Please turn the Word of God to Matthew chapter 5. Continuing our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We have seen Jesus dealing with the subjects of Christian character in verses 3 through 12. That's the Beatitudes. And then he dealt with Christian influence in verses 13 through 16. And now he'll be discussing Christian righteousness. Christian righteousness in really verse 17 to the end of the chapter and this will technically be the what you might consider I know this is all part of the Sermon on the Mount but this portion of text we're looking at verses 17 to 20 are really the first of a three-part study of what we might call radical righteousness radical righteousness because Jesus is going to say some things that are well pretty radical I've already mentioned to you that the Sermon on the Mount is the most well-known and the most misinterpreted passage in all the Bible. And these verses before us this morning are among some of the most misinterpreted. They are much disputed. And so today's study is going to be a little more technical. I'm just going to say that up front. I don't apologize for that. It is heavier on the doctrinal side of things. Sometimes the word of God brings us to a place where the doctrinal load is very heavy. And so you know I don't apologize for that but I do warn you in advance we need to be very careful to listen and pay attention so that we do not misunderstand what God is saying to us through his word. So let's stand once again out of respect for the reading of God's word. Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20. Let's read our text. There the Lord Jesus says, do not think Then 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 the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls 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. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That's the reading of God's word. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we approach you as a God who is thrice holy. And Lord, we only understand what that means in a veiled sense through your holy word, but experientially, we are so far removed from your holiness. And Lord, it is truly a terrifying thing to think of how holy you are, how set apart from sin, because we ourselves are sinners. And so, Father, as we come to your word today, we pray that your spirit would do a work in us. Oh, Lord, please deal gently and patiently with your people. You are so gracious. You are so long suffering. But Lord, please do a work of righteousness in us. Please draw us out of sin and make us more like Jesus Christ. I pray that you would use this text to do that, to stimulate our thinking, to convict us of any way that we would be in our words, our actions, our thoughts, displeasing to you. Father, please give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness that will not die. And Father, I pray for anybody in the midst of us who does not have the hunger and thirst because they are not your people. Please also convict them. Show them the impossibility of entering heaven without Christ. In Jesus name. Amen. We like to know what important public figures think about important public issues. For instance, someone speaking as President of the United States had better be prepared to give his opinion on important public issues, on very difficult issues, on controversial issues, because as the public, we all want to know. We want to know what's the President's position on such and such. And of course, this matter is compounded, it is more complicated by the fact that any public figure, like a president, will have misinformation flying around and so we, who are trying to listen to someone in that, some public figure's position like that, will have to sort through fact and fiction. What does he or she actually believe? What did he or she actually say? And I can't think of a more important public figure than the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't think of a more important public issue than the law of God. And Jesus Christ as the king coming into this world and beginning his public ministry is offering to his disciples the kingdom. That's sort of how we began the sermon in studying verses 1 and 2 of this chapter, Matthew chapter 5. But Jesus also has many opponents. He has many from high places in the religious establishment of his time that oppose him. They oppose his teaching. And they are very much bent on spreading lies and misunderstandings about his teaching. And so now the king, Jesus himself, is going to set the record straight. Jesus is going to tell us what he thinks about God's law. And I mentioned this passage has been often misinterpreted. That's not Jesus' fault. Jesus has been clear enough. But we sinners are greatly confused often and we confuse the issue because of our tendency to unbiblical extremes. Now let me just give two of you at the outset of our study two such unbiblical extremes when it comes to this very passage we're going to look at. The first on the one hand we have is called the Hebrew Roots Movement. Now these are modern day Judaizers. Just like Paul warned about in the book of Galatians, you can read about them in the Bible, you can read about them