ROMANS: Do Rule Followers Go to Heaven?

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

This morning, we're going to continue on in our study of the Book of Romans.

If you haven't been here in a while or this is your first time, uh, welcome.

We are uh we're going through the book of Romans verse by verse and not skipping any, um, which means that around 2020 we will find a new series.

So look forward to that.

Um this morning we're gonna be in Romans 2.

Uh last week Neil brought us all the way to verse 16.

Neil is uh is doing a men's retreat uh for uh a I don't know if you sister church for friends of ours, so obviously it's a sister church, but um friends of ours.

And um last week he brought us all the way to verse 16.

Uh it's my pleasure to walk us through verse 17 all the way through the end of chapter two.

And if you're familiar with this, if you've read this, and and even if you haven't, as you begin to read, you're gonna see law a lot.

You're gonna see the word law, and you're gonna see it in the in the letters and the instruction that Paul is writing to this church here in Romans.

I grew up in church.

I I wasn't I wasn't a believer until I almost got out of high school, but I grew up in church and I grew up in gospel teaching churches.

Um but there was a whole lot of law in those churches, and and I was young, and so I don't want to, with the gift of hindsight, pass judgment because I I don't know the intention there, but I know as an impressionable kid, as an impressionable youth, I heard a lot of rules.

I didn't hear a lot about Jesus, but I I heard a lot of rules, I heard a lot of laws, I heard a lot of do this, don't do this, and um and it began to shape, and I don't want to put my perception on you and my experience with that growing up on you, but it put um it put my perception of the Lord, it put my perception of the gospel and the kingdom uh more on me and what I could do to earn my own salvation instead of what God had given me.

Um and so I think some of us might walk into the room and might open up God's word with that understanding and and and and that that that that that set of clothes on this morning.

And so I'm pausing before we get in, and this is a little bit different than what we normally do here.

We normally jump right in.

I'm pausing and just want to take a moment to begin to shape our view so we can all be on level ground as we look at law and we see um Paul, the author of this, his intention as well as the Lord's intention in this.

The law is is not a bad thing.

Um, it is it is given by the Lord.

Now, we are not necessarily a theologians say under the law, but that doesn't make what God has given us any less of a blessing.

But the law, when understood well, can be a beautiful thing.

This scripture, don't turn there, it's gonna come up on the screen.

You can keep your finger in Romans because this is gonna come up.

Psalm 19, 7 through 10.

And let this be a picture of how beautiful the law is when it's understood well.

Psalm 19, 7 through 10.

The law of the Lord is perfect.

Or we can just stop right there.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord's is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord's are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The rules of the Lord are true, all righteous and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

Now when we read these words, we hear that the word of God and the law of God is perfect, and it is good, and it is complete, and it is better than gold, and it is sweeter than honey, and then we hear that we're not under the law.

I want to draw your attention, and these won't be on the screen, but you can read with me.

Um we get to Romans six, we'll read this.

For sin will have no dominion over you.

This is Romans 6, verse 14.

Romans 6:14

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace.

And we'll unpack that a little bit more this morning.

In Galatians 3 16.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.

Because Christ didn't come, as many churches teach today, to do away with the law.

No, he came to fulfill it and to complete it, and to bring our life completeness and fulfillness and purpose.

But here's what I believe, and here's what um I'll submit to you before we read these verses and walk through the four points that I feel like the Lord wants to show us this morning out of Romans chapter 2, uh, verses 17 through 29 is um I submit this that we like the law.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

And we we talk about that we don't, but we like it because it's about us.

We get to, in this world of the freedom of Christ, if with the law, we get to generate our own behavior.

We get to make amends for our own sin and the decisions we've made.

We we took a uh Lance Neal and I, we we tried, we started this um last April.

We're trying to take uh uh a planning retreat every semester, and we go and we plan through, like we plan through Advent, and then what we're gonna do in January as we walk through the core values of the church all the way up through the month of May.

And so we outlined Romans when we're gonna be in Romans, and we got to this portion, and so I want to give Neil credit.

We got to this section, and he said, I think you should call it do rule followers go to heaven?

And I kind of wrestled with that a little bit, and I was like, I like that.

So I want to give Neil credit for that.

What I won't give Neil credit for, because he'll come in from out of town, or y'all will text him during the service, and this might get me uh excommunicated as an ordained minister of the Baptist church, is um now this is this is a blanket, cheesy question, but I'm trying to get you participate with me, so maybe you'll follow and when the lights go off, you don't walk out.

