You shall not murder, Matthew 5:21-26

We have been studying the Sermon on the Mount for a couple of months or more now, and we are continuing today in the passage before us.  However, it’s important to recognize the context of the verses we are looking at.  They must be understood in context with all that has been said before it.

The Sermon on the Mount may also be called the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  I believe that is a better title because it describes the purpose of Christ’s sermon.  Jesus is presenting the characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is a spiritual kingdom, and Jesus is the king.  The Jews were expecting a physical king who would overthrow the yoke of Rome and restore the nation of Israel to prominence in the world, from which the Messiah would rule on the throne of David.  But Jesus, the Messiah, comes the first time to establish a spiritual kingdom in which He rules in the hearts and minds of His people.

So at the beginning of HIs message, He gave a list of characteristics of the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are what we call the Beatitudes.  And if you will remember, these characteristics come as a result of a transformed heart - their new nature reflected in the behavior Jesus described.

Then Jesus describes the reaction of the world to His citizens. Jesus says that the world will hate them, and persecute them for His name sake, but their persecution will result in a greater blessing. He says that they will be like salt and light in the world, affecting the world by righteousness and truth.  And in response to that testimony of righteousness and truth, Jesus says that the world will glorify God because of their good works.

Starting in vs 17, Jesus begins to articulate how that life of righteousness will be carried out in the world by His citizens.  And basically, Jesus says righteousness will be established in His kingdom by keeping the law.  He says He did not come to abolish the law, but to accomplish the law.  Righteousness is established by the law.  The law is the way of life for a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  It is how God’s righteousness is manifested.  It is how we manifest that we are the children of God.  It is how we manifest that we love the Lord.

One of the key phrases to this section of the sermon is found in vs 20, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  The righteousness then of the Christian must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who were considered the arbiters of the law.  The scribes and Pharisees were in attendance that day, by the way.  And effectively, Jesus just publicly said that they were not going to enter the kingdom of heaven, in spite of their legal expertise, in spite of their self righteousness, in spite of their religious ceremonies, Jesus said that was not enough.  One must exceed their righteousness in order to be a citizen of heaven.

So starting in vs 21 then, Jesus begins to expound the law that the scribes and Pharisees  purported to be keeping.  He takes six examples of the law and expounds them, contrasting what the scribes and Pharisees taught in regards to the law, and what He had to say about it.

Notice He begins with “you have heard that the ancients were told.”  He was not talking about the law of Moses versus the teaching of Christ.   But rather He is referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and scribes.  And Jesus’s response to their teaching is to say, “but this is what I say.”  In other words, Jesus is presenting Himself as the ultimate authority of what the law says, and the correct interpretation of it.

Today we are going to examine the first illustration that Jesus gives concerning the law of murder.  Jesus said in vs 21, "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell.”

The Pharisees taught the law of Moses, but in such a way as to diminish the import of the law.  They did this in this instance by linking these two injunctions together.  Both are found in the law of Moses.  The first is found in Exodus 20, in the 10 commandments, the second is found in Numbers 35:30.  But in connecting them, they managed to diminish the scope of the law of God, and diminish the consequence from God or injury to God’s holiness, and instead just emphasize a civil responsibility.   If you murder, they say, you will be liable before the judgment, meaning  a civil magistrate.  So by neglecting the import of the law of God, to be holy even as He is holy, and the consequence of not doing that, they emphasize instead a lesser consequence; that of offending a human court.  By keeping the letter of the law then, and not physically murdering someone yourself by your own hand, they managed to be able to say that they kept the law but still commit murder in their hearts.

Now if you study Exodus 20, in the original 10 commandments you would find that the word “you shall not kill,” means “murder.”  The word kill would be better translated as murder.  The law does not refer to capital punishment. In fact, God commands the death penalty for the breaking of certain laws.  Neither does the law  refer to war.  Nations are given the responsibility by God to defend their countries.  And God often uses such conflicts to accomplish His purpose of judgment in the world. We just saw that in our study of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. 

Neither do I think that the text of Exodus 20 has anything to do with self defense.  I think that the Bible teaches that we have the right to protect our lives, and the lives of our families, and those about us when we are assaulted and attacked by those who would kill us.  So the commandment is speaking of murder and not to kill in a justified means.

So in expounding this law regarding murder, Jesus is saying in effect, “You believe that it’s wrong to murder because if you do you’ll be in danger of judgment.”  And on that point the scribes and the Pharisees would have agreed, because that is what they taught from their rabbinical tradition. And their belief that they did not commit murder was one way in which they convinced themselves they were righteous. They thought since they avoided murder then they must be righteous, that they had kept the law of God.  

And I’m sure that Christians today could identify with the Pharisees at that point.  But, this is precisely where Jesus wants to expose the error in their theology. Jesus is going to show how their righteousness must exceed the standard of righteousness which was claimed by the Pharisees. So He proceeds from verse 21 to verse 48 to give six illustrations of how our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. 

Jesus expounds the law based on HIs authority to interpret the law, because He is the author of the law. His exposition exposes the self righteousness of the Pharisees.  It exposes their superficial view of God.  And it exposes their feelings towards others. 

First of all, Jesus’ words to them exposes their self righteousness.  They thought they were righteous because they didn’t kill. “Your religious system,” is what He’s saying, “your your tradition says you are not to murder, because if you do you’re in danger of judgment from the courts.  That is the tradition that’s passed down to you.” Their self righteousness was not founded upon the truth of the law, but on a diminished version of the law.

