Well, I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount and working through the book of Matthew. There are things in my ministry that I did up front in looking at books, and I preach Romans right away, and I preach Genesis right away, but one of the things in 20 years that I've never given a lot of attention to is the Sermon on the Mount. And I feel like this is being opened up. I'm learning so much, and it has been such a blessing for me to study. Thank you for setting apart a pastor to be able to do this. It is absolutely wonderful, and I'm thankful for it, and I hope to be a blessing to you today as we consider what this wonderful text is saying to us. it's challenging but it's a necessary challenge it's a good challenge for us to see why jesus was so at odds with the religion of the scribes and the pharisees we have to understand that why there was so much combative events in his ministry comes down to this right here and i hope today that you see why let's give our attention uh this morning to god's holy word matthew chapter 5 i'll pick up at verse 17 we've considered verses 17 through 20 last time i'd like to read our text is 21 through 26. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota nor 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 but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven now our text you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment but i say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison truly i say to you you will never get out until you have paid the last penny and there will end today the reading of god's word whenever we begin to address what is actually happening in the human heart whenever we do that we get into sensitive territory because the effect is is that when you get to the heart in ministry it exposes where somebody is you find out where they are real quickly ministry can remain on the surface of things ministry can remain on the surface of things and never move in such a way that it gets into the human heart. It's a great problem in Christianity. It was a problem in the first century. That's what we're looking at today in Matthew chapter 5. To move from being merely an external Christian in name to challenging people to what is really in their hearts will draw out a strong response one way or the other. That's what happens. That's why ministry is a two-edged sword that pierces hearts and cuts two ways. We fully know, as ministers, that's what happens when we preach to the heart. Like Thomas Watson said, that preaching that gets to the heart is to be preferred. It's not easy to do that. Those who, if I can use the analogy and illustration, those who hold their cards close to their chest might be able to trick others that their hand is better than what it actually is. Am I allowed to use a card? Bob Godfrey is going to get on. Dr. Godfrey is going to get on me about this in adult Sunday school. But it's not so when it comes to the Christian religion. God is able to see everyone's cards. God is able to read everyone's heart. He reads the human heart of everyone sitting here right now. That's the reality. Nobody is able to pull the wool over God's eyes. Our problem is that we can't see the human heart, see? And that's a real problem because Jesus was constantly exposing this issue that in the kingdom of God, among religious people, there are those playing fast and loose who are not genuine. then there are true followers. And the outward, external look of things does not tell us where one is. But Jesus in this passage today is providing a way to pull down everyone's cards, if you will, and show the hands. That's the issue that Jesus is addressing in Matthew chapter 5. What we have before us is that Jesus is addressing the false religion of the scribes and the pharisees he's describing what they did to the ministry what they did to people and they created this in israel terribly this problem through their ministry and jesus is saying to us we often say well we can't see the heart but jesus is saying there are things that can be seen. You can see things. It all has to do with the issue of righteousness. It comes down to Jesus's great assessment of the Pharisees. And remember, the Pharisees, there were the scribes and the Essenes. The Pharisees were the most respected and the most rigorous with the law of God of all the religious authorities in Israel. So that's why they become the focal point in jesus's ministry it comes down to what jesus gave of them in his great assessment of them in the ministry when he said you are those who seek to justify yourselves before men but god knows your hearts this was such a big concern of jesus wasn't it there is a way that people seek to live their lives and justify themselves that amounts to a rejection of the grace of God that is offered to them in the gospel. And they live thinking that mere external righteousness is enough to qualify as true religion before God. And I mentioned last time that Jesus is after pure and undefiled religion. And that's exactly what the Sermon on the Mount is addressing. That's why I said I feel like this has opened up to me for the first time because I've been able to spend so much time in it. This morning, that's what I want to consider with you, the authority of Jesus here that is emphasized, the correction of Jesus as he deals with the law of God, and then the call of Jesus as he deals with the righteousness that must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The crucial verse that drives I believe the Sermon on the Mount the crucial verse that drives everything that now comes is what we looked at last time in verse 20 when Jesus said unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was not so much speaking, as we considered, of divine righteousness there. As if Jesus was talking about justification there by faith. It undergirds this. It is the heart of how this can even be. But we're not looking at justification by grace through faith alone in this particular text. The whole context is the righteousness that must characterize the Christian in life. This is a consequence of justification by faith in the life of sanctification. But he's speaking of new creation. Jesus is very interested in us as his people as a new creation. The salt and light in the earth. Doing good work so that our Father in heaven is glorified when people come to him through our good works. Righteousness that characterizes