James Merritt - Rule of Law
Let me begin by telling you a story of something that happened in history that affects us right now. History lesson, in the ninth century, there was an Anglo-Saxon King named Alfred, Alfred the Great. And he did something that no king had ever done before. He totally eradicated every law that was on the book in his country, and he rewrote the entire law code. He grounded them in biblical commandments. Now, aristocratic societies, there were, and everybody expected it to be different standards, legal standards for different people. So if you were rich or you had a famous name or you had political connections, there were certain parts of the law that people felt like just didn't apply to you, but they applied to, maybe you might say, the common people.
Well, Alfred, the great declared, that's no longer gonna be true. He said, these laws of this land will apply to everybody, whether they're rich or poor, friend or enemy, without fear, without favor. Even the king himself, they couldn't believe it. They had never heard anything like that before. That's not the way that it worked. And what he really had done was he had actually declared a, he didn't say it, but the principle became clear. What he really was saying was this, from now on, you've heard this before, no one is above the law. We say that in America today, right? President is not above the law. Senators are not above the law.
You know, nobody is above the law. As a matter of fact, this notion of government's been carried over to our society, which is why the American Bar Association defies the rule of law this way. The rule of law is a set of principles or ideals for ensuring an orderly and just society. Everyone's treated equally into the law. Everyone's held accountable to the same laws. There are clear and fair processes for enforcing laws. There's an independent judiciary and human rights are guaranteed for all. So to put it succinctly, what we believe in this country is, is that the rule of law is a political ideal that applies to every citizen, every institution within a country, a state or a community. And everybody's accountable to the same laws. Even the ones that make the law, they're not above the law. We all like to say, y'all, nobody is above the law.
Now that sounds good, but now we're gonna get honest because most of us end up having a problem with certain laws that govern us. Either there are certain laws that we don't like and sometimes some places, some situations, or we just don't obey it. I'll give you a great example. Speed limit. Now I know there's some of you goody goody two shoes out there. Oh, I always obey the speed limit. Well, I feel sorry for you. See, everything that God gives is good. And God has given us this wonderful creation called cruise control. So every morning when I drive to church this morning, I get on 985, speed limit is 70. I get up to 80 and I set my cruise control. They say, pastor, you know you're breaking the law. I do. Does it bother you? It does not.
As a matter of fact, yesterday, last night as I was driving home from the game and I didn't really care, I was so upset, I passed a sheriff breaking the speed limit. He even waved at me as I went by. He didn't care. Neither did I. And the fact of the matter is, there's something about all of us. We all have this stubborn streak. We don't like certain laws to control us. We don't wanna be under certain rules. We don't want some piece of paper controlling us.
Matter of fact, I read a story the other day at about a man that got pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt. He was coming home from work. So the policeman were, you know, walked over to him and he said, look buddy, I'm just gonna give you a warning this time, but you gotta put your seatbelt on. He said, okay. Well the next day, same time, same place, same policeman pulls this guy over, not wearing a seatbelt. He said, look, I'm really trying to cut you a break here. I'm telling you you've got to wear your seatbelt. I'm gonna give you one more warning, but you put on your seatbelt. He said, okay.
Well third time in a row, same spot, same time, same place, same guy, same police officer pulls him over. He said, you know what? I don't understand this. I don't get it. I don't know what your problem is. I'm writing you a ticket. So he wrote out the ticket, gave it to the guy. He said, okay, I just gotta know, have you learned anything at all? He said, yes sir, I have. He said, what is that? He said, I have got to find a different way home from work.
Now we're all that way. We break the law. We just do. And I hate to break the news to you, but there are biblical laws that we are to live under that we're to abide by, that we are to obey. As a matter of fact, lemme tell you something about the rule of law. The entire world is under God's rule of law. And that's why you have disobedience and that's why you have sin and that's why you have rebellion.
