Matthew 5. There's a verse in Isaiah 42
that reads this way. Let me read it to you. The Lord
is well pleased for His righteousness' sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. But that is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord, that is God, is well
pleased for Jesus Christ's righteousness. His holy life, His righteousness.
He, Christ, will magnify the law and make it honorable. Remember that. Now, here in Matthew
5, that is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing. This is what people call the
Sermon on the Mount. And the Lord is magnifying the
law that is closely examined. When you magnify something, you
blow it up where you can clearly see it, things that you don't
see with the naked eye. And it says He'll make it honorable.
He'll magnify the law and make it honorable. The Lord Jesus
Christ honored God's law unlike man. Man dishonors God's law,
breaks it. The Lord Jesus Christ kept it
perfectly in thought, in word, and in deed, not just in an outward
show like the Pharisees, the scribes, and moral religious
people today. He actually kept the law of God
and made it honorable in His life. I read with me verses 17
through 20. We already looked at them. It
all goes together. The Lord said, Think not that
I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfill. Fulfill. For verily I say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, Or as
we would say, the dotting of an I, crossing of a T, shall
in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. All of
them. 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. Now, I remind you, there is only
one who is called great in the kingdom of heaven. That is the
great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who actually did the
commandments and taught them. I say unto you, verse 20, that
except your righteousness shall exceed, far exceed the righteousness
of scribes and Pharisees. Now, you know the scribes and
Pharisees were those that people thought were the most moral and
upright and religious people of their day. He said, you've
got to be better than that. He said, if not, you shall in
no case, not one person will enter the kingdom of heaven. This is the fundamental issue
of the law. Righteousness. Righteousness. How good, and this is what God's
Word plainly teaches, how good does one have to be to get to
heaven? How good does one have to be
for God to accept them, be pleased with them, let them into His
holy heaven? How good? That's what this book
deals with. This is what Jesus Christ is
teaching us here. How good? As good as God. As holy as God. The Scripture says, The righteous
Lord loveth righteousness, and hateth iniquity, any and all
iniquity. He loveth only righteousness. Turn with me to Acts 17. Acts
17. Go over there. All this is more than doctrine.
Although, you know, doctrine just means teaching. What the
Lord is teaching us here. But this is a matter of life
or death is what it is. Now, remember, I just read to
you where it says the Lord is well pleased for Christ's righteousness. Look at Acts 17, verse 30 and
31. It said the times of ignorance. God winked at, that is, before
the law was given, but now God commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. In other words, the whole world
is going to be judged by the perfect standard. by the
holy life of Jesus Christ. He got to be that good. That's
what he said. He's going to judge the whole
world in righteousness by that man, that righteous man. Now, the Scriptures call him
the holy one of Israel. That is, he was holy for Israel. The holy one of Israel, the righteous,
that righteous man. All that he did, all that he
said, all that he thought, his motive was perfect, his thoughts
were perfect, his speech, his actions, everything he did was
holy and perfect and righteous. What God is teaching us here
is that God is holy. What Christ is teaching us, God
is holy. His law is holy. It demands perfection. People say, you better keep the
Ten Commandments. Well, that's right. If you're
going to be saved by the Ten Commandments, it must be perfect
to be accepted. If you're going to be saved,
you've got to love God with all your heart, all your mind, all
your soul, all your strength, your neighbor as yourself, Never lift up your soul unto
vanity. Never say anything deceitfully. Only praise and thanksgiving.
Every act, every word, every deed for all of your life has
to be absolutely perfect. I'm telling you the truth. That's
the truth of God's Word. This is what Christ said. He's
teaching us. a lesson of the law that it is
perfect, the perfection of it, the holiness of it, the strictness
of it, what it demands, the necessity of keeping it, and the impossibility,
the impossibility, what he showed us, is the impossibility of us
being saved, accepted by God, by keeping the law. And Paul, he chose twelve men. Paul was the last apostle and
the one whom the Lord used the most to write the most Scripture. And Paul expounded on this, especially
in Romans and Galatians, where he said things like this, "...by
the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified against that."
