Matthew 5:17-30 — Unknown Speaker

Shall we ask God's blessing on our gathering? Our gracious God and Father, we do indeed confess our need before Thee, the need of all these graces which are ours freely through Thy Spirit in Christ. Thank Thee for that blessed one who came down from heaven to seek and to save that which was lost.

We are thankful for each one of us found in His mercy and redeemed of the Lord. We thank Thee we can gather to consider Thy word this afternoon. We pray for safety for all who will be traveling homeward from here later and others traveling elsewhere.

We ask for Thy preserving mercies. And we ask for preservation in our discussion today that it might be profitable to the edifying of the saints to the glory of God, that we might go away having learned something more of the ways of God, that we might seek grace whereby we might serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Help us then, we pray, as we return thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We have a number of verses to read, but I want to read just one verse in 1 Timothy chapter six first. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse three, If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness.

Christ’s Wholesome Words and Matthew 5

I was struck with these words yesterday as I was sending out an email to some of the saints. What we are going to be considering this afternoon is just what we've read up here. Wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I trust that we will give due diligence and attention and reverence to what is spoken. These are wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're not something to live by for salvation, but they certainly are something to seek by the Spirit of God to live by as believers.

And I personally am unwilling to give them away to another people of another time. These are wholesome words. This is the doctrine that is according to godliness. So let's go back to Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter five, reading at verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Arachah shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath fought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost bargain. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

But let your communication be, yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thine neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?

Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven. If you have an outline, and I hope you do, I think there should be plenty for everyone.

I'm not going to go over the beginning. That was well handled at Ontario some weeks ago. You'll see my thoughts. The Lord Jesus, the true lawgiver and judge, contrasts the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees with the practical righteousness that he expects of his subjects.

In so doing, he gives the true interpretation of the law and clarifies God's intention in regards to his commandments. There are six statements that are quoted from the moral law. If you have a new bearer, you'll notice, and we'll have occasions to discuss that.

Sometimes it starts out as a direct quotation from the law. Perhaps I should just say right here that the law does not necessarily mean just the Ten Commandments, and it does not even necessarily mean just Exodus or Deuteronomy, where that occurs.

The law is basically the first five books of the Old Testament. Sometimes the law actually will include all of the Old Testament, all the Word of God. But you'll notice, as I started to say, the first part of the quotation is indeed directly from the law, and then it changes that the rest of it does not have any corresponding part.

And I think that's what we're going to find as we go through this. The Lord is straightening out their thinking. He is reinterpreting. They have developed their system of traditions and their interpretations, which in many cases actually set aside the law or added to the law.

And so that the statement which was said by or of to them of old times is not necessarily what God intended, and that's what we're going to find as we go through this. Verse 17 is a very important verse, and I'm just going to sit down and we'll get started.

Christ Fulfills Rather Than Destroys the Law

We read it, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. I think it's very important to realize how important this statement is right at the beginning of this teaching and the beginning of his public ministry.

He is doing wonderful things. There are many rumors circulating about him. And so if you've just come out of, if you were to read your Bible right through Malachi and then go right to Matthew 1 and read, you'll think, is he going to change the law?

Is there something radically new? He's going to assure us, no. And the law is holy and just and good. It's not going to be destroyed, but it's going to be properly interpreted and it's going to be lived out in the lives of his followers, those of us saved from this indwelling spirit of God.

But what is that thought of destroy, not come to destroy the law? It's relatively commonly used. Its basic thought is just destroy. As you see that Newbery has, unloose or make void. He is not coming to establish something totally new.

He is building upon what God has revealed in the past, what God has commanded his people. He is going to build on that. He's not destroying it. Not come to destroy, but to fulfill. So what is the sense of fulfill?

Well, if in James we got he that offends in one place is guilty of all, to fulfill would mean to accomplish the whole entire aspect of the law. Not one thing could be missing.

In other words, he was going to live a perfect life according to the law. As far as fulfilling the law, even the broken law, he was going to accomplish that. Consequence to that.

He's going to magnify, and I think Isaiah 42 is it, magnify the law and make it honorable. I think we should maybe clarify right at the beginning. His keeping the law is not what saves us. If that were so, then our righteousness would be a righteousness which is of the law.

Well, the law cannot do that. So, obviously he could not sin, and so he could not violate God's law. But I think the real, where he saves us as far in relation to the law is that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree.

So, for us as believers, the place where he fulfilled the law that was greatest for us is when he died under the curse of a broken law. And that's what saves us. But I enjoyed, as you notice, looking at concordance for other uses of this word fulfilled.