us in the earth as his people. Jesus cares about the character of the Christian. Jesus cares about our character. And this is important to this great conflict that he engaged with and took head-on with the scribes and the Pharisees to help people understand true versus false religion. We're not so much out in the world right now. We're in the kingdom, looking in the kingdom of God at this great problem. And, of course, the Pharisee becomes the great exemplar of what false religion is. Jesus had to do a lot of correction on this front to rescue people from his false hypocritical religion that he spread throughout Israel and that the people were brought into to rescue people from what happened through their teaching. But it's not just their problem. You know, in a real sense, rescuing, Jesus is rescuing people in the Sermon on the Mount from really what is the natural religion of the human heart. This just has the religious stamp on it. But I think you could see it to some degree at the State of the Union address the other night. Did anyone really believe all that? You know. Or were they just towing a party line? There was a lot of lawlessness that was espoused. really on both sides see the pharisees in the human heart is truth what drove that or was it just external did you see that after saying that we need a righteousness that far surpasses that of the pharisees he now begins to explain the problem and what that righteousness is what it looks like how we know whether we have it whether it far exceeds that and and jesus does not suggest here that this can be unknown this can be known jesus begins to address the law the reason he chose only some of these murder adultery swearing is to address what he just said that the pharisees and the scribes had only addressed and categorized the law as some of the weightier commandments of the law and these are the lesser commandments of the law and jesus went after that really who's the antinomians here not one jot or tittle will pass from the law and if you're running around lessening the effect of the law of god if you're deciding which ones become less in effect and you're not going to give attention to you'll be least in the kingdom he's now showing us what that looks like he's now showing us how they lessen the effect of the law how they in jesus's terms made the law of no effect that's what he's doing here and this is what he begins to address in this particular section to expose the hypocrisy of the religious leaders so he begins in verse 21 here you have heard that it was said to those of old it's an important introduction to this main body of the sermon on the mount after that sort a preamble last time he does not say you have heard that it was written which he does elsewhere he begins with you've heard that it was said what he's referring to here is the teaching of the religious leaders the pharisees particularly on the law of god he wants us to consider what they did to the law of god from old anything that's ancient doesn't necessarily mean it's true from old from way back they were doing this long established tradition got this wrong which is scary isn't it long established tradition got this wrong he is about to take the law of moses and correct and expose how their approach to the law utterly wrecked the intention of the law that's so important to this he wants to show what they did to the law of god and how it wrecked the very heart and intention of the law of god and that's the great problem that's exposed here the heart of it came down to something that jesus said in matthew chapter 23 when he said everything is done for you guys for people to see by you guys you clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside you're full of greed and all self-indulgence notice very carefully in jesus's diagnosis of the religion of the scribes and the pharisees the internal external distinction that comes out everywhere the internal external distinction this all resulted in what they did with the law you could summarize it this way you take the law and you think if you just toe the line if you just do it externally and the people look at you a certain way the way they want you to look the way they want you to be the way they want you to act you think if you achieve that on the outside you're good if you fulfill all external expectations of people you're good that you are cleansed by doing things outwardly for people to see but inside here's the problem you have purposely disregarded the heart of the law the summary of the law now the external nature of the law was negative wasn't it i mean i read that today thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt not that's where the pharisees parked the summary of the law was positive wasn't it you shall love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself that's the summary is positive paul said in first timothy one the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart from a good conscience and from sincere faith. That's what Jesus is after here. That's the righteousness that has to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and from sincere faith, he says. That's what has to surpass theirs. It's a matter of the heart. And the intention of the law from the heart, the great weight of the law was love. But their approach of the law, their approach to all of religion, and you see how much of a problem this is in Christianity today, was only outward. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. And so they built an entire system of righteousness that was only external. So they would say, well, the law says this, we do not do that, so the law is kept. And then they built an elaborate system of traditions on top of that to add to the law of God to further the external dimension of the law to show how far they were going in obedience to God. And so what Jesus said they did in doing that was they laid heavy yokes on people that could never be kept. So that everyone was trying to achieve the righteousness of the Pharisee. It can be done, the Pharisee said. It could be done. you can do this. Here's how. But the more progress you made, they said you would become more righteous like them, as the true gatekeepers of all religion. Here's what happened. Because it remained external, because it all remained on the outside, this is one of the big points I'm trying to make today, it eliminated what the law of God was designed to do. And