Is God A Perfectionist? - [Matthew 5:4]

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Well, just a quick update before we get to the sermon. Last week, I was at Cape Cod Bible Church, and I was preaching there.
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It was just a rich time of fellowship. We've sent down many preachers throughout the years to preach there.
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So it's good for me to finally be there. It's good to see the people, meet Pastor Lou. Pastor Lou said, do you remember our first conversation?
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He told this in front of the church as he introduced me. It's my first conversation with you, Mike, was in Los Angeles. And I came up,
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Lou speaking, I came up to you and said, I want to introduce myself. I know you're in Massachusetts, and my name's
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Lou, and I hope to go to Cape Cod to be a pastor. And he said, do you remember your response, Mike? And I said,
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I don't. And he said, you said, great, we need more pastors to be in the pastor's graveyard.
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And he said, thank you for such a nice, warm welcome. Did I say that? We need
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Bible teaching churches across the world, but we need them especially in New England. To exalt
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Christ Jesus, verse by verse through the text, pray for Cape Cod Bible Church.
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Pray when God lets you hear about a church that you know is faithful, pray that God would bear much fruit there.
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Pray for Lou, he's lonely down there. You have what? Ocean in the north, ocean on the east, ocean on the south,
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Bourne Bridge on the west. I mean, you're just surrounded, and he's just a lighthouse there, and pastors get discouraged, and so pray
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Lou would be faithful and be encouraged. Thank you for Steve and Louis preaching while I was gone as well.
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I don't know if you have a life verse, but I have several life verses, and this verse today is my evangelistic life verse.
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You have life verses when you think of how God has saved you and God has made you born again, and God has granted you favor, he's granted you sonship, granted you eternal life.
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You might have a favorite life verse. But I have a favorite life verse when it comes to evangelism, something that I'm always using.
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When I go speak to children of any age, and I'll go to Hope Chapel's Christian School, Holden Chapel's Christian School, when
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I go to New Covenant, when I go to Twin Cities, I always use this verse. This is my life verse for preaching the gospel.
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And it's great to stand up in front of the congregation, the crowd, and say this. How many kids here believe that you have to be perfect to go to heaven?
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Raise your hand. And I kind of even try to encourage them by raising my hand, because I think I can probably get them to raise their hand too if I do that.
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You know how kids are. You raise your hand, kids, and they do what you do. So how many kids believe you have to be perfect to get into heaven?
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There's usually not one kid that raises their hand. Maybe one, and he's a smart aleck pastor's kid, you know, or something sitting in the back.
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He's got all the answers. You must be perfect to get into heaven?
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It's shocking. It's a staggering kind of comment to make, especially in light of evangelicalism where we live today.
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Do good. Be better. And if you open your Bibles to Matthew 5 .48,
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as we're working our way through the text, the Sermon on the Mount, finishing up chapter five, we're going to come to this passage that if it's not your life verse, if it's not your evangelism life verse, you'll at least be able to see it in context so you might be better equipped to show thanks to God with gratitude for Him saving you, that also you can use this to show sinners their need of Christ Jesus, because it is in fact true that if you'd like heaven, if you would desire eternal life, when you stand before God and you would hope for Him to say, welcome, good and faithful servant, you must be perfect.
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Society doesn't preach that today. Sometimes the church doesn't even preach it. So today, as we look at this verse,
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Matthew 5 .48, kind of a conclusion to the first section in Matthew 5,
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I'm going to use this verse and help us kind of debunk some myths that are in evangelicalism.
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I call this verse the evangelical bunker buster. How many people know what a bunker buster bomb is?
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5 ,000 pound bomb that can be dropped by F -11s, it can be dropped by other aircraft,
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B -2 bombers, F -15 Eagles, and they drop this bomb. It's called the GBU -28, 5 ,000 pound bomb.
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And I read this week that it's full of TNT with 20 % of that being aluminum powder that will make the bomb more explosive.
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And it can cause death and it can cause destruction up to 22 feet underground.
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And that's the kind of power this verse has. It's this tritonal kind of explosive that's used in the bomb to explode these myths.
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How do you get to heaven? Oh, just be good. Be better than the person to your left or to your right. This is my evangelical bunker buster bomb that hopefully blows its way through the concrete reinforcements that are so prevalent in evangelicalism.
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This bomb, the bunker buster bomb is laser guided. And here,
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I believe in Matthew 5 .48, Jesus with laser guided precision directs this to the disciples and all who would ever listen.
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Let me give you this morning several myths that this verse will destroy. It's an odd way to teach it, but I think as we look at it from different angles, you'll know the text better.
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There'll be some repetition, but it will be intentional because I want this verse to be embedded in your mind so you'll remember it.
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You'll remember what Jesus said for your own thankfulness and for your own ability to preach the gospel to unbelievers.