Their interpretation of the law was  you shall not murder l because if you do, you’ll receive the judgement of the courts.  But what about murder as an offense to God?  What about God’s holy character? They had limited the law so that they didn’t even mention God.  They didn’t mention divine judgment.  They said nothing about the heart.  Their interpretation stopped short of all that God intended. Yet because they didn’t murder and didn’t get into legal trouble,  they were self-righteous, self-satisfied and thought they were justified before God.  

So Jesus goes on to rebuke that thinking in verse 22, and says this, “But I say unto you - ”  He is going to give them the right interpretation. "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty [enough to go] into the fiery hell.”  Jesus is saying, it’s not just an issue of physical murder, it’s the source of murder; the  anger and hatred of the heart. 

In Matthew chapter 15:19, we see that murder is a manifestation of an evil human heart.  Matthew 15:19 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Murders, thefts, and the evils that men do, do not happen because of social or financial deprivation.  They happen because of a degenerate human heart.  Murder happens because the heart is evil and desperately wicked, according to Jeremiah 17:9. John 8:44 says the devil is a murderer and the natural man is of their father the devil.  We have murderous thoughts in our hearts because we are children of the devil.  So Jesus is saying that the motivation for murder is an angry and hateful heart and that renders us guilty of murder.

We hear about people that commit murder every day on the news, and I’m sure most of us can’t imagine that we would ever do that.  We can’t understand the type of person that would actually murder people.  And yet we get angry at people.  We may even hate people because of something that we think they have done to us.  We may belittle other people, or even curse them.  We hold a grudge against them. We have bitterness towards such people. And Jesus is saying, that is evidence of the heart of a murderer.

The root of murder is anger.  It’s the motivation for murder, and even if it is not carried out physically, in God’s eyes it deserves the same punishment. In verse 22, He is saying, “You’re in danger of the judgment.  You’re in danger of the council.  You’re in danger of hell fire.” Our Lord is saying  that what is in your heart is what God judges.

Listen to 1 John 3:15.  “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”  Hate brings you nearer to murder than any other emotion.  And hate is merely the extension of anger.  Anger, hatred, is the manifestation of the heart of a murderer.  And by the way, hatred and anger can even kill the person who possesses it.  It will destroy you from the inside.

Jesus says, “If you have anger or hatred in your heart, you are guilty of murder.”  And He uses three illustrations to reveal this sin in verse 22. 

First one. “Whosoever is angry with his brother, the KJV inserts this phrase “without a cause” shall be in danger of judgment.”  Now that’s the first illustration. I think that there may be some justification for the phrase “without a cause. It may be that there is a righteous anger that is allowed under that phrase. There were times when Jesus took a whip and drove out the money changers and kicked over their tables.  There are times when God’s wrath reaches its  limit and is poured out on a city or a people.   There are times when the vengeance of God goes forth and nations or people are swept into eternity. 

And there are times when a believer has a cause to be angry. Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry, and sin not.”  There is a righteous kind of anger.  We have a cause to be angry at sin, but to love the sinner.  (as we sang in the song previously)  We have a right to be angry at sin because it destroys people.  It ruins lives.  Sin causes men and women to be destroyed, to be shut out of the kingdom of heaven and condemned to an eternity without God, an eternity in hell.  We have a right, if not an obligation to be angry at sin.  And yet we must not take our own revenge.  We must leave room for God.  In fact, we are to love the sinner, snatching them like a brand from the burning to save them from the destruction that sin causes. 

I think the type of anger that Jesus is talking about is perhaps best translated by the word ma-levolence.  Malevolence means malicious anger, hatred, wishing evil on another person, wishing harm.  That’s the sort of anger that Jesus is referring to here. So anger, or malevolence is equal to murder in God’s eyes.  Jesus says such is in danger of judgment.  And that judgment is not just of the civil authorities, but that judgment is from God.

Notice the second illustration He uses in verse 22.  “Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council.”  The Hebrew word Raca is an untranslatable word.  It’s really an epithet.  It’s a curse word. It’s a word of contempt, of derision, of hatred. James 3:6 says,  “the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” With the tongue we curse men, and Jesus is saying that condemns us as a murderer. 

There’s a third illustration in verse 22.  “Whosoever shall say, you fool, “moros” -  from which we get our word moron “ - shall be in danger of hell fire.” Notice there is a progressive nature to the attitudes that Jesus is exposing.  To call someone a fool, in the sense in which it is meant here, as a form of derision, as word of condemnation, is to take your anger and hatred to another level.  And so Jesus correlates this escalation to a corresponding escalation in punishment; from judgement, to the council, and now to fiery hell.

Notice the word “fiery hell” at the end of verse 22. The Greek word translated “hell” there is the word gehenna, It refers to the valley of Hinnom.  The valley of Hinnom was the garbage dump of Jerusalem.  It was a public incinerator that burned all the time, 24/7, it never went out.  Jesus uses that as a picture of hell.  And He says if you have been angry or if you ever say a malicious word to  someone, or  if you ever cursed them, you are as guilty and as liable for eternal hell as a murderer is because you have the heart of a murderer. 

So Christ’s exposition of the law exposed the self righteousness of the Pharisees. The second effect of Jesus’ exposition of the law is found in verses 23 and 24 which is to expose their superficial worship of God. Worship was a major part of life of the scribes and Pharisees.  They publicly paraded their worship.  They were always in the temple worshiping God, making sacrifices, carrying out the ceremonies of the law.  They believed their worship resulted in righteousness.  But our Lord here condemns that very worship. 