that's why Jesus kept saying, you've made the law of no effect. When you reduce the law of God to something that's merely external, you put it in a box that you can carry around. And it's not God's law anymore. It's your version of the law of God, co-opted for yourself. Now let me pause and say, we do this all the time. This is why I raised Sabbath last time, you know. When we call for Sabbath observance, the call is, the commandment is the whole day belongs to God. The whole day. Did we let that set in? The Pharisee always finds a way out. That's the hypocritical nature of the Pharisee. That's why he's a Pharisaical antinomian. Because it's all mere external. So just if the outward expectation is met to some degree, we're good. This is helping us, I think, today to get to the righteousness that must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. This takes us to the first commandment that Jesus is addressing. you have heard the pharisees teach you thou shall not murder you've heard that and whoever murders they say will be liable to the judgment i want you to notice what jesus just exposed it whoever murders will be liable to the judgment they not only boxed in the law of god to something outward putting a wall around it but then they reduce the judgment to something only outward did you catch that whose judgment liable to whose judgment you guys are running around saying if you you've heard the pharisees you shall not murder and whoever murders this is what they say you'll be liable to the judgment so you will be punished and you will go to jail they say you'll face our courts you'll be exposed you see what they're worried about as the law was only treated externally the judgment was only treated externally how bad is that going to look when you get caught see you're going to look terrible stop parents do this did they were they really concerned about the heart of what their child did or were they concerned about what people in the church are going to think got to cover that so the effect was right as they removed the intention of the law they left out any concern for god's righteous judgment and god's justice so the effect was that no one had any concern anymore in israel for the holy judgment of god it was gone and you see by lessing lessening that effect you see he lessens this no one was ever concerned about the true nature of the sixth commandment offending God. They achieved that. And that leaves people without any awareness of the judgment that they're under. Do you see why Jesus would be furious about this? If he's coming to die to pay for sin and no one even gets to understanding what sin is? There's a reason today no one's concerned about the coming judgment of God. in the church and this is where Jesus turns it on their head I say to you but I say to you meaning I gave the law I was the one who handed it to Moses I'm telling you what the law means I have this authority talk about our divine claim here you see who Jesus is everyone who is angry with their brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to hell of fire now jesus took their entire justice system that they had co-opted from the old covenant and they had theonomists always abuse it when they claim it and they addressed what they did with the outward act of murder jesus does here they had three different courts and the first court had three men for how it was the outward act of murder was judged and then the the next court the council had 23 men and then the final court where you could be subject to Gehenna had 72 men so Jesus goes right to the heart of this here he he he is using their justice system and now taking it internal which is a really brilliant move think of the depth and requirement of the sixth commandment it's not just getting your hands bloody no no that's that's not it it all begins on the inside as bad as the outward act is which the commandment forbids if you have anger in your heart at all you're in serious trouble before god and if you go to the raka level if you begin to frown on them and you begin to make gestures at them and you begin to refuse them and treat them poorly you go to the council and if it ever moves to speaking verbally against them this person's worthless i hate that person that person's an idiot that person's stupid that person's done all this i won't talk to them you're liable to the hell fire that was the final judgment in their system of Gehenna where bodies were burned outside the camp he used their court system to apply God's internal standard but what Jesus was saying was anger in your heart any word any hate will make you liable for God's eternal judgment now think about how we tear everyone down think of how we gossip and slander think about how we speak of people in private in our homes and our walls God sees your cards you're destroying people all the time you're murdering them on the inside every day those intuitions those angry emotions are making you right now liable for hell and that even applies to the wicked our enemies whom we're called to love that's the standard of god's law in terms of the righteous requirement of the law what did that just make you feel like you're done you're done you're a little thought of anger against somebody you're done you're a murderer everyone's crushed under this remember what jesus is addressing here he's addressing a righteousness that must surpass that of the pharisees so with their teaching on the law here's my point they never got here they never let people get here they nullified the effect of the law and any worry about this was gone because looking good is all that mattered on the outside what the first use of the law does when it's preached with power is that it drops everyone to their knees before God it should and then we should have everyone like the publican crying out God be merciful to me a sinner because it got into his heart now let me ask the question it's a good test jesus flipped the tables angrily in public imagine the pharisees seeing that oh this is embarrassing how hypocritical all they did was try to undermine everything he did to watch him so closely Why did Jesus flip the tables in anger? Because love drove him to purify Israel of this stuff. The Pharisee stood there that day, outwardly looked good, but inwardly hated the Son of God. he never looked at his own heart. Who's righteous and who's not? Do you see how your whole relationship with God could just