“Just As Your Father in Heaven”

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 5:48

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Well this morning we complete chapter 5 in Matthew where we've been working our way through the
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Sermon on the Mount and We picked up with verse 43 two weeks ago, and then
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Greg preached for us last week This morning. We are going to really just look at verse 48.
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I'll read for us in a moment verses 43 through 48 48 of course
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Complements verses 43 through 47, but really I think it goes a little beyond that and I want to use it
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Therefore as a way not only to summarize So much of what was seen beginning in verse 20 these six antitheses that Comprised this righteousness that must exceed the righteousness of the
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Scribes and the Pharisees and so not only does Jesus in some ways give us the display of kingdom righteousness
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The kind of righteousness that will belong to those who know him and walk in his ways
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But also he is introducing and bridging this whole idea of holiness in light of his father the revelation of the father and it's also bridging us into the next chapter into chapter 6 where We start to see maybe more of the practical impact of this righteousness
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Over against hypocrisy or doing things for show all the things that will begin with in chapter 6 next week
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So Matthew 5 beginning in verse 43 You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor hate your enemy, but I say to you love your enemies
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Bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you
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That you may be sons of your father in heaven For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust
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For if you love those who love you What reward have you do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you greet your brethren only
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What do you do more than others do not even the tax collectors do so? Well, remember that Jesus is pressing the law to its full breadth to its full extent
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He has not come to overturn the law but rather to establish the law to clarify and make clear what
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God has required of course this idea of Loving God and loving neighbor or how
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Jesus himself summarizes the law in Matthew 23 This is the first and great commandment
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and the second is like it
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments Hang all the law and all of the prophets now as we said two weeks ago.
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This does not flatten out the love command in other words the the special command in John 13 that Jesus says is a new commandment that we love one another in other words
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We have a sibling like love in the house of God that doesn't flatten out that love
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It doesn't flatten out what perhaps is a new word That's coming into vogue
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Ordo amoris the order of love as our vice president pointed out over this past week too much hoo -ha and avail
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This doesn't flatten out love But it does challenge us It doesn't flatten out love but it does challenge us and to the degree that we're comfortable with that last antithesis to Love those that spitefully use you and persecute you as the father loves
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And we're just not hearing what Jesus is teaching God's people Finding themselves in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation are meant to shine like lights in the world salt and light in the world
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Holding fast to the Word of life as we said two weeks ago This means we don't paint a Christian veneer over the same crooked and twisted ways of the world over the world's hatred
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Cruelty and spite it means that for believers. There's no eternal death wish even upon the gravest enemy
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Somehow even in a thirst for righteous judgment Even in the Saints on high their cry and revelation how long o
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Lord how long till our blood is avenged? there is not a in absence of the humility of pity
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Somehow even the thirst for justice contains a hope of mercy and Jesus says this is because God himself is merciful now moving to verse 48 in the immediate context verse 48
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Belongs to verse verses 43 and following There's not at first glance a reason to view it or treat it separately
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Especially when we look at the parallel with verse 45 look at the language that you may be sons of your father in heaven
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Verse 48 therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect Again, we have that shared context
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To be loving in the way that God is loving to be full of mercy and the way that God is full of mercy to Be a child of the father who lives in heaven
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So that's the immediate context. This is about the father's will to embrace sinners the command to love our enemies corresponds to God's love to his enemies his
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Patience his long -suffering the fact that the rain still falls and the Sun still shines
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But in the broader Context we go beyond verses 43 and following and we see that this
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Pointing to the father actually comprises everything from verses 20 and beyond Jesus again is presenting the exceeding
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Righteousness with God himself as the center and standard of it all Just as my father in heaven is perfect.
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So you must be perfect Now that's clearly beyond just loving your enemies That's also dealing with anger dealing with lust dealing with dishonesty dealing in integrity dealing in mercy
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This is what it means to have the righteousness that corresponds to our Heavenly Father Let me remind you of the words of Martin Lloyd -Jones.
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I mentioned a couple weeks ago again He's driving home this image that sons are like their fathers children are like their fathers
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Lloyd -Jones Did you notice the way our Lord puts it? I?
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Say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that spitefully use you
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Persecute you why that you may be like God know That you may be children of your father
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God has become the father to the Christian. He is not the father of the non -christian.