He said things like this, "...if righteousness come by the law,
Christ died in vain. Christ didn't need to die on
Calvary's trail. That's how serious it is. He
said, if you be even circumcised, if you just do one thing to try
to please God, circumcision, Christ profits you nothing. That's how serious it is. And that's why he warned people
like the Galatians. He said, if you desire to be
under the law, You don't hear it. You don't hear it. You don't
hear it. James said, if you offend one
point, you're guilty of it all. You're breaking it all. And so this is, our Lord is magnifying
the law. And he said about some, he said,
Paul warned young Timothy. He said, avoid all these foolish
questions. He said, there are those who
desire to be teachers of the law, think they know the law. Paul knew something about the
law. He was a Pharisee, a devout Pharisee, and studied the law.
And then the Lord revealed Himself to him, revealed the law to him.
And the Lord gave him great, great wisdom concerning God's
Word and the law. And so he wrote extensively about
the law. And he said those that desire
to be teachers of the law and bring people under the law and
try to keep the law to make them feel holy or appear holy, he
said, they don't understand what they're saying or whereof. They
can't prove what they're saying. Not even by the law. Now, before
going further, go with me to Romans 3. Romans 3. Go over there
to Romans 3. As I said, I'd like for this
to come out not as just mere doctrine or teaching, but may we really understand this
one thing. We're not accepted by God. We're not saved by us doing anything. Because it's not good enough.
It never will be. We're saved by Jesus Christ doing it all. Can I put it any plainer than
that? We're not saved by our morality. We're not saved by
our religion. We're not saved by doing the best we can. We're
not saved by our works. We're not saved by anything we
do or don't do. We're saved by the blood. and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. Okay? That's as plain as I can
put it. And here's what Romans 3 says,
verse 20-24, By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified. That means called innocent in
God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's the only thing the law tells us. Verse 19, go back there, whatever
the law says, it says to them under the law that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world may become guilty. The law wasn't
written so you can look at it and say, oh, I did that or I
did that. Then you've missed it. I missed it. Verse 21, but the
righteousness of God. Verse 21, without the law. That
is, without us keeping the law. It's manifest, it's revealed,
it's witnessed even by the law and the prophet. The righteousness
of God is by faith of Jesus Christ. That's not a grammatical error,
of. It doesn't say in Jesus Christ,
it says faith of. And it says that four or five
times in Scripture. Faith of Jesus Christ. That just
shall live by faith. Without faith, It's impossible
to please God. Jesus Christ came down here as
a man and lived as a man by faith. Why did He do that? Show us how?
No, to do it for His people. As a substitute. To do it for
His people. He wasn't doing it for Himself.
He was doing it for His people. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The faithful life. Faithful to
God. Faithful to His law. True to
His law. The faith of Jesus Christ. Read on. Verse 22. And it's unto
all and upon all. Unto. Charged to. Upon all. Imparted to. Imputed to. All
them that believe. Not all human beings, but all
that believe. There's no difference. Jew or
Gentile. Male or female. Black or white. Old or young. Rich or poor. Those
that believe Christ are counted righteous with God. What Jesus
Christ did, He did for all of God's people, and all of them
are justified, verse 24, verse 23, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace,
gifts, righteousness given through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Oh, I had so many more scriptures
than Romans for us to look at. But go back to Matthew 5, all
right? Now, is that clear? I hope it's at least clear in
our minds that it's not what we do, it's what Christ did that
saves us. We look to Him. Verse 21, our
Lord said, now He's going to magnify the law. You've heard
it said by them of old times. Now, who said what he's about
to say? Who said it? He's quoting the law. Who wrote
the law? You say, God did. Yeah, He did,
but Christ is God. He wrote it. God wrote with His
finger on those tables of stone, gave it to Moses. Well, the finger
of God is Jesus Christ. He wrote it. He was with him
in the beginning. He wrote it. It's his law. He's
the one saying that. He's the lawgiver. We can listen
to him. He wrote the book. Or he said,
You've heard it said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill,
and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.
I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause, shall be a danger of judgment. This is how serious this is.
Have you ever offended someone without a cause? Absolutely. Everyone in here has done it.
