If you would this morning turn
with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. I'd have you give
your attention to verse 20. Matthew chapter 5 verse 20. Now here our Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking to His disciples. And He says these words, For
I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
case, no way, no shape, no form, enter into the kingdom of heaven. Serious, serious words. In order to be saved, redeemed,
brought back into fellowship with God Almighty, God requires
perfect righteousness. So with that said, it's absolutely
impossible for a man or woman to be saved without a divine
intervention from God Almighty. Why? Because man in his best
state, in God's sight, is altogether vanity. Man by nature is vain. He's self-centered. He's self-righteous. And Scripture is plain. It's
clear. It's simple concerning these
things. It says this so plainly, "...there
is none that doeth good, no, not one." It's as though the
writer says, if you didn't hear me the first time, there's none
that doeth good. Let me reiterate, no, not one. What about righteousness? He
said there's none righteous, no, not one. Not a single person, not a single
man or woman born of woman since the fall of Adam has ever been
righteous. How can they then be saved? Well,
if you go through the Bible, you'll find that God revealed
this truth to the best men who ever lived. God declared that
Job, you remember Job. Job went through so much. He
lost all of his children, lost everything he had. But God said
of Job that he was a godly man who hated sin and shunned evil. But do you know what Job said
about himself? He said, I abhor myself. I repent of my sins in sackcloth
and ashes. Now that word abhor means detest. He said, I detest myself. I hate
myself. I despise myself. I regard myself
with disgust because of what I am by nature, birth, and practice. Isaiah, a prophet of God, a man
who was allowed to see the Lord as no other had ever seen him.
He saw him high and lifted up, according to Isaiah chapter 6. He saw him lifted up in all his
glory. And you know what the first words
out of his mouth was? Woe is me. Woe is me." Isaiah
went on to confess that he was undone. He said, I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean lips and
everyone around me is in the same condition. Beloved, when
we by God's grace see God as He really is, In that same chapter
it said that the angels sung, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty, the Lord of hosts. And then Isaiah said, I'm in
trouble. I'm undone. I'm cut off. Woe
is me. And friends, we're cut off. For
God can have nothing to do with sin. The Scripture says He's
angry with the wicked every day. We're undone. We're unclean. And we're in serious trouble
when it comes to stand before God with any righteousness of
our own. Big trouble. Now, I see men and
women in this life who have great abundance. And it seems that
they live as though they're never going to die. But they will.
And when they do, oh my, oh my, they'll face the terrible wrath
and judgment of God. Isaiah saw his condition and
he cried, woe is me. What about David? David a man
who is said to be a man after God's own heart the sweet psalmist
of Israel He's called the shepherd boy who became a king who slayed
the giant Goliath who was loved by his people a man highly Exalted
and used of God, you know what he said over and over and over
and over again He said my sin is ever before me No matter what
I do, no matter where I go, I'm always conscious of my sin. It's
always before me. Friends, has God shown you that
your sin is always before you? It's ever before you? Paul the
Apostle, he wrote more than two-thirds of the New Testament Scriptures.
A man who was tall of God, as a man who saw the Lord as one
out of due time, he said, you know what he said concerning
himself? Oh, wretched man that I am. I'm a wretched man. Now men will say today, oh wretched
man I was. Very few will say, oh, wretched
man, than I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Now, what our Lord is saying
is this. Pay very close attention. The
holiness and righteousness that God requires in order of any
of us to enter into the kingdom of God, in order to be saved,
redeemed, to enter into heaven is absolutely an utterly as impossible
in and of ourselves as a leopard changing his own spots. Matter
of fact, Jeremiah asked that question. Can a leopard change
his spots? When it comes to righteousness,
friends, you and I cannot produce it. We can't. We can't. God Almighty
says, can you also do good that are accustomed to doing evil?
Can you be righteous and holy when you're nothing but self-righteous
and unholy? Are we going to pick ourselves
up by our bootstraps? Are we going to do something
that causes us to merit it before God Almighty? No. No. So the question is, where will
sinners find help? This thing we call the gospel,
it means good news. Give me some good news. Where
is a sinner like me to find the righteousness, that perfect righteousness
that God requires? Is there righteousness anywhere
with which God will be pleased? Is there a righteousness which
God will accept? Yes, there is. And that's the
gospel. That's the good news. Now I pray that God would enable
you to see and know this. That righteousness is not found
in church. Your pastor, I don't care how
great of a man you may think he is, he cannot give it to you. Your religion, your works, your
decision, your will, your baptism will not accomplish it. Nothing you can do in and of
yourself. The righteousness which God is
pleased with and joyfully accepts is in a person. And that person
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the righteousness
of God in Christ. That should be our first clue.
