God Demands Perfect Righteousness: Christ's.

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If you want to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, the gospel according to Matthew chapter 5, if you are new to Apologia Church, we are in a series called

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The Kingdom of God. It's an exposition of the gospel according to Matthew. We're in the

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Sermon on the Mount right now, Jesus' most popular sermon, the most popular sermon in all of human history.

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And as you get there, the background that I've announced many times is the gospel according to Matthew was the most popular of the four gospels in the second century of the church.

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And so it's really, I think, encouraging and inspiring to think that the people of God were feasting on these words early on in the history of the kingdom of God in the world.

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So Matthew chapter 5, we're in verses 17 through 19. Hear now the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Let's pray. Father, I want to pray that you'd bless God as we come, Lord, before your throne.

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Lord, with bold and confident access because of the work of your Son. I pray that you'd bless us,

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Lord, with ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts, Lord God, that are soft towards you,

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Lord, that are moldable. I pray that you would, by your Spirit, teach, get me out of the way.

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I pray that you would bless, God, your people, that you would empower this message,

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God, by your Spirit, that you would teach your people, instruct them from your word, from your law, that you would transform us,

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God, in the way that we think about you and the world, your word. I pray that you would, God, for those in this room that do not truly know you,

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God, for your people, your sheep that you are calling out of the world, that you would call them to yourself this day by your mercy,

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God. I pray that you would open their eyes, grant to them repentance and faith to turn and trust in Jesus.

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And I pray, God, for those in this room that know you, that are belonging to you, I pray that you would encourage us, bless us, equip us, allow us,

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God, to see wondrous things in your law. Teach us, God. Use your word,

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God, not only to lift us up today and encourage us, but, God, to train us, to change us.

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We give you all the glory and praise, Father, and we thank you most of all for Jesus and his righteousness given to us as a gift through faith.

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In Christ's name, amen. So this is a significant passage of Scripture. We've talked a lot about it over the last couple of weeks.

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I'm sure a lot of people have taught longer than I on this, but we have spent a considerable amount of time in the section of Scripture in Matthew 5, 17.

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Jesus' statement, 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.

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And I've told you really, as your pastor, as your brother, that this section of Scripture is vitally important to understand.

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There's so much else in Scripture that says essentially the same kinds of things, but this section of Scripture is very important for us as Christians, particularly in our modern context where we face a culture that really is in chaos, a culture that seems to have no real moral compass that's abandoned our heritage, really the

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Christian heritage of our nation where Christians came over with the light of the gospel, pointed to Christ in all things, saw all of life really in submission to Jesus and saw

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Jesus as Lord over every realm. And we live in a culture and a time today where people have abandoned that heritage, first and foremost because they don't know

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God, they don't love God, they don't want His Word or His law, but we've abandoned that heritage and we've abandoned the standard of God's Word and so now we reap the reward, we reap the consequences of that enterprise.

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We don't point to God and His Word as the standard, we point to ourselves, our own passions, our own desires, our own feelings in the moment.

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We have people today that would tell you there's no absolute truth. We have people today that will tell you there are no laws of logic that are absolute that you must follow.

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We have people that actually say those sorts of things. We live in a culture where really madness runs rampant, spiritual madness, intellectual madness.

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We've abandoned God and His Word as the standard and the really, I think, difficult thing for us to really come to grips with is the fact that much of what we face today in our culture is the fault of the

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Christian church. Dr. Greg Bonson said once when he talked about the decay of the culture, the moral decay of the culture, the darkness of the culture around us, he says it is to the shame and the blame of the

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Christian church. Now, of course, we recognize we're Calvinists here, hardcore, pipe -hitting, black, coffee -drinking

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Calvinists, amen? And we recognize the sovereignty of God and all of that in His providence and His control over all of history.

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We recognize that God is the one who ultimately opens eyes and hearts to Him, who grants faith.

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He has an elect people prepared before the foundation of the world that He's going to bring to Himself. We believe in the victory of God over all things, amen, amen?

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Of course. But we have to recognize that there is also a line drawn toward the consequences.

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And Jesus says here just before talking about Him not coming to abolish the law of the prophets,

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He comes and He talks about the fact that you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill, you are the salt of the earth.

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And so we've talked about, as we've unpacked the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus tells us, His people, the church, that you're the salt of the earth.

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You are the preservative of the earth. You are what's going to stop the earth, the people on the earth, from going off into decay and spoil and rot.

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You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Light dispels darkness. And if darkness is surrounding us as a culture, we have to say there's a line drawn from that ultimately to us.

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We are called by God to be the light of the world, the city on the hill, the salt that actually brings the preservation to the world.

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But you ask the question, what would happen? What would happen today if you actually handed the culture over to Christians?

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What would happen today if you handed the culture over to Christians? You said, by the grace of God, God's given you this nation to disciple, to point to Jesus.

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What would happen if you gave the culture to Christians this day? Would our answers be any different than the secularists in our culture as to what the true and holy and just standards are in a society?

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Would we have a different answer in terms of what we do with economics? Would we have a different answer as to what we would do as social institutions?

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Would we have a different answer in areas of justice and law? Or would we sound really just like them?

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Or would we as Christians be just essential white noise? Kids, there was this thing called white noise where you turned your

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TV on and there was no reception. It was just white noise. It was an awful thing.

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It was a horrible experience. First world problems. This is what we dealt with. That's what white noise is, kids.

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Okay. You'll never know the struggle, nor will you ever know the struggle of AOL and dial up.

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It was satanic, I think. When we think about the fact that as Christians, why is this so important?

