Most of you know that for three
chapters here, Matthew five through seven is what is commonly known
as the Sermon on the Mount. One long discourse that our Lord
gave. And, uh, I'm just going to read
one verse to get to our thought this morning, Matthew chapter
five and verse 20. It's a very serious verse. Oh, they all are. But he said
in verse 20, for I say unto you that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Apart from hope in Christ and
apart from rest in Christ, all men have a fear of facing God. Some will pretend they don't,
but I promise you when it comes right down to that hour, they
do. Hebrews 10 31 said, it is a fearful
thing. to fall into the hands of a living
God. But it's a blessed thing to face
God with the righteousness he requires. And this verse, Matthew 520,
tells us of a righteousness that's not good enough. Christ calls
it the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. It is really self-righteousness,
a righteousness of their own making, of their own doing. And
they, in total agreement, approve of it, think it's good enough. And there's millions in that
condition today that think that what we as a group agree is good
enough, then it's good enough. That's where the Pharisees were.
The Pharisees were very religious. They were the very elite in Jewish
religion. And it was not above them to
brag on themselves. and compliment themselves for
their believed superiority and to look down on others, even
despise others. The Lord Jesus spake a parable
in Luke 18 to those, he said, who thought so much of themselves. Luke 18 9, it said, he spake
this parable unto certain, that is certain people, which trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Now that's deception. When a
person thinks themselves righteous at the same time, despises others. If you were really righteous,
you wouldn't despise others, but they did. That's a deception. And in that parable, the Lord
Jesus, You're familiar with it, told of two men who went to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. And the
Pharisee prayed like this. He said, God, I thank thee that
I am not as other men are. Well, he was right about that. But what he was saying was, I'm
glad I'm better than other men. And he referred to extortioners
and unjust and adulterers. And he said, or even this public,
and I'm glad I'm better than him. Well, he was right about
one thing. He wasn't like them, but with
his attitude, as the parable goes on to reveal, he was not
better off than others. He was worse. The only thing worse than being
a sinner is being a sinner and not knowing it. Christ says to people like him,
that's what he's saying here in our text, except or unless
your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no case, that is not by any
means, enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, when he talked
about having a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees
and scribes, He's not referring to exceeding the Pharisees in
religious works. That would be hard to do. Those
guys were with it. He's not talking about quantity,
how much religion or so-called righteousness. But he's talking
quality. Except your righteousness be
of another quality, of another sort than theirs. A superior
quality. Actually, a perfect righteousness. A pure and sinless righteousness.
A holy righteousness. Christ is not referring to some
standard of living that he expects his followers to come up to and
attain to. I mean, just on the surface,
read that verse. Most folks will think, well,
he's saying, you know, that we've got to be better than the Pharisees. No, no. He's not referring to
that. He's referring to a righteousness
that's as right as God is. There was a slogan years ago,
50 years ago, that was popular. Get right with God. And you could drive along the
highway, especially over Tennessee, and they had these large Cement
crosses with it written on it. Get right with God. And it was meant as an instruction. Something a person could do for
themselves. Quit enough bad things. Start
enough good things. Get yourself right with God. Christ is not speaking here about
something we can do. The righteousness he's referring
to, the superior that exceeds that of the Pharisees, is an
imputed righteousness. It's his own perfect righteousness
given to us, not earned by us, but given to us. Imputed to us,
Paul talks about. The word imputed, impute, is
a a financial term, a banking term. It means to take from one
account and deposit it into another. You all know what that means.
And that's what Christ did for his elect people on the cross.
Our sin was as it were imputed or charged to him. It was a debit. on His account. And His very righteousness was
imputed to us, deposited into our account. What was ours for
which we deserve to be punished and deserve to perish forever,
that which was ours was put on Him. And that which was His Perfection,
sinliness, holiness was given to us. I won't tell you what,
we're not too much of a lively crowd around here sometimes,
but now that's good enough to swing from the chandelier. I don't know if it holds you
up or not, but now that's something to get excited about. What you
deserved, Christ took. And what he deserves, he's given
to us. So that's blessed. That's blessed.