Look at verse 23, “Therefore,” in other words, the “therefore” means since God is concerned with the heart, since God is concerned with attitudes toward others, how you feel about your brother, how you speak to your brother, and whether or not you curse your brother, since God is concerned about the heart listen to this.  "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”  In other words, reconciliation comes before worship. You cannot negate your dispute with a brother by your worship to the Lord.  The sin of anger or hatred or an argument with someone is not overridden by your church attendance and your worship.

Under the Jewish system of worship, If a man committed a sin, he understood that a breach was between himself and God.  The relationship was broken.  It was to be remedied by a contrite and broken heart, and a man was to confess his sin, and a man was to manifest repentance, contrition and brokenness.  And then in order to manifest outwardly that inward feeling, he was to bring an animal as a sacrifice.  The ceremony wasn’t the issue.  The heart was the important thing.  God said obedience of the heart is better than sacrifice.  The sacrifice was merely an outward symbol of a repentant, obedient heart.  And so when the breach came, and the man repented and in sorrow asked forgiveness, and set things right with God, he then brought a sacrifice. That principle is what Jesus is saying here.

Sometimes we sit around and say, “How can we make our church more of what it ought to be?”   People sometimes  say, “How can we improve our worship?  And they think, well, maybe if we had more of a certain kind of music. Maybe if we had other activities, or special music, or better sermons, or whatever they may think would improve the worship service. 

Listen, if you want to improve worship, then everybody who has something against a brother, go home and take care of it.  And come back when you’ve made things right. Take care of the sin in your life, and then we’ll see the power of the Spirit of God in our midst. 

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  First Samuel 15:22 says, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifice, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams.” Worship without obedience gets no where with God. Jesus says, leave worship, and get right with your brother first, then you can worship God right and enjoy the fellowship of His Spirit.

Finally, Jesus’s words expose  our relationships with others.  He’s already introduced that in verses 23 and 24.  And now He gives a specific example in 25 and 26.  He says now that you’ve left to get it right so you can worship God,  "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”

Notice first of all the urgency in the Lord’s admonition.  Do it quickly.  Don’t put it off. There is a tendency in matters of reconciliation especially to put it off until tomorrow.  Jesus says, don’t  put it off.  Make friends, or reconcile quickly, lest he follow through with the courts and you end up in prison.  And once you are in prison, you will  not be able to reconcile then. You won’t have the means to repay.

Does Jesus mean that the time will come when the person will die and you’ll be  unable to reconcile?  Does He mean the time will come when God will chasten you and judge you, and it’ll be too late?  Possibly either or both of those things.  He doesn’t really explain it further than that.  But what He is saying is you can’t worship Me unless your relationships are right.  So be quick about it and make things right.  Don’t let them escalate to the place where there will be a civil judgment made and somebody loses in the end. Don’t let anger and disagreements stew and fester until they boil over and there is no more possibility of reconciliation. Don’t let it go to the place where God in, in judgment, moves in.  Act quickly. 

I think even more to the point, Jesus is saying that we must always remember our relationship to God. We must not only be concerned with the brother who we are in disagreement with, but we must think of ourselves before the ultimate Judge, who is God. God has the power over all the courts on each and heaven.  He is the Judge, and HIs laws cannot be nullified and are absolute. He has the right to demand that every last cent is repaid. So what are we to do?  Let us come to an agreement with God as quickly as possible.  Do not delay, do not put it off. 

How do you see yourself this morning in light of the law as Jesus expounds it? Have you seen that you have sinned against your brother?  Have you seen that you have sinned against God? Act now to make peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  His terms are easy, and His burden is light. Make peace with God by acknowledging your sin and confess it, and utterly repent of it without any defense or self justification. Humble yourself and if necessary even make a fool out of yourself to make things right with those whom you have hated or been angry against. 

Then the Lord will say to you, that He will forgive your sin even though you are an undeserving sinner and guilty before God, and in regards to the debt you owe that you can never repay, God  has sent Jesus into the world to pay the penalty for your sin upon the cross so that you might go free. You can be forgiven.  You can have peace with God and man.  Call upon the Lord today that you might be forgiven and receive a new heart that you may be obedient to all that He requires of you.  Don’t delay.  Call upon Jesus today. He has given us an offer of peace.  Be reconciled to God.  And in exchange, God will give you a new heart, a new nature, that you might be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  

Exceeding the righteousness of Pharisees, Matthew 5:17-20

For those of you that are visiting this morning, I should explain that we are studying the Sermon on the Mount as a series on Sunday mornings.  We have been studying it in detail over the last few months and find ourselves at this particular passage today as we look at it in the order that Jesus presented.  I would remind you that this is Jesus’s first recorded sermon as He begins His ministry on earth.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the incarnate Word made flesh, who was with God in the beginning and who was God,  came to earth as a man, and as the Messiah, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.  And in His first sermon, Jesus as King  presents His Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus declares the characteristics and blessings of a spiritual kingdom, in which He rules in the hearts and minds of His people. 

He begins by describing the essence of the citizens of the kingdom.  He does that in the first 12 verses which we call the Beatitudes.  The essence of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven details the essential nature of His citizens; those who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.  He says they recognize their spiritual bankruptcy,  they mourn over their sin, they are humble and merciful, they hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc.  Jesus delineates the essence of their nature.  It is a new nature, a spiritual nature that is given to them by God.

Then Jesus elucidates the effect of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven will have in the world. The effect of the citizens of the kingdom He says are that they are salt and light in the world.  He uses salt is a metaphor for righteousness, and light as a metaphor for truth.  By these two effects, righteousness and truth, the citizens of the kingdom of heaven affect the world and bring glory to God.

