If you would, turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Let's read the verses 17 through 20. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For 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. 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.

This is our part of the Sermon on the Mount. In verse one of chapter five, it said that When he was set, his disciples came unto him. He's preaching to his disciples. He's teaching his disciples. Others are around, others here. It says, many are called, but few are chosen. But he had the words that, and he was teaching his disciples. Shall they not all be taught of the Lord?

That's what Isaiah said, or wrote. And he says in verse 17, he said, think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm come to destroy, not to destroy, but to fulfill. Christ told him he didn't come to destroy that law. He come to fulfill it. He was the only one that could do it. Our Lord Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He came here to fulfill the law because we couldn't. We could not fulfill that law. The law says we're guilty. That's what the law tells. The law shows man that he can't be just before God. He can't be holy before a holy God.

He needs another righteousness, and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 1522 tells us, for as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. That's our hope, is to be in Christ, be found in Christ at the end of time, end of judgment. Be found in Christ. James 2 tells us, 2 Tim tells us, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. To be guilty of one, tell a lie, you're guilty of everything.

The Lord told us, on the end of this, he told us in verse 21, he said, he said, you've heard it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. Thou shalt not kill, but to be angry with your brother is the same thing as killing him. He tells us down in verse 27, says, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery and with her already in his heart.

So it's not just the outward appearance, which we'll see in a minute with the Pharisees, the scribes, other That's the religion of this world this day, is to do good. Man can't do good. It's not in our nature. And these things are spiritual. And the Lord knows our heart. And turn a few pages with me to Matthew 15. Verses 18 and 19.

Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. It's not what goes in, it's what comes out of the man that defiles him. For out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornifications, thefts, false witnesses, and blasphemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ had none of those. This was God manifest in the flesh. He had none of those. But we're after our father, Adam, and we need a savior. We need a savior. We have to have somebody stand in our stead.

He tells us in verse 18, he says, not, he says, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot, not one tittle shall pass from the law. All the law will be fulfilled. It will be fulfilled by one man. That man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only way. For man to be just with God is for God. To be the. One being punished and it's taking that on himself.

He was perfect without sin. He was to be a substitute for the guilty. That's why he came. He came here and lived a perfect life for 33 and a half years. raised up, let all men see him, and they accused him of being a blasphemer, put him on a cross, cruelly hung our Lord.

But he did what the Lord willed. It was all what the Lord had determined before. Paul, Peter said that in Acts 2. He said that you men with wicked hands have taken the Lord, put him on the cross, but You did what God had determined to be done. And we have some promises from the Lord. Back in Isaiah 46, 11, he said, I purposed it. I will also do it. He said, in 43, 13 of Isaiah, he said, I will work, and who shall let it? The Lord has purposed it. He's chosen to do it. He's willed to do it. And no man can stop him from it. It will be done.

Everyone that the Lord Jesus Christ came for will be saved, will be saved. There's no doubts. In verse 19, he says, 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 same shall be called great in the kingdom of God. The believer strives to be Christ-like.

We do. We want to live like Christ, but we can't. We still have a sinful nature, and we always will. Our sin is ever before us, but we have an advocate. We have a Savior. Read with me Romans 7. Saul of Tarsus, the Lord saved that Pharisee, made him an apostle by his will. Read a few verses here of what he said after he was converted to the Romans, after the Lord saved him. He said, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal and sold under sin. We were in bondage to our sin.

He said, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that's what I do. That, as sinners, sums us up. And as being saved by Christ, we strive to be like Christ, but that's not what we do. We're just sinners and the Lord knows our frame. Verse 16 says, and if then I do that which I would not, I can sin under the law that is good. The law is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwell within me. We have two men in us.

We have the Lord Jesus Christ if we're saved, if he's revealed himself to us. We have the Lord Jesus Christ in us, but we're still sinners. And we will be till the day we die. But we have a hope to stand in whenever we do. When we pass from this earth, as he said of Lazarus, he sleepeth. If we pass from this earth, and go stand before the judgment, we have a surety to stand in. We have a righteousness that is not our own, but the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2.10 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, unto good works. We're not gonna accomplish them. No matter, we won't too, but we won't. But the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. He did it all. That's why we say Christ is all and in all. We're not what we used to be, but we're not what we wanna be. By no means are we what we wanna be.

