Well, we're coming back to Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 5. This is the fifth message in
chapter 5, which is the Sermon on the Mount. We've seen already
that Jesus is teaching his disciples about the people who are blessed
by God, a people that is blessed by God with salvation from sin,
a people that is given a new life from on high, regeneration,
a new life, a new heart, as Ezekiel prophesied, when God said, a
new heart also will I give unto you, his people, a new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And Jesus says that
those who are blessed by God manifest certain characteristics. It's not that they manifest the
characteristics and so therefore God blesses them. It's exactly
the opposite way around. The blessing of God comes first
and then they manifest a poverty of spirit regarding spiritual
things for they have no spiritual resources of their own. They
have no spiritual currency. Oh, he's a good person. He can
come before God. No, he can't. None. Who's righteous? None. There is none righteous. No,
not one. Poorness of spirit is that realization
of what we are before God. There is a mourning over sin
in those that are blessed with this new nature from God. There
is a meekness of spirit as opposed to the self-vaunting spirit of
the world. There's a hungering and a thirsting
after the righteousness of God that we must have, holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. And there's the promise that
they will be filled. There's a spirit of mercy because they
have been shown mercy. There's purity of heart. The
flesh is still sinful, but there is that new man of the Spirit
of God within who is pure in all of his motives. they are
peacemakers, because they are at peace with the living God.
They're persecuted for their position. It's a position that
the world despises, is this truth of the living God. And being
so changed by God, by the blessing of God in salvation, we saw in
verses 13 to 16 that these people are salt and light in this world. Salt in the sense of restraining
putrefaction, you know, it's what you put salt on meat to
preserve it, you put salt on things to stop bacteria growing,
and light in a dark place, light to a godless world. Jesus says
you are those things, don't restrain their work, don't restrain the
saltiness, don't restrain the light from shining, the light
which you are. And this all sounds like pretty
radical new religion, doesn't it? But Jesus says, no it's not,
this isn't a new religion at all. This isn't a new religion
that replaces the Old Testament. Rather, what He came to do was
not to replace the law and the prophets, the Old Testament order,
but to fulfil it perfectly. This is what He came to do. Because
what is the objective of biblical revelation? Is it to tell society
how to live? Not one little bit. Yes it does,
but that isn't its primary purpose. The objective of biblical revelation
is to reveal to the people of God, those chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, it is to reveal to them the truth
of eternal life. It is to reveal eternal life
and entry into the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 20. Except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. The desirable thing is to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. It's about entry into the kingdom
of heaven. What is the passport for entry?
In these days, you travel around the world, if you do, if you
have the resources to do it, and you need a passport for entry
to different countries. And these days, with the coronavirus,
you need a lot more than that. We can't travel to the United
States at the moment. We can't travel to Spain. Aeroplanes
were turned round in mid-flight yesterday. There are all sorts
of places we cannot go. If you go to Australia, you have
to go into quarantine for two weeks now on entry. It's a serious
restriction that has been imposed. But what is a far more concern
is what is the passport for entry into the kingdom of God, into
the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said there in verse 20,
your righteousness, your godliness, your likeness to the standard
of God's purity, it must exceed the very best human standard.
At the time, the very best human standard was that of the scribes
and the Pharisees. They were so good at keeping
the law that Paul the Apostle, who had been Saul the Pharisee,
said when it came to being judged against the law, nobody could
accuse him of anything. He was blameless, he said. but
we're told that our righteousness must exceed that best human standard. So we might ask, what is the
righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees?
If the righteousness of the Pharisees is inadequate, what level of
righteousness is adequate? What is the standard to be attained?
And so, in verses 21 to 48, the rest of chapter 5, Our Lord teaches a righteousness
which goes way beyond what the strict letter of the law states,
a righteousness that is driven by pure heart motives. It's inner purity that is the
standard of righteousness. that satisfies the requirements
of God. We read them all earlier, when
Stephen read the reading to us, but in verses 21 to 26, the thing
is about killing, the commandment, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
do no murder, as it strictly is. And Jesus says to them, you
haven't kept that commandment if it's just the case that you
haven't gone out and physically killed somebody, no. It's hatred
in the human heart that's at the root of the violence that
leads to murder. It's that hatred within. It's
that seed of it in the core. It's not the actual working out
of it, the fulfillment of it physically. It's the seed of
it in the human heart. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. It's out of that deceitful heart
that the motive to kill comes and finds its outworking in reality,
he says in verses 27 to verse 30 about adultery, there's a
commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not be unfaithful
in marital relationships. But he says, it isn't just about
the fact that you haven't physically gone and committed adultery with
somebody else. It's about the seed of that.
