Brought your Bible today. Would you please open the
Matthew chapter 5, Matthew 5? We've been walking through
Matthew's portraits of Jesus. What Matthew is showing us is
that Jesus is the promised king who brings his Kingdom, but he
brings it not with swords or Thrones of this world.
It's another worldly throne for sure, but he does bring it with
authority. He, he brings it with mercy.
He's going to bring it with perfect righteousness.
And so we're going to learn more about that this morning and the
Sermon on the Mount. So far what we've seen is the
blessed life of the Kingdom citizen, right?
He, he, Christ in the opening parts of Matthew 5 mentions
blessed are those who are poor in spirit, those who are
merciful, those who are pure in hearts and among other things,
right? We've seen that the chapter,
we've seen what that character produces, right?
So he was describing the character of Kingdom citizens,
and then he describes the fruit of it as he talks about, you
know, he says you are the salt of the earth.
You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men
that they might see your Father in heaven and rejoice in him.
And so now the question arises, what is Jesus going to do about
Old Testament law? All right, he hasn't got into
that yet. He said he sat down as a teacher
like a rabbi would have in their day.
And he's begun to teach and has not yet addressed the law.
So what is Jesus going to do with the law?
Is he going to scrap the law? Is he going to relax the
standards of the law? Or is he going to do something
far greater? All right, there's your answer.
All right, Number C. So today's text answers that
question head on. Jesus speaks directly to any
rumor, any fear that may be, you know, coming to the surface
among the people who are listening about what's going to
happen. The law.
He's going to let us know that he's not abolishing God's
commands at all, right? He's not tearing them down.
He's, he's going to complete them, right?
He's going to live them perfectly, and what he
completes, his perfect life changes everything for how
Kingdom citizens live in His Kingdom.
It changes everything about how we relate to God, about how we
relate to the laws of God. And so we're going to see a lot
about that this morning. If you're able, would you please
stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning?
We're going to be reading verses 17 through 2017 through 20.
Jesus is speaking here. He says, 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, 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.
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.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we come before Your word with humbleness.
This morning we recognize that we are reading the words of your
Son, Jesus. Lord, we ask that You would give
us by Your Spirit hearts that are made of fertile soil this
morning, that You would plant Your word deep into our hearts,
that it would bear fruits in the coming days and years of our
lives. Father, we ask that You would
help us to glorify you today as we listen to Your word, as we
search our hearts, as we really have Your word read us today.
Oh God, would You help us to glorify you in our response.
May we take Your word to heart. May we believe it with
everything that we have, and may we put it to practice today.
Oh, Lord, I thank you for these men and women and these boys and
girls that have gathered today. I ask, Lord, that you would
teach them from your word this morning.
It's in the name of Christ, I pray.
Amen. Amen.
You may be seated. Imagine with me for a moment a
young boy named Alex. All right.
A young boy named Alex. Alex's father is a master
Carpenter, and for years his dad has taught him the family rules
for building, right. You measure twice, you cut once.
You use the right tools, right? A hammer is a hammer.
It's not a screwdriver, right? You use the right tools.
You never shortcut the foundation.
He teaches Alex that these laws are not arbitrary.
These are meaningful. They keep the house from
collapsing. They make something beautiful
and lasting, something that cannot be torn down right now.
One day, Alex's older brother comes back to town after years
of being away. Now Alex's older brother had
learned the family trade. He is a master Carpenter.
He's an expert Craftsman. And everyone wonders, what is
Alex's older brother going to do?
Is he going to tear down the old workshop?
Is he going to start fresh? Will he say something like,
forget Dad's rules, they're outdated, They don't help us
today. But instead, the older brother
steps in. He picks up the same tools.
He builds the most perfect house the town has ever seen, right?
Every he he follows every rule Florida State down to the
tiniest of the measurements. He he doesn't relax a single
standard. He embodies them perfectly.
Then he turns to his younger brother and he says this.
He says, I'm not here to throw out Dad's blueprint.
What he has taught us is good and right.
I'm here to complete it, right? Watch me live this out.
Learn from me and I'll show you how to build from the heart, not
just the surface. Together we'll make homes that
stand forever. Right now.
That's what Jesus does with God's law, right?
He, he doesn't scrap it, He doesn't lower the bar of God's
law. He, he steps in as the perfect
fulfillment of the laws of God. He, he lives sinlessly, all
right. He, he lives perfectly.
He accomplishes its every demand.
And then he invites, he invites people like you and me into his
Kingdom to live out God's laws from transformed hearts, which
are deeper than mere external rules.
All right. Now that takes us to what I
think is the main point of the passage today, and that's this,
that Jesus fulfills the law to produce heart righteousness in
his Kingdom. Jesus fulfills the law to
produce heart righteousness in his Kingdom.
