We are in a series of heart-to-heart talks regarding the Ten Commandments,
God's Ten Rules for Living.
And you'll remember that I told you that there are really eleven commandments.
Ten were given by God.
The eleventh commandment was given by Jesus himself.
And our little heart-to-heart talk today is the introduction to the eleventh commandment.
Those of you who are following these heart-to-heart talks in this series of messages
will remember that I told you that in reality these Ten Commandments are really God's Ten Rules for Living.
When God created man, when the mighty Creator created man in his own image and after his own likeness,
He gave man ten rules to govern his living.
One, for instance, was as a protection for man's reputation.
He gave another to protect life because life is something that's very precious.
He gave a commandment to protect marriage, the sanctity of the home,
because in the sight of God the relationship between man and woman is something very sacred.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Take one right act of the other.
They are in reality ten rules laid down by God himself to govern our lives.
And watch something.
Jesus himself declared that the law, these ten rules will never be canceled out. Never.
When anyone tells you that God's Ten Rules for Living, the Ten Commandments, have been voided,
that they've been canceled out, that they are no longer in effect, that one speaks in error,
because all on earth that you have to do is to just take the word of God.
Take the word of Jesus, the one who declared that the law is still in effect
and will continue to be in effect until that time when the surface of this earth will have been renovated by fire
and the city of the New Jerusalem will rest upon this planet.
And even then these Ten Rules for Living, the Ten Commandments, will not be destroyed.
They will have passed from word to spirit, from cold letter into warm life.
As it is now, the Ten Commandments are cold letter.
They are the letter of the law.
They are word. They govern.
But the time will come when they will not be voided.
They will simply pass from cold letter into warm life.
They will pass from word into spirit.
And that time will be when we have the ultimate law, the perfect law of righteousness.
But man is not in a position at this time.
God knows that this present civilization, that man at this time is not in a position,
he is not geared to the ultimate law, the law of righteousness.
He will not be in a position to be ruled by the perfect law of righteousness
until this earth is populated with righteous people.
Don't you understand?
That's the reason Jesus said,
think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
In other words, the law is still in existence
and will continue to be in existence till heaven and earth pass.
And he refers to the time when the city of the New Jerusalem,
as John saw it in vision and as recorded in the book of Revelation,
cometh down from out of the heavens and this earth is completely renovated
and this planet becomes our eternal heaven,
populated with righteous people ruled over by God himself and Jesus his son.
Now, watch something.
Jesus is talking now not to all people, not to the unregenerated,
but he's talking to those who have been born again,
those who will have accepted salvation, regeneration.
And he's saying something very definite.
In essence, it's like this, the Ten Commandments,
these Ten Rules for Living govern all men
and should man break one of them, man will suffer.
But he turns to those who have been regenerated
and says to them, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
If you are a Christian, then he expects from your life
a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the law.
Oh, sure, the scribes and the Pharisees kept the law
to the crossing of every T, the dotting of every I.
They adhered to the law so perfectly that in one instance
they even accused Jesus of breaking the law.
They would not break the law for anything in the world.
And yet their hearts were so deceitful.
Their lives, some of them, so immoral.
And yet their righteousness was only the righteousness of the externals.
Jesus said, if you're a Christian,
if you are a member of my body, if you're born again,
if you've had this new birth experience,
the righteousness that I expect from you is a righteousness
that begins inside, in the heart, internally.
It's a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees.
It goes further than the law.
The righteousness that exceeds is not careless about the platter
and the cup, is not careless about the tithe,
is not careless about committing adultery,
is not careless about bearing false witness against thy neighbor,
is not careless about the Lord's Day, no.
But the righteousness that exceeds does not have its beginning
in the cup and the platter, or in the tithe,
or in the keeping of the Lord's Day.
It is a righteousness that begins in the heart.
A new creature in Christ Jesus.
When you are born again, something happens on the inside of you,
that you are not governed merely with the law.
You are governed by a law.
You do these things because you want to,
because they have become a very part of your nature.
You do them because it's something that's spontaneous.
You're obedient to Him in the paying of your tithes and your offerings,
because you love Him enough.
Love is something you do.
Know that.
You cannot love without doing is absolutely impossible.
You cannot separate one from the other.
When you love enough, you'll do.
Nobody is forcing me to do what I'm doing.
Nobody, no law could force me to work 16, 18, 20 hours a day.
No law, no man could force me.
I would rebel against it.
I just wouldn't do it.
That's right.
Why do I do what I do?
It's because of something that's inside of me.
I love Him enough.
I love souls enough.
I love people.
I love the Word.
That I do it because I want to do it.
And it's just like that, that righteousness that exceeds.
Now, there's a third step.
First we have the law given by God Himself.
Then we have the righteousness that exceeds that Jesus talked about.
There is a third step.
And it's found in that same sermon from the same lips.
And it's in the last verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Somebody throws up his hands and says, My goodness, alive, Miss Kuhlman.
I can accept the law.
I can understand why God would have to lay down a law to govern men.
But I thought he was going almost too far when Jesus came forth and said,
He expects Christians to produce a righteousness that excels,
a righteousness that goes beyond even the law.
Now you tell me there is a third step, a step of perfection.
How in the world is that achieved?
I know exactly how you feel.
I battled over this thing for a long, long time.
Because I know myself better than anybody else knows me.
I know Catherine Kuhlman.
I know myself so well.
I know my imperfection.
I know my weaknesses.
Well, I just know me.
And when I put myself up against this command to be perfect,
I'm just sunk before I ever begin.
That's the reason, you know,
I stand before members of my congregation and I say to you,
now you get your eyes off of Catherine Kuhlman.
Get your eyes off of me.
As sure as you do, you may be disappointed.
Because I'm mighty disappointed in myself sometimes.
I'm just like any other Christian.
I'm not perfection.
I know better than you are.
I too am a sinner saved by the grace of God.
But I still have an old body of flesh.
This old body is still corruption.
There's still weakness of the flesh in this old body.
Talk about Paul.
Paul had the same battle.
Oh, he said, I have a warfare that goes on constantly
between the flesh and the spirit.
Paul claimed no complete victory in himself.
He said it's a warfare, it's a battle, it's a fight, it's a struggle.
Paul did not say, look upon me and behold a saint.
Look upon me and see one who is absolutely perfect.
Beloved, there's only one who is perfect, just one.
And that's the Son of the Living God.
Yet Jesus demands perfection of God's children.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
What is it?
In our next heart-to-heart talk.
And it will be one of the greatest heart-to-heart talks we've ever had.
I shall give you from the word exactly what this perfection is.
Open our minds to the spiritual understanding of the deep truths for Jesus' sake.
Amen.