And we're in a series, if you're a guest of ours today, we're in a series we're calling, Get Used to Different from the Sermon on the Mount. I told you where the page in the booklet is you can turn to it. But in Matthew chapter five, we've been studying about all these blessings Jesus is talking about. They're called the Beatitudes. And now all of a sudden Jesus changes the subject, I mean almost abruptly. It's almost before he gets into the meat of the sermon and he says, oh by the way, we need to talk about the law of God. We need to talk about God's rule of law. He says, I wanna tell you how you are to relate to the law and how I relate to the law.
Now to be, lemme just be upfront. When we look at this passage of scripture, I'm gonna put all my cards on the table. This is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to understand. It's one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to preach. I probably worked as hard on this particular message as I will any message in this series. You say, why? Because I wanna make sure that you hear me say what Jesus said, but I don't wanna say what Jesus either did not say or did not imply. And it's gonna change the way some of you think about God's law and the way some of you think about what it means to be right with God and some of the ways you think you've got things you've gotta do to be right with God.
Because if we're gonna be what God wants us to be and do what God wants us to do, Jesus said, then where it all begins is you've gotta have a right understanding of the law of God, how it relates to you, how it applies to you, and how you should fulfill it. Because there are some things you better get right, because if you don't get these things right, you're going to be in big trouble. And Jesus says, when it comes to the law, we're gonna define that in a moment. He says, when it comes to God's law, you better get it right. 'Cause if you don't, you'll be in big trouble.
I came across a document, it was entitled, Great Truths About Life that Little Children Have Learned. And I thought I'd just share a few with you. These are, these are lessons that little kids have learned. No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize a cat. When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair. Some of you know that, right? Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato. You cannot trust dogs to watch your food. That's true. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time. And here's the last one. You cannot hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. You just can't do it. There are some things you better get right?
If you're gonna be rightly related to God, both in this life and in the life to come. And Jesus said, here's where it all begins. You better be rightly related to God's law. You better be rightly related to the truth of God's word. So what we're going to learn today is a very simple lesson. Jesus is gonna tell us when you honor the Lord, you honor the law that the Lord honors. When you honor the Lord, you honor the law that the Lord honors.
We're in Matthew chapter five, verse 17, and Jesus says three things about God's law. Number one, he said, we must honor the permanence of God's law. We have to honor the permanence of God's law. Now, what Jesus is about to say is foundational to everything else he's gonna say in the next two and a half chapters of this sermon. So he starts out right up front and he says, okay, we need to get one thing straight. We gotta understand exactly what he means if we're going to understand what it means to live under God's rule of law. So here's the first thing he says. He says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
Lemme just stop right there. That was a Jewish shortcut way of referring to the Old Testament. So when Jesus talks about the law or the prophets, he's talking about the Old Testament that you and I have from Genesis of Malachi. He says, do not think I've come to abolish the Old Testament. I have not come to abolish them. I have come to fulfill them. Now, what Jesus is actually doing is he is actually preparing what we're about to hear in the Sermon on the Mount by letting us know something. And some of you're gonna pick up what I'm, where I'm going with this. He said, don't you ever think you're unhitched from the Old Testament. I'm gonna say that again. Don't ever get, don't ever think you get to unhitch from the Old Testament.
He is in no way advocating unhitching or discarding the Old Testament as if it has no relevance anymore to who we are and how we live. I've heard people say this so many times. Well, that's Old Testament. Well that's old, that's not new. That's Old Testament. By the way, remember that phrase, the law in the prophets. That was the Jewish way of referring to the entire Old Testament. So let me just begin by teaching you a simple lesson. Okay? We should see the Old Testament exactly the way Jesus saw the Old Testament. We ought to see the Old Testament exactly the way Jesus saw the Old Testament. And without question, Jesus, when he opened his Old Testament, he said, this is God's permanent truth. I didn't come to abolish it.
By the way, that word abolish is a word that means to tear down, make dull, make void. Listen, when you read about Jesus and the gospels, he never said one thing, not one time to every cast one ounce of doubt on the validity and the relevance of the Old Testament. He gave honor to it. He gave deference to it. He confirmed every single word of it.