in the book of Acts. They want to bring Christians in this age under the yoke of the Old Testament law of Moses. Now there's nothing wrong with deciding that you for yourself are going to keep the Levitical diet or follow the Levitical calendar and you don't want to celebrate Christmas or whatever. Hey, you know what? More power to you. The Bible teaches that is your right. That is your prerogative in Christ. But for any such brother or sister to demand that other Christians, other believers must do the same because that is God's law for you. For somebody to say that, that's legalism. That is doing exactly what the Judaizers did in the days of Paul. It directly contradicts the New Testament teaching. It's actually heresy. There's much more I could say on that, but that is on one end of the spectrum, an error that many have, where many have gone wrong, they have misinterpreted Christ here. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have another extremist error, and that is those who would view the Old Testament as though it is sort of an embarrassment to our faith. It is something to be set aside, neglected, ignored, discarded, or whatever. just as the heretic Marcion in the second century did, second century AD, he sought to purge the New Testament of any semblance of the Old Testament, any trace of the Old Testament scriptures. And naturally one of the texts that Marcion removed in his own rendition of the Gospels was the very text we are studying this morning. No, we need to take seriously what Jesus says here. So we avoid these unbiblical extremes. And Jesus here, I want us to see, affirms how we should regard the Old Testament. And he begins by pointing us to a radical sort of righteousness. He's already mentioned righteousness in the sermon. In verse six, he talked about the desire that God's true people will have for righteousness. this hunger and thirst. And we saw in that study how that righteousness is doing things that please God, yes, and also involves in the New Testament being in a right standing that is pleasing to God. In verse 10, Jesus also mentions, we've seen, that His people will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. So Christ has mentioned righteousness already, but now He's going to unpack the sort of righteousness that we need, a Christian righteousness, a righteousness that is radical in the eyes of the world. And this will demand first neutralizing a misunderstanding concerning his own ministry, concerning his own relationship to the law. We'll see that in verses 17 and 18. And then Jesus is going to explain the relationship which we are to have to the law as his children. And that's verses 19 and 20. So and then he's going to conclude with what is one of the most shocking statements in all this sermon so just hang on. Now we can't cover the entire rest of the chapter today but the big idea here that we are going to begin to see is that Christ is calling his people to be radically righteous. Today we're just going to begin to see that by answering two questions from our text. What was Christ's relationship to the law and what is the Christians relationship? to the law. So first, what was Christ's relationship to the law? Verses 17 and 18. Verse 17, Jesus said, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. Jesus anticipates a possible misunderstanding from his listeners, namely that he aimed to abolish the law and the prophets. And the word translated abolish is a very strong term. It's a word Jesus used elsewhere to describe tearing down the temple. It means utterly dismantle, utterly destroy or demolish. Now, why would Jesus even need to say such a thing? If you read the gospels, for instance, according to Mark's gospel, Jesus began his public ministry. in such a way, with teaching with such authority, that people hearing and seeing him were saying, what is this? He teaches with this new incredible authority, a new teaching with authority, Mark 1 27. And Jesus didn't just speak with incredible authority, he acted with it. If you read again the early chapters of Mark you will see that the scribes and Pharisees were convinced that Jesus was breaking the law. They were so convinced they even put Jesus to the test to see whether he would heal somebody on the Sabbath day. And what do you know? Jesus violated at least their understanding of the fourth commandment. So Jesus' enemies were under this impression. They were convinced. that Jesus was out to abolish the law. And in speaking with such unparalleled authority, they asked, what is to keep him from discarding the Old Testament scriptures? All of it entirely. Well, to these Jesus answers, do not think. Don't even think about it. Do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. He could not be more clear. He says, don't think it to be so. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. All right. So here's the million dollar question in verse 17. What did Jesus mean? By fulfill. What did he mean that he had come to fulfill scripture, fulfill the law and the prophets here? Well, I want to give you three ways Jesus fulfilled the law according to scripture. First, he fulfilled the law and that he fulfilled its prescriptions. He fulfilled its prescriptions. Jesus fulfilled the law in that he obeyed it. He did what the law said perfectly to a T. Now again the Pharisees didn't think so but this was because in their zeal to keep the law they had added their own laws to the scripture. It's like this is where God drew a line and they put a fence around that line and a fence around that fence and a fence around that fence and they said Jesus you're breaking the law because he stepped over their fence. For instance, they devised a law that said you could keep someone from dying on the Sabbath, like, for instance, if they were bleeding out, you could literally, you know, stop their blood, put a tourniquet on or something, but you could not heal anybody on the Sabbath. That would be a violation in their interpretation of the fourth commandment. Another example of this is when God told the Levitical priests that they must wash their hands before they offer sacrifices. Well, the Pharisees took that and they said, well, you must wash your hands before you eat if you want to be clean. Otherwise, you would be spiritually defiled. They were adding to God's laws. So when we see the Pharisees accusing Jesus of not keeping the Sabbath in the Bible or violating the law of Moses in some respect, this is not because Jesus had actually violated God's law. Rather, he violated their interpretation of God's law, including all the laws they added to God's law. Does that make sense? There's a difference there. Jesus so perfectly fulfilled God's actual law that he could boldly say before all people, he could say, John 8, 46, which of you convicts me of sin? Now, just I think it's maybe a good piece of advice. Don't ask your spouse. Right. Don't ask your coworkers. Don't ask your children. Don't just don't ask people. Show me any wrong in my life. Right. Which of you can show me anything about my life where I have disobeyed, I've done anything wrong? If you do that, brothers and sisters, you're opening yourself up to hear some things that could be pretty hurtful. Because all of us are unclean. All of us are an unclean thing. We have all hurt other people. We have all wronged God. None of us is perfect. But no one could stick anything to Jesus. Jesus could say, show me where I've sinned. And they couldn't come up with anything. Pilate three times in Jesus' trial said, I have found no wrong in this man. Jesus was innocent, a lamb without blemish or spot. This is because Jesus is the Christ who perfectly fulfilled God's righteousness. All of it. So here's the sense in which this word fulfill is being used in Matthew chapter 3. If you go just a couple chapters before in your Bible, Matthew chapter 3 verse 15, Jesus tells John the Baptist that it was necessary for him to fulfill all righteousness. John had to baptize Jesus. This was part of God's plan. Jesus was going to do everything that the Father prescribed for him to do. Jesus came to keep the law entirely, all of its prescriptions. Now it's been asked, well, if Jesus kept the laws given to Israel, we're talking about all the laws, Levitical calendar, dietary restrictions, all of the laws given to Israel, then why doesn't the church? And the answer is because Jesus was a Jewish man born under the Jewish law. For our sakes He was born under the law. Galatians 4.4 says, But when the fullness of 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. In other words, it was necessary for Jesus to place Himself under the law in order to redeem us. or those who are under the law. And of course if you continue reading Galatians you'll see that by Christ keeping the law there's been a dramatic change with regards to his people's relationship to the law of Moses. Jesus added nothing then to the law but this. Perfect obedience. Perfect obedience. And it is only on account of Jesus' perfect law-keeping that we can be redeemed. It is only because Jesus fulfilled all righteousness in a practical sense that His righteousness can now be offered to you. This is good news. And if you don't believe that, then you're going to have to find some other way of working your way to heaven, right? That would be a scary, frightful thing. Thank God Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law. He satisfied its prescriptions. So Jesus fulfilled the law in the sense that he fulfilled its prescriptions. How else did he fulfill the law? The Bible teaches he fulfilled the law secondly, and that he fulfilled its predictions. Okay, and I guess I have those reversed up there. Never mind that. He fulfilled its predictions. When Jesus said, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets, this was how the Jews commonly referred to all of the Hebrew scriptures. as the Law and the Prophets. From Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament presents a coherent story. It's a unified whole. A story that points to the Christ that would come. These scriptures are filled with prophecies. You know that if you've spent any time in the Old Testament. There's a lot of prophecies in the Old Testament scriptures. Filled with predictions made by God about a coming Savior. I mean, He's got all kinds of titles. And that is fulfilled in Christ. Now, some of these predictions are