And back to our text in verse 20, He tells us about his righteousness. But he says, for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. I wanna talk about, I got three points here. To start with, our righteousness without Christ.

Isaiah 64, 16 says, We're unclean. Everything about us, unclean. We're our best. Our best, our righteousness is filthy rags. It's a stench before God. A stench. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we can't rely on our righteousness. Our righteousness sends us to hell. God's righteousness puts us before a holy God that we will praise for an eternity. And our righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

He's not saying that the scribes and the Pharisees were good, but morally, physically, that's what the people saw. They saw the scribes that were Constantly in the law, writing it down, transferring it, and being the transcribers of it. And the Pharisees that were walking around with their head in the air and their self-righteousness, they saw all that. Matthew 15, he called them hypocrites. Throughout the scriptures, he called them hypocrites. He called them a generation of vipers.

So obviously he's not talking about their righteousness gonna get them anywhere. He's talking about the fact that they have self-righteousness. But ours has to exceed that. That's what Paul said in Romans 10. He said, they have a zeal, but it's not according to knowledge. They have a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge.

They go about to establish their own righteousness. They're doing their own works. The publican and the Pharisee that stood to pray in the temple. The Pharisee stood and praised himself. And the publican begged God for mercy. And after it was said, the Lord said that the Pharisee went away abased. And the publican went away exalted. The publican humiliated himself, brought himself down, humbled himself before God, and God exalted him because of Christ.

That's our only hope, is Christ. Christ is our all in all. And the third point, Christ our righteousness. That's what we need to look at, that's what we focus on. Christ, our righteousness, not look at ourselves. Don't look in us. There's no good in us. The only reason that. We even look to this righteousness is because he gave it to us because he did it for us. He chose to show mercy on some. And we praise him all the day long for it.

Turn with me to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64, verse four. He said, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither have the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoices and worketh righteousness. Those that remember thee in thy ways Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned in those in continuance, and we shall be saved. Thou meetest him that rejoices and worketh righteousness.

God met God. God, the man, God, man, manifest in the flesh, God, the son, and God, the father, and there are one. Romans 10 tells us Christ is the end, in verse four he said, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He gives us that belief. He gives us that desire to seek him, to come to him. He's done it all for us. He's done it all. It's hard to fathom that he would have mercy on a son. What is man that thou thinkest on him?

It's said of Abraham, he believed the Lord and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Nothing in Abraham, Abraham was 75 years old and an adulterer and God called him. But Abraham, he told him about the son, the promised son, Isaac. He believed him. He told him to take that same promised son and sacrifice him. And he believed that the Lord could raise him from the dead. And he took him and did what the Lord told him to. And that was all to show him the sacrifice and the substitute that the Lord Jesus Christ would go through.

God killed his son. He put his son on the cross. He put sin on him that wasn't anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. It was our sins. Our sins put him on the cross. But in him, we can stand before all we got. That's the righteousness we need. Abel. Cain and Abel came to the Lord. Abel brought a sacrifice, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness and the blood. He brought that before the Lord. Cain came bringing the works of his hands, thought he was something. He brought that, but God saw the blood and he did not see Abel. He saw the blood, Abel's sins were hid. In Christ, our sins are hid. We can only look to Christ, his righteousness, what he's done. And if we're in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all that God will see of us.

God put Noah in the ark. He shut the door. And then God pour his wrath out on this world. poured it out on this earth in the form of flooding the world and everyone that was not in that ark. The Lord only saw the ark. Everyone in the ark were hid from God's wrath, hid from God's wrath. That's a picture of us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're hid, hid from the wrath of a holy God. We deserve to have that wrath poured out on us. But in mercy he chose not to pour it out on us. So he chose to pour it out on his son. And that's where we'll stand to see.

Jacob. Jacob stood before Isaac to be blessed. But he couldn't stand there as Jacob. He had to stand there as Esau. A picture of God. And Christ. and our sins, hidden in Him. Hidden in Him. We have to be found. We have to be hid. And it's God's blood, or Christ's blood, our Lord Jesus Christ, what He did. It's His blood that covers our sins. And the Lord said He puts them as far away from the East as from the West. He can't find them. He doesn't look for them. Can't see them. He only sees Christ and His righteousness.