You're going to see this in three movements across this
passage this morning. First, we'll see that Christ
fulfills rather than abolishes the law.
Second, we'll see that Christ commands faithful obedience and
teaching in his Kingdom. And finally, we'll see Christ
requires A righteousness that surpasses externalism, right?
So just like that older brother who steps in to fulfill every
rule perfectly, Jesus now shows us how he fulfills God's law.
He doesn't abolish it. And so we're going to see that
in verses 17 and 18. Christ fulfills rather than
abolishes the Law. Look again at verses 17 and 18
with me. Do not think that I have come to
abolish the law or the prophets, says our Lord.
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, not a dot will pass from the law until all is
accomplished. Now Jesus begins with the
direct, almost defensive command.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
Do not think it all right. Now, why does he say that?
Why does he say, do not think that I've come to do this?
Well, everything we've seen so far in the Sermon on the Mount
has sounded very radical, very radical, right.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are the mourners,
Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are you when you suffer
for my name's sake, right? He's welcomed also tax
collectors unto himself. He's called them to be his
disciples. He's welcomed fishermen,
ordinary men to come to him and and to walk with him, right, to
learn from him. He's welcomed sinners to himself
now. This is otherworldly in this day
and time because he hasn't gone yet to the scribes and the
Pharisees. He hasn't gone to the religious
elite and said come and follow me.
He hasn't gone to the people that everyone around him would
be thinking. Those will be the ones he
chooses first. Right.
What else has he done? Well, he's healed people of
various diseases. He's cast out demons, right?
He's touched those who were unclean, these things touching
someone who was unclean was not allowed in the law.
All right. You were to cast them out.
And yet he goes to them. So whispers might be spreading
among the crowds. Is this teacher, this new man on
the scene? Is he dismantling Moses?
Or is he putting aside everything that we've been
taught from our youth? Is he starting something new
that leaves the old law behind, Right?
And so Jesus shuts that down immediately.
I have not come to abolish the law.
I have come to fulfill it, right?
But the word abolish means to tear down.
It means to overthrow it. It means to completely destroy
it. I have not come to tear down or
to overthrow or to destroy the law, right?
It's the idea of demolishing a building, just blowing it up
always says I, I've come to fulfill.
Now when you talk about fulfill, that carries a very rich
meaning. Now we understand what fulfill
means, but but think about it this way.
It means to fill up to full measure, right?
It's, it's like pouring liquid into a glass and filling it all
the way up to the very top. It means to complete it.
All of these laws have pointed forward to something and I have
come to complete that it it means to bring it to its
intended goal, right? To accomplish what has been
promised since Genesis 315, right?
Well, there's one who's coming who will crush the head of the
serpents. So Jesus isn't scrapping the law
at all. He's not destroying the law.
He is the laws. Perfect realization, right?
He's the thing the law has been pointing to and so verse 18
really kind of double S down with this solemn authority here
where Jesus says for 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. Now the iota, you know, not
really a word we see much right? The iota is the smallest Greek
letter, all right. The dot or the title is the tiny
hook or flourish on certain Hebrew letters.
And Gee, say not even the smallest Greek letter, not even
the smallest mark on a Hebrew letter is going to pass away
until this has all been accomplished, right?
Jesus is saying not even the tiniest detail of God's word
will be set aside until every promise, every demand, every
shadow that we see in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment
in Christ. It's pretty impressive.
It's pretty amazing that phrase, all is accomplished.
That sounds familiar, right? It points forward to the cross.
What are some of Jesus's last words on the cross before he
breathes his last breath? It is finished, right?
We have the moment on the cross. We have the resurrection.
Thereafter we have the outpouring of the Spirit of God
in Acts. All of these things were
promised, and yet there's one promise that still remains,
right, Which is the final return of our King, when the entire
redemptive plan will reach its climax in the return of Christ,
right? Not one, not one jot or title
will be abolished from the law until then, right?
Theologically, we have to think about this.
Christ's fulfillment of these things operates on different
levels, or multiple levels, I should say, right?
The Scriptures help us to see them really clearly.
One of the first things we see is that Jesus fulfills, and
Matthew's been very strict in his writing to show us this.
But Jesus fulfills prophetically and typologically, right?
He. He's fulfilling prophecy, and
He's showing us that He is the fulfillment of all the types and
shadows in the Old Testaments. Every Old Test, every Old
Testament shadow, every Old Testament type.
Think of the Passover lamb, the bronze serpents that the
Israelites had to look to to be healed, the temple sacrifices,
the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the the promised new
covenant in Jeremiah 31. All of these things find their
substance in Christ, right? And there could be sermons
about, there have been and will be sermons about every one of
those things. But for the sake of this sermon,
let's keep moving, right? Another thing that he does, he,
he fulfills all of these things through active obedience.
