I invite you this morning to
take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. We've
been studying for a couple of weeks on the Lord's Sermon on
the Mount. We began by looking at the Beatitudes. These attitudes are the result
of being blessed of God. Those with those attitudes bless
God. They are blessed, the B attitudes. And we have considered defects
of these attitudes on this world. He likens those blessed by the
Spirit of God within. When the Lord converts a man,
when He saves a man, He brings about a change within
him. His attitude has changed. His
mind has changed. Everything has changed. He's
a new creature in Christ. He don't act like he used to
act. Oh, he may occasionally do things. The Scripture's full
of believers who occasionally did things. David, Peter, you
go on and on and on in there. And he tells us that. We're not
what we want to be. We're not what we're going to
be. But we are what we are by the grace of God. And this present
state that we're in is a blessed state. If a man truly believes,
he's a new creature in Christ. He's got motives he didn't have
before. He's got affections he didn't
have before. There's a power within him that
wasn't present in him before. Something he can't shirk, he
can't set it aside. It's there and it works in him. And the Lord likens these, blessed
of the Spirit of God in Christ, and He calls them the salt of
the earth. They have an effect. This attitude
not only affects them, but it affects others. Other people
see this, this work of God. Now,
unfortunately, there's so much in us that's not the work of
God. It's the work of sin that's in us, and they see that too.
But what they see that's not forced, it's not, we don't do
these things because we fear. We do these things because we
love Christ. And we freely do them. And that, he calls, he says,
this blessed work of God in us causes us to be the salt of the
earth and the light of the world. The light of the world. Now this
morning, I'm going to be looking at verses 17 through 20 concerning
the foundation of these blessings and how these blessings came
to be ours. In Matthew 5, verse 17, he said,
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." Now in verses 17 through 19, the Lord deals with the Old
and New Testaments. That's what He's dealing with.
These Jews, these Pharisees, these scribes, and the entire
priesthood in Israel, the nation as a whole, had for the Word
of God the Old Testament. That's what they had. And when
you go through the Bible in the New Testament, and they begin
to quote things, and they say, as it was written, or in order
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, or according to the
Scriptures, when he says those things like that, the New Testament
hadn't even been written yet. So he's not referring to the
New Testament, he's referring to the Old. And this is what
our Lord is telling them. All of the things that he was
doing, all of the things that were going on, out of sorts with what they held
in their religion and their knowledge of the Old Testament and their
traditions and things. It was just contrary. It didn't
make any sense to them. And Christ seemed to be one who
was coming along to do away with the Old Testament scriptures,
to do away with the law and the ceremonies and do away with all
these things. And he said, hold on. He said,
these things ain't going to change. I'm not here to change anything.
I'm here to fulfill them. To fulfill them. The Bible is
one book, not two. Years ago, they used to publish,
I suppose they still do, a little New Testament. And they used
to pass them out in school. When I went to school, they gave
everybody a New Testament, and we carried one. They did in the
Navy when I went in. They'd pass out a little New
Testament, and we'd carry it all around. That's just half
a Bible. That's all that is. Our Bible is one Bible. It's
not just New Testament. And I dare say it's impossible
to understand the New Testament apart from the Old. The Old Testament
is where the foundations lay. What do you know about offerings
until you go back and see what these offerings were about? What
do you know about sacrifice? You don't know anything about
it until you go back there. And this whole generation seems
to be shut up to the New Testament alone, and then they're just
using their imagination as to what these things mean. And they're
applying these things this way and that way and some other way.
You need to go back in the Old Testament and look at the pictures
and the ceremonies and the foundations and the figures and see what
these things were all about. He said, I'm not coming to change
these things, I'm coming to fulfill them. Fulfill them. We're not
going to do away with the Word of God. Peter said to the scribes and
Pharisees, he said, this is the stone, talking about Christ.
This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which
has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. This is the name that
was given. This is the name that God spoke
of throughout the Old Testament. And this stone, God sent his
stone here, the chief cornerstone, and you threw him aside. You
looked at it and said, well, he ain't got no place in our
temple, and threw it aside. But he said, there's no salvation
in any other. And all of the prophets, it says
in the book of Acts, from Samuel and those that followed after,
foretold of these days, you are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant which God made with our father. The religion
of Moses is the same as Paul's, and the faith of Abel still speaks,
is what it says in Hebrews chapter 11. These things God said to
Abraham were not written for his sake alone, but for us also.
Ain't that what it says over there in Romans? Huh? What he
said to Abraham back here was not just said to Abraham for
his sake alone, but for ours also. It's the same thing. So
we've got one book. And he said to those Pharisees,
he said, if you believe Moses, you would believe me because
Moses wrote of me. That's what he told them. And
you need to steer clear of anybody, any man who tries to teach others
to disregard any part of the Word of God. In these verses,
the Lord tells us plainly that His appearing in the world was
not to change, alter, or disregard the Word of God, but to fulfill
it. And not one jot or one tittle.