You may have thought you didn't, didn't know you did, but you
have. We have. And the thing about it is, everything
about us is offensive to God. We've offended God. And James
said this, he said, in many things we offend all. We've all offended
someone at some point. And we have no cause to be angry
if they offend us. We have no cause. Because we
offend God and offend everyone at some point in our life. And
we have much to answer for. We have much to answer for. And so if we're ever angry, really
angry at all, unless it's an absolutely holy and righteous
anger concerning something of the holiness and the glory of
God, it's not a just cause to be angry. He said, be ye angry
and sin not. Can you be angry and not sin?
No, sir. God can. God is angry. But it's a holy anger. Our understanding is so finite.
Our judgment is so fallible. We judge by the sight of the
eyes. We judge by the ear. But we don't have perfect judgment.
We get angry. And most of the time, it's without
a cause. It's not right. And especially,
we don't consider how that we are offensive in every way to
God. That God is angry with the wicked
every day and ought to be angry with us. This is why the Lord
absolutely despises for His children to get put out with one another.
Despises it. And the last thing He says, you'd
better love one another as I've loved you, or you're in danger of the judgment. That's who said that. Anger of
the judgment. Anger without a cause. It doesn't take much, usually,
to make us angry, does it? It's usually without a cause. Read on. He said, Whosoever shall
say to his brother, not talking about your enemy, not talking
about your brother, Rekha, that means vain fellow or you've acted
foolishly. How could he do that? How could
she do that? How could they say that? Usually
it's, to me. How could they do that to me?
Say that to me? Watch out now. Better watch out. You remember
our Lord one time, read on, it says, Whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Hellfire. One time our Lord in
Luke 24, called his disciples fools. Remember that? Luke 24. He said, Oh, fools.
He's the only one that can say that. He's the only one that
can look at his brother or his children, that is, his brother,
and say to them and rebuke them and judge them and say, You've
acted foolishly. You've done wrongly. Look at
you. What have you done? He's the only one that can say
that. We can't. We can't. That's why he says
in Matthew 7, don't judge. You're in danger of judging. Only one with the right to rebuke
and upbraid and get angry and call someone a fool is the Lord
Jesus Christ, because He knows us. He knows all about us. He
knows our hearts. They're full of foolishness. So he called them fools. He tells
us, don't you dare do it. Don't you dare do it, or you're
in danger. Why is that? Because who among
us has not acted the complete fool? And it ain't over yet. It ain't
over yet. One of the most Christ-like men
to ever live. One of the most loveliest men
to ever live. One of the most godly men to
ever live. In his later years, he came before
God and said, I've been a fool. That's the one you need to call
a fool yourself. How serious is it? Our Lord says
you're in danger. and danger, anger, looking down
on everybody. Thank God for the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because who's not guilty of this?
Who's not guilty of this? Starting with me. Look at verse
23. He says, If you bring your gifts
to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath ought against
thee. You better leave your gift before
the altar and go your way and be reconciled to your brother.
Then come and offer that gift or else God's not going to accept
it. In other words, you come to the
church house, you come before God to worship and you've offended
a brother and you're not reconciled to that brother, don't come here
and pretend to worship. He said. God won't hear your prayer. God
won't accept your worship. Don't do it. Drop everything
and be reconciled or else your worship is in vain. It's hypocrisy. Chapter 6, if you forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men your trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses. That's how serious it is. Forgiveness
is as the Lord forgave. He said, forbearing and forgiving
one another as God for Christ's sake forgave you. True forgiveness
is as God forgives. Franklin. It speaks of two men
that owed a great debt, and the Lord frankly forgave them both.
I mean, just shockingly. They didn't deserve it, but He
frankly. You're forgiven. Are you serious? If you owed a great debt and
somebody said, I forgive you, drop it. Really? Amazingly. Frankly. Frankly, true forgiveness is
freely, without condition, without that other person doing something. Not waiting on the person to
do something. Not even waiting on that person to ask forgiveness. We do that with those we love.
I told you about Isabella one time. I caught her. She was writing
in my Bible. She was only about two years
old at the time. And I had my Bible open on the
ottoman there, the stool. And I caught her. She was taking
a pen and she was just writing. She really knew better than that.
But I caught her. And you know, I didn't want her
doing that. She just marred my Bible in two or three places.
I look at it now. I look at it with affection when
I see them. But, you know, I knew what I
was going to do before I dealt with her. I had to deal with
her. I had to tell her. She has to
know what she did was wrong. She has to feel sorry for it.
