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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Matthew 5:19-20
Well this morning we press on in chapter 5 of Matthew as we've now completed our sort of four-part mini-series our little detour as we built a foundation to actually work through the remainder of chapter 5.
And where we're going after we consider verses 19 and 20 together this morning. Beginning in verse 21 is the so-called antitheses we have a series of statements where Jesus says You've heard it said, but I say to you, so there's something antithetical.
He's laying down something familiar something that has been said over against what now he lays down what he seeks to clarify and so the the antitheses form really the last major section of chapter 5 and we've built the foundation over the past four weeks to Approach them and draw from everything that we've built in order to rightly understand and apply them.
Verses 19 and 20 then in some ways are a preface to what lies ahead what will occupy perhaps the next couple months and. So we need to look at these verses very carefully and we're gonna take a sort of brisk walk through them.
And then I'm gonna draw out a few points of application, but that's not to minimize their importance. This really is a preface for all that will follow for many weeks to come. So let me read Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 19.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so Shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So let's start just looking at verse 19 whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men So shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
Noticed here that there is no place for breaking the commandments. There's no price place given even to break the least of the commandments. Remember how we began. Do not think that I have come to destroy The law or the prophets.
I have not come to destroy but to fulfill and so part of that fulfillment Jesus reminds us. There's no destruction not even to the least of the commandments. Are they abolished until all is fulfilled?
Therefore we rightly understand whoever breaks one of the least will by no means be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So there's no place for breaking even the least commandment. And of course if we rightly understand the law According to those three divisions and even the three uses that we recounted over the past two weeks.
How could you think of breaking the law in this way? How could you pick and choose and say well this seems important to me and this one? Honestly, it's kind of easy for me to keep I'll keep this one. This one's really hard.
I struggle with this one. Is it really that big of a deal? I'm just going to break this one. No, that's not quite how it works. Spurgeon says what precept do you feel free to break? Are you delivered from the command which forbids stealing?
Well, you might be a capital theologian. But when you come to my house, I'm gonna lock up my spoons. Those were the days when they actually had silver spoons. I Need to lock up. We we have like no spoons left.
I'm thinking our kids are clearing plates and throwing away the spoons. It's a little reminder note order spoons. You'll notice here the language of the least. Whenever you're reading scripture you you need to slow down not read too quickly.
These words really matter and the structure really matters and the form that conveys them really matters. So what ideas are repeated? Where do you have parallel statements? If not words, where is their repetition?
Where is their hard contrast? And as we see in this sermon, there's a lot of ways that Structurally, there's some just points of intrigue points of real curiosity. And as we explore them, they they also actually help us understand and it brings clarity to what Jesus is saying.
And I think that we have an example here with this language of the least whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and Teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
Well, you see that repetition. Well, if we just go back to the previous verse. We already have the idea of something minimized something lesser something that could be called the least for assuredly. We read I say to you till heaven and earth pass away.
Not one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law. So you have there the idea of the jot and the tittle the least marks the least Aspects of the written word and Jesus is saying not the least will pass.
In fact, if you break even the least you will be called least. You see the evolve Evolving nature of that imagery not one jot not one tittle not the least stroke of the law Will pass. And if you break the law even the least jot even the least tittle you will be called the least so as Jesus understood and as as he affirms as the teachers of the law and Jesus day understood.
On the one hand some of God's commandments are greater Than others we have that affirmed here the least commands implies there are also greater commands. Greater should be understood in the terms of weightier of more magnitude of more urgency the teachers of Jesus day again affirmed this they had their own sort of Categorization of those matters of the law that held more weight than others.
So the idea of the the tabernacle or the laws and Deuteronomy concerning the the mother bird and her nest and so forth. These were perhaps lesser commands. They didn't compare with the greater commands like the Sabbath or the temple.
Matthew 23 23 we have this affirmed. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin. But have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy and faith.
You see what Jesus is doing there. He's saying you you're very diligent on the lesser the least matters of the law. But you neglect the weightier the greater matters of the law, but notice what else he says these you ought to have done.
Perfectly consistent with what we're reading here in Matthew 5 these you ought to have done. You ought not have broken the least of the commandments. Well, you followed the least when you were tithing mint and cumin and anise seed.
But you neglected the weightier matters of the law. So Jesus says these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone in other words.
Follow the whole law.
Jesus hasn't come to abolish it. Our faith does not dismiss it rather it upholds it. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men So he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
Well, what does that mean? Well some press this for the concept of a status a gradated status in the kingdom. In other words, there's there's Elevations you could be of lesser honor or of greater honor.
Some even say it's not so much status or standing but even location. There's second temple debates about locations in the kingdom of God and so perhaps you're dwelling in a part of less splendor less glory than others, but the idea of a Location or a status within the kingdom the idea of the rule reward being central here.
You'll be called least as opposed the contrast those who are called great. Now at first glance, we certainly need to acknowledge that the Bible teaches that works are judged.
