Quick Sermons for Permanent Fixes Lesson 3
Fix Your Righteousness
Matthew 5:17-20
The word “Law” or “rules” probably makes you feel a little confined. When I think of rules I think of the principle in West Virginia last week that essentially banned Valentine’s at his school He refused all deliveries of candy or flowers because he said it would disrupt school. Not even the faculty or the secretaries were allowed to receive gifts. The media dubbed him the Grinch that stole Valentine’s Day. Somehow that cold and inflexible idea is communicated with the simple word Law. The Psalmist David had a very different concept of Law. He spoke about God’s Law and said, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for life. . . They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.” Psalm 19:7-10. This is the view that Jesus brings to the Old Testament Law in Matthew 5:17-20. Turn there if you would. In the time of Jesus the Pharisees were the controlling authority. They determined what was right and wrong. They had 613 commands regarding the keeping of they law. Then they wrote a commentary on these commands and made that binding, too! They argued about what the law meant when it said you couldn’t work on the Sabbath. They said that if you untied a knot using two hands, it was work. If it only required one hand it was ok. If you carried food, that was work, unless the food was less than one dried fig or was for a meal to be eaten immediately. If you wrote more than two letters together in permanent ink, that was work. You could, however, write all you want in the dust or in something erasable. Even today, the orthodox Jew will not call an elevator on the Sabbath because that is work. He can ride it, but he cannot summon it. That seems rather minuscule to us. I bet the Pharisees would have thought Valentine’s day disrupted school, too.
We have our own set of rules that run our lives. Perhaps political correctness has made you scared to say anything for fear of offending someone. Perhaps you have a boss or teacher who demands perfection, maybe you demand perfection from yourself, but we all have a set of man made rules that we live by. If we satisfy them, then we are “good.” The Bile would use the term righteous for that.
Jesus attacks these rules and reminds us that what God thinks of us and whether or not we live by His rules is what’s really important. Being righteous before God is all that truly counts. If you have your Bibles open to Matthew 5, I’ll start reading in verse 17.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Too many times we come before God and we want a quick fix. We look for a religious checklist. What do I need to do to be right? Stay away from this, be sure and do that and everything will be fine. But Jesus doesn’t allow us to make quick fixes to our righteousness. We don’t have checklist Christianity. Instead, he calls us to permanently fix our righteousness by making our hearts righteous.
There are three things that we need to see this morning from this passage – I want us to notice the Law, the lifestyle, and the location. Look for those as we study this passage.
In the first two verses, Jesus is dealing with the Law and His relationship to it. The first thing Jesus says is that he didn’t come to destroy or abolish the law. That’s an interesting thing to me. Someone must have thought he came to abolish the law. They didn’t ask him if he came to break the law – lots of people broke the law. They wanted to know if he came to destroy the law. That implies that Jesus had the power to destroy the law. Many broke the law but only the lawgiver could abolish the law. It’s almost as if Jesus says, “I am not going to abolish the law or the prophets, and I’ll tell you why in just a minute, but that’s a good question.” Jesus says, in John 10:35 that Scripture can never be broken. The law reflects God’s heart. God does not change and the Old Testament still shows us God. It is just as inspired as the New Testament. In fact, most of the verses we think of regarding inspiration were written about the Old Testament. When Paul told Timothy, All Scripture is inspired, (2 Tim 3:16) he was speaking of the Old Testament. Now we can see that God was providing more Scripture for us, but when Paul wrote that there was no New Testament. When Peter said that Scripture was written by holy men who spoke as the Spirit moved them, he was speaking of the Old Testament prophets (2 Peter 1:21). I find it interesting that when the early church had a Bible study with someone to lead them to Christ, all they had was the Old Testament. How would you like to do evangelistic work that way?
Jesus says the Old Testament is inspired by God and that he has not come to destroy it but to fulfill it. The Old Testament all pointed to Jesus. That’s what it means when Luke tells us that Jesus was on the Emmaus road
“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (24:27). The Law does not pass away because Jesus came, it is fulfilled. A good way to remember the definition of the word fulfilled is that it is filled full of meaning. Jesus fills the Old Testament full of meaning. All the things that either didn’t make sense or only made partial sense in the OT, Jesus makes clearer. He is a continuation of the OT. It is the story of God and His people and how much He loves them. Jesus is the next chapter in that story. In fact, he is the climax of that story, but he is not a whole new book. Jesus often corrected the traditions that men had made regarding the Old Testament, but he never corrected the Old Testament. It was from God, how could he correct it? Jesus shows high respect for the Old Testament, and we must do the same today. To question the Old Testament is to question Jesus.
The Old Testament is not just the neat stories and great sermon illustrations of the Bible. It is the inspired word of God. And make no mistake about it, the Old Testament was preserved for us just like the New Testament was. God wanted us to have the whole picture. We are New Testament Christians, but we have Old Testament faith in an Old Testament God.
