Matthew chapter 5 tonight. I know we enjoy testimonies, but we also need the Word of God, right? Matthew chapter 5, and we're going to be looking at radical righteousness, but I don't believe I can get to the second part of this, but I want to lay some groundwork, which is really something you already understand, you've heard it, but as Peter said, He wanted to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. You know, there's things that you hear in church. It's just to remember, to be stirred up again, or be reminded of the truth that we hold so dear to us. So we're going to be looking at Matthew 5. We're working through the Sermon on the Mount. And the interesting thing is, Pastor Roland, we didn't, we didn't, I'm not going to collaborate on this but uh he he's teaching. They're going. They have the what they call Breein table Sunday school table. So, it's a little different format of Sunday school but he teaches part of the lesson but he's been going through the sermon on the mount but I am one step ahead of him this week whereas he caught up to me so I said well now I can steal his outlines amen but I didn't I didn't even look today I'm like now I'm like look at that anyway Matthew 5 17 down to verse 20 and like I said we will not get through it all because I don't want to rush you got 15 minutes before dinner Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoso shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Amen. Let's pray. Father, tonight, as we bow before you, just help us in these next few moments to open up our eyes, to receive the Word of God, to truly, Lord, just look to you. And to teach us, we know it is through your Holy Spirit that we have spiritual understanding. So Father, we thank you for that light, that spiritual illumination through the Spirit. And Father, we just pray that our hearts would be attentive, our minds. We know it's a long week, we get distracted, but Lord, help us to fix our hearts upon you, fix our hearts upon your Word, and teach us tonight just some more about Christ, and all that he's done for us in Jesus' name. Amen. Now think about the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. It's a beautiful structure. Verses 1 through 12, we looked at the Beatitudes, right? We're not going to go back over that. And this is, the Beatitudes, we could say, are a penetrating description of inner character or righteousness of those who are members of the kingdom of heaven. Really, if you want to connect righteousness of the Pharisees and ours needs to exceed it, we do have to go back to that Sermon on the Mount, the first part, where it talks about the Beatitudes and that would be the inner, inner righteousness that we need from the Lord. and His work in us. And then in verse 13 to 16, remember before I left, we preached on these two brilliant metaphors, salt and light. And think about that salt and light is that righteousness the effects of such inner righteousness on humanity. We are the salt and light. So if we're actually living the Beatitudes, then we're going to be making an impact in this world. There's a connection there as well. Now Jesus here is giving us a summary description of the radical righteousness of the kingdom. Now if you notice, in each of these three sections that I just mentioned, the Beatitudes, the Metaphors, and now what we just read tonight, these three sections of the sermon are increasingly personal. He's getting more personal as he goes along, and I want to show you that. like look at the beginning of the chapter where he verse 3 says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven right so he's speaking to basically in the third person you know blessed are they Blessed are them, you know. And then he comes to verse, the metaphors there, in verse 13, he says, Ye, ye are the salt, ye are the light. And then, of course, that's the second person. So he goes from the third person to the second person, and then He switches now to verses 17 to 20, especially verse 20, for I say unto you, first person, third person, second person, and now you, first person. Very pointed. I hope you receive it this way. You see, in Jesus' day, this would be like so uncommon because many of the rabbis or the teachers, the scribes would say, they would speak in the second person or third person. Rabbi Abin said in the name of Rabbi Eli and Rabbi Jokanen's name, that's how they would speak. So here's a very radical approach to a radical message. I am telling you, This is very personal. I am saying to you, this is very personal. This is very authoritative. And that's what Jesus, when he talked about he spake with authority, this is what they mean. He's getting like direct now, very personal. And so what he's teaching us is the radical righteousness as it relates on this Sermon on the Mount, as it relates to Old Testament law. So we're going to be relating this to Old Testament law. First of all, we see Christ in the law, and then the Christians in the law. And we'll only probably get the first verses, 17 and 18, Christ in the law. But what an important message we have tonight about Christ and the law. Amen. So this is a call to us to strive for righteousness, radical righteousness in a dark and decaying world. Just think about salt and light, that metaphor, obviously that applies to the righteousness we ought to have before the world. They may see our good works. So, some very simple statements about Christ and the law. Number one, Jesus came to fulfill the law. Isn't that what he said? Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. This is an unforgettable disclaimer, which he set down for all time, his relationship to the law. Yes, he came to correct the perversions of law. Now, you would have, like if you started really researching this, you would have some people say, no, he came to destroy the law. Like, in a sense that, no, I'm coming to take away this, but he's not. What he is doing, and you know, how many people would accuse him of overthrowing the Old Testament law, right? And that's not what Jesus did. So what is he doing? He came to correct the perversions and distortions that the Pharisees and scribes had made of the law. Remember, he's going to go into a series and that's, it all relates. You know, he says, you have heard, in verse 21, that it was said by them of old time. And then in verse 22, but I say unto you, And we'll get into that interpretation, but I want you to understand the overall thing that Jesus is teaching here is this. He came to correct the distortions that these religion, religious people, religious leaders were making of the law. So he's not criticizing the law itself, but contemporary formulations of the law. So now we