Now, here's what I want you to misunderstand. What we're gonna learn in the Sermon on the Mount is, but the way it's applied today is different. The truth of it's permanent. That doesn't change. But the way it's applied is very, very different. That's why Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill the law. And that's a very key point to understand not only in how Jesus relates to the law, but how we relate to the law. Jesus said, look, I didn't come to destroy the law. I didn't come to discard the law as something that's no longer relevant.
He said, I also by the way, didn't come to enforce the entire law because the entire law is not always enforced, is not always applicable. I didn't come to be a policeman in your life. I didn't come to say you do this, you do that, you don't do this, you don't do that. He said, look, I fulfilled all of the law. But as you study what Jesus is going to teach us in the Sermon on the Mount, you find out you do it in a totally different way. So lemme give you an example. When Jesus said, I fulfilled the law, what did he mean? Well, I know He meant at least two things. First of all, he fulfilled all of the ceremonial laws in the Old Testament.
So for example, we don't have an altar up here where we sacrifice bulls and goats and lambs. Well, but that's Old Testament. It is. Now the practice of sacrificing an animal is no longer applicable to the church. But the principle of sacrifice is applicable to the church. So we are here today because the lamb of God was sacrificed. So he fulfilled the ceremonial part of the law. So we don't sacrifice animals. Lemme tell you something else. He fulfilled the civic laws of the Old Testament because Israel was a theocracy. We're not a theocracy. We're citizens of the Kingdom of God.
But when you read the Old Testament, for example, when a father died, let's see how well you know the Old Testament. When a father died, who got all the inheritance? The oldest son. We don't do that anymore. Jesus fulfilled that law. There are certain ways you're supposed to dress in the Old Testament, we don't dress that way anymore. There are certain, you know, men were supposed to have beards. You don't have to have to wear beards. You wear a beard or not wear a beard. All kinds are inheritance laws and there's dress, there's food. How many of you like lobster, crab? Okay, anybody here besides me like oysters? Does anybody here like, okay, oysters? Okay. Shrimp, you like shrimp? Couldn't eat that.
How about a good sausage and biscuit? Why do we eat those? You can't do that in the old, no, because Jesus fulfilled those laws. He fulfilled all those laws. And with his sinless life, he fulfilled every moral requirement of the laws. As a matter of fact, Jesus came along and said, you know what? I'm gonna make this easy for you. I'm gonna shrink the 10 Commandments down to two. Just love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbors as you love yourself, you're good to go. You know why he said that? Because if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and you love your neighbors, you love yourself, guess what you're doing? You're obeying every one of the 10 commandments. The first commandment deals with the first four, the second commandment deals with the last six. You are obeying the 10 commandments.
So the late Dr. Timothy Keller put it this way, he said it great. He said, the coming of Christ changed how we worship, but not how we live. The moral law out outlines God's own character, his integrity, love and faithfulness. So everything the Old Testament says about loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, generosity of our possessions, social relationships and commitment to our family is still in force. Jesus said, look, I have come to fulfill the law. He fulfilled the law prophetically.
Every single prophecy about the Messiah in the Old Testament was totally fulfilled. He fulfilled the law practically, not just prophetically, but practically, everything God, that God's law required for a Jew to do, he fulfilled. He said, look, you wanna know how to fulfill the law? He said, here's how you do it. By the life that I live and by what I'm going to teach, that's how you are going to fulfill the law. That's why he went on to say this and this is so important. He said, for truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear. Not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen.
Let me back up. When he's talking about the smallest letter in the least stroke, will by any means disappear from the law. He's talking about the Old Testament, from the law until everything is accomplished. Basically, lemme tell you what Jesus said. He said The Old testament's not going anywhere. Right? I inspired both testaments. Yes, they're joined at the hip. That's right. They both go together. As a matter of fact, Jesus' language is so strong, lemme show, teach you a little Hebrew. I didn't like Hebrew that much. Lemme teach you a little Hebrew. If you ever pick up a Hebrew Bible and you're reading Hebrew words, you're gonna find two little accent marks. This is called a jot. It's like a little apostrophe.