Matthew has it, a dozen times probably at least, that it might be fulfilled, which was written. And so he is fulfilling all the prophetic scriptures concerning himself.

You can see that he was going beyond what the scribes and pharisees were expecting. Because they were looking at just the formality and the ritualism of law keeping. And he's not going to dissolve that or to destroy it.

He is going to fulfill and give it its spiritual and moral fullness in his life and in his teaching. And so, in a sense, all the pharisees and the scribes are out of the water. Because they were looking at just this formality and ritualism.

We're keeping it. We're the people. And the Lord is saying, no, you're not. You're not. Because there needs to be that moral and spiritual development that the law intends, that the law is pointing toward, which is going to be fulfilling Christ.

So the gospel he is going to bring, there is nothing contradictory about it as to the law. He is not contradicting the law. That's a very good point, Romans 3. Do we make void the law? Yea, we establish the law.

And going back with the New Testament, we can see that God had predicted that righteousness would come by faith way back in Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That is the gold standard.

That's the only way God has ever justified anyone and ever will, is by faith. And so, righteousness by faith is not contradictory. It is the establishment of the law.

Isn't Galatians 3, verses 19 through 25, kind of point that out? The purpose of the law was for a time period until Christ came, until the seed came. He was our schoolmaster.

Romans chapter 8, what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh. The law was an external system just like the laws of the land. You would need no laws if you didn't have law breakers. And people do things that ought not to be done and they ought to know they ought not to be done, but the only way to put a limit on it is to make a law, to make it illegal, then you can find them or punish them somehow and hopefully get them to quit doing it.

And that's all the law could ever accomplish in unregenerate people. The righteousness that we're going to get to later, that is by faith in Jesus Christ, is a righteousness that brings into our life, into our being the Holy Spirit.

And now we fulfill the righteousness which is in the law, not by law keeping, but in the power of the Spirit of God, more about that later. So the Lord is not loosing, He's not throwing away the Old Testament and neither should we.

We should appreciate the Old Testament. We're going to see that the precepts that it taught, if interpreted rightly and brought into our lives by the Spirit of God, are wholesome teachings. They are indeed holy and just and good.

They were never meant for righteousness, but they'll keep a man walking away that will please God. So the statement that's repeated elsewhere, verse 18, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

I'll just plug, that's why we believe in the inspiration of Scripture right down to the jot and the tittle. And it pays to pay attention to what is written in the Scriptures of truth because it's not haphazard.

I'll not deny there is some value in paraphrases and so forth. We do it all the time from the platform. We paraphrase what this verse means. But if you really want to study and understand, it pays to have a Bible version that sticks with the language of Scripture.

And those are available. And our King James does very good at that. It has its faults, but it does well at intending a word-for-word translation which allows you to study.

He's showing the continuity of Old Testament law of prophets with his truth, his teaching, who he is. Because he says, barely I stand to you. So it's not a putting away and saying, well, the prophets and what the law of Moses and the prophets, they all said that.

That's different than what I'm going to say. He says, no, I spoke through them. Now I'm the final word, Hebrews 1, and this is what I'm saying. He is, in a sense, deepening. It's like turning up the microscope to a different power.

Because this is what I'm showing you now. So it's not only continuity, but it's also what's called teleopathy. It's where it's going, it's gold. It's going to its fulfillment. And it's also with him. I think in John 1, the law was given by Moses.

You don't have a loving relationship with the law. The law is hard and cold, unbendable. But it says, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So here is a person who has arrived. Grace and truth has arrived.

And here is one, the continuity is being maintained, but it's with a view to a relationship with the one who is the source of all this truth. That's what God intends, a relationship with him. It's not going to pass away.

Not one job is going to pass until it's all been fulfilled. Because he wants us to have a relationship, not just in time, but forever. Not just in heaven, but here on earth. The concept of truth.

We'll likely discuss it shortly, but Romans 10 and 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, for everyone that believes it. He's the object of it. He's what has made the fulfillment of it possible by his death.

Doing and Teaching the Commandments

Verse 19, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I think this should speak to all of us. I want this to be practical today. I think we all do. There's many times we're better off to stop short of trying to interpret or apply something. For fear we should do this.

How many times have you heard, and I hope we don't do it today, we read what it says here in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and we say, well, it can't mean that. Well, are we teaching something that... Are we breaking one of the least commandments and teaching men so?

If it just doesn't suit our ability or our preference, we could be guilty of that. I looked up this do and teach. That's the way it should be in all our lives, shouldn't it? Practice. Someone says, your action speaks aloud.

