The Mount No.5 A Greater Righteousness

Father, we thank you that a day spent in your house is better than 10,000 amongst the ungodly. We pray that you'll be with us and bless us, boys and girls, mums and dads, those in the creche, wherever there are people gathered in this complex, Lord, may your presence be felt and just bless us as we wait on you and as we worship you in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Lord, as kings of Eos were made, Triumphs in the old are known, Jesus' works cannot be broken, Only for his own are known. Honor of all angels found in Hark! the herald angels sing, Glorious and triumphant, Now bless our land, O my people. Matthew chapter 5 verse 1 to 20.

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if that salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.

I'd like you to have your Bibles open at the passage to which John referred you, the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 5. And here is the verse we're going to be underlining, the 20th. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Last week when we were looking at this passage, I described to you the congregation that our Lord Jesus is confronted with when in the northern part of Palestine he addresses this huge company of people who gathered from the towns and the villages which were familiar to him because there he was brought up.

It wasn't a controlled audience, you remember me saying. I mean by that there wasn't a great auditorium. There must have been a lot of noise.

A lot of coming and going. But our Lord Jesus, master, teacher that he was in the natural amphitheater that backs off from the northern slope of the Sea of Galilee addresses this great throng. Not everybody wanted to hear what Jesus had to say.

It's rarely the case when a congregation are full of empathy for the preacher. Indeed the one who proclaims always what people want to hear is probably indicating that he doesn't have much of a message to say in any case. Nothing of true value.

Buzzing our Lord Jesus, I use that word, it's colloquial but it helps you to understand the nature of their purposes, were folks who came from the religious headquarters of Judaism in Jerusalem. They weren't very impressed with Jesus because he was so impressive to other people. It's not easy for a preacher to have respect for the one who's drawing all the large congregations when he is just having to cope with a handful.

And so you've got the religious people, the clergy who are part of our Lord's audience on this occasion. They're known as the scribes and the Pharisees. And they have this against Jesus.

If he's the sort of man that he says he is, then why does he have people like that? And those, and those in the audience. You see the doctors of the law of whom Jesus was not one. The scribes and the Pharisees, the professionals of the day would have nothing to do with ordinary working class people.

This was almost part of their brief. It was almost an element of their success. That they so distanced themselves from ordinary people that ordinary folk looked upon them with awe.

And were not really disposed to listen to what they had to say because they were uncomfortable in their presence. But this man, this trumped up carpenter from Nazareth, this man who assumes for himself the right to speak with the authority of Moses, he has dealings with winebibbers, those who go to public houses. He stops and has a word with prostitutes.

Could it possibly be the case that people of that category attracted to him could in any way authenticate his ministry? Or is not a man known by the company that he keeps? If so, if that proverb is right, then Jesus must be dismissed from any claims that he has to be the spokesman of God because he's keeping the wrong company. And what's more, he's adjusting Moses. It's hard for you and for me to understand the great importance that Jewish people in Old Testament and New Testament days give to Moses.

He is the great law giver. He is the one who spoke on behalf of God. And these people who've been buzzing our Lord Jesus as he's gone around Nazareth, as he's gone around the other cities of Galilee, they are saying that Jesus is tampering with Moses.

And that is blasphemy. And so our Lord, always the courageous Savior, always the one who'll meet the needs of the congregation and encourage those who need encouraging and disturb those who need disturbing, he addresses those folk who have no empathy towards what he is saying. Verse 17, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I've not come to abolish. I've come to fulfill all that they speak of. I will make perfect in my ministry and in my life.

Well, I dealt or tried to deal with our Lord's statement in that area last week. You'll have to get the tape if you're interested. And you weren't present.

But here our Savior now directs his attention even more specifically to his accusers. And he says in the words of our text, I tell you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. The thing that was at the pivot of the argument that the clergy had with the Lord Jesus was the meaning of righteousness.

They said that he was qualifying what Moses stated. He was saying that far from qualifying it, he was fulfilling it. He was keeping all that Moses had said.

And he alone has a full understanding of what the Old Testament law was all about. In other words, he says to the Pharisees and the scribes, you're off beat. You're off center.

You know, it's a terrible thing if you start off on a journey. Let's say you're flying an aircraft and your compass is just marginally off. It doesn't matter, or seemingly so, to start with.

But the further distance that you cover, the greater is the error. And this is the problem with the scribes and the Pharisees. My friend, it's the problem with many people today.

They start off with a slight error in understanding what the righteousness of God is all about and err long their miles away from the true cause. And this is what Jesus is saying. Unless, as he addresses the rest of the people, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of those men who come from Jerusalem who claim to be righteous, unless your rightness before God is of a better quality than them, you won't enter the kingdom.

Now this is great teaching. And I want to say in one sense there is nothing more important this morning than that you and I understand what Jesus means by the righteousness of God. Because you see, here is a greater than Moses setting up the law.