He actively obeys the Father. He perfectly, perfectly keeps
the moral law in our place, right He he lives with the
righteousness that we could never ever attain.
You might remember that your scriptures say that our
righteousness is as filthy rags before the Lord.
Whatever righteousness you think you can produce as as holy and
as magnificent as you might think it is, when you present it
to God, who is perfectly holy and just and righteous, you
present it to him. It's as a filthy rag before him.
And yet Christ's righteousness is perfect.
Alright, Romans 519 puts it plainly where it says for as by
the one man's disobedience. Now the one man's disobedience,
that's being referred to there as Adam's.
For as by Adam's disobedience, the many were made sinners,
meaning all of us became sinners.
So by the one man's obedience, Jesus's obedience, the the many
will be made righteous. So his sinless life, his atoning
death, earns the perfect record that becomes credited to us by
faith in Christ. It's his work.
Amen. We also see that He magnifies
and internalizes the law. He magnifies it.
He he doesn't diminish it. He doesn't create something new.
He he doesn't let it pale in comparison though.
He magnifies the law of God and he internalizes it, right?
Isaiah 4221 prophesied this. He makes the law great and
glorious and through the Spirit he writes it on believing
hearts. I'll say that Jeremiah 3133,
Ezekiel 36 So that what this does is it turns external
commands, these things that are written in the law, these
external things, it turns these external commands into inward
delight. They, they, they come out of
Christ because he delights on the Father perfectly.
He delights on the Word perfectly.
He he lives and breathes always to fulfill God's Word.
So it's an inward delight for Christ that's searching for us
because often the laws of God are not an inward delight for
me. They're more of an inward
conflict. John Calvin captures the heart
of this when he writes, Christ brings the complete fulfillment
of the law and the prophets. He only restored it to its
integrity by maintaining and purifying it when it was
obscured by the falsehood and it was defiled by the leaven of the
Pharisees. Charles Spurgeon drives the
point home with force when he writes.
The law stands fast and firm, fulfilled, carried to
perfection, filled to the full in Christ, and he goes on.
There is no abolition of it. There is no amendment of any of
it. All right?
He fulfills it perfectly. So the law is not lowered.
It's not discarded in Christ. But sometimes we think, and
we're going to get into this more.
I just want to tease this out a little bit.
Sometimes we think that because we are recipients of grace that
the law has no real bearing on us anymore, that that a covenant
of grace totally abolishes this covenant of works we see in the
Old Testament. All right, what Christ is
teaching here is going to challenge that a little bit.
What you read in Romans challenges that a lot of bit
all. Right.
So. So the law is not lowered or
discarded. It stands eternal, it's holy,
it's good. Or one of the law's great
purposes is to be a mirror for us.
When you look into the law of God, you shall not covet, you
should not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall
honor your father and mother, you shall not murder, you should
not commit adultery, you shall have no other gods before me.
You should keep the Sabbath holy, right?
You look into the laws of God and you treat it like a mirror
that's reflecting back at you. You see that there is no perfect
reflection there. It reveals our sin.
It shows us where we fall short. But the law does become a tutor
for us that leads us to Christ. And now in the Kingdom age, it
becomes a guide for us that we might live grateful, spirit
empowered lives, right? It becomes a guide.
And so we'll see that as we go. But for now, brothers and
sisters, I want you to rest in this truth.
Your King Jesus Christ has fulfilled every righteous demand
perfectly for you. It is spotless.
Obedience is credited to your account.
You stand before God as believers in Christ Jesus, not
on your own faltering efforts, but on the flawless record of
Christ our Lord. I want you to let that gospel
reality melt away any performance anxiety in you,
right? I want it to free you to love
God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and
all your strength. I want you to let it free you to
love your neighbor from a heart of gratitude and not from a
heart of fear, right? Romans 8 teaches this idea.
Paul has walked throughout Romans.
He's walking through salvation by grace, through faith,
essentially. And in 6-7 and eight, he gets to
these ideas of sanctification, all right.
And in Romans 8, he's just building on this idea he
established in six and seven about walking by the Spirit
rather than walking by the flesh, right?
He talks about how your mind has been set free to serve the Lord,
but you're still bound to the flesh.
And in chapter 8, he gets to this beautiful line where there
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. And he begins to explain that we
no longer walk with God in the spirit of fear.
You might think, what does the spirit of fear in walking with
God look like? We'll just recall Genesis 3,
would you? Right after the fall, Adam and
Eve notice that they are naked, and so therefore they are
ashamed of their sin, the rebellion against God.
They sow fig leaves together, make clothing for themselves,
and they hide in the bushes. And God comes searching.
Where are you, Adam? I've hidden from you.
Why did you hide from me? He he hid because he was afraid.
The man who once walked with God in the cool of the day is now
hiding from him, cowering from him because of his sin.
