Bring in your Bibles to Matthew
5. I'm not continuing the Sermon on the Mount series this morning
or backing up since we finally got through chapter 5, but several
weeks ago I had brought a message that I titled, Entrance Requirements
to Heaven, you may recall, and it was taken from verses 17 to
21. And in preparation for that message,
I found verse 19 particularly interesting. And so I studied
that particular verse, trying to get a handle on it at some
length. And given the time constraints of the message at that time,
I really didn't cover it quite as extensively as I would have
liked to have. So today I thought I'd take a
few minutes to examine verse 19 and in its context, certainly,
but look at that in particular in greater detail. So accordingly,
based on the text of verse 19, excuse me, I've titled today's
message Least or Great. Least or Great. So look with
me now, Matthew 5. And so that we capture the whole
context here, we'll start back at verse 17 and just read down
through verse 20. Here Christ says, think not that
I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come
to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily, listen to what I
have to say. Verily I say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass one God or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law 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. ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Now, again, it'll help if we'll
consider the background and the context in which Christ is making
these statements here. Specifically, he is confronting
two fallacies that were held by the Pharisees. The first one
being they accused Christ of being a lawbreaker, not because
he broke literally the law of Moses as given to Moses by God,
but rather Because he did not observe all of their rules and
all of their regulations that had been handed down from their
forefathers by tradition and added to the law. And so they
accused him of wanting to destroy God's law. And the second fallacy
was their own abuse of the law by dividing it up into lesser
and greater commandments and therefore lesser or greater sins
before God, at least in their view of things. And so in today's
text, Christ is addressing that particular era, those two fallacies.
And when he came on the scene, he asserted that he was the promised
Messiah, the one who had come to bring an end to the old covenant,
meaning the old covenant as recorded in the Old Testament, the law
of Moses, the Ten Commandments, the moral law, the ceremonial
law. He had come to put an end of
it, but to do so by way of fulfilling it. not by destroying it or by
simply declaring it to be void. So in verse 17, when he says,
think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets, he's
saying your accusations, see, are not so. And he goes on to
tell them that the very reason, the very reason why he came on
the scene, what his mission was on earth, when he says, I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And so don't miss that. That's
important that we reestablish that and that you be attentive
to that, that this important declaration that this is what
he came to do. He came to fulfill the law. The
phrase there, he said the law and the prophets. That was a
common way of referring to all of the Old Testament scriptures.
And Christ is that thread that runs through the entire Old Testament,
all the way from Genesis to Malachi. And that was the main message
of the prophets. They spoke of the promised Messiah
and how he would save sinners based on the very righteousness
spoken of here in the Sermon on the Mount. The righteousness
that is the entrance requirement into heaven. You see the gospel,
the good news of how God saves sinners, it's always been the
same because the God of the gospel, he's the same yesterday, today,
and forever, the scriptures tell us. He changes not. He's immutable. And his gospel changes not. The Old Testament saints, they
look forward to what the promised Messiah would accomplish at the
cross. And the New Testament saints,
they look back to what he did accomplish. And so what we have
is we have all of history, at least history that has any eternal
significance, all converging together some 2000 years ago
there at the cross of Calvary. So when he says he came to fulfill
the law and the prophets, he's saying that he will bring an
end to the old covenant requirements, but he'll do so by satisfying
them. He'll fulfill the law and the
prophets. So, let's think a moment about
what that encompasses when he says, I fulfill the law and the
prophets. Well, for one, he was the fulfillment of what they
had foretold concerning him, concerning who he was, both God
and man, and what he would accomplish in his perfect, sinless obedience,
even all the way to his death on the cross. So, he fulfills,
see, what they, the prophets, Talk concerning him as we heard
this morning in the 10 o'clock hour from the book of Isaiah
Speaking of Christ who's by whose stripes we are healed how he
would see the travail of his soul And then he also see what
the Mosaic law itself particularly all those ceremonial aspects
the the offering of a sacrifice on the altar the shedding of
blood all that they pictured were pertaining to him. They were types and shadows of
Christ. But he not only fulfilled what
was prophesied of him and what was taught by the law in picture
and type, but he also literally fulfilled the law by perfectly
obeying it. That is, not only the letter
of the law, But the spirit of it, as you heard in a subsequent
message, he did get to the heart of the matter. You see, he knew
no sin. His heart, his motives were as
pure as his very actions. He complied completely with all
of the revealed will of God. Now, today we know we're no longer
bound by the law as it was given to Moses. Because Christ did
make an end of that law by satisfying it, by fulfilling it. And we
saw in our study of the rest of chapter 5 that Christ reveals
the extent to which though we too, on this side of the cross,
we must comply with God's revealed will if we're to meet God's holy
requirement for entrance into heaven by our own obedience,
by our own efforts. So just how far must our righteousness
exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? Well, as we've seen
in other messages, Christ summed that up in the last verse of
the chapter in verse 48. He said the righteousness needed
before God is this. He said, based on all I've told
you, be ye therefore what? Perfect. Even as your father,
which is in heaven, is perfect. Now, where does that leave us?
