Judgement Mercy And Faith

As most of you probably saw in what we sent out, the theme for the general conference that we had two weeks ago was judgment, mercy, and faith. Now, I know that all of you are familiar enough with the Bible to know that clearly that's pointed out as something that Jesus said we need to understand.

And clearly, from what we went over during the conference a couple of weeks ago, I would imagine we'll continue to think about that, not only through this year, maybe even into next year, as far as we could use the same theme again, and still perhaps not cover all that we need to regarding this topic. But I want to begin here at Matthew 5.

I guess if we turn to enough Scriptures, you'll have to at least keep looking through the Bible to find some of these things. But in Matthew 5, I want to point out what Jesus said. He said in verse 17, Don't think that I have come to abolish the law. Don't think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill. And, barely I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jock, stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until it is accomplished.

Therefore, he talks about those who teach breaking the law as opposed to those who do, and who keep the law. And in verse 20, he says, I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you can never enter the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, as you see here in Matthew.

But it's referring, he references the kingdom of God as well in other places. But here he tells all of us that if we're going to be a part of the kingdom, if we want to be a king and priest in God's family, if we want to serve God and humanity for all eternity, well, then our righteousness is going to need to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Now, what does that mean? What does that mean to you?

You know, actually, the Pharisees were quite good. They were quite good at lawkeeping. They had all kinds of rules, all kinds of fences built around the law. You know, they used over the course of centuries and then millennia, they came up with what they would call the Talmud, which is an extensive listing of all the dos and don'ts of what you can do, what you can't do according to the law. And yet, of course, we find that Jesus said that they missed the point.

They missed the real intent of the law. And I think sometimes we would like to have a Talmud ourselves. Sometimes we like to know, well, exactly what do I have to do and what should I not do? And see, yes, we do need to know a good amount about what God says we should do and what we should not, but more importantly than that, He says there are weightier matters of the law.

And so that's what we read here in Matthew 23. Matthew 23 is, the whole chapter, is a pretty much scathing indictment of the Pharisees who were good lawkeepers. They were, you know, quite opinionated about what should be done, about how they should look, about what they should do, about how far they could go on the Sabbath, about whether or not they should do this or that. They had a lot of ideas, had a lot of rules. Some of them were more strict than others. The Pharisees themselves called themselves the separatists. You know, we're different. We do better than everybody else. And yet, you know, you find Jesus saying that our righteousness has to exceed what they were doing.

And so, how do we understand that? Here in Matthew 23, again, we're not going to go through this. We do, at times, go through this during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Sometimes it's good to focus on the Pharisees' hypocrisy and the need to seek sincerity and truth, which is what Jesus is going to point out. But he says in verse 23, woe to you, tribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You very minutely tithe. You tithe of mint and dill and coming, and yet you have neglected the weightier matters of the law.

And then he says what they are, judgment and mercy and faith. He says it's these that you ought to practice. It's these you ought to have practiced, but without neglecting the other, not neglecting the law, and certainly we don't want to dismiss or disregard the law, because it shows us, you know, where we sin, it shows us where we're wrong, it shows us directly the direction from God about what sin is and what we need to turn away from.

But see, all the law-keeping in the world will not earn us salvation. We need to focus on the weightier matters of the law. He says it is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the other. And so this is the topic that we were studying and thinking about.

We had several different discussions about how important it is to focus on the areas of judgment and mercy and faith. And actually that describes a way to live. It describes how God wants each of us to live. It describes Christianity. And it tells us how it is that God is interested in our heart. He's interested in our attitude, our outlook, our desire to please Him. And certainly, whenever you read this, it tells us that we should keep the law, but there's more to it than that.

There's more that God wants. There's more that He is asking. And it's not just doing the right things, but having the right attitude and actually having the right character, which God requires of His children. See, that's what He's doing. He's not just put in place a system or a law.

You know, if you keep it well enough, then you can have what I hold out before you, eternal life. He says, I'm cultivating my children. I'm nurturing them. I'm loving them. I truly do love them. I am merciful toward them. But they have to understand the rules. They have to understand the law. But they have to also understand mercy, and they also have to understand humility and walking by faith. And this is what Jesus was calling the weightier matters of the law. Here in John 1, and this always is going to take us back to the purpose of human life. How it is that God has chosen to deal with men.

