Matthew 5:43-48

Chapter 5.

Matthew 5 will begin in verse 43 and go to the end of the chapter.

Our Lord was preaching to those who had gathered on that hilltop and He said,

you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies.

Bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you.

Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your

Father in heaven.

For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good and He sends His reign on the

just and on the unjust.

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, what do you do more than others?

Do not even the tax collectors do so?

Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Let's pray.

Father, help us.

God help me this morning.

Lord would you give me your Holy Spirit.

Allow me to preach with an unction, with power, in demonstration of the Spirit of God.

Lord I pray that no man will be exalted but only your preeminent Son, the one who died

and rose again.

For He alone deserves all the glory.

We ask this in His name.

Amen.

We live in a fallen world and it's a world full of hate and darkness, injustice.

It's a world full of hurt.

And there isn't a person alive, there's not a person in this sanctuary who will escape

the world unscathed.

What that means is all of us have been or will be hurt or wounded by someone.

Some of you have been hurt in small ways and some of you have been hurt in a very big way.

And the most difficult thing to do is to genuinely forgive someone who has hurt you deeply.

Yet as Christians we know where to forgive.

It's not an option.

The scriptures are clear.

Paul said in Ephesians 4, and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another

even or just as God in Christ forgave you.

As you have been forgiven, you are to forgive others.

Peter went to our Lord and he says, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me

and I forgive him?

Up to seven times?

And Jesus said, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

The ideas continue to forgive.

Yet we try to make excuses as to why this is not possible in our case.

We get it, we understand the scriptures, but this is not possible in our case because Lord,

you don't know how bad I was hurt, you don't know my pain, or you don't know my husband,

or you don't know my wife.

Our Lord did you not see what they did?

And yet our Lord does know.

And it is because that he does know that he commands us as his children to forgive and

to keep on forgiving.

Most of you I think are probably familiar or at least have heard the name of Corrie Timboom.

Many of you all probably read her book The Hiding Place.

In World War II, Corrie's family would hide Jews in their home to keep them safe from

the Nazi regime.

Yet we know that one day they were caught and they were sent to a Nazi concentration

camp in Ravensburg.

In that camp, Corrie describes how she was ridiculed, belittled, she lost all dignity

that she had, but worst of all her beloved sister Betsy and her father were killed in

that death camp.

Now Corrie survived, we know that, and she eventually was freed.

She then traveled the world telling everyone her story.

But one day she was confronted with the powerful decision whether she would forgive or not.

See what had happened is one of the Nazi soldiers who had worked at Ravensburg, worked at that

concentration camp during the time Corrie was there, came to hear her speak.

He had given his life to Christ and he wanted to shake her hand and to meet her.

Let me quote what she said for just a moment.

She said, it was at a church service in Munich that I saw him.

The former Nazi soldier who had stood guard at the shower door in the processing center

at Ravensburg.

He was the first of our actual jailers that I'd seen since that time and suddenly it was

all there.

The room full of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, and my sister Betsy's pain blanched

face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying and he was beaming and he bowed to me and

says, how grateful I am for your message.

To think that as you say he has washed my sins away and his hand was thrust out to shake

mine.

And I who preach so often to people in the Netherlands their need to forgive, I kept

my hand at my side and I stood there.

I who sins had again and again to be forgiven and I could not forgive.

But my sister Betsy had died in that place.

Could he ease her slow terrible death simply because he asked?

Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me I saw the sin of them.

Jesus Christ had died for this man and I was going to ask for more.

Lord Jesus I prayed forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I tried to smile.

I struggled to raise my hand but I could not.

I felt nothing.

Not the slightest spark of warmth or charity.

And so again I breathed a silent prayer.

Jesus, I cannot forgive him.

Give me your forgiveness.

And as I took his hand the most incredible thing happened, from my shoulder along my

arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him while into my heart sprang

a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered and this is my favorite part, it is not on our forgiveness any more

than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges but on his forgiveness and goodness.

When he tells us to love our enemies he gives along with the command the love itself.

What a tremendous witness to the authenticity of our Christian faith.

I mean who else other than the Lord Jesus commands his followers and it's a command

to love their enemies.

And that brings us to our text this morning.