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He's God to them Nothing else the great lawgiver and you cannot see it any other way to the
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Christian He is your Heavenly Father and If he's your father if that divine nature is in you and has entered in you by the
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Holy Spirit You cannot be like anybody else. You must be different. You must be like your father
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In other words that the focus is not on as we said attaining a relationship
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It's not becoming a son. That is the emphasis it is being like a son.
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That is the emphasis It's on imitating and sharing the characteristics of the father
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This is how Jesus presents the exceeding righteousness of the kingdom It is those characteristics and qualities that are like the father in heaven
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Now when you start to look at holiness in the logic of Scripture you find that it's often connected to sonship
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It's often connected to imitation of the Heavenly Father. Let me just give you a few examples 2nd
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Corinthians 6 Paul's going to use a few different metaphors to describe why these believers in Corinth are
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Different than they were in the past are different than those around them. What has made them different?
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well, the first metaphor he gives is they are a building a Dwelling place of God's presence you are he says the temple of the
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Living God as God has said I will dwell in them. I Be separate says the
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Lord don't touch what's unclean and I'll receive you now notice this metaphor It's from the quotation.
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I will be a father to you and You will be my sons and daughters says the
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Lord Almighty In chapter 7 right after this therefore having these promises beloved
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Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh perfecting holiness in the fear of God You See there's this filial reverence
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We know God no longer as God the austere lawgiver But God our Heavenly Father and by coming out from what is unclean by living in a separate way
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God is saying you show yourselves to be my sons and daughters. I Will be a father to you in this very way.
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He is saying Or again Ephesians 5 1 more simply therefore be imitators of God as dear children
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You see we imitate God as his children This is a great encouragement holiness runs in the family of God.
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This is the family trait You know, every family has certain quirks and traits You don't know what they are until you start to see eyebrows and eye rolls and weird glances at dinner.
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What are they doing? All sudden you realize oh, I think that's a trade
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I guess other families aren't like this Well, the trade in God's family is holiness
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The holiness that comports with the father's holiness. In fact, the father is so faithful to as it were
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Bring us in to this Aspect of his character to this quality of his being that he chastens us and disciplines us
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So it will be more and more like him. It's not the argument of Hebrews 12 Remember the whole context whom the
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Lord loves he chastens and the writer of Hebrews saying don't despise the chastening Look at the end.
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Look at what it's accomplishing in you. Don't despise it Whoever the Lord loves he chastens verse 9 Hebrews 12 furthermore.
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We've had human fathers that chastened us We paid them respect indeed They chastened us for a few days as it seemed best to fit them
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But he does it for our profit that we can be partakers of his holiness So you see the point holiness?
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Is that which makes us like the father Jesus makes that clear
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Paul makes that clear The writer of Hebrews makes that clear as we'll see later this morning.
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Peter makes that clear Holiness is often connected to the idea of being like the father
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Da Carson, I don't always agree with him in his studies in the Sermon on the Mount But this is a marvelous summary of where we've ended now in Matthew 5
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Jesus authoritatively makes plain the demands of the kingdom how they stand in relationship to the
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Old Testament The common demand is holiness Perfection All of the
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Old Testament laws are rightly understood only when interpreted in light of this Overwhelming concern doesn't that ring true?
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Some of you are it's already February now Some of you are crawling your way toward Leviticus in your daily
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Bible readings. What's the concern of Leviticus? Holiness Perfection that which is without blemish without spot that which is whole that which is clean that which is apart from all that is
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Against God or away from God So the common demand throughout the Old Testament laws holiness perfection the emphasis then this is
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Carson is on transparent purity Imitating the father's perfection
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Which utterly precludes all hypocrisy all spiritual sham all paraded righteousness all performed duties
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That's exactly where we're going in Matthew 6 Therefore Jesus says you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect So let's begin at the end of that verse really just two parts this morning
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The first part is to look at the perfection of the heavenly father And then secondly to look at the perfection of his children
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In what way are these things the same in what ways are they different? Let's begin with the end of the verse the perfection of the heavenly father.
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Jesus says your father in heaven is perfect Your father in heaven is perfect Now what does that word perfect mean?
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This is part of the struggle part of the debate about this passage Matthew 548 well the word the word means
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Perfect in the sense of whole in the sense of complete It can also and is also translated elsewhere as mature
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Seems unlikely that that would be a good translation for God God is not one who can mature.
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He is who he is. There is no development. There is no growth There is no prospect of change or transformation.
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He is pure being And so in that sense mature doesn't apply to God but certainly you get the idea of what what is maturity its completion
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You were immature. You were incomplete and you became whole you became mature you became perfect Perhaps not in the connotation we bring to it, which means without spot perfectly pure.