She's got to understand that what she did was wrong. But I
knew what I was going to do before I dealt with her. I had already
forgiven her. God committeth His love toward
us in that While we were yet sinners. Freely. Without condition. I'd
already forgiven her before she ever asked me for forgiveness.
That's love. If it's a true brother, they're
going to ask you for forgiveness. Freely. Fully. True forgiveness is full forgiveness. Not holding out part of it. Full
forgiveness. Completely. God has, for Christ's
sake, forgiven us all our transgressions. Past, present, and future. As
I said, it's not over yet. We're going to sin against one
another. Love forgives all. And finally,
true forgiveness is final forgiveness. That means you don't bring it
up again. It's over. It's over. Find them. Don't bring it up again. If you
do, you didn't forgive them. You didn't forgive them. How
important is it? Our Lord says, your father won't
forgive you. The thing I need more than anything
from God is forgiveness. Mercy. He said, with the Merciful. I'll show myself merciful. Lord, would You teach me this.
If we judge ourselves, you see, if we judge ourselves. One of
the most striking verses in all of God's Word is this. If we
judge ourselves, we won't be judged. I don't want to be judged. If I'm judged, I'm going to be
found guilty. If I stand before God and I'm
judged by God for what I've done or have not done, I am guilty. I don't want to be judged. He says, and judge yourself.
And if you really judge yourselves, you'll find yourself guilty.
And you'll come before God with a rope around your neck like
those people did the king of Israel that time, begging for
mercy. And I'll tell you what God will
do every time. He'll show mercy. He'll point you to Christ. Well,
here in our text, he said, drop everything, be reconciled, or
you won't be reconciled. God won't be reconciled to you.
Drop it. Verse 25, agree with thine adversary
quickly while thou'st in the way with him. Lest at any time
the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver
thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I
say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou
hast paid the uttermost farthing." What's he talking about? He's
not talking about a civil magistrate or breaking the law. He is talking
about the law. Who is our adversary? The law. The law. Christ is talking about
the law. In Colossians 2, verse 14, it
says, The handwriting of ordinances are against us. Our adversary. Nothing wrong
with the law. Everything wrong with us. The
law is against us. What the law saith. The law is
not made for a righteous man. The law is against us. So what
he says is, agree with your adversary, quickly. What does our adversary,
the law, say? Guilty! Agree with it. When the
Scripture... Don't you... May we dare not
listen to God's Word for somebody else. So-and-so needs to hear. I hope so-and-so is hearing this,
and you've missed it. This is us. Our Lord is not talking
to the general public here. He's talking to His disciples.
He's talking to His disciples here. He said, I say unto you, you, my disciple, agree. When the law says, thou art the
man, say it quickly, I'm the man. Not so and so. That's what Adam and Eve did
in the garden. He blamed everybody but himself. What the law said, he said to
those under the law, guilty. Thou art the man. Say it, truth,
Lord. Be like that woman, that Syrophoenician woman. Truth,
Lord. I'm the man. I'm the man. And
you know what you'll hear from God if you say that? Behold the man who taketh away
the sin of the world. Are you guilty? Yes, I am, Lord,
of all charges. Look. Look at the Lamb of God. And the Lord said, You're not
coming out of jail until all your sins are paid for. You're
not coming out because you've paid the uttermost far of that.
Now, here's the good news. The Lord said Christ is able
to save to the uttermost. The uttermost part of it. He
paid it off. Christ paid it off. So what is our Lord teaching
us? He's teaching us the law is spiritual. The law is perfect. The law demands perfection in
thought, word, and deed. God looks on the heart. But we can't even plead our heart
before God. No, no, no, no. The heart is
deceitful. We can't do that. We can't plead
our heart. God looks on the heart. He sees it all. If anybody in
here says that, who can say they have no sin? We better agree with them. The
Lord is teaching us that murder begins in the heart. not what
goes in the mouth of the fowls, but out of the heart perceive
these things, sin and so forth. The Lord is teaching us murder
is in the heart, anger is in the heart, anger is there, we
are guilty, but if we confess, he will frankly, fully and freely
forgive. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper, but he that confesseth them shall find mercy. The law don't want to go before
God with a lot. It condemns us. We want to go look into Christ
and Him alone.