The Law of God, Part 3

Lord, thank you for tonight. We are grateful for a chance to be here. Thank you for your word.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity we have to study it together. We are blessed people. And so we just pray that you'd open our hearts and minds tonight to see the beauty of our Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, if you got your Bible, Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5.

And we are looking at what Christ's view of scripture and the law really is. So I'm gonna begin this way. Whatever Christ says about the law, whatever his view on the law is, should be the same as our view on the law.

We don't wanna have an opposing view of the law that opposes Christ's view of the law that he gave. And so Matthew 5, verses 17 to 20, gives us his view on the law. Now, this is very important.

Why? Because Christ, whatever you understand about verses 17 to 20, will set the tone for the rest of the sermon. So if you miss what happens here and what he says here, you'll play catch up throughout the rest of the sermon. Because everything about what Christ believes concerning the word of God, he's going to tell us.

We've already looked at the brilliance of the law. We spent time in Psalm 19, Psalm 119, looking at the excellence and the magnificence of the law. But tonight, we're gonna look at the importance of the law, the endurance of the law, and then the relevance of the law.

Let me read it to you. Matthew 5, verse 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 the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. 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. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. On Sunday, I quoted to you Proverbs 29, verse number 18, which says that without a vision, the people perish.

The literal translation is that without a revelation, the people are unrestrained. They're out of control. In other words, vision comes from the revelation of God.

What does God say? That gives you an accurate view of life. But without the revelation of God, the people are unrestrained because the revelation of God is filled with nothing but absolutes. It's the truth.

It's the only truth. And without that truth, you don't have parameters. Without that truth, you have no guidelines.

Without that truth, you have no direction. Without that truth, you really have nothing. So Solomon makes it very clear that without a revelation, the people are out of control.

They don't know what to say. They don't know what to do. They don't know where to go.

And then he says, but happy is the man who keeps the law. The blessed man is the one who keeps the law, who practices the law, who lives the law. Now, having said that, turn to Proverbs 13.

Proverbs 13, verse number 13. Solomon says this. The one who despises the word will be in debt to it, but the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

This verse is a summation of Matthew 5:17 to 20. This verse is very, very important. Solomon says he who despises the word, he who looks down upon the word, he who has nothing but disgust or disregard or who wants to disobey the word will be in debt to it, will be held accountable to it, will be destroyed or disciplined by it.

So if you despise the word of God, if you look down upon the word of God, treat it as if it means nothing, you will be disciplined by the word of God because you are in debt to the authority of the truth of the revelation of God. But then he says, but the one who fears the commandment, that man will be rewarded. The one who reveres the commandment, the one who respects the commandment receives the reward, but the one who despises the commandment, who disregards the commandment will be disciplined or destroyed by that word.

Having said that, Solomon says in Proverbs 29, verse number 1, these words, a man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy. He who hardens his neck after much reproof. How does one receive reproof? Well, the Bible says that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine and reproof.

Reproof. In other words, scripture is that which reproves you. Scripture is that which turns your life around, that calls you into account.

But he who hardens his neck, who stiffens his neck, who becomes very calloused and cold in heart, after much reproof will be broken beyond remedy. Let me illustrate that for you by having you turn to the last book of the Hebrew Bible. That's not Malachi.

The last book of the Hebrew Bible is the book of 2 Chronicles. So turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. The Hebrew Bible ends with the destruction of the temple on the Temple Mount.

So in the Hebrew Bible, 2 Chronicles 36 is the last book, the last chapter in their Bible, okay? This is the illustration of Proverbs 13:13 and Proverbs 29, verse number 1. The one who would despise the word of God, the one who would disregard the word of God, after much reproof will be broken beyond remedy. The Bible says in verse 11 of 2 Chronicles 36, Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance by God, but he stiffened his neck and he hardened his heart.

That's Proverbs 29, verse number 1, against turning to the Lord God of Israel. Furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations and they defiled the house of the Lord, which he had sanctified in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.

