are tainted by that, by our sinfulness. So all we can merit is death. And even, think of this, even
the suffering of hell and eternal banishment from God It is inadequate
to even pay down the debt that is owed to an infinitely holy
God. That's why it's everlasting.
It never gets paid up. Only see the precious blood of
the God man can do that. So if Christ is the only one
that met what is required for the entrance into heaven, where
does that leave me and you? He said, except your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. I
don't obey perfectly. And you don't either. He did. And I certainly can't pay the
penalty that is owed to a holy God. Only he can. So how does that become mine?
How can I gain entrance into heaven? How can I be saved? Well,
2 Corinthians 5, 21, if you want to remember that verse and look
at it later, and other scriptures as well, they supply the answer
by teaching us this, that at the cross of Calvary, God laid
upon Christ all the sins, past sins, present sins, the sins
that are even in my preaching of this message today, okay?
In my future sins, he laid all of those upon God's elect. what the Bible calls the election
of grace. That is, those that God chose
before the foundation of the world, not based on anything
good He looked down and saw in them. All we know from the Scripture
is that it's according to His sovereign purpose. And that's
kind of distressing to all of us who like to think everything's
in our control, that things are in our hands. He, Christ, suffered
And he died to pay the penalty for the sins of a people. But
he paid for sins that he had absolutely no part in producing. They were laid upon him. The
Bible uses the term imputation. They were imputed to him. That means they were charged
to his account. Likewise, we see that God imputes
our charges to the account of all those for whom he lived and
died. the merit of his accomplishment. That is the perfect satisfaction
that he made to God's law and justice that was completed as
we saw in our text every jot and tittle at the cross of Calvary. So if what Christ did became
mine by imputation. He is charging it to me. Then
I possess the very righteousness that I need. But it's one I have
no part whatsoever in producing. Now, this is great news for someone
who's convinced of sin. That is, convinced by God the
Holy Spirit of the impossibility of anything that proceeds from
me, a sinner, having any part in reconciling me to a holy God. Just think what that means. Here
I am. center only on this earth as
some of you well know and I will be until the day I die and so
will you regrettably but that's the fact yet all my sins even
those I've yet to commit they have been put away that is the
debt to God's justice has been paid in full and based upon the
imputed righteousness of God that is the merit of what I Christ
accomplished being reckoned to my account. God looks at me and
he looks at everyone else for whom Christ substituted himself.
He looks at them as holy. Pure. Accepted, fully qualified
to enter into his very presence in heaven. The Bible uses the
term accepted in the beloved. You see, not based, as you would
know, not based possibly on anything found in me, a sinner. but based
solely upon that which is found in my substitute, who the Bible
says is in heaven right now at the right hand of the Father,
ever making intercession. It's a righteousness that resides
in heaven, but that the Lord Jesus Christ established and
God made mine by imputation. Now, when you think of imputation,
the charging to the account of another, the tendency is to think
that's some sort of symbolic thing, It's God just pretending
as if you're that way when you're really not. Or God just pretending
that Christ was dying for sins when perhaps he wasn't. Listen,
this is how real imputation is. It's God's judicial judgment
and decision to actually put to an account the merit of what
Christ did to his people based on the fact that he had put to
the account the very sins of those people to Christ. It's
so real. Think of this. God killed his
own son on the cross of Calvary, the spotless, sinless son of
God. He killed him for sins that were
imputed. So the only hope a sinner has,
see, of possessing a righteousness that exceeds, that exceeds that
of the scribes and Pharisees that we read about this morning,
exceeds them put together is that God would mercifully impute
or charge that to their account. You know, it's a testimony to
the spiritual state that we're all born in, of being spiritually
dead, of blindness, not having spiritual senses, that men will
naturally cling to wanting salvation to be conditioned on us in some
way or to some degree a sinner. instead of desiring to be saved
God's way. That is, with all of it being
conditioned on Christ, the sinless, impeccable, perfect Savior. Well, back to our text. Look
with me there at verses 18 and 19 again. And Christ says there,
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break
one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven." Now, I want you to notice in verse 18, he begins
by saying, for verily, this is Christ, the Lord of glory, essentially,
pronouncing an oath, he's putting his name behind it. And he's
saying, Listen, this is so I'm pronouncing an important truth.
