Our chalice is still and fair
shall be. Love will rise to thee. Love to thee. Love to thee. Hold for the wisdom to rightly
divide the word true. I don't want to preach a sermon. Look at Matthew chapter 5 again
with me. The very words of the Lord from
heaven. Let's read verses 17 through
20, which will serve as our text. The Lord Jesus Christ says, Think
not that I am come to destroy the law, I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. Verily I say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the laws, till all be fulfilled. 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. 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. The responsibility of truthfully
and correctly expounding the meaning of one verse in God's
word is too much for me. Or any man for that matter, more
than I can handle. And as I said, sermons are a
dime a dozen. I want to preach a sermon. commandment given to a messenger,
a preacher, minister, to comfort God's people, to teach, to edify,
to exhort, to admonish, to approve, to correct, all of these things
in the course of one sermon. And even the Apostle Paul, with
all of his ability, God-given ability, had to say, Who's sufficient
for this? Who can do this? But the necessity is laid upon them.
Now, when Paul said, if I get pleased men, I should not be
the servant of Christ. You remember that in Galatians
1. In another place, 1 Thessalonians, he said, we speak not as pleasing
men, but God which trieth our hearts. In other words, God is
listening. Paul knew that if he preached
all the counsel of God, and he did, he said, I've not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God. I've kept back nothing
profitable. Not hidden any of God's word
under the false pretense of it being family doctrine, like some
of these cowards say. But Paul knew that if he preached
all the counsel of God, there would be times when he would
be hated and resented by all men. Even professing believers. Even professing believers. In other words, even true believers. Because of fleshly tendencies
and prejudices or preconceived notions that we have been brought
up under. Certain form of style of preaching
or whatever. When we hear something. That
doesn't necessarily jail our preconceived notions we may be
offended at some of God's work we have arrived yet. We know in part we preach in
part. And every, I don't know how often
I look at a passage of scripture that I've already dealt with
before, and I think, and I learn something, I think, boy, I didn't,
I didn't deal with that properly the first time. I got to go back
and correct this. I don't know how many times.
How many times. And it'll keep, we'll keep doing
that all of our days. We'll keep learning. We'll keep learning here a little,
there a little. And so forth, precepts on precepts.
Now, the great issue I stay with me, I gave a lot of time and
thought to this, and it's going to require your thinking cap
more than a spirit of. Of. Study. Prepare your hearts for this
message. The great issue. Or the area that causes more
conflict in the minds and the hearts of believers, it seems,
is concerning the law of God. We will hear all manner of things
concerning the law of God, because now the Scriptures are not confused
or confusing. The problem is in our own understanding.
We are the ones that are confused. As a brother Scott would say,
I don't want to confuse you, but the fact is, we're confused
already. Now, our Lord's words here in
this text. They warned me. When I began
studying this carefully, especially verse nineteen. He's talking
to a teacher. Whoever shall break one of these
least commandments and teach men so. What's the commandment? What's
the least of anything in God's Word? Anything, no matter how
small it may appear to be. Well, I read that and I thought,
wow. Serious consequences of abusing or lightly treating any
part of God's Word, God's law. I'm going to call it from here
on out, law. And this is why, when dealing
with any part of God's Word, we should prayerfully and carefully
study it to show ourselves approved. Scripture said, consider it carefully
and be not rash with thy mouth, the scripture says, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God's
in the heaven. Scripture says also, His eyes
behold, his eyelids try. Have you ever looked at something
like that carefully? That's the sense in what it's
talking about. God's eyes behold, his eyelids try. Children of
men, especially these ministers. Rash, brash, clever, and cocky
preaching is not of God. And I've been guilty. And it's
an abomination to God Almighty. Now, to properly understand any
passage of scripture, you need to basically consider three things.
You know these three things, but I'll refresh your memory. First of all, who's speaking?
Secondly, to whom is he speaking? Who is he writing to? Thirdly,
what is the subject that he's dealing with? OK. But there are
two other things you need to consider. To rightly understand
any portion of God's word. To rightly understand any portion
of God's word. I gave this careful consideration.