Across the board.
We must all give an account. Paul writes for deeds done in the body whether good or bad. So scripture uniformly teaches that our works are judged. And of course as believers in Jesus Christ We're not standing on our own account.
But we have an advocate even Jesus Christ the righteous whose blood pleads for us whose blood intercedes for us and so though our works are judged and and though in many ways the fire of judgment can Consume the rubble hay and straw what has been preserved through the work of Christ will endure even unto Eternity, but that doesn't dismiss or empty out the fact that we must all give an account.
Kevin McFadden's wrote an excellent book on this. I think Thomas Schreiner has a book coming out on this very thing. So we certainly have the idea of works being judged and with that the idea of recompense.
It's actually quite hard to make it through the Gospels and look at any number of parables and come away without this idea.
There will be recompense.
There will be an understanding of what was given there will be a judgment according to what was given and there will be Recompense according to that judgment. That's a pretty uniform Understanding that's conveyed through the parables.
And so we don't deny for a moment that one can receive a lesser or greater reward. 1st Corinthians 3. 2nd Corinthians 5 10.
But.
Here in Matthew 5. I actually take this a little bit differently. It seems to me that Jesus is making a point about the law that is in accordance with how he's approached it. Beginning here in verse 17.
We see the larger frame of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declaring the role of righteousness and those who are his disciples Walking in accord with the righteousness that is revealed now through faith in the Son of God.
It's a righteousness that is fulfilling of the law as Paul goes on to explicate the righteous. Requirement of the law being fulfilled in those who walk by the Spirit rather than the flesh. It seems to me that Jesus is making a point.
He's declaring That those who hold his commandments in the lowest esteem. He will hold in the lowest esteem. In other words to the degree that you regard the law that is how you will be regarded. I think that's what Jesus is saying to the degree that you regard the law.
So you will be regarded if you regard the law just ever so slightly you will be regarded ever so slightly. It's the same way that he teaches so often if if you deny the Son of Man the Son of Man will deny you.
We see the same idea here. If you regard my commands as the least you'll be called the least. If you completely disregard my commandments I will completely disregard you. What does he say? To those that are called to depart right depart from me you workers of lawlessness.
The lawless don't enter into the kingdom of heaven. The lawlessness are forced to depart to the degree that they rejected the law. They have been rejected and Jesus here is saying if you call my commandments the least that's how I'll regard you.
So so the encouragement here the positive Encouragement is have a high regard for these commandments.
As.
It were write them like precepts on your forehead bind your arm by them put them on your doorposts. Have a high regard for these commandments because if you slight them if you neglect them I'll slight you and I'll neglect you.
I think that's the point that Jesus is coming to and It's reinforced by the on verse whoever does these commandments and teaches them Shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So I take really being called great is actually entering into the reward entering into the fullness.
Being called least is almost Headlong toward destruction or towards rejection. No one says well, that's okay. I don't mind being called least. I guess I'll just disregard the commandments. That's that's not the takeaway from this passage.
I Want you to notice what Jesus says whoever does and teaches. So the doing here is so active that it can't be self-contained. In doing it you are actually bringing others to do it in doing it. You are teaching it.
There's a sense in which Jesus is discipling his disciples to disciple others. And that's always true of the Word of God as we do the Word of God. We can't help but see that spill over into other people's lives.
We we are finding and pursuing something with the Lord and where we have Opportunity we want others to see and pursue that thing as well. And so whoever not only does but teaches these will be called great and if you're doing them I would argue you can't help but be teaching them Deuteronomy 6.
Don't we see this all the way at the very end of the gospel in Matthew 28 where the Commission is given to make? Disciples and what does Jesus say teach them to observe all that I've commanded? It's exactly what we're reading here in Matthew 5 19 Teach the commandments and the very end make disciples and teach them the commandments in.
This way all who do these things all who teach these things will enter into the kingdom and be called great. We come to verse 24 I say to you unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. The I say to you draws us back to verse 18. He he said there truly I say to you again. We read looking for patterns looking for repetition. So Jesus here is doing more than just stamping his divine authority on the pronouncement if that were the case.
It's merely redundant to keep saying truly I say to you what he's actually doing is pointing back to the fact that not one jot or tittle will pass from the law. Until all is fulfilled. It's truly I say to you not the least will pass and what does he say here truly I say to you unless your righteousness succeeds.
You will not enter. See, so all of this is harmonizing together. In fact, the word for makes it clear that verse 20 is a continuation.
For.
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom. So on the one hand the exceeding righteousness in view Does not abolish even the least commandment.
It doesn't nullify the law. Jesus has come to fulfill but on the other hand this exceeding righteousness is not defined for us. He says unless your righteousness Exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees and we're kind of waiting for him to define what that means what that involves.
And we don't have it in verse 20. Arguably we have it in verses 21 through 48. In other words, this is in some ways not only drawing back from everything. He's laid down but pointing forward. Here's how your righteousness must exceed the scribes and the Pharisees.