The seed of that is lust in the heart. The seed of that is right
down in the core of the being. That's where the adultery comes
from. That's what is truly the sin
before God. It's that which is in the very
core. He talks in verses 31 and 32 about divorce and says that
because of the hardness of your hearts... There was in the Law
of Moses the stipulation about writing a bill of divorcement.
It wasn't meant to be the case. It wasn't meant to be the case
at all. But there he goes on to point out the truth is that
it's not the actual act of writing the letter of divorcement, the
committing of the divorcement, it's what's in the heart that's
at the root of it. What's at the root of it? Fundamentally,
it's selfishness. Lack of consideration for the
other party. It's selfishness. It's covetousness. It's coveting another woman,
another man. It's that that is at the root
of it. It's that which goes on down in the core of the being.
He then, in verses 33 to 37, talks about oaths, swearing.
I promise you this by such and such a thing. By God's throne
in heaven, or by the Holy Bible, I swear this. What he's talking
about there is he's saying the fact of the matter is the problem
that leads to that sin is the lack of honesty in the heart. Truthfulness in the very core.
Absolute truthfulness. Not even shading an account to
make it look good in your direction. Honesty, absolute objective honesty
in the core. He talks in verses 38 to 42.
about lawful vengeance, an eye for an eye. Somebody takes your
eye out, the law said you can take their eye out. Somebody
knocks your tooth out, the law said you could knock their tooth
out. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, lawful vengeance.
But he says no, the thing that God looks for is compassion and
mercy. Verses 43 to 47. You've heard
that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I
say to you, no. Treat everybody as your neighbor. What fulfills the law of God?
That you treat everybody as you yourself would like to be treated.
And in summary of it all, in verse 48, the summary of it all
is, well, what standard do we have to achieve? What is the
standard that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees? It
is the standard of God himself. Be ye therefore perfect, as your
Father in heaven is perfect. How on earth are we going to
attain to that standard? You see, a lot of people, I don't
know whether they do today, but I always remember people telling
me, when I first professed a form of Christianity, I presume it
was an Arminian Christianity, I think it was at the time, but
people telling me, oh, you don't need to go that far, all you
need to do is the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount
is the thing. That's the whole sum total of
it, boiled down to something that we can all understand and
have a good go at. The Sermon on the Mount is Christianity
that they can support. I ask this, Have they actually
read it? Have they read what we've just
read? If they think it's a standard that they can achieve, have they
read it? Have they? Have they ever looked on anybody
with lust? Have they ever had the merest
thought of hatred towards somebody that if they thought they could
get away with it, they would kill them? Can anyone claim to
have come anywhere near to this standard in the efforts of their
flesh? that they've never been selfish
in any remote, slight way, that they have always been totally
compassionate and caring towards others. that they have never,
ever, ever had an impure thought, that they have always been scrupulously
truthful even to their own hurt. We were watching a message on
Wednesday night and in it I think it was Darwin Pruitt said about
Henry Mahan who used to say that if there was a great big TV screen
on the wall and you could be plugged into it and all of your
thoughts throughout your life would be displayed up there on
this big screen, How many people would volunteer to have their
brains plugged into this screen so that everybody could see everything
you've ever thought? Answer, nobody would, would they?
Because you know the more you examine it, the more we know
what we're like. the more we know what we're like. Who is
sufficiently righteous to be perfect as your Father in heaven
is perfect? Romans 3 verse 10 says, no, not
one. There is non-righteous, no, not
one. Romans 3, 23 says, all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the
heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? In Matthew 19 and verse 24, the
account of the rich young ruler, and he's rich in his own resources,
he's rich in his own law-keeping, he's rich in his standing before
God as he thinks of it, and Jesus puts his finger on the point
and tells him to go and sell all that he has and give to the
poor, but he's a covetous man. And the law forbids covetousness
and he goes away sorrowful. And he says, how hard it is for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, meaning rich in his
own righteous works of the law. How hard it is. It's harder For
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it's harder for one
who is rich in his own self-righteousness to enter the kingdom of heaven
than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
That isn't ever going to happen, is it? A camel is far too big.
How then should a man be just with God? How should a man be
declared perfect with God? How? It's impossible with man,
but Jesus says, in response to the disciples, they said, who
then can be saved? And Jesus says it's impossible
with man, with man's reasoning, with man's efforts, but with
God, all things are possible. So how has anyone, since the
fall in Eden, ever come near to God and been accepted? How? You see, this isn't a standard
that we can keep. It's a standard defined perfectly,
but it isn't a standard we can keep. None of us can. Who can
ever come up to be perfect? How? Let's ask this question.