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We'll say, what's the purpose of the sermon? I believe the pastor should just say, the purpose of my sermon today is, the purpose of my sermon today is that you might understand
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Matthew 5 .48, the words of Jesus. And if you're not a Christian, that you would realize this is the standard for heaven.
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And I don't measure up, God help me. If you are a Christian, I think most people here are Christians, that we might see these words and say,
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God, thank you for saving me because I'm not perfect. Thank you for these words.
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And God, help me to preach the gospel. Help me to use these words to show unbelievers their need of the
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Savior. Now I'm almost getting ahead of myself so I better be careful. Let's just look at Matthew 5 .48
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and see many lies about salvation that this verse will then destroy.
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Jesus said at the end of chapter five, therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly
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Father is perfect. Almost sounds funny to say.
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This is such an amazing verse. Where are those that will stand up and tell this verse? I wonder what the disciples thought when they heard this very verse come out of Jesus's mouth.
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The first myth that I think this verse destroys is that God requires less than perfection in order for people to go to heaven.
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Myth number one, that you don't have to be perfect to get into heaven. In other words, God requires less than perfection in order for people to go to heaven.
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Jesus with conclusion here, you see the word therefore, states quite the opposite. You are to be perfect as your heavenly
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Father is perfect. Now, he's given the conclusion from verses 21 of chapter five all the way down through verse 47.
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As a conclusion, as he's talking to these Pharisees and others who are somehow bringing in their beliefs that as long as you do the externals, you're fine.
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And he says, you've got to be perfect. Now, the word perfect is an interesting one. It could mean you've got a motor, but the distributor's cap is off and so it's less than complete.
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It's not whole. It's missing something. It could mean that. Not complete in its parts.
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It could mean that there's a part that's defective, doesn't work, doesn't have the right kind of wiring.
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It could mean you've got an animal and to sacrifice it, it can't have any blemish. It must be what?
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Perfect. Some people think it just means mature. Jesus says you're going to have to be mature.
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You're going to have to be full grown. You're going to have to be on your way growing. But that doesn't make sense either because look at the passage as I read it this way.
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Be mature just as God is mature. Be full grown just as God is full grown.
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No, this word means morally perfect. This word means flawless. This word, like that word for sacrifice, means blameless.
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No sin. Deuteronomy 18, you must be blameless before the
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Lord, your God. When it comes to all the commands that Christ is giving as he's summarizing and maybe adding to some of the
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Mosaic law, he says, here's the standard perfection, holy, blameless, not one smidgen less, not one iota lower.
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He says, you've got to be perfect. What I want in my life is to believe what
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Jesus teaches. And Jesus says, if you'd like to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. Myth number two, myth number two.
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These will all add up as I teach the verse from different angles. This verse helps us with many myths.
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The first one is, well, less than perfection will do. And secondly, this destroys this myth.
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God compares us to others and then examines us according to the merits of other people.
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I could say it this way. God grades on a bell curve. God says, you know what?
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I'm not going to compare you against myself. I'm going to compare you against other people. And we all say, Osama bin
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Laden and Hitler, praise the Lord for those people. Why? Because at least I'm not as bad as them.
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Just how perfect are Christ followers to be? Look at the text. As your heavenly father is perfect.
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He doesn't say, you know what? As long as you're not a Hindu, you're cool. He doesn't say, as long as you're monotheistic, you're fine.
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He doesn't say, as long as you're in the top 90 percentile, you're golden. He says, you want to be perfect.
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Just how blameless? Just how holy? Just how sinless would you be?
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Perfect. Did a little study this week. Just how perfect is God?
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Listen to Elihu in Job 37. Do you know how the clouds are balanced? Those wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge.
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God is perfect in knowledge. Listen to David in Psalm 18. As for God, his way is perfect.
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Everything about God's way is perfect. There were even people in the Old Testament named Yahweh is perfect.
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How'd you like to have that for a name? Oh, it'd be pretty good. Oh, what's your name? Yotham, God is perfect.
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This is too great. This is too high. When you say compared to other people, I'm pretty good. But in the presence of God, it's like Isaiah who falls on his face and says,
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I can't even sing holy, holy, holy with the angels because I'm not holy. Now, even though technically it's not a command, it functions as a command.
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You are to be perfect. If you look at chapter five, verse 21, it's the same kind of language.
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It's not technically a command, but it functions just like that. You have heard it said, those of old you shall not murder.
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Whoever murders will be in danger of judgment. Same kind of language that in the original has nothing to do with a command, but the way it's said, it comes off with an imperative sense.
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We can't compare ourselves to other people. We are to compare ourselves to God. Okay, we're building here.
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Myth number three. Myth number three. The first myth is we don't have to be perfect.
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The second myth is we'll just compare ourselves to others. We can always find somebody who's worse. And I remember
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I always drive by the reservoir and I think after about April 15th, all the fishermen are out.