Now he did it. He did it. He accomplished it. He satisfied divine justice on
our behalf. We're made accepted with God
in him, not made acceptable, but made accepted. That's Ephesians
1.6. So what's our responsibility? What must I do? Believe it. Believe it. You say, oh, it's
got to be harder than that. No, we're told over and over
and over in the Bible. Believe it. Believe it. It's a command. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is what he's done, what
he's finished, what he's completed. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It's not an invitation to accept
Jesus. That's the way man's twisted
around. No, it's a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 4, 3 said this, Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him. for righteousness, reckoned,
counted, deposited to his account righteousness. Why? Because he
believed God. It didn't say he believed in
God. We all do. But that's not enough. He believed God. God had to say something for
him to believe. What is it God said to Abraham
that he believed? God taught Abraham of his son,
of Christ, and what he'd accomplish. Did he not say in John, this
is John 8, 56, your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it. and was glad. What did he see? He saw, he was taught that it's
not what he could do about his sin that was worth anything,
but it was about what God would do in his son. Abraham rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it and was glad. What day was he talking about?
The day Christ hung on the cross. and bore the sin of his people.
It would not be for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years, many generations after Abraham lived. But God told him
and made it effectual in his heart. Abraham believed God. He believed the gospel. What
God had told him he would do in Christ. And that believing,
that God given faith at work in Abraham's heart was counted
to him for righteousness. That's what I must do. That's
what you must do. Believe in Christ. And believing on Christ is not
a decision to do better. You've all done that. You've made that decision a thousand
times. Perfect righteousness, the requirement
of God Almighty, is not something we attain to. It's a gift from
God. And in our text, Christ is saying
you need a righteousness superior to that of the religious Pharisees. You'll not outdo them. That's
not the way. You need the imputation of another's
righteousness. It's got to be better than the
Pharisees. It's got to be better than you. It's got to be perfect. There
is but one perfect righteousness. The apostle John in first John
two and one said this. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the father, a representative to stand in
our stead. Who is it? We have an advocate
with the father. Listen to this, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. Not Jesus Christ, one of the
righteous, but Jesus Christ, the righteous. It's literally
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the one and only righteous one. Now concerning Adam's race, Romans
3.10, there is none righteous. No, not one. Not a single one,
not even one, but outside of Adam's race, there is one. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
He was, he became flesh. He, he, he was a man. He had
a mother, a human mother, but not a father. The Virgin conceived. The Holy
Ghost. God was his father. And he's righteous. He's holy.
He's sinless. In Adam's race, there's none
righteous, not a one. But Jesus Christ is the righteous
one. Adam himself was not righteous
even before the fall. If he had to be in, he couldn't
have fallen. He was innocent for a time, but
not righteous. He could fall and did. But there is one Jesus Christ,
the righteous that couldn't fall, didn't fall, will never fall.
There is no other one. There is no other pursuit of
heaven and eternal life that's worth two cents than in this
one Jesus Christ the righteous. All the doctrine, all the catechisms,
all the religious practices, all the determination, all the
dedication, all the denomination, all of that, if you set Christ
aside, it's nothing. He said, I am the way. Not one
of the ways, not the best way, but I am the way, the only way. Now I want to show you something
in the Old Testament. Turn quickly with me back to Genesis chapter
seven. Genesis chapter seven. I tell you often and For those
of you that haven't heard what I'm about to say, and all of
you, I want you to hear this once again. God gave us the Old Testament,
not just for the sake of history. I mean, what do we care about
people who lived thousands of years ago? That's not it. God gave us the Old Testament
by divine inspiration. This is inspired of the Holy
Ghost. Same as the New Testament. He
gave it to us. And the whole Old Testament history
is God painting pictures of his son in history and in people's
lives. And to grasp the Old Testament,
you must understand this is the mind of God. And his mind is
on his son. One such picture of his son is
a man named Noah. I'm going to talk about him a
few minutes. Beginning in Genesis 5 and verse
28, his father was Lamech. Lamech lived in 180 and two years
and he got a son and he called his name Noah saying, Now here's
what he said about this baby boy named Noah. This same shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because
of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed. Now, what would this newborn
called Noah? have to do with bringing comfort?