Here is the king speaking to potential citizens. Here is the master with magisterial authority laying down principles whereby a man or a woman can be in right relationship with God. Because that basically is what righteousness is to do about.

Righteousness is a relationship with God founded on obedience. Did you hear that? That is so important I want you to make, to say that statement out loud. I'll give it to you again.

Righteousness is a relationship with God founded on obedience. Would you say that on three? One, two, three. Righteousness is a relationship with God founded on obedience.

And this is where the scribes and Pharisees were wrong. And this is where there are many people who are wrong in the 20th century in their grasp of what Christianity is all about. So as I open up my subject, number one, the clergy Jesus condemned.

The clergy Jesus condemned. He brings them center stage. Your righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Was that unfair? That Jesus should pick out one section of his congregation? Not really, because these people had wanted to be center stage. They had dug the ministry of Jesus all along. You read Mark's Gospel.

They were constantly criticizing him. So Jesus has to expose them in front of the people. What is the most awful chapter in the Gospel of Matthew? I'd like you to turn to it at least what I reckon to be the most awful chapter is the 23rd.

And in the 23rd chapter of Matthew there are seven woes. Seven indictments that Jesus levels against the scribes and the Pharisees. He tells people to be wary of the clergy.

Verse two, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. See, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach.

That's quite a terrible thing, isn't it? That our Lord Jesus leads off with in his sevenfold charge against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And he goes on, verse eight, verse fifteen, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. Verse sixteen, woe to you blind guides.

Verse twenty-three, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. Verse twenty-five, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence and so forth.

Now why does Jesus single out these people? Because that's not his custom, is it? I mean, when Jesus deals with ordinary imperfect people, he handles them so tenderly. The woman taking an adultery, read John 7, you see the compassionate way in which Jesus tells those who will accuse her to depart from the scene in effect and then he handles her. And the woman by the well, the Samaritan lady, how tenderly Jesus speaks to her, addresses her, ministers to her need.

Then why, tell me why, is he so vindictive or seemingly so at first reading when he comes to deal with this group of people in his large congregation who are part of the clergy from Jerusalem? Well, he condemns these people because of what they say represents righteousness and because what they are claiming is so false and because their examples are so injurious to the rest of the Jews. You see, our Lord sets up for you the problem. Go, will you please, to Luke's Gospel and you'll see what I mean.

He'll tell you about a couple of men who enter the temple and they start to pray. I'm just hunting for the parable of the publican and the tax collector. I've got it down here as Luke 11 and I can't just find it.

If you can find it, sorry. Luke 18, thank you. Nice to have help from the congregation.

Luke 18, here's the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Verse 9, these two men are going into the temple. Verse 10, one is described as a Pharisee, the other as a tax collector.

Verse 11 tells you of the Pharisee's attitude as he stands before God. I thank you that I'm not like other men, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, and even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I have. And so forth.

And that was perfectly true. You see, there is nothing really that you can point your finger at as far as the claims of these men are concerned. They went beyond the law of God.

The law talked about one fast per year. These men fast twice per day. The law talks about tithing.

They went beyond the requirements of the law. They were not just satisfied with the legal commandments of Moses, but a great oral tradition of extra regulations had grown up. And these men were fastidious in the way that they maintained these regulations.

And yet it's these men that the Lord Jesus criticizes and condemns. And He says, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. So those are the clergy He condemns.

But let's look number two, at the creed He disowns. What is that creed? Well, you see, it's part and parcel of what you discover when the Pharisee is in the temple. He is talking about his own performance.

Lord, I have done this. I have done the other. I'm really a very good chap, you know.

You really are very obliged to have me in your company as one of your servants. Now, our Lord Jesus, when He's talking about entry into the kingdom of God and having a right relationship with the Father, He is saying that this attitude is utterly unacceptable. The first thing that He disowns about the creed of the Pharisee is this.

Externals are not of greater importance than internals. In other words, it's not so much what you do or what you say that matters. Rather, it is what you are that matters most and it's most important.

Look at Luke chapter 16 and verse 15. The Pharisees are again targeted by our Lord Jesus and He says of them, You are the ones who justify yourself in the eyes of men but God knows your heart. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

They were concerned, these Pharisees, with making an impression upon the public. They were more involved in ceremony than in morality. You remember on one occasion our Lord Jesus is being criticized and His disciples as well because He allows them to eat with unwashed hands and He goes on as He's dealing with this accusation to say, well, righteousness is not a matter of washing your hands or washing cups or saucers or any of your ceremonial ritual.

Righteousness goes beyond that. It hits the heart. It's not the external.

It's the internal. It's not the ceremonial. It's the moral.

These are the difficulties, I say, that the Pharisees are in that our Lord Jesus exposes. You see, in effect, and this was another creed of Pharisees and it all boiled down to man-made rules. Now, we've had that in the Christian church so-called from time to time, particularly in the Middle Ages.