Number one. I said my words are spirit and
life. God is spirit, they that worship
him must worship him in spirit. To rightly understand God, you
have to rightly understand the spirit of what God is saying,
right? So, first of all, the primary
application or meaning of a passage is, first of all, spiritual,
right? But there's also a literal or
practical application. OK, that's good. There's a spiritual
application of the word, and there's also. I agree with me
on that. All right. Now, in our text here,
God is talking. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in
human flesh, is talking, he's a lawgiver. He's the one that
gave the law. He ought to know something about
it. He gave it. He knows everything about it.
And if anybody will truly state the proper use of the law. He
will. Now, secondly, who is he talking
to? He's talking to everyone. Everyone without exception, he
says, whosoever here, whosoever, he's talking to all men, all
men. Thirdly, what is his subject?
He's dealing with the law. He's dealing with the law, its
fulfillment. And the danger of falling short
of it for abusing it, treating it lightly, and so forth. Now, this is significant. The holy, righteous, no most
against the law, lawless. In so many words, they accuse
Christ of being a lawless fellow. That's significant in it. Lawless
against the law. He was accused of preaching and
teaching and acting contrary to the law of Moses. And he defended himself. He defended
himself by saying this here in our text, verse seventeen, don't
think I'm come to destroy the law. He heard what the Pharisees
were saying about him. He said, don't think that I'm
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. In other words, he said, I'm
not come to put away the law. And what you do when you destroy
something, you obliterate it, you put it out of the picture.
He didn't do that. He said, I'm not come to put
away, to annul, to repeal or diminish the law. No. He said, I'm come to what? Fulfill it. Fulfill it. Another passage says he will
magnify the law. In other words, he will, when
you magnify something, any of you have magnifying glasses at
home? Some of you have bifocal. It brings the picture larger. It makes it larger so you can
really see what it's all about, right? Christ said he'd magnify
it. Far from repealing it or putting
it away or destroying it, he said, I'm going to make you see
what it's all really about. Magnify it. Show the true meaning
of it. Now the reason they accused him.
Hearing the reason they accused him of being a lawless or a breaker
of the law or going against the law of Moses, because they didn't
understand. Even though they were masters of the law, that's
what he said to Nicodemus. What do you mean you're a teacher,
a master in Israel and you don't understand these things? They didn't understand the law.
That's what Paul said to him in one place. He said, you desire
to be under the law, don't you hear? You must not hear it. Must
not understand, he said, the young Timothy in other places,
they desire to be teachers of law, but they don't understand
what they're trying to teach. They don't even understand. They're
teachers, but they need to be taught. And Christ, they don't understand
its purpose, the purpose of the law, its goal. What is the goal
of the law? What is the purpose of the law?
Anybody give me a verse in Romans 10 that speaks of You'll be able
to easily remember it, 10-4. 10-4. What's the end of the law,
the goal or purpose of the law? Christ bring us to Christ schoolmaster
bring us to Christ and says Christ is in the goal of the law for
righteousness for righteousness that is for justification holiness
make us holy before God accepted before God to everyone that believe
not to work it didn't work if it's a bit right. But believe
it believe it comes to God by Christ. Christ is the goal of
the law for righteousness justification. All right. Now, he says here
in verse seventeen, I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He said, I'm not going to come,
I'm not come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come
to destroy, but to fulfill. And he said, verse eighteen,
Verily I say, truly I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot, that is one crossing of a T and dotting or tittle,
dotting of an I, shall in no wise pass or go unfulfilled from
the law till A. L. L. all be fulfilled." Oh, the magnitude of his work.
My soul. All be fulfilled. Not one jot
or tittle shall pass away till all be fulfilled. By who? By us. We can't keep one jot
or one tittle to perfection by God's demand. By Christ, all
will be fulfilled. All of it. The mosaic You know,
there were times, Rick, there were times when he told you remember
when he healed the leper and he said, Now you go and offer
to the high priest what Moses told you to offer. He did that
more than once. He didn't he didn't go work contrary
to the law of Moses. Like I said, many times he would
say, Now you go offer the sacrifice or whatever. But after he went
to the cross, he put away that then he fulfilled that. That mosaic law, the Levitical
law, priesthood and so forth, the sacrifices, the ceremonial
law, all the sacrifices, and the moral law, the deca-law,
as well-read men like to call it, the moral law, the Ten Commandments,
if you will. He fulfilled all of it, because
what does it demand? The best you can do. Perfection,
he says, you love the Lord God with all your mind, heart, soul,
strength, all every fiber of your being with perfect motive,
perfect heart, perfect, perfect. Can we do that? No. Can he? Could he? Did he? Yes, he did.