What's he talking about? Commas, periods, question marks. Not one of them. Not one of them.
Not even those little things that we like to argue, well,
that should have had a comma. No, it had one. God put it right
where He wanted it. Huh? Sure He did. Not one jot, not one tittle is
going to be done away with or changed. I'm going to pass till
all be fulfilled. God doesn't change, God doesn't
make mistakes, and he doesn't say things that he needs to take
back. That's us. We blow up, then we
have to deal with it for a couple days because we know we've got
to go back and take it back. Oh, what a bitter pill to swallow
that is. God alone. This is what God said
about him. He said, I am God and beside
me there is none else. Now listen to what he says to
prove that. He said, I declare the end from the beginning. Where
did he do that? Right here. And from ancient
times, the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall
stand and I'll do all my pleasure. Now that's what puts him in a
category by himself. And that's what this book is
all about. When Christ came into this world, it was not to change
the Word of God or ignore what had previously been written,
but to fulfill every promise and prophecy of the Old Testament.
What did He fulfill? What did Christ fulfill? Well,
He fulfilled all the types. All the types. We don't need
a priesthood anymore, because he fulfilled what the priesthood
was put there for. We don't need those things, those
types and symbols anymore, except to look at them and learn from
why they were there. We don't need them anymore, because
he fulfilled them. He fulfilled them. In Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 6, he said, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no place. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book it's written of me to do thy will, O God. Now said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first to establish
the second. He takes away the types not by
disregarding them, but by fulfilling them. He fulfilled those things. God gave the Old Testament sacrifices
to point them to the day of reformation. That's what he tells you in Hebrews
chapter 9. That's what he says. That's why these things are still
going on. That's why you're still practicing
these things. God gave those things until the
Day of Reformation. When this Day of Reformation
comes, they will have been fulfilled. And He never intended for men
to offer a goat or a bullock and trust in its blood. All of
the blood shed by the sacrifices of the Old Testament was to point
to the Lamb of God and His blood. He fulfilled it every time. And
God only honored the priesthood as those priests typified Christ
and His church. And there was nothing magical
or mystical about the Ark of the Covenant except what it symbolized. God sanctified that covenant,
and He killed men for touching it because of what it stood for.
He said, this is mine. I set it apart. It's holy. You'll
handle it a certain way. You handle it some other way,
you'll die. It's mine. But there was nothing mystical
or magical about it. You all remember the movies that
come out several years ago where they was in search for the Ark,
and then everybody thought it had something magical, mystical
about it. If they could get it, they could
have the power that Israel had with the presence of God. If
they could just find that Ark, oh, no. If you found that Ark,
it'd just be a rotten piece of wood. That's all it'd be. All it'd be. Why? Because Christ
fulfilled what that thing typified. And it's the same with the Old
Testament ceremonies. The water, the holy water that
was in the labor and the priesthoods and the incense burners and altars
and temples, they're all fulfilled in Christ. He didn't change them. He fulfilled them. And in their
fulfillment, we find their true meaning. That's where we understand
what these things were all about. Now listen to me. To continue on incorporating
these things in your worship is idolatry. It's idolatry. And not only is it idolatry,
but it's a denial of his work and accomplishments. You're saying
by those things, I still need a priest. His priesthood's not
enough. I still need holy water because
the washing of the Holy Spirit's not enough. I still need the
goats and the lambs and the bullets. I still need all of these things
because His work's not sufficient. It's a denial of the work of
Christ and it's idolatry. God, He doesn't take any pleasure
and He doesn't respect any man who finds a righteousness or
hope in ceremonial religion. It's idolatry. And he fulfilled
all the righteous requirements of the law. Not only did he fulfill
the types, but he fulfilled all the righteous requirements of
the law. Well, preacher, you're saying you've got no law? I'm
saying my law is as honored and exalted as it can be in Christ. Now, if you want to take what
you have and compare it with what I have, if you have a fleshly
righteousness, what do I mean by that? I mean that you've got
the Ten Commandments, and you're doing your best to keep them.
Now, if you want to take that and compare it to my righteousness,
my righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. And he said he has
appointed a day in which he'll judge this world in righteousness
by that man, not by your idea of righteousness, but by his.
He's the standard. And his righteousness is sufficient. With his right, he pleased God.