How has anyone, since the fall in the Garden of Eden, come near
to God and been accepted? They have. They have, people
have and are accepted of God. How? The key is in verses 23
to 26, and that's where I want to focus our thoughts this morning. Therefore if thou bring thy gift
to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against
thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art 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 thee, thou
shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing. In those verses is the key, and
I want to focus on four words, the altar, the brother, the adversary,
and the gift. The altar, first of all, the
altar. You may say, and some would say,
oh, you're over-spiritualizing this. It's just saying have a
really good effort at trying to achieve this. We know you
won't achieve it, but God will pat you on the back and say,
well done, thou good and faithful servant, if you have a good effort.
No, he won't. You have to be absolutely perfect. How are you
going to attain that absolute perfection? We have to look in
here for the key to how sinful man attains the perfection required
by God. We have to look for the answer
to Job's question, how should a man be just with God? How should
the law of God look at us and judge us as righteous in its
eyes. How should we do that? Well,
first of all, the altar. The altar is the place of sacrifice
in the worship of God throughout the Old Testament. The shedding
of blood took place there, of an animal sacrifice for the remission
of sin. And what it was picturing was
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood. The
altar was the place of sacrifice, where blood was shed, for without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. For it is
the shedding of blood, the life is in the blood, the soul that
sins, it shall die, it shall forfeit its life. The life is
in the blood and the life being forfeited In response to the
sin, it's the penalty for the sin, it's the propitiation for
the wrath of God against sin. Propitiation means the soothing,
the taking away. The thing that enables the showing
of mercy because a payment has been made. It's the propitiation
of God's wrath against sin. And only those who came to God
via His altar and His sacrifice that was made there, only those
found peace with God and acceptance with Him. And in the Scriptures,
if you look at altar, you'll find that the very first mention
of an altar was Noah built an altar when he came out of the
ark. when the flood had happened, and he landed on dry land, and
he came out of the ark, and he built an altar. And of the animals
that were there, of some of them, though some went in by sevens,
not just by twos, of some of them, sacrifice was made to God. But surely before then in the
Scriptures, surely Abel, who brought a lamb of the flock to
God, and killed it, And it was a sacrifice. Surely that was
sacrificed on an altar of sorts. Surely Seth, who was the brother
in the righteous line who replaced Abel who was slain by his brother
Cain, surely he sacrificed on an altar. And Enoch who walked
with God, surely him, and I reckon maybe even Adam and Eve. who,
you remember, immediately after the fall, God clothed their nakedness,
not with the leaves of their own sewing together with their
own works, but God clothed them with the skins of an animal whom
he had slain. Surely there was an altar involved
then. And then we read about Abraham
building an altar, and we read about Moses building an altar,
and so it goes on down through all of the tabernacle and temple
worship. And it was not to be the work
of man's hands, it was just to be an earthen altar, or an altar
of stones. But no tool was to be used on
it, because if you used a tool on it, that involved the work
of man's hands. There was to be no work of man's
hands on this. There were to be no steps up
to the altar, that you would use your effort to climb up to
that place, and your effort would add to what went on there. No
steps there. There was to be no nakedness.
The priest had to be completely covered all the way across his
body. And in the Jewish order, There
was only ever one altar in the tabernacle and then later in
the temple. There was only ever one. Every
Jew had to go up to Jerusalem because that's where the place
was of sacrifice. And all other sacrifice was an
abomination to God because it was an alternative to that which
was pictured by the one altar in Jerusalem, which was the one
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sins of Jeroboam was that
for the ten northern tribes, he set up an alternative priesthood. He set up alternative altars.
That was his sin. There was only one, the one in
Jerusalem. There is only one. We have an
altar. Hebrews 13 and verse 10, Paul
writing to them says, we have an altar, whereof they have no
right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Those that carry
on trying to approach a physical altar, they've got no right to
eat at the altar that we as believers have. He's saying we as believers
now. In these last days, in this New
Testament age, we have an altar. Who is the altar of the people
of God? The altar is Christ. Christ himself. He is the altar for his people. He is the place and the person
in whom we find acceptance with God. He is the place where the
wrath of God against our sin is propitiated. He is the one
and no other. He is the altar for his people.
His alone is the acceptable sacrifice. His alone, there's no other.
His alone is the precious blood. His precious blood that speaks
better things than Abel's blood, we read in Hebrews. Why does
the precious blood of Christ speak better things than the
blood of Abel? because it speaks peace, because
it makes peace, because it pays the penalty for the sins of his
people. What does Abel's blood speak?
