Trinity 6 July 28, 2019 The Sunday of Jesus’ Sermon on Righteousness

Trinity 6
Psalm 19 & Matthew 5:17-26
July 28, 2019

“I Just Want to be Perfect”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

What would your perfect day consist of? Would your perfect day be lounging on a beach somewhere? Would your perfect day be on the boat fishing? Would your perfect day be at home with a good book and a cup of coffee?

But most of our days are nothing like that. Most of our days aren’t perfect at all. They’re filled with imperfections. We have many days we say things like, “This day was cursed from the beginning. Or I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Or nothing can go right today.” Your alarm doesn’t go off. Or you’ve got no clean underwear and you have to wear dirty. You spill coffee all over your shirt and pants just when you’re ready to leave (I’ve don’t that). You get in the car and the fuel needle is clear over underneath the “E”. You get angry and yell at people before you leave the house. You stay up too late the night before doing things you shouldn’t be doing. You have a bad attitude from the start of the day because you’re not on a beach or fishing on a lake or curled up with a good book. All of these things and many more can quickly derail the hopes of a perfect day.

Of course, you know who never ever has a bad day? Do you know who has perfect days 365 days a year? That would be our Lord God. Psalm 19 takes us into a day of the Lord. A perfect day. All of creation follows the perfect law of God. The laws of nature, we often call them. Psalm 19 starts us at night looking into the sky, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” They do. All the stars just in their perfect place. The moon exactly where it’s supposed to be and exactly as full as it’s supposed to be. We can chart it all on a calendar just perfectly like Kepler did. And then Psalm 19 brings us to the perfect morning and the sun, “which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.” Our whole calendar is based on the fact that the sun and earth and moon are always perfectly in their place.

God never has an off day. A bad day. The sun always runs its perfect course. You’ve heard it said that if anything in our universe was off by even just the smallest amount, we’d all be dead. If the Earth wasn’t just in the right place and kept at just the right distance from the sun and if the air wasn’t just right….and on and on and on. Now the evolutionists say this has taken billions of years to perfect everything. That’s not true. It just takes God and His wisdom. God doesn’t have imperfect days.

Have you ever seen the law of gravity just stop working? Does the law of gravity have a bad day? One of your friends goes flying off into space because gravity doesn’t work for a minute. The laws of God’s creation are perfect. The laws of nature.

Now if you’re thinking, “Well, what about all the bad days like tornadoes and hurricanes and wars between nations?” Yes, I hear you. Yes, God does allow such imperfections into His creation. But it’s only because of our sin. Those are on us. As Romans 8 says, the whole creation is groaning with these imperfections. God made creation perfect. Creation doesn’t like these imperfections. But our sin has brought on it all these pains and sufferings. And God allows them to bring us to repentance. To show us our imperfections and our sin and to lead us to faith. But none of that changes the fact that God’s laws of nature are perfect.

Then Psalm 19 says, “Not only that, but all of God’s law is perfect.” I wonder if you’ve all considered before how perfect the ten commandments of God are? Psalm 19 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” We sang that refrain not long ago with our choir.

I asked you what your perfect day would be? Well, in truth the perfect day is found right there in the ten commandments. In the law of God. It’s absolutely perfect. Fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things. And loving our neighbor as we love our own selves. That’s perfection. Love truly is perfection. As 1 John 4 says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” Or Colossians 3, “love…binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

So God is perfect. His creation is perfect. His laws of nature are perfect. His commandments are perfect. His love is perfect. So what do you think He expects from us? Does He say, “Oh, it seems you broke every one of my commandments today…multiple times…but hey, it’s all good. No problem. You tried hard. A+ for effort. You’re a winner in My book.”

Does God say that? No, He doesn’t. We like to think He says that. We like to think God’s like our Grandma, “Oh, you’re such a good kid, aren’t you?” telling all her friends about how we’re good kids and we don’t smoke or drink, you know, like the bad kids. But God isn’t your Grandma or Grandpa who looks past all your imperfections. He’s your Father who demands that you be perfect.

That’s why Jesus was always so mad at the Pharisees. We tend to think the Pharisees are the real strict, hard-nosed guys who care all about the rules. But that’s really not true. Jesus is the strict, hard-nosed Guy who cares about all the rules. The Pharisees are the ones who make up all their own rules that they can actually keep. The Pharisees are a bunch of hypocrites.

You know this game. We all do it. We can’t keep the actual law that God gives so we make up a slightly easier and less restrictive one. Like this, “Well, I did think bad thoughts about all kinds of people today and I did hate some of them pretty good—but I didn’t murder them! Aha! I am good. Just like I always thought.” Then we go on talking about how God knows we’re really a good person. Deep down we’re really a good person. Really, you know, like pretty close. Like almost. Like we’re in the ballpark of good. Like we think we’re good anyway.

But God’s not buying what we’re selling. Which is hypocrisy. Jesus didn’t buy it with the Pharisees and He’s not buying it with us. That’s why He says to us hypocrites, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”

If our game plan for perfection is to change all the rules for perfection, so that they match us perfectly, then we’re going to lose. Jesus doesn’t want almost. He doesn’t want our version of good. He doesn’t want hypocrites. God wants perfection.

And you know, you do too. You want perfection also. I know you do. We give some people a hard time and say they’re perfectionists. That’s fine to a point. But in truth we’re all perfectionists. We all want to be perfect. And that’s a good thing. We want to be like God. We want to love others the way we love ourselves. We want to use God’s name rightly. We want to worship Him with our whole heart. We want to speak well of others. Not be jealous and greedy. We want to live the perfect life of the ten commandments.

And since we can’t do it on our own, God gave us the only One who could. You perfectionists out there in the pew this morning—I have an answer for you. You just want to be perfect. You want the perfect day. You want the perfect life. You want the perfect love. Well, He is Jesus. In Jesus. You are perfect.

We just sang it, “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness—my beauty are, my glorious dress.” You are made perfect in the righteousness of Jesus. “Don’t you know,” Paul says in the Epistle today, “don’t you know that you are baptized into Christ Jesus? Into His death and into His resurrection?” Don’t you know, friends? You are perfect in Jesus.

You don’t have to be a “try-hard”. Jesus tried hard. And He did it for you. He gave His perfect life for your imperfect one on the cross. You want to be right. You want to be perfect. Then cling to Jesus Christ. He’s your perfection. Come up here to this altar and take and eat the perfect body of Jesus Christ given for you. Come up here and receive His perfect love. Be ye perfect—as your Savior Jesus Christ is perfect.

Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Close enough isn’t good enough. You’ve got to be perfect. And that’s why Jesus gives you His perfect self.

Now that you have been made perfect in God’s eyes through Jesus Christ, you can now live more and more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit will continue to do that in you. You will never be completely perfect this side of heaven only because your sinful nature still clings to you here. But you do, by the grace of God, grow in Christ.

Those perfect ten commandments do teach us the perfect life of Jesus. They do teach us how we ought to live in this world. So I finally take you back to Psalm 19—to the perfect laws of God. And after the psalmist tells us how perfect God’s Law is, then comes the reality of v. 12, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” In other words, I will never be perfect by myself. I can even find all my sins. But let me live in Your forgiveness and grace and mercy.

And it closes with the words I will leave you with today. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Do you just want to be perfect? The only way is in Jesus Christ. The only way we can ever pray a prayer to God like this, “Let my words and thoughts be acceptable…,” is because of our Rock and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ your perfect Redeemer, God grant the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart to be acceptable.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.