That's what Jesus called the yod. Our English word is jot, okay. It is the smallest part of the Hebrew alphabet. It's just an apostrophe. But that one little apostrophe, you can spell two words the same way, but that one little apostrophe can change the whole meaning of a word. Do you know how many of those there are in the Old Testament? 66,420. Jesus said, not one of those will disappear till heaven and earth pass away. And then he said, oh by the way, even the least stroke, we call that a serif, right? This is a serif you see right here.
See this little bitty part right here? That's a serif. Jesus said not even that part is what it's called. It literally means a little horn. That's what it means in Hebrew. Just a little horn. In other words, here's what Jesus said about the Old Testament. He said, not one dot of an I or one cross of a T will pass away until everything is fulfilled. The Old Testament isn't going anywhere, which is why somebody said it this way. Relying on the New Testament alone makes us one-legged believers. Relying on the New Testament alone makes us one-legged believers. They're right. The New Testament is confirmed by the Old Testament and the Old Testament is completed in the New Testament. They go together.
Now, Jesus goes deeper. He says, number one, we have to honor the permanence of the law. Not going anywhere. But then he says this, he says, we must honor the principles of God's law. Because remember that Jesus, all that Jesus is talking about concerns the Kingdom of God. If you, if you're a follower of Jesus, let me just to be honest with you, you are not primarily a citizen of this country if you're a follower of Jesus. You are primarily, primarily a citizen of the Kingdom. This world is not our home. We are just passing through in a way. We're just sojourners, we're just heavenly immigrants. We're just aliens. We're just passing through. And so Jesus says, let me tell you how you are supposed to live as citizens of the kingdom.
So watch this. He says, therefore anyone that, what's that? Therefore, therefore he said, let go back. Remind you I didn't come to abolish the law. I didn't come to discard us from the Old Testament. I didn't come to kick the Old Testament out. I came to fulfill it. He says, therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly would be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, whatever Jesus means by this, one thing is very, very clear. He's not dealing right now with, well which can commandments do you obey? Or which ones do we not obey? He's not dealing with that right now. What he's dealing with is, so can we just now ignore all the commandments? Can we just now turn our back on all of the Old Testament? For example, one, well-known pastor wrote a book and made this statement, Christians no longer have to obey the 10 Commandments. Now my dear friend, whatever Jesus said, he certainly didn't say that. And he certainly didn't mean that.
Now stay with me. Remember, Jesus said I came to fulfill the law and he has, but it does not mean abolishing, destroying, laying aside, putting away or ignoring law, 'cause here's what you're about to see, what Jesus is going to do in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. He said, let me show you how we're to obey God's law. How we're to obey God's commandments. How we ought to keep the law the way Jesus kept the law. How we ought to interpret the law, the way Jesus interpreted the law and how we ought to follow Jesus' commandments. As a matter of fact, that is what, that's exactly what Jesus said Later in Matthew 28:20. You remember Jesus said, I'm gonna teach you to obey everything I have commanded you.
What is that? That is the way we fulfill the Old Testament law. And the whole point that Jesus is making is look, God still has laws and God still has commandments that are in effect for all time and for all people. So lemme just give you some easy examples. I want you, I want you to kind of interact with me, okay? We should tell the truth and not lie. Do you find that first in the Old Testament or the New Testament? Hello? Hello? Loud. Alright, stay with me. Well, to leave other people's property alone and not steal. You find that first in the Old or New Testament? Well, to be sexually pure and not commit adultery. We find that in the Old or the New? We ought not to take an innocent life. We ought not to murder. We find that in the Old or the New? In the Old.
So not only should we obey and keep these commandments, Jesus said yes, we get these from the Old Testament. We get these from the law. Not only should we keep them, not only should we obey them, we better be teaching other people to keep them. That's correct. One of the most dangerous things a pastor can ever say is unhitch from the Old Testament. Don't worry about the Old Testament, get rid of the Old Testament. You can't do that. You're cutting off literally, literally half of your heart because Jesus said you're going to be judged by how you obey the Word of God or disobey the God the Word of God. And how you influenced others to obey or disobey the word of God.