But they continually mocked the messengers of God and despised his word. The one who despises the word, Proverbs 13, will be in debt to it. And they scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Proverbs 29, verse number 1. So there was this constant compassion by God to send forth his messengers, to send forth his prophets, to speak the truth, to speak the word, to give the revelation of God, so that man would turn from his sin. But Zedekiah and others stiffened their neck, hardened their hearts, became very calloused to the revelation of God, so much so they would despise the word of God.

Thus, they became indebted to the word of God and therefore were broken beyond remedy. It is so important to realize that God's word is everything. God's word is absolute truth.

And our response to that is crucial. Your response to that is crucial. My response to that is crucial.

When you hear it preached, when you hear it taught, when you hear it given to you, what is your response? Do you revere it? Do you respect it? Because if you do, Solomon says, you will be rewarded. But if you despise it, if you disregard it, you will be in debt to it. You will be disciplined by it.

You will be destroyed by it. So the question comes, what is your response to the word of God? Especially when you recognize and understand what Christ says about his very own words. What is Christ's view of his law? That should be our view of the law.

What is Christ's view of his word? How does he see it? So last week, we talked to you about the brilliance of the law. In fact, for two weeks, we talked about that, but we just scratched the surface, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the magnificence and the excellence and the brilliance of the law of God. Because it's everything.

It is your life. Tonight, we're gonna move on to the importance of that law, the endurance of that law, and the relevance of that law. So let's begin with the importance in Matthew 5, verse number 17, which says these words.

Do not think. Stop right there. Do not think.

That doesn't mean you're not supposed to think. But he says, do not think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. Why would he say that? Because that's what they were thinking.

That's what they were thinking. Don't you think God knows what you're thinking? Of course he does. I love that.

Because I don't need to know what you're thinking. But God already knows what you're thinking. At this very moment, he knows that some of you are thinking about what's for dinner after Bible study.

Some of you are already thinking about tomorrow. When the Bible says, take no thought about tomorrow. But you're thinking about it anyway.

But God knows that, right? God knows everything. And so he knows they're thinking about what he has just said and what he's going to say. Why would he be thinking that? Because never a man spoke like this man spoke.

Here is Jesus. And Jesus never once quoted a rabbi, never once quoted a scribe. He would speak as if he was the authoritative one, which of course he is.

And they didn't know what he believed about the law. They didn't know if he was anti-law, anti-Moses. They didn't know if he was anti-Israel.

They didn't know what kind of prophet he was. Because when he spoke, he didn't speak like anybody else spoke. In fact, he was a different kind of man altogether.

He didn't even hang out with the religious establishment. He hung out with the riffraff, hung out with the prostitutes, tax gatherers, sinners. So he didn't even hang out with the religious elite, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees.

He was a different kind of man altogether. So he comes and he begins to preach on the North Slope in the middle of the desert. He's preaching on the North Slopes of the Sea of Galilee.

And as he's preaching, he's saying things they've never heard before. He begins with blessing and they all want to be blessed. But the way he says it and how he couches blessing is completely different than what they've ever heard before.

So they're thinking, who is this guy? Where is he from? Does he really believe in the law of the Old Testament? Because all they had was the Old Testament. They didn't have any New Testament, it wasn't written yet. So all they had was the 39 books of the Old Testament.

So they're thinking, what does he think about the law? What's he think about Moses? What's he think about the Pentateuch? Because when he speaks, he speaks completely different than anybody they've ever heard before. So he's already gone through the Beatitudes. He's talked to them about salt and light.

And before he gets into really hitting him, hammering them about what they think they believe, as opposed to what God says they should believe, he wants to let them know that, I didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets. No, I've come to fulfill everything. Now, in his fulfilling everything, he is the embodiment of the Old Testament.

Sometimes we forget this. Did he fulfill it by what he said? Yes. Did he fulfill it prophetically? Yes. Did he fulfill the promises? Yes. But he is the fulfillment of everything in the Old Testament. So the importance of the law is seen, number one, is that it was established by God himself.

Remember back in Exodus chapter 20, when he gave the 10 commandments, it says, then God spoke all these words. The law of God is established by God. These are his words.