How many of you like music?

Yeah, that's a dumb question.

Now, if you uh now how many of you are affected by music?

You hear a song and it hangs with you, or maybe you got that sentimental, you got the junior high dance, don't go back too far now.

How many have songs that you really like that you're embarrassed to say?

My wife's not in here, so I'll call her up.

Remember that uh Michael Martin Murphy song of Wildfire?

Oh, she will belt that bad boy out.

Uh mine, my song is uh Glenn Campbell, Lineman for the County.

That song, man, it hits that first steel guitar.

I need to pull over, I get a little weepy, I'm gonna be honest with you.

And so I say that I like I like the full spectrum of music.

I wouldn't consider myself a rap fan, per se, uh, but I do like rap music.

So hang with me.

Some of you already dimmed your lights.

All right, hang with me.

I want to introduce you to a guy.

Uh, his picture is gonna come up on the screen behind me.

His name is Lacrae.

Lacrae is um young man who dies, about my age, a little bit older.

Um this is the most influential person that many of you have not even heard about.

Um, Lacrae is a believer in the Lord, loves the Lord, loves the Lord's word, and loves to see people come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ is.

And God has given Lecrae a platform that many of us would never have.

That's because of his upbringing, um, where he came from, living in the urban culture, um, from his life experience.

God can turn all things good and has done amazing things with Lecrae.

Um and so Lacrae has taken this mantle of leadership seriously.

He's brought some guys under him, he disciples him.

Um as he was discipled in the Tommy Nelson program that some of you are familiar with up in Denton.

Uh many of these guys are going to seminary all over the country.

They get together and they do concerts and they do outreaches, and it's just incredible and worldwide now doing stuff.

And this might um this might mean confirming to some of you, and this might be like, uh, you confirmed everything I thought, and I'm done with you.

Uh but um even even uh the top secular rap artists are saying this is the most influential thing to ever happen in Christianity, is this guy's album that came out a few months ago.

Um and so here's what I want to do is he has a song called Misconception.

And he's brought some of these younger guys in, and he's discipling them, he's training them up, he's sending them to hear um uh really wise things from smart dead guys at seminaries and in schools, and for them to understand their theology that they're putting out in front of other people.

And 68 seconds, that's all I ask of you.

Can you handle 68 seconds?

And so when the lights go out, don't walk out, Scott Wingard.

I got my eye on you.

All right.

68 seconds, and the words are gonna be on the screen.

You gotta read fast.

Remember, it's rap, all right?

So you gotta read fast.

So we're gonna be a little warm-up with a little bit of the chorus that'll come, and then uh, and then just apart from one of these guys named Odd Timothy that raps with him.

So you guys read this along with me.

You probably have it all figured out, right?

Like you're the type that believes that if you act right, then that just might make you right, just in God's light.

You've been a really good person, you follow the good book as much as you could.

You probably didn't vote church as much as you should, but it's all good.

I mean, you never really killed anybody, never really steal from anybody, you never lost much good touching of any bodies.

You never use the word name in vain, you respect your favor.

You try to make deeds of your enemies and God's anger.

You really believe that you could receive God's favor by your good deeds and my behavior.

You can never win God's approval of the removal of simple discretions.

Your righteous acts of removing God's wrath is in fact the biggest misconception.

Misconception.

Don't deadly habit that's a lack of.

Everybody over here do this?

I'll leave your brain stimulated.

So here's here's why.

Because this letter that Paul is writing, and this section of this letter that Paul has written, this is this is exactly the lifestyle of I can create my own future, and I can be a really good person.

And I can I can I can achieve eternity with God in heaven.

And look at me.

We can live our whole lives and be really good people and completely miss it.

And so let's read this together.

Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Verse 17 through 19.

It says this.

But if you call yourself a Jew, if you've got a pen, underline that.

Because if you look back at verse 16, he said, good people.

Remember, he was talking about good people when Neon was talking last week.

Now he has stepped it up and he's he's he's drawn the microscope in a little bit closer, and he says this.

But if you call yourself a Jew, and you rely on the law and boast in God, and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you were instructed from the law, and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you then who teaches others, do you not teach yourself?

While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

You who say one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law.

For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

For circumcision is indeed, for circumcision indeed is a value if you obey the law.

