Turn in the Bibles please to
the passage we read to Matthew chapter 5. I'll read again part
of the chapter from verse 1, Matthew 5 verse 1. And seeing
the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain. And when he
was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth
and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye
are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets. I am 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. And in verse 48, at the end of
the chapter, Christ says, be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. 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. Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Now that's quite an astonishing
command. Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. your righteousness
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees
if you are to enter the kingdom of heaven. You must be perfect. So be perfect. It's astonishing
because how can we possibly attain to such a command, such an instruction. anyone with any understanding
of what they are like by nature anyone whose eyes have been open
to the reality of their state before God even really the most
proud individual would confess that they are not perfect and
those who by the grace of God have had their eyes opened to
see what they are by nature before him as corrupt rebels as fallen
sinners know that they're anything but perfect there's not the slightest
remnant of perfection in them they're filthy therefore how
can they possibly be therefore perfect even as their father
which is in heaven is perfect Really this is a crushing instruction. If we're to hear this and to
think that this in some way instructs us to go off and to be what it
says, to improve ourselves, to live right, to never sin, then we fail at the first step.
Because we know that every day we sin, and every day we're not
perfect, and every day we fail. Every moment, every hour. It will crush us. And we know that our righteousness
does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
Oh yes, their righteousness might have been outward, it might have
been self-righteous. But even so, their keeping of
the law of God and the instructions of God, the sacrifices, the order,
the rituals, their devotion to religion far exceeds that of any other. We cannot even
attain to their righteousness, let alone the soaring perfection
which is instructed at the very end of this chapter. Well, if
we can't begin to attain unto it, what does Christ mean by
instructing his disciples to be perfect? Is he mocking them? Is he telling them simply to
crush them when they have to open up their arms and say, but
Lord, I am a sinner. Be merciful unto me, sinner. Or is he speaking of something
else? Is he telling them to do something? Or is he commanding them to be
in the sense that when he says they are what he says? In the beginning Christ spoke
and the worlds were brought into being. In the beginning God as
Christ said let there be light and there was light. He instructed
nothing to make itself light but he spake and it was. In the
beginning God said let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. Let
the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place
and let the dry land appear. Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heaven to divide the day from the night. Let the waters
bring forth abundantly the moving creature that have life and fowl
that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of the
heaven. Let the earth bring forth every
living creature after his kind cattle and creeping thing and
beasts of the earth after his kind. Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God created he
him. In the beginning Christ spake,
and it was. And in the Gospel when Christ
speaks and says under His disciples, Be ye therefore perfect, they
are perfect. He does not instruct them to
do, but He speaks such that they are. He makes them to be. not in themselves, not in the
old man Adam, not in their flesh, not by their strength, but in
him by grace, by the strength of Christ in the spirit. In Christ his people are perfect. In him their righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees. In themselves,
by nature, they are sinners. But in Christ, washed by his
blood, which he shed for them on the tree, united unto him,
they are perfect. There's a perfection in the gospel. Past understanding. Soaring above anything. which
man could even strive for in this world, soaring above the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, soaring above
all that was instructed of man under the law of Moses, soaring
above anything that man has sought to be in this world. There is
a righteousness of perfection which is as the Father which
is in heaven. The perfection, the righteousness
which the disciples are made to be is not simply the righteousness
of the Lord, the righteousness which the scribes and the Pharisees
sought to attain, but it is the righteousness of God the Father
which is in heaven. Be ye therefore perfect even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. By grace Christ makes
his people perfect he brings in the righteousness of God for
them the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ
when he laid down his life when he suffered at the cross when
he looked to his father as his father poured down the judgment
of God against Christ because of the sins which he bore for
that people because of the sin which he was made to be when
Christ by faith waded through the rivers of death he brought
in the righteousness of God by his faith for that people and
by that righteousness they are perfect as their father is in
heaven. But many will ask you speak of
a righteousness in the gospel You speak of the righteousness
of God by faith of Christ. You say that we cannot be righteous
by the law. You say that there is a righteousness
revealed in the gospel which is above the law, the righteousness
of God, the righteousness of faith. You say that this is ours
and that it is not with regard to law, that we in the gospel
are delivered from the law, from its wrath, from its judgment
and from its rule. But we are still in this world,
we still live as people in this world in our pilgrimage. And we want to know how we live.