The righteousness of God, where? In Him, in Christ. This righteousness,
it far exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. It far exceeds
the best, most moral men and women in the world. Now, I'm
trying to communicate this blessed truth to you. You know, that's
what preaching is. It's communicating. That's what
I'm endeavoring to do. Communicate to you. I want you
to understand what I'm saying. And I tell you this, I know this
much, I dare not to try to use enticing words of man's wisdom.
That won't get it done, and my prayer and heart's desire is
that God might speak to you, not in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God. That's what it takes. Oh, I said
and listened and listened and listened, and one day, in power,
God opened my eyes, my ears, and my heart, and I heard. That's
what I needed, a divine intervention from God. Oh, there's men and
women everywhere that have a zeal for God. Oh, I tell you, zeal
puts me to shame. They have plenty of enthusiasm.
Some a little too much. But no knowledge. No knowledge. They're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. That's what the Scriptures say.
Anyone who thinks, endeavors, or tries to appease God by establishing
their own righteousness are ignorant of God's righteousness. Ignorant
because the only way a man or woman's righteousness can be
obtained is by submitting themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Who is the righteousness of God? We've already established that.
Christ is. So you must submit yourself to
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's scripture.
Let me read to you Romans chapter 10 verse 3. It says, For they,
speaking of the Jews who refused to bow to Christ, being ignorant
of God's righteousness. and going about to establish
their own righteousness. How? By works, by keeping the
law, by not doing this, by doing that, by drinking this, not drinking
that, by observing this day, and not observing this day. Oh, what bondage! They're going about to establish
their own righteousness and they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. There's only one righteousness.
There's only one. This is the righteousness that
you and I must have in order to be saved. So are you interested
in this righteousness? Let's read our text again. Matthew
5 verse 20, Our Lord said 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. Now if our
righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees,
I think we should first ask ourselves, who are the scribes and the Pharisees?
If my righteousness must exceed theirs, then I need to know a
little about them. Well, the scribes were the biblical
scholars of our Lord's day. Their job consisted of writing
and expounding the scriptures and the law. They had the responsibility
of transcribing, translating, and teaching God's holy word.
Moral men, dedicated men, faithful men in what they did. And then
the Pharisees. As you know, they were the most
strict group of the Jews, especially concerning outward morality and
religion and personal piety. And notice I said personal piety. Their spirituality was personal
and not of God. And on this day, in the passage
before us, the Lord Jesus Christ looked at these unlearned, poor,
humble, uneducated followers of whom He chose and He loved,
and He said, if your holiness and your righteousness does not
exceed that of these scholars and these outwardly moral men,
You're not going to make it into the Kingdom of God. You're not
going to make it. But what a surprise that must
have been to them. I'm sure they thought to themselves,
how can my righteousness exceed theirs? Why they're so pious,
they're so holy. They walk through the streets
in their religious garbs and their robes are stuffed full
of prayers. Outward. an outward righteousness. Beloved, your righteousness can't
exceed theirs unless the righteousness of Christ becomes yours. The
Pharisees and the scribes were obviously, obviously they were
outwardly moral men. So we conclude that there is
not one person on this earth, even the best, the most devout,
the most religious man or woman who has the righteousness needed
in themselves to enter the kingdom of God. Here we have what men
would call the best of men. And our Lord said, unless your
righteousness exceeds theirs, you'll never enter into the kingdom
of God. So again, we ask, who then can
be saved? Well, with men, it's impossible.
That's the first thing we need to understand. And oh, I wish
people would read their Bible. It seems like there's a church
on every corner that somehow or another thinks they can obtain
salvation by doing something. You can't do it. You cannot do
it. With men it's impossible. Now
listen, I say this as simply as I know how. There's no salvation
with men. There's no salvation in doing. Men cannot establish their own
righteousness because man lost his righteousness and his ability
in Adam to perform or do anything that would establish our merit,
our work, anything to please God. I've heard it said, if you're
wrong about the fall, then you're wrong about it all. We have to
understand what happened when Adam sinned and transgressed
against God. God said, in the day you eat
of this fruit, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt surely die. And he did. He died. He lived
930 years, but he died spiritually and he lost his righteousness. And every man and woman born
since then has no righteousness in themselves. When our Lord
speaks of righteousness, He's speaking of an inward perfection. Not an outward. Inward. An inward
righteousness and holiness. Let me show you that. Look at
the very next verse. In Matthew 5. Our Lord says, You've heard that
it was said of them of old, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. You've heard
it said. That's part of the law. But notice
verse 22. He said, But I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger
of the judgment. Now let me ask you something.