He said, oh, I'll fulfill it all for you, for you, for believers. Now, if you preach clearly and
boldly that Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law for every believer,
and there remains nothing for the believer to do in order to
be accepted by God, approved by God, made holy, considered
holy, sanctified, yes, sanctified, set apart, grow in grace and holiness. If
you preach that clearly enough, you, too, will be called an anti-gnomia. Do you remember this article
by Martin Lloyd-Jones in our bulletin not too long ago? Well,
it was back in fresher memory here. He says, if a man preaches
justification by works, nobody will ever raise the question
that they did to Paul. When they said, shall we continue
in saying that grace may ban. If a justification by works,
nobody ever asked that. He said, if he says, if you if
a man preaches, if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing
sins, live a life filled with good work regularly and constantly
until the end, and you will be a Christian and go to heaven
when you die. Nobody will accuse him or accuse that man of preaching
like that and saying, let us continue in saying that grace
may ban. Nobody will accuse him of that. Now listen, but every
preacher who ever preached the gospel has been accused of this. They have all been accused of
antinomianism, being against the law of God, or lawlessness.
Now this is Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, but he
was nevertheless a great preacher and a grace preacher at that. He says, I would say to all preachers,
if you're preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in
this way, then you'd better examine your sermons again. And you'd better make sure you
really are preaching the salvation is proclaimed in the New Testament,
the ungodly, the center to those who are dead and trespasses and
sin to those who are enemies of God. There's a kind of a dangerous
element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation. Well, it started with Christ. Christ came preaching, and they
said, well, you're lawless. You're preaching against the
law of Moses. He said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I came
to fulfill it. But I'm telling you, you can't reach God by doings
of the law. I can't. You can only reach God
through me. That's what he was saying. It's
the law of faith. And then Paul came along and all the rest of
the apostles preaching the same thing. You can't get to God by
the law of Moses. You might as well quit trying.
He doesn't say, break the law. It's OK. You can break the law.
Live like you want to. God's grace will get you there. No,
they're not saying that at all. They're just saying you can't
be justified by the law of Moses. It's impossible. Oh, you're lawless,
you're preaching against the law. No, I'm just telling you
the facts. You can't get there by the law.
The only way you can get there is by Christ keeping that law
for you. You know, you antinomian, do you? Well, so be it. If that's the way you want to
misconstrue what I'm saying, so be it. Now, if men or women
call you that, antinomian, for believing justification by faith
in Christ alone for salvation, so be it. for your insistence
upon salvation being no other way but in Jesus Christ, fulfilling
that law perfectly for you, every jot and tittle. And there remains
nothing for you to do but believe. And if they want to call you
that, fine, as long as they don't call you that because you've
got a licentious or lascivious lifestyle. Now, there's another
thing. That's a whole My dad always
says a horse of a different color, a white horse of a different
color. As long as you're not actually
teaching against the holy law of God or making disparaging
remarks on the law of God, any part of it. Right? All right. As he said there in verse 18,
or verse 19, I'm sorry. In verse nineteen, it's a solemn
warning. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments and teach men so, he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach
them, the law that is, the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. All right? Now, as I started out, I say, as a spiritual and a practical
application, right? spiritual and practical application. Number one, spiritual application
here. The Son of God, Christ Jesus, did not come to free people
from their obligation toward God so they can live careless
and sinful, selfish lives. That's not why he came, to set
people free just to live like they want to. No. No. But he came to free us from the
curse of the law, of not keeping it. Right? He came to free us
from the curse of not keeping that law, which is death, condemnation,
and judgment for disobedience. Our Lord never did or said anything
contrary to the law of God. Never. Never. His delight was
in the law of God. His meat and his drink was righteousness,
holiness. That was his meat and his drink.