But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you, who have written code and circumcision but break the law.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God.

And so this morning we asked this question do followers go to heaven?

I think these verses uh point us to four answers.

Do rule followers go to heaven?

Instead of four points, I'll give you four answers.

I know none of them apply to anyone in here, but for the sake of spiritual exercise, we'll do the answers just the same.

Amen?

Amen.

I think the first one is found in verse 17 and 18.

Do rule followers go to heaven if you don't miss it?

If you don't miss it.

And here's what I mean.

Read verse 17, 18.

It says, but if you call yourself a Jew and you rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law.

I had you underline where it said Jew there, because Paul has made the transition from good people to Jew, and there's some discussion about what he means by Jew there.

I think that if you if you keep reading, here's what you're gonna find is that he's talking about those who obey the law.

That's the purpose of this.

And what is this law?

What is this mosaic law?

Just imagine a life of memorizing and obeying 618 laws.

Let that sink in for a minute, right?

We can't even remember what the speed limit is on 1464, so the DPS guys are having a field day out there.

618 laws, social, moral, nothing wrong with the law.

Remember, we talked about there's nothing wrong with the law.

Neil thinks he has uh kind of uh cornered the market on growing up redneck.

I grew up just as redneck, all right?

I grew up working on a ranch and doing all the country things, and when I went off to school at Texas, I know I see that game yesterday.

I promised the first service people I would work it in.

I didn't get it in the first service.

I'm sorry.

Um I uh I my my my wife said I had more jobs than Craigslist uh growing up, but um my my job and and probably the best job to help me pay for school and and and really develop my work ethic was I worked for uh an incredible Christian man um who owned his own fence, deck, arbor business type thing, and we did um a little bit of everything.

Um and it got to the point where I got to the end of school and he had made me a job runner for him.

It was basically me and I I could go out and I could bid jobs for him and I could I could run the cruise and kind of design what we were gonna do.

And we were working on um there's a little town called Carlos.

If any of you are familiar with the drive from Huntsville to college station, you know Carlos, the flashing yellow light.

Don't don't uh don't speed through there.

Um and uh there was a man who had his huge ranch right there on the Brazos River bottom, and he wanted to have a front yard, and so we were gonna go out there and build a little fence for him.

So I went out there and I spec that and was feeling pretty good about myself and came back and told my boss I got it, so he's gonna come out the next day and check it.

And I remember him walking out, I remember this like it was yesterday, and this was 10, 12 years ago, and I remember just coming out, just putting his hands in his pockets and just and crushing me with not saying a word, and uh and and what I had missed was this guy had been struggling um with all kinds of rodents getting into his uh front yard and getting to his garden and burrowing under and things, and so we basically um had to pull the entire fence out that I had built, and um what he proceeded to do was uh get a backhoe and a trencher in there and dig about three feet into the ground and sink concrete all the way around so nothing could get underneath and nothing could penetrate.

And why do I share my redneck tale with you?

Because um the law is is is this great God-given boundary um that surrounds um that can surround our life.

Now we we we don't bow down to it, we don't worship the law.

We just we just we just read that, we just understood that.

But to answer the question, do rule followers get into heaven, and our first answer is if they don't miss it, is many of us put that over the goodness of God.

And many of us put that over the grace of God.

Um and there's there's nothing wrong, because some of us will take that law and that becomes what we boast about.

And that's when we talk about our faith, it's about how disciplined we are, or how good we are, or how good we do things, or how many mission trips we've been on.

There's nothing wrong with boasting on God.

We had our missions conference, for lack of a better word, I never could figure out the right word to call that thing that we had yesterday morning out at the warehouse, and a group of us gathered, and we talked about um where God was leading Grand Parkway in 2013 with missions, new things, old things, and we talked out of Acts 17, and it clearly says to boast in the Lord.

But it doesn't say to boast in the law, it says to boast in the Lord.

And so, um, and that's not to say, and I want to make this clear, and it might seem like I'm spending a lot of time on this, I want to make this clear before we move on, that discipline and stewardship of the freedom that God has given us in our lives is very important, very paramount, very mandatory.

Not to be worshipped, because what happens and what what Paul is writing to, and what Paul could be writing to us is we begin to worship the laws instead of the lawgiver.

It's like worshiping the gift instead of the giver.

My wife loves rules.

She is a rule follower.

Some of you are like, yes, amen.

Now you're talking my language.

I lost you, but now I'm back.