We can't do that. I'll tell you where it leaves
us. The price of admission into the kingdom of heaven is far
beyond anything that you or I or any other son or daughter of
Adam could possibly ever pay, has ever paid, ever will pay.
It took the doing and the dying of the God-man to meet that requirement. We need a righteousness that
we cannot produce, and only that which Christ accomplished, which
was finished, will suffice, and it not only will suffice, it
gets the job done. Christ alone is able, and he
did produce the one righteousness that exceeds, because he alone
was perfect. So, moving to verse 19 now, to
rightly understand that, consider it in the context of the preceding
verse. He said he came to fulfill the law, every jot and tittle.
And then he says, whosoever therefore She'll break that word, break
it. It means literally to annul or to set aside. It's like he's
saying, treat it as unnecessary. Whosoever shall treat is unnecessary. One of these least commandments.
And of course, that was their interpretation that it was a
least commandment. We know that God tells us in
James 2, 10, that to break even one point of the law is to be
guilty of all. But he says, whosoever shall
treat as unnecessary, 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.
So what Christ is showing is that what the Pharisees called
least, in other words, what they trivialized concerning the law,
that it would actually condemn them before God and men because
of the strictness of God's law. Parallel to us would be, wait
a minute, you haven't got to do all that. Nobody does that. Nobody is perfect. And so what
the men naturally conclude, so therefore that's not required,
they assume. That's not a requirement. In
other words, since that's not, no, you just have to, fill in
the blank, believe except what Jesus did, whatever. And there's a real parallel,
I believe, here in these verses. And when Christ says that he
calls these the least, that these will be called least in the kingdom
of heaven, he's not saying they will reside in the kingdom of
heaven. OK, as if somehow they got into
the kingdom of heaven by the skin of their teeth. But now
they're going to be looked upon or deemed as something less than
than the others held in higher esteem there in heaven. We know
that's not so because there's only one righteousness that meets
the requirement for entrance into heaven. It helps to interpret
that, if you'll remember from earlier messages on the Sermon
on the Mount, we established how the kingdom of God spoken
of here in this sermon, sometimes called the kingdom of heaven,
as it is here, doesn't refer merely to some geographical place,
but it speaks of a dominion or a rule or a reign, what the scripture
calls a reign of grace. Grace reigning how? Through righteousness. The very righteousness that we
must have to enter into heaven. So here Christ is simply saying
that in His government, see, in His reign, in His rule, from
the perspective of His kingdom, whoever believes that anything
less than every jot and tittle, that perfection, that perfect
righteousness, to entertain the idea that anything else will
suffice or that something other than or in addition to that is
needed in the realm of His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, He looks
at that as being, listen, among the worst, the least. I want
to repeat that. Whosoever believes in anything
less than that perfect righteousness, perfection, whoever thinks that
will suffice, he says that one he looks at as being among the
worst, the least. Think of that. We have the example
in Scripture of King David. who committed adultery and then
had Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, killed a murderer. And yet the
Bible says he was a man after God's own heart. Now that doesn't
condone David's sin. But here is David, a man after
God's own heart, blessed to not have sin imputed to him, the
Scripture tells us. And he's saying, and I really
do believe that's what this passage is getting at, he's saying that
In the kingdom of heaven, in that perspective of things, it
is worse to approach God for acceptance based upon some idea
that something other than, less than, in addition to, that one
righteousness is the worst. It is the least. And to any of
you who have been so convinced, you know that from experience.
The thing you're most shameful of, we should be shameful of
all of our sins. We should repent from all of our sins. But the
thing that we're brought to repentance by that God-given gift of repentance
is not before men. Men don't have any problem with
us trying to approach God based on some condition we meet. But
instead, what we really repent of, we're brought to miraculously. is the idea that I had the audacity
to approach a holy God based on something that proceeded from
me in contrast to the very mission that Christ came here to accomplish.