He lived off of it. He lived off of it to do the
will of the heavenly Father. Besides, as I said, he was the
one who wrote the law. He was the one who wrote it.
And it's perfect. It's settled forever. And he
came to magnify, show its true meaning, and make it, there's
another verse that says, make it honorable. Honor the law. To show just how glorious the
law really is. And make it honorable. Honor
and fulfill it as a man. To the honor and glory of God,
the way man should. We're meant to glorify God in
our bodies, minds, hearts. Glorify God with every fiber.
That's what men are meant to do, right? And we fall far short
of that in every area. Christ didn't. He honored and
magnified the Lord with the glory of God in every aspect of it—thought,
word, deed, look, walk, talk, perfect. magnified it said you
think this is the law I'm going to show you what keeping the
law really. Loving your neighbor laying down
your life for your neighbor you can say you love him unless you
lay down your life for him you haven't kept that law. Right? Because you'd lay down
your life for yourself. You'd try to save your own life. Try
to save somebody else's expense of your own. That's keeping the
law. See that? And if even hypothetically, if
even Christ had broken one law, the scripture says he'd been
called least in the kingdom of heaven and taught men so. But
no, our text says, whosoever shall do and teach them, the
same shall be called great in the kingdom of God. Who's that talking about? Well,
there's some great people in heaven. No. There's some sinners
saved by grace in heaven and one great man. Right? So one man ever did the law,
Joe, to perfection, right? And taught men so. I mean, taught
them perfect. It's the way I started this sermon
out. Sermon. It's the way I started this out. The Lord God could teach men,
women, and children with a perfect motive to the glory of God. And
a real love and concern for their souls and taught them in perfect
knowledge. Listen to me now. He taught him
with perfect knowledge and wisdom, and he taught him the absolute
and perfect meaning of every word that he said. Absolutely perfect. He said,
Barely, barely, I say unto you, he said that over and over again
about different things. Truly, truly, I say unto you,
who is this? This is the son of God. He's not going to lead you astray.
He's going to tell you what's right. Over and over again he said,
now you hear me. Barely, barely I say unto you, don't do what
they do. Don't do what they do. You do as I say and you do as
I do. So who is the great one in the kingdom of heaven? Christ. He's the only great one in the
kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ. He's the great
one. The great law keeper. The great law giver and the great
law keeper. The great teacher, master, lord and savior. The
only great one. All right? Now that's a spiritual
application of this verse. Right? Whosoever, anybody teaches or anybody breaks
the law of God and teaches men so, he's the least of God. Whoever doesn't teach his men
so, he shall be called great. Who's that talking about? No
doubt about it, he's called great because he kept the law perfectly
and taught men, magnified and honored the law perfectly. Now
practically, did you hear what this says, right? Let's look
at it again, verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of these least commandments and teach men so, He should be called least in
the kingdom of heaven. Now, I've heard and seen preachers
and believers say things that bring reproach upon the holy,
just, and good law of God Almighty. I've heard and seen Believers
and preachers, especially, do things that bring reproach on
the holy, just, and good commandments and law of God, and of sins,
weaker brethren, and so forth. And it's a crying thing. And that's what he's talking
about here, practically. Listen to Arthur Pink here, if
you have any confidence Humanly speaking, any confidence in his
discernment, his scriptural understanding, listen to what he says about
this passage. And this hits me like a ton of
bricks. When a servant of God is expounding consecutively or
going down through verse by verse, any portion of the And in the
course of that exposition, he arrives at a passage dealing
with the law. And now, more than ever, it's
his bound duty to tarry there and press its claims upon his
hearers or readers. Now, such a verse as this one,
which is to be particularly before us, ought indeed to search all
our hearts. Especially those of us who have
been called by the Lord through his service. I've taken at its
surface meaning. Matthew five nineteen. Emphasize
the surface meaning. Practical. That's what we're
dealing with right now. Taking at its surface meaning. It emphasizes
the deep importance of obedience to the divine commandments. The pulpit is chiefly to be blamed
for the sad state of the family. Not only do many supposed as
ministers of Christ themselves break the commandments, but they
publicly teach their hearers to do the same. And this is not
without regard to the least of the divine precepts. Should these lines, or what he's
writing here, he said, should this, should anybody read this,
any such men who are doing this, we trust that it may please the
Lord to use this and convict him then of the enormity of their
sin. Do you take that to mean what
the Lord, what he's saying there? Do you take that to mean that
Whosoever shall break these and teach men that's okay. Isn't that what he's saying there?