She loves her some rules.

Now, whether that's a board game, and if you break the rules, I know every Sally has everybody convinced that she is this sweet little hobbit of a woman.

She will shank you if you cheat.

Trivial pursuit.

If if I uh if if we have bought one of those devil items from IKEA with the instructions that have no words and just diagrams on them, I haven't figured that out.

And she she'll come in and I'm putting something together and she's like, Where are the directions?

I'm like, I don't know, I threw them away.

Just hives, just break out all over.

Or if I'm not following where uh the Google map is saying we're supposed to go, and I decided to take a three-hour scenic route, it's okay.

Everyone, everyone in America is too much of a rush, right?

She likes the rules.

And so the rules in the law say, I remember when I got married, I don't know how many of you got married in the great state of Texas.

I don't know if they do this in other states.

I never performed any weddings outside of the state of Texas, but I remember the pastor said, by the gospel of Jesus Christ and by the laws of the state of Texas, I now pronounce you man and wife.

Now it's my hope that my wife doesn't love me just because the state of Texas says that we are legally bound.

Maybe we should talk after church.

I don't know if that's the case or not.

I don't think that she's bound by the fact that the state of Texas says that if I walk outside and I get hit by a bus, that she gets 100% of that life insurance tax-free.

I love my husband, free money, right?

I don't, and it's not like it's a lot, I'm a pastor.

That life insurance is it's no big deal.

Uh I've kind of made it to where I'm worth I'm worth more alive than dead.

I'm trying to stack the cards in my favor.

Uh but why do I say all that?

Because we, if we're not careful, if we if we think about the law more than we think about the goodness of God and the grace of God and the fact that He's the giver, then we begin to love God out of duty and to get the cards stacked in our favor so that God will love us back.

And we've missed the entire gospel.

And we've missed it completely.

So the rule followers go to heaven, they don't miss it.

They don't miss it.

Um because if we miss it, then um we become uh people who miss grace.

Both in receiving it and giving it.

We miss grace.

We miss giving it, and receiving it.

And that makes it pretty hard.

People don't want to be around it.

If you don't understand grace, you don't live grace, you don't really smell like the kingdom.

People aren't really drawn to that.

Because you don't look like Jesus.

You look like Jesus.

Second answer?

Live beyond the rules.

Live beyond the rules.

What I mean.

Verse 19 and 20.

It says this.

And if you are sure, and if you're sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor to the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.

So what Paul has done here is in the first two verses that we read, is he laid out about five privileges of being an obeyer of the law, of being a Jew, whether that be by heritage or that be by belief, you have these five things that we that we read about.

Basically, the gift coming from the giver.

Now what he's done is he stacked onto that and he said, now if you were if you're worshiping the gifts instead of the giver, then you're worshiping, uh if you're worshiping the laws instead of the law giver, then you have to ask your qu you have to ask the question, are you living beyond just the rules?

And he gives he gives four things for us to ask ourselves this morning.

He says, Are you leading by example?

The deeper question, and I even have this on here, is what example are you leading by?

But are you leading by example?

What Paul says, are you a guide to the blind?

I don't know how many of you have um had the experience, have family members, have friends that are visually impaired that are blind.

Um my dad, I think I shared this before in here on a Sunday morning.

My dad was born blind in one eye.

And uh, because of just a series of surgeries and ocular disorders and all of these things, my dad has now um has about 10% vision in his one good eye.

Um, and so he has had to learn to do a lot of things by touch and by just experiencing what's around him.

Um but my dad, if he's if he's not in a familiar place, needs to be led.

And especially if it goes from a very stark contrast from really bright outside to maybe dark inside.

I was up there last weekend um just hanging around the house, and I took my folks out to lunch, and we went um uh it was a beautiful day outside, bright, and then we went into a dark restaurant.

And so it took my dad a little while to get over it, but um I put my arm around him, kind of like you see the junior high couples doing at the mall with their arms strange.

That doesn't even look comfortable.

Just stop it.

What in the world?

You're trying too hard.

Uh but what I learned in what my dad, uh very graciously, uh no, not really.

Uh what my dad instructed me was I don't want you to lead me.

I just want to follow you.

And what and there's a big difference if you've ever had this experience, because my dad doesn't want me to put my arm around him and steer him around like a horse, like this is the bridle.

What he wants to do is for me just to be connected to him, and then he just follows, he follows me.