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That's what we mean by perfect There isn't a single flaw That's helpful, but again only in so far as it helps us understand perfect as whole as complete
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The interesting twist on that is that the Greek word here to lay us in the Greek translations of the
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Old Testament we do find that word when it's talking about a sacrifice that is whole a Sacrifice that is without blemish is a perfect sacrifice a complete a whole a spotless sacrifice
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So all of this is part of the discussion What is Jesus quite getting at and we're beginning at the end for a reason your father in heaven is perfect He is without spot without change without Disfiguration without degrees.
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He's whole he's complete. He's perfect and Jesus would have us consider his father
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This is something we're going to see again and again throughout the Sermon on the Mount in months to come Jesus would have us reflect on the father
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Now the father would have us reflect on his son and the spirit would have us reflect on the father and the son
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There's always this mutuality in the display of the Trinity's glory But Jesus where we are in Matthew 548, he would have us reflect on the father the father being that From which all is derived the fountain of being is a way that the ancient
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Believers would speak of God the Father the fountain of all that is made through the agency of the
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Son by the Holy Spirit by that perfecting work of the
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Holy Spirit all of this we see even from the very first pages of Scripture and Jesus would have us dwell on him on his holiness as we see here in Matthew 548 on his power on his glory
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As we'll come to see later in the next few chapters of Matthew. We're meant to be moved by this
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You get the sense that the Pharisees were all comparing their holiness their righteousness with their traditions with one another with various schools of interpretation and thought with what rabbinic authorities were maintaining the law to demand and get the sense that their law -keeping was very horizontal and Jesus Cutting through all of that like an exacto knife says let me tell you the standard.
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It's not what Shema It's not will Hillel. It's it's not what Gamaliel. It's not what any rabbinic authority would say.
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It's not the squabbles It's not the hedges around the law. It's not the traditions of men. Let me tell you what your standard is It's your father in heaven.
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You'll be like him. That's the standard of holiness A man is never as Calvin says in his
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Institutes man is never sufficiently touched Never sufficiently affected by the awareness of his lowly state
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Until he has compared himself with the majesty of God if there's ever been a sentence that feels entirely
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Impossible to us It's that we must be as perfect as God himself
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Doesn't that seem entirely impossible? Doesn't that see out of reach entirely to you even just between now and lunch
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To be as perfect as God himself is perfect We're meant at first glance to be bowled over by that claim be perfect like the father
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I think it was FB Mario had this old story of visiting a parishioner in Scotland and There was it was a winter time and she had her clothes hanging out to dry or freeze and it was snowing
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And so when the minister had first come he noticed the clothes hang on the rack and they were bright white and he was Commenting on that, you know how marvelous those white linens are
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And then as it began to snow and as they visited and as he was leaving he looked again
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And he saw that now what seems so white and that sort of drab gray and brown background Now that that was all covered over with snow.
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It seemed like those linens were actually kind of yellow and gray themselves And so he pointed that out.
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You say notice that it seems so white until the snow came and gave it a contrast and The woman wisely said nothing can compare with the
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Almighty's white Nothing is pure like the Almighty is pure All of all righteousness looks like filthy rags
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When we compare ourselves to God's righteousness when we think of the completeness the wholeness the perfection of God We're talking about a being whose essence is without limitation.
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That's what infinite means He's infinite There is no limitation to who he is
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As the Creator rather than the creature he's immeasurable in his being immeasurable
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We cannot quantify him. We cannot contain him not with syllogisms not with dogmatic statements
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He he's always breaking down the boxes that humans erect to try to understand and comprehend what is in himself incomprehensible
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We grow we mature God does not For eons
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God is the same yesterday today. God will be the same forever He cannot be any more than he is his perfections are infinite and eternal
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God's perfection in this way is the very bedrock of what
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Jesus is getting at Your father in heaven is perfect Now God's perfection in in reformed theology has usually been treated in terms of what we call a saty.
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There's a big word AC a se it why a saty it means God is of himself
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He's self -derived There's nothing that he depends upon for his being There's nothing that he utilizes in order to be we derive life from God.
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We are dependent upon him God depends upon nothing. He is of himself This is in part what it means to be uncreated or to be independent.