There is a second part to our passage. In verses 19-20 Jesus deals with the Lifestyle of lawkeeping. Now that we understand the Law a little better, how should we live? There seem to be three distinct groups of people in these two verses and that has given some people a lot of trouble. There are those who are great in the kingdom of heaven. They keep the commands of God and teach others to do so. They are pretty easy to figure out. There are people in verse 20 that will not get into the kingdom of heaven by any means. We can also figure them out pretty well. But who are the people in verse 19 that are least in the kingdom?
If these people, who do not obey all the commands of God and teach others the same, are outside the kingdom, then we have two classes of people with the same destination, but a different name. If these people are out of the kingdom of heaven then what does Jesus mean in verse 20? Why did he use different words to say the same things?
These people could also be people who are just misguided. They generally obey, but they misinterpreted a law here or there. Then the story is one of grace. God lets them in the kingdom anyway. But now you have set up a works based kingdom. If you do really well then you will be rewarded well. One version even says these people are less important and more important in the kingdom of heaven. So getting in the gates is a matter of God’s grace, but how big your mansion is depends on how good you are? Heaven help us! Besides, that misses the fact that these people purposefully break God’s law. They don’t accidentally get something a little wrong. They break, your bible may say relax, some commandments. That word is a very active word. It makes it clear that these people knew what they were doing. This is no accident. They have decided that certain rules from God don’t really count. They are people who say, “Well I know that’s what it says, but what it really means is . . .” There is no grace for that kind of sin without repentance.
So who are these people? Are they in or out of the kingdom of heaven? The answer is yes, they are in and out. I believe they are both. They obviously know the requirements of the law and live by most of them. That says they have entered in to the covenant relationship with God so they are in the kingdom. But because they relax the commands of God, they are now out of the kingdom. That word for least can also mean someone of no account. Jesus says, because of what you have done and taught others to do, I will see you as a nobody in the kingdom. It will be as if you aren’t even there. And if Jesus says you aren’t in the kingdom, then you aren’t in.
The obvious point from this passage, regardless of what you believe about the least people is that the law is designed to be a lifestyle. It is not just your acts of worship. It is your life. Notice that Jesus says in both cases in verse 19 whoever does and teaches others to do. Do and teach is always the Biblical order. Jesus emphasizes this because the Pharisees taught, but didn’t do. Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:161 “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.” One version says, “Watch your life and doctrine closely.” That’s the right order. Your life and your doctrine. Do and teach. Your life must match up with your teaching and you can only teach what you put into practice. When I preach to you, it is only from my own life and from passages that have challenged me. I will never step on your toes without first making sure mine are thoroughly bruised. Your life and teaching have to work together. The greatest people in the kingdom of God keep the law and teach others to do so. It is important that you really do it!
The Law is not a means of salvation. There is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved other than Jesus Christ. Jesus blasted the Pharisees because they thought life was found in the Scriptures. Life is found in God. The Law is from God. It is righteous but it cannot make you righteous. But, if you are righteous, you will keep the law.
The last thing we will look at this morning is the location of the law. It is in our hearts. The problem with the righteousness of the Pharisees is that theirs is a righteousness of the head and the hands, but not the heart. If God’s law doesn’t change our hearts, then it can never have a real place in our lives.
So, this morning. Do you practice what you preach? Or do you read God’s law and say, “He didn’t really mean that one?” I don’t really have to confront my brother when we have a problem. I can just let it go. He didn’t mean that I had to talk to my neighbor about his soul since he is lost. I don’t really have to tell my co worker about Jesus to save her soul. He meant go into other parts of the world, not my friends and family. He didn’t mean I have to give a lot of money, just whatever I can find in my pocket on Sunday morning is ok. Those are the words of someone who wants Jesus to be their Savior, but not their Lord.
We live in a world in which morality is some sort of fashion show and new fashions come out often. It wasn’t too long ago that people smoked in public and had their sexual adventures in private. Today, morality has changed fashion and people are ashamed to be seen with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth, but carry out their fornication for all to see. We live in a world that is always changing and handing us new rules to obey, but that world will never be free. Real freedom is only found in Christ and He upholds the character and commands of God. Those laws were in place before creation and will remain after all that is created is destroyed. Now that’s permanent. This morning I hope you have taken a look at your righteousness. Why is it that you feel comfortable with where you will spend eternity? Is it because you have the checklist down pat and you can spend the rest of your life the way you want?
We view God like we view the IRS. How little can I get away with paying? I can keep the rest and spend it on whatever I want. Whatever you bring to God – your time, your money, your dreams – he will not take a tax. He will take it all. If you’ve been trying to live for God and yourself, then you are finding that out. Your Christian life is just never happy with anything less. If you’ve been trying to be a Pharisee Christian and just meet the rules, find real freedom and give it all to Christ. And if you’ve been considering becoming a Christian, but thought it was just more rules, let me introduce you to the one who wrote the rules. He knows the rules because he made you. And his rules are not burdensome. They are sweeter than honey and more desirable than gold. Make a permanent fix in your eternal state and get right with God.