He's the only one I ever heard God say he pleased with. This
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And he's pleased
with all them who have his righteousness. You see what I'm saying? He fulfilled
those. He fulfilled the righteous requirements
of the law. And God's people are not under
the law. They're not under the curse of
it. Listen to this, for as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse. You're under the curse. I know
you think you're pleasing God by keeping the law, but you're
not pleasing God because you're not under the law. Christ was
born of a woman made under the law. He was made a curse for
us. And if we go back under that
law, Paul said, if you so much as be circumcised, you're under
responsibility to keep that whole law. So you better go get some
lambs and goats and elect a priesthood and do the whole nine yards.
And you can't just go in that law and take out a few things,
because if you're guilty of one, you're guilty of the whole, of
the whole law. Lots of people are not under
that law. and are not honored as a curse. As many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written,
cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do." And he says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And
we have no covenant with the law. We have no covenant. God made a covenant with Israel.
And he gave them a law, and he said, if you'll do all these
things, here's what I'll do. But if you don't do these things,
here's what I'll do. That's a law covenant. And that's
what this whole generation believes. They're going to go out and meet
God under this law covenant. Huh? You better go back and read
what that thing's about. That's what Paul wrote those
Galatians. He said, you that seek to be under the law, do
you hear the law? Do you know what it says? What's that mean we've got no
covenant with the law? Well, Israel had a covenant based
on their obedience to the law. And here's what God said about
them. He said, you continued not in my covenant, and I regarded
them not. That's what He said. You don't
regard my law. If you're under it and you don't
regard it, I won't regard you. I won't regard you. But with
spiritual Israel, God makes a covenant of grace. And it's based not
on their merits and ability, but upon the virtue and merits
of Christ. God's blessings are not dependent
on my obedience, but on His. And they're not based on my righteousness. They're based on His. And they're
not based on my sincerity. They're based on His. And you
can't have no hope. You can't have no hope if you
look back. Now, I'm telling you. You're
going to go out and meet God. You pretend like you're going
to do it today. You just imagine in your mind, I'm going to go
out and meet God. Are you really basing that on your sincerity?
Huh? Are you basing that on Him? Where
are you hoping? Huh? We can't be sincere. I know we want to. We're not under the law as a
covenant condition, and we're not under the law as a constraint.
Paul said, the love of Christ constraineth us. We're not under
the law. Not under. It's the love and
gratitude that restrains the believer, not the force of law.
You know, you see over there, he gave this to us in picture.
He said the shepherd came to the pen where all the sheep was,
and the porter recognized who he was. And he called his sheep. And his sheep come out. And he
pointed his finger at the sheep. And he said, now, here's my law. You're going to keep this. You
don't keep it. You ain't going to be my... That ain't what he
said. Huh? He called his sheep. And they
came out. And he just put them out there. And they followed
him. Huh? Isn't that something? They didn't
have no law. People with a law can't... They
can't please God. And they don't follow God. The
more intense their trying to keep the law is, the more sinful
they become. Paul said he was a Pharisee. He was a self-righteous legalist. He attempted with all his being
to keep that law. And you know what he said of
himself? He was the chief of sinners. The more they try, the
farther down they go. Because that law and this flesh,
this flesh is not subject, the carnal man is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can he be. That's what it says
in Romans 8. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. Somebody told one of the preachers
I know, he said, you mean tell me you're free to do what you
will? He said, I wish I was. I wish I was. I'd love Him with
all my heart if I had my way. I wish I would. Actually, this is where the real
glory of conversion is seen, that there's no law. No law constraint
attached to the believer, yet he has a more powerful restraint
than those who are under the law. That's where the grace of
God is seen, the power of God's grace. We used to have a neighbor
with an apple orchard. We'd sneak over there. We had
our apple orchard. I don't know what it is. His
looked better. We'd sneak over there and steal
his apples. We'd have to get just right where he couldn't
see us from the house, and we'd go in there and get those apples.
And I'd be convicted about a little bit because I went over there
and took them apples. But one time I took a few pennies
out of my daddy's sock drawer. I tell you, I felt miserable.
I was miserable. You know why? Because I loved
him and I didn't give two hoots for my neighbor. That's why.
It's the love of Christ that constraineth us. It's that love. That's what convicts. It's not
sin against law. It's sin against love that convicts. He loved me and gave himself
for me. That's enough to constrain a
believer. They're constrained by love.
Love, he said, is the fulfilling of the law. Love. Love exalted the law and made
it honorable. And I tell you, nothing can soothe
the soul like seeing the Son of God as our law surety, fulfilling
all of its righteousness, fulfilling and manifesting all the truth
of it, and fulfilling all of its holy motives and affections
in us. He said, in that day, he said, I'll write my laws upon
their hearts. Isn't that what he said? Yeah,
not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.
