The Righteousness God Requires #2

God is a God most high. He is the eternal, immutable God, and He not only created the outer man, He created the inner man as well, and intended that to be a pristine sanctuary of worship and obedience and devotion to Him. Is there a list of requirements that must be met before God will let you into heaven?

What exactly are those requirements? And do you and I have even a snowball's chance of meeting them? Hello and welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and today as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word, he'll bring us part two of a message titled, The Righteous God Requires.

If you're ready, let's get started now. Here's Don from the Truth Pulpit. There are six times that Jesus does this in these 28 verses. Look at verse 21 where He says, You have heard that the ancients were told, You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. But I say to you, notice Jesus speaking on His own authority. Jesus not relying on a past oral tradition. Jesus presupposes and manifests His authority to definitively state what the Word of God means. He alone can do that from His own sui generis authority, because He alone has the authority of God.

Everything that we teach is derivative of what's said in Scripture, not based on an independent authority, not based on an independent Word from God. Jesus is not in that position. He says, I can tell you what God's Word means, because I am God. And so He says in verse 22, But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever says to his brother, You good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. You've heard that the issue is, don't commit murder.

I'm here to tell you that that's only part of the story. Jesus says, I say to you that you need to be concerned about the sinful anger that is in your heart, because that's guilty enough to send you to hell. And so, don't be satisfied, watch this, don't be satisfied, don't congratulate yourself on the mere fact that you haven't literally taken the physical life of another human being through the actions of your own hands.

Don't be satisfied with that. The question is, what about the anger that's in your heart? What about the way that you slay people with your words? What about the way that you judge people and turn people against one another with the wicked things that you say?

What about that going on in your heart? Jesus says, that's the righteousness that God requires. Don't excuse yourself from the greater inner standard simply because you've met a lesser external standard.

That's what he says. And he goes on and you can see the same principle being played out in verse 27. When he says, You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You focused on the external action and young men who are raised up in a Christian or a quasi-Christian environment might congratulate themselves on the fact that they haven't sinned with a girl physically. What Jesus says is, fine, but understand that the righteousness of God goes far deeper and examines the lust of your heart and your desires to do that which you're too scared to do in your flesh. And the fact that you desire it and want it and long after it and look in ways that are completely inappropriate exposes the sinfulness of your heart.

It's in the heart that God requires righteousness. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you're just starting to feel the sense that Isaiah must have felt when he saw the glory of God in the temple. You say, whoa, it's me. The holiness of God is being unveiled before my eyes and I find that I'm a man of unclean lips. Not only am I a man of unclean lips, I live among a people of unclean lips.

This totally undoes me. This shatters my pretensions of being a good person. This shatters any idea that I have of standing before God and saying I'm good enough. God says, why should I let you into heaven?

And you say, oh, I'm pretty good. Did right by my fellow man, never killed anyone. God says, what about your heart? Say, I didn't wait.

No one told me that was the issue. Well, no one that hears this message can say that, can they? No one who reads the Bible can say that. And so we have this powerful declaration from Jesus that says understand what the righteous standard of God is. He goes on in verse 31.

You can see the pattern again. He said, it was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce. You know, as long as you file the right paperwork, you're okay.

Just fill out the right certificate and you've satisfied the demands of God's law for righteousness. Jesus says, no, I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery, whether you've gone through the right paperwork or not. If your motives are wrong, if you have no biblical justification for divorce, you're guilty. And he says at the conclusion of verse 32, whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

See again the pattern. What was said was, it's the externals that matter. Don't commit murder. Don't commit physical adultery.

Do the right certificates when you file for divorce. And Jesus says, anger, lust, uphold the sanctity of marriage in every way. Look at verse 33. Again, you've heard that the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. You know, if they had these silly things that you could, if you swore by the gold of the temple, you were bound, but if, you know, in essence, this is not right, but in essence, just to make the illustration, because we'll cover this later, if you got your fingers crossed behind your back, then the vow doesn't count. Jesus says no. He says, what matters is your word and your integrity. Verse 34, but I say to you, you see it again, but I say to you.

Let's look at that again. Verse 22, but I say to you. Verse 28, but I say to you. Verse 32, but I say to you. Verse 34, but I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Verse 37, let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no, anything beyond these is of evil. Tell the truth.

Be honest, or it doesn't matter. If you're honest, you don't need to swear by anything, and if you're dishonest, swearing to it doesn't help. It's what I say to you, Jesus says. Notice that for the disciple of Christ, the word of Christ is dispositive here. Jesus is making an assertion of his lordship when he says these things, but I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you. We recognize that embedded in that is an assertion of absolute authority, and understand this, beloved, that as he's making statements and declaring law that governs inner heart righteousness, what is he saying except this? That he is Lord over the inner man. He is asserting his dominion, not only of inanimate creation, not only of external behavior, Jesus Christ asserts his authority over the human conscience and over the human heart. And as you understand these things, he rises, as it were, in our mind.