And Romans 8 tells us that we no longer walk with God according
to a spirit of fear, but we walk in the spirit as those who have
been adopted by God. We can now cry ABBA Father, but
if Jesus raises the bar by fulfilling the law so
completely, what does that mean for how we live and how we teach
in His Kingdom? Well, that's the second point
that Christ gets to #2 Christ commands faithful obedience and
teaching of the law in His Kingdom.
Look at verse 19. 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, whoever walks according to the law and
teaches them, meaning teaches others to do the same, will be
called great in the Kingdom of heaven.
Now you just real quickly think about the end of the gospel that
we're in, right? The end of Matthew Christ
appears to his disciples at the end of the book.
He says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
Go and make disciples of all nations.
Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded.
All right, Baptize them by the Father of the Holy Spirit.
Teach them to obey all that I have commanded you.
And lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the
age. So we cannot say post
resurrection, post Great Commission, that we should not
be obeying as disciples the laws of God, the teachings of Christ.
We should obey them and we should teach others to obey
them. That's what Jesus is getting to
here as he transitions with this therefore, so everything is just
said. I have not come to abolish.
I've come to fulfill therefore, which links this verse directly
to what he's just said. He says, or what we see is that
since not even the smallest detail passes away until all is
accomplished, the commandments remain binding in their true
intent. The the verse addresses 2
actions. The first that we see is
relaxes. Anyone who relaxes relaxes means
to loose it, to untie it. There was a popular preacher
some years ago. Now thankfully he's getting less
and less popular. But but he thought it was a good
idea to unhitch the gospel from the Old Testament.
He taught that we should unhitch ourselves from the Old
Testament. That's utterly foolish, right?
Christ himself is going to make that case in the next several
passages that we'll look at in the coming weeks, right?
Anyone who annulls, anyone who relaxes these things is
annulling them. They're setting them aside.
And he doesn't say just keep the big ones, right?
Just pay attention to the big ones.
No, He says the least of the commandments if you relax them
and then you teach others to do the same.
Now one quick thought. On least, it doesn't mean
insignificance, right? We might think least means it's
not as significant. But with God's Word there is no
least thing. There are no least things,
right? It's a concession to human
perspective, right? All commandments carry divine
weight because they come from God's mouth, right?
John Calvin notes that this way, and I thought it was good.
He says, what sacrilege is it to treat contemptuously anything
which has proceeded from God's sacred mouth?
I wrote different back then, didn't they?
Even commands we might rank as minor, right?
Like the small details and the moral law, All of those things
matter eternally, and so the consequences are striking,
right? The one who loosens and teaches
loosening will be called least in the Kingdom.
But the one who does right, the one who practices, the one who
performs these things, the one who walks in the good works of
the Lord that have been prepared for you beforehand and teaches
others to do the same, will be called great.
All right, so this isn't about entrance into the Kingdom,
right? We we've already seen in Matthew
that entrance into the Kingdom is by grace through faith,
right? So it's not about earning your
way into the Kingdom. I want you to be really sure of
that before you leave today. But it's about it's it's about
your status or reward within the Kingdom, right?
The theologians generally understand least and great as
degrees of honor or fruitfulness in the eternal Kingdom, not
exclusion from it. Some of them even note this.
The unsaved have no place in the Kingdom at all, right?
So this passage is speaking to believers.
Now, Calvin explains this. He says those who weakens the
law's authority are rejected as the lowest of men, and yet the
context implies that they remain in the Kingdom, though
diminished in their usefulness or reward.
So the emphasis here is on faithful stewardship of God's
Word, right? We want to be faithful stewards
of God's Word which which means we should read it, we should
study it, we should meditate on it.
We should beg the Holy Spirit to cause fruitfulness from God's
word in our lives. We should repent where it
convicts us all right. We should believe where it urges
us to believe something. And as we learn these things, we
ought to teach them. We ought to live them out
faithfully, not perfectly. All right, we, we have a perfect
Savior. We'll never have perfect
Christians. So we don't we're not looking
for perfection. We're looking for faithfulness.
This verse affirms what we might call the third use of the law,
right? The the law has three classic
functions, or maybe you've heard of this, maybe you haven't.
But the the first function of the law is that it restrains sin
in society. It has a civil use.
That's why it's not a terrible thing to grow up in the Bible
Belt where there's at least some instruction from God's word
that's been handed down through the years.
That doesn't mean those people are Christians.
That's where the problem, that's where the rub comes as people
think that because they're moral that they are Christians.
But what it does create is a society that has some restraint
on sin, right? So it has a civil use.
The second use of the law is that it convicts of sin and
drives us to Christ. So there's a teaching use of the
law, right? It's goods and it's civil
nature, but it becomes really good and it's teaching nature,
right? In Romans we read of Paul
essentially saying, I did not know that I was guilty of
coveting until I read the law that said, thou shalt not covet,
right? It's it exposes, it drives us to
Christ. It teaches us of our need
because of our sin and our failure.