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He's complete He does not need in the way that we need air we need all of the
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Limit, you know numberless functions that occupy every millisecond of our bodily life
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We're entirely dependent upon him. We live we move we have our being in him, but he is of himself
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He requires nothing to be God is absolutely perfect as the theologian
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John Owen said whatever is of perfection is of him Otherwise, he could not be self -sufficient
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Eternally blessed in himself. He is absolutely perfect. There is no lack of perfection in him
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He is comparatively above all that we can conceive or apprehend of what perfection is
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There is no perfection quite like the perfection of God Every analogy every human metric falls short
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Only God is like a God As Psalm 147 exclaims it great is the
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Lord mighty in power his understanding is infinite And if you look at Psalm 147, it's just this 20 verse refrain of he is he is he is he is
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It's giving you all the things you ought to praise God. It's helping you reflect and adore the father
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But what is that? Where does that might where does that greatness? Where does that infinite understanding go?
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It's beautiful Psalm 147 does this Great is our Lord mighty in power. His understanding is infinite.
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And where does that all go? He lifts up the humble Now we're understanding something about the character of God It's not just the vastness of his might
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It's not just the plumless depth of his greatness. It's not just the infinitude of his wisdom It's that in his character.
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He is such that he exalts those who are brought low He casts the wicked down to the ground, but the
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Lord lifts up the humble We see the same thing in Psalm 18 Again, Psalm 18 giving us all of the ways that we can recount the greatness and glory of God But where does that all go
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Psalm 18 David writes as for God his way is perfect The word of the
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Lord is proven. He's a shield to all who trust in him Who is God except the Lord who is a rock except our
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God it is God who arms me with strength He makes my way perfect You see what
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David's doing there God is perfect his way is perfect my way not so much
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But even though I stumble he's been my shield and as I trust him he is making my way perfect This is sort of a pre -new testament way of talking about sanctification here in Psalm 18
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And notice this is how Jesus himself is reflecting on the father. My father is perfect And as you're humbled and as you trust upon him, he'll make your way perfect you must be perfect Just as he is perfect Now this all brings us to the adoration of the glory of God and this is something
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I even last week when I was in New York something I reflected on and in preparing for that and It's something that has really been a longer reflection as Greg and I have worked our way through a couple books over the past year on on CS Lewis and one of the chapters that we read a few months ago really stuck out to me and I've been dwelling upon it and And Lewis is so helpful because he's getting at the heart of adoration and this is dealing with prayer more specifically
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But I'm just going to take a step back and tell you where I've brought that reflection For Lewis, it was very significant that We do our best in all of the opportunities that God gives us to hold
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The imminence of his glory with the transcendence of his glory in other words the nearness of God with how completely above and beyond us
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God is What makes God near close what makes God far? unlike apart from and this is the very heart this is sort of the two -piston engine of adoration imminence and transcendence nearness and distance
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So I take that into Psalm 19 Because for Lewis a big a big thing is that we we don't and this is my language here
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But we don't approach God like brains in a glass jar Here's what the logician can detract about God Here's what the dogmatician can infer about the being of God We essentially become brains in a glass jar and all that matters is logically crisp statements now now
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Propositional statements matter inferences matter. Please don't misunderstand me, but we are more than brains
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We are more than logical syllogisms We are embodied images of God and in that sense that the the sensory experience is vital to our ability to reflect upon and Be moved by the perfections of the
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Father our sights our taste our sense of smell physical sensations physical pleasures the joy of experiencing and encountering and Partaking of all that surrounds us
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All of this is part of what God himself has given us that he may be understood.
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Let me just give you quick examples Okay, Psalm 19 You know
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Psalm 19 this great Psalm and the first half of the psalm is all about God the Creator and the second half of the psalm is all about God the lawgiver the first half of Psalm 19 is about what we call natural revelation the revelation of God's glory and all that he has made and The second half of Psalm 19 is about special revelation.
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In other words God's self revelation in his word Now what we tend to do is go yada yada yada to the first half of Psalm 19 and then really stand upon special revelation
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Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course to to kind of take that first step when we're witnessing to sort of build up apologetics
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We have to talk about God the Creator. He's known by all that he's made But let's get to special revelation really quick And we tend to only use
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Psalm 19 or as we'll see Romans 1 when we're dealing with apologetics So I want to take a step back and say
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How do we apply Psalm 19? How do we apply Romans 1 just in terms of devotion?
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Just in terms of adoration not as sinners on the way to understanding God, but as believers in God reveling in him
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Adoring him Psalm 19 and listen to the listen to the words here.