The third point in Jesus’s message is that the righteousness of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven will exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Now we touched on this last time, but we didn’t spend a lot of time on it.  However, this is a very important point.  In context, Jesus has said that He did not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it or accomplish it, to bring it about. Furthermore, He said that none of the law was going to pass away, not even the smallest point, until all of it was accomplished.   And so rather than Jesus abolishing the law, He establishes it.  Rather than Jesus coming to do away with the law, He came to fulfill all that it said, all that it represented, all that it prophesied, and He came to make it possible for His citizens to keep the law.

Now it needs to be understood that the Pharisees and the scribes were considered the most holy, righteous people in Judaism.  The common people looked up to them as the teachers of what the scriptures said.  They trusted them to properly interpret the scriptures.  And the Pharisees reveled in that perception.  They were not unlike modern day priests who go about in long robes and pointy hats and talk in measured tones and we think that they are almost other worldly.  They are considered holy men.  And they are revered.

Now the scribes and the Pharisees were undoubtedly in attendance that day when Jesus was speaking.  And notice what Jesus says.  He kind of gives them a backhanded compliment, and a condemnation at the same time.  He says, “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  So what He is saying first of all, is that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is not enough to grant them entrance into the kingdom of heaven.  Now I say it’s a backhanded compliment because on the other hand Jesus is acknowledging their righteousness.  He is acknowledging their fastidiousness in regards to keeping the law.  They were known for keeping the minutia of the law.  For instance, they tithed of mint and dill and cumin, Jesus said in another place.  They tithed 10% of their herb garden.  In another place Jesus said they fasted twice a week.  The law only required that Jews fasted once a year.  They added to that law so that they fasted 108 times a year. They were zealous for the law to an extreme level.  And yet Jesus says in effect that they are still not entering heaven.

I want to make sure you understand an important point here.  That is, you can be very religious and be unsaved.  You can be a student of the scriptures and yet be unsaved. You can be very moral and be unsaved. You can claim citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, and yet not be a part of it. There is a dangerous possibility of trusting in the wrong thing. Of resting on things that pertain to worship, but not being in a position of true worship. It is a possiblity that should be very sobering to those who claim to be evangelical Christians, but who may in effect have fallen short of what God requires.

Some of you may be aware that in the last couple of weeks there have been two high profile people from the ranks of Christian leadership who have very publicly renounced their faith and fallen away.   Interestingly, one was from a traditional, conservative, Reformed church who was a pastor and a Christian author.  He was very well known in those circles.  The other came from the other end of the evangelical spectrum.  He was a worship leader in a charismatic church who was also very well known.  I believe he wrote very popular praise songs.  And yet both of these men publicly renounced their faith and said that they no longer believed in the Christian faith.  One man pursued  Christianity from a doctrinal, intellectual approach.  The other had pursued Christianity from more of an emotional, experiential base.  And yet both fell away.

At the risk of presuming to be a judge of these men, if I were to try to come up with a reason for their fall, I would have to say in both of their cases it was very likely the same reason that the Pharisees fell short.  They were basing their citizenship in the kingdom of heaven on the performance of  external things rather than on an internal transformation of the heart.  They were basing their faith on faulty theology that focused on an outward manifestation but did not include and inward transformation.

Now let me elaborate on the religion of the scribes and Pharisees for just a minute more and then we will move on.  The religion of the scribes and Pharisees was one that was concerned more with the ceremonial than with righteousness.  Jesus said in another place that they washed the outside but inwardly they were unclean.  They were fastidious in their outward appearance, in the ceremonies, in the rituals of public worship, by which they thought they achieved righteousness.

Furthermore, they were known for their adherence to the traditions of their religion.  They interpreted the scriptures by the traditions of the elders. They had rabbinical books which interpreted and expounded the law of Moses.  And in so doing, they added to the law and in effect took away from the intent of the law through their traditions of their elders.  All in all, the result of their religion was they were very self satisfied that they had figured out and were keeping the letter of the law.  To some extent, the ultimate goal of their religion was to glorify themselves rather than to glorify God.  To make themselves look holy, to give themselves a false confidence, and to bring attention to themselves and their self righteousness to get glory from men.  Such men, Jesus said, will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

On the other hand, Jesus taught that the true citizen of the kingdom of heaven will love the law of God, because, according to Jeremiah, God has written the law upon their hearts.  The true citizen of the kingdom of heaven has a new heart, a new nature, which is the gift of God, that we might love God and do the works of God.  He is no longe opposed to the things of God, for God has transformed him by giving him a new life in Christ.  So by faith in what Christ did on the cross, we receive the righteousness of Christ credited to our account, we receive the life essence of Christ by the indwelling of His Spirit in us, so that we are spiritually born again, children of God, doing the works of God and bringing glory to God.  And that is the only way that we can have a righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now this next section of Christ’s sermon must be understood in the context of the previous verses.  That is why I spent so much time reviewing what had been said so far.  Because the danger is in looking at the following verses about the law and making wrong deductions based on looking at them in isolation.  Jesus is now going to expound the law.  The same law that He said He did not come to abolish.  The same law that the Pharisees said they were keeping, Jesus said we must exceed their efforts.  Jesus is going to expound it.

I want to point out also that Jesus connects here quite clearly the relationship between keeping the law and righteousness. Notice in vs 17 and 18 that Jesus says He is not abolishing the law.  Then in vs.19, He says if you don’t keep the law you are the least in the kingdom, and if you do keep the law then you are the greatest in the kingdom.  Then in vs.20, Jesus points to those who are perceived by the people to be the greatest, most virtuous in the kingdom and says, unless your righteousness exceeds their righteousness you cannot enter the kingdom.  So He correlates righteousness and the law.  As I said last week, you cannot define righteousness without the law.  Righteousness is not an experience, it’s holy living.  As Jesus says in vs 48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  God is righteousness, and His law is the declaration of the character of His kingdom, which is righteousness.