You were saved by doing things. You had your ingenuity in the way that you came to Scripture. The Jesuit movement particularly exemplifies this error as you read of them in the 15th and 16th century.

Well, the scribes and the teachers of the law, they were just like this. They were men who had made their regulations. They stored up, even on top of the commands of Moses, what they were to do.

Hundreds and hundreds of regulations governing every aspect of their life. And if they kept these meticulously, then their idea was they are above other people. And the very name Pharisee gives this impression.

The Pharisee means separatist. And our Lord Jesus is saying, this is a nonsense. You who put externals before internals, you who put ceremony before morality, you who make salvation a list of keeping laws, there is more to serving God than just the periphery of your life.

Because what really happens as far as Phariseeism is concerned, man is glorified and not God. Again, go back to the Pharisee in the temple, you see. I thank you, Lord.

I am not like other men. I do this. I do the other.

Really, I'm a very good chap, you know. In fact, putting it in more recent historical terms, I would make a good Englishman. Because as we knew at the Victorian age, God was an Englishman.

On the side of the English. Well, this of course was an utter nonsense. That statement in Victorianism, the statement of the Pharisees, you cannot enter into a relationship with God on this basis at all.

It's a creed of self-indulgence. It's a creed of self-congratulation. And what does that sort of creed breed? Well, it brings about the very attitude which is the antipathy, which is the opposite of what Jesus requires for entry into the kingdom.

Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Now, you don't get that sort of characteristic within Phariseeism, do you? I thank God that I am better than other men. Jesus says, you've reached that point and you can't be in my kingdom. Unless you understand how wretched you are and how great is the mercy of God, unless you fling yourself upon that mercy, then the very proclamation that you make of your righteousness actually hits you right back between the eyes and rubs you of the very thing that you deny.

You are not what you claim to be. Say again. Why did Jesus, the gentle Jesus, criticize these people so much? Now, remember the context, won't you? He's amongst thousands of people.

He doesn't generally act like this. In one sense, it would almost be a betrayal if there was not sufficient justification of the whole demeanor of a preacher to set a person or a group of people up like this in his congregation. You see, you don't expose sin publicly.

You preach publicly. You preach about sin publicly. But you don't point a person out and direct the attention of the rest of your audience to that particular person.

You wait for the Spirit of God and the work of God, the Word of God, to have its own effect. So I say, why does Jesus, who is singularly so delicate in handling those who are engaged in sinfulness, why does He castigate publicly the scribes and the Pharisees in such a fashion as this? And the answer is because of their influence. Because they were blind leaders of the blind.

Because it was their responsibility that Israel was in the mess that it was in. You go to the 11th chapter of Luke's Gospel and you'll discover the evidence that I need to substantiate that claim. Our Lord once again has been haranguing the scribes and the Pharisees.

Several woes which commence from the 37th verse. Most caustic criticisms He directs. And one of these Pharisees comes to the Lord Jesus and he says, verse 45, Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.

And Jesus doesn't back off, but rather He underlines the gravity of the charge. Jesus replied, and you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry. And you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

You see the point? Their wrong understanding of righteousness and how one enters into a relationship with God was so basic to the disease that had gone all the way through Israel where men and women were languishing without a knowledge of the healing touch of God upon their souls. Jesus says it was the fault of the scribes and the Pharisees, these people who were trying to mute Him, these people who were trying to stem what He was having to say. And so our Lord, He disowns them.

He disowns their creed and He distances Himself from the clergy. And He comes in thirdly with this great declaration, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. My dear friend, it's difficult for you to understand the sensational thing that Jesus was there saying.

If the popular press had been around, this would have been their headline the following morning in the Jerusalem Post. Jesus criticized the righteousness of the righteous. Jesus says that these men who everybody has known to this period of time are utterly righteous people.

These men who stand on the street corners and do their prayers publicly. These men who make a show of giving. These teachers of the law who spend hours studying the manuscripts and copying them with such detail and with such care.

Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, says that these experts in righteousness, unless the ordinary morality of the people exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus doesn't back off. And he never will back off, you see.

Because what he says is quite true. God is not so concerned with the external as with the internal. When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, he almost tells the person who puts the question, you're really expressing it wrongly.

Jesus doesn't go for the greater and the lesser, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, as though, you know, there's some gradation within the commandments. Jesus summarizes the commandments and says the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And then he goes on to say and love your neighbor as yourself.

Your neighbor as yourself. Well, we're back to blessed are the meek, you see. We're back to blessed are the pure in heart.

We're back to blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. We're back to blessed are those who are peacemakers. Don't you understand, my friend, that unless you understand what was the heart of the law of Moses, which has to do not so much with ceremony, but the change of the heart, mercy and justice, those were the things that Jehovah God in the Old Testament days was looking after, looking out for, more than any of the externals that the Hebrews so often offered in their place.