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I'll try to articulate what I want to stand out You'll notice that these verbs and if in a few now a few nouns
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We're all about communication Almost as if you had a scroll that you were reading about God But the scroll is creation itself.
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Listen Psalm 19 beginning in verse 1 listen to these verbs the heavens declare The glory of God the firmament shows his handiwork day unto day utters speech night unto night reveals knowledge
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There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard Their line has gone throughout the whole earth their words to the end of the world
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What do you notice about this language? It's treating creation as a text
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It's treating creation as a liturgy It's treating creation as lines and words that are revealing knowledge and uttering speech something that's declared something that is being shown
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And that's just creation In other words, the glory of God is always on display always in reach the psalmist says taste and see the
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Lord's goodness He doesn't say study and summarize the Lord's goodness You should do that, too
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But do it with some Bartlett pears and a nice cup of espresso taste and see that Lord is good
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Romans 1 20 another text we often only deal with it as the first step on the Romans road
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We deal with it in terms of apologetics defending the faith get us to special revelation.
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Wait slow down What is Paul saying here in Romans 1? Since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen
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He's tying this all into creation He says because of creation The attributes that are invisible are now clearly displayed.
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That's psalm 19 1 through 6 Being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead So that they are without excuse because all they although they knew
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God they did not glorify him. We could say adore him As God nor were they thankful You could say again
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Thankfulness gratitude adoration and gratitude. They became rather futile in their thoughts their foolish hearts being darkened
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Again, what's taking place there in Romans 1? God as Creator has made the world and the world in a sense is like reading about who
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God is What we cannot see we can understand. There's a declaration.
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There's a speech. There's lines that are going throughout the world We even understand his power his eternality his
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Godhead. And what does that prompt in us? Not just unbelievers on the way
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Read this positively adoration and gratitude Adoration and gratitude and so we're filled with thankfulness rather than being futile in our thoughts
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We adore and magnify the wonders of the perfections of the Father rather than let our foolish hearts be darkened
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Adoration in this way finds that every day is furnishing us with ways that we can reflect upon the perfections of the
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Father that we can Glorify his wonders. You know what the hymn says in the rustling grass. I hear him pass.
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He speaks to me everywhere We're just usually too busy too distracted too selfish too self -consumed
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Too anxious to notice that he's speaking to us everywhere That everything you've ever touched and held embraced put in your mouth put on Experienced sensations of temperature all of these things are channels by which you can adore and be thankful to God This is what
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Lewis is so good at saying. He makes this distinction between adoration and Thanksgiving He says when we give thanks as of course we should our focus is always in some sense on the gift
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You see that with With children, right? What was it two months ago now? Christmas morning all the gifts are open and what are the children do?
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Thank you, and they don't even look at you They open and it's like thank you and they're off with the toy in some other room
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They're just thankfulness is look at this gift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I can't wait to dive into this gift
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What is adoration? Adoration is when we turn our attention from the gift to the giver
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That's adoration So this is what Lewis says Gratitude exclaims how good of God to give me this that's gratitude but adoration says
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What must that quality of God be like if His far -off and momentary glitterings are as magnificent as this
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He says one's mind then runs from the
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Sun beam all the way back to the Sun itself That's what adoration does
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That's what Jesus is doing when he tells us your father in heaven is Perfect.
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So let's talk about the perfection of God's children Jesus says you shall be perfect.
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Oh This idea again of perfection wholeness Completion that which is without blemish and we find that this is not something new that the law itself made this proclamation very clear
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Leviticus 11 44 and 45. It's repeated in Leviticus 19 I am the
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Lord your God You shall therefore consecrate yourselves. You shall be holy because I'm holy
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Neither will you defile yourselves for I'm the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God You shall therefore be holy for I am holy again
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You find the same language throughout Leviticus 20 be holy for I am the Lord your God that's the idea be holy because of who
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I am if you belong to me if you're called by my name if you're children of My household then you must be as holy as I am holy
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You must have something of the traits and the character of who I am So the core of the Christians holiness is
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God's holiness notice again. It's always connected to familial language first Peter 1 as obedient children
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Not conforming yourselves to the former loss as in your ignorance But as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all of your conduct because it's written be holy for I am holy
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And Jesus says be perfect for God is perfect and again that word perfect When it pertains to God, we can't understand it as mature if that implies development or change
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And so perhaps Jesus is allowing there to be a slight differentiation.