So lemme just be honest with you. Greatness in God's Kingdom, you better hear this, greatness in God's kingdom is not going to be measured, greatness in God's kingdom is not going to be determined by your gifts, your abilities, your success, your popularity, your reputation or even the size of your ministry, your greatness in the Kingdom, anybody's raised gonna be determined by how many people come to your church. How many people hear you preach? How many people you know know your name. Jesus said, greatness in the Kingdom of God is going to be determined by how you perceive the Word of God. How you preach the Word of God, how you promote the Word of God and how you practice the Word of God. That's how you're gonna be judged.
So you better be right with God's law. And God's law is found in the Old Testament because the most dangerous word that a believer could ever hear, and I've heard it so many times in my ministry, the most dangerous word a believer can ever give or ever say when it comes to the law of God. And the word of God is this little word, but. I can't even tell you how many times I've counseled the people and I've tried to advise people and I've tried to help people and I hear them, they'll say this, well, I know what the Bible says, but. Every time I hear that, I interrupt them. And you know what I say to them? You just lost me. You, I can't help you because what you've learned, you want to just but the Bible all over the place. You don't wanna do what it says, you don't want to obey it. You wanna but it all over the place.
And by the way, no wonder that we have a generation that either doesn't believe in right or wrong or many times can't even tell the difference. I heard about a student that was going around the campus of a university. He was wearing this big lapel button with the letters BAIK. And somebody walked up to him and said, Hey man, what does that mean, BAIK? He said, that means, boy am I confused. The guy looked at it and he said, don't you know the word confused is spelled with a K? He said, buddy, you don't know how confused I am. Well, no wonder when you hear uncertain trumpets blowing in a pulpit, what do you expect out of the people. When you've got pastors who come up and say, you don't have to do this. Don't, you don't have to worry about this.
You know, as a matter of fact, there are certain principles and certain commandments we are to keep and we're to teach other people to keep. So again, as a reminder, Jesus said, look, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now guess what will happen when you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and you love your neighbor as you love yourself. Guess what will happen? You'll be sexually pure. You won't cheat, you won't lie. You'll be honest. You'll honor your parents. You won't be jealous. You won't covet what other people have. You won't want take somebody's life. Why? Because you're keeping the law that God gave.
Now knowing all of that helps us to understand the next statement that Jesus is about to make. So this one, you better buckle your pew belt right now. You better buckle your seatbelt right now. 'Cause Jesus said one last thing. He says, we must honor the purpose of God's law. Now I want you to watch this. Go back 2,000 years ago and you're, and I've been there. I hope you get to go with me sometime. It's beautiful. One of the most beautiful place. One of my favorite places to go, Theresa and I love to go to where the Sermon on the Mount was preached. It is gorgeous. You're up on this little hillside and the sea of Galilee's, you know, down at the bottom. It's so quiet. It's so, they have a chapel up there. It's gorgeous. It's kind of a natural amphitheater.
I want you to imagine you're in that crowd of five, six, seven, 8,000 people. No microphone, 'cause you don't need one. And Jesus is preaching this sermon. People are spellbound. And Jesus comes to this next thing that he says. And he's already got everybody's attention. And the people that are really honing in are the Pharisees in this Sadducees 'cause they've heard about this upstart from Galilee. They've heard about this guy that's, nobody's been like, we've never seen anybody, we've never heard anybody like this guy. And they're micromanaging every word that he says. And he gets to this part and he talks about the law. He says, don't you think I've came to a abolish the law, I came to fulfill it.
Now I guarantee those religious Pharisees, those Sadducees, those kings of legalism, they would think, well maybe this guy's pretty good. Maybe he's one of us. Maybe he's okay. Maybe he's on our side. He's telling them to obey the law. And then Jesus drops this bomb. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I'm gonna tell you a thrill. Jaws hit the ground. Jaws hit the ground. Are you kidding? Do you know what Pharisees do? If anybody's going to heaven, they're going to heaven. You know, sometimes I skip out and I go to the lake on Sunday. They don't ever go to the lake. I don't always give a tithe of my income to the God. They always give a tithe to theirs. So I slip and I say a bad word I shouldn't say.