It's a preface. Ulrich lose a more technical commentary, but he makes a really important point. He says on the basis of the antitheses right everything that's coming beginning in verse 21.
The.
Quantitatively greater righteousness of the disciples means at the same time that their lives led by love are qualitatively more intense before God. The whole idea of an Exceeding righteousness something that is greater you see again this little chain link you go from greater to now and exceeding a really great Righteousness and loses making the point in the Greek.
Most likely this is not at first glance speaking to the quality of an exceeding righteousness, but the quantity of it.
There's other more.
Frequent terms that are used to speak of quality. So we just say oh, it's of a different quality. Well Matthew might be keying on in fact at first glance. It's about a greater quantity of righteousness.
You will be more right. You'll have more righteous activity than the scribes and the Pharisees. That's the first point but he doesn't dismiss what follows this. Quantitatively greater righteousness this more abundant more active more profound acts of righteousness.
Force a quality of life that is far more intense. More intense than a scribe more intense than a Pharisee so intense this life being led by love for God. And Jesus says if you don't have a righteousness that is greater than theirs, you won't even enter the kingdom.
Let's talk about the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus says unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Well in order to understand the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. We have to answer who are the scribes and who are the Pharisees?
Well, the scribes are best understood as not mere copyists.
Experts in the law scholars lawyers more than the equivalent of a Xerox machine they weren't just Transliterating or copying the word they were studying it. They were experts in the law. They poured over the jots and the tittles of the law and they were very sharp.
Earlier in Matthew's gospel. We read that Herod calls upon the scribes as he's seeking to ascertain What's being said about the Messiah and they're able to point them all the way back to the prophecy.
It's said that the ruler will come out of Bethlehem of Judah. So they understand these messianic prophecies in Matthew 17 the disciples asked. Why did the scribes say that Elijah must come first? See the scribes were going around and saying we understand the prophecies of the Messiah.
But before the Messiah comes Elijah must come and Jesus has to answer this. Wonderful understanding from the scribes experts in the law and the prophets. Or in Mark chapter 12, Jesus asks rhetorically.
How is it that the scribes understand Christ to be the son of David? You see they really were experts in the law. They understood what the prophecies meant. The Pharisees Were perhaps what we could call the Puritans of the Torah.
They really took the Torah seriously, in fact so seriously that they had a cloud a web of Traditions surrounding it they built hedges around the law to ensure that they could not in the least break any of the commandments.
In fact a part of Jesus rebuke is that they invalidate the law by their traditions. They make it void.
But they were.
Regarded as Puritans in their day in the same way that you and I love and we ought to love the Puritans. That's how Jesus hearers would have felt about the Pharisees. These were the holy rollers not in a bad way.
You would aspire to be as holy as committed as sincere as they were. They were zealous. They were strict. They were really about it and they were highly influential. Josephus estimates are about 6 ,000 at the beginning of the first century and they were incredibly Influential.
They had rejected the influence of Greek ideas and Hellenism. That that was that was more of an influence among the Sadducees there they're rather smaller but politically empowered rivals and yet there was a lot of disrespect for the Compromise of the Sadducees.
The Pharisees were held in high regard certainly by the hearers of Jesus. In Acts 23 when Paul is being tried in Jerusalem. This is what he cries out brothers. I'm a Pharisee the son of Pharisees. He understands the weight that holds in Jerusalem.
That's like pulling out the varsity jacket. Hey guys, I don't know if you know this. I'm a Pharisee son of a Pharisee. Acts 22 he says brethren fathers hear my defense before you now and when they heard that he spoke to them in Hebrew, right?
He's going way back to his roots. Though he's very much a cosmopolitan all over the Roman Empire. Here he goes back he's speaking Hebrew though he's born in Tarsus and they're all silent. We read in Acts 22 they all were silent.
This is what he says. I Was brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. Gamaliel one of the most renowned Pharisees. I Was taught according to the strictness of our father's law and I was zealous toward God as you all are today.
You see what he's saying. I was about it. I was strict. You want to know how devoted I was. I'm a Pharisee. That's what he was saying. The Pharisees of course were regarded in this way and that's meant to Help us understand the shock of what Jesus is saying.
It would be as best as I can put it would be equivalent to me saying, you know, John Owen. You know Thomas Goodwin, you know, Jonathan Edwards. Have you read some of the works of John Flavel? Do you know of George Whitfield?
How much do you love Charles Spurgeon, let me tell you if you're not more righteous than they you'll never enter the kingdom. That's how shocking it would have been. What? We are all ruined. We are lost.
You've just pointed to some of the most holiest men and if we have to surpass them who can be saved. That's the point. That's how it would have been to hear these words. So we don't want to defang the bite of Jesus words to his hearers.