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Why have I spent so much time as a pastor on this section of Scripture? It's not because this is the defining text, although it is a defining text, in terms of how

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Jesus felt about the law, how the apostles felt about the law. It's such an important thing for us to study because when we face the world today with the proclamation of the gospel and we call people to turn from their sin to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord, we have, of course, now the responsibility and task of discipling them.

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If we ask the question about discipleship, we're asking the question about what is pleasing to God?

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What are His standards? We can't talk about God's standards today in the 21st century in the evangelical

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West in any coherent way because we've already a priori left out the possibility that God's Word is something we're supposed to look to in terms of His law.

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This text from Jesus is important because Jesus is telling you here as Mashiach, as the

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Messiah, as the promised deliverer, how His attitude is towards the law of God.

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Jesus says, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

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It's important to, I think, recognize that today I cannot unpack this again as I've done over the last couple of weeks.

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I point you to Apologia Church's app to go through the sermons again, particularly this section that I've unpacked.

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But I will say this. Jesus says, in the Greek, it says, me namasete. Do not even begin to think.

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Do not even start to think. Don't even let it come up into your mind that I've come to abolish the law. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill.

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So Jesus comes to fulfill, and I've talked about what that means in the Greek and the language and what it means in its context.

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Jesus did not come to abolish the law, to destroy it, to set it completely aside as though it were no longer relevant or abiding in any sense.

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Jesus, in fact, fulfills it, brings it to its completed purpose. And it's important for us to recognize something, and this is vitally important as we move away from this text.

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I need to make sure that as a church you understand what must be understood here in this text about Christ and His words about the law of God.

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I want to say you have to understand a point of major emphasis, and that is this.

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The Messiah must have this attitude towards the law of God. Let me say that again.

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The Messiah must have this attitude towards the law of God. He must.

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So when we talk about is Jesus Mashiach, is He the promised Messiah, is He the one that we were expecting that God had promised to come into the world to bring redemption and salvation to the ends of the earth,

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I want to say that when Jesus talks about the law in this way, it should identify Him to us as that promised

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Messiah. Because the Messiah cannot, according to God's word, spurn the law of God, diminish the law of God.

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He cannot speak ill of the law of God in any way. The expectation was that Messiah, when

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He brought His kingdom, He would bring salvation, forgiveness, redemption. He would bring that salvation to the ends of the earth.

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He'd be seated on His throne, and He'd put God's enemies under His feet as a footstool for His feet, Psalm 110 .1.

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That was the expectation. But there's more. There's the good news of the kingdom.

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God was going to do a lot of stuff with this Messiah. He was going to bring salvation, and He was going to bring transformation.

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He was going to change people, which would change the world. And a couple of texts that I need you to go home with, and at least to have treasured up in your heart so you know what

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God's word says about this, Jeremiah 31 .31 is a text we talked a lot about over the last couple of weeks,

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Jeremiah 31 .31. You can go there if you like, but the text says that God would make a new covenant.

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It would be a new covenant, not like the covenant He made before, which they broke, even though God was a husband to them.

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He'd make a new covenant where He would take His law, and He would place His law within them.

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I want you to think about that for a moment. Jeremiah 31 .31, very important text about the new covenant.

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It says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

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I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke.

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Though I was their husband, declares Yahweh, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the

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Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and his brother, saying,

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Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the

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Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Brothers and sisters, can

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I say something to you? Very important. Listen here. What we often think about when we think about Jesus is we think about salvation, and that is an absolute necessity, because he is the

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Savior. He is the one who brings redemption. He's the one who died for our sins and rose from the dead. He's the only hope of anybody to have peace before a holy

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God. There is no other way of salvation other than Christ.

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You must be in him by faith, and notice that Jeremiah 31, listen closely, declares for us that God is not going to remember our sins any longer.

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He's going to forgive us, and we have to all say to that, Praise God, glory to God, because I'm a wretch.

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I deserve God's judgment. I deserve his wrath, and he promises that in a new covenant he's going to wash my sins away.

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Brothers and sisters, nothing else matters more than that for any person. How we are with God is the most important question you could ever ask.

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In the last day, that's all that ultimately matters, and the good news of the gospel is that you get

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God. Piper has a book. It's an amazing book, John Piper, and it says

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God is the gospel, and I think that's an amazing way to talk about that. God is the gospel. He's the good news, that we get

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God. Our sins forgiven, washed away, but can I say something here? Why are we so quick to remember about what

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God is doing in the new covenant in terms of forgiveness and salvation, but to neglect what he said before it, that what he was going to do in the new covenant is something different than the old, where now we go from stone tablets that God writes his law on outside of the people of God, to now the new covenant, sins washed away, people forgiven,

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God not remembering them ever again, but actually now participating in their life personally by putting his law inside of them.

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Jeremiah 31, 31. So when Jesus comes and he says, I have not come to abolish it,

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I've come to fulfill it, you have to say, that's exactly what I expect the Messiah to say, because part of the new covenant promise is

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God's law inside of his people. They're now internally motivated to obey

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God's law in a way that they did not have the ability to do under the old covenant. The new covenant is a new and a better covenant built upon better promises, and it's an amazing thing to have such an intimacy with a living

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God that he's washed your sins away. He will never remember them, and he actually steps into your life very personally, and he engages with you in a personal way by putting his spirit within you and writing within you his law, so that now you desire as a

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Christian to obey from the inside. But notice what's the promise. What is he going to put within his people?

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Tell me. The law. Now Jeremiah is a

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Jew. He's a monotheistic Jew. He loves the law of God. That's what God calls him to do and to be before him.

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He's not supposed to hate his law, he's to love God's law. He knows what the law is, it was given to him, and he tells people in the new covenant,

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God says he's taking the law and he's putting it within you. That's the promise. Another promise.