Unless you understand that, you understand little about the kingdom. And that applies to us today. It's not just a question of keeping certain regulations.

It's a question of latching onto your own wretchedness and appreciating that there is one who came into the world to deal with your sin. You see, this is what makes a nonsense of people who take the Sermon on the Mount and they use it for civic occasions. You know, this is how the country is to live.

Everyone agrees with the Sermon on the Mount. Neal Kinnock, Margaret Thatcher. You've got no difficulties at all.

Every reasonable minded person agrees with the Sermon on the Mount. But you can't tell people just to keep the Sermon on the Mount. They can't do it.

Because the Sermon on the Mount and all its principles are basic to those people who have entered into the kingdom of God, who have acknowledged who Jesus is and have asked by the grace of His Spirit to be able to keep the laws which otherwise they would have failed to maintain. So you can't be in the kingdom unless you recognize who the king is, unless you are cultivating the attitudes in your life that are basic to the citizens of the king. Now, I ask you, my friends, have you appreciated what Jesus is saying? You see, He's not just directing His criticisms at the Pharisees and the scribes.

He's directing His criticisms at anyone who really just skates on the edge of scripture. You see, there can be an evangelical fallacism, can there not? I remember Martin Lloyd-Jones saying some years ago, there is that Phariseeism that sometimes sweeps over a church that says, well, you know, all I really need to do as far as the Lord's Day is concerned is to be under the exposition of scripture in the morning. I don't need to come in the evening.

Why don't I need to come in the evening? Well, you see, because in the evening they're dealing with the gospel and I'm not a person who needs the gospel. And now Lloyd-Jones, rightly or wrongly, I leave it for you to judge, says that that is, in effect, Phariseeism. Those people who don't appreciate that it is the requirement of God that the whole of their life is completely committed to the Lord.

Not just in what they do, the perfunctory singing of hymns, the enthusiastic rehearsing of scripture choruses. It's in your heart making a full-blooded response to who Jesus is and what He has done. These are the people who enter the kingdom.

And so our Lord says, I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will not certainly enter the kingdom of heaven. Are you entering the kingdom of heaven? Do you know? Have you confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior? That's the way to come, you see. That's the way to approach this great sermon is to ask that the Lord will give you such a repugnance in terms of your own righteousness, your own endeavors to live in the way that God wants you to live and to cling to the Lord Jesus, to ask Him for forgiveness and then go on from forgiveness to understanding something and experiencing something of the fullness of the Spirit and being there.

Then having those lovely characteristics of meekness and purity and hunger and thirst after righteousness so that our Lord Jesus and His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount is actually describing and fitting His words to suit you and your needs. Let us pray. Loving God and Father, we come before Your throne.

We recognize that in some senses there is a lot of the Pharisee in each one of us. We're more concerned with the external than the internal. And Lord, it would be tragic for us to think that we might be described as the Pharisees, whited sepulchres but inside full of dead men's bones.

Oh, God, we just ask of You that You will free us from any hypocrisy. Enable us, Lord, to know what it is to walk in meekness before You and before our fellows. Help us not to be haughty.

Help us to be loving. Help us, Lord, to realize that meekness is not weakness. Help us to appreciate that all that we are and all that we can ever be is as a result of Your grace.

Level us, Lord. Take from this church any sense of Pharisees. Those who found this message perhaps a little hard to take, Lord, we just ask that You will mollify their attitudes.

Will You break all our hearts and all our wills until what You want us to be we become, not through our effort but rather in compliance with the wounds of the Spirit in our hearts and in our nature. Hear us, then, blessed God, and continue with us as we move around Your table. Help us, Father, in the taking of bread and in the drinking of wine to once again reflect that an entry into the kingdom is by confessing the salvation power of the King.

We pray that as we do that we might know more of the indwelling of the Spirit. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

Let's together enjoy singing 343 and then just a little break as we prepare our hearts for coming around this table. 343, my hope is built on nothing less than Jiju's blood and righteousness. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

We'll start singing from the second verse of 343. When the glorious King Who reigned His grace By death's long years Of changing grace In every high And slowly death Was driven in the land On Christ, the solid rock On Christ, the solid rock Father, your scripture dictates we make the conclusion that righteousness is a relationship with God founded on obedience. We praise you that our Lord was able to show ordinary people that that righteousness is available to them and that those who they thought they could never mix with because they could never attain to their standards had actually got the whole thing wrong.

Praise you, Lord, that you give the enabling to live righteously as men and women come to you and confess their sins. Enable us to do this and enable us lovingly to have those lovely characteristics exemplified, illustrated in the Beatitudes and help us to live like that in our relationships one with the other and in our attitude to you for the Savior's sake. Amen.