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He uses the same word, but maybe he uses in a different way You shall be perfect That already is implying something of a transformation something of a process you shall be
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It's a command, but I think it implies the kind of transformation that belongs to maturity your father is perfect In other words, there's a different meaning relative to the believer versus relative to God I wouldn't press this too hard But I think there is some development and we're looking at some really stylized
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Teaching here in the Sermon on the Mount if we think of perfection as spotless and pure that in this life
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It's impossibly out of reach Whereas maturity implies growth a moving toward that completion
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This is a really the argument of Bill Mount and I and I agree with it It could be he says that Jesus goal is out of our reach on this earth as goals often are
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However, this runs the risk of exasperating his disciples because they'll always be struggling and striving to attain something
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That cannot be attained in this life. That doesn't really seem to be what Jesus is getting at I think again we begin with our imperfection our incompletion and end with God's perfection with God's completion
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You shall be what he is. You're on the way to being what he is
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Our father is perfect. His children will grow and develop to look more and more like him
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We see this all the time, right? We we have babies at all different stages all different seasons and early on it seems like week by week by week
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They change so much Different every week sometimes different every day They get toward the toddler years and you start to see something sort of solidify
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Oh now I can see I can see some of the resemblance And they get to a certain age on their way toward maturity and now it's the spitting image
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So our father is perfect. His children are to look like him. He is what we shall be
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And this means in light of everything we've seen in Matthew 5 so far. We examine our hearts by his standard
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We look at anger lust deceitfulness hatred by God's own character
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We then pursue by his grace and obedience that comes from the heart that manifests itself in the roots of our life
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Not in the things that can be paraded for show as we'll see in Matthew 6 that now here's the issue if God is not the standard
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Then we are the standard That's the issue if God is not the standard then we are
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What right do you have God says to declare my statutes take my confidence in your mouth you thought
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I was altogether like you When we don't begin with the perfection of God and as it were from that look vastly beyond all of life
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Every aspect of our lives to that inevitable perfection of God if it doesn't begin and end the whole life of sanctification
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We're probably making God into our own image and we're probably making sanctification into something comfortable and convenient for us
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So many in this world make God like the Divine Grandfather who just winks at their sin Sanctification then is as long as I'm good with it.
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God must be good with it as long as I'm okay with it God must be okay with it We become the standard of holiness
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Our own perception our own Projections of what God must be like then have to be rebuked as he does you thought
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I was like you But I'm not like you Jesus says no he's perfect So we don't worship a
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God of our own making made in our own image the God of moralism the God of moralistic therapeutic deism as the phrase was coined a
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God that makes me feel good a God that is my life coach a God who wants to take the steering wheel if God is not the standard we are or like the scribes and Pharisees we
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We pick and choose what commandments we want to obey we put a hedge around the ones that we want to obey the ones that we're able to obey and The ones that are difficult to obey or that we don't want to obey or that we feel that we cannot obey
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We simply disregard. Yeah, that seems unreasonable to me. No, thanks. I Don't really like that commandment.
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Yeah, no all set We pick and choose Jesus likens this to tithing mint swallowing camels looking at the weightier matters of the law with this casual laxity and Then being obsessed and fixated upon the minor details of the law
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Adolf Schlatter, I mentioned him several weeks ago from his devotional. Do we know Jesus and on Matthew 548?
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He's reflecting on this He says this mindset it reasons like this. Well in this way,
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I'm bound in this way. I'm loose Now I have to obey God now I can do whatever I want
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The Pharisee has this mindset Jesus tells him no The Heavenly Father is perfect complete whole
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He does nothing piecemeal he doesn't tolerate anything done halfway You want to dissect
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God's commandment into all these little manageable fragments? It does not seize all of you.
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It does not control your thoughts. It doesn't move your will it doesn't subject your life to itself
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And this results in you doing things halfway and with your half way you are your own master one moment
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You're fearing God, but the next you are godless This is what happens when we don't begin and end with God as our standard if God is not the standard we are our own masters or We make someone else our master someone else our standard
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Now when that sentiment is okay, it looks like imitate me as I imitate
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Christ that's a good way of using one another as Milestones on the way toward holiness good examples faithful examples to be followed
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But when this sentiment goes wrong, it sounds something like this bouncing around in your cerebrum
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Well, they do that. So it must be okay Well, they don't have a problem with that.