He breathed into Adam the breath of life. He became a living soul. And yet a soul that could die if he sinned. And of course he did. Adam and Eve both sinned. And so they, in a sense, brought upon the rest of us all humanity since then, you know, that inclination, that deception. Not that they did, but Satan perpetuated that to begin with, and he then continued it. He began it and then perpetuated it throughout, you know, people at the time of the flood.

You know, evil was in the heart of man continually. Obviously, you know, not what God wanted. He wanted a heart that was responsive to him. He wanted a heart that was, that saw, and every one of us have to see, how much I need God. How much I need help. How much I need Jesus Christ. Here in John chapter 1, talking about when Jesus came to the earth, the Word, in verse 14, the Word became flesh and lived among us, dwelled among us, and we have seen as glory the glory as of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.

See, this is an incredible blessing to understand what God did in sending Jesus to the earth. In verse 1, it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The great God and the Word always existed. And yet, there was a time when out of love for us, out of love for man, out of love for our continued life, he sent Jesus Christ to the earth.

Then in verse 12, he says, but to all who received him, well, let me back up to verse 10. He came, he was in the world, he came into the world, and the world came into being through him, and yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own. He came to his own people, the people of Israel, the descendants of Israel and Judah, and his own people didn't accept him.

But in verse 12, to all who did receive him, to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become the children of God, who were born not of blood or the will of the flesh or the will of man, but born of God. See, now, that's a spiritual concept.

That's a concept that has to be in the forefront of our minds. It has to be a continual reminder. If we want to learn judgment and mercy and faith, and we want to learn to live that way, we want to be mindful that God wants us to be his children. He wants us to have his nature.

He wants us to grow in his character. And that's not simply being an automaton and simply doing what I'm told, although we do have to do what God tells us. But he wants us to do that willingly. He wants us to do that lovingly. He wants us to do that returning his love. I think it's pretty evident when you read Luke 18. Luke 18. Jesus gave a parable here, one that is actually quite significant whenever you think about what is it that God wants.

Did God want what the Pharisees had to offer? No, that didn't please God. Because we read in Hebrews that it's impossible to please God without what? In Hebrews 11 it says it's impossible to please God without... anybody? Faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And so clearly, the Pharisees had some limitations. They didn't have what all of us have available to us today. But we do see here in Luke 18 a parable that Jesus spoke that made a contrast between those who were unacceptable and who were going to have to be exceeded and someone who was accepted by God.

Here in Luke 18 verse 9, he told this parable, He said it to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. And so here he's speaking and clearly many of the parables that he gave, not only his disciples would hear, but most of the Pharisees and those who were around, they would be given this information. But he says he taught this parable regarding those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Two men, verse 10, went up to the temple to pray one's a Pharisee, and the other is a very lowly publican, tax collector.

And the Pharisee, in verse 11, standing by himself, is praying, Thus, God, I thank you that I am not like all other people. The thieves, the rogues, the adulterers, even like this, I'm sure he could have used a descriptive term, and he said, I am a good collector over here. I fast twice a week. I give tithe of all I possess, my income. See, what was this man's thought pattern? He said, well, I'm pretty, you know, God's surely lucky to have me. He is impressive or impressed with how good I keep the law. And, of course, that wasn't the case at all, because in verse 13, the tax collector said, standing off by himself, he wouldn't even look up to heaven. But beating on his breast said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus says, I tell you, this man, this tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. Now, there may be several different lessons there, but I only use this to point out how that, the attitude that the Pharisee had just stank to high heaven, we could say. God was very displeased with this impressive lawkeeper. But he said, this tax collector who has properly judged himself, Father, I'm a sinner. I need help. Well, he said, verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. See, it was a matter of his outlook toward God. Now, did this man, this tax collector, know everything he had ever had to know to be a part of the kingdom of God? No, I don't guess. But he was, Jesus was teaching attitude. He was teaching the character that God is looking for. Now it is we judge ourselves, and we come to learn to make proper judgments, even regarding how we respect the law, how we respect and then how we honor the law of God, how it applies. See, we see a description of keeping the Passover in the Old Testament. It's quite different than the Passover that all of us kept a couple of months ago. You know, we keep the Passover, yes, but we keep it in a way that Jesus said we should do. And he said there's a reason for that, because it involves us coming to learn to make judgments and understanding mercy and understanding walking in faith. I want to go through several verses somewhat quickly here. We're not going to make this too lengthy, I hope.