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Same book. Sorry, different book. Isaiah chapter 2. Go to Isaiah chapter 2. I want you to see these promises because they're vitally important to remember in terms of what

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God is going to do in the world. Isaiah chapter 2. Hopefully by the end of Matthew chapter 5, you'll have memorized these passages.

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We've talked about them so much. But look at the promise. Isaiah chapter 2. Listen closely. The word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, it shall come to pass.

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Now, I should say this and I don't want to make assumptions here. I think it's unfair to keep doing that, so let me make sure I try to be a good teacher and a good pastor to you now.

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Isaiah is written about 700 years before Jesus. Think about that. 700 years before Jesus, this is written down.

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This whole book is about Jesus. Isaiah is just chock full of Christ. It's just Jesus over and over and over.

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It's all these different vantage points of Jesus as conquering king, as suffering servant, as the one who brings justice in the world.

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It's really an amazing thing. We have a copy of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls that predate Christ by about 200 years.

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So think about that. There's Jews before Jesus comes, before he walks on the earth, and they're reading this text. They know what God's promising.

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I want you to put yourself in their shoes. Part of hermeneutics, biblical interpretation, is to think about audience, is to think about when it was written, is to think about who it was written to, is to think about it in context of all of the rest of scripture.

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So put yourself now in the shoes of the Jew long before Jesus comes. Because this is what they think is going to happen.

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It says, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.

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It shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it. They're coming up.

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God's drawing them. And it says, and many peoples shall come and say, come, let us go to the mountain of the

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Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.

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Listen, for out of Zion shall go, what? The law, the

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Torah. Out of Zion, that is out of the place of the people of God, out of Zion shall go the law, the

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Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So listen, this is what they know.

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When Messiah comes, this new covenant comes, when God brings redemption, when he fulfills all his promises to Abraham, they know that the

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Torah is going to go forth from the people of God, that people are going to be drawn by God up to his mountain.

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All the nations flow up because God's drawing, and it says that his law goes forth from Zion.

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People are coming to God saying, let him teach us his ways. How do they learn about his ways?

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Through his word, what he's spoken. Isaiah chapter 2 is a constituent element of what

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God is doing in the kingdom of the Messiah in the new covenant. Another text, Isaiah 42, same book.

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Go to it, Isaiah 42, that shows you the promise of Mashiach, the Messiah. What's he going to do? Isaiah chapter 42, this is important.

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Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him.

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Watch this. He will bring forth justice to the nations.

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He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

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Listen closely. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands.

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Wait for his what? His law. You see, listen, the gospel is not simply only about Jesus taking people to heaven with him.

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Is it about God saving us from our sins and God bringing us to heaven? Amen. Yes. That's a core part of the gospel, but listen,

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God does more in the gospel than simply punch your ticket for heaven one day. Much to the discouragement of modern evangelicalism, there's more to the gospel than that.

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There's more to the gospel than saying a magic prayer and having Jesus punch your ticket for heaven one day.

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As a matter of fact, that's not the gospel. That does not save you because you say a bunch of magic words and God comes down, punches your ticket, and saves you for heaven one day.

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The gospel is very much about God saving sinners, and as God saves sinners, he transforms them, he draws them to himself, he indwells them, and he transforms everything about them.

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And what God is doing in the world is this. When Messiah takes his throne, and he already took it, and he's seated, he is putting his enemies under his feet, bringing salvation, and he is going to establish justice in the earth.

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And brothers and sisters, I ask you, where do we know what God's standards are from his word?

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It has been the catch cry of the reformation. Reformed Christians say, sola scriptura.

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How do we know what we're to do in life and faith and practice? We say, we go to the scriptures.

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It's the word of God that's this foundation. And so when we say this, when someone asks the question, what are

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God's standards of justice? Brothers and sisters, we don't have to go far. All we have to do is open our

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Bibles. We know what God says. So the promise was that Messiah was going to establish justice in the earth.

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One last point, I'll point you to Ezekiel 36. These are vitally important to have in your mind when you think about Jesus talking about the law.

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Ezekiel chapter 36 is a very popular passage for reformed folks, because we love to talk about what

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God does in the gospel, is that he saves people, he regenerates them, he brings them to life.

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Ezekiel 36 is a popular passage when we talk about what God is doing in a sinner's life.

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Listen to the passage, Ezekiel 36, in verse 23, and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.

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And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord, the

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Lord God. I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

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So God is saying to his people that you've profaned my name among all the nations.

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You've made me look bad. You've made me look bad in all the nations, you've made me look bad.

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So here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to vindicate my holiness that you've profaned among all the nations,

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I'm going to do this by, watch, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.

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I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.

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I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

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There's another promise, God is going to wash you clean. By the way, praise

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God. There's your hope in sanctification. It's not you, it's

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God. This is all God -centered, not man -centered, it's not about what you do to change yourself, it's about what

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God does in the gospel, in salvation to change you. He cleanses you, it's what

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God's doing and why? He's going to vindicate His name among all the nations.

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He's going to put a new spirit within you, His spirit actually within you. He's going to give you now a soft heart where your heart was hard to God before.

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So there goes the answer as to why you struggle with sin as a Christian. Praise God.

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This is why you hate your sin, because God is active in cleansing you, changing you. Your heart is soft towards God now because it's what

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God is doing. He ripped out the hard heart and He's put a new one there. And listen brothers and sisters, we can't miss it, what's

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He say He's going to do? By His spirit, He's going to do what? He's going to cause you to obey His statutes.

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He's going to cause you to do it. Jesus says to you and me, listen closely, because it's tough to hear.

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He says, if you love me, obey me. And you think as a

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Christian, man I do, and I stink at it. I do love you and I'm really bad at it.

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I'm really bad at obeying you. And the hope you and I have as Christians is the obedience that flows from us towards God isn't an obedience that's born in us.

