Matthew 5, I titled the message, Christ the Lawkeeper. The Lawkeeper. Jesus Christ is
the only man who ever kept God's law. How many billions of men
have lived on this earth? And only one, only one kept God's
law. And he kept it perfectly. The Jews accused Christ of destroying
the law, or at least trying to set it aside or lower its standards. Remember when he healed on the
Sabbath day, they got so mad, they were ready to stone him.
When he went to the cornfield on the Sabbath day, the disciples
and himself were hungry. They got so upset, they were
ready to kill him for that. But the fact is the one setting
the law aside and the one who were abusing it were the Pharisees. The very ones who claimed to
keep it were the very ones who were breaking it and destroying
it. But not our Lord. Our Lord loved
God's law. He says over in the psalm, oh
how I love Thy law. God's law. God's law is good. Paul said that. Paul said the
law is good. There's nothing wrong with God's
law. Whatever wrong there is, it's with me. It's not with God's
law. God's law is perfect. God's law
is holy. God's law is good. And our Lord
makes it very clear here in verse 17 that he came Not to destroy, but to fulfill. Not to set aside, not to lessen,
not to lower its standards, but to fulfill them. He says in verse 17, think not. Now he's telling us here how
to think. Think not, that I have come to
destroy the Law or the Prophets." All that they had written, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the Law or the Prophets, their message. I have not come to destroy
but to fulfill. Now the first thing he says here
is, I'm not come, think not that I am come. This implies his pre-existence. I am come. I'm coming to this
world. The son of God has come unto
this world. God has come unto this world
and taken upon him flesh. He speaks here of his deity,
I am come. It also implies his purpose.
I have come to fulfill, to fulfill the law. In one place he said,
I believe it was to John the Baptist, he said, it becomes
us, it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. It's his purpose. He came here
on purpose. And that purpose was to fulfill
God's law, and it was to fulfill God's law on behalf of a people. That's why he came. It is a fact that the Son of
God has come into this world. He gave many infallible proofs
of his deity. They said never a man spake like
this man. This man speaks with authority,
not as the scribes. He healed, he gave the blind
sight. No one ever did that. The deaf,
he gave them their hearing. No one ever did that. He raised
the dead. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
And Lazarus walked out of that grave. He came out of that grave. He gave many proofs that he was
more than just a man, that he is God Almighty in the flesh.
That's who Jesus Christ is. I am come, he says. I am come. And you are to change your way
of thinking of me. I realized this, and I said this
here not too long ago. Before God saved me, all my thoughts
of God were wrong. They were wrong. They were according to my imagination,
not revelation, which we have in his word. Change your way of thinking of
me. I came to fulfill, not to destroy. I came to accomplish. You know, when Moses and Elijah,
they met there on the Mount of Transfiguration, what did they
talk about? What was their discussion? You
know what they discussed? It was about the death he should,
it says accomplish. It didn't talk about the death
he should die, but it's an, death was an accomplishment for the
Lord Jesus Christ. It was an accomplishment. He
accomplished our salvation. He accomplished all righteousness.
He accomplished a way to God for me and you. He accomplished
this by His death, by the shedding of His blood. He accomplished
a way into the veil for sinners like me and you. So he says, change your way of
thinking. I came to fulfill, not to destroy. The disciples one time said,
Lord, they were upset about some men that was there. And they said, you want us to
call fire down out of heaven and burn these guys up? And the Lord said, I didn't come
to destroy men's lives. I came to save them. Our lives
were destroyed in Adam. Adam destroyed my life and I've
destroyed it. Christ came to fulfill, he came
to save. Now he says here that he came
not to destroy the law, not to set it aside or lessen it, but
he came to fulfill. Well, sometimes, listen, sometimes
the law means the moral law, the Ten Commandments, and sometimes
it means the whole Word of God. He did both. He did both. He fulfilled the whole Word of
God, the prophets, and he fulfilled the moral law of God. He did
that himself. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
magnify the law and make it honorable. And he did that by his obedience.