Last night thrill, I just want you to know, I didn't say one bad word, but boy did I think some. I sometimes drink too much. They don't ever drink too much. I want my boy to grow up to be like a Pharisee. I want my daughter to grow up to be like a Pharisee. And Jesus says, lemme tell you something, unless your righteousness succeeds their righteousness, you will never enter the kingdom of God. 'Cause you know what he just said to those Pharisees, you're not getting in either. And I mean everybody was going, what in the world is going, you talking about sucking the air out of the room? You talk about a collective gasp, you could have heard 'em. I mean you could hear grass growing because the Jews had a saying.
You know what the Jews said? They said if only two people go to heaven, one will be a Pharisee and the other will be ascribed. But you talk about being religious and rigid and reformed and righteous and dotting every I and crossing every T and crossing and keeping every rule and never disobey, never going even one inch over the speed limit. That was the Pharisee. You could count on them. They'll be in church on Sunday. They would've read their Old Testament during the week. They'd have spent their time on the street corner praying. They'd make sure they gave their money to the church. And Jesus said, that's well then that's good. But if your righteousness doesn't beat that, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.
Oh by the way, they were so much into keeping the law. You know what they did? They went beyond the law. They added 248 commandments, 365 prohibitions, 1,521 amendments. And they kept every one of them 'cause they got this idea that I wanna disabuse you of today. They thought the way you are right with God is what you do for God. The way you're right with God is what you do on the outside. And then Jesus comes along, says, nope. If that's all you got, your tank is empty. Matter of fact, years later, the Apostle Paul who was a Pharisee, he used to feel exactly the same way. The Apostle Paul who thought at one time, I know I'm going to heaven. I know I'm right with God. I know I'm good to go 'cause I am a Pharisee. I dot the Is. I cross the Ts and thank God I'm not sinners like you.
And that same Apostle Paul wrote these words since they, he was talking about what he used to be what they are. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law. That's what he said. I fulfill the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. And see, here's what the Pharisees didn't understand. This is what a lot of Baptists don't understand. It's what a lot of Catholics don't understand. It's a lot of Presbyterians don't understand, a lot of Lutherans, a lot of Protestants and a lot of Orthodox. This is what a lot of people don't understand. Righteousness is not a matter of law. It's a matter of grace. Righteousness is not what you do for God. It's what God does through you. It's what God does in you.
In other words, the Pharisees thought righteousness is a matter of the hands, you, do right. Righteousness is a matter of the head. You think right. Jesus said, no. Righteousness is a matter of the heart. You are right. Righteousness is not what you do. It's what you are. And it's what you are that could cause you to do what you do. See, if you think of righteousness in terms of religion or ritual or doing things the right way, at the right time, you would not have found anybody anywhere more righteous than the Pharisees and the scribes. So when Jesus said, you better be more righteous than they are or you are sunk, then we better call timeout and say, well wait a minute.
Evidently what you mean by righteousness is not what they meant by righteousness. Evidently what you meant by righteousness is not what a lot of church people think about righteousness. And evidently what you said about righteousness is not what a lot of Baptist and Catholics and Presbyterians and Episcopalians and Lutherans. It may evidently is not what they think about righteousness. So what are you saying? Because Jesus was not saying, you know what, you gotta beat them at their own game. Tell you what, you wanna beat the righteous of the Pharisees? They go to church once on Sunday. You come back Sunday night. He didn't say that. You know what the Pharisees, some of them got baptized by sprinkling. You get baptized by immersion. He wasn't saying that. So you can't beat 'em at their own game. He said, you gotta see righteousness in a totally different way. So now buckle up.