Scribes and Pharisees are held by all to be the most righteous among them and Jesus said if you're not more righteous than them You'll never be saved and he says Not saved explicitly but he says you'll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven just the last point as we work through the rest of verse 20 in Matthew's gospel to enter the kingdom is Synonymous with salvation or conversion.
Okay, so the language of entering the kingdom here it can speak to the entrance the initial salvation received as a result of being converted or it can fast forward all the way to the very end of Actually making it through the judgment of God and entering into the reward entering into glory.
The Greek here. It uses a double negative. You will by no means who may you will absolutely Not there's no chance of eking it through. There's no chance of all right. We're grading on a curve. That's just if you're not more righteous than scribes and Pharisees.
There's no shot. There's no chance. There's no hope you'll never enter and John 3 Jesus says truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water in the spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now here you really have this as as the new birth the beginning of the Christian life the beginning of the experience of salvation.
You've been born again by the Spirit of God born of water born of the Spirit and in that sense You've entered into the kingdom. Jesus can say of tax collectors and prostitutes behold they enter the kingdom ahead of you.
Do you see something already? Occurring salvation received and yet in another sense. It can go all the way to the end not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven and why? Jesus says there because they are workers of lawlessness.
Unless their righteousness exceeds that of scribes and Pharisees will never enter. They have not received salvation. They will not endure judgment. So moving toward application now. Verses 19 and 20 bring us to this point.
Jesus is teaching us both in what we've left and what we're moving toward in verses 21 through 48 Jesus exclaims that to enter the kingdom requires exceeding righteousness. To enter the kingdom requires Exceeding righteousness.
I was reading I mentioned or glues in his commentary and he he points out several different debates.
Very very.
Intense debates about scholarly minutia. And so he's wrestling with seven or eight different opinions and then he comes to his grand conclusion and his grand conclusion is. And this Is almost comical that scholars sometimes have to go through, you know 23 pages of debate to get to this conclusion.
His conclusion was Matthew really means what he's written there. He really means you won't enter to the kingdom if you don't have an exceeding righteous. It's like yeah. We kind of knew that at the first the first time.
But that shows our instinct. Doesn't it. Surely it can't mean that surely Jesus doesn't mean that Jesus says. No one in this room is going to enter into the kingdom. No one in this room has been converted or can expect to be saved at the last.
If they don't have a righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees the holiest men in the days of Jesus. So, how do we apply this? How do we approach this? Well, the first is we need to understand What we are not to do in order to understand what we are to do.
So I'm going to give you two do-nots in order to come to the do. Okay, two do-nots in order to come to the do. Okay, so the first is this do not minimize the commandments. Do not minimize the commandments if we would take seriously what Jesus is teaching.
We dare not minimize his commandments. He says if we try to minimize them He'll minimize us if we taught it if we try to disregard them or carry on with ignoring them. He'll carry on ignoring us. Do not minimize the commandments.
We are not to minimize the commandments of the Lord picking and choosing according to our own interests. Dismissing one as unreasonable another as impractical another as entirely unnecessary. We do not minimize the commandments of the Lord.
Charles Simeon Great 19th century preachers said among those who profess a high regard for the gospel. There are some who speak of it in lawless terms and antinomian terms in their zeal against self-righteousness.
They're apt to represent the law as altogether abolished. They know that we are no longer under the law as a covenant. But they express it as if we were freed from it as a rule of life. We've already laid that down just last week.
We're free from the condemnation of the law as a covenant of works. We're bound to it by the Spirit as a rule of life. We must never forget that the gospel is a doctrine according to godliness and that the law rather than making void through being made void through faith is Established by faith and so this means as a maybe first application.
We won't treat his commands as a burden. How are you going to minimize the commandments. Just start by treating them as a burden? There's a reason that James calls the law a royal law of Liberty. He has a right understanding this this law if it were to be lived out in fullness is actually the highest Form of freedom in humanity possible.
This is what it means to be truly human as an image bearer of God in that sense. Anything that goes against the law is a form of enslavement or dehumanization. It's a royal law of Liberty if we understand what the law holds out to us.
And so we don't treat his commands as if they are a burden the law Apart from Christ was as Peter says in Acts 15 a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could bear All right. That's the law apart from Christ a Yoke that no one can bear right.
Peter said we tried our fathers tried. No one could drag that heavy yoke across but Christ came. The law apart from Christ is a burden a burden that drags you to hell a Burden that you cannot bear and that you cannot break off.
But the law is Not given to believers apart from Christ because Christ came. Do not think that I came.
To abolish the.
We don't just jump to what he's saying about the law. Notice the significance. He came do not think that I have finally come. The one that from the very beginning in Genesis 3 15 Pointed all of redemptive history toward my coming.
And so Christ came and he said incoming. Do not think I have come to destroy the law. He tells us in fact take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Don't treat my commandments as a burden.
We don't counter his words by grimacing. I Can't believe it. What an annoying commandment? Ruining my other otherwise good day.
No.