Is not righteousness to be described objectively? Is there not a description
of righteousness? Did not the law give us a definition
of righteousness? Did it not tell us what we should
do and what we should not do? Surely we need some objective
description of righteousness by which we can live. You say
we are righteous in Christ, very well. But when I'm faced with
this and that in my life, what do I do? How do I live? How is
righteousness defined? So the questions come. and to
many they can only consider and think of righteousness with regard
to do's and don'ts. With regard to laws, their whole
concept and understanding of righteousness is a set of instructions
of what they must do and what they must not do. So when they come to the gospel
and view righteousness in the gospel, they just bring the law
back into the gospel. They think it's just an extension
of that law. They think all the gospel does
is provide us with the keeping of that law, which we failed
to keep. We were commanded, we failed, but Christ comes in our
place. He performs the commands of that
law. And what he has done is made
to be ours. and in their life they go back
to that law again, even though the gospel says they've been
delivered from it, they go back to that law, and they by their
own efforts attain to keep to it as best they can, and yet
they tell themselves that whenever they fail, whenever they stumble,
that's all right now, I'm no longer under its condemnation,
that's all right because Christ's keeping of the law comes in where
I fail. So it becomes something of a
fusion between what they do and what Christ does. So they've
kept three of the commands today, failed on the other seven, but
Christ kept those other seven for them, so I'm picked up by
his seven. So I'm perfect. Kept all 10.
Tomorrow I keep two of them, Christ kept eight of them, I'm
perfect there. Another day I'll have a wondrous day, I've kept
eight of the commandments. Failed on a couple, but Christ
kept those. And so they, fool themselves that their whole walk
in this life is simply a legal walk according to the law but
one in which they have this safety net underneath them. They never
come under its condemnation because under their understanding wherever
they fail Christ has kept it for them and therefore they are
not condemned. Yet they never get beyond this
idea that righteousness and their walk is according to the law. This is such a terrible and a
low view of righteousness and such a terrible corruption of
the gospel. For Christ did not come simply
to keep what we fail to keep, and simply to patch up our own
righteousness. If the truth be known, we never
keep any of that law. Even on our best days, even if
we may outwardly keep some of its commands, inwardly we've
broken every command every day, we haven't kept any of it. And Christ hasn't simply come
to be our surrogate law keeper in our place. Doing and not doing,
where we fail. He came to do something much
greater. He came to bring in the righteousness
of God. He came to make us perfect as
the Father in heaven is perfect. And in terms of objective righteousness,
we need look no further than Matthew 5 to 7 for something
of an insight into the righteousness of the gospel of evangelical
righteousness. For whereas the legalist considers
righteousness in terms of legal do's and don'ts, Christ in Matthew
five to seven in this discourse commonly called the sermon on
the mount speaks of righteousness and considers righteousness not
in terms of what we do and don't do but primarily in terms of
character it's what we are and what we are made to be in christ
which makes us righteous flowing from such character our deeds,
righteousnesses which we perform but it's the character which
we need and it's the character which is brought in by the gospel
and it's the character which we never had under the law as
sinners. The law told us what we must
be but our hearts were corrupt and flowing from a fallen nature,
an evil character, we could never perform what it demanded. But
Christ in the gospel has not simply brought in a performance
of what the law commanded. He brought in a character which
is put in the hearts of his people by which they are perfect. And flowing from that character,
flowing from that new heart which he puts in his people are deeds which are perfect in
the sight of God. thoughts, intentions, words,
actions which transcend anything that the law commanded. It's
this character common to all children of God
which separates them from the religious in the natural realm. It's this character that gives
them that righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and pharisees that character by which they may enter
into the kingdom of God that character which in its essence
is perfection that makes them perfect as their father which
is in heaven is perfect the law respects conduct do's and don'ts
But the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of God in the
gospel, evangelical righteousness, describes the character of the
believer. And it's this character and righteousness
which is contrasted in these chapters with that righteousness
demanded by the law of Moses. In describing this character
and righteousness, Christ shows us that which rises up above,
soars over the head of, and entirely eclipses the law and its righteousness. He describes grace and its effects. Because grace reigns through
righteousness. And the righteousness of grace
flows from the character of God which is put in the heart of
his people. The Sermon on the Mount is not
a discussion of the law. This is not Christ coming and
reaffirming the commands of the law of Moses. This is not Christ
giving the correct teaching of the law in contrast to the corruption
of the law which had come in by the traditions of man since
its original delivery by Moses. It is not that over hundreds
of years the scribes and pharisees had simply taken that law and
added to it and corrupted it and brought it down to a lower
level and here Christ comes to reaffirm its importance and its
depth and its strength. If that was so, the wording throughout
this chapter would be different. But Christ repetitively contrasts
the law and its commands with what he has to say of evangelical
and gospel righteousness. There's the law. You have heard
what it was said in the law of old time. But I say unto you
in the gospel this. You have heard of old time this,
but I say unto you this. He does not quote what the Pharisees
say. He does not say you've heard
from the Pharisees. But I say unto you, as the law
says, this. If he was reaffirming the law
he would be speaking in that manner. You have heard from your
teachers, you've heard from others, you've heard it said of others,
you've heard it said by the scribes and Pharisees this, but I say
unto you that the law means this. He does not speak in that way
and to claim that he does is to play wild and loose with the
scriptures. Matthew 5, 6 and 7 contrast the
gospel with the law which is why Christ quotes specifically
what the law of God says what the law says not what the pharisees
say it says but what the law originally says and says but
I say unto you he brings in a righteousness an evangelical righteousness
which is contrasted with the command of that law which was
commanded of old time which soars above it so in verse 21 he says
you've heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt
not kill well so it was in the law and whosoever shall kill
shall be in danger of the judgment that's true But he says, but
I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall
say to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council.