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And then I always tell them, you gotta get up and go to worship someplace. I'm like, well, at least
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I'm better than them. That's a bad way to think. What other myths does this verse debunk?
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That God has a different way of salvation in the Old Testament and the
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New. That is to say that God says, there's different ways to heaven between the Old and New. I could ask you this question.
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Is there something new to this verse? Let's go to Leviticus 11 for a minute. And I wanna show you that whether it's in the
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New Testament or the Old, God's standard for His perfect heaven in His perfect presence is always perfection.
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After all, if somebody gets to heaven and they're not perfect, it would make heaven not perfect. I don't wanna go to heaven and have unperfect people there just like I don't wanna go to heaven and have unperfect angels there.
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The imperfect angels by their own sin are cast out. The imperfect people are not in His presence except for judgment.
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And we need to make sure that we understand what Jesus is saying. And for the disciples, even though it might be shocking, it was not new.
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Leviticus chapter 11. We'll just go through a quick few verses in Leviticus so you can see that this standard for God is consistent between the
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Old and New Testament. Don't let anyone ever tell you, you gotta keep the law in the Old Testament to get to heaven and you've gotta have grace in the
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New Testament. God is unchangeable. God is immutable and His standards are always the same.
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His standards were the same before the fall, after the fall, Old Testament, New Testament. Leviticus 11 .44,
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just trying to show you how this is not something new. It's more a rebuke to the
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Pharisees who are saying it's all external, forget the internal. For I am the Lord your God.
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You shall therefore, Leviticus 11 .44, consecrate yourselves and you shall be holy for I am what?
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Holy. 11 .45, for I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your
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God. You shall be therefore holy for I am holy. Chapter 19, verse two.
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Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I the Lord your
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God am holy. The refrain goes on in chapter 20 as well.
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God's requirements have not changed. Think about this, beloved. Before the fall, did God require obedience?
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Adam and Eve in the garden. Obey, name, tend, multiply, whatever those, don't touch this over here, don't eat from that tree.
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God required obedience, yes? After the fall, did God change His standards for obedience?
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No, they stayed the exact same. Jesus is correcting these
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Pharisees who are saying somehow you can have enough righteousness to get to heaven.
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Let's go back to Matthew chapter five and the verse that is kind of the hinge verse in all of the
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Sermon on the Mount that helps us understand even 548 is Matthew 5 .21.
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Matthew five, well, actually let's look at 20 instead. That's better. Matthew 5 .20, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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You can't have false righteousness of the Pharisees. You can't have righteousness that's external like the
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Pharisees. You have to have righteousness that's external and internal and the standard is perfection.
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The problem is looking around at you and knowing me, we are far short of perfection.
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So that gives me the fourth myth that I'd like to debunk with this verse. The fourth myth is that salvation is humanly possible.
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Salvation is humanly possible. Salvation is up to you. You are able to save yourself. You have the capacity to somehow make yourself perfect.
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We should all say, I can't do that. I mean, just think about it. I wrote in my notes right after that statement, perfection, perfection, perfection.
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How'd you like to have to be perfect to go to heaven? It's true. How can you do this?
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That is the right question. What is the right question? God, but you just don't quite understand my circumstances.
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God, you know kind of the background that I had and my father really wasn't around. God, you don't know the husband
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I have. You don't know the wife that you've given me. You don't know my Irish temper.
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You don't know my, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. I saw a few Irish people smile, by the way. Perfection is a standard.
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The wrong response is excuses, and you don't understand God, and I think I've got it covered. The right response is,
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Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. I cannot do this. I'm standing on the top of the
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Eiffel Tower, and I'm to jump to Jupiter. Can't do it.
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With men, this is impossible, Jesus went on to say in Matthew. But with God, what? All things are possible.
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Jesus says, I'm preaching these things to you in Matthew chapter five, so you say, you know what? I have spiritual chapter 11.
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I have spiritual chapter 13. I am spiritually bankrupt. I spiritually can't write a check because they're all bouncing.
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My life is a bouncing rubber check. He wants that sense of terror and panic to flood the soul of the person so they look not within themselves like we tend to do, like we seem to always do, self -resources and self -dependence and self -initiative where we go, you know what?
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My problem is not anything except me. I am the problem. You say, well, that's not fair that God makes us have the requirement of perfection.
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If I can say it in kind of a funny way, but a true way, it's not your universe. It's God's universe.
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And cannot God, the all -creative, all -wise God say, to be in my presence, I expect perfection.
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And you think about a king back in the Old Testament days, New Testament days, do you think that the scallywags and the scoundrels and those who hate the king and who have tried to kill the king and who have tried to kill the king's son just get to walk up into the presence of the king and kind of go over and say, nice kitty cat to the lion and kind of, you know, hey, king, by the way,
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I'd like a few of those grapes put in my mouth. And you know, those big peacock feathers, I kind of like to be fanned a little bit too.