And that is that this law isn't going to be destroyed, as the
Pharisees had accused, but rather, it will be fulfilled every jot
until that word jot is the Greek word. It's actually derived from
a Hebrew word, jod j o d. And the jod was the smallest
letter in the Hebrew language. The jot is the same as the word
iota in the Greek language, and it is the smallest letter in
the Greek language. That tittle refers, if you've
ever seen Greek written out, and I'm certainly no Greek scholar
as you know, it's Greek to me, but there's little bitty pronunciation
marks around the letters, little tiny minute marks, and the tittle
is one of those little marks around the Greek letter. He's
saying here, look, not one iota shall be left unfulfilled. We might say it like this today.
He's going to dot every i, and he's going to cross every t.
Now, with respect to verse 19, let me just summarize that, given
our time constraints today. Just recognize this. Christ came
to fulfill the law. It's his mission. That's why
he came. So we can't make light of that.
Every iota. Not destroy it. As Romans 10,
4 tells us, Christ is the end of the law. He's the fulfillment
of the law. Nothing that we add to it. He's the end of the law,
it says, for righteousness. The one we need, see. To everyone
that believeth. That believeth what? That he
is the end of the law for righteousness. Now, God is holy, see, and he
cannot pervert or diminish his holy law and justice for any
reason. The Bible says, he shall by no
means clear the guilty. He can't just pretend as if you
weren't guilty. It must be taken care of. The
Pharisees, see, in their teaching of righteousness by works, they
were actually teaching men to break the law. And that's what
religion does when it tells men that anything less than perfection
will suffice. They're essentially saying what
they consider to be one of these, quote, least commandments, We
don't have to really. In other words, if you can do
it, then it's OK. There's something that's OK to
break because you can't. None can do that. And most all
are aware of that. Remember that that anything less
than perfect satisfaction falls short, falls short of the righteousness
that would satisfy a holy God. So what does that tell us? We
see from this verse 19 that those who would teach or promote. And
we do that when we identify with a body of doctrine. When we believe,
for example, in anything that smacks of works salvation, that
is of salvation, this condition in any way to any degree on the
center. What he says here is that they
would be judged by Christ and those in his realm, the kingdom
of heaven, They would be judged as being the least and certainly
not the greatest. And such false teachers certainly
aren't those who would reside in the kingdom of heaven. That's
not what it means there. But then in verse 20, you see,
he talks about entering into the kingdom of heaven. So we
know there he is talking about that does include glory itself. And there in verse 20, he sums
up the requirement as we've seen the requirement to enter into
heaven. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven." And when I was studying this, I read where the Jews of
old, they had a proverb that went something like this. It
said, if but two men were to enter heaven, the one would be
a scribe and the other would be a Pharisee. And that shows
the high esteem that they held for these men. You know, most
scholars will tell you that The Pharisees were perhaps the most
outwardly moral law-keeping group who have ever lived. The scribes,
you see, they were the teachers. They were the doctors of the
law. And the Pharisees, they were considered the purest practitioners
of the law. They were the pinnacle of personal
piety. These were the best of the best.