By his obedience. He came to keep every precept
Every type, every picture, everything the law demanded, which you and
I can't even comprehend. We'll see this, Lord willing,
next week when he goes into an interpretation. And there's nobody
who can interpretate the law except the one who gave it. And
we'll see that next week. If you want, go ahead and read
the rest of that chapter this week. But he kept every precept
of the law, every bit of it. He came to keep the moral law.
He loved God. Now listen, Jesus Christ loved
God with all his heart, all his mind, and all his soul. And that's
what the law said to do, to love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, mind, soul, and strength, is to love him. The Lord Jesus
Christ did that. You and I have never done that.
I wish I could love God more than I do, and I ought to love
God more than I do, but I know this, that Jesus Christ, my substitute,
my representative, did. And that is my righteousness.
That's imputed to me. That's imputed to me. He loved his neighbor as himself. No one's ever done that but him. We look now, we know this, we
naturally look after ourselves first. We see to it that our
refrigerator is full first. But the Lord didn't. He looked
after his neighbor first. He loved his neighbor as himself.
He loved God with all his heart. It says in Psalm 40 verse 8,
I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. It's within my heart, he delighted
in it. He delighted in it. Verily I
say unto you, verse 18, truly what I'm telling you is the truth.
Nothing ever came out of his mouth that was not truth. Not just telling the truth, but
it was the embodiment of truth. It's truth. Verily I say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth will pass. You
can mark it down just as sure as it had a beginning, it has
an end. Whatever God marked in time,
I promise you, will have an end. There's a time, it tells us in
Ecclesiastes, there's a time and a purpose for everything
under heaven. Time and a purpose. And he says
here that heaven and earth is going to pass away. When? No
one knows but the Father. No one knows. I believe it's
going to. I believe just as sure as I'm
standing here, someday, sometime in God's time, this earth is
going to pass away. Whatever sin touches must perish. It must perish. One time I was reading the scriptures
and it said the stars and the moon are not pure in his sight.
I thought that must be a prophecy that we was going to land on
the moon. We landed up there, stuck a flag on it, and now the moon's up, purity
aside. Whatever sin touches has to perish.
It has to perish. But he says that not one jot
or one tittle will pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth cannot pass
away till that happens. Can't do it. Not the least part
of the law will be omitted. Not the least part of the law
will be lessened by him. The Pharisees, they would omit
parts of the law for their own benefit. They were accusing him
of it, but they were the ones doing it. Turn over to Mark chapter
7. Look here at verse six, Mark
7, verse six. And he answered and said unto
them, well hath Esaias, or Isaiah, prophesied of you hypocrites.
That's a tough Sunday morning message. As it is written, this
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts far from me.
How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. Listen, for laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men as the washing
of pots and cups and many other such things, like things you
do." This thing of washing of pots and cups and stuff, he said,
you have actually taken the command, the direct command of God, and
you have set that aside just for this washing pots and cups
and commandments of men. Foolishness. Foolishness. And he said to them, full well,
you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own
traditions. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, take care of your mother and father. And whoso
curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say,
if a man shall say to his father or mother, it is Corbin, that
is to say a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by
me, he shall be free." In other words, they were saying that
what I have, the money I have, I have set aside, I have dedicated
it to the temple of God, and this is a way for those rascals
to get more money into the temple. And he said, and what they say
is, Mom, Dad, I can't help you today. I cannot help you, I can't
give to you today because I've dedicated that to God. And Christ
said, that doesn't relieve you from taking care of your mother
and father. But the Pharisees came up with
a way to make more money for the temple themselves. Scoundrels. Flesh merchants. They're flesh
merchants. That's all they were. And you
suffer him no more to do aught for his father or his mother,
making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which you've delivered in many such like things you do." Christ said, I did not come into
this world to destroy the law like you hypocrites have done,
those Pharisees. He said, I came to fulfill every
jot until this is how complete our salvation is. I do not have
to worry. That a commandment is going to
come up. That wasn't kept and I will now be in trouble. No. He kept everyone. He kept them
all. Christ assures us that all the
law will be fulfilled, even, listen, even to the death that
it demands. The soul that sinneth shall what? Surely die. And he died. He didn't try to skirt around
that. He died. The fact that Jesus Christ died
Tells me, now listen, this tells me that he never lowered the
law's demands. If he had lowered the law's demands,
he could have escaped dying. He could have escaped the wrath
of God. But he didn't lower, he met it. He met the standard. Here's God's law, way above us,
way above us. God's law, listen, God's law
is spiritual. See, when they looked at it,
they just looked at some words on a page and said, well, this
is what it says to do. OK, we did that. Then the next
one will be this one says to do. No, you've done none of it
because it's spiritual. You know, Adam only had one command
and he broke the whole law. He broke the whole law because
he broke the very spirit of the law. Paul said this, the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now listen, everyone outside
of Christ will have to deal with God's law. You have to deal with God's law.