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I'll just saunter in. There was no sauntering in those days and there's no sauntering before the
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God of the universe. Paul, if he could summarize Jesus' words of this verse, it would be, for all have what?
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Sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You ever think about that verse? Let's turn there just for a second. Romans 3 .23.
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I mean, this is kind of like the Awana verse we memorize and it just flows off the tip of our tongue in a way that sometimes we don't think about.
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It's more than a memory verse. It's more than Christian pop slogan terminology.
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This verse is sometimes quoted but not understood. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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If you want to try to study the Bible, especially an epistle like this letter to the Romans is, you look for what kind of figure of speech?
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Say, I'd like to unlock the key to this book. And as I study, what am I looking for? What you're looking for in epistles are verbs.
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You look for the verbs. And do you notice any differences between the verbs here? Not that they're different verbs, but different kinds of verbs.
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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you were a grammar teacher, what would you think about these words?
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You go, I'm not a grammar teacher and frankly, I don't care. Well, I want you to care because it's in the text.
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God wants you to know. He wrote it this way for a reason. He could have just said, for all have sinned. He could have said, well, all fall short of the glory of God.
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Why is it for all have sinned and then fall short of the glory of God? For all have sinned, point in time past.
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When might that have been? He maybe is looking at our entire life as a whole and says, you know what? Your whole life is summarized by sin.
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You're just one big singular sin. Or he might be looking back to the fall, the one sin of Adam, where we in Adam are counted as sinners.
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He says, for all have sinned, point in time past, and continually fall short of the glory of God.
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That's present. And all continually fall short of the glory of God. We fall behind, we lag behind, we keep on falling short.
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I think of this as a record that skips, a CD that skips, a
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DVD that just keeps kind of looping and looping no matter how we try, no matter what kind of sacrifice we have, no matter what we do, we fall short.
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How can we get up to God's perfection? How can we grab the glory of God? Here's the glory of God.
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That's what we compare ourselves to. We just fall short to this transcendent God and all his attributes we never can measure up.
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I used to have the growing bean when I was a kid and I wanted to be, this was my prayer. Dear God, I would like to be a point guard in the
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NBA, 6 '8 point guard. George Gervin, Magic Johnson, that kind of thing.
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And God help me. And so I began to pray. God, help me to grow to be 6 '8. I did everything, you know, that I was told to do.
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Nate Archibald, a basketball player of the old days said, if you'd like to be ambidextrous, eat with your left hand if you're right -handed, with your fork.
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Just cause a bunch of problems in your face, but that's another story too. God, help me to be taller.
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And you know what? I blame it on my mother and father who smoked cigarettes and she smoked when I was in the womb and I'm only 6 '1 and 3 quarters and now
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I'm actually shrinking and I'm 6 '1 total. Every time
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I walk into that growing bean and that's what it was called, I just kept falling short. Except the standard for us is not some measly 6 '8.
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It is the Alps. It is the spiritual Mount Everest.
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It's K2, it's as high, you can't even see that high. Here's the standard of God and we fall short.
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Jesus doesn't say this because he's mad at the people. He's trying to teach them the truth in love. You can't measure up to God.
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You're going to need someone to help you, to save you. You're going to need to be saved. You need a new birth is what
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Jesus is saying. You don't need resuscitation, you need regeneration. You don't need rejuvenation, you need regeneration.
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You don't need to reinvent yourself or have some resolutions, you need a new heart and you can't do it.
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Those who look to perfection sing with Top Lady. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross
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I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace.
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Foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.
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That's the attitude of those who realize they're not perfect. It is not, God, you're so lucky to have me worship you.
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1 Peter 1, verse 16, it says, you shall be holy for I am holy. God's not just different,
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God is perfect. CNN founder Ted Turner once remarked, if I only had a little humility,
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I'd be perfect. I laugh at him, that's just what every human heart does without the grace of God.
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Not too bad, kind of make a little joke about it. Hey, if we're not that bad, then good news isn't that good.
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But if there's no perfection in our lives, then no heaven. We need help from the outside, myth number five.
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Myth number five, this verse helps us, Matthew 5, 48, in many ways. It teaches us that we must be perfect.
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It teaches us that we ought not to think of anybody else when we think of heaven, but just ourselves and God. It helps us to realize that this is the way
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God has always done it before the fall, after the fall, Old Testament, New Testament, it's always by grace. It teaches us that we can't save ourselves.
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And number five, it destroys this myth. Modern religion, or religion of any kind, for that matter, is good.
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Religion's good. Is religion good? If you listen to the politicians, they would think it would be good.
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Good for social structure, good for the community, it fosters community, promotes being spiritual.
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I'm spiritual. Mark my words, the worst satanic ploy in the history of the universe is religion.