First John 5 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. If you begin with the love of God that that motivates your desire to keep his commandments and if love is driving your Motivation to obey guess what you discover his commandments aren't burdensome at all.
You delight to obey.
Because you love the one who's given you the commandments you see it with children young little children. When they just have some excitement or some love for their parents. It's their delight to obey.
Oh, yes. Mom, oh, yes, dad. They're so excited. They get to obey. In no way is the is the request or the direction or the command of the parent a burden. It's not treated in that way where there's love.
But take away that love. Bring about some bitterness. And how that command is hated despised rejected. It's a burden. We minimize what we despise. We minimize what we despise. If there's any takeaway from why all the pollsters were wrong about this election, it's probably that we minimize what we despise.
They minimized and didn't take into consideration what they despised. Well, we all do that. That's a natural human tendency, isn't it? If we despise something we don't give it thought. We don't give it attention.
We don't put our shoulder into it. So the call is not to stop muttering and just grin and bear the commandments. Come on. Jesus said they're important. So just grin and bear it. No, no, no, no, not at all.
The call is to recognize the law for what it is how it shines and is resplendent with the very character of our God. How Christ the express image of God perfectly fulfilled this law and we are being conformed into that express image.
And so we read Psalm 119 with entirely new eyes. We actually develop a hunger and thirst to have that kind of delight in the law. If you read Psalm 119 First of all, you should recognize. Where am I in terms of how the psalmist regards the law of God?
Can I approximate at all his regard for it his delight in it? If not, do I hunger and thirst for that? Am I repenting and seeking that out or do I find reasons that that doesn't really apply to me? I shouldn't ever try to get into the shoes or the sandals as it were of the psalmist.
We do far more than begrudgingly confess the law is wholly just and good. Sitting around and going. Well, we know that the law is wholly just and good. Give me a break. No. We actually begin to delight in the law.
And as someone 19 teaches us this means that our love for God's commandments Causes us to reject the ways that the world minimizes those commandments. The world stumbles over itself. In derision in mockery that we take these commandments seriously.
Isn't that cute? Isn't that weird? Isn't that bizarre that you would order your life by that rule? From that book. They hold us in derision. But the one who loves the commandments Rejects the way that the world minimizes the law that makes it void takes it of no.
Sincerity.
In fact to such a degree that the reason you reject the minimization of the world is you love God's commandments in such a way it cultivates disgust for when his commandments are broken that there's a revulsion the degree that we're not.
Disgusted revulsed.
By commandments being broken it shows how compromised we are by the world around us how we do minimize the law of God. Listen, this is both of these points are held together. We reject the minimization of the world.
We have contempt or disgust when the world rejects or minimizes the law. Both of these are held together in Psalm 119 126 and following it is time for you to act. Oh Lord. They have regarded your law as void.
You see the zeal there. It's time for you to act why because your laws been disregarded. I love your law and So I have this this fire in my bones because your law is being voided. It's being disregarded.
Act. God Vindicate your law. That's where the psalmist is. Therefore. I love your commandments more than gold. Yes more than fine gold. Therefore all your precepts concerning all things. I consider to be right.
I hate every false way. You see where love for the law has brought him. I Hate that they make your law void. In fact, I'm disgusted when they break your law. Where are you in Terms of your approach to the law.
Do you feel at all like the psalmist in those verses in Psalm 119? But at the same time it's not a strident delight. This delight even in Psalm 119 is very conscious of weakness. This is not something unattainable this is meant to convey how we are and how we ought to be and so notice in Psalm 119 throughout there's a Holy-resolve a delight in the law a zeal for the law a hatred of false ways.
And yet at the same time you detect the psalmist is really struggling with his own weakness with his own Inability with the fact that he doesn't always desire it as he should or he can't walk in its ways as strongly as he'd like.
You've commanded us to keep your precepts diligently verse 4. Oh that my ways were directed to keep it verse 5. You see the tension there. I will keep your statutes verse 8. Oh forsake me not utterly.
With my whole heart I've sought you verse 10. Let me not wander from your commandment. You see it's conscious of weakness. I will run the way of your commandments. When you enlarge my heart, yeah, this isn't something I can muster up myself Lord.
Give me a heart to do it. Consider how I love your precepts quicken me. Oh Lord, according to your loving-kindness. Let your hand help me. I've chosen your precepts. You see it's not strident. It's not triumphant.
It's actually very conscious of the weakness. It's looking for the strength that comes from God alone. This this psalm Is to be a litmus test for your life as a Christian. Do you want to know if you're using the laws a rule of life read Psalm 119 and look at it as a mirror?
How accurately does it reflect your life? This is the difference between the psalmist and the hypocrite. The hypocrite is content with just the appearance. The Christian wants its nature. The psalmist is reflecting and testifying to how he feels about God's law.