He rises in our hearts the exalted authority of Christ who can declare such things, and they be true. Look at verse 38. You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Here it is again, but I say to you, don't resist an evil person. What had happened here is that the Pharisees had turned that into, if they were wronged, they turned that injunction, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, to an entitlement to inflict similar punishment on the one who had hurt them, when actually it was just intended to be a restraint that vigilant justice wouldn't go beyond bounds.

They said, that entitles me, you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back. What Jesus says, that's an entirely wrong view of the law. So you need to be like God.

You need to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And he appeals to an undeniable truth about the nature of God. As he reigns over the creation of those who by and large rebel against him, what's he do? He keeps the orbits of the planets going.

The sun rises up and the sun comes down and the rain comes and the rain comes down. And God does not simply send that blessing on those who belong to him, he sends it on those who hate him. He sends it on those who would reject and rebel against him. That's who God is, that's what he does.

He blesses with great common grace a humanity and rebellion against him, with daily acts of kindness and provision that they never give him thanks for. And Jesus says, you look at the law and you twist it and say, I'm entitled to my piece of flesh, when he says you should compare yourself to the eternal God and see what he does with his enemies. You should respond to your enemies in the way that God responds to his.

You know, look, speaking collectively, speaking generally, not aiming at this at anyone, just kind of collectively sharing in the guilt of humanity here. Who do we think we are to inflict punishment to inflict punishment on others and to bear grudges and carry these things out against people who have wronged us when God has dealt with us completely differently. God has been gracious to you and your sin. God has been gracious to you and your rebellion if you know Christ. And not only that, God is gracious to his enemies.

Well, by what standard do we say a different set of rules applies to me and I'm going to get my piece of flesh out of this? By what justification that would satisfy the holy character of God do we think that way? That's inconceivable.

It's wretched. Especially for those of us who know Christ, especially for those of us within the body of Christ. I've been offended.

Okay, you've been offended. What did Christ do with the offenses that were lodged against him? He bore them quietly and went to Calvary and laid his life down. And Scripture says, freely you've been forgiven, freely forgive. By what standard of behavior does anyone think that they can withhold that in the body of Christ and think that they're satisfying and pleasing to God?

There's nothing of the sort. Jesus will hear nothing of it. And what we must understand is that this starts within the heart. This starts within the desires and attitudes of the heart with a proper understanding of who God is.

Oh, beloved, stay with me here, will you? For I speak for the good of your soul. A proper understanding of who God is that he's gracious to his creation. Gracious to those who are in rebellion against him. And he has had a special grace upon us as believers in Christ. Beloved, what you are to do is to take your cues from a God like that and say, oh, I will reflect that. That has a persuasive, sanctifying power in my heart that I must be like the God who saved me rather than step apart and inflict my own punishment when I see fit. Verse 43. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies. And so we've seen six sections where Christ has spoken this way, beginning in verse 21, verse 27, 31, 33, 38, and 43.

But I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you, but I say to you six times. And so what do we take away from that? Well, one thing that occurs to us is the majestic authority of Christ and the immeasurable courage and authority with which he spoke. He came into a predominant way of thinking and challenged it on his own authority.

Said, you're thinking all wrong. I'll tell you how to think about the righteousness of God and what he requires. And then we step back further and we consider the Bible as a book of two parts Old and New Testament.

And we say, wow, the consistency between one part to the other is amazing. To see that Jesus was here to extend and apply the word that was given originally to Israel rather than to contradict it. And of course that would be the case if it was God's word.

It was going to be fulfilled, not set aside. And then we look at it historically by way of background and we realize what the Pharisees had done. Corrupting the law, reducing it to an obtainable standard of external righteousness. And Jesus says, and they're the teachers, and Jesus says that's not what God requires.

He just dropped a nuclear bomb in the way that everybody thought. There was a total meltdown of what their whole culture and religious thought was based upon. He says that's not the righteousness that God requires. You know beloved, it's troubling to realize the significance of what Jesus is saying here. God examines your thoughts and looks beyond external behavior to what's going on in your thoughts and attitudes and motives.

You know why that's so troubling? I'm guessing that many of you have never thought about it this way. You sin, you can sin, without doing anything. You can be sitting in your chair alone in the living room and sinning greatly against God as you nourish your grudges, your angers, as you let your sinful imaginations run away with you.

On and on it goes. You can be sitting in perfect stillness physically and be sinning greatly against God because your anger breaks the commandment against murder, your lust breaks the commandment against adultery. And what does all of this do to us except this? It lays bare under the searching white spotlight of Scripture and shows us how much you and I fall short of the glory of God and how far short we fall of the righteousness that God requires.