clear. Some of the predictions were clear, like the place where the Messiah would be born. Some of those predictions were not so clear. They were less clear, like the death and suffering, the crucifixion of our Lord. But of the four Gospels, no writer is so aware of the prophecy, the fulfillment of prophecy as Matthew. He's writing presumably two Jews who were very aware, very interested in the Old Testament. And so this is how Matthew most commonly uses this word fulfilled, the word Jesus is using in Matthew 517. He uses, Matthew uses this word to describe how Jesus was accomplishing what scripture predicted from ancient times. For instance, The very first time the word occurs in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 22. After explaining how the angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph and announced Jesus coming as a savior, we are told, now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. And I could give you many more examples in Matthew's gospel. But you see, he begins his gospel by wanting you to know Jesus is the fulfillment. He is the one that the scriptures were predicting. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And you can see some of this messianic consciousness in Jesus' very statement that he had regarding himself in verse 17. Look again at what Christ says here in verse 17. Do not think. that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. You know, that language, you think about that, you really meditate about this. This language Jesus is using, I would say in combination with what we see elsewhere in Jesus' statements, it really suggests he was convinced he was sent from God. Jesus had a mission in life. He understood himself as having come from the Father in fulfillment of what the prophet said. In fact, I thought it would be very interesting. I only can share with you a fraction of what I uncovered in this study. But if you just do a study on all the statements where Jesus says, I have come that or the scriptures say Jesus came that it's a wonderful, fascinating study. And here Jesus is saying, I have come. Just think about that. Come in fulfillment of everything predicted before. Jesus was so convinced of his fulfillment of the prophets that he had the audacity to say to Jewish people in John 5, 46, if you believe Moses, you wouldn't believe me. If you believe Moses, you would have believed me because Moses wrote about me. That was Jesus consciousness, this messianic consciousness. He was convinced he's the fulfillment of scripture. After his resurrection in Luke 24, 44, Jesus tells his disciples, These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you. Then all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Jesus says all that, law, prophets, Psalms. There's no more consummate expression of the entirety of scripture in Jesus' words. And he says, all of that was written about me. Do you believe that? Well, that's what Jesus believed and taught about himself. He came to fulfill that. Yes, Christ fulfilled the law by fulfilling its prescriptions and fulfilling its predictions. But finally, Jesus came to fulfill the law in the sense that he fulfilled its purpose. fulfilled its purpose and in so saying I'm not suggesting that there is no longer any purpose for the law or any purpose for the Old Testament Scriptures. We will consider that purpose in some more in a moment but we must realize that Christ fulfilled the purpose of all Old Testament Scripture in the sense that he brought it to its completion. That's really the semantic force of what Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 is saying. It opens in this way. You had the prophets. God has been speaking in various ways in the last days. Now he's spoken to us through his son. In other words, Christ is the culmination of all Old Testament revelation. You know, there are things that are said to be fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament, in Matthew's gospel in particular, that at first glance do seem a bit baffling. Let me give you one example. In Matthew chapter 2 verse 15, Matthew tells us how that as a small child Jesus remained in Egypt until the death of Herod. And Matthew says, this was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Out of Egypt I have called my son. Matthew citing from Hosea, Hosea 11, 1. But in that context, Hosea is clearly talking about God calling his people Israel, the nation of Israel out of Egypt. So what's going on here? Is Matthew twisting the scripture to make it fit his Christian agenda? Not at all. Matthew and all of the New Testament writers understood that even though Hosea was speaking directly about the nation of Israel as God's son, yet God through Hosea was also prefiguring what he would do with his literal son. in bringing him out of Egypt. Israel par excellence. That is Christ. Jesus is everything Israel failed to be. Israel failed to keep the law. Israel failed to bring the light to the nations. Jesus fulfilled that. Jesus is what Israel really failed to be. Now, that won't make sense to you, this idea that that even the prophets could be pointing to Christ in ways that they were not directly themselves conscious of. That will not make