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It's a satanic ploy because it teaches you that you don't have to be perfect. Anything that teaches you that you should be less than perfect to get into heaven is satanic, it tricks you.
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Jesus said the Pharisees, the most religious people in the world, you've gotta have a perfection greater than that, how can you do it?
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How can you say, well, I'll take an amalgamation of the Pope, the last Pope, and Mother Teresa, and Gandhi, and I'll put them in a little amalgamation and say, you know what, if I could just be that holy, then
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I'll be good. That's not the answer. The answer is you've gotta be more than them because we compare ourselves to God.
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We've gotta be perfect. Religion is bankrupt. All man -made attempts for salvation don't matter.
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That's the definition to me of religion, man -made attempts of salvation. James Boyce called this verse regarding this topic the most important verse in all the
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Sermon on the Mount. He said if you get this verse, you get all of Jesus' teachings. If you understand this, you'll say,
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I understand Christianity. Now why don't we turn, if you would with me, to Mark chapter two for a moment.
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I wanna show you how Jesus treats those who are peddling religion. How those who sell, you just need to be good.
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You just need to do good social things. You just need to be a good theological liberal, and everything's fine.
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For those who say anything less than Jesus is perfect, the Father's perfect, the Spirit's perfect, and you need to be perfect to get into heaven, how does
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Jesus talk to them? He says, well, you know, at least there's not a lot of bars in the town, and at least there's not a lot of dope everywhere.
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These people are kind, they have manners, no elbows on the table. When you shake somebody's hand, shake it firmly, and look them in the eye and be kind.
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He doesn't act that way around religious people. He basically lambasts them and say, you know what?
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My goal as Savior is to first make you run off the cliff of your own self -righteousness, to say, you know what,
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I'm not sufficient, and I need to just figure out how to get out of myself and be a different person. And here, one of my favorite passages in the
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Gospels, Mark 2, verse 15, it's from our Savior, and you're gonna see how
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He deals with these people, and it will help us to realize that anything that sells religion with less than Christ perfection, it's damning.
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Before I read it, just one quick comment, and I think it'll help us with the context. When I had to go door -to -door for evangelism at my old church back in Los Angeles, I couldn't get spit in my mouth if you paid me.
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I was so nervous. So these people don't even know who we are, and the way it worked out at our old church was, if somebody came and visited and wrote down their address, it'd be put in the collection plate, and then it would be given to some people like me, or those who did on a regular basis, and we'd have to go knock on the door.
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Hi, my name's Mike Abenroth with Grace Church, and you visited us a few weeks ago, and we wanted to repay the visit, and we'd love to just talk to you about the church, if you have any questions, or we'd love to invite your kids to the
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VBS, et cetera, and I thought, I can't do it. I can't do it. I remember going with a friend, and it was another seminary student.
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It's like, who goes first? Oh, you know, go ahead. You can do it, you know.
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Last will be first, first will be last. I didn't want to go first because I wanted to go home and suck my thumb and cry for my mother.
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I didn't want to do that at all. I have a lot of thumb sucking, I'll tell you that. And to prove my point,
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I guess it's proven just experientially here, but I could prove it other ways. When we would go to the door, and it was a big
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Harley guy, screen door open, a Molly Hatchet band in the background, some
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Southern rock stuff. He's got, you know, big old mustache and everything. He comes sauntering up.
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Hi, my name's Mike Abenroth with Grace Church. He'd go, hey, how are you, buddy? Want to come in and have a old
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Milwaukee with me or something? I'm like, boy, this guy's pretty nice. Then we'd go to somebody's house.
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All the flowers are perfect, perfectly manicured place. It's a lady who's a widow.
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She's living by herself, obviously. And you walk up and, hi, how are you today? She'd say with great manners.
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Hi, we're with Grace Community Church. Slam! If you know you're a sinner, you're willing to talk about a savior.
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But if you think you're pretty good, because you're not a murderer, you're not in the West Boylston jail, you're not in any of those places, you're good.
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I think about my two grandmothers. Dear people. But lost. It's almost like Satan can deceive the heart more when you think you're pretty good because you have the right things and you pray to Mecca so many times a day and you do all these things.
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You're just lost in religiosity. And Jesus comes through with this bunker buster and says, it's got to be perfection.
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He does the same kind of thing here. Watch how he deals with religious people versus those who know that they're sinners.
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Mark 2 .15. It came about that He was reclining at the table in His house. And many, mark that word because there's two words that are many.
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And many tax gatherers and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples. For there were, what?
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I thought He just told me that. There are many, lots of them. The worst.
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The scum. Pulled right out of the spiritual sewers. They were following Jesus.
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Now He's reclining. You say, well, why would Jesus be sleeping at the table? No, that's just Eastern culture where they would recline.