Abel's blood speaks need for justice, need for revenge, if
you like, need for the shedding of other blood, the need for
justice. Abel's blood cried out of the ground to God that a great
injustice had been done. Christ's blood speaks better
things that the sins of his people have been put away and paid for.
No, Christ is the altar of His people, it's not His cross. that
is the altar of the people of God. We don't worship a cross.
We don't put up a symbol of a cross in here. We don't do that. That's idolatry. We don't wear
crosses round our necks and on jewellery. We don't do it. It's
idolatry. The cross of Jesus Christ was
nothing other than the wooden instrument of Roman torture on
which he died and other criminals died beside him and many others
as well. The cross isn't our altar. The
Christ who died there is our altar, not the communion table. There are churches who regard
communion and the communion table and they go to the extreme of
the mass in the Catholic Church. No, the communion table isn't
our altar. Christ is our altar. The communion
table is a place of remembrance, not of atonement. Does this do
in remembrance of me? We don't crucify again to us
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not altars in churches.
You know there are altars in churches and people have such
spooky ideas about them and such a spirit of reverence around
them. It's just a table. It shouldn't
be there. These are altars in churches.
They're just idolatry. They're just falsehood. They
take your mind away from the truth. The true altar that we
have is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an altar, a place of
acceptance, who is Christ, and whoever puts any other altar
in place of Him is excluded. The altar. How are we going to
get right with God? We come via an altar, which is
Christ. The adversary then. Agree with
your adversary quickly. Who could the adversary be hinting
at, alluding to? Well, of course it could mean
Satan, because Peter says in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, your adversary
the devil. wanders around like a roaring
lion seeking whom he may destroy. Your adversary, the devil, for
sure the devil is against the people of God. He's their adversary.
He is, as Revelation 12 describes him, the accuser of the brethren,
accusing them of being sinners before the throne of God until
he is disarmed by the atonement that Christ has accomplished.
That's what Revelation tells us. He is the accuser of the
brethren. But because we are called to
agree with the adversary here, I think it means take sides with
God in judging your own sin. Agree with God's judgment of
us, that we're altogether corrupt, that we're altogether justly
under His condemnation. that he is, as Jeremiah in Lamentations
says, he, God, has bent his bow like an enemy. He stood with
his right hand as an adversary against his people. to show them
their sin, to show them what they're really like. If I try
to fight that, if I think I can plead my own righteousness before
God, then Romans 3 verse 19 tells me that every mouth will be stopped
before the judgment of God. There will be no, ah, but, but
this, but that, but, but it wasn't really like that. No, every mouth
is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. We
can't fight it. The justice of God is absolutely
true. God as our adversary in judging
us is absolutely right. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Repentance is what He gives. Repentance. A realization of
sinnerhood. You know, there's that hymn,
I quote it again, I quote it almost more than anything else.
A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
It is God who reveals to a man or a woman what we're truly like
before God, as sinners. That God is, in that sense, the
adversary of his people. But in the process, he is making
them those whom he has redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. You
see, if we don't take sides with God, if we don't agree with our
adversary in that sense, he will require, as this says here, every
last penny of just penalty from us ourselves in hell. Agree with
your adversary. And then thirdly, the brother. Whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. First be reconciled
to thy brother, it says. First be reconciled to thy brother. If God in strict justice is our
adversary regarding our sin, then Christ, God in flesh, God
incarnate, Christ is the brother of his people by eternal union. He is, as Proverbs says, Proverbs
18 and verse 24, it says there, there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Surely the Lord Jesus Christ,
our God incarnate, is that friend that sticks closer than a brother. Should we not seek to be reconciled
to our brother? He said in John 15 verse 15,
I call you not servants, but I have called you friends. For
all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known
unto you. And being the friend who is closer
than a brother, listen what the scripture says about him. Hebrews
2 and verse 17, in all things it behoved him, it was necessary
for him, Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be made like unto
his brethren, his brothers. that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. The sin, your sin, my sin, separates
from God. It causes the anger of God, the
just condemnation of God. There is a penalty to pay for
it. that an eternity of hell cannot satisfy. There is no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, it says. That doesn't mean that
God doesn't like executing his justice. It means it doesn't
satisfy his justice. It just goes on and on. But in
Christ, there is reconciliation with God for the sins of the
people. 2 Corinthians 5, 19, not 20.