This is what he wants to communicate. So when he talks about fulfilling the law, he is not talking about the rabbinical tradition. He's not talking about the oral scribal tradition.

He is speaking about his very words. In fact, over in Matthew chapter 15, he says this, verse 3, why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? You see, the Pharisees and the scribes realized that they were unable to keep the law of God. So they came up with man-made traditions and man-made rituals and man-made commandments that would allow them to keep certain portions of the law that made them feel good about themselves because they could dilute the law and make it applicable to their own lives so that they would feel good about themselves.

And Christ always condemned them for that. Christ would speak against them because they had devalued his word. In fact, as Proverbs 13:13 says, they despised the word.

They disregarded the word. Now they are in debt to that word. They will be disciplined and destroyed by that word because they have degraded the authority of the law of God.

But the man who fears the commandment, oh no, he'll be rewarded. He'll be rewarded greatly. And so he addresses that and says, I'm not talking about the traditions of men.

I'm talking about the law that I have authored. Now he says the law of the prophets. That phrase is used 12 times in the New Testament.

And every time it's used, it refers to the scriptures. It's a synonym for the scriptures, a synonym for the word of God, a synonym for the law of God. In other words, he's speaking about the whole Testament, not just portions of the Old Testament, but the whole Old Testament.

In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, listen to what Moses says. Moses says in chapter 30, verse number 15 of Deuteronomy, see, I have set before you today life and prosperity and death and adversity. And that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply.

And that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants. How? By loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by holding fast to him, for this is your life and the length of your days that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give them.

So Moses is saying, look, these words that I have written, these words that I've spoken, these words that God's given to us, the first five books of the law, the Pentateuch, because that's what he had written. Says, you keep these, you will live. If you disobey them, then you'll be destroyed.

You'll perish. Again, Proverbs 13:13. The one who despises the word will be in debt to it.

But the one who fears the commandment, who respects it and reveres it, they will be rewarded. So Solomon sums up in one word what Moses says in Deuteronomy 30, what Christ says in Matthew 5, because everything is about the law of the living God. Remember the rich man Lazarus? Rich man was in Hades and he wanted someone to dip their finger in cold water just to touch his tongue because he was burning up, right? And he says, send someone back to tell my brothers because if someone comes back from the dead, my brothers will believe.

And Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. If they don't believe them, they will not believe the one be raised from the dead. No miracle ever saved anybody.

It's only the message of the truth, the message of the revelation of God. It speaks to the power of the word of God. If they don't believe what Moses said, if they don't believe what the law says, if they don't believe what the prophets have already said, if they don't believe that, then someone being raised from the dead makes no difference whatsoever because the proof is in the authority and revelation of the law of God.

Very, very important. And so this law was established by God himself. Now understand this, that there are three categories of the law in the Old Testament.

There is the judicial law, the moral law and the ceremonial law. So let me explain to you very simply how you distinguish between them all, okay? The judicial law deals with the identity of God's people. The moral law, the 10 commandments, deal with the purity of God's people.

And the ceremonial law deals with the priority of God's people because that was how they were to worship. Make sense? The judicial law was given to define the identity of God's people. He gave them laws about what to wear.

He gave them laws about what to eat. He gave them laws on how to cook what they eat. Why? Because Israel was to be uniquely and distinctly separate from the world.

And therefore, he gave them the judicial law or the civil laws. Then he gave them ceremonial laws to govern how they worshiped, right? This was their priority. Their priority was always to worship their God.

They should have no other gods before them. They were always warned that when you go into the land, you don't worship their gods, you don't serve their gods. You serve your God.

This is your priority. Then he gave them the moral law, the 10 Commandments, because that was the focus of their purity, their holiness. Why? Because the 10 Commandments are the reflection of the personality and the purity and the holiness of God.

They are. And so he wants them to be as holy as he himself is holy. So the moral law identifies the purity of the people of God.

Now listen, the moral law was the backing behind the judicial law and the ceremonial law. Because the moral law defined for us the character of God. And the judicial law was given and the ceremonial law was given to keep and to help Israel stay focused on the moral law.