Huh? That's what he's saying. That's
what he's saying. That's the practical application
of it. That's serious business. And this is the Lord of Glory
talking here. Now listen very carefully. And
this is the way I started this. Oh, for wisdom to rightly divide
the word of truth. God never repealed his holy law. The scripture says, forever,
O Lord, thy word, thy commandment, thy precepts, call it what you
will, whatever Psalm 119 says. There's seven or eight different
references to the word of God, law, commandments, precepts,
judgment, righteousness, and so forth. It's settled in heaven. It's written. Thus it is written,
so let it be done. It's written. God never repealed
his holy law. Don't let anybody tell you that.
The moral law, the decalogue, the moral law of the Ten Commandments
is still very much enforced. Right? Well, if not, then I can
just go kill or steal or covet or whatever I want to do, right?
Well, no. God never repealed that. He never
took that away. All men are still under the authority
of that law and subject to condemnation for any breach of it, including
believers. But, now listen to this, believers
have been delivered from being under that law as a means of
justification. There's a difference. Believers
are not under that moral law as a means to be accepted by
God. We've got to keep it perfectly.
In fact, that woman told me one time, I don't know much about
the Word of God, but you better keep those Ten Commandments,
you know. Well, it was a time when that was so. When Adam,
Adam, before the Ten Commandments, God said, this do and live. He did and he died, didn't he?
And everybody else? through his lineage. Believers
have been freed from, or delivered from, that law as a means of
justification. They have been freed from the
eternal curse for not keeping it. That's good news. There's therefore now no condemnation
of them which are in Christ Jesus. No death, no judgment, no wrath
of God. for the breaking of the law.
That's good news. We break it every day. Yes, we
do. But now, if a believer lives
in disobedience to that law, he lives in disobedience to that
law, you'll see very quickly whether or not it has any claims
on it. Right? You kill somebody, you're
going to suffer the penalty of broken law. Right? You live in
a a continual state of covetousness and so forth, which is idolatry,
you'll suffer the penalty of living in disobedience to God's
holy law. Do you understand where I'm coming from? They say, what
about sanctification? Is the moral law, I told you
you had to put your thinking caps on tonight, didn't I? Is the moral law our rule of
life then? Is the Ten Commandments our rule
of life? It's like some legalists like
to, well, I was hoping some people might hear this tape, and I didn't
want to use that term. It's already out. The cat's out
of the bag, isn't it? Is the moral law our rule of
life? Telling us what to do, what not
to do, and if we keep it, that's the way, that's what we're to
look to. That's our rule of life. Code of conduct. You know, one
man used that term to me. I don't mean rule of law, I mean
code of conduct. Well, is it? No, that's Phariseeism. Because
that's what the Pharisees tried to do. Right? The law was their
rule of law. Christ wasn't. Was it? Christ said, you seek to fulfill
the law, but you're breaking it and not obeying me. I'm the lawgiver. We're under, but now wait a minute
now. We're under a higher set of rules than that. We're not Pharisees, but we,
buddy, we're Christians. And that goes much higher and
much more binding and demanding than Phariseeism. We're not,
Paul said, it's not as though we're not under law to God, but
we're under law to who? Christ. Isn't it? 1 Corinthians 9, 21. We're not,
it's not as though we're not under law to God, but we're under
law to Christ. Everything, and I've quoted this how many times
now by John Cather. Everything that makes for right
living, Is found in the Ten Commandments? No. No, that's very, very general. Most thou shalt nots, right? Thou shalt nots. Everything that
makes for right living are rules of life. are found in the teachings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the teachings of the Lord
Jesus Christ are our rule of life and code of conduct, right? And that's what we're studying
right now in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount. And
you'll not find a clearer passage in all the scriptures that tells
of the believer's state of his heart, his walk, his life, his
responsibilities, and so forth. That's what we're studying right
now, the Sermon on the Mount. And Christ goes on throughout
this passage. He said, now you've heard it said you've heard it
said by them of old time. But I say. He didn't say that
he say you've heard it said, don't pay attention to that.
