Actions Speak Louder Than Words, Herb Miller -
2 Kentucky stable owners had developed a pretty big rivalry. One spring each of them entered a horse in a local steeplechase. Thinking it might help him outdo his friend, one of the farmers hired a professional jockey. The race began, and the 2 horses were neck and neck way out in front of the rest at the last fence, but suddenly they both fell and threw their riders.
The professional jockey remounted quickly and rode on to win the race. As he rode triumphantly to the paddock, the jockey was surprised to see the farmer who hired him, not smiling, but hopping mad.
"What's the matter?" the jockey asked. "I won, didn't I?"
"Oh, yea, you won all right, but you crossed the finish line on the wrong horse." In his hurry to remount after the fall, the jockey had jumped on the other guy’s horse.
There are a lot of people racing on what looks like the way to heaven, but they’re on the wrong horse. In our efforts to get the quick fix, we easily jump on the wrong animal, and too many aren’t realizing it until it’s too late.
“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Sound like something you’d want? I do! And in Rom. 4:6, Paul says this is speaking of the man to whom God credits righteousness.
We’re going to look into righteousness today because of *Mt 5:20.
I’m interested in entering the Kingdom, are you? And I’m interested in learning what it means to be a Kingdom kind of person here in the SOTM. And I’m real interested in what Jesus meant when He said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Righteousness -- It’s one of those words we hear a lot but don’t often think about. It means “conforming to a standard or norm” - more simply put, “being good enough for heaven”
-Also means: “to satisfy the requirement of the Law (obedience or punishment)” – you do this every time you drive a car. You satisfy the requirements of the traffic laws by obeying them or you satisfy the requirements of the law by paying a fine.
It may not be immediately clear what righteousness has to do with us going to heaven, but it does have something to do with it:
(Rom 5:21) so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
As Jesus speaks about righteousness here, He touches on 3 ways people can try to make it into heaven - 2 that don’t work, and the one way that does - 2 horses that people jump on that are the wrong horses, and one that’s right:
I. Avoiding Righteousness (v17)
This is the person who tries to make behavior and belief no issue at all: “You should be able to live in the Kingdom without rules.”
-Up to this point, Jesus has been speaking of “those” and “you,” but now He begins to invoke His own authority in life’s matters: “Truly, I say…” He’s speaking with a voice of authority, not like the other Jewish teachers – a radical! – a coup! No rules!
That’s one of the attempts to avoid righteousness: 1. How I live doesn’t matter – God’s going to let me into heaven just because He’s so good. There aren’t many Church-going people who really believe that, but there are several who accept another misconception: 2. Jesus did away with rules and now I just have to love and let the Spirit lead me.
It sounds easy enough: no standards of right and wrong means no wrongs! Legalize drugs, and drug users won’t be lawbreakers; legalize prostitution, and prostitutes won’t be arrested; provide a means to survive sex outside of marriage instead of teaching against it, and those who practice it can do so with a clear conscience.
See, if we would just not make righteousness an issue, then everyone could go to heaven!
Ill – it’s as if our lives are hung in the scales and rather than have them look bad, we remove the weights from the other side of the scale, and now we look good!
Jesus says, “Don’t think it.” That’s not My plan. Being a Kingdom person doesn’t mean I’m a person to whom righteousness doesn’t matter. Jesus had just said,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (5:6). And He will say, “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. (6:33)”
*v17 - Awe, c’mon, Jesus. Does God really mean it? Does there really have to be a list of rules? Isn’t that kind of intolerant? Kind of arrogant?
But I ask, “Would you really want to be part of a Kingdom where there were no rules, no standards of right or wrong?” The cry goes out, “You can’t legislate morality!” and I wonder what they think the FDA does, or what the Bureau of Weights and Measures is all about, or where the police force gets its authority. Would you really want to walk the street or drive down the highway in a society where there were no rules? How could we expect the Kingdom of God to have any less?
(1 Jn 3:4) “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”
The very essence of sin is living as if there were no rules – in other words, avoiding righteousness. Jesus says this way doesn’t work. Wrong horse!
II. Adjusting Righteousness (v18-19)
This is the person who accepts that behavior matters, but still doesn’t want to have to change his.