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It's God doing it in and through you, is Ezekiel 36. So those texts need to be understood in terms of the

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Messiah must have this attitude towards the law of God. One is the expectation of those promises of the law of God and the new covenant.

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Number two, listen closely, this is very, very important and it goes perfectly well at the end of this text today, in terms of our righteousness being a righteousness greater than that of the scribes and the

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Pharisees. The Messiah must have had an attitude towards the law, but the

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Messiah also has to be that way towards the law because He is our substitute.

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Here's the thing, listen. If somebody in this room volunteered to be your substitute, and they were the best

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Christian you know, they had the best devotional life, they were so sweet and so wonderful and amazing, they're always in the word of God, they love

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Jesus and you just see Christ in them. If that person said, I'll be your substitute, I'll represent you before God, you need to run in horror because the best of our righteousness is filthy rags before the throne of God.

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No sinner can represent another sinner because all you have is sin. And the

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Bible says, James says, whoever should keep the whole law, James chapter 2 verse 10, whoever should keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all of it.

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So you cannot be justified before God by the law of God and no sinner in the world is worthy to stand before a holy

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God. All we deserve at that point is death. Moses can't represent you,

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Abraham can't represent you, David cannot represent you, trust me, okay? Cannot represent you,

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Peter cannot represent you, Paul cannot represent you, John cannot represent you, only a perfect substitute can represent you or me.

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And the Messiah must feel this way about the law of God if he's to represent you because God expects perfect obedience and none of us have given it.

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And so when Jesus comes saying, I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets but I've come to fulfill them, you want to take a deep breath and experience the peace knowing you have a

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Messiah that feels that way about God's law because you know what? Every single one of us don't.

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In ourselves, we try to tear down God's standards at every turn of our lives. We try to abolish

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God's law daily in our lives because we are sinners, we are rebels against the King. God says this, we say no that.

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God says there, we say no this way. God's standards are higher because they represent

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His own holy character and Jesus comes and says don't even begin to think, don't even start to think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

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I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Jesus is the promised

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Messiah, Isaiah 43. He's the Messiah that's going to be watched. Listen closely. He's going to be the one that's counted among the rebels.

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He's going to be the one that's bruised for our transgressions, pierced for us. God's going to lay on Him the iniquity of us all and in order to be a worthy sacrifice and substitute, you have to have perfect law obedience and Jesus is that for you and for me.

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Praise God? So praise God when Jesus comes in talking like that because the Messiah must.

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Next, point of the passage in Matthew, again, Matthew chapter 5 and we're going to try to move through here quickly to get to the last portion here.

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Jesus says, truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass in the law until all is accomplished.

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The word accomplished is ginomai, the word accomplished and it essentially means to take place, to be accomplished and so essentially we want to talk here that Jesus talks about the abiding validity of the law of God, that He hasn't come to abolish it but to fulfill it and the law itself will have an abiding validity until the consummation.

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We have to think in terms of there are promises in the law of God and in the prophets concerning what

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God is doing in the world in the eschaton as history is summed up, God is doing things and those things

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Jesus says will be accomplished. It is a guaranteed promise from God, they will be accomplished.

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There is a unity in the scriptures, a unity in the law of God. It comes from the same

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God with a perfect and holy consistent voice. He's not the author of confusion so listen closely.

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We know that as God moves history towards the consummation, the law of God has relevance and there are promises in the law and the prophets about what

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God is doing in the world to bring glory to Himself through His Messiah and Jesus says, not a dot, not an iota will pass through the law until all is accomplished.

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Now listen closely, this is very, very important, listen. Okay, this is where you grab hold right here guys because someone might say, well

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Jeff, I don't agree with Spurgeon, I don't agree with you on how you've interpreted

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Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 about what Jesus means in terms of He's come to fulfill them and that's fine.

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I think we need to go to the text and say what does it actually say, but no matter what you say about Matthew 5 17 and what

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Jesus means by not abolishing but fulfilling, you have to come face to face with Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verse 19.

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Look what He says. Jesus says about the law, about the prophets, listen, therefore whoever.

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Notice He says, therefore, I have not come to abolish but to fulfill, not an iota, not a dot will pass until all is accomplished, therefore, because of all that, because everything

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I just said to you, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least, one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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Brothers and sisters, we live in a time where Christians, people who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord deny the goodness of God's law today.

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We live in a time where people actually mock what God did and said in the

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Old Testament as somehow unjust or not good or not holy. We look as Christians today as 21st century modern evangelicals, we look at the law of God and we see

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God saying things and doing things and be honest, when you see it, it's revolting to you.

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You step back and you say, well, that's not good anymore or I can't believe that God acted that way or I can't believe that God said that.

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The truth is God's Word is holy and good and true. It comes from His own mouth, it is a representation of His own character, and if we treat the law of God in a low way and we say not good, not true, not holy, and we tell people not to obey it,

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Jesus says you are least in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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Now, again, if you're new to Apology of Church, we have talked over the last couple of weeks that of course there are changes in the administration, there are of course changes in the law of God.

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We have a priest now forever in the heavens interceding for us that will never die again. We have a temple now, one not built with hands that can never be destroyed.

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We have a perfect sacrifice once for all, never to be done again, and we now have perfect access to the throne of God with boldness and confidence because of Jesus.

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Are things different? No, they're very different, but is the law of God irrelevant for us as Christians today?

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Absolutely not. We look at the law of God today and we say the least of things, and Jesus says the least of things.

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Let me give you one of the least of things, the least of these. The Apostle Paul is talking to Timothy, writing to Timothy actually, and he tells him an animal husbandry law of the

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Old Testament. Let me say that again, animal husbandry, and you might be thinking, who cares about that?

