Well, we're in a series of messages on what we can now call the 11 Commandments.
And this is my second heart-to-heart talk on the 11th Commandment.
Those of you who've been following me will remember that we call the Ten Commandments
God's Ten Rules for Living.
When Jesus came and He said, all right, I come not to void my Heavenly Father's Ten
Rules for Governing Man.
Instead, I am expecting even more than the law to govern my people.
From that one who has been born again, that one who has accepted the Christ as a Savior,
who is a member of my body, I expect from that one a righteousness that exceeds even
the righteousness of the law.
And then He made it very clear that even with His coming and the opening of a new dispensation,
none of these things cancel out or void the law.
The law is still in effect.
He talked of a righteousness that exceeds the externalists, the righteousness that exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
He gave as an example, ye have heard that it was said by them of old, thou shalt not
kill.
But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be
in danger of the judgment.
He went further than even the righteousness that exceeds.
And in the very last verse, the 48th verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, it's all
in the same sermon.
He gives a command that is almost startling.
Be ye therefore perfect.
My word, somebody says.
I tremble every time I hear that word perfect or perfection when it comes to this thing
of being a Christian life.
The law I could see because the creator would have to give a law to govern that which is
a product of his creation.
A law to protect life itself.
Laws to govern man's living.
Then Jesus comes along and says of a Christian.
There is a righteousness that I'm expecting from you that goes beyond even the law.
But now this third step of perfection.
As one theologian said, there is no such thing as perfection.
Another great theologian said, perfection is an unrealized ideal toward which we progress
through all eternity.
And this last statement came from a very prominent professor of theology.
And there are thousands in the religious world who believe literally that there can be no
perfection and yet what are you going to do about it?
Christ demands it here and now.
These are his words.
Be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.
How can I, a poor struggling sinner, say by the grace of God be perfect?
Knowing me as I do, oh I'm so far from perfection.
And I believe with every atom I being there was only one perfect person who ever walked
this earth and that one was the sun-living God.
I believe that as great as Paul was, that mighty spiritual giant, I believe he would
resent with every atom of his being the fact that there were those who put him on a pedestal
and looked upon him as being absolute perfection.
All he needed to do was read the word of God and see how often he told of his own weakness,
his own failures, and the constant battle that he was having between the flesh and the
spirit.
Paul claimed no perfection.
You cannot prove to me from the word of God, you cannot show me one word where Paul claimed
absolute perfection.
It was always the battle between the spirit and the flesh.
And yet right here from the lips of Jesus, he demands perfection.
Pause just a minute.
Oh, this is thrilling.
I believe sincerely this is one of the greatest things that we could talk about today.
I pray that it shall revolutionize your entire life, and I mean just exactly that.
Remember something.
You can never take a verse of scripture out of its setting.
That's the reason that we have false doctrine today.
It's because there have been those who have taken just a portion of one verse or they
have taken one verse of scripture out of its setting, out of its continuity.
They have not regarded that which has preceded that portion of the word of God or that which
followed.
They've just lifted it completely out of its continuity and have built a doctrine around
it.
You cannot do that with the word of God.
Therefore, to get the true meaning of this which was demanded of Jesus, the true meaning
of that which he was speaking of, you must take that which precedes it.
A little earlier in this sermon, he was saying, except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven.
As an example, he quoted two commandments.
He told us the difference in the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees regarding
that commandment and then the righteousness that exceeds.
This righteousness goes further than the commandment.
This second righteousness is that which is expected of the Christian.
Prior to this commandment be perfect.
I give you his word.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak
also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
If to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turneth thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, and here comes the law, thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies.
I'm giving you the word of God.
Ask them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.
Now, pause just a minute.
He's using the love of his Father as an example.
And what is the love of God really like?
He gives you the Father as an example.
For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust.
Do you want to know what real love is like?
Oh, beloved, pause a minute.
Here's God.
The mighty God of this universe, below is a man, a product of his creation, a man who
is dependent on Almighty God for the next beat of his heart, for the next breath that
he takes.
And yet, he'll use that breath to curse God, to belittle him, to malign him, to curse him,
literally curse the one upon whom he is dependent for the next beat of his heart and the next
breath that he takes in his body.
And yet, God in his tender mercy will let the same gentle rain fall upon him as he allows
that rain to gently fall upon that one who praises him with every breath that he takes.
Do you want to know what God is really like?
The farmer out here who never gives God a thought, who's never served God a day in his
life, the Lord's day can come and yet he does not respect or reverence God enough to set
that day apart in worship.
But so great is the love of the Heavenly Father that at the end of July the corn is six feet
tall.
For the Heavenly Father has permitted his Son to shine just as gently, just as powerfully,
just as strong in his life-giving obedience upon that man's cornfield as upon the one
who joins his property, who is a Christian and worships God and keeps that day holy unto
the Lord.
Watch it.
That is an example that Jesus gave of perfect love.
Yes, ma'am.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
Oh, it's the easiest thing in the world to love those who are kind to you, who are nice
to you.
It's the easiest thing in the world to love somebody when you know they love you.
You know that neighbor over there on the right?
Oh, they're lovely people.
They're the nicest folk.
It takes no effort whatsoever to love them and you will receive no reward whatsoever
because you're kind and gracious and you make a good neighbor to them.
But I say to you, what about that neighbor on the left?
Oh, you say, they're the worst folk.
We just ignore them completely.
We just act as though they don't live there.
We just forget about them.
To be very frank, Miss Kuhlman, we don't even speak.
It's exactly what Jesus is talking about.
Just exactly.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
And yet, you profess to be a Christian.
This love that Jesus is talking about here goes beyond the law and that's one thing you
cannot legislate.
I don't care how much legislation they can do in Washington, they will never be able
to legislate love.
You can't do it.
You can't put a law into effect that will force men and women to love.
You can't do it.
You just can't do it.
It's something that's on the inside of you.
Something that God has got to put in there.
It's something you can't define, but it's something that really governs the whole world.
There's love, there's hate.
And as long as there's hate, we'll have revolution.
Legislate all you want to, pass all the laws that you want to.
You cannot legislate.
You cannot put into effect a law that's going to govern hate and love.
Anyone holds the answer to the crisis in our nation today.
Just one.
That's Jesus Christ.
Do you want to know what this perfection is that Jesus was talking about?
Not any righteousness that you have, not any righteousness that I have.
Know that.
If I were to come before the Father's throne this very moment and say to him, I have a
right to certain things because of all the sick bodies that have been healed and all
those who have been converted through the ministry, he would only smile and say, you
didn't have a thing to do with it.
Not a thing.
It was the power of the Holy Ghost that healed those sick bodies.
It was a convicting power of the Holy Spirit that spoke to the heart of every man and every
woman who knelt at that altar.
I have no righteousness that I can come before the Father's throne and claim whatsoever.
None.
Every bit of fruit from this ministry is nothing more or less than the work of God, the work
of the Holy Spirit.
You've only furnished the vessel, the mouthpiece.
Our own righteousness is as filthy rags.
I can claim no perfection.
The perfection that Jesus was talking about was perfect loss.
And he went a little further by saying, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples
if ye have love one to another.
Amen.