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Oftentimes they would recline just a little bit for a regular food. You're just gonna have some quick breakfast. But it was a big feast.
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It was a large celebration. It was a time that would be like a Thanksgiving dinner for us.
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They would lay down. Left elbow used the right hand to eat. And so this is a big celebration. Levi, Luke tells us, gives a big reception for Jesus.
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This is not Thanksgiving turkey. This is, I've met a Savior who knows all about me yet still offers salvation.
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We better have a party to invite all our friends. By the way, this is a great evangelism party if you haven't done it.
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I think too often, I better be careful. I don't step on too many toes today. But there's nothing wrong with selling Tupperware or Pampered Chef.
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But I think those people who are good at that, they should have this. I think I'm gonna have a big reception at my house for sinners.
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Not to sell them something, but to tell them and plead with them what's going on. This is an evangelism party.
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Big reception, a feast to honor Jesus Christ. Guess who's coming for dinner?
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And Levi knows he's done with his old life. And here's this farewell party to my old lifestyle. Might as well invite all my buddies at work, all the other scumbag friends that I have.
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Come on over and see Jesus. I'm gonna wish you adios, auf Wiedersehen, adieu, goodbye. I'm just gonna give you this one last meeting with Jesus.
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This is real hospitality ministry right here. Many tax gathers, many sinners.
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There were many of them. They were coming out of the woodwork. You should find the flashlight in the corner and all the cockroaches just run.
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They were all running to be right by Jesus. This whole group of people in the ship of fools were there to find
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Jesus. These are the outcasts. These are the scum. These are the dregs. Tax gathers, we know about them.
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Sinners, well, we're all sinners, but this word is used to say, you know what? Here's Mosaic law. Here's the 10 commandments.
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Here's what God requires in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc. And these people all just go, so what,
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God? We know you've got a law and I don't care. In your face,
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God, I could care less about you and your laws and what you say. I don't care about Moses in Mount Sinai, Shminai.
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I don't care. I will do the exact opposite. You want me to be holy? I'm gonna be in your face sinner.
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And that's the kind of people we're invited over. It's kind of like this. This is an occupation. You meet somebody, oh, what do you do for a living?
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Oh, I do taxes. These particular people said, when asked what do you do for a living, they said,
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I sin. I'm good at it. Tax gathers and sinners, three times used in this short passage.
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And there were many of them. They were eating together. This is really an intimate thing. It's not just like we think today.
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And then come the mainstream religionists. Verse 16, the scribes of the
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Pharisees, there were Pharisees and there were certain Pharisees who were scribes of the Pharisees, saw that Jesus was eating with the sinners and tax gathers.
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They began to say to his disciples, why is he eating and drinking with the tax gathers and sinners?
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Or how about, why is he eating and drinking with the tax gathers and sinners? Or how about this, why is he eating with tax gathers and sinners?
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You can almost see their faces just turn up like they've got some kind of indigestion and they haven't had a Pepsi lately.
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That's not my notes, by the way. It's effective, I think. They are nose up, looking down, snooty, snotty people.
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And that's what religion always does. Since religion fosters those who don't think they're sinners, when there are real sinners around religious people, they look down upon them.
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By the way, do you notice the text in verse 16? They saw. You think they're gonna come in and actually become unceremonially clean by going in and rubbing shoulders with these people?
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They're just like peeking through the window. I better look because I can't get too close. Look at Jesus in there.
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This is it, this is the last straw for us. Look at what Jesus is doing. Luke 5 says they began grumbling.
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I'm not gonna go inside and get contaminated by these people. After all,
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Pharisee means in the original, separated ones. They had religion up to the gills and they were full of dead men bones.
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Literally, the text reads this way. With the tax collectors and sinners does he eat?
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It is unthinkable, it is incomprehensible. Verse 17, and hearing this,
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Jesus said to them, I'm so glad you're spiritual. I'm so glad you watch
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Touched by an Angel. I'm just kidding. I'm so glad you have a little inoculation of religion, just enough to inoculate you from everything.
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But then he gives this proverb and it was a well -known proverb and it was meant to strike truth into their hearts in a very embarrassing way.
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And Jesus, with these sinners who knew they had no perfection, was kind and generous and ate with them.
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With those who think they didn't have any need of God's righteousness and perfection,
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Jesus blisters and here comes the blistering words. It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.
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I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. If you wanna know what
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Jesus Christ's corporate mission statement was, this is it. It's not those who are healthy who need a physician.
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When's the last time you called your doctor when you felt good? Hey, doc, just checking in with you, feeling great.
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How do you feel, doctor? But those who are sick, what's
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Jesus trying to say? If you don't think you're sick, you don't think you need a doctor. These people
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Jesus is talking in a spiritual way, you think you're good, you think you're perfect, you think you have righteousness, you're not looking for a savior.