What all of this does for us, all of it brings us down to this simple point. We need a Savior, don't we? We need someone who can come and take our guilt away. We need someone who does satisfy the standard of God, the righteousness of God, and have him put his arm around us, as it were, to save us, to rescue us, to redeem us, to deliver us from the guilt that God's Word shows to be true about each and every one of us. We need a Savior, don't we?

You need a Savior, don't you? Well, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ is this, is that God has provided a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has provided a Savior sufficient and perfect to meet the need of your guilty heart. That Christ offered himself up as a sacrifice to God so that sinners just like you could be forgiven. While the Word of the law of God and the exposition of the righteousness that God requires brings us low, it does so. God wounds us, God convicts us, for the purpose of bringing grace to bear once we're all in agreement of where we're at. I'm guilty!

I can't hide that, I don't deny it! To which point the law then becomes the tutor, as it were, that leads you to Christ, that hands you over to Christ and says yes, God knows about your guilt, and God has provided a Savior to address that guilt so that your guilt can be taken away. So that what we remember at the communion table is not an incidental ritual of external Christianity, this is a symbol of everything that we need in light of the righteousness that God requires. And the glory of the gospel is that God forgives sinners just like you who trust in Christ. Look over at Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, as we end on the note which conviction is meant to drive you to, to Christ Jesus crucified for sinners, to Christ Jesus the one who alone can turn away the wrath of God, to Christ Jesus who alone can take away your guilt. In verse 6, in light of the helpless conviction that we feel under the weight of the true righteousness that God requires, your heart should be thirsty to hear the good words that the apostle Paul wrote some two thousand years ago. Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writing that which is certainly true and trustworthy, writing that which sinners like you can stake their eternal destiny on, he says this, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Guilty sinner, there is a way forward of hope for you. It is that God receives sinners who put their faith in Christ. That Christ died for ones just like you. That Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to cleanse all of the internal and external guilt of your life, and to bring you and to present you blameless before God today, right now, in an instant when you put your faith in him. For the rest of us, with a fresh sense of humility and gratitude, we come to the table. The table of communion, the Lord's table. And this table reminds us that God didn't give us what we deserved.

He didn't leave us to the judgment that was rightfully ours to bear. Scripture says in 1 John 1-7, that the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Oh, how that ought to echo in your ear and resound in your heart, that the deepest guilt that you wouldn't want anyone to know about has been cleansed by the blood of Christ.

And that's what we remember. The bread being a token of the body that was nailed to the cross, the cup being a token, a symbol of the blood that was literally shed on Calvary. I would ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians 11 just to prepare us to take communion in the proper way. Communion's not a light-hearted matter.

It's not casual. It's something that we come to after an earnest examination of ourselves. And I would just remind you that in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 27, it says, Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. My friends, generally speaking, if you have trusted Christ, you're welcome to share this table of communion with us today.

It's the Lord's table. And those who belong to the Lord are rightly ones to partake of it. If you have rebelled against Christ or you say, I know I don't know him, then just let the elements pass and let the words of Scripture be that which focus your attention on. And beloved, for those of you that are professing Christians, I would just encourage you that if there's some lingering issue of sin in your life, think twice before you partake of that, if it's not with a repentant spirit.

If there's lingering bitterness in your heart or anger against someone that's in your heart, you should let the elements pass. Because this is a table that says, I've repented of all known sin, and therefore I receive these elements as a symbol of my union with Christ. We don't profane that by holding on to sin in our hearts where God looks for righteousness. We don't profane that by taking elements when, in fact, in our hearts, God knows that there is sin there. But with that said, beloved, and now speaking intimately to those of you who are of like precious faith, if you view your sins with a broken and a contrite heart, if you look and say, I know that my life is displeasing, I don't want it to be that way, but I am trusting in Christ alone, and there's nothing in my life that I would withhold from His sanctifying hand, then you of all people, I would say, Christ invites you to come. Christ invites you to partake of the elements. Christ died for people just like you.

And this becomes a symbol that all is well with your soul, that all of your sins have been washed away, and that God accepts you for the sake of His beloved Son. That's Don Green bringing our study for today to a close here on The Truth Pulpit. Well, friend, if you'd like to find out more about this ministry, please visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Once more, that's thetruthpulpit.com.

And now before we go, here again is Don with a closing thought. I want to let you know that we have a number of topical series available for download or CD requests at our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Issues like the place of Roman Catholicism, anxiety, transgenderism, homosexuality, and the charismatic movement. You'll find series on those topics and so many more at our free offers link at thetruthpulpit.com.

I invite you to take advantage of them all. God bless you. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. Thanks, Don. And friend, we're out of time for today. I'm Bill Wright, hoping you'll join us next time when Don Green continues teaching God's people God's word here on The Truth Pulpit.