You can look back and see in the Old Testament, see, clearly in the parable that I spoke about, the Pharisee and the public, you know, Jesus was pointing out the need that all of us have to have a right heart before God, to not miss the intent of the law. See, what we find when we read in the Old Testament, and you can read this in numerous places, actually many places in the Old Testament, you read in Ecclesiastes 12, let Solomon conclude. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13, he said, we should fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Now, you can read that and say, okay, I know that's what I'm supposed to do. Let's see again. You know, that's not something we fully do in every aspect. You read about David in Psalm 119, I think verse 97, saying, oh, how love I thy law. So he also understood the value of the law, the significance of it. But you also read in Psalm 51 how David said, I realize that you don't want us to just beat ourselves up and always sacrificing animals. What you want is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. I think that's Psalm 51, 17 or thereabouts. See, those are all statements that we read and we benefit from. I want us to look at Micah chapter 6 because you see, in a sense, this is a statement that in some ways could be said to be the summary statement or summary theme of the entire section of minor prophets. You see a lot of different prophets saying numerous things, some to Israel, some to Judah, some about calamities that were going to come, some about judgments that would come upon the land, some about mercy that God would extend, some, of course, even about prophetic things that are yet to be. But here in Micah chapter 6 and verse 6 he said, You know, with what shall I choose to come before God? With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Should I come before Him with burnt offerings with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body with the sin of my soul? See, he was making a statement about, well, you know, if you see you sinned and the system that the Israelites were given were simply to teach them or try to bring them a recognition of their sins. But he goes on in verse 8 to say, He has told you, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God? See, as I said, that's a summary statement of kind of the minor prophets. It's a statement that ties clearly together with Matthew 23, 23, where Jesus said, The weightier matters of the law are judgment and mercy and faith. So we can see several statements in the Old Testament to point out what God is doing with men is not just simply causing them to obey, but causing them to obey out of love and causing them to have a heart that is close to God. In Matthew 5, we read one section there as we began the sermon. But in Matthew 5, you see Jesus, and of course, chapter 5 and 6 and 7 would be considered the Sermon on the Mount. It would tell us more about what God was expecting, what Christians should be expected to do. But here in Matthew 5, Jesus explained an additional component of the law. It wasn't enough just not to kill and not to steal and not to commit adultery. It wasn't enough to keep the Sabbath. It wasn't enough not to be an idolater.

He explained an additional component, a spiritual application of the law. There was far more to it than just the law, this spiritual intent of changing man's heart. So here in chapter 5, verse 21, you've heard of said and old, You shall not murder whoever murders me liable of judgment. When I say to you, if you're angry with your brother's sister, you're liable of judgment. If you insult a brother, you'll be liable of counsel. If you say you fool, you should be liable of hellfire, the hen of fire. To here he starts elaborating on the fact that, well, the law of value shall not kill. There's not just simply a literal application, a letter of the law, but the spiritual intent deals with the heart of man. It deals with the anger and the wrath and the hostility of man that often goes unchecked. We tend to open our mouth and change feet or open our mouth and have it plenty in gear without even letting up on the clutch. We tend to say things that sometimes reveal the heart of man. Verse 27, you've heard it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again, a totally magnified way of looking at the law. Certainly adultery is wrong, but so is fornication, and so is so many other sexual sins. That would involve lust. Down in verse 38, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, do not resist an evil doer, but if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to the other. If anyone wants to sue you, take your coat and give you a cloak as well.

Jesus was applying the law in a spiritual way. He was making judgments about what it is, how it is the law applies to us, and how it is God is purging our hearts and our minds. In Matthew 22, you see the example that we are all aware of. In verse 34, Pharisees heard, and Jesus said, silence the Sadducees. They gathered together and said, one of them, a lawyer asked a question to test him. Of course, they didn't want to know the answer, but they're just trying to trick him. He said, teacher, which commandment is the greatest? Which commandment in the law is the greatest? And he said, well, verse 37, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And that's the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments, saying all the law and the prophets, he said, you want a summary statement? I can give you one. I can tell you what the real intent is, is to truly come to love God, to obey God out of love, to serve God. And certainly, as Jesus magnified the law, as he explained the spiritual intent, well, then he wants us to think about the weightier matters of judgment and mercy and faith.

See, there's no other name under heaven through which we can be saved except that of Jesus Christ. In Acts 4, you read this at the beginning of the New Testament church.