What I want to do then in the remainder of the time we have today is to lay down certain principles which we need to recognize in order to understand Jesus’s exposition.  Starting in vs 21, Jesus is expounding the relationship of the citizen of heaven to the law.  He does that by giving an exposition of the law, and also contrasting it with the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees.  In fact, the rest of the sermon, all the way to the end of chapter 7, is just an exposition of the statement that our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.  He expounds the true teaching of the law while contrasting it with the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now in the remainder of this chapter, Jesus presents six statements concerning the law and  the contrasting teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.  I want to point them out to you.  In vs 21 He says, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’.  The second is in vs.27, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’. The third is in vs 31 "It was said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’.  The next is vs 33, “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS.” Then in vs 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’  The sixth is in vs.43 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.'

Next week we will begin to take each one of those injunctions and examine them.  But today I want to look at them as a whole so that we can understand the overriding principles that Jesus is teaching.  There are certain things that are common to all of them, and I believe the Lord was saying this in such a way as to teach the common principles as well as the particulars of each statement.

First of all, notice the formula which Jesus uses in His exposition of the law.  Notice He says in the majority of instances, “You have heard that the ancients were told…”  What Jesus is referring to is not the law of Moses, per se, but the teachings of the Pharisees and the scribes.  These were traditions handed down from generations of scribes who had written concerning the law.  In most cases they were based on the law of Moses, but the way they had written about them and taught them had diminished or changed the original intent of the law.

Notice also that Jesus said, “you have heard…” That indicates that the common Israelite was not privy to the actual scriptures.  For one, the scriptures were hand written on scrolls.  That was painstaking work that was fastidiously done by the scribes.  Such scrolls were very scarce and very expensive.  So the average person did not have access to the scriptures.  Secondly, the scrolls were written originally in Hebrew.  After the Babylonian exile the Jews spoke Aramaic.  Only the religious leaders were trained to read Hebrew.  So whatever the average Jew knew of the Bible had to come by way of hearing it taught by the scribes and Pharisees.  And they were more inclined to teach the traditions of the elders, which was a representation of the law, than they were to teach from the actual scriptures.

So the teaching of the Lord is two fold, to give them a correct exposition of the law, and to expose the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.  And by the way,  I want to claim that formula.  I believe the job of the preacher is to preach the truth and point out false teaching and false teachers.  I get criticized sometimes for naming names and pointing out  false teachers.  So I try to talk about the false doctrine and not name the false teachers most of the time.  But I want to emphasize that the Lord doesn’t have a problem naming names.  In fact, He calls them hypocrites.  His preaching throughout His ministry was punctuated by pointing out the hypocritical, self righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes.  And so if I’m guilty of anything this morning, I am guilty of following His example. 

I told someone the other day in reference to those two pastors who publicly renounced their faith, though I grieve for these men that have  fallen away, at the same time I'm glad that they have come out, so to speak, because it exposes the shallow theology that they teach.  A lot of false teachers have defined the theology of the church today according to a warped view of scripture.  Some of what they say sounds good, but they overemphasize some doctrines at the expense of other just as essential doctrines and that leads to a lop sided, out of balance Christianity. And when a person's life hit's the fan, so to speak, and God doesn't perform according to the way we have been taught that He should, then we are left to question our faith.  A lot of people's faith fails at that point, and they fall away.  Not all as publicly as these guys, but it's just as devastating to the church.  They simply stop coming to church, stop practicing their faith, and turn back to the world.  I think that is what is happening especially to our younger generation today. Hosea 4:6  says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…"  And that lack of knowledge or doctrine is the fault of pastors and leaders who are either  tragically naive or outright unconverted.

So then in His exposition of the law, Jesus states what they have been taught in relation to the law, and then He sets forth another important principle.  He says in effect, “this is what you have been told, but I say to you.”  I want to draw your attention to that phrase, “but I say to you.” What Jesus is doing there is He is setting Himself up as the ultimate authority.   Not the religious leaders, but Jesus is the authority concerning the scriptures, because He is actually the author of scripture.  John said He was the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.  

He is basically claiming to be the one responsible for the law of Moses and therefore His interpretation is true and can be trusted.  He claims to speak as God. He claims the authority of God. That’s why the critics of Jesus had to say, “never a man spake like this man.” He was not a mere teacher of the law.  He was not a mere man. He was not just a Rabbi.  He was God incarnate.  He is the way, the truth and the life of God.  Folks that is why we study the word of God.  Jesus said in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”  

So as we consider what Jesus said, it’s important that we understand the statement as a whole before we consider the individual injunctions.  Because Jesus was teaching principles, not a new law, or even a new way to interpret the law.  He isn’t giving us a new code of ethics, which if we master these principles then we are accepted in the sight of God.But He is giving a series of illustrations which describe how Christians are going to live. 

Most of us would rather have a list, a short list perhaps, but a list of do’s and don’ts which we can keep and then be sure we are good to go. The Pharisees thought that was the case concerning the law of Moses.  And Jesus is saying that they have come up short.  It’s always easier to think of holiness or righteousness as something you can do; you are baptized, you take communion, or you observe a month of Lent, rather than to live under the principles which must be applied day after day.  If you come away from the Sermon on the Mount with the attitude that as long as you don’t murder, you don’t commit adultery, etc, then you are ok, then you have missed the point of Jesus’s sermon entirely.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not some new list, it is something which gives us life.  It lays down certain principles of spiritual life and asks us to apply them in our day to day experience. It’s essence is that it gives us a new nature and a new understanding of God’s word which we have to apply to every aspect of our lives. 