I didn't say that, but don't you don't have to do that. Here's
a new set of rules. No. He he magnified that you've
heard it said of them of old time thou shalt not He said,
I say unto you, if you say unto your brother, thou fool, thou
vain fellow, he's killed him. Oh, now, wait a minute. That's a harder law. Keep him.
I've never killed anybody. Not with a gun. But Joe, I sure
wanted to, haven't you? Maybe me. It's not funny, is it? That's
where we are. We're lawbreakers. My soul, the Holy Spirit of God,
help me. Help me. Lord, who then can be
saved? With men it's impossible to be
saved, but with God all things are possible. All right, he took the law one
step further now. You see, he didn't come to put
it away. He took it a step further. Verse
20 now. Now look at this verse. Now I
say unto you, now I've always quoted this verse alone, always
quoted this verse alone, and I've always used it in the spiritual
application of it, and that's the primary use of this verse.
Look at it. I say unto you, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, two
meanings to the passage. Right? Spiritual. Primary application. Christ's
words are spiritual. Turn over to Titus chapter 3
with me. You all know this by heart, but look at it again.
Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. And I wish the whole world could
hear this. This is the gospel in a nutshell.
The imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ is our only entrance
into the kingdom of God. Right? Somebody say amen. The imputed righteousness of
Jesus Christ is our only entrance into the kingdom of God Almighty. We'll not get into God's holy
presence. by the works of the flesh, deeds
of the law, works of the law, works of the flesh, will not
get there unless we have on that wedding garment, which is the
imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, covering atonement, the
blood to cover our sinful souls. Look at Titus chapter 3. There
is a clearer version of the Scriptures in verse 5. It is not by works
of righteousness which we have done. But it's according to His
mercy He saved us. And that mercy is in Christ,
isn't it? By the washing of regeneration. Notice, none of this has anything
to do with us. We're not in the picture. This
is God's work. By the washing of regeneration,
by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He, the Holy Spirit, shed
on us abundantly through or by Jesus Christ our Savior, being
justified by His grace, By works, by grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. Right? It is righteousness,
imputed righteousness. David, a bosom close friend of
God's, what God called him, a man of his own heart. David said,
my mouth will show forth thy righteousness, heaven, thy salvation. He said, I'll make mention of
thy righteousness, thy righteousness. Our tongues should talk of thy
righteousness. He said in verse 2 of Psalm 71, deliver me in
thy righteousness. I'll go in the strength of the
Lord God. I'll make mention of thy righteousness,
thine only. Right? Thine and thine only. When it comes to this thing of
being saved, accepted by God, the only way I'm going to be
saved and accepted is through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Anybody says contrary to that, or even hence anything plus or
minus is not preaching the gospel. Now, look over to Isaiah 45 with
me. Now, look at this verse. This is important. Isaiah 45.
Isaiah 45, verse 24. You ought to memorize this. This is a great verse. This is
the confession of all believers here. I've got to hurry. Verse
24, Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness,
or that name Jehovah Satan, the Lord our righteousness. Surely
one will say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
Even to him that is of Christ shall men come, and all that
are incensed against him shall be ashamed. Or those that don't
bow to, believe in Christ as their only righteousness, they'll
be ashamed. Even though they said they did many wonderful
works, they're going to be ashamed. In the Lord, verse 25, shall
all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. They're glorying
Him. They're going to be justified by Him, and they're going to
glory in Him, not in themselves. Now look down at Isaiah 45a.