The only way that I do not have to deal with God's law is in
Christ because Christ dealt with it in my place. And when the
law looks at me, It sees a new man. It sees that
new man in Christ. And in that new man, there's
no sin. And it sees no sin. But outside of Christ now, outside
of Jesus Christ, everybody's gotta face that law. They gotta
face it. And then he says here, well,
let me go over to Galatians 3, go over to Galatians chapter
3. Let me show you how complete our salvation is and how completely
he fulfilled God's law. Galatians 3 verse 13, Christ
hath redeemed us And he did that by dying for
us. He didn't redeem us with silver and gold. That's what
Peter said. You're not redeemed with silver and gold, a corruptible
thing, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Be made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. I didn't come to destroy the
law, I came to fulfill it, even to the point of dying. The point
of death. And he says here in Matthew 19,
or 519, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments
that is less than it, And shall I teach men so that it doesn't
matter? Like the Pharisees I just read to you. They said, this
don't matter. You know, washing these, having a clean cup right
here is far more important than taking care of mom and dad. That
was what they were saying. That's more important than taking
care of one another. When our Lord healed on a Sabbath
day, they'd be so mad. He said, which is better, to
heal on a Sabbath day or to do good or not? Or not do good. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven. It is serious business teaching the word of God. God
holds me to a higher standard, standing in his pulpit than he
does you. He holds me to a higher standard.
That's what he's saying. Teachers are held to a higher
standard. That's why James said in James 3.1, My brethren, be
not many masters or be not many teachers, knowing that we shall
receive the greater condemnation. We shall be held to a higher
standard. I tell you what, if we really,
really understood this and really grab a hold of what he's, of
what James is saying, you'd have to drag a man into pulpit to
get him to preach and to teach. You wouldn't have all this, let
me, let me do it, let me do it. It's my turn. You wouldn't have
that. You wouldn't have that. You wouldn't
be able to get anybody to even go to a seminary if they had
a real understanding of it. You wouldn't. held to a higher
standard. I'm held to a higher standard for standing here, rightly dividing
the Word of God. And he's saying here, those who
teach men that parts of the law are not that important, how can
any part of the law not be important if the law is spiritual? And
really, really, it's one law. We said, well, there's 10 commandments.
No, it's one. It's one law. It's one law. Break, just break one of them
and you broke all of it. The whole thing's broke. The scribes and the Pharisees
was considered the greatest at that time, but the Lord said,
no, they're not the greatest. They're the least. In fact, they're
not even in the kingdom of heaven. They're not even in it. And then
he comes to here to Verse 20, and let's give attention to this.