But it also causes him to see all those gaps and shortfalls and corruptions in his life. That's a difference between the psalmist and Psalm 119 and a hypocrite. A hypocrite doesn't reflect in that way.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, I you know, I'm certainly better than most. That's not someone 19. Oh Yeah, I know I I know I kind of know what the Bible says. Yeah, you know, hey, we're all sinners. That's not someone 19.
A Christian in other words doesn't just seek to cover their sin. A Christian wants to be cured of their sin. A Christian doesn't want to just mask and camouflage and go along to get along with their sin.
A Christian wants to be rid of their sin.
I.
Hate this sin. I hate false ways. I Can't listen to NPR anymore. I used to be able to. I used to commute and listen to it. Just to get my blood pumping in the mornings on a long commute. I can't even listen to it anymore.
I hate every false way when a person is converted and the self is all the sudden exposed and all of its rebellion and all of its.
Active.
Sinfulness toward God. When self is dethroned and God takes his rightful place upon the throne of a man's heart the world's Chains are broken. The domination has ended. This man now begins to repent of his sins daily sometimes even hourly and this man now a believer is walking in this newness of life.
And that newness of life will inevitably work itself out as obedience to God. In other words, he will not minimize the commandments of God. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. That's what scripture said.
That's a difference between the hypocrite hypocrite. Make sure the outside passes muster. The inside is full of sin. It's a cup. That's clean when you look at from the outside. It's full of lust and sin and corruption with them.
That's not someone who has the hope of the gospel within them if they have the hope of the gospel within them.
They would purify themselves.
So we do not minimize the commandments of the Lord. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments. You cannot minimize the commandments without minimizing the Lord who gave those commandments.
Jesus says this is the one who loves me. He keeps my commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandment. So that was the first point. Do not minimize the commandments secondly. Do not merit eyes the commandments.
I don't think that's actually a word. I just made it up, but it works. Don't merit eyes the commandments. In other words don't treat the commandments as something that gives you merit. And I if you can't tell we're trying to strike the balance between these two whole traditions if not believers are prone to swaying back and forth between either minimizing the commandments of God or Making them into merit using them as a way of gaining a standing or having a posture before God.
So we don't minimize neither. Do we merit eyes? We always maintain that distinction of the gospel opposed to the law. The law is not a faith. Paul says. We maintain this gospel law distinction and to the degree that we don't we make a shipwreck of our faith.
There's a reason that Luther called Galatians his Katie his wife. She always keeps me true. She always brings me back. She's my reinforcement. There's no place for merit in our obedience to the commandments.
There's no place for merit in our obedience to God. The only merit that matters to God is the Merit of his crucified and risen Son. That's the only merit that counts.
But his grace is such.
That he rewards even our blemished attempts to obey him. His grace is such that again, there's no merit but there is blessing. There's no merit but there is reward even our.
Blemished.
Attempts are half-hearted attempts. Even a cup of water given in his name receives a full reward such as his mercy. God declares they that honor me. I will honor you. Take that to the bank. Well, sometimes in the plot of your life, it doesn't look like God has honored you.
Read Joseph in at the end of Genesis, right at any point in the plot of his life. Just say well Joseph you have shown honor to God. Can it be said that God has honored you? Well, maybe not in the pit of the dungeon, but when he makes it to the throne right under Pharaoh.
It would seem that God indeed has followed through on this verse and for some in this life that honors not fully received it. It needs to be received in the entrance to the next life. But it stands true that God honors those who honor him.
But we don't merit eyes the commandments we rightly seek the reward. There's nothing wrong about being motivated by God's promised blessing that ought to be fueled by gratitude. Rather than something proactive if I do this then I get that if I do this somehow that counts and therefore I receive this.
We don't merit eyes the commandments rather we respond out of gratitude and we look to the reward. Certainly not wrong to look to the reward. Remember where we've been just up to this point in Matthew 5 the Beatitudes began with those who are poor in spirit those who mourn in meekness hungry thirsty.
The way that the law is used like a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We're on the verge of leaning in in verses 21 and following to what the succeeding righteousness is all about. And as we do so it's going to expose the bankruptcy of our lives.
It ought to make us mourn and hunger and thirst if we understand it rightly. And if you can get through that and still have some idea of gaining merit with God. You've just not understood anything that we've read.
If ever there was a schoolmaster, it's Matthew 5 21 through 48. There is no place for merit in our attempted obedience. When we do all that has been commanded and we never fully in this life do all that has been commanded.
Jesus says you're merely servants that have done what they ought if you could live a perfect life. You don't deserve some triumphal parade. This is just what it meant to be human and yet the Father's mercy is such.
He gives you great reward. For the things that to be honest you didn't earn There's a reason that Revelation has images of casting crowns before him Lord. Thank you, but we don't deserve this. Why we didn't earn it.
You earned it for us, but his mercy is so rich he says no you keep it.
You keep it.
Remember what Paul said as a result of coming to faith in Christ in Philippians 3. In Philippians 3 he begins with this warning against the dogs the evil workers the mutilation those that were going around and Pressing the claims of the law as a yoke upon believers that had been freed from the law in that regard.