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You don't think that your righteous deeds are like filthy garments, Isaiah 64 .6. Doctors go to the physically sick.
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When we hear stories about back in the bubonic plague and other plagues in England, and you think about the pastors and doctors who would go into the bacteria virus infected huts and serve the people and take care of them and then get the sickness themselves,
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I usually think that's admirable, serving others over themselves. So why are these
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Pharisees mad at Jesus the doctor who goes to the spiritually sick people? One man said, for Jesus to refuse to associate with sinners would have been as foolish as for a doctor not to associate with the sick.
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The great physician of the souls is here and they're blasting Jesus for doing it. This is profound, this is an amazing thing.
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Elsewhere, he pulls in scripture in the account in Matthew. Jesus also said to them, but go and learn what this means.
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I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call righteous, but sinners.
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You should have known better, he said to the Pharisees. It is a slap in the face. You are the doctors of the law, you have theological degrees and you don't know this.
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Jesus came to save sinners because the righteous can save themselves. They don't even think they're needing repentance.
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That's why Jesus said in Luke 5, I come to call the righteous, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
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Number six, number six, I think this is gonna be the last one for today. Number six, for those of you that would like to be anxious about how many myths
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I had, I had like 11 or 12. Feel better? I told
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Steve what I was gonna be doing, Pastor Steve, and he said, that's a three -part sermon. I might be able to get what
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I want to say now or we might do it next week, we'll just see. Myth number six, Jesus lived a perfect life only as an example of love.
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Myth number six that this passage can help us with and outline passages. Jesus lived a perfect life only as an example of love.
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Did he live a perfect life? Yes, but was it just an example? And you say, oh, look at how much he loved them. Look at the great martyr -like qualities.
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My question to you this morning is, why did Jesus live a perfect life? Why did Jesus say truthfully in John chapter eight, who convicts me of sin?
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Who can lay one sin to the account of Jesus? Why the perfect life? Why didn't he just beam down on Friday, get crucified and be resurrected
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Sunday? Why the perfect life? Why was he baptized?
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Let's go to Matthew chapter three, back up just a couple of chapters from Matthew chapter five to Matthew chapter three.
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This is gonna help us answer the question, how can we be perfect? We've got sins that Jesus dies for and we're confident of that, but then what about our own perfection?
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It's like we're just back to zero. If here is zero, we're down here as sinful, lower than that.
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Now we have our sins forgiven at Calvary. How can we have perfect righteousness when we're just at zero?
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Ever ask yourself the question, why Jesus was baptized, Matthew 3 .13? I know you know this, but I'm preaching to you what you know.
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That Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him. Remember John the
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Baptist's baptism to renounce self -righteousness, self -sufficiency, to say that you're in fact a sinner.
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But John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you. I'm the sinner, do you come to me?
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Jesus, you don't need to be baptized. The most amazing man who's ever been born from a womb of a woman,
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John the Baptist, says to Jesus, I'm the sinner, you're not the sinner. And what does Jesus say? Verse 15, but Jesus answering said to him, permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to what?
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We're gonna underline those three words. Fulfill all righteousness. Jesus, although he was not a sinner, he perfectly conformed to the law of God so that he might grant his perfection as an infinite
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God to all those who would ever believe. That is to say, Jesus lived a perfect life so he could credit that perfection to us.
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That's why he did it, because that was what the law required. I'm trying to think if I have a hymnal around here somewhere.
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Where's a hymnal? I'm not really good with props. Oh, there we go, thank you.
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I'm not gonna sing. Donald Gray Barnhouse, the man who was the pastor before James Boyce in 10th
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Press, Philadelphia. He wasn't a Christian and he couldn't understand
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Jesus dying for sinners and living the perfect life. So this pastor came to Barnhouse, the unbeliever, and said,
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I want you to put your hand out. Barnhouse put his hand out. He said, this is you,
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Barnhouse, the unbeliever. This is you. Then he took out a hymnal and he put the hymnal on his hand and he said, that hymnal is weighing you down because that's your sin.
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Your sin is on you. You are under condemnation. You are sinful. You can't get it off.
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It's part of your nature. It's part of your warp and woof. It's part of you. It's not that you sin. You are sin.
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Everything you do is sin. You have guilty hands and you can't get that sin off. Then he said, put out your other hand,
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Barnhouse. Put his other hand out. He said, this hand represents Jesus Christ.
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There's no sin on him. There's no hymnal. He lived a perfect life. Even Pilate knew that. Everyone around him, the
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Pharisees tried to catch him in some kind of sin, theological sin, personal sin, moral sin, could not. Here is
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Jesus. Here is you. And because of what Jesus did, what happens? When God saves,
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He takes the sin that is our burden, like to Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, and He places it on Christ.
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He bears it. He bears the sin. And now look, no sins. But something else happens.
