Turn with me, please, in your
Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. We looked at the Beatitudes last
Sunday. The Sermon on the Mount begins
with these eight Beatitudes, and I mentioned the fact that
the sermon runs through chapters five, six, and seven. The Beatitudes
are characteristics of those who have been saved by the grace
of God, that new man that is created in righteousness and
true holiness. The Apostle Peter tells us that
we have been made partakers of the divine nature. As we just
sang in that hymn, Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Well, I do not plan to preach
through this sermon, but I would like, if the Lord wills, to bring
a couple of messages from each of the three chapters. And today,
I want to call our attention to the five times here in chapter
five that the Lord Jesus said, you have heard. I want you to look in verse 21. Verse 21, ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be
in danger of the judgment. Verse 27, ye have heard that
it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. Verse 33, again ye have heard
that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear
thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Verse 38,
Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. And the last place, verse 43,
ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy. I want to ask some questions
from these verses. First of all, ye have heard. Ye have heard. I noticed that
the Lord Jesus Christ preached personally to people. You, ye
have heard. He wasn't preaching in such a
way that people did not realize he was talking to them. It wasn't
like he was talking to people way off somewhere else. No, he
was very direct, very personal in his preaching. You, ye have
heard. The first question I ask, from
whom had they heard what they had heard? Ye have heard, from
whom had they heard what they had heard? If you look at the
very end of this sermon in chapter seven, in the last verse, chapter
seven, the scripture says, for he, that
is Christ, taught them as one having authority and not as the
scribes. That's from whom they had heard
what they had heard from the scribes. Now these men are also
referred to in the New Testament as lawyers. Not the kind of lawyers
that we think of today, but they were men who devoted their lives
to the study of the law. They gave themselves to the study
of the law. When scribes are first mentioned
in the Bible, they were men who copied the scripture. When they're
first mentioned in the Old Testament, they were men who copied the
scripture. And that was a very difficult
task, wasn't it? To copy word for word, letter
for letter, the scriptures, the word of God. It's very important
work. But after the nation of Israel
returned from 70 years captivity in Babylon, And beginning with
Ezra, remember the scripture says about Ezra, he was a ready
scribe. Beginning with Ezra, they slowly
developed these scribes into a separate group or separate
office. They became men who devoted themselves
to preserving the scriptures, transcribing the scripture, and
teaching the scripture, the law. In the New Testament, the scribes
are often associated with Pharisees. You read that quite often, scribes
and Pharisees. Sometimes they are associated
with the Sadducees. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
that was not a particular office, that was a party of men. You know, the Apostle Paul, giving
his testimony, said he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But he wasn't
a scribe. He was a Pharisee. He was of
that party, the Pharisees. But these scribes, many of them
were Pharisees. Some were Sadducees, no doubt.
But they held an office when the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world. And now he says, you have heard.
And they had heard what they had heard from scribes. from these scribes, from these
who had this calling or this office to preserve the word of
God, the law of God, to study the law of God, and to teach
the law of God. But then notice a second statement
in our Lord's words. You have heard, number two, that
it was said of them of old time. In other words, you have heard
what you have heard from these of old time. You see that? You have heard it hath been said
of those of old time. Now, who does that refer to?
Those of old time. The scribes, when the Lord was
here in the flesh, were teaching what they had heard from some
of old time. It wasn�t from Moses. They were
not teaching the law of Moses, the law that God gave through
Moses to the nation of Israel. History tells us that when the
Jews came back from that captivity in Babylon, many of them could
not read Hebrew. Now the scripture was in Hebrew.
It was copied in Hebrew. But here you've got a nation
of people, for many of them, they couldn't read Hebrew. And
rather than laid the scriptures into Chaldea or Aramaic, they
taught the scripture. They gave the scripture, the
law, and their opinions of the law. This allowed, because the people
couldn't read the word of God, it allowed these scribes to interject
their thoughts, their opinions, and their ideas of what the law
taught. John Gill made the comment, them
of old time, he said, by their false glosses corrupted the law
when they recited any part of it to the people. In each of
these five texts that we read, the Lord Jesus said, this is
what you have heard, but I say unto you, this is what you've
heard. You've heard it from the scribes.