And God's people do not despise, disregard, or ignore the word
of God, the law of God, or the warnings of God. But they, through
the gospel revelation, through the gospel revelation, have come
to see their total inability And they obey Him. And they rejoice
in Christ who came and did fulfill it on their behalf. Oh, wait a minute, preacher.
You saying that the Son of God obeyed the law for us, that's
exactly what I'm saying. And if He didn't do it, you've
got it yet to do. In motive, thought, and deed. Paul was a proud Pharisee at
one time. He was proud of his circumcision,
and proud of his kinsmen, and proud of his knowledge, and proud
of his parents, and proud of his schooling, and proud of his
zeal, and proud of his uniform. He made broad his phylacteries,
and he was proud of his Christian walk, and then God convinced
him of sin. And he took all those things,
all his righteousnesses, He took them all out. He realized that
they were no more than a soap bubble, just a vision of his
evil heart. And he took all of those things
out and he said in Philippians chapter 3, he dunked it on the
dung heap. That's where he put it, on the
dung heap where it belonged. Nobody forced him to do that.
Nobody forced him to do that. God convinced him of the truth. And he took it out and threw
it on there. And then he cried. He said, oh, that I might be
found in him, not having my own righteousness. Ain't that what
he cried? Sure it is. Huh? What a strange thing for
a man to cry. Oh, that I might be found in
him, not having my own righteousness. But that righteousness which
is by faith of Christ, that which is through the faith or faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. You
see, the gospel doesn't lower the standards. It doesn't change
the law. God's unchangeable. When He gave
that law, He had no intention of changing that law. He didn't
change that law. He fulfilled that law. When God
saves a man, He doesn't compromise his justice. He doesn't change
his standards of justice. He fulfills the standards of
justice. And that's how man saves. Nobody
is going to be saved unless God can be just and justified. And the only man who can honor
the law is the sinner saved by grace through faith without the
law. Now watch this, Matthew 5 verse
20. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
God. The Pharisees were the strictest
sect of the Jews. No one could even come close
to them and their outward righteousness. Paul says, as touching the law,
I was blameless. That's a pretty good reputation.
I was blameless. What's that mean? That means
everything that law said to do, that man did. That's what it
said. Did it command him to tithe of
everything he had? He tithed. Did it demand him
to keep all these holy days and holy weeks and all of these Sabbath
days? He kept them. He fasted. He tithed. He did all of these
things. I'm telling you, nobody could
hold a candle to that man and his outward morality, to his
obedience to the law, prayers, and tithing, and fasting, and
Sabbath-keeping, and knowledge, and memory of the scriptures,
and his public reputation was spotless. It was spotless. Now, Christ said what he said
about them, not to make us try to exceed them in our self-righteousness,
but to show us the utter impossibility of any man to produce this righteousness
on his own. That's what he's teaching here.
You couldn't exceed them in their righteousness. But he said, if
yours don't exceed theirs, you're not even going to enter into
the kingdom of God. Because their righteousness,
as good as it was, was no more than filthy rags. Just filthy
rags. I'm telling you, no son of Adam
is good enough, righteous enough, holy enough to inherit the kingdom
of heaven. He said, there's none good. Well,
we just need to get that out of our vocabulary, don't we? They're such a good person. And
I know what you mean when you say that. You know, the Lord
came up to them. We get in the habit of using
these words. That rich young ruler came up
to the Lord. He said, good master. And he meant that in a good way.
He meant that compared to other men. And the Lord said, why call
the stout men good? They're none good but God. Ain't
none good. He said there's none righteous.
Huh? None righteous of themselves. All of our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. He said man at his best state
was altogether vanity, didn't he? Altogether vanity. And because the Lord went against
the grain of self-righteous religion, they accused Him of disregarding
the Word of God and disregarding the Law of Moses. And to this
charge, He says these words, Think not that I am come to destroy
the Law or the Prophets, or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. And it's those things. And let
my mind and soul embrace this great work that as our representative
and substitute, he fulfilled all that our eternal God has
written concerning both us and him. It fulfilled. Somebody said,
take all of the ifs. What a fellow told me one day,
he said, I don't see where you all get this thing about assurance,
about this man you know, saved, what they call want saved. He
said, I don't see where you get all that. He said, it says over
here, if, if, if, he quoted through all those scriptures. I said,
well, somebody told me one time, take all them ifs and put them
on a golden chain and put them around the neck of Christ. He
fulfilled all the ifs. Ifs. If the law be honored, if
God's justice be satisfied, If we had intercession and glory,
where's the if now? Seated at the right hand of God.
Huh? At the right hand of God. Take
all them ifs, put them on a chain, put them on His neck. Huh? Then you've got assurance. You've
got assurance. Father, bless the message this
morning, the lesson. Teach us to look to Christ. He's
our hope. and cause us to look for Him,
to seek His presence. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen.