WWUTT 1952 Be Perfect, Part 1 (Matthew 5:48)

In Matthew 5 48 Jesus said you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

Well that sounds impossible and indeed it is. For man this is impossible but all things are possible with God when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete equipped for every good work.

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. Well as I quoted there at the top of the segment we're looking at a single verse today in Matthew 5 48 and this concluding our study of chapter 5 in the

Sermon on the Mount. I'm going to play a sermon that I did a couple of years ago on this very verse and I'm going to split it into two parts.

So you're hearing part one today and then part two tomorrow. A sermon on just Matthew 5 48.

Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

And we're looking at a verse here that really summarizes everything that we've considered in Matthew chapter 5 thus far.

As Jesus has been going through the law with various you have heard that it was said statements.

Some of those things straight out of the Old Testament. Other statements had been morphed or warped by the

Pharisees or they had quoted it correctly but applied it in the wrong way. And Jesus gives us the right understanding of God's law and how we are to live.

Remember the theme for the Sermon on the Mount is to understand the commands that have been given to us as citizens of God's kingdom.

These are the laws of the kingdom of Christ. How do we live in God's kingdom?

Every kingdom has laws. Well Jesus the king himself is telling us these are his edicts.

Here's how he expects his subjects to be. And it would be impossible for us to live up to this standard if not for the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us.

Here is part one of the sermon entitled you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

In the word of our Lord as recorded by the Apostle Matthew Jesus said you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

Remain standing as we pray. Heavenly Father as we come to this word this morning

I pray this is not something we just brush quickly past. That we think to ourselves well that can't even be attained.

So why even aspire to that perfection? Only God is perfect which is most certainly the truth.

So we seek Christ who is the author and perfecter of our faith. That we may have the righteousness of Christ and stand before God holy as you are holy.

We ask these things in Jesus name and all God's people said amen. Thank you you may be seated.

Well I am NOT Tom Buck and this is not Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 18 as it says in your bulletin.

Pastor Tom has asked that I not go on in the Sermon on the Mount and so I'm respecting that and we will not.

He's gonna be preaching on that section next week so instead of looking forward we're gonna be looking back.

That last statement that last verse that Pastor Tom read last week hit me particularly hard.

It does every time I read it. I don't know about you but to hear

Jesus say you therefore must must be perfect as your

Heavenly Father is perfect. Can we do that? How can we attain that?

How can we aspire to this perfection? Who is perfect? And surely you're already sitting there and have even whispered as I asked the question saying no one no one is perfect yeah you can go out and you can you can talk to complete atheists people who don't even believe in God who don't believe in the

Word of Christ and they will tell you nobody is perfect. This guy standing up here behind this pulpit

I'm certainly not perfect never have attained this but have often pondered it have often felt convicted by it.

What does it mean to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect? And even as I've pondered it coming into the sermon this morning

I will continue to reflect upon this for the rest of my life.

That is the righteous requirement of God in order to stand in his presence in order to come into his kingdom you must be perfect as he is perfect.

God said to Israel you must be holy as I am holy. Peter repeats that to the church in 1st

Peter you therefore must be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy. If we want to come into the kingdom of God we must have perfection and this is not some ambiguous statement for Jesus even gives the comparison you must be perfect as God is perfect without stain or blemish.

Righteous, holy, perfection and we must have that to be with God.

What's the alternative? Well imperfection what is the result of that? Separation from God even worse than this hell itself the wrath of God poured out forever on those who could not be perfect.

That terrifies me it scares me to therefore come to the feet of the master and say

God what must I do to be perfect?

You know that you can't be perfect the world will tell you that you can't be perfect. Jesus has told us here that we cannot be perfect as we even reflect upon what has been said in the

Sermon on the Mount up to this point we're only a third of the way through it we've been through one chapter we've got chapter six and seven to go we could get to this statement and be discouraged from even listening to the rest of it.

Well I have to be perfect and I know that I can't be so what is the point of listening to the next two -thirds of what it is that Jesus has to say when

I can't even aspire to this? Jesus has gone through the law thus far in the

Sermon on the Mount and he has pointed out the things that we have failed at time and time again.

He has said you shall not commit adultery repeating from the law repeating from the

Ten Commandments there were surely people that were there going well I've kept that law I've never slept with anybody who's not my spouse so therefore

I've kept the law I'm perfect and Jesus says

I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Ooh suddenly I realize I have not kept that law as well as I thought

I had Jesus said you shall not murder repeating from the

Ten Commandments there were surely people there that thought to themselves well I've never done that I've never killed anybody

I've kept that law therefore I can say I'm perfect Jesus said but I tell you if you've even hated your brother it is as if you have murdered him in your heart if you even call him a fool you are guilty of the fire of hell and suddenly

I realize I've not kept that as well as I thought even if there was some way that in my mind and in my body

I could resolve to keep these things for the rest of my life all these things that Jesus has laid down going to the commandment in the

Old Testament talking about how the Pharisees had twisted this to mean something else and then he gives the right teaching even if I were to pay attention to the right teaching and I were to do everything that Jesus has said for me to do

I still wouldn't be perfect and I'm not just talking about well in your mind you're still gonna fail there's gonna be times you're gonna try to be perfect you're still not gonna be able to do it

I'm not just talking about that let's say I could do this let's say I could keep everything that Jesus has said for me to do up to this point

I still wouldn't be perfect why not because I've already failed do you understand what perfection means it means you cannot ever have erred at one point in your life

Adam and Eve lived in the presence of perfection they lived in a creation that God had made by the utterance of his own voice man and woman that he formed with his own hands and he looked at all of his creation and he said behold it is very good and yet even in the midst of paradise

Adam and Eve found themselves not content

Eve listened to the voice of the tempter she took some of the fruit

God told them not to eat she ate it handed it to her husband he also ate and their eyes were open and they recognized they had disobeyed

God they realized they were naked and they were ashamed that was the first sin we refer to that as the original sin and it was because of that sin mankind was driven from the presence of God one sin and we were forever stained and could never be with God again because of the curse and the sin nature that had come upon Adam everyone born from him from that point on would likewise be imperfect as Adam had become imperfect stained incapable of being with God to stand in God's presence then at that point would have been certain death for as he is holy and we are not to stand in the presence of such perfection would kill us as God even said to Moses no one can see my face and live for God is that holy and we are that much not to ever be in God's presence again we needed mercy but I tell you it's even more than this we needed a

Savior for someone needed to take the righteous requirement of the law upon himself he needed to keep it perfectly and then die for us shedding his blood on our behalf so that through him we might once again attain the perfection of God as Jesus says this year as he says you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect he is the one who is perfect as his heavenly father is perfect and it is by faith in him that by God's mercy we can have the righteousness of God 2nd

Corinthians 521 says for our sake he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him

John MacArthur explaining that passage says at no point in Jesus life or in his death was he ever sinful he was pure and spotless and undefiled so therefore what does this mean to say that for our sake he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him

MacArthur goes on to say only this this is what that means that Jesus in his death

God looked at him on the cross and looked at him as if he had lived my life and then by faith in Christ God looks at me as if I have lived

Jesus life that is the righteousness of God the perfection of God imputed to us we have a borrowed righteousness given to us by faith that we might become the children of God and as John says in 1st

John 3 so we are we have become the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ Galatians 220 says for I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer

I who live but Christ who lives within me and the life I now live in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me so to know now that we have the righteousness of God means more to than just will will good

Gabe thanks for sharing that with me thanks for telling me that now I have the holiness the righteousness that perfection of God standing in his presence by faith in Jesus Christ thank you for letting me know that class dismissed there is something that is being required of us here there is something that we must do and in fact that is what

Jesus is exactly saying this is the implication of everything that he has said up to this point where he says you therefore means in light of all that I've just said there's something that you must do and what is it you must do you must be perfect as your

Heavenly Father is perfect and we know that we won't be right but we must desire that perfection and we must pursue it the

Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 3 it's not that I'm already perfect but I desire to make it my own for Christ has made me his own there are some who will teach a doctrine of what is called entire sanctification this idea that we can attain perfection on this side of glory at some point

I don't really know in this particular doctrine how they know that they've gotten there is you just wake up one day all there

I am I'm completely and perfectly sanctified and now I'll live the rest of my life out in this perfect sanctification until I go and meet with God in glory

I had a friend of mine that I used to minister with we used to minister to high school kids together over lunch on Tuesday he was a youth pastor at a

Nazarene Church Nazarene is one of those denominations that believes in entire sanctification and he and I had a conversation about this one time and I asked him have you ever seen anybody who is entirely sanctified and he said well no and he said but I want to be and I said amen brother me too

I want to be entirely sanctified and he said but you don't think that we will be that we can possibly be entirely sanctified on this side of heaven and I said no

I don't and he said well how do you know that and I said well because what the Bible says

Paul also to the Philippians Philippians 1 6 I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ when we enter into that holy perfection of God then we will be entirely sanctified in the meantime we cannot get there now but we aspire to we aspire to because God loves us and gave his son for us and so if we love

God we must do what he asks but knowing this wonderful blessed grace that though we may stumble and fall in that attempt to live in perfection

God is gracious to us and will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness turn with me please to 1st

John chapter 2 let's go to 1st John 2 now part of what

I just mentioned to you is right there in verse in chapter 1 verse 9 1st John 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us that's verse 10 now look at what we read in chapter 2 1st

John 2 starting in verse 1 my little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the

Father Jesus Christ the righteous he is our advocate what does that mean that Christ is our advocate an advocate is one who speaks favorably on behalf of another so imagine this right now as Christ is your

Savior if you are a follower of Jesus Christ Jesus is speaking of you favorably before your

Father who is in heaven even if we sin even if anyone does sin

John says we have an advocate with the Father that we may not lose hope that we may not despair

Jesus said be perfect I'm suddenly I'm not perfect I've failed I can't ever see

God good news is we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ who is our righteousness let's stop there we'll finish the second part of this tomorrow heavenly

Father we thank you for the kindness that you have shown us for we were certainly not worthy of you we were what we deserved was destruction the judgment of God upon us for the rebellion that we had committed against Christ and against your law but you have been merciful to us you gave us your son as an atoning sacrifice to die for us to rise again from the dead so that by faith in him we are clothed in his righteousness that we may be perfect as our

Heavenly Father is perfect teach us to walk in your ways we ask in his name

Amen Pastor Gabe is the author of several books and Bible studies available in paperback or for your e -reader for titles and more information visit our website at www .utt