Admit Your Weakness - January 18th, 2015 sermon

By Pastor Greg

A wife asks her husband, "Please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk and if they have avocados, get 6." A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk. The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?" He replied, "They had avocados."

If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again. Men will get it the first time.  I can’t speak for the women in the room, but I’m pretty sure the younger men will blame the woman for not communicating clearly.  Older men, however, have learned what it means to really listen.

This is just one example of what it means to mature.  We learn from our mistakes.  We grow.  We admit that there are areas in our life where we are weak.  And this also applies to our Christian Faith.  The writer of Hebrews says, “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding” (Hebrews 6:1).  And what that means is that we do not remain the same.  We are different Christians today than we were yesterday – meaning that our sins from yesterday are not part of our life today.

It’s important we know this lesson on maturity before we read Christ’s words from Matthew chapter 5. ¹⁷ “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. ¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. ¹⁹ So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.  ²⁰ “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:17-20).

To understand what Jesus is saying here we need to understand what were the Laws of Moses and what were the writings of the prophets.  The Law was given to the nation of Israel shortly after they left Egypt, and they are much more detailed than the Ten Commandments.  The Laws of Moses, listed in Leviticus and repeated in Deuteronomy, can be broken down into three categories.  Some of these laws spoke about personal conduct toward God.  Some spoke about conduct toward one another.  And some spoke about cleanliness and hygiene.  The other part of the Law gave strict instructions on what to do when someone’s conduct broke the Law and what to do when someone was ceremonially unclean.

The Laws of Moses can be quite confusing.  But a teacher of religious law rightly summarized them by saying “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).  So as Jesus stood on that hillside teaching His apostles, He was reminding them of these two great principles.  God has given commands on how we are to love Him and how we are to love one another.

The second part of what Jesus says in this section of Matthew focuses on the writings of the prophets.  Every prophet of God in the Old Testament spoke about God’s judgment against those who break His Laws.  But many of these prophets also spoke about God’s deliverer; the One who would redeem and ransom those who deserved God’s punishment.  The prophets wrote of a day when God’s anointed One would take upon Himself the wrath they deserved.  He would be “pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins” (Isaiah 53:5).  So as Jesus spoke on that hillside He reminded His followers of what God had said and about what God had promised.  God holds His people to a standard of conduct that is above the world.  He spoke of the consequences for not living up to that standard of conduct.  But God promised that He would send a redeemer and lay on him the sins of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

This brings us to the last part of Matthew 5:17.  Jesus says He has come to accomplish their purpose – the Law and the Prophets.  In other words, Jesus says He is that redeemer.  He is the One who will ransom the world from its sin.

I said all of that so that we might fully understand what Jesus was saying.  However, this leads me to the big question of the day.  Since Jesus came and fulfilled the Law and the Prophets by dying upon the cross, does the Law and do the writings of the Prophets apply to us today?  Did they not achieve what God intended: to drive a person to the foot of the cross in repentance?  See, that’s the important part of all of this.  Since we are already believers and since we (well, hopefully all of us) have turned to Jesus as our Savior, do we really need to spend time reading and learning God’s Laws?  I mean, they can be quite extensive.  And if we are supposed to follow them, which ones apply to us today?  Well, Jesus has already given us the answer.

Jesus says that if we want to develop a closer walk with God then we are going to have to obey these commands (verse 19).  I’m not talking about earning salvation here.  Remember that this has already been accomplished.  Salvation comes through faith and repentance.  But a closer walk with God happens through obedience.

The Apostle Paul, a convert to Christianity and a missionary to Rome, said that the Law was given to convict us of our sin.  “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were” (Romans 5:20).  Yes, the Law fulfilled its purpose.  It demonstrated that we needed a Savior to redeem us.  But the Law also becomes a means to holiness – a way of living which separates us from the sinful ways of this world.

This is the point I am trying to make.  For example, if we learn that lying is a sin (see Revelation 21:8), and we feel convicted that we are a sinner in need of a Savior, and if we turn to Jesus who paid the penalty for our sin, why would we continue to lie AFTER being saved?  Do you see what I am saying?  Yes, the Law did what it was designed to do – to drive us to the cross.  But after the cross there is a whole lot of work to be done.  We need to mature.  We need to admit that we are weak.  There is conduct toward God that needs to change and conduct toward other people that needs to change.  If we want to develop a closer walk with God, then we need to allow the Law to speak to our heart and allow the Holy Spirit to change us; to transform us.

Obeying God’s Law does not grant us the Kingdom of Heaven – it helps us walk closer with God.  That’s what Jesus is saying in verse 19.  Both those who obey and those who do not are part of the Kingdom of Heaven.  But one is least and the other greater.  Convicted to turn to Jesus is one thing.  But convicted to stop sinning is something entirely different.  The one earns us salvation.  The other helps us become holy – to walk closer with God.

As I grow older I have discovered this one truth about myself: I don't need less of Jesus the longer I am a Christian. I need Him more. When I was young in my spiritual life I only knew of a few sins. But as reflect back upon that young man of 23 I see a man quite naive. What the Lord had revealed to me then was but a portion of my sin. And I suspect tomorrow, as I look back upon today, I will realize the same. If you and I can recognize just how spiritually weak we truly are, perhaps this will keep us from being proud. I believe it also will help develop an attitude of meekness - a sense that we have much to learn (that’s what spiritual meekness means). This also keeps us humble; knowing that we do not walk above others but alongside them. It keeps us from looking down upon the unchurched.

So should we read over the Laws of God?  Absolutely!  If you don’t want to tackle Leviticus, read Romans 1:24-32.  1 Corinthians 6:9-10.  Galatians 5:19-21.  Revelation 21:8.  There are lots of sins listed in these verse.   We are not under obligation to follow the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:18), but we should genuinely care what God calls a sin, especially if we want to develop a closer walk with Him.  We will never mature unless we learn how God wants us to conduct ourselves in this world.