But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell
fire. Now what Christ says here is
not a reaffirmment of the law, but something which transcends
it, something which flows out of character. Because the character
of man, by nature, is to be angry with anyone that crosses his
path. When his brother does something
he doesn't like, he says, thou fool. He may check himself, he
may be aware that the law of God says he mustn't slay his
brother and according to such a law he may not go that far
but in his heart that natural heart of man rails against anyone
that crosses it. Likewise Christ quotes the command
about adultery it says of old time thou shalt not commit adultery
but I say unto you that whosoever looking for no woman to lust
after her have already committed adultery with her already in
his heart. He goes straight to the heart.
You have heard it said of old time thou shalt not forswear
thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thy nose. But I say
unto you, swear not at all. You have heard that it hath been
said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you
that ye resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now this command
especially described here, this soars above what the law commanded
or even the whole essence of law. the law is absolutely about
judgment and justice so the law says an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth that's an absolute description of the justice demanded
by law if you break something judgment comes if somebody wrongs
you they had to be punished but the gospel is otherwise under
the gospel christ says turn the other cheek This has nothing
to do with law, nor to do with a deep spiritual fulfillment
of that law. This is soaring above it. You have heard that it has been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say,
until you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. righteousness of God in the gospel
evangelical righteousness soars above law because it goes right
to the heart and the character the character which flows out
of love out of which flows love rather than hatred man by nature
fall and man hates He hates God and he hates man, he hates any
that gets in his path. He has a love that he can show
to those he likes but there's a hatred in him and when anything
goes against him his inclination is to be angry and to be cross
and to want to punish those who have wronged him and to see them
punished. Here in the gospel Christ says
love your enemies turn your cheek, don't even say thou fool of someone
who wrongs you. There's an absolute contrast
described here, a righteousness beyond anything imagined by the
law of God. He doesn't describe what the
law really means, but he makes known what the gospel
reveals of the righteousness of God by faith of Christ. He makes known evangelical righteousness,
he makes known the character of his disciples. So we have
this wondrous opening to this chapter, the Beatitudes. where he teaches his disciples,
speaking of the character of, blessed are the poor in spirit,
not the proud, not the mighty, not the strong, not the self-righteous,
but the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. There's a wondrous description
of character here. the poor in spirit, those that
mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those
who are peacemakers, and as a consequence of which, those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake by those in the world who seek God, seek
eternal life, and seek righteousness, by their own strength and will,
by their own works. For the natural man in religion
knows nothing of the character which God puts in the hearts
of his children. The natural man is outward in
all that he says and does. The natural man, as the scribes
and the Pharisees, react to the children of God and those who
manifest his righteousness with hatred. the scribes and pharisees
those who had the law who had the law and the prophets which
pointed to Christ and his coming rejected him at his coming he
said plainly I'm not come to destroy the law of the prophets
I'm come to fulfill it I am the fulfillment they all pointed
to me I've kept the law, I've never broken it. But I've answered
all of its demands for my people, I've delivered them from it.
I am all that the law pointed to. I am the sacrifice demanded
by that law. I am the Messiah that the prophets
spake of, I've come not to destroy but to fulfill. Yet the scribes
and Pharisees, with their righteousness, failed to see him for who he
was and rejected him and slew him and had him crucified. And
they react the same way to all who follow him and all who have
that character of God put in their hearts by the gospel. They rage against the poor in
spirit. They rage against those that
mourn. They rage against the meek, the merciful, those who
hunger in thirst after righteousness. They rage against the pure in
heart, the peacemakers. They persecute them. because
they hate the righteousness which those people manifest they hate
the manifestation of the grace of God in their hearts they hate
the gospel they preach they hate the grace they preach and they
speak evil of it they say your gospel will lead to sin when
they with hearts of sin never produce a true deed of righteousness
with which God is pleased. And their gospel does not lead
to sin, but it leads to the kingdom of God. Their gospel, the poor
in spirit's gospel, brings the poor in spirit into the kingdom
of heaven. The Gospel of those that mourn
brings them comfort. The Gospel of the meek brings
them the inheritance of the earth. The Gospel of those that hunger
and thirst after righteousness fills them with righteousness.