Jesus’s formula of “you have heard it said, but I say to you..” teaches the same principle in each of the six illustrations. In one illustration He i dealing with sexual morality, in another with murder and the other with divorce, but in every one the principles are the same.

The first principle which He illustrates is that the spirit of the law is the primary emphasis, not the letter.  2 Cor. 3:6 says, “for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Pharisees concentrated on the letter of the law, and ignored the spirit or intent of the law. That doesn’t mean that the letter doesn’t matter, but that we interpret the letter by the spirit. 

The second  principle Jesus is illustrating is that conformity to the law is not just actions but thoughts.  It’s the thought behind the action that matters.  Thought always precedes action. James says, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.” In other words our motives must be examined.  That’s why our hearts are of great concern to God.  Our heart is where all our actions come from.  Jesus said in Matt. 15:18-19  "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”  So the concern of the gospel is to change the heart.  Then the actions will be different.  And that order is essential.

Another principle that Jesus was teaching is that it is not what we don’t do that define us, but what we do.  If you will remember when Jesus was asked what was the foremost commandment, He did not turn to the 10 commandments, which were written mostly in the negative, what we cannot do.  But instead He turned to the commandment for what you should do; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And the second was like it, not what you don’t do, but you should love your neighbor as yourself.  And if you apply those two laws in the intent they were given, then all the don’ts of the law will also be accomplished.

The point of the law, as Jesus illustrates, is not to give us a code by which we may come to be accepted by God.  But it is intended to lead us to God.  It is given that we might come to know God. That we might come to have the life of God in us.  These six illustrations are simply to teach us the principles of living, of life, in the kingdom of heaven.  As children of God, how we might be like God, and pattern our behavior after Him. That we might be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect.  

That new life begins with a new heart, being born again, by the grace of God.  He gives us this new nature and the indwelling of His Spirit in response to our repentance of our sins, and faith in what Jesus has done to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross, and trusting in Him as our Lord and Savior. He gives us life, so we give Him our lives and live for His glory.  This life He gives us is not some burden that we have to endure.  But it is a life that is eternal, a life that is abundant, a life of joy, a life of freedom, a life of fulfillment.  I invite you today to take this life that Jesus died to procure for you.  The invitation is extended to all who will come.  Come to Jesus today, and receive forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of Christ, a new heart and  everlasting life. 

The Kingdom of Heaven and the Law, Matthew 5:17-20

We are studying the Sermon on the Mount; what might be called the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It was given by Jesus Christ the Son of God, very likely as His first public sermon on earth, or at least, the first recorded sermon that we have an account of.  Up to this point, Jesus has given us a series of Beatitudes, which are the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. In so doing, Jesus reminded of what we are, and then Jesus said what effect a Christian shall have in the world.

As we concluded our study last week, we saw that Jesus said that His citizens were to be  salt and light in the world.  As Christians, our righteousness acts as a preservative against the corruption of the world and to convict the world of sin, and the truth we share serves as a light to those in darkness and exposes the darkness.  And just as importantly, our righteousness manifests Jesus Christ to the world and cause others to come to Christ so that they may glorify God.

So this is what Jesus has been saying, that we are the children of God and citizens of heaven and we are to manifest the character of God so that the world may come to know Him and glorify Him.  Now, as Jesus continues His message, He tells us how this is done.  How we are to live a life of righteousness.  He tells us not only how we are to live righteously, but how we are to define righteousness.  And He does so by turning our attention to the law.

A lot of people today make the mistake of thinking that the law is at odds with the teaching of Jesus Christ.  And  even as Jesus was beginning His earthly ministry there were questions about whether or not Jesus kept the law, or advocated keeping the law, or whether He was bringing in a new doctrine. And so the first principle that Jesus is establishing is that His doctrine is in complete harmony with the teaching of the Old Testament.  Nothing He will say contradicts the law or the prophecies which were taught in the Old Testament.  He is not teaching something new, but rather He affirms the authority of the scriptures and His obedience and adherence to it, and therefore by extension, He asserts it’s authority over the kingdom of heaven and it’s citizens.

I feel it’s necessary to make a couple of observations at this point.  You should be aware of the fact, and I emphasize that it is an indisputable fact, that the Old Testament canon of scripture was already established as the word of God, and accepted by all Jewish scholars by 300 BC.  So the very same Old Testament that we have in our Bibles today is the very same scriptures that Jesus and the disciples had access to.  When Jesus quotes from and affirms and claims the authority of the scriptures, He is speaking of the Old Testament scriptures that we have in front of us today.  And these scriptures we have today have been shown to be reliable and accurate, especially in light of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered from caves in the 1940’s. And it is widely accepted by all scholars that most of the scrolls were written before the birth of Christ.  Those scrolls contain the same exact scriptures which we have before us today.  

I say that because some uninformed critics of the Bible tend to try to discredit the scriptures by saying they are all of relatively recent authorship.  And yet there is undeniable evidence that these writings were extant in the days of Jesus Christ and had long been accepted as the word of God.  So when the Old Testament prophesied of something that didn’t happen until the days of Christ or afterwards, we should recognize that is something remarkable; that the prophecy made hundreds of years earlier came true and was verifiable.

Now that’s important to understand and believe, because Jesus says here that “not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” He is saying that everything that is prophesied in the Old Testament, not only the future things spoken of by the prophets, but also the types of things symbolized in the Old Testament, will be fulfilled.  And a vast number of prophesies and types were given concerning Jesus.