Here's the sixth and final illustration that the Lord is using in comparison with the Pharisees

and the truth of God's law.

Back in chapter five verse 20 Jesus said these sobering words, for I say to you that unless

your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter into

the kingdom of heaven.

You don't get in.

These religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees had perverted and abused the law of God.

How did they do it?

Well they had taken God's law and reduced it to what they felt was manageable and then

they became proud for their supposedly having kept it.

So this was nothing less than hypocrisy and our Lord was publicly rebuking them and calling

them out for it.

So then Jesus began the sermon to give the true interpretation and the true intention

that lay behind God's law.

For example he said he started with the first illustration.

It's not only murder that's prohibited in the law, it's also sinful anger in your heart.

You have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders

will be in danger of judgment.

But I say to you whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger

of the judgment.

As Jamie mentioned it's not only adultery but lust in the heart.

You have heard it was said to those of old you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery

with her in his heart.

The Pharisees taught that you could simply divorce your wife for any cause at all and

as long as there was a certificate of divorce you're free to remarry.

Verse 31, Jesus said whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality

causes her to commit adultery.

The Pharisees said you could break an oath unless you swore by the divine name.

If you swore by the temple that's fine but if you swore by the name of God you had to

keep your vow.

But Jesus said don't swear at all.

Verse 33, again you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not swear falsely

but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord.

But I say to you don't swear he goes on to say let your yes be yes and your no be no

for anything more of this comes from sin.

The Pharisees taught an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Our Lord says no don't resist an evil person.

Turn the other cheek and go the extra mile and that's in verses 38 and 39 that you can

see there.

And then today we come to the sixth and final example.

We will see the Pharisees hypocrisy once again how they had preferred it and twisted the

truth of God.

Here's what they were teaching.

You are only required to love your neighbor because that's what the law said.

And Jesus like you missed the entire point.

Not only are you commanded to love your neighbor but I say to you love your enemies as well.

Look at verse 43 again.

You have heard that was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you love your enemies.

Now where in the Old Testament does it say that one is required to love their neighbor?

Well Leviticus 19 18 you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of

your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Why?

I am the Lord.

So the law did say you shall love your neighbor as yourself but where was there a command

that you had to hate your enemies?

There isn't one.

This was the Pharisees hypocrisy.

They invented this to justify their own actions.

Here's how they got it.

The only thing that was commanded in the law of God was to love your neighbor.

So if you're only commanded to love your neighbor hatred of your enemies must be permitted.

And well who's your neighbor?

This is the kicker.

Only your fellow Jews.

Thus everyone else in the entire Gentile world you were free to hate them and they did.

Do you remember how they referred to the Gentiles at this time?

They referred to them as dogs.

They referred to them as pagan dogs and they truly believed that they were honoring God

by despising anyone who was not a Jewish man or Jewish woman.

They honored God that way.

There's an ancient saying that was dug up recently and it was given by the Pharisees

and here's what they said.

If a Jew sees a Gentile falling into the sea let him by no means lift him out for it is

written you shall not rise up against the blood of your neighbor but this man is not

your neighbor.

Do you see where this hatred deep-seated hatred had started to infect the culture?

But Jesus said no you're missing the entire point of the law which is to love.

Love your neighbor as you would love yourself.

Loving others including love for one's enemy has always been God's plan because even in

the Old Testament we find love for your enemy.

Proverbs 23 if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray bring it back to him.

If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would refrain

from helping it you shall surely help him with it.

Proverbs 25 if your enemy's hungry give him food if he's thirsty give him something to

drink.

This is love of enemy.

Now here's where we get tripped up this is why this is so hard for us.

It's the way that we use love we use love to mean have an affection toward to be warmly

affection toward someone a family member a friend a romantic interest but loving your

enemy does not mean to have natural affection.

Let me just say this loving your enemy does not even mean to have warm feelings necessarily

about him.

To love your enemy means to do good to him.

If he sees hungry feed him that's love.

If he's having trouble with one of his animals or something like that in life you help him

that's love.

But by the time we get to our Lord the scriptures had been perverted by centuries of rabbinical

tradition that had clouded and even contradicted the scriptures.

We know the mission of the oral interpretation of the law given by the rabbis.

So here's what was happening.