They heard it from them of old time, from those scribes over
the years. This happened over a period of
time, no doubt. And the scriptures, the law of
God, became corrupted little by little. And before I go any
further, this should remind all of us how thankful you and I
should be that we have the word of God in our language. that we have the Word of God
in our language that no teacher can somehow put something over
on us saying that the Bible says, well, let's just see what the
Bible says. And we can see it. Remember in
the book of Acts, the Bereans, they were commended because they
listened to Paul preach. Yes. Probably one of the greatest
preachers apart from the Lord Jesus Christ who ever lived.
They listened to Paul preach the word of God, the gospel,
but what did they do? They went to the scriptures and
they looked to make sure that what Paul was saying was what
the word of God said, what the word of God taught. You know they say history repeats
itself, don't they? You read about, read church history,
and you see the same thing happened when the so-called official church,
they taught what they wanted to teach. The people in Europe,
I'm thinking mainly of Europe because I've read more about
the Reformation in Europe. But they didn't have the Word
of God. Many of them couldn't read to begin with, but they
didn't have the Word of God. And so the so-called church was
able to pull the wool over their eyes and teach things that were
contrary, opposite to the scriptures. That's one of the solas, isn't
it? That Latin word sola. It came out of the Reformation.
The scriptures only. Faith only, Christ only, the
head of the church. It isn't the Pope in Rome. It's
not the priests scattered all over Europe who were, many of
them, so ignorant of the word of God, they couldn't even tell
you two of the Ten Commandments. John Wycliffe in the 1400s was
determined. He was a very educated man, a
teacher at Cambridge. Very respected man. And he started
teaching the word of God. And it was his desire to get
the scriptures translated into the language of the people. I
said history repeats itself. We know what happened when the
people got the word of God. And I'm just saying this to illustrate
when the Lord said, you have heard from them of old time,
but I say unto you, I say unto you, Now what resulted from the false
teaching of these scribes, these lawyers, about the law of God? Well, listen to our Lord's words
in Luke chapter 11 and verse 52. He said, woe unto you lawyers. Woe unto you lawyers. Now listen, for you have taken
away the key of knowledge you entered not in yourselves, and
them that were entering in you hindered." These lawyers, by
their false teaching on the word of God, had taken away the key
of knowledge. The key of the scripture is Christ. It's Christ. And no matter where
we turn, the word of God should show us the Lord Jesus, show
our need, first of all. our need of a savior. That it,
that salvation by our works, by our merits, it's not going
to happen. It's an impossibility. And the
word of God, the law of God was certainly given to teach men
that. They taught by their false teaching. They taught, what they taught
rather, allowed men to justify themselves. I can do that. You say this is
what the law says? I can do that. I do that. Remember
that rich young ruler? He said all these things I've
kept from my youth up. I've taken care of all of those
commandments. Look in verse 21, for example. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time Thou shall not kill, and whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment." Well, that was true,
wasn't it? You've heard that. You heard
that if you take a man's life, the law says you are to be brought
to the elders, there's to be a judgment, and if you are found
guilty, then you are to be stoned. You've heard that, there is a
judgment. But notice what our Lord continues
saying, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Now if you kill
someone, you're going to be in danger of the judgment of men. But recognize this, that just
by being angry, There's another judgment, another judgment, not
the judgment of men, because men can only judge you by your
actions. But there's another judgment,
there's another judge, God Almighty, who is able not only to judge
you by your actions, but by your thoughts. I like to think of it like this.
If you go down to one of the banks and pull out a pistol and
rob the bank and you're apprehended, you're going to be tried for
robbery and probably sent to prison. But you can go down to
that bank day after day after day and just sit there in the
lobby and think of all that money that's in that vault. Those $1
bills, those $10 bills, those $50, oh, they've just got stacks
after stacks after stacks of money in that vault. And you
can covet that. I mean, you're just sitting there
day after day coveting that, desiring that. But they can't
arrest you, bring you to trial for that, can they? You remember
the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, he said, He would not have known
sin if the law had not said, thou shalt not covet. In other words, the law deals
with more than just the outward actions. The law of God deals
with the thoughts and the intents of the heart. The law is spiritual. It involves more than just outward
acts. It was said of them of old time,
look down in verse 43, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy. Here we see how the law was perverted. The law did say thou shalt love
thy neighbor, but you can search through the law from now on,
you'll never find where it ever said thou shalt hate thine enemy.