Also it’s important to understand what Jesus means when He speaks of the law and the prophets.  That phrase refers to the entire Old Testament.  But let’s look at the word law first of all.  The law consists of three parts; the moral, judicial and ceremonial law that was given to the children of Israel.  The moral law is comprised of the 10 commandments and the moral injunctions that we laid down once for all.  The judicial law was the civic and legislative laws which were given to the nation of Israel living under theocratic rule. Then the ceremonial law referred to the laws given concerning offerings and sacrifices and their worship of God. Many of those ceremonies and rituals are what we call types, which are in effect prophecy, and which typified the ministry of Christ. So all three of those constitute what is called the law.

The word prophets, as in the law and the prophets means all that we have in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. The prophets also taught the law, as well as making prophetic statements about events to come in the course of history.  They foretell the coming of the Messiah and the future of Israel and the church.

There is one other word in Jesus’s statement which we should explain, and that’s the word translated in the NASB “accomplished.”  In the KJV it is rendered “fulfilled.”  What it means is to carry out, to fulfill in the sense of giving full obedience to it, carrying out everything that has been said in the law and the prophets.   Now let’s look at what Jesus said.

Vs. 17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  The primary principle that Jesus is giving here is that God’s law is absolute.  It is absolute and eternal. It doesn’t change from culture to culture, from one generation to another.  Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.”  That permanence is expressed by the Lord in the phrase, “until heaven and earth pass away…”  The word of the Lord, the law and the prophets, shall never pass away until all is accomplished.

When the Lord said “jot or title” that indicates the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the smallest stroke in the smallest letter. In other words, even the smallest detail of the law will be fulfilled, all will be accomplished before heaven and earth pass away.  Every prophecy, every type, every law will be fulfilled, will be completely carried out. Furthermore, rather than modifying the law, or changing the law, or abolishing the law, Jesus is saying that He has come to accomplish the law.  All the law and the prophets point to Him and will be fulfilled in Him to the smallest detail.

We need to recognize that Jesus confirms the whole of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi. He recognizes it’s authority. He affirms it’s accuracy.  As you look at the ministry of Jesus, you will notice that He quotes from almost all of it.  He especially quotes from Genesis, especially the creation story and even from the story of Jonah and the whale.  The parts of the OT that the critics love to dismiss, Jesus quotes as evidence which points to Himself.  To deny the truth of those passages is to deny the truthfulness of Jesus Christ, which is to deny that He was holy and righteous. I will go further and say that if you deny the legitimacy of the Old Testament, then in effect you deny the legitimacy of Jesus Christ and HIs power to save.  If you claim to believe in Jesus Christ, then you must believe in the word of God, because Jesus affirmed that it was authoritative and cannot be annulled.  In John 10:35 Jesus said, “the Scripture cannot be broken.” It’s God’s word that is going to be accomplished to the minutest detail.

Now how this fulfillment of the law and the prophets is accomplished is something that Jesus compels us to consider. Think of the prophecies concerning His birth.  His birthplace in  the tiny town of Bethlehem was prophesied hundreds of years before He was born.  Everyone knew that the scriptures said He was to be born in Bethlehem.  And yet they somehow missed it. 

Consider the description of His ministry that was prophesied in Isaiah 53.  Jesus fulfilled it perfectly, and yet they missed it because they wanted a king to overthrow their enemies, not a Savior who would redeem His people. I wish I could read all of Isaiah 53 this morning, but I don’t have the time.  Let me just quote a few lines; “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” Jesus fulfilled these prophesies of the Messiah being our Savior down to the smallest detail.

In Psalm 22 David wrote centuries before Christ how He would die in minute detail. Listen to this;  “I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;  They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”  Written hundreds of years before His death on the cross, and yet it all was accomplished exactly as David prophesied.  

If time permitted, I could give you many more examples of ways in which Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the Old Testament.  We must never separate the Old and the New Testament as if they are divergent from one another.  But we understand the Old from the New and the New from the Old.  And the gospel of Christ is found intertwined in it’s passages from Genesis to Revelation.

Let’s consider further how Chris fulfills the law. In Galatians 4:4 Paul said, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  Notice, that Christ was born as a man under the law. He was made under the law, as one who had to carry it out.  God showed the absoluteness of HIs law by making His Son to be under it.   And Jesus kept the law down to it’s minute detail. No  one could find any evidence to accuse Him of breaking the law in any respect. He obeyed it perfectly, not only in letter, but in it’s intent. 

Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it, but also in bearing the penalty of it for our sakes.  The cross of Calvary is not understandable except in the context of the law.  The crucifixion is often displayed in a sentimental manner.  We focus on the physical suffering of the cross from a standpoint of injustice of an innocent man.  But the doctrine of the cross is so much more than that.  What happened on the cross was that the Holy  Son of God was enduring in His body the penalty prescribed by the law for our sins.  For your sins and mine, He bore our penalty as required by the law.  The law required death.  Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death.”  Jesus came to fulfill the law, and the law required punishment for sin which is death.  And so Jesus suffered and died on the cross to pay that penalty for us.

Please understand that God forgives sin not because He chose to ignore it, or wink at it, but because He exacted the punishment that was due to us on His only Son. God did not disregard the law in order to save us, but He punished Jesus for our transgressions.

Furthermore, we see that Jesus fulfilled the law by fulfilling all the Old Testament types that served as prophesies concerning Him.  When we read in the OT about all the sacrifices, and the altar, and the ceremonies of the temple, and so forth, we see that they all are pictures, shadows or types of the ministry of Jesus Christ.  He has fulfilled and carried out all the symbols and types pictured in the ceremonies and rituals of the OT.  He is the high priest, He is the offering, He is the sacrifice, and He has presented His blood in heaven so that the entire ceremonial law is fulfilled in Him.