And listen, that's what we all initially do. We all initially
approach God that same shameful way. We dare to stack up something
that we do or that we imagine that we're unable to do, whether
it's our faith, our decision, to accept Jesus, to invite Him
in our life, our baptism, just fill in the blank. Whatever it
is, we dare to put it in a place of rivalry or at least bring
it up with an equal level with what Christ did as if it's complementary
to the work of the God-man. What He, in fact, did do in this
life, in His life and His death on the cross, And to persist
there, we know from this scripture, it doesn't get any worse in God's
eyes from the perspective of his kingdom. Now, I believe there
when he says that he refers to those who break one of these
least commandments, but adds, he says, and teach men so. I think it's a mistake if we
think that lets non-teachers, so to speak, off the hook. as
if it doesn't apply to us if we're not formally standing up
in front of others preaching or teaching in the strictest
sense of the word. Think of it this way. All of
us identify with some doctrine. That is, we have some idea, some
thought of how we can be accepted before a holy God about life
after this life, life after death. It may be a doctrine of indifference,
or we may belong to a particular church, our religious denomination. But we believe something. And
by identifying with that idea, that belief, and those who know
us, even if we're not very religious, those who know us, they have
an idea of what we think about things, if they know us well.
But in identifying with this group, this religious group,
just as I identify with the message that is taught here at this church,
with this group's doctrine, with our teachings here, Whether we
personally stand up, say, before a group to formally teach or
preach or not, our identification with that idea or with that group
in itself serves as a testimony to others that this is what I
believe. If nothing else, it serves as
testimony to those very closest to us, even if we're a very private
person. Our children, our parents, our siblings, they have an idea
of what we think. Thereby, we promote what is taught,
and in essence, that too is considered, I think, a form of teaching them
what we believe. We stand for it, see? And I believe
that's the proper way to understand this. Now, in his day, I think
directly, he is dealing with these Pharisees and scribes who
certainly did teach others in a more formal fashion. Well,
that's not a problem. It's not a problem to teach or
preach. You're not going to get yourself off the hook that way.
by refusing to, but if those teachings, he's saying, if they
identify with breaking, the setting aside, the considering unnecessary,
those least commandments, then they serve as a testimony, see,
that something less than, something other than, or something in addition
to that one righteousness, that Christ alone finished and established
in perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. It testifies
that we think that will somehow cut the mustard. It'll get us
into heaven. And like the Pharisees, that teaches, see, that the perfection
that Christ summed up chapter five with, that it's really not
required to satisfy a holy God. And in such a case, this verse
is telling us that Christ looks at that and those of like mind
In the perspective of the kingdom of heaven, it's not looked at
with favor. In his realm, it is considered
the least. Well, if you look at the end
of verse 19 in Matthew 5, keeping in mind the context, Christ has
said that fulfilling this law, just before this, he said, fulfilling
this law, every jot and tittle is what who came to do. It's
what he said he came to do. Thinking of it that way, we can
properly, I think, understand when he says, but whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven, that he's speaking of himself. He's the only one
in his humanity being made under the law to ever render perfect
continual obedience outwardly in action and in the heart. to
all of the revealed will of God. Will any sinner who truly becomes
convinced by God's Spirit that nothing but the blood, as we
sing, nothing but the blood of Jesus, what can wash away my
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole
again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That is his finished
work, his death, that which he accomplished in his doing and
dying. If we, more than just parroting those words in the
old familiar hymn, if we truly are convinced of that, that there's
no contribution, that when we say nothing, we mean nothing,
no contribution whatsoever from the sinner, then they find that
there's nothing that he or she can do to, quote, get themselves
saved, so to speak. And if and when that happens,
and only then does a sinner really come and approach God empty handed,
left with nothing, nothing to plead but mercy. Now, on that
note, the mercy that a true believer pleads for, that's not to be
confused with what we normally think of when we say mercy. We
talk about someone throwing themselves at the mercy of the court. What
we mean is he's saying, Judge, I know I'm guilty, but I'm just
I'm throwing myself at your mercy. Let me off. Just forget my guilt
and be lenient on me. Now, you see, mercy means unmerited
favor. That is, it's unmerited or it's
unearned by the recipient. But the mercy that the Bible
speaks of, it goes far beyond this idea of we'll just set justice
aside, forsake it in order to let the guilty go free. It's
more than just an expression or an act of great compassion,
though it is an act and an expression of great compassion, of unmatched
compassion. But it's more. You see, the penalty
for sin has to be extracted. The Bible tells us God is a merciful,
saving, loving God. But it also says He's a just
God, a just God and the Savior. And as such, his mercy cannot
come at the expense of his justice, because if it did, he'd have
to set it aside. He'd have to stop being just. God would have
to change. He would no longer be immutable.