If you if any of you grew up playing basketball, I used to coach basketball for a couple years at the first church I worked.

On full-time staff, they also had a school.

And I work with these big guys down low, and I said, when you're down in the middle and you see all those big galutes down there in the bottom underneath the hole and they're all bouncing off each other.

I taught them to get up close to the guy that you're guarding and you can feel which way he's going to turn.

And that was the same concept with my dad, and he can feel the way I'm turning.

And so Paul is saying, lead the blind that way.

They don't want to be jerked around by your words and your law and what you're telling them to do all the time.

They want to see that you understand that you're a son of the king.

And that you're living in a kingdom and you're subject to that king.

You're not subject to his loss, you're subject to the king who gives the laws.

And so he says, Do you lead blind?

And then he says, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor to the foolish.

And he's saying, Do you speak wisdom?

Do you speak wisdom?

Here's a good question.

I know it's not a community group night, but here's a good way to put some granularity and figure out if you speak wisdom.

When you talk about sin, when you talk about someone else with their sin, do you sound like a Pharisee or do you sound like Jesus?

When you talk to other people about your own sin, you sound like a Pharisee?

You sound like Jesus.

Is the solution to that struggle that you've been battling with over and over and over?

Is it rules and law?

Or is it Jesus?

Because we put these two together and you're leading by example.

Do you sound like Jesus and you're leading people to live more like Jesus and less like the law?

And then he says, a teacher of children.

Now here's a question, maybe it's blanket and cheesy, but hang with me on this one, is my question about do you love music?

Raise your hand if you love kids.

Leave them up.

Actually, put them back down.

I want you to be honest first.

Look at me.

Do you really?

Now I'm asking again.

Raise your hand if you love kids.

Leave them up.

Do you love kids or do you love your kids?

If you still got them up, leave them up, leave them up, leave them up.

If you put them down, because you did because you're like, yeah, that's me.

Okay.

That's okay.

But you're still if you're still like, ah, I love them kids.

Keep your hands up.

All the teachers, all their hands are down.

I like to talk to you about the future of our nation.

Uh now, do you love the kids you like?

Or do you love all kids?

You want to be around those kids all the time?

Oh, okay.

I've lost barely.

Okay.

Alright, we've lost everyone.

I love my kids.

I don't like them all the time.

I love my kids.

Alright?

I'll be honest.

Can I make a confession in here and you won't judge me?

Yeah, right.

I don't like all kids.

All right?

I think it's natural because we we don't have that authority over them, right?

They don't live the way that maybe we we we raise kids in our house or the way that we were raised, right?

But I think Paul speaks to this great aspect of the kingdom and patience here.

Um we were out at the Bement's, I think I even sent an email about this.

We were out at the Bement's for preschool day in the country.

And um I was um uh Rosenware, I think,'s in the service, and I were um we were out there uh fishing with kids and putting corn on hooks.

We could catch the same fish over that.

There was one poor fish at the Bement's house who's got a hole the size of a half dollar in his lip.

I think we caught him about 37 times.

Um we had six or eight cane poles, it was great, the mints are so gracious to set all this up.

And these kids are amped to fish until off in the distance, Owen fires up that tractor and that hay ride's about to go, and then there's cane poles flying everywhere, and the kids don't care about fishing.

And they are perfectly content until something better comes along.

And I know none of us in here can relate to that as grown-ups in here.

I know it's just me.

None of us sitting in these chairs, avoiding eye contact with me can relate to that.

But here's here's why I think Paul, and maybe I'm taking too much liberty, but I don't think I am.

Here's why I think Paul says, Do you teach children?

Because I think spending time around children gives you insight into God's relationship to you.

And I think that if we feel more comfortable in the law than we do living in the kingdom of Christ, it's because we have a misunderstanding of who God is.

And I think being around kids, and Jesus reiterates it.

Remember, we said that Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, he fulfilled the law.

Jesus confirms it in the way that he dealt with children that you are scarred in the best possible way by spending time with kids who have no reverence because they don't know to.

Right?

They don't know the rules of society, they don't know that they're not supposed to just drop their pants out by the pond and just which happened.

Beautiful, right?

And so Paul says, spend some time around kids.

Spend some time around kids, spend some time around people that aren't jaded by the law and don't think they have it all together and can figure it all out on their own, that are still dependent on their parents.