The Pharisees had done this. They had taken the Law, limited its commands and extended its permissions. It’s exactly what most of the world does. We might call it “dumbing down” or “lowering the bar.” The process is simple. You start with your behavior, and rather than changing it to be considered righteous, you keep your behavior and adjust the standard of righteousness.
Ill - It’s as if, after the weights are in the other side of the scale, your life comes up short, so you adjust the scale until it says, “OK.” That way, even though you would come up short, you don’t say it is.
-Unfortunately, this doesn’t have a whole lot to do with reality. I believe it was Abe Lincoln who’s remembered for saying, “If a cow has 4 legs and a tail, and you call the tail a leg, how many legs does it now have? 4. It doesn’t matter what you call the tail, it’s still a tail!”
Why would anyone want to adjust the standard of righteousnes? Because we realize that when we stand before God we come up short.
Ill – I remember a certain girl – a college student – who was almost engaged to a guy, and the 2 of them decided to have their picture taken together. They had a coupon for a deal at Sears or someplace, and made an appointment to go. He dressed up and went down to her dorm to pick her up. Little did he know how long she had been working on looking good for this picture! There she was, the epitome of beauty – wearing a pretty gray and pink taffeta dress. Her hair was perfect. Her face was radiant. Her smile, well I though it looked great! And as she came out into the lobby to see if I approved or not, she said, “I hope you like the way I look because it can’t get any better!” I looked at her and the HS put these words in my mouth: “Hubba Hubba!” Still, Carrie, like any other girl, felt there were things about her appearance that could be better, even though she was standing before me looking her very best. I didn’t see any room for improvement! (I still have that picture).
Listen to how we look as we try to put ourselves together for our appearance before God:
(Isa 64:6) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
That’s not just our sins! Even our righteous acts aren’t good enough, and we come to appear before the King dressed in the filthy rags of our own behavior.
Righteousness by adjusting it? Jesus says here, “Won’t work. This isn’t the Kingdom person.” And if you’re counting on adjusting the scales to justify the way you live, you’re on the wrong horse.
*vv. 18-19
Now, the 3rd way, and the only way that works - the only way a person can enter heaven -
III. Accepting Righteousness (v20)
Ill – Think of someone who’s squeaky clean – someone whose moral reputation is flawless – someone you look at and think, “No way I could ever even come close to that kind of life. He’s perfect. He doesn’t drink, smoke or chew or go with the girls that do. He doesn’t even want to.” Whenever people are trying to think of a godly person, he’s the one they think of. In fact, he makes you sick!
That’s kind of how the Pharisees were looked at in the 1st century. They were the moral and religious “fat cats.” And Jesus says to His disciples and to a group of ordinary people, “Unless your righteousness goes way far beyond that of these guys, there’s no way at all you can be considered a Kingdom person.” He didn’t say you have to be close to that good. He used exhaustive words to say you have to be far more righteous than that.” Bummer!
The Pharisees and scribes had counted in the OT 248 commands (things you had to do), 365 prohibitions (things you have to not do). Let’s say a Pharisee is keeping that law pretty well. In fact, out of 613 rules, he keeps 610 – not bad. That’s a 99%. OK. Now, a person might be able to do at least that well. Why, someone could even do better by keeping the 3 other rules! But would 1% better be “far surpassing” the other guy? You can’t do it! You can’t “greatly exceed” that level of obedience to the Law! You can’t have a much higher degree of righteousness. That’s not what Jesus is saying we need.
-We don’t need just “more righteousness,” we need a different righteousness. You may not be able to have a much higher degree of righteousness, but you can have a much higher kind.
The Pharisee kind was based on themselves.
-Jesus told a story to show the difference:
(*Luke 18:9-14) To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
There’s a difference between the person who trusts in his own righteousness and the Kingdom person. There’s a different kind of righteousness – there’s the kind we try to construct on our own by good works and fail, and there’s the kind that comes from God declaring us righteous in spite of ourselves.
(Rom 9:30-32) What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works."
Paul was counting on this different righteousness to save him: (Phil 3:9) “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” All through the book of Romans he speaks of this righteousness that God credits to our account – not that we suddenly are behaving as perfect people, but we’re suddenly credited with being perfect people because Jesus satisfies the demand of the law for us. Jesus paid the debt of our punishment for us.