It teaches us of our need for a Savior.
And the third use of the law is that it serves as a rule of life
for believers. What I mean is that it becomes a
gracious guide for grateful obedience in the Kingdom age.
All right, you might think of Psalm 119, where the psalmist
writes, I've hidden your word in my heart that I would not, that
I might not sin against you. Your word is a lamp unto my
feet, a light unto my path. You can read over and over and
over again the psalmist just declaring his love, his
devotion, his desire for God's law.
So we're not under the law as a covenant of works for
justification. That would be legalism.
We're not trying to climb a ladder or earn our way to heaven
by keeping the law. That's not what we're saying
here. That's not what Christ is
teaching. The gospel frees us from the
curse of the law, which would be death which Christ incurred on
Himself in our place. It frees us from the curse
because He took the curse. And it empowers us by the Spirit
to walk in its righteous requirements, Romans 8, three
through 4, in order that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in US who walk not according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. So the law is no longer our
Master, but it is our delighted rule, right?
It's written on our heart. Jeremiah 3133 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those
days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them,
and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people. Praise the Lord for this new
covenant. For centuries, people have
denied this third use of the law.
They've opted for what is called antinomianism.
Right now, that's not just a $10 preacher word, OK?
It's an ancient heresy that has stained the church for
centuries. Antinomianism means relaxing or
dismissing altogether God's commands.
Now they will do this because of grace, they say, right?
But does Paul not write in Romans 6?
Should we go on sinning so that grace may abound?
By no means or absolutely not, right?
We don't go on sinning so that we get more grace.
It's true that there is grace upon grace in Christ, but we
should not be like the Israelites who tested God over
and over and over again with their sinfulness.
That that line of thinking, I'll go on sinning because God's
grace abounds. That line of thinking should not
find no place to lay its head on the Christian's heart.
Jesus warns against it sharply. He he's saying those who do
this, especially teachers, especially the ones who are
teaching others to do this, they're diminishing their
Kingdom influence and reward. Conversely, though, he says
joyful obedience and faithful teaching bring greatness in the
Kingdom, not not for salvation, but for glory to Christ and
eternal commendation. Right.
Well done, good and faithful servants.
John Calvin comments on this verse.
I try not to use long quotes. This was a little lengthier, but
it's really great so I'll try to go slow.
Christ here speaks expressly of the commandments of life.
They are false and deceitful teachers who do not restrain
their disciples within obedience to the law, and that they are
unworthy to occupy a place in the church who weaken in the
slightest degree the authority of the Law.
And, on the other hand, that they are honest and faithful
ministers of God, who recommend, both by word and example, the
keeping of the law. Thomas Watson, one of the great
Puritans, reinforces this third use of the Law when he writes.
Though the moral law be thus far abolished as a covenant of life,
it remains A perpetual guide for us.
Though it be not a covenant of life, yet it is a rule of life.
Amen. It's a rule of life for us.
So all of us, men, women, boys, girls, right, should examine
what we model and what we teach about God's commands.
Does my life model one who is seeking to glorify Christ by
obeying the commands of God? Not only do I model it, do I
teach it? When I teach it, is it
believable because my life models it?
Or is it unbelievable because my life looks nothing like what I'm
teaching? And it's not just for preachers,
that's for parents. Are we loosening any part of His
word in our homes, or are we loosening any part of it in our
conversations in our church in order to try to fit a modern
preference? Right.
Are we loosening these things? Kingdom greatness isn't about
status seeking, right? Kingdom greatness flows from a
humble, joyful obedience that passes that on to others.
So I will encourage you today to strive to be great in the
Kingdom of Heaven by doing and teaching the law as the King
deepens it, which we'll see more about in the coming weeks,
Right? So obedience and teaching matter
deeply, but Jesus isn't calling for external conformity or rule
keeping for its own sake, right? He he demands something far more
penetrating. Which gets us to the Third
Point. Christ requires A righteousness
that surpasses externalism. Christ requires A righteousness
that surpasses externalism. Look at verse 20.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of
heaven. Shocking.
Utterly shocking. Now, this verse serves as like
the climactic hinge of the entire passage that we're
looking at 17 through 20, and it serves as the launchpad for the
six antitheses that will follow in verses 21 through 48.
You have heard. But I say to you, all right,
he's going to get into that in the coming weeks.
So Jesus has just affirmed the law's permanence.
He, he's demanded faithful obedience in teaching, and now
he raises the standard to an astonishing height.
He, He doesn't say unless your righteousness looks like that of
the scribes and Pharisees. He doesn't say if your
righteousness is on par with the scribes and the Pharisees.
No, He, He says, if your righteousness exceeds the
scribes and the Pharisees. Now that word exceeds means to
abound. It means to overflow, right?