I hear Neil talk about his his girls, and um we've we've had the being here six and a half years, got the great gift of gotten to watch those girls grow up, and um I just he talks about the girls and just laying on the couch and just asking, asking dad for whatever with no shame.

What a beautiful picture of worship, right?

Of of overcoming the law.

And lastly, I think the last kind of sub point there to living beyond the rules, understand why there's a law.

Understand why there's a law.

And I'll give you the answer, and then um it's for maturity.

It's it's it's for it's for growing in your faith.

It's for not being the same today that you were when you first got saved.

And for some of us, um, we we understand this.

We've got this reconciled.

And for some of you, it came through through a conversation with someone smarter than you.

Um got God revealed it to you in whatever way.

Some of you might be from reading uh a good article.

Um, contrary to my generation, I think I've I've missed it.

I'll probably be put in um postmodern jail for this.

Um I'm not real big on the whole blogosphere.

I don't think everybody's opinion is great.

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

And I know that makes me an outsider in my generation.

I don't think just because you have access to the internet that everybody needs to hear what you say.

Um I tell um we we we started uh a college group, um, community group, and it's just been this great blessing to kind of just carry on the legacy that other folks have started here.

And um one of the first things I told him is one of the greatest things you can do is one of the greatest um ways you can spend a couple hours of your day is to find someone with gray hair and buy them lunch and don't say a word and just listen.

And for these guys for young young guys to find a man who's loved his wife well for a long time, and for a lady who has loved her her husband well for a long time, and just spend time with them, and that's a great way to find wisdom.

That being said, I remember a couple months ago, somebody sent me this article I want to read to you.

It's a short one.

Um, and as I was kind of refining and carving 18 points off this sermon that you guys don't care about and getting it down to four, um I thought about this article, and so I went back and found it.

So I want to read it to you.

Very short, it's by an author named Stephanie Romero.

She says this.

Do you equate spiritual maturity with age?

It really has nothing to do with it.

You could be in your 50s and be no more spiritual than someone who's in their twenties.

Spiritual maturity is based on your relationship with the Lord.

I think that's so good.

We need to read that one one more time.

Spiritual maturity is based on your relationship with the Lord.

I love the hard-hitting words found in the message translation of Matthew 5.

If you're not familiar with the message translation, Eugene Peterson, a pastor, took the Bible and translated it very well, I might add, into a very consumable language.

And so this is the message version of Matthew 5.48.

It says this.

In a word, what I'm saying is, grow up.

Your kingdom subjects.

Now live like it.

Live out your God created identity.

Live generously and graciously towards others, the way God lives toward you.

I didn't see any law on there, but let's keep reading.

Maybe it's in here.

Have you uttered those words to someone?

Grow up.

I know I have, especially to my oldest child.

But think about the context of this scripture.

In other words, it's time to stop living our relationship with the Lord as if we are nothing more than babies, always needing coddling.

It's as if we're toddlers in the Lord, always wanting our own way.

Or perhaps we are more like a teenager just doing really dumb stuff.

It's time to grow up in Christ.

It's time to start living the way we know how.

Too many Christians know the right way to act, but they continue to wallow in the mud of childness.

I especially love how this verse says we should live out our God-centered identity.

Are you the same as you were the day you got saved?

One year ago?

Ten years ago?

We shouldn't be the same.

We should be growing and maturing in Christ.

What about the fact that we are to live generously and graciously?

The more of Christ that is within us, the more we are able to do this.

When we live in his generosity and grace, when we really grasp that, it becomes much easier to pour out on others.

It is time to grow up.

Grow up in the Lord.

So that kind of transitions us with the question: how do we grow up?

Our third answer to the question of do rule keepers go to heaven?

We believe what we say.

We believe what we say.

What do you mean about?

Verse 21 through 24 says this.

While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

You say that one must not per commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abore idols, do you rob temples?

You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking the law.

For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

What he's doing in verse 24 is he's actually quoting Isaiah 24, where God says to the people, Because of you, because of you, my name is blasphemed all over the world.

Because you don't really believe what you say, because you think the law is better than me.

Because you think when I say work out your salvation, you think it's all up to you, because you've missed it.

And we hear that word blaspheme, and I don't know about that that's that's not a word that's in regular vernacular these days.

It's not a word that we use often anymore.

And so I wanted to give us some context, and so uh, not even in a theological dictionary, just Marion Webster dictionary for blasphemy.

It says this the act of insulting or showing contempt for God.