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So why should I have a problem with that? You should have a problem with it because God is the standard not any other believer
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God himself the Heavenly Father who is perfect is the standard now inevitably this mindset begins with Imitation, what can
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I loosen up on? What can I be like and it will still be okay. They're counted as a Christian So if I live like this,
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I'll still be counted as a Christian to quiet down conscience Quiet down rebuke and exhortation from the word
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It must be okay if others are doing it and the Heavenly Father is no longer the standard it begins there
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But where does it end now? You've learned how to scrutinize every other believer around you Anyone less holy than you are right now at this time is lawless.
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They're not holy like you Anyone who on the face of it is more holy than you legalists through and through You have always arrived at the perfect balance
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Never a legalist Never lawless wherever you are, though. You're changing week by week and month by month is the perfect balance
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You see that's because you're making yourself or others your standard rather than God himself and If God is the standard that begins to fill your life with such adoration and gratitude that you become
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God like Means you can't scrutinize. You can't scowl. You can't be jealous of you
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Gossip about other believers that you're constantly comparing with yourself or against others Means you'll be full of mercy patient long -suffering appreciative
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Means you look with charity. There's a certain simplicity about your faith And I hope you've met believers like this.
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I certainly have Believers that just have a simple happiness in the
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Lord. They're not positioning or posturing. They're not trying to measure up They're not trying to put a sort of cold wet blanket over other attempts to strive toward holiness.
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They're just They're just at peace with the Lord and at peace with men they're happy they're always about the
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Lord's work There's a sense of ease about their life of joy about being in the kingdom even in the midst of suffering and hardship
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This is most likely a result of having God as the standard God as the source God as the core of their life of holiness
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Not themselves. Not anyone else but God himself So we have to avoid drifting that great
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Line from da Carson. He says people don't drift toward holiness You don't take your foot off the gas pedal and coast into holiness
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Apart from grace people don't gravitate toward godliness prayer obedience scripture faith delighting in the
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Lord that this takes work drifting only leads to compromise Laboring faithfully being diligent striving seeking using the means of grace hungering and thirsting after righteousness
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These are the things that lead toward holiness, so you can't drift toward holiness But you also can't arrive at holiness
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Not in this life not yet, which means there needs to be a perpetual longing after holiness
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And it's a difference between what you shall be and What God is the space between that is the believers longing
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The space between that is the cry come Lord Between that space is
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Paul in Romans 7 saying who will deliver me from this body of death. I Give thanks to my
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God through Jesus Christ my Savior That's the space between those two So there's this longing as Spurgeon says you cannot be perfect, but you must want to be perfect God when will you so transform me that I'll no longer struggle in these ways
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When will you so purge and cleanse and sanctify my mind my heart?
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My mouth my hands my feet, but I'll be more like you when will I no longer struggle?
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When will I no longer have to bear this cross when will I no longer have to crucify the flesh? Rage and and war against the world the flesh in the devil
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It's a longing that corresponds to the perfection of the Heavenly Father and then with that it's a growing a
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Believer, that's longing is growing You know a plant sprouts and it's longing to burst through the soil to receive the
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Sun It's longing to burst through and as it were expand its roots to saturate all of that flowing water
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To soak up all of that sunlight to feed and feast upon the bounty of God's weather
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And that's what a believer is like longing leads to growing Growing is longing longing is growing in that sense.
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Peter says grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ So this means in some sense though you strive though you seek though you long you certainly don't muster up within yourself
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Holiness is not the way to Christ Christ is the way to holiness
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So longing after Christ receiving from him Finding yourself within him.
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This is what leads to holiness. This is what leads to growth This is what will perfect you and complete you even as the
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Father in heaven is perfect now that we have to make sure in all that we've said about the law in the gospel that We close
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Matthew 5 this morning having grasped. What is the same about the law and the gospel and what is completely different We've said as we even introduced
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Matthew chapter 5. We spent some weeks talking about the law gospel contrast And that is a contrast that ought to be sacred to our understanding of God's Word And I was reading even this week as I was looking at references from Matthew 5 48 this this great
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Excerpt from a sermon of James Durham James Durham whose book you can find it online for free
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Reprinted the unsearchable riches of Christ It was a series of 14 sermons that he preached in this one particular sermon
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He's talking about the way that the gospel in the law reflect upon God's Perfection God's standard
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God's demand and he says this It is our design it is our desire
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It's our endeavor to be purifying ourselves even as he himself is pure. That's 1st
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John 3 The gospel requires holiness in as large an extent as the law
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So that whatever is a sin against the law is also a sin against the gospel Because Christ did not come to abolish the law everything we saw in Matthew 5
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This is not a different righteousness, this is what the law has always held forth
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Jesus the lawgiver is clarifying is manifesting what the law requires
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It requires holiness in the same degree The gospel commands us to be holy as God is holy.