These religious leaders the scribes and Pharisees had paid more attention to the Mishnah to

what former rabbis had said about the law than they did to the law itself.

So by this time the Pharisees are interpreting God's judgment on the Gentiles which he had

to justify their hatred and mistreatment of the Gentiles.

Now did God judge the Gentiles?

Yeah and his judgment was just it was fair but this never gave the Jewish people vindication

to hate them on a personal level.

But the Pharisees as they've done before they took the law and they twisted it.

Why?

So that could suit their own agenda.

Notice how they did twist the law.

They left something out from Leviticus 19, 18.

The Pharisees were saying you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but the law said

what you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

They didn't put that in there.

Why is that a big deal?

Because when you love someone as yourself it's to show the same level of care, the same

level of dedication to meeting someone else's needs as you would your own.

But the Pharisees were hypocrites.

Now they loved to look righteous in public.

They loved to have their names dropped.

They loved to look and be allotted in the streets.

But underneath all the garb they were self-centered hypocrites that could not love the neighbor

as themselves.

So what they do?

They omitted it.

They just dropped it.

And supposedly these men were God's representatives on the earth yet they had far strayed so far

from him.

That's what is angering our Lord.

And Jesus said no, I said you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those

who hate you.

He's exposing the hypocrisy of the religious elite.

Let at the same time, and here's where it applies to us church, what does life in the

kingdom of God today look like?

We said if you want to know how my kingdom operates, here it is.

Agenda number one, you love your enemies.

This flew in the face of the Pharisees' doctrine.

The Lord said love them.

The Greek word, it comes from akipaō and it means love of action.

Now this can involve some emotion, it may, but it doesn't have to.

It's just a love that's going to seek the welfare of someone else.

So this is the, again, I want to say this very clearly.

This is a call not to loving feelings, but to loving actions.

Because I've met Christians and some say if I don't feel it, well I don't want to be a

hypocrite so I'm not going to do it.

It is not hypocrisy to do something that God commands you to do whether you feel it or

not.

That's not hypocrisy.

To love someone as God commands us to love them is not dependent upon your feelings.

It doesn't depend on how desirable the other person is.

It doesn't depend on how attractive they may or may not be.

You can love your enemy and still not even like him.

Now that sounds a little controversial.

R.C.H.

Linsky in his commentary, he said I cannot like a low, mean criminal who may have robbed

me and threatened my life.

I cannot like a false, lying, slanderous fellow who perhaps has vilified me again and again.

But I can by the grace of Jesus Christ love them all.

I can see what is wrong with them.

I can desire and work to do them only good and most of all to free them from their vicious

ways.

Yeah, it's not, it's hard.

Liking someone means there's a camaraderie there or something.

But to love your enemies means I'm willing to do them good.

I'm willing to seek their welfare regardless of what they have done or who they are.

I'm willing to forgive them and work for their good.

And there's a great illustration of this in the scriptures in that parable known as the

Good Samaritan.

Do you remember the central question of this parable revolves around the question once

again who is my neighbor?

That's what this lawyer, and the lawyer by the way was like a scribe, not a lawyer today

but a law, a specialist in the law of God.

So he said basically, Lord, I want to do what's right.

And then he said, well, what's the law say?

Love God, love your neighbor.

And he says, well, who's my neighbor?

Now keep in mind the Jews and the Samaritans at this time hated each other.

It's much like the Jews and the Palestinians today.

Bad blood on both sides.

But at this point the Jews looked at the Samaritans and they were half breeds.

They were half Gentile, half Jews.

So they weren't a pure stock.

So there's racism, there's xenophobia, lots of things present there.

But they just hated each other.

And now Jesus says this, and behold, a certain lawyer, that's a religious leader, stood up

and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said, well, what's written in the law?

What's your reading of it?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength,

and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus said, yeah, that's impressive.

You've answered right.

Go do that and you'll live.

But he, wanting to justify himself, said, well, who's my neighbor?

Now Jesus did not immediately answer back.

Instead, he said, well, let me tell you a story.

A certain man went down from Jerusalem down to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped

him of his clothing, wounded him, departed, leaving half dead.

Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.

When he saw him, passed by on the other side.

Likewise a Levite, that would be a temple worker.