That's the righteousness we need. We need to stand before a holy God. We all will one day. But we need to stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything apart from being in the Lord Jesus Christ, being found in him, anything apart from that will be hell. Will be damnation to us. That's why his name is Jehovah Sidkenu. the Lord, our righteousness. We need the righteousness of the Lord. Without it, we're doomed. We will spend an eternity apart from God. In Christ, we'll spend an eternity praising his name for everything he's done for us. He will put the robe on us. He's done it all. He's made us look to Him if we're looking. He's made us seek Him if we're seeking Him. Make us call Him. I want to read Romans 3. Read some verses there, if you would turn with me. I'll cover some that I've already covered, but that's fine, too. Can't read them often enough. We'll start in verse 19.

Now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. That's what the law says. The law says we're guilty. Guilty, we have no merits to stand on, none whatsoever. Adam disobeyed God, and all of us have done the same thing. Before he chose any of us, we weren't thinking of God. We weren't looking to God. We might have thought we were, if we were in false religion. We might have thought we knew who God was.

But until he opened our eyes, opened our hearts to receive him, that's the only way we know him. It's not that we accept him, we must be accepted of him. He must do the accepting. He must pour it out on us and give us to receive it. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law teaches us that we're sinners, shows us that we can't keep it.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. This righteousness of God without the law is manifest. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. came here, God manifest in the flesh in a human form, came here, walked among us, lived the perfect life. He was witnessed by the law and the prophets. The prophets, they saw the Lord Jesus Christ. His name was Emmanuel, God with us.

Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Everybody talks about having faith. The only faith we need is the faith of Jesus Christ. He's the faithful one. He's the one that's done it all for us. Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

He justifies us, he redeems us. It's by his redemption, by his justification, by him sanctifying us, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. He was our propitiation. He covered us with his blood, and it declares his righteousness, and our sins are remitted, are in remission.

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. All he keeps telling us is to believe. And the only way we'll believe is if he gives us that belief. If he shows us what sinners we are, what a savior he is, the righteousness that he's done, The work he's done, that's the only way that we will see and believe. The only way.

He has to do that work. He has to. He has to do that circumcision of the heart. He has to be the one to do the cutting. But that he might be just and justifier. God. came here as a man. He was a just one. No sin in him. He became sin, or was made sin, taking on our sin and hanging on a cruel cross to shed his blood so that he could be the justifier of us.

Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, by the law of faith, which is Christ Jesus. It's his faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's how we're justified, is by Christ. His work, his faith, everything is of Christ. Is he the God of the Jews only? He is not of the, is he not also the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.

John 3.16 said, for God so loved the world, he was speaking to a Pharisee that thought the Jews were the only ones that would be saved. He told him, he said, Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference. It's the same Lord over all of them. And I'm so thankful that he chose some Gentiles too. Chose some Gentiles too. Rahab, Ruth, others. So glad. Nahum the Syrian. Turn with me to Psalm 32.

Paul wrote of this in Romans referring to it. But I went and read it from where Paul was using it from, and I liked the first two verses here. And the psalmist wrote, behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a convert from a tempest as rivers in a dry place.

I think I wrote down the wrong. I did, and now I don't remember where it was supposed to be. It was that God doesn't impute iniquity to us. And I forgot which, never mind, I'm in Isaiah, no wonder. That's Psalm 32. I wrote down the right thing, I turned to the wrong place. Yes, it's blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

The Lord said we're blessed in him. In him we're blessed. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and whose spirit there is no guile. Our Lord did it all for us. covered our sins, did not impute our iniquities to us, hid them from himself, covered him with his blood.

Back to our text, in closing, he said at the end, he said, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven if your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, They were morally upright. Christ was without sin. Christ is the righteousness I want. Christ is the righteousness we need to look to. The righteousness that is of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll give us that belief if here he is. He'll see to it that our sin is not imputed to us. But if he doesn't, woe on us. We can't enter the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. And that kingdom of heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is it all. He's all in all. Everything was made by him, for him. We don't need to examine ourselves.

We need to look to Christ. Look to Christ. As the serpent, he had to be lifted up. That's where the gospel's at in John 3. Christ had to be lifted up on that cross for the world to see. He had to bear our sins, shed his blood, be put in a grave, and rise from it. And he rose, he is God, manifest in the flesh, lifted himself out of that grave. He is risen. He is risen. If y'all would stand with me and lead us in praise and prayer.