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That's what first Peter's doing He's quoting Leviticus and saying this is for you Christian The authority the obligation that lies on us and binds us to holiness is not less in the gospel than it was in the law
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In fact, we could actually say the obligation is even greater in the gospel But how do they differ?
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All right, the righteousness isn't watered down. God doesn't say well, I'm sending my son now. I'll begin to grade on a curve.
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No Your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you will be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect But how do they differ the gospel does something that the law can never do?
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The gospel takes in the repentant Even though he has not been perfect, even though he has not been holy.
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He is pardoned through Christ. That is something the law does not do The gospel not only calls for a duty like the law, but actually gives strength for the duty through Christ The law gives no strength
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It gives out the word of command. It requires men to walk in the strength that they only have in Adam the strength of the fallen one basically
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So although the authority and although the obligation is the same
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The manner could not be more different if there is any breach or failing in the life of a person the law says
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You will surely die But the gospel says repent
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Come to Christ He took for you the curse of the law. So when we think about Being like the father who is perfect We recognize all of this hinges upon the gospel
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God does not require what God does not perform. God does not ask what God does not give
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One day we'll be like the father Perfect complete whole as we were meant to be true images true reflections of God and all of his perfections
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Not like him in his divinity, but like him nonetheless One day we'll be like the father, but as we see through the gospel, we are like the father through the
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Son by the Spirit So when you're reading
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Matthew 5 48 And you read you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and you pause and you think
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That is the most terrifying verse I've ever read in my whole life. I could never be like my father in heaven
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I'm so unlike my father in heaven What can stand up against his holiness the most humble man on the face of the earth
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Could only look at the afterglow of it as he hid in the cleft of a rock. What hope do
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I have? I'm definitely not the most humble man on the face of the earth. I Can't manage two hours of perfection
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How am I going to live a life that is pronouncing his perfection at every time at every turn in every season
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I hope you see the whole answer and this is where the whole gospel of Matthew is going is that you must have an
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Advocate you must have a substitute. You must have a sacrifice Jesus himself must be your righteousness
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The one who faultlessly obeyed his father's will and so as you grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ He continues to to perform this work that he's begun in your life
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It's his work It's his salvation. It's his redemption He carries it on from one degree of glory to the next because you will be like the
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Father through the Son by the Spirit to the glory of God and If you're his child adopted by his will
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Through the atoning death and resurrection of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit as C .S. Lewis said in mere
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Christianity He will make the feeblest filthiest of us dazzling radiant immortal
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Pulsating through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as now we cannot imagine a bright
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Stainless mirror which reflects him Perfectly. Amen Let's pray
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Father. Thank you for your word Thank you for your precious promises.
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Thank you for your son Who you sent in this world to be a sacrifice for us?
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So that by your own grace and the work that you have done through your son by your spirit
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You will continue to perfect us Lord You will grow us in your grace and in the knowledge of Jesus That we will be more and more conformed to his image not of ourselves, but Lord of your spirit
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So that no flesh can boast But that all flesh can bend their knee Can confess with their tongue that you alone are
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God Father we pray that we would adore with thankfulness all the things that we experience encounter receive from your hand
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Every good thing that comes from above is of you Every good and gracious gift every perfection.
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Forgive us Lord Even as believers we find our thoughts can be futile. Our affections can be darkened
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We don't look around and live and inhabit this world in a way that Automatically corresponds to your glory in the ways that it should
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Help us to perceive something of the invisible attributes of the Godhead and all that we see in encounter
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May this erupt into praise and joy Adoration and gratitude may these things stir us in our life of sanctification
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Lord We would not take everything that comes from your hand for granted, but Lord whether blessing or trial we will embrace it as The wise disposition of our
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Heavenly Father who is perfect and who gives all that he gives so that we too like him will be perfect and Help us
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Lord with great longing in our lives to grow for we long to see Jesus and seeing him To be made like him
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We pray Lord that even in this room and even beyond this room Lord with some of the people that Seem to be interested in seeking you that there would be a longing to know you a thirst a hunger
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To be saved by the Living God to enter into his courts with praise to be in communion with him
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Lord, these are the very desires of our heart. May you grant them for your own glory. We pray in your son's name.