Because you love the law and you love your own ability to make yourself feel better.

And look at me, some of us feel better when we feel bad.

Because we feel like if we can work ourselves out of that bad, then we've earned ourselves back into God's grace.

And we've missed it.

And God said, when you do that, you blaspheme me.

You blaspheme me.

What he's saying is you are taking contempt on my character.

You don't know who I am.

You've misunderstood who I am, what I've done, and what I'm doing for all eternity.

You've blasphemed it.

And church, here's what we do: is if we become either conscious or subconscious blasphemers and we bring contempt on the name of God, and we have instructions for everybody on how to get saved quick or how to get right quick, anything other than the gospel, we're just training ourselves to be religious politicians.

And we got a nine-step plan for how to fix everybody's life.

But we don't believe it, and we don't live it.

And we got a nine-step plan how to fix our life because it's what we did the last time we fell to that sin.

And it's what we did 10 years ago when we fell to that sin.

And it's what we do to self-medicate ourselves instead of falling on our face and saying, I worship you instead of the law.

I worship the lawgiver instead of the law.

And I want to begin to believe what I say.

If you don't believe, manifest it through your actions what you say, you're insulting God.

We're insulting God.

We're insulting his character.

And we need to be okay with hearing that this morning.

We need to be okay that our actions can insult God.

He's not up there keeping a record of your right and wrongs and mad at you for it.

But he's just, he's really up there as a dad to go back to the kid things.

Do you do you are the parents in the room?

Do you remember the conversation you just went?

Really?

And you walk in on something your kids have done, you're just like, really?

You're eating a stick of butter right now?

Really?

That seemed like a good idea to let your friends hide in the fireplace?

Really?

I'm all going for personal experience, my kid, what my parents said to me, by the way.

Or maybe when your kids lie to you.

Oh, I remember that.

My dad, not a mean man.

Not not, just even.

And I remember we lived in this two-story house when I was um late junior high, early high school.

And um my wife, we drive by it, she calls it the Taco Bell House.

It has these big arches on it, and it kind of looks like a Spanish-style house.

And um, my brother and sister and I all lived upstairs, and we figured out a way to shimmy up to the balcony and then get into our doors if we wanted to at night.

And I remember one time after making a night full of bad decisions, after a week full of bad decisions the week before, and a life full of bad decisions up to that point, and coming inside and finding my dad just sitting there.

Uh, and I will die ten years sooner than I was supposed to because of this the fear that went through me that day.

Um, and I ruined those pants, let's be honest.

Uh and I just remember the conversation that followed of my dad just saying, You've you've insulted my trust.

And my dad is a big strong man.

There's a couple men in this church who know my dad.

I used to work with him.

Um my dad is a big strong man.

Um, but no, no beaten would have compared to the truth of you've insulted my character tonight.

You insulted my trust.

My dad forgave me.

He loves me.

But God is just saying, You insult my character when you don't trust me.

You're saying that what is what's in my word is subject to how you feel today.

And that's not what God has for us.

And so there's hope.

And so we're gonna look at false hope and real hope as we answer this last question and we begin to land this plane this morning.

Verse 25 through 29.

Gives us our last answer to the question of do rule followers go to heaven?

Quit trying to be the best version of you.

Quit trying to be the best version of you.

What I mean, let's read these uh these last few verses of the chapter.

For circumcision indeed is of value.

If you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

So if a man is uncircumcised, keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as a circumcision?

Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you.

The law will condemn you who have written code and circumstances but break the law.

Those of you who write the law and hold it in high regard and have spiritual merit badges all over your cloak because you are the ones who know the law the best, then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have written code and circumcision but break the law.

Verse 28.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly.

The T-shirt from life way does not make you a Christian.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God.

Now we have mixed company and little ears in the room, and so I won't go too far into that word that we hear over and over and over again in there, but I think since we're all grown-ups, we have an understanding of what that word is and what it means and what that process looks like.

Now, knowing that and having that knowledge, think about trying to reverse that procedure.

And that's what's being talked about here.

Is it just trying to do it over and over and over again on your own?

And if this is the sum total of our life, as we draw in just on those last two verses, for no one is a Jew who's merely one outwardly.

If your whole relationship with Christ, if your whole understanding of who God is, if your whole understanding of who Jesus desires to be in your life is all outward, and there's nothing meaningful and substantial and foundational and branded on your heart.