And Christ here is speaking of the righteousness that's presumed
to be possessed by both the scribes and Pharisees. And he says, when
you put them together, you notice he says the scribes and Pharisees,
he's saying, well, if your righteousness doesn't exceed that of both of
them put together, not just measure up to it, but exceed it, you
won't get into heaven. Christ is communicating. And
those people, the multitude who was, who were listening there
at the Sermon on the Mount, they understood this. They were contemporaries
of the Scribes and Pharisees. He was communicating them a standard
far beyond what any mere human being could ever hope to produce. And if you want to study on your
own later, if you'll read the rest of Matthew 5, you'll see
there the extent of the law. And he summarizes it in the very
last verse of Matthew 5 in verse 48. If you want to know how far
your righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees,
he says, so be ye therefore perfect. even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect. Now Christ here, in speaking
of this, let's be clear, that's the standard that he's trying
to communicate. In our recent Bible conference,
we were shown how the law could be appropriately described as
a series of requirements and conditions. And if you've ever
read any of the Old Testament, the first five books, You know,
there's a lot of the shells and shells, its requirements and
conditions. That's that's an apt description.
So in light of that, if we seek to be justified, that is to be
found not guilty before God's bar of justice in a right standing
with him based upon the fulfillment of any condition or the meeting
of any requirement by us, then we expose that we're actually
seeking to be saved. to be justified before God by
trying to establish our own righteousness. That is, by the works of the
law, meeting some requirement or condition. But as Galatians
2.16 tells us, by the works of the law, by our meeting some
requirement or meeting some condition, shall no flesh be justified. And you know, that's what we
all naturally, by nature, do according to God's Word. That's
where we start. You think about it. When a person
first gets interested in religion, what's the first question we
ask? And it's a reflection of our fallen, sinful nature. What
can I do to be saved? What condition can I meet? What
is the requirement for me to deliver? Well, is it possible
that someone could be mistaken and think they're trusting in
Christ? And in salvation by grace, while
in reality, maybe unwittingly trusting in a cleverly disguised
system of works disguised under the name of grace, under the
banner of grace, disguised that way. Well, you bet, because that's
where I was for years. So I want to tell you just very
briefly what I want to believe, because like many of you, I believe
that Christ came, that he lived and that he died. for every person
who ever lived or ever would live on this earth without exception. Now, I want you to stop here
and I want you to follow this line of thinking. Just think
with me here. The Bible teaches even here on the Sermon on the
Mount, where we'll see later when we get there, he says, broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in
there at. In other words, the Bible teaches
that multitudes will perish in hell. While it also teaches that
others shall be saved from God's wrath, and they'll enter heaven.
So here we have two groups. We have those who will end up
in hell, the lost, and we'll have those who end up in heaven,
the saved. Now listen, whatever, whatever
you think makes the ultimate difference in determining which
of these two groups you belong, hell or heaven, That identifies
the Savior you're trusting in. You see, that's what a Savior
does, isn't it? A Savior saves. Saves us from our sin, out of
hell and into heaven. Well, obviously, if you considered
what I believed in the past, that Christ lived and died on
behalf of all. He died, I thought, for those
who end up in heaven, as well as for those who end up in hell.
Something else made the difference. Wasn't Him, was it? You see,
He alone didn't save by my way of thinking. So, Jesus Christ
really wasn't my Savior at that time, not the one I was trusting
in, because I believe that He died for all men and women who
ever lived, that He did no more for these in heaven than He did
for these in hell. And, you know, if someone had
pointed that out to me, I would have argued, I probably did argue,
No, sir. Now, don't you tell me that Jesus
is my Savior. I thought I was taught he was
my Savior. I thought I believed he was my Savior. But my doctrine,
what I thought of who he was and what he accomplished in particular,
it exposed that I didn't really trust that he alone met the requirement. Because, you see, I believe there'd
be multitudes in hell for whom he lived and died. And I would
have put it like this. I would have said, yeah, well,
yeah, Randy, but wait a minute. You've got to believe in order
to receive what He's done for you. But that believing was the
only real difference between my concept of who made it to
heaven and who made it to hell. You see, no matter how you look
at it, something other than or in addition to Christ was making
the difference by my way of thinking. And that something was my savior. It's what delivered me, see,
although I didn't recognize it as such. So for me, and it's
different for different folks, but for me, my savior was my
faith, my believing. I presume, see, that salvation
