SERMON OUTLINE

Become Righteous and Live in Mercy

Matthew 9.12-13; Luke 18.9-15

Introduction

-The mission of Jesus is to call sinners to repentance.

-God desires mercy over sacrifice.

The Righteous

-Those who have a right standing before God. Those whom God accepts because they have met God’s standard

-Depends on God and the holy character of God. God alone determines who is righteous

The Self-Righteous

-Outward keeping of the Law of Moses but hearts full of sin, greed, pride, lust, hatred. A sinful nature bent to sin. Romans 3.10.

-Jesus does not invite the self-righteous but sinners to repentance and faith and God’s righteousness

God’s Righteousness in Christ

-A sinner who asks God for forgiveness is forgiven, given the Holy Spirit, and made righteous in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21; Romans 5.19; 1 Corinthians 1.30-31

-A tax-collector and a sinner before God. Luke 18.9-14

-Paul the Pharisee finds God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ. Philippians 3.3-9

-God’s mercy to us leads us to show mercy to others.

Conclusion

-Seek a righteousness that comes from God and live a life that receives mercy from God and gives mercy to others.

SERMON NOTES

Become Righteous and Live in Mercy

Matthew 9.12-13; Luke 18.9-15; Philippians 3.8-9

-We saw last week how the Scribes and Pharisees, and disciples of John the Baptist, grumbled against Jesus and his disciples for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus told them that his place was with sinners because his mission was to call sinners to repentance. In the thinking of the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day, the Messiah was coming, not to save sinners, but to crush all the sinful people and to support the righteous in the establishment of his new kingdom. Those who kept the Law would stand with the Messiah as he conquered all the sinners of the land in God’s righteous kingdom. Jesus was the complete opposite of their idea of the coming Messiah and Savior from God. Jesus sided with the sinners and called the self-righteous hypocrites. There is a day coming when God will crush all opposition and establish the fullness of His kingdom but Jesus first came to seek and to save what was lost. The invitation to be saved in Jesus Christ remains open until the Lord returns and then the end will come.

-Jesus told the Pharisees that God desires mercy over sacrifice implying that the Pharisees should spend less time on meticulously keeping the law, which they had distorted beyond recognition, and more time receiving and giving the mercy of God. It is evident from these verses that the Pharisees and Scribes, and those associated with them, did not understand God’s love, God’s way of salvation or their own spiritual need. The Hebrew word for mercy in Hosea 6.6, which is the verse Jesus quotes here, is “hesed” and is close in meaning to “covenant love”. The Pharisees did not understand that their relationship with God was to be based on His covenant love for them as His people and not on their ability to keep His Law. Jesus knew that what mattered most to God was response to God’s mercy and love received through repentance and faith, not the keeping of the Law.

-In the short time we have this morning I want us to think together about two things: 1) How a person becomes righteous before God, and 2) How as Christians we sometimes focus more on sacrifice than mercy in everyday life?

-When the Bible speaks about “the righteous” it means those who have a right standing before God. The righteous are those people whom God accepts because they have met His standard. They are right with God.

-A righteous standing before God is completely dependent on God and on the holy character of God. God is the one who determines if a person is righteous or not. A righteous standing is not determined by what our neighbors think about us, our position in society, our moral character, or our charitable works. It is God alone who determines if we are righteous or unrighteous. Think about that! It is not what you think is the standard for heaven that determines if you get to heaven but what God says is acceptable. The wise thing to do is to find out what God says about how to become righteous before Him. A righteous standing is determined by the holy character of God. Because God is perfectly holy only those who are perfectly holy are called righteous by God.

-The Scribes and Pharisees, and disciples of John the Baptist, believed that they were righteous before God because of their efforts to keep the Law of Moses. Even though the Pharisees outwardly conformed to the Law of Moses, their heart motives were filled with greed, hatred, lust, and pride. Because God knows the heart as well as the outward actions, God could not accept the Pharisees as righteous. They were deceived in their thinking. Because man is born with a nature bent toward sin and commits sin he is not capable of attaining to the standard that makes them righteous before God.

-The NT makes it clear that every single person in the whole world is unrighteous. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. By our own efforts, because we are infected by sin and have a sinful nature, we can never be righteous before God. The Bible says “None is righteous, no not one”. (Romans 3.10)

-The NT teaches us that there is only one way to become righteous before God. You can become righteous before God only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. If you are here this morning and you are not convinced that you are a sinner and on your way to hell, then you will not become righteous before God because you still think you are good enough for God to accept you as you are. When you are convinced that God cannot accept you as you are then you are ready to be made righteous before God.

-Jesus said he came not to invite the righteous, meaning the self-righteous who still believed they were good enough for God to accept them, but sinners, those who knew they could not be accepted by God. Jesus came to invite sinners to repent and believe in him and receive the forgiveness of sins, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and a righteous standing before God.

-The way to become righteous before God is to recognize that you are a sinner before God and that God put the punishment of your sin upon Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus became sin for you. When you believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross and ask God to forgive your sins because of Jesus Christ paid for your sins, God will fully forgive all your sins. Not only does God forgive your sins but He puts His Holy Spirit in you so that you become spiritually alive and in relationship to God. God also credits to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ so that when God sees you, He sees you as perfectly holy in His Son Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ you become righteous before God. The only way to become righteous before God is through faith in Jesus Christ.

-Here are some verses in the NT that teach us that righteousness before God comes through Jesus Christ. “For our sake God made Jesus Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21) “For as by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience (Jesus) the many will be made righteous”. (Romans 5.19) “Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’”. (1 Corinthians 1.30-31)

-In Luke 18 Jesus tells a parable that compares a self-righteous Pharisee with a tax-collector. The Pharisee boasts in his self-righteousness before God and leaves the temple not accepted by God. But the tax-collector on the other hand cries out for God to have mercy on him as a sinner. He is made righteous before God because of his repentance and faith in God (18.9-14). Paul discovered this same truth of righteousness in Jesus Christ after years of pursuing righteousness by keeping the Law of Moses. (Philippians 3.4-9)

-Those who know they are sinners before a Holy God and ask God to save them in Jesus Christ, receive God’s forgiveness and become righteous before God, but those who think they are not sinners and are good enough to stand before a Holy God because of their own behavior have no need of Jesus and will never stand before God. They are the ones that are truly lost in their sins and in need of the righteousness of God.

-God wants you to be righteous before Him and to be in relationship to Him but this can only happen through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness before God is not earned but received as a free gift from God. Millions of people today do not understand God’s way of salvation in Jesus Christ and continue to try and earn their way to heaven but will never get there. Let God make you righteous through His Son Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. It is not sacrifice that gets you to heaven but the mercy of God to you in Jesus Christ.

-Now just a quick comment on how as Christians we sometimes focus more on sacrifice than mercy in everyday life? This verse in Hosea 6.6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, spoke to me in a particular way. Let me share that with you as a confession and hope for better behavior in the future.

-Let me apply sacrifice in my life as a Christian to my daily duties, the goals I set for the day, my agenda, my plans, the work I am doing for God. I think of mercy in terms of my relationship with others and how I love people. More often than not as a Christian I focus on fulfilling my daily duties, goals, plans etc and in doing so overlook the development of relationships and the people I encounter along the way. Too often the accomplishment of my plan overrules my relationship with people and causes me to be unaware and even unconcerned about those I meet each day. That is how this particular verse has spoken to me this week. A confession and new insight into daily living for me.

-May God open your eyes to seek a righteousness that comes from God and to live a life that receives mercy from God and gives mercy to others.