The Gospel of the merciful brings them mercy. The Gospel of the
pure in heart brings them to see God. The Gospel of the peacemakers
makes them the children of God. The gospel of those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake gives them the kingdom of heaven. They suffer for Christ's sake. As Christ suffered before them,
they are slain by the world as Christ was slain by the world.
They're despised and rejected by all men as Christ was despised
and rejected by all men. but they have a perfection as
the Father in heaven and they have the kingdom of heaven and
they are the children of God and they will see God and when
their persecutors are cast out into eternal damnation they will
enter into eternal glory to dwell with God and His Son forevermore
well where are you? and of what character are you? and what gospel have you received
and what righteousness do you have? Are you one that persecutes
those that stand for this truth? Are you seeking to attain unto
your own righteousness? Are you seeking to make yourself
perfect or have you received by grace this character? Has God shown you your poverty
by nature? Has he broken you? Has he made
you poor in spirit? Has He caused you to mourn over
your sins and your state by nature? Has He put a meekness in your
soul? Has He given you a hunger and
thirst not for your own righteousness but for the righteousness of
God to be given you by grace? Has He made you merciful as He
shows you His mercy? Has He made you pure in heart
as He cleanses you by the blood of Christ? as he made you a peacemaker
as he brings you to peace with God who were once at enmity with
him as he put a love in your heart both for God and his gospel
and his people forgiveness as those who have been forgiven
and as a consequence do you know what it is to be persecuted for
righteousness sake if you do if this is your pathway
then you have a righteousness beyond any that man can strive
for beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees
their righteousness was outward legal in their own strength it
was to be seen of man But God sees the heart. The righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees can reform the outside, yet their
inside remained the same. And our need is not simply of
a new coat on the outside, but we need a new heart on the inside. We need a new character, a new
heart. We need not simply righteousnesses,
deeds that we have done, but we need righteousness. character
of righteousness in the heart. Our righteousness, our heart,
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
We need not just the outer actions but the character from which
those actions will flow. We need perfection. By nature
we don't even begin. But in Christ If you as a sinner
have been brought to see your need of this, if you've been
brought to the cross, if you've been led to the cross, if you've
seen his death, if you've seen him suffering for sinners, if
you've seen him taking your transgressions away and blotting them out and
drinking up the wrath of God on your behalf, then you will
know that in Christ you have a righteousness. which no man
can take away, which no man can fault, which no man could produce,
but a righteousness in Christ which is equal to the righteousness
of God. You have perfection, you are
perfect in Him as His Father is which is in heaven. You have
a new heart and a new character. The beatitudes He had described
They reflect this character. This character. They describe
and reflect a perfection which we could never attain to. We
can't. But in Christ, we not only can,
but we are. We are. We are one with Christ. We are perfect in Christ. We
are perfect as God is perfect. Perfect. And when we walk with such a
perfection, we will know, we will know what it is to walk
and to experience the cross of Christ. We will know what it
is to suffer for Christ's sake. That I may know Him and the fellowship
of His suffering. Paul prayed that he might know
Christ. that he might know what it is
to walk with Christ that he might know what it is to walk in his
pathway that he might know what it is to suffer as his Saviour
suffered that he might know something to have that empathy with his
Saviour to know something of what Christ went through on his
behalf to know something of that outpouring of love that flowed
from the heart of Christ to his children that I might have fellowship
with him that I might know his suffering when you have this
heart and character put in you when you walk and testify of
the grace of God that took you a vile guilty sinner and cleansed
you by the blood of Christ freely shed on your behalf when you
speak of his grace of free grace then the world rises up in opposition
they revile you they persecute you and they say all manner of
evil against you falsely for Christ's sake for Christ's sake
and you will know that union with Him you will know what it
is to be with Him and you'll know that it is not for what
you've done but because you testify of what He is and what He has
done by grace So Christ says to you in encouragement, rejoice
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for
so persecuted they the prophets were before you. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, blessed,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Men may say all manner
of evil against you and your gospel and the righteousness
of which you speak, but Christ says you're blessed. If this
is yours, you're blessed, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Rejoice, rejoice and be exceeding glad. Because I've done this,
not you. I've brought this in, not you.
I've saved you, not you. And your righteousness is not
yours, but mine. And your perfection is not yours,
but mine. And you have a perfection as
my father, which is in heaven. Amen.