Because he is so pure and so holy, I wanna worship only him, honor only him. Because he is so pure and so holy, I wanna only identify with him and no one else. That make sense? So Christ says, don't think, because I know you're thinking this, don't think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets.

Oh no, on the contrary. I came to fulfill all of that. I came to fulfill the judicial law, the ceremonial law.

I came to fulfill the moral law and he did. Because everything about the Old Testament is all about Christ, the Redeemer, the Deliverer. And so not only was the law established by God, but it was enforced by the prophets.

They were always calling the people back to God. They were always telling them, listen, you gotta live a holy life. Listen, you gotta worship the one true God. You have to identify with the one true God. And so the prophets were always given, like we read in 2 Chronicles 36, God's compassion sent messenger, sent prophet after prophet, messenger after messenger to say, listen, you need to turn back to God. Because that's what the prophets did.

They called people to repentance. And they would tell them, if you obey, you will live. If you disobey, you will die.

In fact, listen to what Isaiah says. Isaiah chapter one, verse number 18. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. Proverbs 13:13. If you despise the word, you'll be destroyed by it.

But if you fear the commandment and respect it, you'll be rewarded. And then he says, truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. That's why the prophets would say, thus saith the Lord.

The mouth of the Lord has spoken. The word of the Lord came to me and said. Why? Because they were the mouthpiece of God to the people.

And so that which was established by God was enforced by the prophets. And that which was enforced by the prophets was endorsed by Christ. I came to fulfill the law.

Five times in the New Testament, it speaks of Christ's fulfillment of the law because the law was all about him. Remember, we read this last week over in Luke's Gospel, the 24th chapter. Christ says, oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all, not some, all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scripture. Not some of the scripture, but all the scripture. He reiterates in verse 44, he says, these are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

All that was written about me. Why? Because everything in the Old Testament was all about the Christ. That's why in John 5, verse number 39, and we'll get there in a couple of months, but in John chapter 5, verse number 39, he says what? You search the scriptures for them, you think you have eternal life, but these are they which speak of me.

In other words, here you are students of the Bible and you're looking to find eternal life, and yet you miss me. How do you miss me, the author of life? But they did, you see, they missed the Messiah. They missed the Christ because he is everything.

There was an anonymous poem, which was written years ago about how Jesus Christ is a theme of the Bible. This is what it says.

I find my Lord in the Bible wherever I chance to look. He is the name of the Bible, the center and heart of the book. He is the rose of Sharon, he is the lily fair. Wherever I open my Bible, the Lord of the book is there.

He, at the book's beginning, gave to the earth its form. He is the ark of shelter, bearing the brunt of the storm, the burning bush of the desert, the budding of Aaron's rod. Wherever I have looked in the Bible, I see the son of God.

The ram upon Mount Moriah, the ladder from earth to sky, the scarlet cord in the window and the serpent lifted high. The smitten rock in the desert, the shepherd with staff and crook. The face of my Lord, I discover wherever I open the book.

He is the seat of the woman, the savior of virgin born. He is the son of David, whom men rejected with scorn. His garments of grace and of beauty, the stately Aaron deck.

Yet he is a priest forever, for he is Melchizedek. Lord of eternal glory, whom John the Apostle saw, light of the golden city, lamb without spot or flaw. Bridegroom coming at midnight, for whom the virgins look.

Wherever I open my Bible, I find my Lord in the book.

I wonder what you find when you open your Bible. You see, because it's all about the Christ.

It's all about the Lord. He wants you to know him. In fact, he wants you to know him so, so strongly that he put into print his very words that describe him completely.

And yet, and yet we find ourselves so busy doing other things so occupied with frivolous things, so preoccupied with things that really don't even matter instead of spending time studying the truth of the word of God. And then we wonder why our lives are so meaningless. We wonder why our lives are so fruitless.

We wonder why our lives are just as depressed and discouraged as possible. Why our lives do not flourish. It's because we don't know our God.

Because Daniel said in Daniel 11:32, that those who know their God, display strength and take and do great exploits. Those who know their God, display strength and do great exploits. Meaning that those who don't know their God are unable to display any kind of strength nor are they able to do great exploits for God.