Is anger something that comes from the heart? Well, sure it
is. It comes from the heart. Look
down at verse 27. Again, our Lord says, "...you've
heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit
adultery." That's an outward act. He said, "...but I say unto
you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart." in his heart. This is a heart issue. This is
a heart matter. Lust comes from the heart. And the Lord plainly says, I
say unto you, this is God talking. And He says, if you look at a
woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her.
Where? In your heart. In your heart. It's a matter of the heart. The
scripture says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart, inward thing, heart, was only evil continually. I hear men say ridiculous things
all the time like, well, my Bible doesn't read it that way. Your
Bible don't read it. You do. And you read it with
a wrong, tainted view. Man thinks of himself too highly. Better get in this book and see
what God says about you. The heart is deceitful above
all things. It's desperately wicked. That's
what God says about you. Well, I don't like it. You don't
have to like it. That don't change it. It's true.
This thing of righteousness is a thing of the heart. And we
all by nature have serious heart troubles. Now let's explore that
a little further. I'm not going to keep you much
longer. But turn over a few pages to Matthew chapter 15. Let's
begin in verse 1 and 2. And we'll kind of jump around
here a little bit. But I want to drive this matter
home about this being an issue of the heart. This is a heart
matter. It says in verse 1 of Matthew
chapter 15, Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, the very
same ones that He said, Unless your righteousness exceed theirs,
you're in trouble. They came to him and they said,
the first thing out of their mouth, why do your disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? Well, why? What do you
mean? He said, they wash not their
hands when they eat bread. That's an outward thing, isn't
it? It's always outward things with the scribes and the Pharisees.
It's always outward things with the religious folks of the world.
Do this. Don't do that. But righteousness
is a heart matter. It's something inward. And in
verse 3, our Lord, He puts it right back on them. He does that
a lot in Scripture. They'll ask Him a question. He
said, let me ask you one. And if you answer with one I
ask you, then I'll answer yours. And that's what He did here.
In verse 3, He said, why do you also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition? why they were offended. Now in
verses 4-7, let me paraphrase a little bit for sake of time.
He said, our Lord said, God clearly says, honor your father and your
mother and anyone that denounces or doesn't respect their father
and mother should be killed. That's what the law says. That's
what you live by, the law. And our Lord said, but you weasel
around that by saying that whoever wants to can say to their father
or mother, what I owed you, I have given to God. And that can hardly
be called respecting your parents, He said. You cancel God's command
by your own rules. You're nothing but frauds, he
said. In verse 7, he said, Isaiah's
prophecy, why, you hit the bull's eye, when he said in verse 8,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and they
honoureth me with their lips. But what? Their heart, far from
me. It's a heart matter. Their heart
is far from me. They act like they're worshiping
me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for
teaching whatever suits their fancy. And in verse 10, He called
the multitude and He said unto them, Hear and understand, it's
not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles him, but
that which cometh out of the mouth that defiles the man. That
which comes out of a man's mouth comes from his heart. Our Lord
said in Matthew chapter 12, old generation of vipers, how can
you being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the
heart what the mouth speaketh? Now I want you to pay close attention
to these next verses and I'll wrap this up. Verse 12, still
in Matthew 15. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? And our Lord answered, and He
said, Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. He said, Let them alone. Don't
worry about them. Don't give them a second thought.
They be blind leaders of the blind, and let the blind lead
the blind. Both shall fall into the ditch.
And then Peter, in verse 15, answered and said unto Him, Lord,
declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Peter, are you
also yet without understanding? Let me ask you, is there any
here yet this morning that is still yet without understanding
true righteousness is not an outward act? Haven't we seen
that? Verse 17, Do not ye yet understand
that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly,
and it's cast out into the drop. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart, now notice
this, proceed what? Evil thoughts. murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands? Come on! They defileth not a
man. Now I understand completely that
the gospel is not a popular message. The reason it's not popular among
the majority of people, especially blind leaders that lead the blind,
is that it exalts God alone and it puts man where he belongs
in the dust. That's why men don't like it.