sense to you unless you are willing to concede that the Bible is a divine book. It is a book from God. But for those of us who believe that, of course, that shouldn't at all be a problem. God could do that with a divine book. Another clear example, by the way, of how the Old Testament finds its completion in Christ is the entire sacrificial system. And there's just so much we could say here. The Levitical laws are literally saturated with types and symbols that point to Jesus. Paul recognized this when he said in Colossians 2.17, these things, speaking of the Old Testament, speaking of things that people in that culture in Colossi were trying, they were trying to pull the Gentile believers into keeping all the food laws and the calendar laws and all that, saying this is what you have to do to please God, to be a Christian, all that. And Paul says, no, no, no, no. These things were a mere shadow of what is to come. But the substance, belongs to Christ. He says, you want to know what the sacrificial system was about? You want to know what the dietary laws are about? You want to know what the calendar laws and all that stuff was about? And you're getting through the Old Testament and you're like, man, I can't even, I can't even get through this. I don't understand all these details. And what does it have to do with my life? And what does it have to do with Christ? Well, it has everything to do with Jesus. That's what it has to do with your life. It's pointing you to Christ. It's showing you that all of the scriptures are about Jesus, not in the sense necessarily that it's a direct prediction, but in the sense that all the scriptures saying this is God's plan. It's my son. Hear him. Look to him. Believe on him and be saved. As Bishop Ryle put it, the Old Testament is the gospel in the bud. The New Testament is the gospel in full flower. That is so true. My pastor used to say, and it's it's always been said that the Old Testament is in the New Testament concealed. I'm sorry. I should say the Old New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed. But the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. And that's exactly the way these two testaments, part one and part two of your Bible, work together. And Christ is the key of interpretation that makes it all make sense. Paul explained it this way in Romans 10, one through four. Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Christ is the end of the law. The word is telos, end or goal or culmination. And to illustrate what Paul is saying here, think of an acorn. You know, our neighbors got this big oak tree and they're constantly bombing our yard with acorns. And if you wanted to bring about the end of an acorn, you could do it in one of two ways. The first way would most obviously be you could just take a hammer and smash that thing. And you have utterly abolished the acorn. You have brought it to an end. But another way that you might bring an end to the acorn, this is really the way Paul is talking about the end of the law, is that you could put the acorn in the ground. And you could let it develop through different stages into its full potential and let it flower into a full-orbed oak tree. And now the acorn has reached its end, its telos. And that's what Paul's saying. about Christ. He's not saying Christ ended the law in the sense of destroying it or abolishing it in that sense. But he ended the law in the sense of bringing it to culmination. The law, the whole plan of law was about Christ. And now that Christ has come, Things are different now. That should be obvious to the New Testament believer. Amen. Christ has not destroyed the law. He has fulfilled it. I like how the NIV says it. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. This is why we no longer offer sacrifices for sin. The sacrificial system has been fulfilled. This is why we no longer have a special class of believers that we call priests. I am not a priest. Well, I guess technically I am, but no different than the sense in which you are a priest. We are all priests to God. We don't have a special class, a Levitical priesthood that we have to go to to approach God. The Levitical priesthood has been fulfilled and has given way to a new priesthood, the priesthood of all believers. The temple has fulfilled its purpose. The veil has been rent in two. The separation between the holy place and the holiest of holies has been abolished because the law has finally been fulfilled. The New Testament is plain that far more than the sacrificial system changed after Christ came, But don't miss it. A change in the sacrificial system, a change in the Levitical priesthood, a change in the temple, the veil, circumcision as a right of entry into the covenant, all that can only mean one thing. There has been a change in the law. It's not that God didn't do anything right or messed anything up. It's like the Bible teaches the law of Moses, just as the rest of the Old Testament still has a purpose that is indispensable for the New Testament believer. But this purpose is not the same as it was for the nation of Israel. We are under a new covenant, a new and better covenant, mind you. Galatians 3, 24 and 25 says, therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. What's the tutor of the law? You're not under the tutor, you're not under the law, you're under Christ. That was the plan of the law, to bring you to Christ. So God hasn't changed, His purposes haven't changed, but His purpose for the law of Moses has been fulfilled. That's what scripture teaches. That's why Jesus came to fulfill the law. It's prescriptions, it's predictions, and it's purpose. Jesus now goes on to say that it would be absurd then to think that he came to abolish the scriptures because God's word cannot be abolished. Look at verse 18. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Jesus is saying the law could not be accomplished. The law could not be abolished, only fulfilled. The fact Jesus only mentions the law here in verse 18 as opposed to the law and the prophets like he has in verse 17 is, as one scholar explains, not reason to suppose he was deliberately omitting the prophets. Rather, the law was a comprehensive term for the total divine revelation of the Old Testament. None of it will pass away or be discarded, he says, not a single letter or part of a letter until all has been fulfilled. It is the spoken word of God that brought heaven and earth into existence. And so I think it's fitting here that Jesus announces the longevity of God's word in terms of creation. He says, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Now there's so much I could say here. And if you read commentaries, they are hardly helpful because they will give you a lot of different variations and interpretations. I do highly respect D.A. Carson. He's a fine Bible scholar and very sound in his theology from my estimation. D.A. Carson claims that until heaven and earth disappear is actually a metaphor. It's meant to be taken figuratively, and he goes through the fact that This is the case in Hebrew first century literature. But whatever the case, he says, until heaven and earth disappear simply means until the end of the age, then never as long as the present order, world order persists. And so there are I'm just saying there are different ways to understand Jesus statement here. But whatever the case, Jesus emphasis is on the fact that all scripture will be fulfilled in its minutest detail. not, his emphasis is not, I repeat, that every detail of the law of Moses will remain binding on believers for all time, which the New Testament clearly denies. Then you would be saying Jesus completely contradicts things he says elsewhere and contradicts clear teachings of the New Testament. So I like how R.T. France put it, I'll just say this and move on, the law is unalterable, yes, the law is unalterable But that does not justify its application beyond the purpose for which it is intended. And that is so well stated. And if you understand that, you'll understand, I believe, Jesus' teaching here very clearly without falling to a wrong extreme. Now notice Jesus' attitude towards scripture here. He really betrays some of his own attitude toward the Word of God and I think we should reflect this. This ought to be your attitude when you come to hear the Word of God every Sunday or in your own time with the Word of God. We see here proof that Jesus believed all of Scripture down to the minutest detail was verbally inspired of God. Do you believe that? Second Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. This means that everything in the Old Testament is profitable. It is given for our benefit, even those of us who are living as part of a new covenant. Yes, that scripture is still beneficial. It is given for our learning. We need it. One commentator rightly said that to ignore the Old Testament would make us one legged Christians. And I think some people are trying to walk around like that, hobble around with half of the Bible. No, you need all of it. It's there for a reason. It hasn't passed away. And Jesus was also certain God's word would accomplish precisely what God intended. You see that also in his statement in verse 18. Just as Isaiah 55, 10 and 11 explains, God's word will always accomplish what he sent it to. So Jesus was certain all scripture would accomplish all of God's purpose. And this is, as Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, the central claim, which is made by our Lord. It is in other words that all the law and all the prophets point to Him and we will be fulfilled in Him down to the smallest detail. Everything that is in the law and the prophets culminates in Christ and He is the fulfillment of them. It is the most stupendous claim that He ever made. Now in verses 21 through 48 Jesus repeats a formula And we're going to look at this in the next couple of weeks, Lord willing. But he repeats this formula. You have heard it said, but I say to you or. It was said, but I say and you see the six different instances. And so some have misunderstood Jesus in the following context as if he were undermining or setting aside the Old Testament. You know, you know, you heard what the Old Testament said. Forget it. That is not at all the case here. I just want to remind you we've just heard Jesus say the minutest detail of the law will not pass away until all is fulfilled. Jesus has a high regard for the law of God and when we study the rest of the chapter we will see Jesus is not jettisoning the Old Testament then. He's going to be challenging the Pharisees misinterpretation of the Old Testament and again there's a big difference there. All right we've seen Christ's relationship to the law but we must ask secondly what is the Christian's relationship to the law? This is what we see in verses 19 and 20 namely. Jesus has asserted his relationship to the law. We saw that in verse 17. He's come to fulfill it and he's reinforced the idea that God's law will stand until all is accomplished. Now he gives us the consequence of this fact in verse 19. 