Very, very important to understand that. So Christ says, this is the importance of the law. Don't think that I came to abolish it, throw it away, nullify it, treat it as if it doesn't matter.

Oh no. Oh no, I wrote it. I established the law of God.

The prophets endorsed the law of God or enforced it. I'm here to endorse it. I'm here to fulfill it in every single detail.

And he did. And when the ceremonial law was fulfilled, the veil in the temple was torn in two because access to the holy of holies was now given to all men and all the rituals and all the ceremonies and all the symbols and all the pictures were all fulfilled in who? Christ, right? And now we have actual access into his presence that had been barred from common man for centuries. He abolished.

He abolished death. He abolished Satan's power over you. But he didn't abolish the law.

He came to fulfill the law. He came to show that I am the fulfillment of all that was said. Every prophecy, every promise is rooted and centered in me.

I've come to fulfill all that. That's why he can speak with such great authority because he embodied the law. Now think about this for a second.

Even though Christ fulfilled ceremonial law, which was a priority of God's people, note that the priority of God's people today is still to worship God. And why we don't offer up the blood of bulls and goats for sacrifice, we present our bodies a living sacrifice, which is your reasonable worship, your logical form of worship. So even though he came to fulfill all ceremonial law, don't think that we are not to worship by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to our God because we want to worship him for who he is.

And even though he came to fulfill all judicial law, which were the guidelines and governances by which Israel would dress and diet and act and live to identify them as the people of God, it doesn't mean that we don't have certain aspects about our lives as Christians that identify us as the people of God for even though he's not given us any rules on our dress or diet, he says this in 1 Corinthians 10:31, whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, you do all to the glory of God.

Now he gave us no law on how to eat or what to drink, but he says that when you do eat and you do drink, picking the most mundane thing that we can ever do, eating and drinking, do all to the glory of God, why? Because you need to identify yourself as the people of God. Israel was God's chosen nation.

We now as a church are God's chosen people. We are a holy nation. We are a royal priesthood.

And therefore our identity is wrapped up in our relationship with the living God. Our priority is wrapped up in our relationship with the living God because our purity and holiness is wrapped up in our relationship with the living God. He embodied the moral law of God.

He lived a perfect, sinless life. So Christ says, don't even begin to think that I have come to abolish the law. On the contrary, I've come to raise the standard of the law because you see, you have despised the law so much.

You have downgraded the law so much. You have treated it as if it means nothing by developing your own laws, thinking that you can keep them and earn your way to heaven. Can't do that.

So I've come to lift the standard of the law. That's why he would go into the next phrase. You have heard that it was said, by the ages of old, you shall not murder.

And everybody in the crowd would say, amen to that? We don't murder anybody. Then Christ says, but I say unto you, if you hate your brother, you are a murderer in your heart. And they would be taken back.

And then he would say, oh, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. And they would all say, amen to that? We know we shouldn't be sleeping with somebody else's wife. But then he says, but I say unto you, I say unto you that if you lust after a woman in your heart, you have already committed adultery there.

And they'd be taken back, see? Because the law of God is internal, not external. They had relegated the law of God to everything on the external. That's something they could do, right? That everybody could see.

And they could gain acceptance in everybody's eyes because they could see them doing things. But the law of God is in the heart of man that motivates him from the inside out to live for the glory and honor of God. So Christ attacks the heart of a man because he says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you're never gonna enter the kingdom of heaven.

Very, very important. So Christ talks about the importance of the law. Then he talks about the endurance of the law.

The endurance of the law. He says this in verse number 18. For truly I say to you, this is the statement, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass in the law until all is accomplished.

Truly, truly I say unto you, amen, amen. Absolutely, I say unto you. Now that phrase is used 76 times at the beginning of a sentence and 48 times at the end of a sentence.

All 76 times it's used at the beginning of the sentence, it's Christ who is speaking. The other 48 times it's used at the end of a sentence, it's not Christ who is speaking, it's man who's responding to what Christ has already said. Very important to realize that.