Peter and John were beginning a ministry that probably in many ways was, in a sense, kind of unimaginable today. And it was a blessing to them because they were healing the sick, not that they were doing it, of course, but that Jesus was doing it through them, and they had healed a man.

And if we drop down in Acts 4, verse 10, it says, Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that this man, the one who had just been healed is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders. It has become the cornerstone. And he says in verse 12, There is salvation in no other name.

There is no other way to have eternal life. There is no other way to have the resurrection from the dead, except through faith in Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals, by which we must be saved. See, God in the Word, the Father and the Son are working out a plan where they want us to be in their divine family, but it's going to be on their terms, and it will be under their supervision.

Faith in Jesus Christ is extremely important. And of course, if we look in Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, and we certainly need to be able to tie together the entire Bible, and specifically the New Testament, because the epistles of Paul and the writings of Peter and James and John, they all tie together with the Gospels and with the Old Testament. And yet, here in Ephesians 4, you see Paul telling the people in Ephesus, he tells them, verse 11, God gave some gifts to the church.

He said some are designated as apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So he sets up a way to teach and to preach and to give to the church guidance so that the saints come to have judgment and mercy and faith. Now, of course, it doesn't say that, but it says, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until everyone comes to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Till everyone comes to maturity. See, that's why focusing on judgment and focusing on mercy and focusing on faith is so important. If we had those down and we fully understood them and we fully applied them all the time, then we would be fully mature. But he says God has set the church in such a way that all of us are to come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to maturity to the measure of the full stature of Jesus Christ.

To where we ultimately become like our elder brother, we become like the captain of our salvation. We become like our Savior. We become like our teacher. And so we have a way to relate to the Father and the Son that empowers us toward eternal life. In 2 Peter chapter 1, I mentioned Paul. Here we find Peter talking about the same thing. We read this same thing in John. We read it in Paul.

We read it in Peter, or will read it in Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3, His divine power has given us everything that's needed. The power that God has made available through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes it available for us to have everything that's needed for life and godliness. Through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness, and thus, in verse 4, He has given us through these things His precious and very great promises. So that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and that you may become partakers.

Become participants of the divine nature. See, that sounds like it involves not only God and the Word, but us. We have to be the ones growing in understanding judgment and mercy and faith. And it goes on in verse 5, For this reason you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness and goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.

And if these things are yours and are increasing among you, then they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord. For anyone who lacks these is still-blinded and is forgetting that they've been cleansed of their past sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more eager to confirm your calling in your election. For it is to this you've been called. If we intend to confirm our calling in election, then we can never stumble. See, again, God doesn't want us to stumble. He wants us to be stable.

He wants us to be secure. Do we have every answer to every question? No. Are we to be growing in how to make judgments based on a knowledge of the Word of God, and then how to extend mercy and how to live humbly walking in faith? See, that's a description. That's a summary of what God requires. And if you read—I know I sent to you a letter from Dr. Ward that summarized the conference, and if you read that, then you've already heard almost everything I'm saying here today. But he also pointed out how that focusing on judgment and mercy in faith shows us how to actually live the life of reconciliation that we're expected to live.

See, the Church has been given a ministry of reconciliation, and all of us have become a part of a message of reconciliation. Reconciliation with God, which comes through Jesus Christ, and then reconciliation with one another because we're actually converted, because our heart has been changed. And, you know, we haven't always done very well with that many times, and even at this point, we still struggle with that. And yet, that's why we continue to go over it, all of us.

It's not something that I can say that I think I fully—maybe even understand or have fully applied over the last 50 years. I certainly want to understand it, and I not only want to understand it, but I want to do it, because if we do it, then you will have the unity of the faith and the bond of peace.

Then you will have how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That's what God wants. He wants that out of all of us. Let me go back to what Jesus said again in Matthew 5. We read some of the verses where He said, You know, I want you to grow on a righteousness that is just way beyond—way beyond what the Pharisees were doing.

It had to deal with their heart. And He told them that, well, the spiritual intent of the law is far greater than just strictly not killing someone. And we read several of the other verses, and then He gets down into some really difficult stuff here in verse 43. Chapter 5, verse 43 of Matthew, you have heard what it said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

See, that was kind of the standard that the Israelites realized that they knew they needed to love one another, or at least they knew that that's what they were told to do. They didn't do very well. But they also hated their enemies and didn't like them at all, didn't care for them. Actually, look down upon them. You know, they were the people of God. They were the chosen people. But it says, you've heard you love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say what you need to do is love your enemies.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. See, what does he want? What does he want us to achieve? Well, he wants us to be the children of our Father. And in order to do that, we'd have to say that, well, we're fulfilling verse 44. We love our enemies.