was ultimately conditioned on me because I met the requirement
by believing. And shamefully now, that view,
it reduced the very thing that Christ said here he came to this
earth to accomplish to not even an accomplishment for that matter,
just a little more than a prerequisite of sorts upon which I could add
my part. And I would have said that was
a small part. I would have put it like this. I would have said,
well, he paid it all. I sang that song. Jesus did it
all. Thank goodness for Jesus. Just like the Pharisee who said,
I thank God that I'm not like other men. That would have been
my cry as well. And I would have said, and I
just do my little part by receiving it. I'm just willing to let him
in. You see, that little part really
was the crowning event because it's what made the difference
between the folks that end up in heaven and the folks that
end up in hell. That's a condition or a requirement. It's a work of the law, and as
we read, by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now, religions the world over,
including the many that fall under the broad umbrella of so-called
Christianity, they all fall into one of two categories. And it's
a worthwhile exercise to ask yourself this morning, which
of these religions do you belong to? It's either the religion
of grace, or it's the religion of works, And I certainly believe
that I was part of the religion of grace, but only discovered
later that it was just a cleverly disguised system of works. So
ask yourself that question in this way. You see, they either
believe, you either believe, that the ultimate determining
factor of your salvation, that it's Christ and what he alone
accomplished, that's grace, or you believe that some other condition
or requirement has to be added to the mix, and that that ultimately
determines whether you are saved in heaven or lost and perish
in hell. And if salvation, if it's conditioned
on you, the sinner, to any degree or in any way, hear God say again,
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You know, there's a million,
there's thousands of religions and denominations and sects in
the world. And so there are thousands of
conditions or requirements that we fallen humanity concoct to
think it gets us into our idea of an everlasting life or reconciles
us to our idea of this God or deity that we worship. You know,
to some, under the banner of Christianity, it may just be
that Hey, I know you, Randy, and I'm just as good as you are.
If you're going to get there, I'm going to make it too. But that's not
a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees. Some,
it may be the observance of a day, like keeping a Sabbath, as was
commanded under the law of Moses. There are groups that believe
that. To others, it's the observance of what they call sacraments.
To others, it's like me. It's their decision to believe
or accept Jesus. to receive him as your personal
Savior, or different people put it different ways, invite him
into my heart, or some would say, say a sinner's prayer, or
walk an aisle to confess him before men, whatever. And it can be subtle. Believe
it or not, some even that believe, and listen, when I say this,
I'm talking about a small number, because most are like me. For
30-something years, I'd never even heard of the righteousness
I need of an imputed righteousness. Didn't know anything about it.
But there are some who do. And they even believe that the
righteousness that Christ established must be imputed to them. And
as a testimony to our determination to rebel against God, unless
He gives us a new life, spiritual life, to think differently, they
still cling to salvation by works, by thinking like this, that their
belief of that truth That it plays some causal role in procuring
or appropriating to themselves what they imagine Christ did
for them. Listen, here's the measure. If anything that is
done by you, or done in you, or through you the sinner, even
if you credit like that Pharisee who thanked God for what he had
done, presumably for him, If you give credit to God and say
it was God the Holy Spirit that enabled me, if it's done by you
or in you or through you, if you assign that which is done
any causal role in your salvation and acceptance before God, then
it is of works and it's not of grace. And that too, see, constitutes
trying to meet the entrance requirement for heaven with not the righteousness
you need, but another righteousness. And it's one that falls miserably
short of the one and only one that we need, the righteousness
which Christ alone established. You may be thinking, Randy, if
what you say is true, then what can I do to be saved? And the
answer is to what you can do is absolutely nothing. Now that
may be distressing, but listen, if you could do something to
save yourself, to make the difference, then you would be meeting a requirement
or a condition. And you really wouldn't have
the need for mercy, not for God's mercy, would you? Because it'd
still be in your hands whenever you got ready to do that thing
that was required. Believe, accept, whatever it
is. I'm reminded of that old invitational
hymn that I used to sing growing up. And it's a pretty song. It
went something like this. The Savior is waiting to enter
your heart. I think it was, why don't you
let him come in? I don't need mercy by that way
of thinking, because it's in my hands the whole time. All
I've got to do is invite him in. It's not him that's saving. It's my decision to let him in.