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I live in Phoenix. It's hard to get chickens, right? Or it's, I don't really have an ox treading the grain for me, so I'm sure that that law is no longer relevant.

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The Apostle Paul, post -crossed, post -resurrection, post -ascension, Jesus has accomplished

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His work. He's seated on His throne. He's talking to Timothy, and he tells them, you're not the muscle of the ox while it treads.

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And you think, well that law is not, we're not concerned with that anymore, are we?

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And the Apostle Paul just assumes it's continuity. He doesn't say, we all know the law is over with now.

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We all know that it's done and abolished, but we're going to go ahead and grab this teaching and bring it over now.

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He assumes it's continuity as though, you're supposed to know this. You're not the muscle of the ox while it treads.

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And what's he talking about? How the laborer is worthy of his hire, and how if, listen, animals deserve to be fed while they tread the grain for you, or they're going to die, then that principle of the law of God moves into other relationships, like, for example, people that are employed by other people and your pastors to be taken care of if they're working and laboring.

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He says, don't muzzle the ox while it treads. What's going to happen to an ox that's doing the work for you that you muzzle?

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What's going to happen? He's going to fall over dead. Now brothers and sisters, watch this. That's a law concerning animal husbandry.

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And you might want to say this, well, is God concerned with that sort of a law today? I want to say, yes.

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God expects people to pay their employees in the new covenant.

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Praise God for that, by the way, yes. Next. As you guys think about that,

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I just want to encourage you to see in that that Jesus says two things, does them, teaches them, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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And I want to say this to you. If you're new to this study, kingdom of heaven in Matthew is a way of saying kingdom of God, which means the rule of God in history, the rule of the

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Messiah in history. We tend to think in a different category when we hear kingdom of heaven in the

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Bible. We think about heaven one day, like when the earth is over, heaven is kingdom of heaven. That's where we actually die and go to heaven.

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That is not a biblical category. Kingdom of heaven is kingdom of God. That was the promised Messiah's kingdom.

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And I want to say this, He is reigning, seated now. He's brought His kingdom.

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You are under His rule today. Don't we believe that He is King of kings and Lord of lords now?

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Welcome to the kingdom of God. And Jesus says, those who teach them and those who do them are called great in the kingdom of God.

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And anybody that teaches anybody else to disobey, even the least of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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Next point, and this is really important. Jesus says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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And you might think for a second, man, I'm in trouble, right? Think about it.

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People with very sensitive consciences that maybe haven't understood the gospel and what God has done in Christ, the glory of the gospel, they see that and they think, man, am

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I in for it? And I got to say this, people with man -centered false gospels have run with this text and absolutely annihilated people.

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They tell them, hey, Jesus says He didn't come to destroy the law and that your righteousness has to actually exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, which means you must do this and this and this and this to be right with God and here is this man -made rule and, hey, don't play poker and don't go to the movies and certainly don't do this and no dancing.

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Make room for Jesus between you guys, okay? Like that sort of thing. Like all kinds of man -made laws.

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Because why? Your righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

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We need to unpack what that means. First and foremost, the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Who were the scribes and the

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Pharisees? Well, the scribes were essentially lawyers and if you looked in the text of the

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Bible, you would see that the scribes made copies of the law of God and distributed them. They expounded upon the law of God and they wrote about it, but here's one other thing they did.

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They actually added to God's Word things that weren't in God's Word. They made things up and they counted it alongside

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Scripture as some sort of divine deposit alongside the Bible that actually people had to follow its rules.

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Listen, one thing though, real fast, this is so important. Here's what we forget. These guys were respected.

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We tend to think as Christians post -first century, the scribes and the Pharisees, those are bad guys, right?

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The scribes and the Pharisees are obviously bad guys. Here's the problem. We're not living in the first century and realizing that the scribes and the

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Pharisees were respected religious folk. As a matter of fact, are you ready for this? The scribes and the

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Pharisees were kind of like the fundamentalist conservatives. They were like the right -wingers.

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Does that make sense? They were the conservatives. They weren't those liberals. These are people that are like very rigorous.

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The Pharisees actually, Pharisee means separated one, the separate ones, they were so respected because of their rigorous commitment to the

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Scriptures. As a matter of fact, they had all kinds of ways to let you know how disciplined they were even in what they wore.

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If they memorized text of the Bible, it got sewn into their stuff. So you saw, check it out, Isaiah right there, baby.

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Jeremiah, Psalms, right? Like, you know, they had it there. They had ways that you could know how disciplined they were.

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They were not seen as the bad guys. Let me say that again. They were not seen as the bad guys.

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These are the religious disciplined crew. Now, what do we know about the

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Pharisees? Well, we have to go to Jesus first. In John chapter three,

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Jesus meets with the Pharisee. Go to that text quickly. I want you to see from the Bible who these people were and what they believed.

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We've got to go to the text of the Bible to know what they believed and who they were. Famous scene,

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Nicodemus, Jesus meets with Nicodemus, John chapter three. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named

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Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, by the way, people have speculated why

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Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. People have said one option is that Nicodemus came at night because he was afraid to be seen with Jesus.

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I think the better possibility is the second thing is that a lot of the Pharisees were kind of lay theologians.

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They worked during the day and they actually did their ministry sort of at night after they finished all that they did.

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So it's possible that he's just a regular old Pharisee that's done his work for the day. Now he's doing his thing at night.

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So he meets Jesus at night. Rabbi, he says, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them.

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Jesus just goes right to it. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, amen, amen,

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I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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He cannot see the rule of God. Again, stop thinking in your minds in terms of heaven one day.

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You cannot even see the rule of God unless you are born again, born from above.

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Now watch, Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

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Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

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That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.