Look with me in Luke chapter 10 just a moment. Luke chapter 10, if you will.
That's the beginning of verse 25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up. Now, I mentioned the fact that
these lawyers were scribes. Just another term for scribes.
Here's a lawyer who stood up and tempted him. That is, he
desired to ask the Lord a question that the Lord couldn't answer
in any way without breaking the law, and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And the master
said to him, what is written in the law? How readest thou?
And he answered, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Let me just say this
before I go any further. Just in case you're here this
morning and you wonder why you need a Savior, do you? Do you wonder why you need a
Savior? Did you hear what That man said that the law says that
God commands that you love him with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your strength, all your mind, and
you love your neighbor as yourself. Have you done that? Have you? What's going to happen to you
when you stand before God? Maybe you've been kind to your
neighbors. Maybe you've never spoken ill
of your neighbors. Maybe you've never spoken ill
of God. But can you stand before God Almighty and say, I've loved
you. I've loved you, Lord God, with
all my heart, all my soul. on my mind, on my strength, there
never has been a time, there never has been a day, there never
has been a situation in which I have not loved you and I've
loved my neighbor as myself. You can't say that, can you?
You can't say that. You can lie and say it, but you
know in your heart that's not true. You don't love your neighbor
like you love yourself, like you love your family. Not at
all. But that's what the law commanded.
That's what God commands. You see why you need a savior?
That's what our Lord is showing this day when he preached this
sermon on the mount. All these people, there's a multitude,
he said, that came and listened to him. And as they listened
to him, if they really listened to him, They'd been listening
to these scribes and how they had abused and mutilated the
law of God, but now here the Lord Jesus Christ comes and He
says, I say unto you, this is the way it really is. What should have been their reaction?
What should be the reaction of everyone when he hears the gospel,
when he hears the law of God? Should be, I need a savior. I'm
guilty. I'm guilty. But you see, let's
read on here in Luke. This man who asked our Lord this
question, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying, Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, what
is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answered
and said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him,
thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. Now notice, but he, he willing to justify himself, said
unto Jesus. And the law said, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, let me determine who my
neighbor is. Let me have that prerogative. I'll decide who my neighbor is,
and I'll love him, I'll love hers, I'll love myself. I love
my wife, I love my children, I love my family. Willing to
justify himself, he asked the Lord, who is my neighbor? You
see, they figured out Now if you loved certain people, you
fulfilled that command. You kept that law. But they only
were able to do that by deciding who their neighbor was. Limiting
who their neighbor was. And so the Lord answering said,
a certain man, here we have the story that's so well known of
the good Samaritan. He went down from Jerusalem to
Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment,
wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance,
there came down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him,
he passed by on the other side. And likewise, a Levite, you see
that they looked and evidently that he's not my neighbor. He's
not my neighbor. I don't know that guy. I don't
recognize him. He passed by on the other side.
A Levite comes by and does the same thing. But here comes a
certain Samaritan. And don't you know, this lawyer,
this scribe, who prided himself so much on knowing the law and
keeping the law, The Lord Jesus Christ brings out, brings up
a despised Samaritan. Those that the Jews referred
to as dogs. This dog came by, a Samaritan. As he journeyed, came where he
was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Now he
wasn't, according to the Jews, the way they determined who a
neighbor was, this man in the ditch was not a neighbor to this
Samaritan. He really wasn't, because he
was obviously a Jew. And the Jews had no dealings
with the Samaritans. The Jews were taught, well, my
neighbor, that's one of my tribe, that's one of my kinsmen, that's
one of my nation. But this Samaritan, He came by
and looked upon this man who, if he'd gone by what the Jews
were teaching, the scribes taught, he would have said, well, that
guy's not my neighbor. I don't have to fool with that
man. But no, he had compassion on
him. And he went to him and bound
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his
own beast and brought him to an end. Took care of him and
on the morrow, When he departed, he took out two pence and gave
them to the host and said unto him, take care of him and whatsoever
thou spendest more when I come again, I will repay thee. Now
our Lord asked this lawyer, which now of these three thinkest thou
was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? Who do you
think was his neighbor? The scribe, the Pharisee, rather,
the Levite, the priest, Who was his neighbor? And he had to answer. There was no other answer, right?