I can't hear your words. Well, that's sometimes how it is. Do and teach is right. Ezra, I think, is the first one. Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Ezra's statutes and judgments.

It's here. And then in Acts 1, the things which the Lord began both to do and teach. Lovely when doing precedes teaching. I looked at the contrast. I just put in the search engine do and teach, those two words.

Well, it comes in the Old Testament. There's time after time it says teach and do. That's how the law was. Here's the commandment. Now you do it. It didn't work then, and it still doesn't work.

That would be a direct affront to the Pharisees and the scribes. They were the ones that would, they would laden people with heavy burdens, but they wouldn't lift a little finger to help them. So they would like to teach, but they didn't want to do anything.

So the Lord is pointing right out, no, it's do and teach.

Matthew 23 is the great denunciation, and I said, you know, they sit in Moses' seat, so observe what they say, but don't do it the way they do, because they say and do not. We don't want to be that way.

We want to both do, first of all do and then teach. The most characteristic of the Lord Jesus, I didn't mention in Acts 1, until He was taken up into heaven. So there was never a failure in the part of Christ.

To do and to teach. First, that's the object of what we do, are taught. James says, the doers of the Word are not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. It's often been said, not deceiving anyone else, just deceiving your own self.

If we think that we can go by.

Knowing the truth but not doing it. In 1 Peter 5, the exhortation to elders is that they are to feed, which would be teaching, but their feeding comes after they are examples to the flock. So they're first living their lives before the flock, among the flock, and then they're able to teach because they are doing it.

And that will give weight.

Righteousness Greater Than the Pharisees

Verse 24, I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness that was described in the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Good opportunity for the gospel, of course.

What was their righteousness? It was observing the commandments as they interpreted them to make them doable as far as they were concerned. That won't do. Law-keeping cannot bring righteousness. I think the best commentary I know on these verses is Philippians 3.

Paul lists all of his qualifications as a Pharisee, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Philippians 3, verse 4,. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.

Let's read on. For what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

He outlines the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Doing good. Observing the commandments. And even, he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. That's quite a statement.

And I take it he didn't make that statement lightly. But it's all trash. It's dumb. Not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

That's the only righteousness that will give us to heaven. It seems that the scribes and Pharisees were interested in what other people would call them to be righteous. They were interested in the, this is what I see as the scribes, they were interested, they were marked by external formalism.

And they had, in a sense, the word of God in their hand. And they thought just by having it in that external form, that made it righteous. The Lord is showing them or teaching them that there needs to be an inward righteousness that doesn't come from them or any other human.

It comes from the very word of God itself. And the Pharisees, they were interested or marked by ritualism and ceremonialism. And so as they were looking at all the things that they needed to do or not do so that other people would call them righteous.

And the Lord is saying, they're not the ones, that's the righteousness that's false. If other people are calling you righteous, and that's your standard, it's false. It's the matter of, does God call you righteous?

And so, just like the two men that went up to the Temple of the Prayer, all became a Pharisee. Who was the one that justified them? Who was the one that was called righteous? And see, He brings that right here.

If it doesn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,.

You have no righteousness. Would you say that Paul first says the Pharisee has confidence in his ability or his keeping the law. His confidence is actually in himself. Exactly.

Christ is with him. My action doesn't make me right with God. It's Christ's action for me that makes me righteous. And I'm simply trusting Him.

And the Pharisees, they were interested in what they were seeking to do, what they thought was being for God, so that others would see them, well, they're the Pharisees, they're the righteous ones.

And all it was was hypocrisy. And the Lord is calling them out on that. He's pointing and saying, no, that's all from you, it's good flesh. We often hear about the bad flesh, all the bad vices of life.

Well, here's good flesh. Good flesh of the scribes and the Pharisees carrying the sacred writings a certain way so that people would look at it and say, boy, they're not holy. No, they're inside. That's what He's going to deal with.

Inside what they think. How they treat others in their mind. What they're thinking.

Is going to prove whether they're righteous or not. Was their mistake trying to satisfy the law by works rather than by faith?

Or opposed to God by works rather than faith?

That's the great burden there of the apostle in Romans 10. Read that. Romans 10, verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.

They were trying to establish righteousness on the basis of their works. And that's impossible. And so they needed to rest on the work of Christ for salvation. But they were zealous at it. Paul actually uses that thought of being a Pharisee in a positive sense.

Versus the Sadducees, they were more or less what we would call fundamental nowadays. Now, the Lord upbraided them severely. They weren't righteous and they weren't true to what they taught, but they at least upheld the law.