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The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the

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Spirit. Now people have destroyed this text, particularly cultists. How? They've said, you see, folks, y 'all must be born again.

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Y 'all got to be born of the water and the Spirit. The water and the Spirit, okay?

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And the water there is water baptism, and so y 'all got to be born of the water baptism, spirit baptism, and that's how it takes place, born again, okay?

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Because we don't know how to read our Bibles. Jesus is a Jewish teacher, a

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Jewish rabbi, talking to a Jewish rabbi. They both know their Bibles. They were raised in Jewish Alanis.

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They know the Bible. Now, this Pharisee, this Jew, who knows his

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Bible, says to Jesus, okay, I can't even see the rule of God unless I'm born again.

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How do I get born again? Get back in my mom's womb? Come out a second time? And so Jesus says, you must be born of the water and the

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Spirit. Now can we think from this message of any other time in the

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Old Testament where there was a promise of water and Spirit?

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Ezekiel what? 36. What did God say He was going to do in the kingdom of God, the new covenant?

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What was He going to do in the world through this Messiah's work to vindicate the holiness of His great name? He was going to what?

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Sprinkle clean water on you so you'd be clean, and He would put His Spirit where? Within you.

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He would give you a new heart, and He would cause you to obey

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His statutes. So what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? He says to him, you have to be born again.

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You have to be born of the water and the Spirit, and Nicodemus says, how do I do it? And Jesus says, the wind blows where it wishes.

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Now watch this. That's not some cryptic thing Jesus is saying, right? Like you ask Him a direct question,

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Jesus is just trying to be really like difficult, right? Oh, the wind blows where it wishes, okay? You're like, what does that mean?

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Here's the point. It's entirely a gracious act of God. The Spirit of God, God Himself, He does what

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He wants. He goes where He wishes, and He brings people to life.

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And those people in the world who are listening to this message need to understand something.

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It is the Spirit of God that gives people the ability to even see the things of God.

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You can't even perceive the kingdom of God, the rule of God in history, unless you've been born again.

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Watch this. Christians, who's the king of the world? Jesus. Is He king now?

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Is He reigning now? Is He ruler now? Does Obama believe that?

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No. But you see it, don't you? Because you've been born from above.

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Christians see the kingdom of God and the rule of God because we have been born again. Nicodemus is a

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Pharisee. Next point. Jesus tells us an important story about Pharisees that, brothers and sisters, has to be understood by us, because this is the nuts and bolts right here of,

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I think, what it means to come to God. I think that the Pharisee in this text really can easily represent so many world religions and how they handle coming to God.

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In Luke chapter 18, verse 9,

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Jesus tells the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector. If we're to understand, listen, listen, if we're to understand what

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Jesus says when He says that your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the

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Pharisees, then we've got to understand what they thought. What did they believe? What were they like?

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And Jesus, watch this, says, in verse 9, He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

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Now pause, pause, pause, listen, that belief will destroy you before God.

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There is no hope. There is absolutely no hope. It says that these people trusted that in themselves they were righteous, and they treated others with contempt.

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Now watch, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

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A tax collector is a scum of society in this day, and today.

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Okay, okay, the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus,

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God, I thank You that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

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I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. You got to grapple with this, listen, most religions aren't brave enough to just go full on Pelagian, to say it's all me, it's not

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God, I don't need His grace. Very few people have the nerve to say that. Roman Catholicism teaches that you must have

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God's grace and your works or works of merit in order to have a righteousness acceptable to God, but they do not deny grace.

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As Dr. White often says, Rome never denied the necessity of grace.

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Rome denies the sufficiency of God's grace. And you can see even in this

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Pharisee of the first century, he doesn't have the guts, he doesn't have the nerve to say to God, it's all me, nothing to do with you.

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He says to God, God, I thank You, You've made me like this.

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You made me like this, You've made me to where I'm not like them. You've made me in such a way that I'm not like the unjust, the tax collector over here.

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God, look what I do because of You. I give of all that I get,

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I fast, I do all of this, God, and God, You get the credit. You might be thinking, what's wrong with that?

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I say that. I say that the only good that I do is from God. Everything I do is from God.

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Am I a Pharisee 2 .0? No, because here's the problem,

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Jesus starts the parable by saying what? They trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

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Now Jesus changes the story. It passes over now to the tax collector, who's a ways off, and watch this, it says that he will not even lift his eyes to heaven.

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He recognizes his unholy estate, that he is not righteous, that he is not just, that he is a wicked person before God, and all he can do is beat at the very place that is the seat of the passions in Hebrew thought.

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The Jews thought that the heart is where all the issues of life flowed from. They thought things like Jesus, where Jesus says, the heart is where the stuff comes from in your mouth.

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This guy can't look up to God, and he knows his estate, and he is beating his chest as though he's trying to tear out the very foundation of where his passions come from, and all he can say to God is this,

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God, have mercy on me, a sinner. All he does is come to God pleading for his life, pleading for his relationship with God, and all he says is,

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God, have mercy on me. All I can appeal to God is your mercy. He knows he's not righteous. He knows he's unjust.

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He knows that he is like everybody else. And Jesus says in this very important text, the

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Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus says the tax collector went to his house justified.

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He went home, declared righteous before God. He didn't go home to work on it. He didn't go home to start a religious experience.

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He went to his house, declared righteous, Jesus says, rather than the other. I want to say

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I agree with many preachers about this. Rather than the other are some of the most horrifying words in Scripture.

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Rather than the other. What's that mean? It means the Pharisee goes to hell in this story.

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The Pharisee is separated from God. Why? Because he trusts in himself that he's righteous and not like others.

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And he feels like he actually has the right to look up to God in his own righteousness. That's what they believed.