Listen carefully. The Pharisees, if you watch them on the outside, if you just looked at their life, you just said, good gosh, of course they're righteous. I follow them around I, I sneak up on 'em. I'd look through their windows. I can't ever find them messing up. They don't have any pornography stashed under their bed. They don't have a fifth of liquor up in their cabinet. I mean they, they really keep the law. They fulfill the letter of the law. And Jesus came along and said, but here's the problem. The problem is they keep the letter of the law, but they don't keep the spirit of the law. It's in their hands. It's not in their heart. What Jesus was saying was this, unless your righteousness goes deeper than theirs, unless your righteousness is a righteousness not of the hands, not of the head, but of the heart, you'll never enter the kingdom of God.
Now that raises a question. You say, well wait a minute. What does that righteousness look like? Well that's what we're gonna start talking about Verse 21. Because all the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, everything Jesus is gonna tell us, he said, this is what it looks like. It's not a head righteousness. It's not a hands righteousness. It is a heart righteousness. Because here's what you're about to hear. We'll pick this back up next year. But you're gonna start hearing Jesus say this over and over and over. You've heard it said, but I say. You've heard it said this is what the Pharisees have told you. This is what the scribes have told you.
This is what certain pastors and preachers have told you. But I say. And it is gonna be mind boggling what he says, 'cause see, here's the point. You can take a pig outta the pigpen. You can wash that pig until it's spotless. You can spray it with the finest perfume. You can put a pink ribbon around its neck. You can put it in a tuxedo. But the first chance that pig gets, you know what that pig's gonna do? Go right back to the slop. Do you know why? 'Cause you changed the pig on the outside. You didn't change the pig on the inside. You changed the pig in the flesh. You didn't change the pig in the heart. Somebody well said, never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig. Can't do it.
So in effect, here's what Jesus was saying to all those religious hypocrites, those pharisees, now you could see the steam coming out of the top of their head. Are you telling us we're not good? And Jesus looked at them and said it's worse than that. I'm not telling you you're not good. I'm telling you you're not good enough. And you'll never be good enough on your own. Because all of your goodness is just like filthy, rotten, stinking rags before a holy and a righteous God. So you're right. It's not that you're not good, you will never be good enough because listen carefully, goodness does not come from the law. Goodness comes from the Lord.
Who gave the law, who fulfilled that law and through you can help you keep the law like you should. So here's the point I want to, I want you to hear me carefully. Our focus is not on the law. It shouldn't be. It's on the Lord. Our love should not be on anything but the Lord. 'Cause when you place your faith in the one who's fulfilled the law and still wants to fulfill the law through you, God's rule of law will no longer be your enemy. It will be your friend. In other words, what Jesus was saying was this, the Pharisees had a righteousness on the outside that came from themselves. Real righteousness is what you have on the inside that comes from God. You have one or two kinds of righteousness. One works, one doesn't.
Some of you, here's your righteousness. It's what you do on the outside and it comes from you. But real righteousness is who you are on the inside that comes from above. That's the difference. That's why Jesus said, unless you're righteousness exceeds theirs, you will never enter the kingdom of God. So lemme tell you what that means. So somebody says, well a Christian doesn't have to obey the 10 Commandments. If you mean by that, you don't have to obey the 10 Commandments to be right with God, you're right because you'll never obey the 10 Commandments. But here's what the truth is. It's not so much that a Christian has to obey the 10 Commandments. You want to obey the 10 Commandments. Because the Jesus that fulfilled those 10 commandments wants to fulfill those commandments through you.
So the law's not your enemy. The law is your friend. I've told people many, many times, and I'll tell you this and we'll be finished and I say it and I don't think sometimes you think I mean it, but I do. But I hope you understand now what I mean. The only thing good about me is that Jesus lives in me. You take Jesus outta me, can I tell you what I am? I'm a lustful adulterer at times. You take Jesus outta me and let somebody pull in front of me on 985 and I'm pretty much angry enough to kill somebody. You take Jesus outta me, I could cuss like a sailor. You take Jesus outta me, I'm just a jacked up sinner. The only thing good about me is Jesus lives in me. And when you give your life to Jesus, here's the pressure that's off of you from now on. You're not right with him because of what you do for him. You're right with him because what He's done through you. That's why you're right.