Why? Because Christ says, truly, truly I say unto you, absolutely, truly I give to you. I want you to know that at the very outset, this is absolute truth. He says very clearly these words, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law.

The span of time is until heaven and earth pass away, meaning they are gonna pass away, they do. They'll all be destroyed, every one of them, all of them. All the heavens, the earth will all pass away in a brief moment.

We read about in 2 Peter 3, Revelation chapter 6, Revelation chapter 21 and 22, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth, right? But until that day, not one jot, not one tittle shall pass away, not the smallest stroke of the pen. He is going down to the finest detail of the Hebrew letters, okay? Not one jot, not the smallest letter, like an apostrophe, not one tittle, what's a tittle? A tittle is that one little aspect that distinguishes an H from an N or an E from an F. F has two lines, E has three lines. An H has a longer extended line and an N has a smaller line.

Not one of those will pass away. Every jot, every tittle, the smallest letter, the smallest little squiggly mark, all of it is authored by me and it's all perfect and it will not pass away until heaven and earth passes away. When that happens, you won't need the word of God anymore because you will have a perfect life in a perfect place called heaven, worshiping the perfect God of the universe.

But to that time, my word stands as the absolute authority without error, without any kind of discrepancy because I authored it and the prophets enforced it. When I came, I fulfilled it. I endorsed it all.

This is God's view of scripture. And then he moves from just the importance of the law and the endurance of the law, but to the relevance of the law. Listen to what he says.

This is so good. 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.

Wow. He gives us the guiding principle of Christian conduct. It's the word of God, the truth.

Now he who annuls or he who nullifies or take Proverbs 13:13, he who despises the word of the Lord, right? And teaches others to despise the word of the Lord or to annul the word of the Lord shall be least in the kingdom of heaven. Does it mean you're gonna be ousted out of the kingdom of heaven? Not at all. Because you're in the kingdom of heaven.

Versus verse 20, which talks about getting into the kingdom. But we'll get to that in a second. But he says, look, you can't look at the word of God and say, this doesn't apply to me.

This is not for me. Treat it as if it's not important for you to live by. And certainly you can't teach other people that.

That's why James 3:1 is so important, right? Don't many of you seek to be teachers? For with it comes a stricter condemnation, right? If you can do anything in the church rather than teach, do that. Because it doesn't come with a strict condemnation. You gotta realize that when you begin to open the word of God and teach people the truth of the word of God, there comes a high accountability.

It doesn't mean though that you should not teach the word of God as a father to your children or as a mother to your children, because you should. But it also comes with high accountability. You should teach them the truth of the word of God.

Why? Because if you're not doing that, you are the least in the kingdom. You're the least blessed in the kingdom. You are used the less in the kingdom.

But if you teach and keep the word of God and teach others to do the same, you're the greatest in the kingdom. You're the highest in the kingdom. You are the most blessed in the kingdom because you have feared the commandment.

You have revered the commandment. You have respected the commandment and you will be rewarded, Proverbs 13:13. And God will reward you tremendously because you've highly valued his law, his revelation.

So much so that you wanna impart it to other people. Whether you're proclaiming the gospel, whether you're growing someone in their walk with the Lord, you're helping them follow Christ. You've taken his word, held it at high value.

Thy word, O Lord, is magnified even as thy very name, Psalm 138, verse number 2. You are lifting his name on high by lifting his word on high. And when you do that, it says that God himself is honored and he who honors me, I will honor.

There is a great reward for those who are the greatest in God's kingdom because they teach and keep the word of God. So the relevance of the word of God is simply, it is the guiding principle for Christian conduct, but also it's the glorious prelude to Christian conversion. Look what he says in verse 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. In verse 19, he's talking about people in the kingdom. Now he's talking about people that are outside the kingdom.

And this is a marvelous statement. It is the theme verse of the Sermon on the Mount. Everything centers around this verse.

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, and the people on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee are sitting there thinking, wait a minute, how is that ever gonna happen? They are the most holiest people we've ever met. And they've told us so, and we believe them. How can we have a righteousness that exceeds their righteousness? They are the ones who are close to God.