Look at there. Where does this righteousness
come from? Drop down, ye heavens from above, and let the skies
pour down righteousness. That's where it comes from, from
above. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above,
John said, John 3. Let the earth open up. Now look
at this. Here we have righteousness imputed and righteousness now
imparted. Let the earth open up and let
them bring forth salvation. Let righteousness spring up. You see that, Henry? He says,
I've created it, but it came down, and what came down and
was bestowed came back up. We're down to the praise and
the glory of God, of righteousness. Now, let's look back at our text
again. All right? Back in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, and I'll hurry. Christ
said, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Unless you have the righteousness
of Christ, you're not going to get to heaven. You know, you
don't have to have that most exceeding, excellent righteousness
of Christ to get there, that imputed righteousness. Now, we
read back in Romans 6 and in Romans 8, it says also, if any
man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Any man be
led of the Spirit, he's a son of God. He's a son of God. And the Spirit leads in the righteousness. Now, in a very practical sense,
there's a righteousness given you imparted to you a new nature. It's not yours, like some of
these fellows would falsely say, you have a righteousness and
you know you have it. What they're saying, you've heard
that personally. What they're saying is you have
something you can boast of before God. It's yours. It's yours.
No, Paul didn't say that, did he? Did he, Roberta, in 1 Corinthians
15, 10? He says, yet not I, didn't he?
He said, I labored more abundantly than them all. Did he stop there?
Was there a period there? No, he didn't even start there,
did he? He said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And the
grace of God which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. And I labored more abundantly
than them all. No, he said, yet not I, it wasn't
me. It's the grace of God that was
with me, for without him I can do nothing. Now, I have a righteousness,
but it's not mine. You want to come up here and
expound on that, John? That's what he's saying. That's
what he, you've got a righteousness, it's the imputed righteousness
of Christ that you're entranced into heaven. But you better have
a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. And what kind of righteousness is that? Merely
outward. Right? Christ quoted it a couple
of times. This people, well did Isaiah
the prophet say, this people draw nearer to me with their
lips when their hearts are far from me. And he said, you scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites, you make clean the outside of the
cup when within you're full of extortion and excess. Isn't it? My son, give me thine heart."
Heart. Pure religion. Pure religion
is heart religion. It starts on the inside. This
type of righteousness starts on the inside. And it's not righteousness,
we're not righteous for righteousness' sake, like the Pharisees, so
they could have something to boast of. They're not religious
for religion's sake, but for God's glory. For God's glory. I hope you understand where I'm
coming from here. Like I said at the start of this message,
hope for wisdom to rightly divide the word of truth. And there's
a primary and a secondary application. The scriptures are bifocal. I've
always heard that all my life, and it's something. Christ spoke
in parables, which were stories that had primary spiritual meaning. There was also some practical
instructions for daily living, right? Right? He taught us not only the true
spiritual meaning of what God says, but he applied it, told
us how to apply it practically, how to live on it, how to walk
accordingly. He was a good, good teacher,
perfect teacher. And he says, whoever breaks one
of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, he's released in the kingdom
of heaven. Whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great, great in the kingdom of heaven. There's a sense in
which those who try to faithfully preach and teach the gospel,
God say unto them, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
But they won't take any credit for it, will they? We just did
what was our reasonable service, what was required of us. And
he says, I say unto you, except your righteousness will exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You're not going
to get into heaven if you're just religious for religious
sake. If you're just pious on the outside and you don't have
a true regenerating work of the Spirit of God on the inside,
you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven either. Is
that right? That's right. We've dealt with
that quite a bit lately, haven't we? We've had to touch on it
in so many passages of Scripture. And I think the Lord has given
us some understanding on these things. One jot or one tittle
shall no wise pastor of the law to all be fulfilled by Christ. By Christ. And, Lord, I want
to fulfill Thy will. The will of God is our sanctification,
right? That's what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians. And I want to live according
to that will, according to his grace and power that he gives
me, his Holy Spirit. All right, Jeanette, come up
here. I want to sing a closing hymn. 321. This old hymn by Charles Tindley is my heart's prayer and desire,
and I want nothing between, no one and nothing between my soul
and the Savior. Stand with me and we'll sing
a couple of verses. Nothing between my soul and the
Savior, God of this world, save dreams. I have renounced all
sinful pleasures. Jesus is mine, there's nothing
between, nothing between my soul and the Savior. Place may be sweet, but these
three paintings are least of his favour. Keep the way clear,
let nothing between. Second is the life. Nothing between,
like worldly pleasure. Habits of life, oh, harmless
they seem. Thus not my heart from Him ever
shepherds. Nothing between my soul and the
Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least
of His favor. If I wait here, let nothing be
true. You're dismissed.