What was the law supposed to teach them? If we consider that, kind of going back around it, we all know the law teaches us that it reveals us we're sinners. It's the schoolmaster, as you brought out in Galatians, to bring us to Christ.

So that's what they were supposed to be. It's supposed to reveal their sin. And the strength of sin is the law. And that's what it's supposed to do. And I can think of, I was in a bookstore one time and they had the Ten Commandments way up high on the wall.

And things were for sale in the bookstore and pictures and everything else, but nobody was buying the Ten Commandments, I guess. Because they had it way up high in a special place. And I asked the guy behind the counter, I said, what does that prove?

What does that prove to you? And of course, I was probably the same way I'm asking this question. He said, well, they're the Ten Commandments. And I said, I know what it proved to me. And he said, what's that?

And I said, it proved I never could keep them. And I got to preach Christ. And that's what they did for me. I can't keep them myself. But with the Holy Spirit, and I think that's what we'll get into later, with the Holy Spirit, we have that inward ability to have these afternoons.

Romans 3 and 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the insight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's all the law can ever do. It's often been likened to a mirror.

It can show you what problems you have, but it can't do anything about them. So Romans 10 there, the law has an end of power and that's fulfilling Christ. If the strength of the sin is the law, then the strength over sin is Christ.

And the Bible teaches that. So now we'll start the six statements from the law that the Lord clarifies. One commentator put it, intensifies. And that's kind of... We all do this. We'll interpret things in such a way that we can do it.

We'll weaken it. We'll take some of the requirements off. So they're saying, I've never killed anyone, so I'm a righteous person. And the Lord is going to take it deeper than that and say, well, God looks on the heart, and so you don't have to have actually murdered someone.

Maybe we should just clarify that. The commandment says thou shall not kill, but it's obviously understanding that means thou shall not murder. It is perfectly justifiable for the authorities to execute a person.

It is justifiable, though obviously to be regretted, that in warfare people are killed. The point is thou shall not murder. There were no trials after all the hundreds of thousands of people were killed on the battlefields of Israel.

That was all justifiable. But thou shall not commit murder. Even so, in the law,.

If your relative was killed by somebody, you had to flee to a city of refuge, or they had a right to take your life if you weren't there.

Technically not. If it was warfare, technically not, but that was the problem with Job. They shed the blood of war in peace, so they were guilty. So thou shall not kill. That lets probably all of us off the hook, doesn't it?

Well, the Lord says, just a minute. But I say unto you, and that's what I thought. This is the true lawgiver. The Spirit of Christ was in the prophets. And so now the true lawgiver says, I say unto you, I, the true lawgiver, am going to interpret what God requires of a man if you want to be righteous before God, if you're going to go to the work system, and what, by the Spirit of God, the standard that we should have.

Anger, Insults, and the Sin of Murderous Speech

Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Is there a justifiable anger? I've put it down. Christ addressed unjustified anger. There's a righteous anger.

The Lord Jesus exhibited that when he wrote the money changers out of the temple.

For making his father's house a merchandise of the thieves.

I have a question. Why, he says in each of these six things at times, he says, we have heard that it was said by them of old time. Kind of a funny way to say it, if he's just quoting Scripture. Why, when he says in the law, is he including what they had changed by their adding to the law the Pharisees?

Is he including what they were teaching? Which would be, many times, in addition to what the law said. Is he including that by saying it that way?

There are likely others who may have different thoughts. I think so. Because, you know, he quotes it all in one statement. Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

Then he gives his interpretation, his clarification on that. The system, and they have a name for their whole body, but great rabbis down through the centuries, they had collected their teachings and they worked them all together and discussed it and hammered out a system of rules and regulations, expounding supposedly, but many times diminishing, taking away from what the commandment said.

So, whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. And the Lord starts that as the very lowest point of judgment. I take these, each of these goes up. First, the judgment is the local judgment, at least from what I've read, a local body of judges.

And then when it goes up to the council, you're up to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. So you're going up to the Supreme Court, as it were. And then last of all is hellfire. And so, what they said, the person who murdered someone was worthy of the Lord saying, that's the very basic level.

It goes up from there. I take it there is justified anger in the fact that it says, without a cause. Ephesians says, Be ye angry and sin not. Ephesians 4. So, it's all right to be angry as long as you don't sin.

For us, that's kind of a fine line, huh?

And that's exactly what the Lord, what we're going to get into. That's why He said, you need to settle it. They were forbidden under the law, which clarified itself. They were forbidden to take vengeance and they were forbidden even to bear grudge against their brother.

And I take it, we are also.

Because unsettled anger may lead to physical murder. That's the point.