They are the ones who interpret the word of God. Those are the ones who have shown us God. But their righteousness was one of self-righteousness.

It wasn't God, Christ righteousness. Their righteousness was a self-serving, works-based system. In fact, remember over in Luke chapter 18, when it says this in verse number 9, he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

That's the Pharisees. And viewed others with contempt. And he contrasts a Pharisee with a tax collector.

It says in verse 11, the Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself. Wasn't praying to God. He was praying thus to himself because he was self-righteous.

Whereas the tax gatherer wouldn't even so much as look up because he was so convicted of his sinfulness. You see, we forget that the law of God, as stated by Paul in the book of Galatians, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ that we might be justified by faith. The law was never meant to show you that you are righteous.

The law was meant to show you that you have no righteousness. You have no right to have it. It shows you your sin, how sinful you are.

That's why Christ goes on in verses 21 and following, you have heard that it was said, but I say unto you, you have heard that it was said, but I say unto you, I know that this is what you've been taught, but you've been taught wrong. I'm gonna teach you that which is right and deals with the heart of every individual there listening to the sermon on the Sermon on the Mount. How can one's righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? Paul said in Galatians chapter 2, verse number 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

Other words, they were doing all these things as Pharisees were, they had minimized the commands of God and maximized the tradition of man so they could do something that would please themselves, make them feel good about themselves, that somehow this will get me into heaven. It's a workspace system. It's what every religious system is based on, human achievement.

That somehow, I can earn my way to heaven, that somehow God will be pleased with the way I behave and the way I speak and the things I do. But Christ's righteousness is accomplished by Christ. He does all the work. You're justified by faith, you believe in what he says.

Christ says that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the self-righteous Pharisee, the works-based Pharisee, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. It must be a righteousness not of your own doing, it must be my righteousness.

That's why he knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's Christ who did it. And so he's presenting the gospel by helping them understand that you can't get to heaven.

You can't earn your way there. You can't make it on your own. You can't devalue the word of God and think that it's gonna get you in heaven because you can do enough good things because you can't.

The standard is Matthew 5:48, be ye perfect for your father in heaven is perfect. That's the standard. Nobody reaches that standard.

You can't. For all have sinned and fall short of the standard of God, the glory of God, the perfection of God, the righteousness of God. All have sinned and fallen short of that.

But they refused to believe that. And even when it was all said and done, and Christ would show them their unrighteousness as opposed to his righteousness, when Jesus had finished these words, Matthew 7:28, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Amazed at his teaching.

For he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. They were amazed, but nobody was converted. Nobody came to saving faith.

Nobody believed. The greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived saw zero converts. Wow.

Oh, they were amazed. But they were not convicted of their sin. That astonishes me.

Because when I read this, I am extremely convicted about my sin. But I also realize that God's law is everything. It's that which makes the man who he needs to be.

It's the inspired word of God. My challenge to you and to me is that the book we hold in our hand, we call the Bible, these 66 books, this law will never pass away until heaven and earth pass away. That's down the road a little bit.

But until that time, everything in this book speaks to us about the Christ, identifies him to us, explains him to us, shows us that he is the fulfillment of everything spoken in the Old Testament now made manifest in the New Testament. He is the God of truth, the God of the book. He can be counted on, he is faithful, he is true.

And I challenge those of you tonight who do not know the Lord that there's no way you're gonna make it to heaven on your own. Can't do it. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

It's by the washing of regeneration, by the renewing of the spirit of God. It's for a grace of your faith that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And so if you've never given your life to Christ, don't despise his word any longer. Don't disregard his word any longer. Don't disrespect his word any longer.

Don't become disgusted with his word any longer because you will be in debt to that word because God has given him the word to judge every single man and woman who lives. Instead, revere the commandment, respect the commandment, and you will be rewarded. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for tonight. Thank you for this opportunity, Lord. I pray that your word would speak to all of us and that, Lord, you would really challenge every one of us to live for the glory of your name.

Thank you for your word. Thank you for your view on the word of God. May we have that same view, that we might truly follow and serve the true and living God.

We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.