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. To sum it up, here we see the true mark of Christian greatness. The true mark of Christian greatness, it is obedience to God's law. Jesus wants us to understand the importance of obeying scripture. It dearly matters to God. And the first thing to note here is that this is an all in-house matter. Can I see an in-kingdom matter? Jesus isn't talking here in verse 19 about people who are outside the covenant, but only those believers who are already a part of his kingdom. And Jesus is describing God's reward. The fact that some will be great. There's some idea of ranking here. There's a variance of reward for all who will enter heaven one day. Jesus will later return to this subject in chapter 6. He's going to say more about it. Rewards in heaven versus recognition on earth. So this is clearly on his mind. Sure, the Bible teaches all believers receive the same salvation. We're not disputing that. In our community group, if you were there a few weeks ago, We had the opportunity of studying the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, and I love how Jesus makes plain. All who come into Christ receive Christ, the same Christ. It's the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism for all. Salvation is not different for anyone, it's the same. But the Bible does not teach that God is going to give every saint the same reward. Did you know that? And this is plain in scripture. In the kingdom to come, there will be those who are considered great, those who are also considered least. And I'll qualify that in a moment, but I do want you to see here, according to Jesus, greatness in the kingdom is not a popularity contest. It has to do with how much you valued God's word. How much you valued God's word as evident in your life and in your teaching, how you influence or did not influence others. 2 Corinthians 5.10 says to believers, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for the deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. And Jesus says, Christians then who belittle obedience, they belittle the Word of God, they belittle His commandments and lead others to do the same, they will suffer loss. They are those that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3. They are saved even though only as one escaping through the flames, 1 Corinthians 3.15. No, there's not going to be strife over who got what. There's not going to be pride over who did what. There will be no boasting. but there will be rewards. Jesus clearly teaches not everyone will receive the same reward because God doesn't reward laziness. God doesn't reward negligence. God doesn't reward unfaithfulness. He doesn't reward disobedience to scripture, disobedience to his commandments. So what is the true mark of greatness in the kingdom? Jesus says it is obedience. That should sober us. But if that concerns you, just look at verse 20. Jesus said, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is saying the bare minimum for Christian righteousness. The bare minimum for Christian righteousness far exceeds this world's most righteous persons, this world's most righteous organizations. I know we're a very secular culture and we're very far removed from the Pharisees of Jesus' day, so it's difficult for us to appreciate the weight of the statement of verse 20, but just consider this analogy, maybe this will help. Some of us might be intimidated at the thought of perhaps undergoing basic training, you know, boot camp, you know, and there's of course a lot of physical requirements for such a thing but far beyond the physical requirements of the military's basic training are those guys that punish their bodies to enter into the special forces and you know somewhat legendary but beyond we think of the special forces and beyond all that, some of the physical legends in our mind are the Navy SEALs. I mean, these are the guys that are as tough as they come. They are pushing their body to the absolute physical limits. And so now imagine Jesus saying something like this, just for illustration, unless your physical fitness far surpasses that of the Navy SEALs, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now that would be crazy, right? Exactly. In effect, Jesus says, if you want to enter the kingdom, entry level righteousness for entrance alone begins with far surpassing the most moral people in your culture. That was the Pharisees. They had it hands down. Jesus is saying, you see those guys over there whose entire lives are devoted to keeping all 613 