To take this idea of fulfillment one step further, consider that Jesus has fulfilled the law in us and through us by His Holy Spirit.  That’s what Paul says in Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did:] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”   Notice that Paul connects the way that Christ fulfills the law Himself and fulfills the law in us.  

In other words, Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and we are to do the same.  As Peter said in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”   Jesus accomplishes this in us by giving us the Holy Spirit to enable us to love the law and keep it.  We are given the righteousness of Christ which makes us holy, that we might receive the Holy Spirit, by whom we are able to be righteous and live righteously because we have a new heart and a new nature.  This new heart we have been given enables us to love the law.  We are no longer at enmity with God, but we love the things of God.

As God promised through the prophet Jeremiah, (Jer. 31:33) "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  The law is written in our hearts and minds so that we want to fulfill it and we are empowered to do so.

Then Jesus says that "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others [to do] the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches [them,] he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  So then it remains for us to keep them.  The question is how are we to do this?

Well in regards to the ceremonial law, we have shown that it has already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  All the rituals and ceremonies and types in the temple were accomplished by Jesus Christ. As proof of that, the temple was destroyed, the sacrifices abolished, and the veil of the temple was torn into opening up the holy of holies.  I fulfill the ceremonial law then by believing in Him and submitting myself to Him.  In regards to the ceremonial law then, we have rest in Christ because they were fulfilled in Him.  As Heb. 4:9 says, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”

Now in regards to the judicial law, we understand that this was primarily for the nation of Israel under the theocracy of God’s rule of the nation.  Jesus said in Matthew 21:43 "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”  This new people of God is now the church.  1Peter 2:9-10 says, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God's] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

There is no longer a theocratic nation, so the judicial law has been fulfilled as well.

There remains then the moral law. The moral law is the standard for righteousness.  It is delineated not only by what we must not do, but what we must do.  Jesus said the greatest and foremost commandment was you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and all your mind.”  That is a continual, permanent law for all mankind.  

And He says the second is like it; “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”  So all the moral law is comprised in these two commandments, which are not just for the theocratic nation, but for the entire world.  It is the basis for our relationship to God.  Peter quoted the Lord as saying, “You shall be holy even as I am holy.”  We cannot comprehend holiness outside of the moral law.  We cannot know righteousness outside of the moral law.  And we are commanded to be holy and righteous in the New Testament just as He is holy and righteous.   So the moral law still applies to us.

Finally then, we must ask, what is the relationship of the Christian to the law? The Christian is not under the law as a covenant of works. Our salvation does not depend upon keeping it. Salvation is by faith in the New Testament just as it was in the Old Testament. Christ has delivered us from the curse of the law.  The curse is death.  Jesus paid that penalty for those that believe in Him.  So we are not under the curse of the law.  But we still live under it as a standard of righteousness. 

The problem today is that many confuse the relationship between law and grace.  The law was never meant to save man.  Abraham was declared righteous by God because of His faith.  The law didn’t come until 430 years later.  The law came, according to Paul, to show us our sin and the need for a Savior.  Paul said the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

In a similar fashion, people have a false view of grace. They think grace has nothing to do with the law.  That’s what is called antinomianism, claiming grace so that they might live in sin and think that it has nothing to do with our sanctification.  Paul wrote in Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

The whole premise of grace is to provide a way to enable us to keep the law.  We are justified by grace, because Jesus paid our penalty, and then having been declared righteous we are able to receive the Holy Spirit so that we are empowered to live righteously.  The Holy Spirit isn’t given to give us an “experience” so that we can experience God.  We show that we are children of God because we keep His commandments, according to 1 John 2:3. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:  the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."

The problem with many of us is that we have the wrong view of holiness.  It is a dangerous thing to misconstrue holiness and sanctification as some sort of experience to be received. Holiness means righteousness, and being righteous means keeping the law. Therefore if your so called grace does not make you keep the law, you haven’t received grace, but merely a psychological experience.   Grace is the gift of God that delivers us from the curse of the law, enables us to keep the law as Christ kept the law and to be righteous as Christ was righteous. Grace is that which causes me to love God, and love His law.  And because I love Him, I keep His commandments.  John 14:15  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

In summary, Jesus makes the case that the law of God has never been annulled. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. HIs word endures forever.  He gave Himself for us that we might become righteous and holy, a peculiar people, a holy nation, that we might do the works of God, that we might act like sons and daughters of God.  

Jesus goes on to say that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  We will consider that more next week, but suffice it to say that God intends for us to exceed even the meticulous law keeping of the Pharisees.  He wants us to keep the spirit of the law as well as the letter.  The Pharisees were artful dodgers in the sense that they interpreted the law so that they might appear to keep the letter of the law, but miss the intent of the heart.  Remember, God said in Jeremiah that He would write His law upon our hearts.  That is what is necessary to keep the law.  It requires a new heart, a heart that desires the things of God, that loves what He loves and despises what He despises.  

I wonder if someone here today recognizes that they fail to meet the righteous standard of God because they have not received a new heart and a new spiritual nature as the gift of God.   I want to encourage you today, if that is your situation, that you call upon the Lord to forgive your sins, believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior who paid the penalty on the cross for your sins, and if you do that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He will give you new life, a new heart, and a new nature, so that you might be born again into the kingdom of heaven, and enable you to be the son or daughter of God so that you may do the works of God.  Don’t put it off.  Call on the Lord today and be saved.