We talked about fulfilling earlier is to fill the cup all
the way full. Well, exceeding would be to fill
all the way full and then to just keep going until you have a
giant mess. It must exceed in quality and
quantity, not not just more of the same, but a righteousness of
a different kind, a righteousness of a different
depth. Now, I look at my life when I
read that, and I think there is no way that you will see Kyle
Jones in the Kingdom of heaven. If that's the standard, there's
no way we should all feel like that.
And I would imagine those listeners in that moment felt
the same way. The scribes and the Pharisees
were renowned for their meticulous external observance,
right? They would, they would tithe
mint and dill and cumin. We see that Matthew 23, they
would fast twice a week. They would pray long public
prayers, They had wide phylacteries, right, and they
had strict Sabbath rules, but they were the gold standard of
Jewish piety in the eyes of the people.
Yet Jesus declares that Kingdom citizens must exceed them,
surpass this gold standard that they had in their eyes, or else
they will never enter the Kingdom of heaven again.
This is shocking. Enter the Kingdom Here
emphasizes both present experience, which is the Kingdom
breaking through in Jesus Christ, and future consummation,
which is that eternal inheritance when Christ returns
the scribes and the Pharisees. Righteousness was real in its
outward vigor. OK, but it.
Was fatally. Deficient inwardly.
It it was self generated, it was self focused.
It it was external only. It was to be seen and approved
by others. Their their hearts remained
unchanged, full. Of hypocrisy.
And pride and full of love for the praise of man and Christ.
Will later say to them in Matthew 20.
Three, that they are whitewashed tombs full of dead man's bones.
This is why it shocks Nicodemus to his core when he comes to
Jesus in John chapter 3. He comes at night by the way,
because he doesn't want to be seen.
Oddly enough, everything else about his life was meant to be
seen. And this encounter with Christ,
he want to make sure no one saw. And he begins to inquire about
what it means to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
And Jesus lets him know that you cannot enter the Kingdom of
heaven unless you were born again.
It's just looked a man. In the eyes who spent?
His whole life living as perfectly as he can, keeping the
laws of God as the as best as he can, attending temple
sacrifices, teaching in the temple, being a part of the
religious elite. He spent his whole life climbing
this ladder and Jesus looks at him and says you must be born
again. You must live your whole life
over essentially and. Nicodemus is shocked by this.
Because he thinks that everything he has worked for is
going to earn an entrance into the Kingdom of heaven and
Christ. Looks at him and says it's not
about. The external, it's about
regeneration of the heart must be born of the Spirit of God.
We talked about being born of the Spirit.
We're thinking Titus 35, right? It's a good summary there, what
it means to be born of the spirit that you, you have been
regenerated by the Spirit of God.
You've been made new, right? You have a new heart, a new
spirit, a right spirit within you.
You've been washed in the waters of regeneration.
And so the scribes and Pharisees.
Were fatally deficient whitewashed tombs full of dead
man's bone, and Jesus exposes this as he's teaching.
The righteousness looked impressive on the surface, but
it lacked this. Internal.
Transformation that the law truly demands right when you
read in. Deuteronomy 6.
Deuteronomy. 30 We see there that we are commanded to love
God with all the heart. So theologically, we.
Have to think about some things here.
This verse demands something that we cannot achieve.
We're going to have the. Righteousness that.
Exceeds the Pharisees and I've already.
Lived a life that would not. Exceed the heirs.
Then it demands an. Imputed and imparted
righteousness. All right, when we think of
imputed. Righteousness.
This is what we. Mean Christ, perfect
righteousness, perfect obedience is credited to us by faith in
Christ alone. All right, Romans. 3 Romans 5.
Philippians 3 will tell you this in Philippians.
Three, Paul writes not having a. Righteousness of my own, but
that which comes through faith in Christ.
So this is the. Only way sinners.
Exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.
This is it. It's through an imputed
righteousness they receive Christ's spotless record, which
infinitely surpasses any human effort.
That's it. That's the only way you're going
to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees is to repent of
your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ.
And then what comes with that is what we.
Might call an imparted righteousness right the spirits
work that regeneration of the heart produces real heart change
and obedience in believers Kingdom.
Righteousness then exceeds. Pharisaic externalism because it
flows outwardly from a renewed heart.
Your motives have been purified. Your desires align with God's.
There's a love for. God and a love for neighbor.
That's genuine rather than performative.
Calvin observes on this verse he says the.
Scribes pretend that their hostility to Jesus arises from
their strong desire that the law should not be violated, but
their life makes it evidence how coldly they observe the law
while they boast. Before men of an.
Assumed and hypocritical righteousness.
So there's zeal. The zeal of the scribes and.
The Pharisees was outward and cold, but Kingdom righteousness
is inward and worn. Matthew Henry.