Both of these are religious professionals.

When he arrived at that place, he came and looked, and he went on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, now this, their ears would have perked up here.

As he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And on the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper

and said to him, take care of him.

Whatever more you spend, when I come, I will repay you.

So now Jesus is back to the lawyer.

So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And he said, he who showed mercy on him.

Jesus said, now go and do likewise.

You go and love your enemies.

This would have blown their minds.

Was Jesus saying these despised Samaritans were neighbors whom they were commanded to

love?

Yeah, that's the whole point.

See if you look, who's the hero of the story?

The Samaritan.

He's moved with compassion for a fellow human being, and he loved him by seeking his welfare

without any regard to his own convenience or cost.

It cost him something.

He gave up his resources.

That's loving one's enemy.

Now why would you and I do this?

Because you are in the kingdom of God.

Have you experienced God's mercy in your life?

When you were God's enemy, he loved you, he sought you, he saved you, he sent his spirit

to convict you of your sin and point you to Christ, and lastly to indwell you.

So now this is a radical love that is life in Christ's kingdom.

You've been born again.

This is the fruit.

Remember, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Amen.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus and two good works.

Finish the verse.

This is the fruit of regeneration.

Barton Lloyd Jones, he says, men are born in sin and they're shaped in a new degree.

They're not capable in and of themselves of becoming anything that is right.

But God has so ordained it that this wonderful gospel of redemption has sometimes been conveyed

to men and women in the following manner.

They look at a person and ask, what has made that person different?

And that person says, I am what I am by the grace of God.

It's not because I'm born different.

It is because God has done something to me and what the love of God has done for me,

it can do for you.

This morning we've been together for prayer.

One of the petitions that Brother Forrest prayed, he said, Lord, might you make someone

jealous today that they might desire what we have?

This is what we're trying to talk about here.

Loving your enemies gives you a platform to share the gospel.

The apostle Paul did this so well.

In Acts 16, do you remember when Paul and Silas are in jail?

It says at midnight they are praying and they were singing hymns and the prisoners were

listening to them.

They're having church in prison.

It's midnight.

Suddenly there's a great earthquake.

The foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and

everyone's chains were loose, not just Paul and Silas.

And the keeper of the prison, waking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing

they'd all fled, which would make sense.

I mean, what's a prisoner going to do when the doors are open?

They're going to run out?

He then drew his sword.

He was about to kill himself because he was going to be killed anyways.

But Paul called out with a loud voice saying, now why didn't those other prisoners run?

Paul said, do yourself no harm.

We are all here.

And he called for a light.

He ran in and fell down, trembling before Paul and Silas.

And he brought them out and says, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

He's been hearing what Paul and Silas are preaching the whole time.

And here's what they said.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household, by the way.

They could have escaped, friends.

Paul and Silas could have easily walked out of that prison on that night at midnight when

the earthquake took place, but they stayed.

Why?

They did not want that guard to kill himself.

This so moved that prison guard that God used it to bring him to faith in Christ.

This is what it means to love your enemy.

You have a platform to share how the gospel has changed you.

Why are you different?

Because I'm a citizen of heaven and I live in the kingdom of God.

This gospel is good news.

What?

That God loved his enemies.

Who were his enemies?

You and I, his sinful people.

And what did he do?

He did not send his son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He sent his son to save his people.

You and I are the ambassadors as God has been to us, so we must be to other people.

You're saying, but what does that look like?

He tells us, look at the second part, bless those who curse you.

To bless, you get the word eulogy from this and it means to speak well of.

So others speak ill of you.

They criticize you.

They talk about you.

He says, well, you bless them.

When they curse you, you bless them.

You're like, what?

In the world, it's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Oh, you're going to curse me?

I'll curse you back.

And Christ is not in my kingdom.

When he was reviled, he didn't revile in return.

First Peter 2, who Christ, when he was reviled, the son of God, he did not revile again.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously.

How did he do that, folks?

Because he trusted his father and he knew his father will make all wrongs right one

day.

How can you possibly bless those who are cursing you?

Does your father see?

Does he know?

Will he bring vindication at his own time?

Yes.

He will call them account one day.

He's a great judge.

He'll judge the world.

Your job, love them.

You love them.