And then the next verse, 21. But God was in Christ, God was
in Christ, reconciling the world, it means His people in the world,
unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. If their
trespasses are not imputed unto them, then surely they stand
before God perfect. The sins of Judah and Israel
shall be sought for, says Jeremiah 50 verse 20, and they shall not
be found. Why not? For Christ has taken
them away as far as the east is from the west. He's taken
them out of the way. All of the ordinances that are
against his people have been nailed to his cross by his sacrificial
death and by his shed blood. What precious currency is that
in the reckoning of God and the justice of God? What precious,
precious currency is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?
By His death and by His shed blood, He has reconciled His
people to Himself. He's done it. He's accomplished
it. And then fourthly, the gift, the gift. Leave your gift there,
go and be reconciled first, and then come and offer your gift.
And I believe that there is an allusion here to Leviticus 14,
and the first few verses of that, which is specifying the gift
that must be brought for the cleansing of the healed leper. Leprosy was that terrible disease,
it's curable by antibiotics today, but then there were no antibiotics,
and it was a terrible disease that was a numbing disease, and
it meant that the person who was declared a leper, only the
priest could examine and determine whether somebody had leprosy.
And the ones that were lepers were put outside of the camp,
outside of the community, to live on their own, as their bodies
wasted away with this dreadful disease. But it happened that
some were healed. and the priest would be called
for to come and examine, has this man been healed? And if
he had, he had to go to the temple and to the priest, and he had
to offer a gift for cleansing of that which was healed. Leprosy,
of course, is a vivid, vivid picture of sin. Leprosy pictures
sin, the sin that is in all of us. We all, in a way, have leprosy,
in that we have that which leprosy pictures, which is sin. for the
healed leper to be declared clean, a gift of two birds was required. One bird was killed in an earthen
vessel, a large earthen vessel, over running water, and it's
picturing the fact that not one drop of the blood of the bird
should be lost, it must all be caught in the earthen vessel.
And over running water is picturing the Holy Spirit's presence there.
And the other bird that wasn't killed was dipped in the blood
of the one that was killed and released. The picture there,
obviously I'm covering this very quickly, but the picture there
is of Christ. One bird slain for the cleansing
of his people's sin and leprosy, the other released in the good
of that cleansing for the living acceptance of the leper with
God. And so it is with Christ. He
was slain for the sins of his people, but raised to newness
of life, and we now live in him. So that as Paul says, I am crucified
with Christ nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in
me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. That
was picturing Christ and his offering producing that which
cleansed from the sin, from the disease of leprosy. It pictures
Christ and his death cleansing us from the disease of sin which
is in us all. It is a genuine cleansing. It
is a cleansing which is accomplished. It is a cleansing which in the
reckoning of God is absolutely efficacious. It accomplishes
its purpose. That cleansing is complete. If you're standing in Christ,
you stand complete in Him. If you stand in Christ, you stand
righteous before God. You are made the righteousness
of God in Him, because all is accomplished. How is this standard
here of righteousness to be achieved, it is in Christ who has accomplished
it. And it's apprehended, it's grasped hold of, how? By faith. By faith. By faith. How are you,
how am I, who are sinners, how are we going to be reconciled
to God who is perfect in holiness? Be ye perfect as your Father
in heaven is perfect. We can never attain it by our
own works. We can never attain this. You
remember that big screen that Henry talked about? You think
about the thoughts of the last 24 hours. Do you want anybody
else to see any of them? Even your nearest and dearest,
you don't want them to see it, do you? We can never attain to
the required holiness by our works. Our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. It can only be by the reconciliation
that God has made in Christ, by the particular redemption
that He has accomplished. That's how it's made. And how
do we take it to ourselves? How do we apprehend it? It is
by faith. by faith in all that he is, in
all that he has done. That's how the righteous requirements
of the law are fulfilled. What's the conclusion of all
of this? What's the conclusion of it? Ecclesiastes chapter 12
verse 13 says this, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
It's the end of Ecclesiastes. Let's hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this
is the whole duty of man. Isn't that telling us that we've
got to achieve this standard in our own strength? Not a bit.
What is it telling us? John chapter 6, verses 28 and
29, they ask Jesus, what shall we do that we might work the
works of God? What are the commandments that
we've got to keep? What are the commandments that we've got to
keep? Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of
God. This is the work you need to
do, which is the work that God commands you to do. that you
believe on Him whom He has sent. For as Jesus said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you. Can you hear this? This is the
Amen. Verily, verily, the Amen, the
Amen speaking. In Revelation, He calls Himself
the Amen. The Amen, the Word of God is
speaking. He says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have everlasting life. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have the passport to enter the kingdom of heaven. Believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are made the righteousness of
God in Him. And being made the righteousness
of God in Him, we are made perfect, even as our Father in heaven
is perfect. Amen.