commandments of the law? Those guys who are pushing the limits when it comes to law keeping. They're breaking the records. They're gonna be in the spiritual hall of fame, right? And Jesus says, yeah, your righteousness is gonna have to far surpass theirs if you're gonna make it at all. Say what? Come again, Jesus. Please tell me I heard you wrong. Jaws dropped, gasps were audible, I'm sure this was completely radical because this was the public perception of the Pharisees. They were the best. I mean, forget about being great in the kingdom, right? I just want to be least now. I just want to get in. That's the connection here between 19 and 20. And what really grabbed me when translating this in the Greek was that the text actually is emphatic. Jesus is talking about your righteousness surpassing greatly or by far the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. So one commentator paraphrases Jesus this way. Do not think. that I have come to make things easier by reducing the demands of the law. Far from it. In fact, if your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never make it. I think that's it in a sense. So then how can we ever hope to attain the righteousness God requires for heaven? We need a different kind of righteousness. Jesus calls the Christian to a righteousness different in kind, not merely degree. I mean, just consider, even if you could keep all of God's laws perfectly from the day forward, not gonna happen, but even if you could, would that make you perfectly righteous? No. As we're gonna see at the end of the chapter, you're not gonna make it then, because that's the standard, is to be as holy, even as the Father in heaven is holy. And we know we're not because however good we may live or try to live from here on out, we know the Bible has told us in Romans 3.23, we have already broken God's law, all of us, and have fallen short of God's glory. And scripture says in James 2.10, whoever keeps the whole law but just offends in one point, he's guilty of all. Because guess what? If you offend in one point, you are not holy. Actually, Paul said, if righteousness could, hypothetically speaking, if it could come by keeping the law, come through the law, then Christ died needlessly. Galatians 2.21. You know why Jesus came? He came to live the life that you cannot. Jesus came to die the death you deserved. Because there is no other way. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but through That's it. You see, the kind of righteousness God requires for heaven is, as Paul confessed, not by having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Philippians 3.9. That's what you need. That's what you need. If you're not certain God has yet covered you in that righteousness, the righteousness of his Son, why would you wait? What are you waiting to drop dead? Why would you put off God's offer to clothe you in the righteousness of His Son? He is only a call of way. How foolish for us to put off repenting of sin and ceasing to trust ourself and instead turning to Christ. If you haven't done that, my friend, please don't leave here without getting that settled. I'd certainly love to take any time any amount of time to open a Bible and show you how you can get that settled from God. Take it from, take his word on it. Jesus will describe this new righteousness, this radical righteousness in six case studies in the coming verses, but we're out of time. And so next week we'll continue our study of how Christ is calling his people to be radically righteous. There's so many different interpretations on this text that if you go to commentaries, they can be more confusing than helpful. This actually gave me a literal headache this week. It was a lot. And there's some room for agreeing to disagree. I just want to say that too. But let me close with three facts, simple facts, that the Bible makes plain enough that we cannot dispute. If you're a Christian, you cannot dispute this. Fact number one, God's Word will always be profitable for us in its entirety and will always accomplish precisely what God wills. That's clear. Fact two, now that Christ has come and has fulfilled what the scriptures foretold, we are no longer under the law of Moses, but under grace. Galatians 3, 24 and 25 again, therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, praise God. So you may observe any dietary restrictions or calendar laws of Israel you want, but no Christian has any business placing a yoke on anyone else. The New Testament condemns this. Fact three. Salvation comes to us entirely by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not on account of our own striving to keep the law. And that will be made more evident moving forward. But once again, we'll have to continue this study next week. And so if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy word. And it does make us think. And we thank you for that. And we just pray, Father, would you prepare us as your people? Lord, make us righteous. Oh, Lord, please sanctify us as you prayed to the Father. Lord Jesus, as you prayed to the Father in John 17, that you pray we might be sanctified by your word. Oh, Lord, we pray that you would do it. We pray you would do it more and