Adds this, he says the law is. The Christian's rule of duty,
and he delights therein. Christ's righteousness, imputed
to us by faith alone, is needed by everyone that enters the
Kingdom, Henry continues. He says.
But the new creation of the heart to holiness produces a
thorough change in man's temper and conduct.
That there's fruits. Of righteousness there's.
Fruit in keeping with repentance.
In short, then, what we see is that the Pharisees had quantity
of external acts, but they lacked a quality of heart.
Jesus calls for a righteousness that abounds from the inside
out, a righteousness that's motivated by love.
It's empowered by grace. It's aimed at God's glory,
right? I want you to picture this with
me. I'm going to use a simple object
lesson that I just learned last night during our Disciple of
Nation's family worship time together.
The board was here over the weekend for a board meeting in
person and we gathered for family worship last night.
But I want to show to. You what?
Jesus. Means by righteousness that
exceeds the Pharisees. All right, so this weight on my
hand right represents. This crushing.
Burden of sin that you and I carry, right?
If we're here, this is the weight on us.
It's the crushing burden of our sin.
Every failure, every selfish motive, every hidden thought,
right? It's what?
Separates us. From God, right?
If God is here, we're here with this burden.
We're separated by our sin and it's.
What makes any external? Righteousness like the scribes
and the Pharisees, meticulous rule keeping.
It's what makes all of that ultimately worthless before God.
It's meaningless. Their hands looked busy with
good deeds, but the weights of their own sin remained on their
hearts. Now watch all right?
You can try to turn your life around all right.
Or you can even try to turn over a new leaf.
But the weight is still there. No, no amount of external effort
removes it. The Pharisees righteousness was
impressive on the outside, but but the heart is unchanged
still. But the burden remains.
But but here's the good. News of the Gospel.
Jesus Christ, the God man, the second member of the Trinity,
the Son of God, comes to us, and he doesn't just try.
To lift the weight. Off of us, He doesn't tell us to
lift the weight off ourselves. No, he takes it on himself.
Right. And on the cross.
Jesus Christ bears the full weight of your sin, every bit of
a past, present, future, so that the burden is now gone
completely and removed. It's paid in full right now.
My hand is free. My hand is light.
It's unburdened. Because of Christ's perfect
obedience, which has been credited to me by faith alone,
that's imputed righteousness. God accepts me fully.
I exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, not by my own
efforts, but by receiving the spotless record of Christ
himself. And here's the beauty.
For Kingdom citizens. With the weight gone, the Holy
Spirit comes to live in you and He begins to produce a real
change in you from the inside outs.
Remember when John the Baptist called this bearing fruit in
keeping with repentance? Right there's.
Purified motives. There's confession of sin,
there's a desire to grow in godliness.
There's a genuine love for God, a genuine love for your
neighbor. There's obedience that flows
from a heart that's been renewed, a heart that loves the
Lord, that's imparted righteousness.
It's it's not performative externals.
It overflows from a life, a renewed.
Life within and. That surpasses anything that you
could manufacture on your own. So even our good works, brothers
and sisters, we can never pat ourselves on the back and think,
man, I did a really good job there.
All of our good. Works are produced in US.
By a good God, a gracious. God A.
God, who has called us to live not for ourselves any longer,
but to live for his Kingdom. So Jesus isn't calling us to
try. Harder in Matthew 5, with our
own strength. That's the good news of what
we're reading in Matthew 5. He's calling us.
To rest in what? He accomplishes that imputed
righteousness, and then He's calling us to walk in what He is
doing in us that imparted righteousness.
That's the righteousness that enters and thrives in His
Kingdom. This teaching again is going to
launch us into. What might be called the
antifeces, All right, we're going to encounter in the coming
passages, we're going to see things like murder includes
heart anger, adultery includes lust of the heart, lustful
looks. Oaths include simple
truthfulness because the law's true intent targets the heart of
the man, not the external behavior of him.
So this week, would you let? The King's Standard.
Search your heart. Let the King's Standard search
your thoughts. Let it search your words, the
things you say this week. Let it search your
relationships. Are you?
Walking in unity with your brothers and sisters.
In Christ, are you reconciled to your spouse?
Are you using your relationships in a way?
Are you walking in your relationships in a way that
would honor and glorify the Lord?
Let the King. Standard search your motives.
Even is your obedience merely external like the Pharisees?
I know I should live this way, so I'm going to try to produce
these things in my life. Or is it heart deep because you
know that Christ died to save you and he loves you greatly and
so in love for Him you desire to obey your desire for.
Obedience flows from. Gratitude for the imputed
righteousness of Christ. And then as you see those dark.
Nasty things in your own heart, You'll find them, we all find
them. And as you see them, ask the
Spirit to expose any hypocrisy. Ask the Spirit to expose any
performance. Re repent where it's needed.