And Paul, of course had been one of those dogs one of those evil workers. He had been a proud card-carrying Jacket-wearing member of the mutilation and he's recounting this to the church at Philippi.
What he points to is he says in verse 4. Verse 3. We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. How are you going to avoid? Meritizing the commandments.
Have no confidence in your flesh. Don't think highly of yourself. Think lowly of yourself as you are. Paul had all this confidence in his flesh until he came to Christ. Then he has no confidence in his flesh.
Now all the glory is to Christ though. I also might have confidence in the flesh. They want to compare CVS. We can do that all day long. Paul says I Was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a Pharisee. Remember I was full of zeal.
I persecuted the church according to the righteousness of the law. I was blameless. A very important window into what is being described here in Matthew 5 20. Jesus says your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Paul a Pharisee in his in his sort of testimony in Philippians 3 says as a Pharisee concerning the righteousness of the law. I was blameless. In other words, I followed through in the sacrificial system.
Maintained everything as it was meant to be maintained. But only coming to Christ showed him that he had never fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law. What things were gained to me? He says I've counted laws.
In fact, I've suffered the loss of all things. He says in verse 8. And part of that is because everything that could be counted as gain. He says now I just counted as rubbish. All those games all those things that made me sparkle and flash.
All those things that made me look so godly and zealous and holy a Pharisee of.
Pharisees.
And he says it's just rubbish. It's just rubbish. Not that I take it for granted. See, it's only rubbish. When I compare it to Christ Jesus. So, how are you going to avoid meritizing the commandments?
Well, you have to look at all the gain in your life and brothers and sisters. There is great gain in godliness with contentment. Even look at that gain and though it's real gain and you ought not take it for granted.
When you compare that to Christ. It's loss. It's not gain. It's nothing compared to Christ. Christ is everything. It doesn't have much substance when you go to Christ. Christ is the foundation. Christ is the headstone.
Christ is the life. Christ is everything. Notice that Paul's always examining where his faith is anchored and that's what he's trying to get across the Philippian believers he knew all too well what it was like to have the gains to have the flash to see the merit and keeping the commandment and stumble at that stumbling stone.
And if you think somehow as a reformed Christian that you're immune to that you're just not being honest. I think of all traditions of the faith of all Neighborhoods of Christianity we are the most prone to stumbling at that stumbling stone.
Keith Foskey had this great little mean that he sent out of I Don't know what show it's from but there's this man you know this man's man with a mustache and he's got a cart full and he's walking down Lowe's and a worker comes up to him and Foskey put over you know, the worker is the Baptist and and the man with a full cart Is a Presbyterian and the Baptist comes up and he says oh you got a full cart there.
Is there any project that I can help you work on? And the man just looks at him squarely and says I know more than you and just keeps walking. We are just prone to stumbling at the stumbling stone. We know so much.
We've got confessions. We've got covenant theology. You guys are just JV compared to the Reformed and there creeps in that merit in the Christian life. And we begin to anchor our faith on what we know.
Compared to what others don't know and what we do. Compared to what others don't do and all of a sudden we've without even being aware of it. We've meritized the commandments. What a danger to our souls.
I bear Israel witness. Paul says they have a zeal for God. He knows that from the inside out. But not according to knowledge not according to true knowledge. Not the kind of knowledge the Corinthians pandered after or the Galatians as they were being led astray by the Judaizers.
Or even the Philippians here or the Colossians or frankly any of the New Testament churches. They were all being led astray for the gains. They wanted the gains. They wanted the flash. They wanted the honor.
Jesus says you need to have a righteousness that far surpasses the scribes and the Pharisees. Don't be like them he says Why in Matthew 23, they're the ones that go around trumpeting their game. They have such a view of merit that they want the best seats.
They love the greetings in the marketplace. They love to be renowned. They love to have this air about them. Don't be like them. Jesus says have a righteousness that exceeds them or you'll never be saved.
I Bear them witness they have a zeal for God not according to knowledge not true knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. What's the knowledge they lack? They don't understand righteousness.
That's the life.
They have a lot of knowledge they have a lot of zeal. They don't know righteousness. Who would say to a scholar to a lawyer to the legal expert in Jesus day? You're just ignorant. You don't understand the law.
You don't know about God's righteousness. That's what Paul is saying. For all their acclamation, they're actually completely ignorant.
Why.
Being ignorant of God's righteousness they seek to establish their own. They do not submit to the righteousness of God. The righteousness that exceeds is Born out in our lives by the righteousness that covers.
Please take this to heart. The righteousness that exceeds The Scribes and the Pharisees is born out by the righteousness that covers. Which is the bloody righteousness of Christ. This is not a righteousness that carefully polishes and cleanses the outside of the cup.