The same shall comfort us. What would he have to do with
the curse God put upon the ground? You see, the mind of God is going
much further than this newborn named Noah. And God's mind is
reaching to his son, the man Christ Jesus. Who would comfort? Who would do something about
the curse? When time is no more, remove
the curse. Now moving on to Genesis six,
and you know, this verse five, God saw that the wickedness of
man, not most men, but man, mankind was great in the earth. And that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. No man in all the earth. Could
even think anything that was not evil. It's all men. It's every imagination. It's
every thought, including Noah. You don't have one line of scripture
saying that Noah was a good little boy and a gaudy little boy before
God called him. No, he he's in these early verses.
He's part of this evil and every thought. Verse seven, I will destroy man whom I have created. There's
no hope for anyone in themselves, including Noah. He's as helpless
and as hopeless as the rest. He never did anything about it.
and couldn't. Verse eight, but God took the initiative. Why can't men see this? The awful
truth of sinful depravity is this. You'll go to hell if God will
let you. I mean, if he leaves you alone,
you're just that low down. You'll go to hell if he lets
you. That's just how it is. But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Don't misunderstand. He
never found grace in the sense that he was looking for it. He
found grace in the sense that the Lord looked for him. Lost sheep don't find the shepherd.
The shepherd finds them. In verse 14 of chapter six, the
Lord said to Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood. Don't miss that word. The make
the, this is for you, Noah. Christ was made sin for us. Then he was exalted and given
a name, which is above every name. Verse 18 of chapter six, but
with thee, Noah, will I establish my covenant. Not with Adam's
race. The Lord says to Noah personally
with thee will I establish my covenant, not even with thee
and thy sons, but with thee." All the blessings that his family
got in on belonged to Noah. And all the blessings that you
and I get in on belong to Christ. See, the covenant is between
the Father and the Son. The Old Covenant, the Old Testament,
was a covenant between God and men, basically the nation of
Israel. And the Lord said, if you'll
do thus and thus, I'll do thus and thus. And Israel never did
live up to their if, and God knew they wouldn't. But the New
Testament is not between God and men. It's between God and
his son. All the blessing belongs to his
son. All that we get in on is in Christ,
in His Son, apart from which no one is accepted with God. Now in chapter 6 verse 9, these
are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Now wait a minute,
how could a man who was part of the whole in verse 5. Wickedness was great. Thoughts
evil. How could it be said in verse
9 that he's just and perfect and walks with God? Well, the grace, the grace of
verse 8 is this. The Lord never looked at Noah
in Noah. He looked at Noah in Christ. Everything that Noah did right,
God put it in him to do right. Or he wouldn't have done it. What few things you do right
in life, God puts it in you to do right or you wouldn't do it. We're all outlaws by nature.
Murders, thieves, adulterers. Didn't you know that? How can a man fallen in Adam,
corrupted and consumed with sin, walk with God and obey God? He's told to build an ark and
he's given specific instructions. And the last word of the last
line of chapter six, 622 says that he obeyed perfectly. Thus did Noah, according to all,
don't miss that little word, all, all that God commanded him. And then he taxed this on in
case you missed it. So did he. Now I've heard lots of speculation
in my time. I've been around a few days,
but I'll tell you something. We don't read that Noah's sons
struck a lick on building the ark. The protection, the safety, the
security of the ark was all Noah's doing in obedience to God. The coming flood is divine judgment. All humanity is going to perish
except for those in the ark. No one took it upon themselves
to believe in judgment, let alone prepare for it. But the Lord
told Noah what to do, and he did it. Because of our sin, you and I
had no part in our foreseeing judgment. and deciding we'd repent. Oh no, it's the goodness of God
that leadeth thee to repentance. We had no intention, no part,
no will, let alone trying to do anything
about it. But like Noah, Christ our Lord was sent into this world
to, as it were, build an ark. to accomplish our redemption, to justify us by his blood, to
exempt us from the awful judgment coming upon this world. Now,
when the ark was complete, chapter seven, verse one, the Lord said
unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark. Now that's who's invited. Noah's house, eight souls, Noah
and his wife, three sons and their wives. Just read it. Read your Bible. Come thou and
thy house into the ark. That's all that was invited.