Well, that's not the righteousness we need. That's self-righteousness. Now, if you become, on the other
hand, truly convinced of sin by God the Holy Spirit, as He
does when He gives the sinner life, So convinced that you know
that nothing other than the imputed righteousness of God in Christ
will reconcile you before a holy God. Then you realize at that
point, whoa, I am up the creek without a paddle unless God shows
mercy on me. You see, then I'm stripped bare
of any hope with nothing left to plead before God but have
mercy. And that's what it is to be humbled
before God. You see, mercy in the Bible,
though, isn't just God setting aside and saying, OK, I'll I'll
have compassion on you and let you in. Now, he says he won't
clear the guilty. It's mercy seed based on God's
holiness, his law and justice being satisfied. Therefore, there's
no mercy without the cross of Christ. Our mercy seed, as the
scriptures refer to him. Some ask, well, don't I have
to believe? Well, the Bible commands us to
believe. And in that seventeen thirty one actually at seventeen
thirty and thirty one there he says he he's commanded men everywhere
to repent why he said because in that day I'll judge the world
each one of us will be judged. By that righteousness of the
one of the man he ordained and that he had given assurance unto
all men and that he raised him from the dead so just to send
the man's death. The righteousness we need demanded
life. He's speaking of the Savior and
he's saying that's what we're going to be judged by. Do you
have a righteousness that equals that that was established by
Christ in his humanity when he walked on this earth? So he commands
faith and repentance, faith in the sense when it means believing.
And that's what we do. We turn towards something in
faith. And when you turn towards something,
those are one in the same. That involves a turning away
from something else. That's repentance. And what do
we turn from? The Bible says there's a way
that seemeth right to men. It's a way that seems right to
all of us initially. But the end thereof is death,
is destruction. So you see, you see faith as
in believing. It's not something we do in order
to be blessed of God. The Bible tells us that faith
in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, it says faith is a gift of God, not of
work. Not something you do to meet
a requirement, see. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. See, God's not going to share
his glory. So it's part, faith is a part of what Christ merited.
It's a gift that he purchased with his blood for all those
for whom he died. Faith in the scriptures is described
in as a revealing, a revelation. So in the new birth, God comes
along and he gives life. to all those that Christ had
merited, for whom He had merited life. He gives them eyes to see,
the Scriptures say, and ears to hear, and hearts and minds
to understand, Christ told His disciples, something they didn't
see before. They become convinced of it,
and they believe it. And the thing that they believe
is that all of their salvation is conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ. based solely upon the righteousness
that he established in his life and death. So what do you do
then? Well, let me close by reading
from Romans 10. Beginning in verse 9 there, it
tells us this, and many of you are familiar with this verse.
It says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And most stop right
there. It says, and they'll say, there
it is. Believe and be saved. I believe.
But we need to go further. Believe what? The very next verse
tells us. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Believed on who? The
one who established the righteousness. The one who was uniquely qualified
to establish the righteousness. You see, God says if our trust
is truly in him and who he is and what he alone accomplished,
then we shall not be ashamed. In other words, we have here
God's word that all who are given the gift of faith to believe
with the heart unto righteousness, they shall not be ashamed or
disappointed. So let there be no doubt that
the entrance requirement for heaven is simply this. It's not
what I say, it's what we just read. It's what God says in his
word. You must possess a righteousness that exceeds. And that's none
other than the perfect righteousness that Christ established and which
God makes the sinners own by imputation without works, with
no condition or requirement met by you, the sinner. In Romans
4, 6, King David is quoted as having described, quote, the
blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without
works. Well, God said it, so believe
it.