May God be pleased to bless us
together as we continue our meditation on what we refer to as the Sermon
on the Mount. And this evening we'll speak
to you from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and
just reading one verse, and that's verse 20. The Gospel of Matthew,
chapter five, and reading verse 20. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Surely this is and should be
our desire to be amongst those who by the grace of God enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven. And the Lord gives so many gracious
words of instruction throughout the Word of God and especially
in this Sermon on the Mount as He comes and addresses the multitude
and His disciples and speaks to all of them, perhaps sometimes
more directly to His disciples and otherwise to the multitude
at large." It would seem here that he's speaking really to
the multitude at large because how absolutely necessary it is
that all of us here this evening, and indeed everyone who hears
the truth of the gospel, recognizes that it is not our righteousness
that will save us. The Lord gives here this example. He says, that except your righteousness
should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Well,
of course he selects the scribes and the Pharisees because These
two people were well known amongst the Jewish nation. The scribes
were experts in the law. They spent their time studying
the law of God, and the Pharisees were very concerned about their
strict observation of the law. So we have the combination of
these two people, the Lord's sights, and the Jews would have
recognized that Generally speaking, they were looked up to as people
who were godly in their day and age. In their view, perhaps incorrectly,
but nonetheless, that's how they looked to them. And so the Lord
addresses the people and speaks to them of the need of righteousness,
but it must exceed these people's righteousness. And well, surely,
no doubt, the people would have wondered Well, what does this
mean? Because here are the scribes and here are the Pharisees and
we see what they do and how they desire to follow the law of Moses
and to keep it. But of course, what they failed
to understand was they weren't able to keep it. And they were
so concerned, very often, about minor things and we read in in
Matthew further on in this same gospel the words of the Lord
Jesus himself when he spoke to the people and in the 23rd chapter
and the 23rd verse we well the 24th verse perhaps no the 23rd verse ye blind sorry
woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites That's who the Lord
addresses these people that he's referring to. Hypocrites, for
ye pay tithes of mint and anise, and come in, and they're all,
of course, relatively small things, but they were so concerned to
be right and just in these small outward things, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith
These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. And then the Lord very solemnly
addresses them and tells them, ye blind guides, which strain
a gnat and swallow a camel. Well, you see, how necessary
it is for us today to realize the great need that is for us
to possess and be blessed with not our righteousness, and not
to strive and try and produce our own righteousness, but to
realize that we have no ability to produce that which is really
better, that exceeds these scribes and Pharisees. So where are we
to look? Well, we are to look out of ourselves. We are indeed to look unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we read that chapter in the
Romans, that 10th chapter. It's a very powerful book, the
book of the Epistle of the Romans that the Apostle wrote, and it
has very many deep and great and wonderful truths. But these
opening verses in this 10th chapter speaks quite clearly here about
the need of the righteousness. And he tells us, brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. He says, for I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They had a false zeal. and how
important for us today to not be found with a false zeal, but
to be blessed with a right zeal. And the right zeal is not to
seek after our own righteousness, but to seek to know that we possess
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he tells
them, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. How many
people today are ignorant of God's righteousness? I wonder
if you and I are ignorant of God's righteousness. I hope not. And going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. It's a wonderful grace to become
submissive to the will of God, to come and submit ourselves
under the mighty hand of God, to be concerned to do His will,
to follow His path, and not to just be concerned about justifying
ourselves. That's what these scribes and
Pharisees wanted to do. They tried to justify themselves. Remember, of course, the prayer
of that Pharisee who was so pleased with his prayers. He was so pleased
with what he was doing. And he was so pleased that he
wasn't like that publican. But what did he lack? He lacked
the grace of God. He lacked the life of God in
his soul. He was only concerned of what people would think and
judge him to be a good man. The great thing is that you and
I stand before God, whose eye is all seeing, and that eye does
not just look on the outward things, but it looks deep into
our hearts and sees every desire, every bad desire, every good
desire and what a mercy it is if our desire is to be granted
the evidence that the apostle directs us to in the fourth verse
of this tenth chapter where he says for Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to to everyone that believeth well
how necessary it is for us to appreciate the wonderful blessing
that God grants to us when he gives us that faith to believe
the gospel. And this chapter that we read
together this evening, how the apostle goes through the great
need there was and the great need there is today to be blessed
with faith to believe the truths that are preached. And the apostle
tells us for with the heart Man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And
so here we have the work of God, the work of God on our spirit
affects our heart. It's that which is within us,
that which really changes, that which really directs us to none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. And so
as we read these words tonight, the Lord spoke to the multitude
saying, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees. And we should realize, and may
we know by the Holy Spirit that we are unable to do that ourselves. We're utterly unable, we're helpless,
we're lost, and we're ruined in the fall. And we need the
gracious and blessed power the Holy Spirit to come upon us and
indeed to possess our hearts and to possess our minds so that
we are amongst those who seek after Christ's righteousness
and not ours, to know that we are just, justified, made just,
through the sinatonic death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
our religion must always bring us to the cross of Christ. It must almost always bring us
to recognize the great cost of our salvation and to bring us
to that place where we know that we have no righteousness ourselves,
which is acceptable to God, but the necessity we have of being
clothed with this great and glorious righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, do we pant after these
things, you know, so that as the heart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. When we read such
words as this, do we have Do we find in our hearts that desire
after Christ's righteousness to know that He has fulfilled
all that the law required on our behalf and that we are made
righteous through His righteousness. And what a blessing it is when
you think, and we sung in our hymn, didn't we, of the sins
which do so easily beset us and how By nature, it's impossible
to shake us from these things. The devil surrounds us, is at
our elbow, tempting us at all times. But what a blessing it
is then to be able to look out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus
Christ and to realize that he has taken all our sins, every
sin, the vilest sin. Oh, what a, what a saviour we
have and how we should hang our heads in shame as we consider
our lives and our thoughts and that we have such a great and
glorious saviour who has taken our sins unto himself, has carried
them and has taken them away. They've been put upon him, imputed
to him. and in exchange, and what an
exchange it is, to think that for our sin, they were taken
away through the Saviour's great and glorious death upon the cross
at Calvary, and in exchange, and what an exchange, to receive
His righteousness. And you see, with that righteousness,
the blessing is that we shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. We won't be lacking. We will
have the wedding garment, that which has been given to us, that
which is acceptable to God the Father, and therefore may we
all be concerned to have the wonderful evidence that as this
chapter so clearly speaks to us, we have the blessing of being
able to believe the truth of God, and that truth of God as
it concerns the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have these words before
us tonight, and let us ponder them. They're not long, are they?
It's not a long piece tonight, but it's something to meditate
upon. You see, we don't want to just
come and hear what the preacher says and then go home and forget
all about it. Well, there's not a lot to forget
tonight, is there? But what a blessing if the Word
of God is applied to our hearts and we realise the necessity,
the absolute necessity, of not being satisfied with our righteousness,
however good, however prairie may be of it, but to cast it
all away and to depend upon what Christ has done. For I say unto
you, that except your righteousness should exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Well, may we all be found entering
into the kingdom of heaven and gloriously blessed with that
heavenly dress, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.