For I say unto you, he was speaking to his disciples directly. That
crowd was around there, but he was speaking to his disciples,
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes of Pharisee, you shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Our Lord sets things on their
heads with this statement. The Jews believed that if anyone,
if anyone went to heaven, it would be a Pharisee and a scribe. Hands down. And the Lord says to them, except
your righteousness exceeds And if you and I really understood
and knew the Pharisees at that time, how diligent they were
in trying to keep the law, in trying to keep every precept. And the Lord said their righteousness
is not good enough. It won't get you there. It will not get you there. No one had outward morality than
a Pharisee, but I tell you what, no one was more corrupt inwardly
than a Pharisee. No one. I wrote a verse, let me turn
over to Matthew 23. There it is, I thought I wrote
this down. The Lord looks on the heart.
This is what you're going to see here. The Lord looks on the
heart. We look on the outward, we see what people do outwardly,
but the Lord looks on the heart. He says in Matthew 23, woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides with strain
at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup. See,
they made a big deal out of this outward cleanliness. And of the
platter, but within you're full of extortion and excess. You
extort people for money. Thou blind Pharisees, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees,
and hypocrites, for you are like unto white as sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outwardly." You see the graveyard over here?
They got it decorated with flowers and mowed real nice. They said,
boy, it's a good-looking graveyard, but it's what it is. It's a graveyard.
And that's what you Pharisees are. You're a graveyard. That's
why he's saying you're a graveyard. You indeed appear beautiful outward,
you got that, you have those long flowing robes and the phylacteries,
you know, you just, you look so holy and so sincere, but you're
a bunch of hypocrites. Boy, he was reading them their
rights, wasn't he? But are full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness. It's like they brought that adulterous
woman and cast her down at the Lord's feet. We call her an adultery,
the law says kill her. What do you say? And it's, you know, and the Lord
bent down and wrote on the ground. Didn't answer them a word. And
he said, all right, one, whichever one of you is without sin, go
ahead and pick up a stone now and get it started. And it says
their conscience, you know, one by one being convicted of their
own conscience. I tell you why, they knew they
were guilty of the same stuff inwardly. Did they repent? No. No, but the Lord made... He's God. Standing there, He
made them to understand and know at that time, you're guilty too. You're guilty, you're guilty,
and you're guilty. And they all start slipping out
the back door. They all started walking away one by one. That
crowd started dispersing and where it was just Christ and
that adulterous woman whom he loved and saved. Even so, you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, because
you build the tombs of the prophets, and you garnish the sepulchres
of the righteous. And you say, if we had been in
the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with
them in the blood of the prophets. Yeah, they brag on the dead ones
and shoot the living ones. Wherefore you be witness unto
yourself that you're the children of them which killed the prophets
You're their offspring and you haven't changed Fill up then the measure of your
father you serpents you generation of vipers. How can you escape
the damnation of hell? Now I see that They thought no
one kept the law more strictly and was more righteous than a
Pharisee. And the Lord said, you're the
wickedest people in town. And except your righteousness
exceeds their. How can my righteousness exceed
theirs? Only one way. And that's for
me to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Imputed to me,
laid to me, imparted to me. That's the only way my righteousness
can exceed theirs. This exceeding righteousness
is found in Jesus Christ only. He kept every precept. He said
down to every jot and every tittle. Every day, every period, every
comma. He kept it. I mean, he kept it
that perfectly. What you and I would just can
totally look over, he didn't. He didn't. Look no further than Jesus Christ
for righteousness. God demands it. Jesus Christ
provided it. God provided it in Christ. And
it's ours by faith. It says in Romans 10, 4, for
Jesus Christ is the end of the law. Christ is the goal. That's what that means. When
it says in, Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. The law was never given for me
and you to obtain righteousness by. It was given to expose our
sin and our sinfulness. My righteousness before God is
Jesus Christ. See it? Look no further than
Christ for acceptance. Look no further than Christ for
forgiveness. Look no further than Christ for
pardon. Look no further than Christ for wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Look no further than Christ. In Christ, it is written, you
are complete. You're complete.