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They believed that they were in themselves righteous, trusted that in themselves they were righteous. The Apostle Paul, two points.

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Number one, he boasts in his resume. You really need to see it. Philippians 3.

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Philippians chapter 3. He talks about his experience as a Pharisee. Philippians chapter 3.

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This is really a pretty, I mean, it's mesmerizing in a sense to think about how the

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Apostle Paul kind of like steps off his game, right? Apostle Paul's like, it's all

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God. You can't boast. It's all God. It's all God. It's all Jesus. It's got nothing to do with us.

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Like that's his MO. It's all about Jesus. It's all about faith. And for a moment here, to deal with criticism, to deal with false teachers essentially, he actually steps off his game and he changes it up a bit and he actually gives you his resume.

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Are you ready for it? This is the Apostle Paul as a Pharisee. This is his resume. It's pretty good. It's good.

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He says this, verse 3, for we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

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Listen, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee. Pause for a second. What's that mean? He actually, as part of boasting, listen to this, as part of his boasting, in order to catch your attention, what's he say about him and the law?

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He says, as to the law, a Pharisee. What's that mean? In their day, they would have seen that as the highest view of the law.

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That tells you a bit about the Pharisees. In order for him to brag, he tells you he was a Pharisee. And so, he says, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

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As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Now, you understand, of course, that that's a little bit tongue in cheek, because Paul says that through the law, nobody will be justified before God, that all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.

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But his point is, as a Pharisee, as you would have seen him, as to the law, he was blameless.

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You couldn't have found any guilt in him before him, because he was so rigorously committed to keeping it. And he says this, but whatever gain

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I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss, because of the surpassing worth of knowing

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Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain

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Christ, listen, listen, listen, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, that depends on faith.

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Do you catch it? Do you see it? He actually says, this is who

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I was, this is what I did, and I say, throw it all away so I can be found in Jesus, and not have a righteousness of my own, like the

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Pharisee thought in Luke 18. He trusted in himself that he was righteous, and Paul says this,

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I have learned in Christ to abandon all of what I had before, in terms of righteousness, in the law before God, and I don't want it.

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I only want Jesus, and I just want him and his righteousness. I want the one that comes from God.

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I want to abandon all, and be found in Jesus, so I have his perfect righteousness by faith.

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And I want to say this, that heart, that belief about righteousness, is what separates the just from the unjust.

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Those who stand before God, those who live, Romans 1, before God, the just shall live by faith.

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Those who find themselves standing before God, and not falling and being crushed, they live by faith, and Paul says this, you want righteousness, you need the one that comes from God.

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So watch this, Paul also says, about the

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Jews of his day, you need to see this, about the Jews of his day, in Romans 9, verse 30, that they believe this, what shall we say then?

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That Gentiles, that's non -Jews, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained it.

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That is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.

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Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

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They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

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And here we go, this is it, chapter 10, verse 1, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved, for I bear them witness, he says,

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I'm a witness to this, I've seen it, I know this, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own.

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They did not submit to God's righteousness, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

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Now you've seen it, you see Jesus talking about the Pharisees, you see Paul talking about the

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Pharisees and the Jews of his day, and you see those stories match up, they come together perfectly, and you see what they taught, you see what they believed, and you realize actually, ultimately, there's not much different about those beliefs than every other man -made religion in the world.

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They're all the same, everybody trying to establish their own righteousness before a holy God, and brothers and sisters, it'll never work, it'll never work.

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We must have a foreign righteousness, an imputed righteousness that comes from God that's not our own.

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You've got to have a righteousness that's a perfect law -keeping righteousness, and there's only one person that's ever done that, and that's the

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God -man, Jesus. God became man, and He fulfilled the law perfectly. He perfectly obeyed it in the place of His people, and He died a death they deserve as though He had failed, but He didn't, and He rose from the dead victorious.

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And here's the call, this is the call. You must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

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What did they do? We know, they weren't like the tax collectors, they weren't adulterers, they weren't unjust, they say.

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They prayed, they tithed, they fasted. Let me say something, ready? They fasted more than you.

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They gave more than you. They prayed more than you, most likely.

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It was such a discipline for them. It's what they did regularly. They worked hard at it, it was part of what they did, and they did it in such a way that everybody could see it.

01:00:04

And Jesus says, you've got to have a righteousness better than that. And you must say to that, man, that's discouraging, except you realize that in Jesus talking about the law, saying

01:00:14

He didn't come to destroy it, but you have to have a righteousness better than theirs, you realize that the righteousness of God that you can have before God that's better than theirs is

01:00:23

Christ's. He is the one that fulfilled it perfectly, and if you're found in Him by faith, you do have a righteousness that is greater than theirs, infinitely greater than theirs.

01:00:38

Listen closely to this, quickly. When you become a Christian, when you turn from your sin to trust in Christ, God never counts your sins against you again,

01:00:48

Romans chapter 4. And He actually counts to you righteousness, Romans 4, apart from works, through faith.

01:00:55

And He says, I will not remember your sins, I will not count them against you.

01:01:01

You are counted righteous in Christ, and it's

01:01:07

His righteousness. Everything in the New Testament points back to this fundamental point.

01:01:13

You are in Christ. You are in Christ. You are in Christ. You're hiding in Him.

01:01:20

You're shielded from the wrath of God because you're in Him. You have a righteousness forever that's not your own.

01:01:28

And let me say what this should do for you and me as believers. You do have a righteousness from God that is not your own.

01:01:37

You're in Christ. It's a righteousness that can avail before a holy God. And how should that change you and me?

01:01:44

It should change everything. It should change everything. You and I don't have to fear

01:01:50

God in terms of Him being our judge any longer because God has already judged

01:01:59

Christ in your place, counted Him guilty in your place, and He counts you righteous because of His work.