Jeremiah the prophet wrote, as I quoted you earlier, the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? And men don't like that. Well,
I know I'm not what I ought to be, but my heart's not wicked.
God said it is. He said it's desperately wicked.
That's worse than wicked. This is a heart issue and our
hearts are in bad shape. The heart of men and women are
deceitful above all things. There's nothing more deceitful.
That's what that means. Deceitful above all things. They
are desperately wicked. Only God can know our hearts
and to those whom He reveals them to. So has God shown you
your heart? Do you see what it is? Do you
see that there's no righteousness, no holiness in you? God made
man upright. He made Adam righteous and holy.
And Adam walked and talked with God in perfect fellowship. And
then Adam sinned. He broke the one and only commandment
that the Lord God gave him. God gave him one commandment.
He said, you can partake and eat of every tree in this garden
except for this one. Don't eat it, this fruit from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For if you do,
you shall surely die." And as I said, though he lived 930 years
as a representative of the human race, Adam fell and he lost that
righteousness that he was created with. And friends, as our federal
head, he lost his, he lost mine, and he lost yours, and he lost
yours, and he lost yours, and he lost yours. How are we going
to get it back? How are we going to get it back?
Adam became self-righteous. You say, well, what makes you
think that? Well, first of all, he blamed it on the woman. He blamed it on his wife, the
woman she gave. And I did, too. And then he blamed
God. He said, the woman that you gave
me, the woman that you created, The woman that you made for me
and gave to me and told me to love and to care for, she gave
it to me and I was only doing what I thought I should do. Gives
us just a little picture of what we are, doesn't it? And men and
women still hate the God of the Bible today. Adam hated God after
he fell. Oh, I know, I know people, they
love the little Jesus that hangs on the cross that they wear around
their necks and hang on their walls. And they love the God
of their imagination, the one that's willing to save every
man if man would just let him. They love the God that loves
everybody and won't send anybody to hell. They love the little
Jesus that patiently waits and softly and tenderly calling sinners
to come home. Won't you just come home? I know
preachers stand in front of the church and the musicians play
their soft music and they say things like, Jesus wants to save
you, won't you just let him? Let go and let God have his way
in your life. Nonsense! Have we lowered God
to such a pleading beggar? Is that what God has become? I'm telling you, the God of this
Bible is in the heavens and He done whatsoever He pleases. That's the God with whom you've
got to deal with. This is not the God this Bible
declares, and except your righteousness shall exceed the kind of righteousness
you shall in no way enter into the Kingdom of God. God sent
His Son into the world and He lived perfectly righteous before
His Heavenly Father. God made him to be sin for his
chosen elect people. And because he lived in perfect
righteousness upon this earth as our representative and died
under the penalty of God's law as our substitute, the law and
justice of God declare that Gary Borders is righteous! Glenn Hansen
is perfect and holy before God Almighty. Every one of you that
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, it can be said
the same of you. He declares that God hath made
Him Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Now there's a righteousness
that exceeds. The very righteousness of Christ,
His perfect obedience to God as a man has been imputed to
us. That is simply to say His righteousness
has been laid to our account. Just as our sins were laid to
His account, His righteousness has been laid to ours. Christ
died under the wrath of God. The death His people should have
suffered. That's substitution. That's the
gospel. That's the good news for sinners. I make no apology for telling
it to you. It's the only thing that will
give you life. And you can either bow to it or reject it. But I'm going to declare it.
Those in Christ receive the just reward of the law of righteousness.
You know what that is? Eternal life and everlasting
glory. Oh, I can't help but to smile
about that. My Lord did for me what I could
not do. That's the best news I ever heard. And it's all yours. It's all
yours in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we preach Christ and
Him crucified. There is no other message to
preach. You come next week, you're going to hear the same thing.
It may be from a different text. It's going to be the same message.
Christ came into the world to save sinners, and the Apostle
Paul said, of whom I'm chief. And every child of God will tell
you, I'm the chief. I'm the chief. No, I'm the chief. Why? Because God has shown inwardly
what we are. And Christ has inwardly made
us what God requires us to be. That's perfect righteousness.
And it far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.