\tPs 86:11-13
11 Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
Jesus in His earthly ministry traveled around preaching truth. Truth will be useless to anyone apart from accepting it to be the truth. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. How many people do you here saying they are many ways to God?
Matt 5:18-20
18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
(from New International Version)
How much righteousness did the Pharisees have? They didn’t believe Jesus was the messiah and he told them that they strained a gnat and swallowed a camel. If you believe Jesus is the messiah you have more righteousness than the scribes and the Pharisees. Believing he is the messiah, is that enough to be a child of God?
Matt 7:26-27
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
KJV