He couldn't say the Levite was his neighbor. He couldn't say
the priest was his neighbor. They just passed him on by. No, I suppose, he said, I suppose
that he that showed mercy on him, then said Jesus unto him,
and do thou likewise. In other words, if you fulfill
the law to love your neighbor as yourself, go and do likewise. Here's the last question I wanted
to ask. But I say unto you, and what
did he say? What did the Lord say? You have
heard of them of old time, but I say unto you, in verse 20, he has said, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. I say unto you, in all of these five texts, all of these
places, what the Lord said unto them was, The law is spiritual. It's not just the outward actions. It's not just what you do, but
what you think in your heart, what you desire in your heart. The law deals with all of these
things, and the law, what does it do? It shuts every mouth. Here's someone that said, well,
they hear the law, and they say, well, I'll tell you one thing.
Well, I tell you, I'd never do that. No. When the law comes to a person
in power, like the Apostle Paul said, it came to him. He was
alive once without the law. He could take care of himself.
He kept all these commandments. Sure I did. But when the law
came to him in power, what happened? Shut his mouth. Shut his mouth. We're not going to talk anymore
about, well, I did this, or I did that, and now the Lord saved
me, or I'm saved by doing this or doing that. No. It shuts a
person's mouth, and it shuts a person up to this truth. I
need a Savior. I need a Savior. Down in the
last part, the verse 20, he said, or verse 40, Three, he said, you have heard
that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate
thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. That you may be like, may be
the children of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh
his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more
than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect. That's what the law requires.
Be ye therefore perfect. Love the Lord with all your heart,
all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. Love your
neighbor as yourself. Our Lord, in showing the spirituality
and the absolute perfection of the law, the requirements of
the law, what would he do? He would slay. He would slay
every hope that these people had or entertained that they
might somehow merit salvation. Salvation must come to an individual
through a substitute. It must. It must come through
a substitute. It must come through the Son
of God who did these things, who honored God's law. who loved
God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, who loved
his neighbor as himself. He fulfilled this law. He obeyed
this law. And then he suffered at the hands
of that broken law, the law that we had broken. And then he's
commanded us, men like myself and you too, to go out into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And whosoever
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. shall be saved. Saved not by your obedience,
not by your keeping the law, no, but by his obedience, by
his perfect work. The apostle Paul in that synagogue
in Acts chapter 13 said unto the people there, be it known
unto ye. The Lord, Paul, they were personal. And they're preaching, weren't
they? You couldn't listen to them and think, well, he's talking
to somebody over there in the next county. No, he's talking
to us. Be it known unto ye, this is
what he said, be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Don't you want your sins to be
forgiven? The fact that you haven't loved God with all your heart,
soul, and mind, strength, and your neighbor as yourself? Don't
you want your sin? How will that happen? Through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and
by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. I was meditating
this morning before before the service, and I was thinking about
those three words the Lord Jesus Christ uttered from the cross.
It is finished. Aren't you thankful for that?
It is finished. Everything that Almighty God
requires for our salvation, he finished it. It's finished. And now we receive it. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
which believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. Let me close
with this last verse. It's found in Isaiah chapter
61 in verse 10. I will greatly rejoice. I will. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments. I guess forever, when a man gets married,
a lot of times he goes and buys him a new suit. Maybe he never
had a suit in his life. He goes and buys him a new suit,
dresses him up. I've seen it from the poorest
people in this world, but they're gonna dress up for their wedding
day, aren't they? Yeah, as a bridegroom, decketh
himself with his ornaments. I mean, he's just dressed to
the nines. He's all spruced up. And as a
bride, adorneth herself with her jewels. There she comes. so beautiful, that white dress,
the jewels that she's able to borrow sometimes to wear for
her wedding. God has clothed us with the garments
of salvation and covered us with the robe of His righteousness. May the Lord bless His Word.