He goes on, do good to those who hate you.

Return, contempt with kindness.

Again, what does it mean?

That they're hungry?

Feed them.

They're thirsty?

Give them something to drink.

Remember, the Jews at this time are under Roman occupation.

Rome was in Israel.

And a Roman soldier could, anytime he wanted, go up to a Jewish man and force him to carry

his baggage and equipment for one mile.

And Jesus said, don't go one mile.

When you're done with that mile, go the second one.

Yeah, the soldier may treat you terribly, insult you.

You return his evil actions for good.

You're saying that's not natural.

That's the whole point.

It's supernatural.

This is the way of God.

Look at verse 45.

For he makes his son to rise on the evil and the good.

He sends his reign on the just and unjust.

Have you noticed that this morning?

The son did not only rise upon the home of Christians.

The evil man, the atheist, the adulterer, the kidnapper, the injurious one, the son

rose on his house as well.

The unrighteous man also enjoys beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Farmers who may hate God still get the goodness of his reign and the son to grow their crops.

This is what we call in theology is common grace.

It's common because it goes to all men without distinction.

All men and women, not just Christians, enjoy sun and rain that God sends.

You're saying, does this mean that God loves all men and women the same way?

No, it does not.

There is a special, unique, covenantal love that God has for his own chosen people who

are in Christ.

But all people do enjoy God's beneficence to some degree.

They enjoy family life, right?

Unbelievers have families they love.

They have gifts.

They enjoy good food.

They enjoy beautiful places.

They enjoy romantic love, just as you and I do.

It's common grace there.

And here's what Jesus is saying.

If God treats his enemies this way and you and I are his children, then how should we

treat our enemies?

You do good to them.

And then you pray for those who persecute you and use you.

Who's going to be persecuted?

All who live codly in Christ Jesus?

How do you respond when you're persecuted?

You pray.

When you're persecuted, you're aligned with the prophets, right?

Because they were persecuted.

But when you pray for those who are persecuting you, you are aligned with the character of

God.

Luke 23.

And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the

criminals, one on the right, the other on the left.

And we know this because we said it so much it doesn't move us anymore.

Our Lord said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

So when Jesus said to pray for those who are persecuting, you're like, pray what?

Pray that God would strike them dead?

No.

Look at our Lord.

He prayed for forgiveness to those who are nailing him to that cross.

We see the same thing in Acts 7 with Stephen.

Remember?

It says, as they stone Stephen, I think this would be a horrible way to die.

You're there and you've got a crowd of men in a circle around you hurling large rocks

at your head until you die.

And Stephen's saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice.

Lord, don't charge them with the sin.

Now, friends in our natural flesh were like, Lord Jesus, strike them dead.

Don't lay this to them.

Alfred Plummer says, to return evil for good, that's devilish.

To return good for good, well, that's human.

To return good for evil is divine.

We pray, guys, that God would have mercy on our enemies, the same mercy that you and I

have enjoyed.

That God would remove the blindness from their eyes and soften their hard hearts.

Pray that God would grant them repentance that leads to life.

I think one thing that we need to understand this morning is that you and I are not that

different from our enemies.

We're made of the same stuff.

You and I were the ones who rebelled against the Lord and lifted our hands against him.

Do you understand that you and I are worthy of damnation?

See, our enemies are in the same position we once were in, but God in His mercy called

us back to Him and He saved us through the bloody death and resurrection of His Son.

So as people are doing us wrong, as we have done God wrong, the same mercy we've received,

we're praying that God would show it to them.

Why, verse 45, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

It shows the work of grace, right?

What other explanation is there for living this way than God lives in you?

You live in His kingdom and you're pursuing His character.

And Jesus' point, He said, those who have inherited the kingdom of God, they live in

a way that is superior to those around them.

Now loving your enemies does not make you a son of God.

That's not the point.

But it shows that you are.

It's a love that blesses when you're cursed and prays when you're persecuted.

There's divine life behind that.

Jesus is building His kingdom and the kingdom on earth is a church and it doesn't have limits

and it doesn't have bounds and Jesus commands us to love enemies as King Jesus has loved

us.

You've got to go beyond what the world does.

Look at verse 46 and 47.

If you love those who love you, what reward have you?

Big deal.

Tax collectors, sinners do the same.

Natural man does the same.

If you greet your brothers only, what do you more than others?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Do you see what the Lord is saying?

If you love those who are lovable, that's what the world does.

You treat me well, I'll treat you well.

You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

No.

John Piper said there's two reasons why we should love our enemies.

I'm hastening on.

Number one, it reveals something of the way that God is merciful.

The scriptures tell us He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor has He repaid

us according to our iniquities.

Praise God for that.

So when Christians live in this way, we're showing something of what God is like.

Secondly, our hearts are not out for revenge anymore because they are satisfied in Christ.

We're not driven like the world is for revenge or self-exaltation.

What takes away that desire for revenge?

It's a deep confidence that God is our reward.

He sees, He knows.

So the ultimate reason why you and I are going to be merciful to others is because it makes

God look great in the eyes of men.

We glorify God in this way.

Now the climax of our Lord's teaching comes in verse 48, the very last verse of the chapter.

Therefore, in light of all that you've heard, all these six examples, we've looked at the

last one today, He says, be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you don't enter

God's kingdom.

And now Jesus said, now let me just sum it up for you.

As God is, so you be.

First of all, though, I do want you to notice something, and don't miss this because this

is the key to the gospel.

He said just as your Father in heaven, He is talking to His followers and He's saying

that God in heaven is their Father.

So this sermon is for believers.

It is for those who are already in the kingdom of God, not those who are looking for a way

to enter into the kingdom.

But this perfection is what our Lord has been driving to all along.

He gave six examples, all six Pharisees were hypocrites, but they led to this one point.

You need to be like God, be as perfect as He is.

Don't be like the religious leaders.

They're twisting the law of God.

They're abusing the law of God.

You are to be perfect.

I am to be perfect as God is.

Well how?

The law reflects God's character, right?

God is perfect.

He gave a law that is perfect, and it said for you and I to be perfect.

But I hope you feel it this morning.

But this requirement humbles us.

There ought to be a despair if you're hearing this correctly.

You ought to feel the weight of divine perfection.

Jesus is saying I have to be as perfect as God.

I can never be close to that.

I have sinned and you have sinned grievously before God.

We are poverty stricken.

We are spiritually bankrupt.

Poor in spirit.

So what do I have to do?

Great, you're telling me this kingdom's great, but I have to be perfect.

Look to Christ, which is what the law was always designed to cause you to do.

When you hear the words of Christ, you do hear the law of God.

It tells me what I'm required to do.

I look at my own life and I'm like I failed to do this.

God, have mercy upon me.

God, I can't do what you have required me to do.

Have mercy upon me, a sinner.

And God in his grace gives us Christ.

The one who did do all that the law required.

And we come to him bringing nothing in our hands and he graciously clothes us in the

righteous robes of Christ.

So much so that I stand before God as righteous, not in myself, but because I'm in Christ.

I'm aligned with the one who did it perfectly.

And this righteousness, Paul says in Romans 3, comes by faith.

See do you see it this morning?

The grace of God does not lessen or lower the standards of God by one iota.

No, this is the same standard.

But grace gives to us as a gift what God required in the law.

That's what's so awesome about this.

Let me just say this friends, the Lord Jesus is perfect.

And you and I are declared perfectly righteous in him.

This is the gift of the gospel.

This is the grace of God.

And this is what we celebrate today as we get ready to head to the table.

All of this, everything our Lord's been teaching is tied up in him.

He is the end of the law.

He's the fulfillment of the law.

And you and I, even though we are absolutely unable to keep it and we're law breakers by

nature, are complete in him.

Praise God for that.

And today I'm praying as Forrest prayed, as Jamie and I prayed this morning, and Mike

and people gathered, may the Lord open some of your eyes to see this.

May you see Jesus Christ as all glorious and desirable, willing to humble yourself, repent

of your sin, and embrace him as Savior and Lord.

May God make that a reality this morning.

And for the saints, for those who know Christ, let's commune with the risen Lord.

Can't you wait to go say thank you to Jesus for all that he's done?

Let's go and we feast upon him today in the table that he has given to us.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for your glorious word.

And Lord, I'm so thankful for these gracious gifts you have given to us.

Lord, the table of the Lord.