Rejoice. That Jesus.
Has already exceeded every demand of the law.
And then live out the overflowing righteousness that
He produces in you. Remember.
Jesus fulfills the law to produce.
Heart righteousness in His Kingdom.
He didn't. He didn't come to tear down
God's holy standard. He came to fulfill it perfectly,
completely, down to the smallest jot and title.
He lived the righteousness that the Law demanded of us.
He did it in our place. He bore the curse that we owed,
that we should have undergone, because the Law pronounced that
curse on our sin, and He bore it in our place.
And now, having accomplished all, He produces the same
righteousness in His people. Did you behold the glory of
Christ Jesus? You're being transformed.
From 1°. Of glory to another, not as an
external performance for people to clap at, but as heart
righteousness that overflows from a transformed life in His
Kingdom. So because Jesus has fulfilled
the law, there's three things you should know.
We rest in his imputed righteousness.
We rest in. His imputed righteousness, His
perfect. Record credit to us by faith
alone. The wait is gone.
We stand accepted, not because we've exceeded the Pharisees in
our own strength, but because He has exceeded every demand for
us. Secondly, we reject the twin
errors. One antinomianism.
We will not relax God's commands as if grace gives us a license
to sin and two, legalism. We will not settle for Pharisee
level externals that leave the heart unchanged. #3 We pursue
Kingdom. Greatness, we don't climb a.
Ladder of self. Effort.
No. We exceed or we pursue Kingdom
greatness by doing and teaching the law as Jesus deepens it.
Again, you're going to see this further in the Gospel, but this
is the righteousness that abounds from the inside out.
So this week. Take the King's Standard into
your daily. Life.
Take it into your marriage. Does love flow from a heart
renewed by grace, or is it a mere duty?
Take it into your words. Are they truthful and kind from
the inside, or are they just polished?
On the surface. Take it into your thoughts and.
Your motives where? Has performance anxiety or
hidden pride crept in in your life?
Take it into your. Home and into your church.
What? What are you teaching by your
words and your works to the next generation or to those around
you, about God's commands? Brothers, sisters, examine your
hearts. Honestly repent where?
You've relaxed. The law or trusted in externals.
And above all, rejoice because the King has already fulfilled
it all. His Spirit is at work in you.
It's producing the very heart righteousness that pleases the
Father. By his work you are becoming the
salt of the earth, the light of the world, the King.
Did not lower. The bar no he He's raised it to
the level of the heart. He met it perfectly in his own
person, and now he builds his Kingdom with citizens who
reflect his own righteousness from the inside out.
And to all of that we must say to him.
Be the glory great things he has done great things he is doing
great things he will complete and us let's pray Heavenly
Father, we thank you for your word today.
We thank you, Lord. For this word.
On the law, and we thank you for Christ, who has perfectly
fulfilled it in himself, and that by faith in Him we can
receive new life, we can have a new heart, we can have the
righteousness of Christ imputed to us, credited to our account.
He takes our sin on Himself at the cross, and He incurs the
wrath that was rightly ours so that we might have His
righteousness. Lord, would you help us to walk
as men and women and boys and girls who love the Lord?
Help us to walk as those. Who are obedience to Christ
because we love Him so deeply. May we never take for granted
the cross. May we never take righteousness
that's been imputed to us for granted and trample on it by
thinking that we can go on sinning and grace.
We'll just keep abounding. God, would you purify us?
Would you help us to? Be more like Christ.
In the things that we say, the things that we do, the things
that we think God would. You continue your great
transforming. Work in US this week.
And all of it so that. We might give rightful praise
and glory to you. We know that we have been saved
by grace through faith, and none of this is of our own doing.
It's a gift of God so that no one may boast.
So God prevent us from boasting, humble us, Lord, keep us from
pride. Help us to adore the Savior in
new ways each day. I'm.
Going to give you a moment there in your seat.
To reflect on God's Word and the message that you've heard, we're
going to ask you to pray. If there's a false righteousness
that you've been. Trying to create in your life.
I urge you to repent today. I urge you to seek the Lord.
Ask Him to humble you. Ask Him to shape your life, to
form you after His own likeness by His Spirit.
Take a moment just to rejoice. In the work of Christ on your
behalf. Heavenly Father, we thank you
that we can come boldly. Before this throne of grace and
find mercy and grace in our time of need.
We thank you Father, that you are shaping us to be like your
son. You've adopted us as your own
sons and daughters and you've made us Co heirs with.
Christ. You've sealed us with your
spirit, and so we can walk. With you.
We can communicate with you. We can have a deep communion
with you. Father reconciled.
And so, Father, we ask that you help us to honor you.
This week, help us to live for you this week with the lives
that we. Live be worthy of the.
Gospel that we've received. Ask these things in the name of
Christ our Lord, Amen.