See, you know, that's not something that's easy to do. That certainly is not. A human proclivity to love our enemies. But of course, this is not the only place he mentions this, but I'm just pointing it out because this is the requirement that God gives us. And of course, he tells us in chapter 6, verse 33, you should seek first the kingdom of God and seek the righteousness of God, and other things that you need will be given to you. Again, the focus that Jesus had was incredibly different. And he wanted people to, who would embrace him, would come to believe in who he was, would come to believe that he had been resurrected from the dead, which we'll go over even more as we get to the time of the day of Pentecost. Because whenever you see what was preached after the day of Pentecost was regarding an understanding of Jesus Christ, of him having fulfilled a mission that he came to the earth to fulfill, and then he was raised from the dead by the Father.

But see, God desires, whenever we read these verses in Matthew, he desires more than obedience. He wants our devotion, he wants our complete commitment to his glorious plan of salvation. And sometimes I mention that as the truck of the tree, or as the big picture, certainly is always the case. And we always want to have our minds focused on the trunk of the tree, because what we read here in Hebrews 2, Hebrews 2 explains God's purpose in dealing with us, his purpose for drawing us into the church, his purpose for bringing us to Jesus Christ, and for allowing us to be under the leadership and guidance of Jesus as the head of the church. In Hebrews 2, he says in verse 6, someone, and that would have been David, has testified beforehand in Psalm chapter 8, what are human beings? That you are mindful of them. Or mortals, that you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels. You have crowned them with glory and honor. You have subjected all things under their feet. And in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control, but as it is, we don't yet see everything in subjection to them. Even though God has an incredible design, an incredible plan, an incredible intention, Satan's deception in the world completely blinds people to where they don't know. They don't know what God is doing. And of course, until he removes that blindness, they still don't know. But he goes on to say, we don't see everything in subjection under man yet, but we do see in verse 9, Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. He came as a human being. He came not as an angel, not as a spirit being. He came, took on a human kind. But it says he came because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Jesus came to pay the penalty of sin, the penalty of my sin and of your sin. He came in order to make us completely indebted to him, because we are. And it was fitting in verse 10 that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, and bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation, the captain of their salvation, perfect through suffering.

The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified, all that one Father, and for this reason, Jesus, is not ashamed to call them brethren. See, that's what we have to be thankful for. We have lots to be growing in. And yet, that's God's plan. That's his purpose. That's his reason for dealing with us. And he wants us not just to understand how to make judgments. He doesn't just want us to understand that he is merciful. He doesn't just want us to think about and kind of wonder about someone of an ethereal faith, whatever that is. He wants that to be very active and very alive in each of us individually. And, in a sense, that's what our conference was about. It was showing us, you know, we need to focus on the way to your matters of the law. And we had an afternoon of discussion about judgment and about mercy and about faith and how it is that you can apply those. And it might be that we could even work out a way where we could do that here locally, or we could discuss, you know, judgment, discuss how to apply God's word and God's laws in our lives. And mercy and faith. But all of those are the thing that God would expect of us if we're going to learn to do the way to your matters of the law. And so I hope that in just bringing this back and sharing this with you, that you're reminded of your purpose. Your reason to be here in church, your reason to come here every Sabbath, your reason to study and to pray on an individual basis, your reason to come in order to love other people. To come, to lift each other up. Not to judge or condemn. The Pharisees were good at that. Now, if you read what the Pharisees always said, you know, they were not really judging everybody else. They were condemning even Jesus. And they didn't have any business doing that, but sometimes we get into a mode of too much judgment of others, not enough judgment of ourselves. But it's not only that, it's an understanding that as we're extended mercy, we have to extend mercy. And as we come to understand faith and we live in that faith, happy, secure, stable, and in an abundant life. That life made possible by Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, but made possible by the great God and His plan for mankind. So, we will discuss, I'm sure, all of these topics more, but I'm certainly happy to see all of you today. Thankful for the ladies that could come early today and be able to have a time to discuss prayer and Bible study, and be able to love and encourage each other.