You say now, well, don't the Bible say that Noah was a preacher
of righteousness? pleading with people to get in
the ark? No, no. Second Peter 2.5 says Noah was
a preacher of righteousness. That is, he was preaching that
God was right in what he was doing. God is right to send judgment. He was a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Hebrews
11, 7 says that Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as
yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.
God did that. Why just his house? They were
invited. Come thou and all thy house into
the ark. Notice the Lord never said, go
in, but he said, come in. The Lord's already in there. He's already in there. And the rest of verse one says,
chapter seven, this is where I've been wanting to get to,
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Was Noah righteous in himself? If he had a been, that would
have meant he had never sinned and never would sin. No, he's
not righteous in himself. He's righteous in Christ. The
Lord said, I have seen thee righteous. Noah was obedient chapter seven,
verse five. And Noah did according unto all
don't miss that all again, all that the Lord commanded him,
not some of it. Then there was security. Noah
and his family, when they were inside the ark and the prescribed number of
animals were in chapter seven, verse 16, at the end of the verse
we read, and the Lord shut him in. The Lord shut the door. Now read it careful chapter 7
verse 16 and the Lord shut him in. Why didn't it say the Lord
shut them in? It wasn't for them. It was for
him. The Lord shut him in. Their security
was not really in the Ark. It was in Noah. He's righteous. He was, he was
the favored one. He was the one called righteous,
just perfect. He's in the place of Christ,
giving his family deliverance from the judgment coming. They survived the flood. Was
the ark sufficient for the storm? Yes. Noah did exactly what the Lord
commanded him to do. Why is Christ sufficient for
our deliverance from coming judgment? Because he did exactly all that
the father sent him to do. This is God painting a picture
of his son. Was all this Noah's decision
to fill this position and to succeed in it? I'm going to be
somebody. I'm going to make somebody. No,
no. It's the Lord who said, Thee have I seen righteous. I've chosen
you to salvage the human race. Not in the sense that they'll
all be saved. It wasn't but eight. but in the
sense that they'll not all perish. He's the savior of the world.
And so is Christ. Him and all who are in him are
safe, secure. So this is just another picture.
This is the gospel. Christ is the answer to all our
need. He's the art builder. I'm not.
He built it and it worked. It didn't leak. And it's not just that Christ
has the answer. Christ is the answer. So we see
this righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ projected in Noah. It's a righteousness, which is
of God by faith. It's of God, not man's doing.
It's the righteousness of the one who pleased God perfectly. It's Christ's righteousness that
exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes. I hope no one here this morning
is struggling in your spirit and in your life and in your
religious practice to be accepted of God in yourself and by your
doing. You'll never outdo. Those Pharisees
in Matthew five, but the Lord said, you must not outdo them,
but you must have a righteousness that exceeds theirs. It's not earned on our part. It's bestowed imputed on his
part. Ephesians one six, we are accepted
in the beloved. Christ is the beloved. Believe
it. Believe it. The Lord said more than once,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And all who
are in him are pleasing to the father. You remember when Christ got
in the ship with the boys that night in the middle of the storm? What did they do? They never
said, boy, here's our hero. We'll row harder. We'll whoop
his thing yet. Uh-uh. When he got in the boat,
they quit rowing. He caused the storm to cease. He'll cause the storm to cease
in your life. Not fix every circumstance outward. Oh, no. That's ordained, decreed,
and in God's providence for a purpose. Many purposes, but he'll give
you peace. Christ said, my peace, I leave
with you. Peace I give unto you. Not as
the world giveth. Oh no. Thank goodness. The boys stopped rowing. The
storm ends with his word, not our works.