01:02:08

And there is therefore now, Romans 8, no more condemnation, no more judgment for you because Jesus on that cross absorbed the wrath of God and exhausted it in your place.

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And you stand before a holy God not with your righteousness ever.

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You stand before a holy God, the holy God wrapped in the righteousness of Jesus. So when the

01:02:32

Father sees you, He doesn't see your failing, your fear, your idolatry, your lust.

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He doesn't see your lies, your theft. He doesn't see your daily idolatry.

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He doesn't see your daily falling short. The Father sees you as righteous and blameless because, not because you are, but because you're in Jesus, and you have a righteousness that surpasses and exceeds the righteousness of any religious person who's ever lived.

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It's a righteousness that is perfect and spotless and blameless, and it's yours in Christ.

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And you might be saying, I don't deserve that, and I want to say, you got it. You might be saying, that sounds glorious and it makes me want to worship

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God. I'm going to say, praise God. You got it. You might say, how do I get that righteousness?

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Faith, trust. You look away from yourself. You look away from your own righteousness.

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You be that tax collector right now before God that beats your chest and says, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

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And the glory of the gospel is that life that He gives you is eternal life, never -ending life.

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And Jesus can say, listen, in John 6, that He's come down from heaven not to do

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His will, but the will of Him who sent Him. And this is the will of Him who sent me, Jesus says, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given to me.

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How do you know Jesus can keep that promise? Because He has a perfect righteousness, and you're found in Him.

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You're in the hands of God. And I'm going to say this to all of us. Listen. This has to change us. If this is merely theological gymnastics and inquiry, it does nothing for you, and it's worthless.

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Leave this alone. If this is just about theology, if it's just about doctrine, if it's just about getting pumped up as Christians and saying, we've got all of our theological things crossed and checked just right, then it's absolutely worthless.

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Jesus doesn't say, oh, now you're good. You can actually pass a theological exam and dot the I's and cross the

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T's just right. Jesus expects for this to transform you, and He expects these truths to draw praise from your lips.

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And I want to say this should change you daily. It should change you when you have a trial that hits you.

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Because in the midst of the trial, you know this, I've got God, and I'm righteous in Him. And my

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Father is not cursing me and condemning me. He's a loving Father. He loves me.

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He's pleased in me, takes pleasure in me because I'm in His Son. I'm righteous. I have no reason to fear anything any longer.

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Why? Because I'm loved by a holy God. I'm seen as blameless because I'm in His Son, because He loves me, and He's intimately involved in all my affairs in my life.

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There's no reason to fear for my life, for my children, for my future, for my finances. Why? Because I've got

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God, because He knows me, and I'm known by Him and loved by Him, and I'm seen as blameless.

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All my sins and failures and shortcomings cannot tear down the glory of Christ's righteousness.

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They can't move me out of God's love. All my fears, all my failures, and I still am loved by God because God's love for me isn't based upon my righteousness and my performance.

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It's based upon the righteousness and the law -keeping of Christ. And that's forever.

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And I want to say, brothers and sisters, I think that it's important for us to notice that as Jesus talks about the law, and He says

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He didn't come to abolish it but to fulfill it, and He tells us that you must do them and teach them to be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

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As He talks about how He must have a righteousness greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, we can take hope in the fact that we do have that righteousness in Christ.

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And as Christians, now we know in the New Covenant, we have now the ability to do something the

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Pharisees weren't. Watch. Obey God, standing in righteousness, and obey

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Him from the inside. So whereas the Pharisees in the Sermon on the Mount are praying so people see them pray, and they're giving so people see them give, and they're fasting so people see them fast,

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Jesus is saying, don't do that. Pray between you and your God in your closet. Give so one hand knows what the other one's doing, and you fast so that you're hungry for God and not for attention.

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You have the ability now as a Christian because of His Spirit covered in righteousness to do the things that God calls you to do and be.

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And in Romans 6 through 8, Apostle Paul says this, in the flesh, you cannot submit to the law of God.

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You're not even able to do so. So you cannot do what's pleasing to God, but you're not in the flesh any longer. You're in the

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Spirit. And now you're able to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, which is what? Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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Love does no harm to its neighbor. In the New Covenant, covered in Christ's righteousness, empowered by His Spirit, you can live for God for real.

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And don't you love this? And I'm closing. This is so important to me.

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Don't you love how God causes you to hate your own hypocrisy? Can you dwell on that, meditate on that for a bit?

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Just chew on that for a while. Jesus says the Pharisees trusted in themselves they were righteous.

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They do outward acts of righteousness and discipline, so people see them. You see them condemn that sort of stuff, and then

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Jesus has a people that He actually says, I'm never going to lose you. I'm never going to forsake you. I'm going to wash you of your sins.

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I'll never remember them again. And I'm going to put my law within you, and I'm going to cause you to obey me from the inside. And so you look at the

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Pharisees in the New Testament, and you're like, ooh, that's icky. How gross is that, to be a hypocrite, a pretender, an actor?

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And listen, not only does God give you His righteousness, but He actually causes you to live with true righteousness, obedience from the heart, because God's there.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless God the message that went out today. I pray you bless it for your glory.

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I pray that it would cause us to be transformed. I pray that, God, you'd use this,

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God, to draw people to yourself. I pray that even now you would draw people to repentance, that they would turn from their sins and their attempt to be righteous before you through obedience to the law, that they would turn from that, that they would turn from their sins against you, and they would cling to Christ, be found in Him, and trust

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Him. I pray in this room right now, if there's anybody in this room that doesn't know you as Savior and Lord, that you would grant them repentance even now and faith to come to you.

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Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your love for sinners, and we thank you for your perfect righteousness that we have as a gift by your grace through faith.