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Something else is amazing. It's twofold. Jesus is pure and white and clean and has the garments of salvation that Isaiah would talk about.
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Now the sin is forgiven this person, but he's still not perfect. He's just back to Adam. He's only
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Adam -like before the fall. And so then the twofold purpose of salvation is not just that Jesus bears our sins, but that we bear
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Jesus' perfection. How can you be perfect? You're perfect because Jesus was perfect in your place.
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How can you be forgiven? Because Jesus died in your place. It goes both ways. It's double. God counts our sin against Jesus, even though He doesn't sin.
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And as you've heard many times in this pulpit, God counts Jesus' perfection to our account, even though we've never been perfect.
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When God looks at you, He sees who? Christ. He sees
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His perfection. I will one day be in heaven. And all those who believe will be in heaven. And because you know why?
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We will stand before God. And when God's laser -like sin -piercing eyes approach us, we will stand there.
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With a robe to cover God's wrath, because that wrath won't even be coming towards us. It had already been placed on Christ, so why would
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He be full of wrath twice? He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become, to change the word, perfect in God, become the righteousness of God in Him.
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For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in the life of one,
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Jesus Christ. So then, as through the one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men.
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Everybody sinned because of Adam. Even so, through the one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all.
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I stand up before the kids and say, how many people think they need to be perfect to get to heaven? Not one raises their hand.
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I teach this very lesson. I say at the very end, and I always say to the congregation, not to any kid, unless you're here.
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When you stand before God one day, and you certainly will, life is short, will you be able to stand before God without anything less than perfection?
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When we clearly have just seen Jesus's words say, therefore you are to be perfect, just as perfect as your heavenly
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Father is perfect. We can't do it. The great news is, and I'm happy for this, I can't do what needed to be done, so somebody else had to do it.
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By the way, this is why we sing. This is why we sing hallelujah songs, because when we realize how great our sin is, that's just the reciprocal of our praise.
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We sing well because we have been forgiven much. Let me give you a teaser for next week.
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Myth number seven teaser. God loves you more when you obey, and he loves you less when you disobey.
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If you're perfect here today, positionally in Christ Jesus, you will sin, yes. But God has counted you once and for all as perfect, and rejoice in that.
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Be free. Nothing can undo what God has done. Doesn't matter if you have a job or don't have a job.
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Doesn't matter where you are in life, you have been given that by God once and for all. And if you're not perfect because you're sinful and you've not received forgiveness, today's the day.
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Today's the day I hope one of two things happen. I hope that you either bow your knee and repent and believe in Christ Jesus.
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I heard Lou down at the Cape preach, and he said, look at me, I'm begging you to believe the gospel.
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Or if you won't believe, I hope God will so trouble you tonight when you sleep, you can't sleep.
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I met a man one day, he said, you know, I've been living with my girlfriend for six years.
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I said, living, living together? It's different than living together. He said, oh yeah, yeah, we sleep in the same bed and all that.
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I said, you know what, you call yourself a Christian, but you're sinful. And even though you're not gonna like to hear this, when you lay your head down tonight, if you were to die, you're going straight to hell and you're busting hell wide open.
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The text says, anyone less than perfect will not inherit the kingdom of God, and that includes fornicators and adulterers.
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You might wanna go here, but let me just do what Solomon did with the Proverbs, the way of the transgressor's heart.
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I didn't do it because I was mean. I mean, outside of the pulpit, I'm a fairly nice guy most of the time. That night, that man couldn't sleep.
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That night, that man had an anxiety attack and had to go straight to the hospital because he couldn't catch his breath. Now, here's my question for you.
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Was I loving when I told him that? Are you loving to your friends and family when you just pat them on the forehead and say, everything's okay, it'll all work out?
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And was Jesus Christ loving when He said, you want heaven? Then be perfect.
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Let's pray. Lord, we look to you today as our great God and Savior.
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We are thankful that as a group here and as a whole, we have recognized that we are sinful. Yet you loved us, yet you sent your
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Son for us, your only Son, the Son you love. And Lord, you rescued us, you reconciled us, you poured out your wrath on your
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Son all for us, for your glory and you received glory and we get all the privileges. And Lord, for our church today, we hear the story, you must be perfect because we've experienced it, we know.
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We're thankful that your standards are so high. We're thankful that when we get to heaven, it will be perfect. And Lord, today,
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I guess what we need, I need personally, Lord, is that you would stir these things up in my heart again so that I might experience afresh the joy of my salvation.
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Lord, that we might realize we don't stand before you because of any merit on our own, but because of what Christ did in his perfection.
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I pray, Lord, today that we might be a congregation that would be far from Ephesus, leaving and losing the first love.
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Help us to love you, Lord, because you did first love us. In eternity past when you chose us, at Calvary when
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Jesus died for us, when you made us born again, we thank you for all that. Help us to respond with true praise in Jesus' name, amen.