This is a righteousness that Pours the blood of the slain lamb and cleanses from within. This is a cleansing of all filthiness of flesh and spirit that perfects holiness in the fear of God. This is a cleansing that glories only in the cross of Christ when Paul comes in a church.
That is reveling in all of their little Boy Scout badges of merit. He says I came and you were all pandering. You're all clawing at my feet to have some knowledge some Mystical empowerment. I came to you desiring to preach Christ in him crucified.
That's it. I Won't let your glory be in anything other than the cross because I know what it's like to be ignorant of the righteousness of God and Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees.
You'll never enter into the kingdom. So we don't minimize the commandments. We don't merit eyes the commandments. We avoid the snare of man's applause. Jesus says if that's the only reward you're seeking that's the only reward you'll get.
You want to have the appearance to receive the reward from men great. That'll be a reward. That'll be the only reward this means. We avoid the soul snare that the dead end of self-righteousness. We're like soldiers in the trench in World War one and Self-righteousness is like the mustard gas that creeps silently into the trenches and kills you when you're not even awake.
That's self-righteousness in the Christian life. It breeds division. It breeds hypocrisy. It breeds every evil thing that comes from the pit. Do not merit eyes the commandments of God. What do you have that you did not receive and so we don't minimize the commandments and we don't merit eyes.
The commandments we we do the commandment. We do the commandment. All has been heard the end of the matter is clear fear God and keep his commandments. We keep the commandments. I Have a lot more to say about this, but we sort of run out of time.
So let me let me close with this. Paul encourages believers to work out their salvation in fear and trembling. This is in no uncertain terms to obey God. This is what it looks like to do the word and in doing the word not as a mere hearer.
But as a doer of the word we will be blessed in what we do. We will have a righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. Doers are blessed not retainers, but doers not hearers, but doers.
So we do the commandments. We only do this by the empowerment of the Spirit. We only do this as we say because of the righteousness of Christ that covers us as we glory in the cross. We find that by the leading of the Spirit.
We are doing the commandments. The desire of that psalmist in Psalm 119. It's becoming apparent in your life. Not because you on your own ventured into some dark cave to seek it out. But because you gathered an assembly to worship the risen Savior and that gave you a desire in your heart to pursue him and obey What he's commanded.
This is why you can be a doer of the word. So what does that look like in your life? It looks like this just some practical things as we close pursue what is in front of you. Pursue what is in front of you?
Don't just aim to be one step further than your peers. Or just a few inches ahead of what other believers around you are doing. Wherever you have been taught and your conscience has been awakened. That is the place you must obey.
Don't gauge what Christ has commanded by what others are doing and just seek to at least get up to that or be Comfortably behind or maybe just a few inches ahead so you can coast and put it in cruise control.
To what you've been shown to what your conscience has been awakened waken to that is to the degree that you'll be judged. And so there you must obey. Our obedience is rooted in the gospel of Christ in the gospel of Christ teaches that Christ redeemed us from lawless deeds purifying us for good works.
So again, we were prompted. We obey where God shows us an opportunity we serve. The Pharisees had external works, but no heart of faith. That was their problem. They loved keeping the outside of the cup clean and making sure the outside of the cup.
Had the best greetings and the best seats and all of the heirs and all of the honors. But they weren't really concerned about the inside of the cup. Many so-called Christians really are the opposite.
They're more like.
Wanting to claim the blood of Christ for the inside of the cup and they really don't care about the outside of the cup to Be honest, in other words say they have genuine faith. So it seems but there's not a lot of work that flows from it.
The true disciple.
Has a heart for Christ and that heart Produces fruit in their life. As we said the righteousness that exceeds is borne out by the righteousness that covers. And so Don't assume the name of Christian and be numbered among them and fellowship with them as a Judas.
Judas was able to be with the disciples as a disciple without ever being suspected of hypocrisy. Only to be hanged and ruined at the last you can be a scrupulous you can be a self-confident as a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Convinced that you're Abraham's child. But if you don't have a heart for Christ being born out in fruit in your life, you should have no assurance whatsoever the true disciple has a heart for Christ and out of that heart for Christ flows all of the fruit of the Spirit and the life of his people.
This is the exceeding righteousness That Jesus himself will teach us and all that lies ahead of us Lord. Help us to be doers of the word. Whoever does and teaches these things shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Let's pray Father, thank you for your word Lord. Help us to be doers not mere hearers. We're reminded of your law Lord, and we confess we don't delight in it as a psalmist not as we are Lord your commandments are not our morning song as they need to be.
We don't awake at midnight To dwell upon them and meditate upon them as the psalmist did. Oh Lord that your commandments would be so precious to us more than fine gold. They would be what causes us to rise or to wake at midnight to meditate upon them.
That wouldn't be Some washcloth for the external aspects of our life, but Lord it would be a fountain welling up within. Well watering the fruit that comes from your spirit. Who empowers us to keep these commandments Lord and the light to do them help us to be this way as a church we pray in your son's name.