Here’s how our righteousness can far exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees – when it’s the righteousness that God places on us because of our faith in Jesus Christ.
(Isa 61:10) I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Ill - This sounds a whole lot better to me. The weights on the other side of the scale make our puny contribution look like nothing, but Jesus brings His own righteousness and places it over ours, and the scales balance perfectly.
(2 Co 5:21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The only way to real righteousness is to accept the righteousness of God He places upon us
Conclusion:
(Needed, 1000 Points)
An active, dedicated, hard working church member dreamed that he passed away after a long and satisfying life. As he approached the Pearly Gates, he noticed a sign posted which read, “Entrance Requirement: 1000 points.”
The man looked a bit worried. He walked up to the angel guarding the entrance into heaven and said, “That requirement seems pretty high. Do you think I could possibly have accumulated that many points?” The angel kindly replied, “Well, why don’t you tell me what you have done, and we will see how may points you have.”
“OK, now,” the man said enthusiastically, “I was an immersed believer in Christ for 32 years, and I had a perfect SS attendance record for 14 straight years. Also, I taught a SS class for over 12 years.” “That’s wonderful!” said the angel. “Now let me see. That’s worth - - ONE point.”
The man suddenly became very pale and began to perspire, but he went on “Well, I tithed all my income, and sometimes gave even more. Also, I served as an elder in the church, and I served on the finance committee and the building committee. I attended every work day at the church; I mowed the grass and did repairs and painting. At every fellowship supper I helped set up the chairs and tables and then stayed late and helped take them down.”
He look expectantly at the angel, who smiled sympathetically and answered politely, “Fine, fine. That’s worth - - ANOTHER point.”
The man looked as if he were about to go into shock, and spoke rapidly with a sense of desperation: “I invited a lot of people to church, and often went calling with the preacher. I won quite a few people to Christ. I supported the camp program, and let them use my van to take kids to camp. For a while I was even a forwarding agent for a missionary family. And I never cheated on my income tax.
The angel tried to speak encouragingly as he said, “That is really great. That’s worth still another point. Now you have - - THREE.”
The poor man’s face sagged with futility, and his shoulders drooped as he seemed resigned to his fate. “I may as well give up,” he said. “I don’t think I can ever be good enough to get into heaven. In fact, is seems impossible for me or anybody else to get in there without the grace of God.”
“Ah, now,” said the angel brightly, “Now you’re talking! That in itself is worth the whole 1000 points!”
At that point, the man woke up; and though his bed was soaked with perspiration, he had smile on his face and a whole new outlook on his Christian life.
Isn’t it wonderful to think that we can have righteousness credited to our account even though for a lifetime we’ve been messing it all up?
What we need to ask last is “Where does that righteousness take you?”
I picture myself standing in front of the judgment throne of God. The Accuser is there. (Rev 12:10) calls him “the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night” He’s there. And as I stand before God’s throne, he’s shrieking out his accusations:
“See him? He lied. He was selfish. He lusted. There were times he acted like You didn’t even exist. He was disobedient to his parents. He was apathetic.”
And all I can do is hang my head. Even the good I may have done doesn’t outweigh the fact that I’m guilty. The accuser’s right.
“Look at him! Your perfect law says he has to pay! You can’t let him into heaven! Not now! Not since he messed up! He’s mine!”
There’s nothing I can say in my own defense. Sure enough, standing there in front of the Father I look just as bad as the Accuser says. But then Jesus comes! He takes off His own robe, perfectly clean and white. He wraps it around me, and it covers every spot and stain on my own filthy rags. And the Father looks down at me and says, “He’s righteous! The requirement of the Law has been met. The punishment price is paid. I declare him righteous.” And the Accuser is silenced.
Ill - The Chinese character for "righteousness" is made up of two separate characters - one standing for a lamb, the other for me. When "lamb" is placed directly above "me," a new character - "righteousness" is formed.
When you stand before God’s throne - and you will - what will God see? Will you try to stand on your own good works, or will you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ placed upon you? Will the lamb be place over you so that God sees righteousness?