be external? Keeping the rules and that's all you're worried about, but you really don't even do that. You just want to show that you do. And you're more worried about who you offend on the outside. You see how it could be that? That we have more worry about offending a family member we're more worried about how it looks to the family we're more worried about how it looks to the everyone on the outside but you've never thought of God you've never feared God your concern and any recognition or concern that what you are doing might land you in hell never comes into your mind or heart it makes you furious that anyone would even press you that way this is the great problem beloved that allows religious people to bypass the need for conversion this is the great problem that allows religious people to bypass the need for conversion in their lives for the repentance and faith i'm here i did my duty as long as the external consequences are avoided that's really all i care about and jesus is saying that's phony jesus is addressing the righteous requirement of the law and the righteousness that we have to have that surpasses this what is that notice jesus gives the positive dimension of the law here what is the positive well if love is the fulfillment of the law here's what the righteousness of the new people of god here's where it shines here's what it looks like the pharisee never getting here never is burdened by it never reconciles never forgives never makes any effort toward it because he never got to the internal part of it but christ says in god when we're in godly sorrow and we come to him for forgiveness and we're converted that leads to godly sorrow that produces true repentance here's what we see we drop our knees and we have a concern now that the righteous intention of the law would be honored in our lives since it was honored for us so if you're offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. Leave your gift there before the altar and go. Put it in our terms. You came here to worship today and you came to worship and to sing. You wanted to sing. Some people want to have that great experience. Put your money in, but you're totally unreconciled with someone in your life go first go be reconciled says jesus and then come back and then come back to worship you see what jesus is exposing that how hypocritical it would be to sing to pray to give while i regard iniquity in my heart that's the pharisee did the psalms always talk about this regarding iniquity in the heart. That's the kind of religion God won't hear. So we know we're salt and light and blessed to be peacemakers when we're grieved for our sins and we know what our sins have caused before God. We see God did something unimaginable for us in the gospel. What did he do? He gave his son. And he came here to forgive us and to love us. My sins caused that. And he said, forgive them for they know not what they do when we put him on that cross. And he was moved with compassion for me who have been angry at a lot of people all my life and deserving of hell. Bitterness has filled me. But he loved me. And I felt the sting of the law. I came, I've come, I've bowed my knee and I've said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Then the righteous requirement of the law that must surpass that of the Pharisees is, since it got internally to me, I'm going to internally forgive them and I'm going to go make it right. The Pharisee never got there. The Pharisee didn't care. That was Zacchaeus. I'm going to restore fourfold what I've done. It's love flowing from a washed heart. You see? It's precisely because our hearts have been washed and changed by the love of God. We've been given the Holy Spirit. We've been justified. We're being sanctified. The Pharisee would come back to worship and he didn't care at all about that public and in the back that he refused to forgive. He didn't care about sinners. He wanted everyone to see him. He wanted all those to whom he thought it mattered in life to see him. And it was an externally a righteousness that would never meet up to the standard of God. The righteousness that exceeds scribes and the Pharisees doesn't delay anymore it has a count settled with god today and then it has a count settled with neighbor in love when david sinned and adultery and murder followed psalm 51 and psalm 32 shows us that that righteousness came out of what david said you desire truth where in the inward parts and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart the lord doesn't take delight in sacrifices and offerings as in obeying him that's the righteousness jesus is talking about when we are forgiven and justified by his blood and how wonderful he is that he came that we may have life we all sin we're all deserving of judgment but jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden by that kind of religion take my yoke upon me and learn from me for i'm gentle and lowly in heart will give compassion to you see when the law does its work it drops us on our knees and then that kind of life follows as he creates a new humanity in his image that demonstrates love out of a pure heart so in closing thank god that he loves wretches like us it's a marvel how far his love has gone to redeem us when we understand what his law requires and may he uphold you beloved in grace and may we live thankful lives delivered from the righteousness of the scribe and the pharisee to what he calls a pure and undefiled religion love from a pure heart that's the design of the commandment thank god for his salvation thank god for his son and recognize that's why he's combative about this stuff he wants to set you free and if he had never come back he'd never gone after this that religion would have prevailed but it hasn't praise god let's pray heavenly father thank you for Your wonderful work in our lives to tear down the natural religion of our hearts. And may we respond, O Lord, by coming to You, bowing the knee in confession, turning from sin, believing Your promises, being justified by faith, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Help us, Lord, we're weak. Forgive our sins. And thank You that You gave this holy standard, that it might draw this out of us, that we might come to Your Son, that we might receive righteousness and eternal life. We praise You for preserving the truth of the Christian faith in our lives today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.