He would no longer be holy. He would no longer be just. He'd
have to un-God himself to do that. Let me tell you how important
it is, how unbelievably jealous of His attributes, God the Father
is. So much so that Christ had to
come and He had to meet that requirement. What condescension! You see, it is unmerited favor
toward the one who is shown mercy. But make no mistake, it was merited. It was merited by another. And
to think that there's some merit in us is to cast shame and reproach
on that which he came to do. It was merited by none other
than the person and work of Christ, the one the Bible calls our mercy
seat, and his perfect satisfaction to the law and justice of God
that he finished at the cross of Calvary. Now, when you tell
me that, that it's out of my hands, That goes against our
fallen human sinful nature. There's no doubt. We don't like
not controlling our own destiny. You mean to tell me I am totally
at the mercy of a sovereign God who will do as He pleases and
there's nothing about me that would cause God to favor me. Nothing I can change about me
that would cause God to favor me. No response I might make
that may cause God to give to me the blessings that Christ
procured or established for a people. In other words, there's nothing
I can do. You're telling me to be included
in that number. Well, I'll tell you what, we
don't like that message. We can agree with a lot of doctrine,
but naturally it takes a miracle of grace to come to grips with
this. The Bible does tell us so. It doesn't leave us there
without hope. It gives us some precious, valuable insights that
let us identify whether we are among the objects of God's mercy,
if we are among those for whom Christ did this work, for whom
He lived and died. And it tells us first that He
providentially will bring them under the sound of this message,
this gospel, His gospel that's the power of God unto salvation,
Because, Romans 1, 16 and 17, therein is the righteousness
of God is revealed. The good news of how God saves
sinners, see, based solely upon the righteousness of another
being charged, imputed, reckoned to the account of a sinner. And
his word tells us how, says this, it says, how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard? Well, in light of that,
I'm encouraged that everyone hearing this message, this good
news, they're providentially in a good spot. You see, because
that's the message preached here at this church, and I'm, for
one, blessed to have heard it. And I know you are too. And then
if you're brought to the point where God convinces you through
his word, there's nowhere else to turn. Like the disciples,
he said, will you go away soon? They said, where do we go? You
see, God's done something there that causes them to see no hope
anywhere else. When you come to that point where
you need this pure, unadulterated mercy, you need His favor based
upon Christ and the righteousness He established in satisfaction
to God's justice, and that that alone will save you from the
hell that we all deserved in spite of our very best efforts
now, that nothing else will suffice. Nothing else will get the job
done if you're brought there. then hear the good news, fret
no longer. You see, only those for whom
Christ died are given the spiritual life, the life which He merited,
He bought for them with His life and death. Only they are given
life that will cause them to continually look to Him alone,
exclusively, with no contribution from themselves, for all of their
salvation. How can we know that is such
a sure and certain evidence? If we believe the scriptures,
we know that we all come into this world as spiritually dead
sinners. And void, that means void of
spiritual senses. Consider a corpse laying down
in a casket. When a person dies, that body
is just a shell. The physical senses, they no
longer operate. They don't see anything. They
don't hear anything. There's just nothing left functioning
in that dead body. There's no life. And similarly,
until God gives spiritual life, that's why the scripture uses
the terminology born again. Until they're given spiritual
life, none of us have spiritual senses. The Bible says he quickens,
he gives life to those who like all men come into this world
dead in their trespasses and sin, physically walking, but
spiritually dead. You may recall that when Christ
was asked by his disciples why he chose to speak in parables,
he said, because seeing they don't see. He's speaking of those
who hear him. He said, they have physical eyes,
but they can't see spiritually. He said, in hearing they don't
hear. But he went on and he told his disciples, he said, you're
blessed because you've been given spiritual senses. I ask to see, ears to hear, hearts
and minds to understand. I'm sorry. It's just been impressed
upon me this morning, really, from the 10 o'clock hour to even
now. That's what worship's really
about. Think about the blessing that you based on no reason found
within you have been so blessed to have seen and heard. And when
that takes place, you too will rejoice in seeing how God saves
sinners based solely upon the imputation of the righteousness
established by Christ at the cross. You see, that's what it
is to trust in Christ alone for all of your salvation. It's to say that he alone, see,
fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. He dotted every I
and he crossed every T, even the least of these commandments,
that which we might think is not such a big deal. He did them,
but he didn't do those as a private person. He did them as a representative
and a substitute for a people, a people who, because of what
he merited for them, are given spiritual life in each successive
generation that causes them to see their greatness in the kingdom
of heaven, all wrapped up in our great and wonderful Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there's no middle ground
in the realm of His kingdom to persist in relying on anything
short of perfect righteousness. Even if we might think it to
be a trivial matter, like one of these least commandments,
so to speak, it's to be deemed, as we see in this verse, to be
unworthy, the very least, the worst. But all those sinners
who enter, sinners, hear me, sinners, all those sinners who
enter into his kingdom, they shall be made righteous in him,
having what he accomplished charged or imputed to them. And that
is indeed great. So what about you? Seeing the
perspective of the kingdom, what does this standard of judgment
say about you? Are you among the least or are
you among the great? Well, all who are found in him
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.