So let me close with this. Let me close with this. We'll be done. You've been patient and thanks for coming. Thank you so much. The Chinese language is very unique. And the way they they spell words is through pictures. So when you're looking at a Chinese word, you're actually look at, they're drawing pictures. This is so beautiful. Do you know what the picture of the word righteousness? Do you know how they draw? Write the word righteousness in Chinese. You ready for this? The picture of righteousness is a lamb that's over a person. They put a lamb on top of a person and that's their word for righteousness.
Now I'm gonna give myself a Christmas present early. If you don't mind me doing that, do you? In fact, I'll give it to you too. This is gonna sound so arrogant. This is gonna sound so prideful. Just stick with me. I am a righteous dude. I'm a righteous guy. I really am. Well, I'm a righteous guy. You know why? I got a lamb covering me. I got a lamb that covers me. So when Jesus sees that filth that's sometimes in my heart and Jesus hears the thoughts that you don't hear me think. And Jesus hears the words I say when nobody else I think is listening. And Jesus sees the way, sometimes maybe I get jealous of another preacher, another church. He doesn't see that. He sees a lamb that's covered me with his blood. That's what it means to be under the rule of law. 'Cause you're under the one who gave it, who wants to fulfill it through you.
So for some of you today, this is my message to you. Quit trying and start trusting. There's some of you here today, you live under guilt every day of your life. You know why? Because you just don't measure up and you know it. You can't. Quit trying. When you come to Jesus and you surrender your life to him, he takes your filthiness out and puts his righteousness in. And so from now on, when he looks at you, what does he see? A righteous person. Why? Because you're always righteous. No, because you're not. Because you always get it right. No, because you don't. But he always gets it right and he always is. And he's the one who lives in you. And that's why I wanna invite you today. If you've never given your life to Jesus, I just wanna invite you to do that right now. Just sitting in that chair right now. You could do what I did when I was nine years-old. Just tell God what he already knows is true.
I'm a sinner. I'm not righteous. I'm filthy. I don't deserve anything you have for me. And yet, in your grace, you want to give me all of you. That's why you sent Jesus to die for my sins, raised him from the dead, to give me hope and assurance I could be right with you. So today, Lord Jesus, I repent of my wickedness and my sinfulness and I surrender my life to you. I trust you as my Lord. I receive you as my savior.
I believe some of you right now, you're looking at me and you prayed that prayer in your heart. You did just now. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do one thing, just one. When this service is over, there's a table out in the lobby. It's called Next Steps. You can't miss it. When you walk out to that table, when you walk out to the lobby, just go to that table. And I just want you to tell somebody at that table. You know, today I gave my life to Jesus. I gave my life to Christ.
Last week, a little 9-year-old girl came up to me with her dad. He says, I just want you to know my little girl's got something to tell you. She said I just want you, I prayed with you and I asked Christ to come into my heart. Maybe that's you. So I want you to go out to that table. I want you to tell somebody out there, Hey, I gave my life to Jesus Christ today or I accepted his righteousness into my heart. Or maybe you've never been biblically baptized.
I wish you could've seen that sweet girl baptized just a while ago came, when she first came here, she had nothing, knew nothing. Christ radically changed their life. Christmas Eve, I'm gonna be baptizing. I would love to baptize you Christmas Eve. It be a great Christmas gift you could give to Jesus, your baptism. That's a part of just being righteous, of just doing what he wants you to do. So I wanna pray right now.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I just wanna thank you for your word. I wanna thank you that I don't have to try to fulfill your commandments anymore 'cause you've already done that. But I want to fulfill them because I know you will fulfill them through me. That's the important thing. I thank you that my righteousness does exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I thank you that I know I am going to enter the kingdom of God. I thank you not because of what I do for you, what you have done for me, and what you do through me. Thank you. What a Christmas gift to us. In Jesus' name. Amen.