Told you earlier that I grew up working on a ranch.

My grandfather had a ranch.

As soon as he and his brother uh got out of the army out of World War II, um, there was an option back then uh then to take some of that GI money and you'd go home and you could start a ranch.

And so they started the D-bar 7 ranch and the 7 bar D ranch right next door to each other, these brothers.

And so I grew up working on that and every other weekend of my life and vacations and all of that.

And I remember um my grandfather buying cattle from another ranch that had a brand on that, on that cattle, and so he would go and um he would he would try to brand over that, and and that brand never goes away.

That is that is that is that is the best kind of scar.

And if we don't have that best kind of scar from Jesus, then then the sum total of our aspiration in life kind of boils down.

So you ever go over someone's house to eat dinner, and and maybe you even have these in your house, and you go in the guest's bathroom and it looks nicer than the real bathroom.

It's got those towels you can never use, right?

And the soap looks like a shell.

I haven't figured that out.

And it's got a book on the back of the toilet, which I don't know if I want to anyway.

But but our but our life becomes a sum total of all those self-empowerment, just make you feel good, self-help comments that are in that book on the back tank of the toilet.

And you're thinking, well, what do you mean?

Do you have any examples?

Oh, I do.

I have examples because I have nothing better to do with my time.

So I found um what I think are the top five best self-help quotes to bless you with this morning.

See if you see if you hear a theme.

The best way to predict the future is you create it.

You guys ready?

Getting fueled up?

Yeah, we're ready.

I'm gonna take on the world.

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

It even rhymed.

Read not impressed?

I gotta read that one one more time.

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can concheat.

Well, I just messed it up.

Achieve.

There you go.

I wouldn't I wouldn't do good there.

Um so much for selling up at Stafford Center with my new book.

Uh The Secret of Wealth.

I can't even get through this without laughing.

I did this in the first service, too.

Let me.

The secret of wealth?

You're poor because you're too negative.

Let's pray.

We're done.

We just got the answer to everything.

Now, if you haven't caught the theme, you'll catch it in this one.

You can change your world by changing your words.

See me afterwards.

We'll talk about that.

Now, here's where it moves from funny to sad.

And I'll let you guess where this comes from, not to disparage anybody, but to lead us to pray and maybe lead us to continue to say shame on us for allowing this to be the cornerstone of several of the biggest churches in our nation.

The next time you start thinking I can't or I don't have what it takes, attack those negative thoughts with the truth by declaring.

Now hear this.

Here's where it gets sad.

Because and and we're not we can't stand on the outside looking in because people in the church will use words, good words, truth, church, community, gospel.

But then not speak to the real foundation.

We speak to our laws that underlie it.

And here's what's about to happen.

Attack those negative thoughts with the truth, is what was just said.

The truth.

Here's the truth from this person by declaring, I have what it takes.

I am well able.

At a church.

Where the Bible is open and never read.

I have what it takes.

Now here's what's easy, and I'm almost done.

Here's what's easy is to think about who you're probably thinking about, and maybe it's not even who you're thinking about, and to point fingers at them and go shame on them.

But what about us?

Is the Bible open in our life and we're building it on our own?

Instead of looking to the Bible?

Look into the truth, look into the promise?

Because here's what the Bible says.

Verse 28 and 29, we just read it.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly.

One who obeys the law, loves God, is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter, not words to be worshipped, but by the Holy Spirit, by God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

His praise is not for man, but from God.

Jeremiah 4.4 says this circumcise yourselves to the Lord.

Remove the foreskin on your heart.

Deuteronomy 10 16.

Yet the Lord set his heart and love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them.

You above all people, as you are this day, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and no longer be stubborn.

For the Lord your God is God of gods, Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God.

Circumcise your hearts is what he's calling us to do.

Not just outward, the pumping source of your body dedicated to God.

Do me a favor and stand to your feet.

And as you do so, put your hands out like this.

Yesterday we were uh we had our missions conference and we were watching a video from India because that trip is right around the corner.

And um, and I was reminded I hadn't seen this video in a while, and this clip of Lance and the team, and they're in the House of Love orphanage that you and your faithful prayers and dollars support.

And um, and Lance is about to speak a blessing over the orphans, and he says, put your hands out like this.

And he says, The reason we do this is we're expecting to receive something.

Not from me, but from the Lord.

God has given you law, not to bind you, but to set you free.

Live like it.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.