understand that Jesus didn't come to destroy it. He came to fulfill it. So how did he fulfill it? And I want you to think with me tonight. Obviously, we studied this takes us kind of the ideas of what we learned when we studied the book of Isaiah, the gospel in the book of Isaiah or Even some of the passages we studied about the minor prophets and the prophecies. Christmas time and all different times of the year, we touch on the Old Testament and what Jesus. His fulfillment. So first of all, he fulfilled the messianic prophecies. And there's so many in the Old Testament. We're not going to mention. them, but in Matthew 11, 13, it says that for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John. So, he's speaking of the law and prophets, and really when you think of the law and prophets, Jesus is referring to the whole Old Testament. I am come, I am come, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. So brethren, he is saying very clearly here, I'm not here to destroy the Old Testament teaching. But the Old Testament had a prophetic function that was fulfilled by Christ. We could talk about the place of Jesus' birth. Remember Micah 5, 2. We could talk about the crucifixion in Psalm 22. We did study that and all the details. There's Hosea 11.1 when he was called out of Egypt. And then Matthew chapter 2 is the fulfillment of that. So we could go through these Old Testament prophecies. And this was his principal fulfillment. But then there's another area. Think about Jesus. He kept all the commands. When you say fulfill, He perfectly obeyed the Old Testament law. In fact, Galatians, step over there. There's a few passages that would be good to remind you of. Galatians 4.4. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. What a wonderful picture there. Jesus was born. He's under the law. Amen. And Jesus, being under the law, remember everything about his life, he perfectly obeyed the law. He never sinned, brethren. He never sinned. He never fell short of one point of the law. Isn't that amazing? He fulfilled it. I think one of the major ways that Jesus fulfilled the law was that he died on the cross. to fulfill the righteous demands of the law. This is something that that he's trying to teach here. You know, righteousness. How do we get righteousness? We could go through the whole New Testament. What a theme of how to really become righteous before God. But principally, it's all going to be point back to the cross and how that Jesus satisfied the demands of the law against us. We are all guilty. We are condemned because of our disobedience. We shall die and be separated from God because of our disobedience. But Jesus came to fulfill everything through his death to make that perfect payment so we could be free from that condemnation and guilt and penalty of death. Now, think of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system. It all pointed to Jesus. They prepared the way for Jesus' sacrifice. What were they teaching? You could go back and point to them. They were teaching the substitutional death of an animal, an innocent animal, in the place of a guilty sinner. They were pointing to Christ, amen? So that whole sacrificial system, that is part of his death and him fulfilling that. But then he brought the great doctrines of the Old Testament to fruition by his teaching in person. We could say this, it has been said that the Old Testament is the gospel in the bud. The New Testament is the gospel in full flavor. Or the Old Testament is the gospel in the blade. The New Testament is the gospel in full ear. So we know that everything that the Old Testament was teaching, Jesus brought that to clarity, to the light, to full understanding. All that shadow, all the types are now fulfilled in him and we can see clearly. Amen. So when we think of Jesus, He is both the author and fulfiller of the law. Only He could do that, and only God can do that. So He fulfilled the law and the prophets in a multifaceted, dynamic way, in no way destroyed the law, but rather completely superseded and fulfilled it. Yes, there are some things that we know about the New Testament that supersedes the law, but He fulfilled it in every way. And so we should stand in awe tonight if we're giving, if we're here to be thankful, we should stand in awe at the matchlessness of Christ. what he did for us, the author of the law and the fulfiller of the law. Amen. But in verse 18, there's another truth that we need to really think about is the perpetuity of the law. This is another reason why we know he didn't destroy it. Because what does verse 18 say? Preferably I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So that law is not going away. He's keeping it. Now, the smallest letter is what's called the Hebrew Yod, which is like an apostrophe. there are approximately 66,420 yods in the Old Testament. That's a lot. He said not one of them will pass. Then there's an innumerable little seraphs, which is a stroke. The least stroke is the Hebrew serif a tiny extension of some letter that distinguishes them from similar letters. So it's like a small stroke. So he's saying not one of them either. Not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So what is Jesus saying in that statement? He is speaking both to the inspiration and the immutability of the Old Testament. It's not going away. In fact, in other parts of the New Testament or Gospels, Jesus said the scripture cannot be broken. It cannot be broken. And. It contains the truth. It is the truth and that cannot be broken. He's teaching that the scripture, the Old Testament will not change. How many times, this is an interesting statement, it is written. It is written is in the perfect tense. Now we see that in Matthew 4, when he was over there, Matthew 4, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. It is written is the perfect tense, which means this, it was written, it is written, and it will always be written. That's what that means. It was, it is, and always will be. the perpetuity, immutability of the Old Testament law. In fact, the scriptures, get this, this will blow the mind of some scientists today, the scriptures are more enduring than the universe itself. Look at Matthew 24, 20, 35. And it is referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. What's it say? Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. You know, you can read in the New Testament that heavens are going to melt with fervent heat. The elements are going to be destroyed, but his word will never be destroyed. It's never going to pass away. That's an amazing statement by Jesus. Amen. So what do we want to see here? We want to see the continuity of Christ's righteousness and Old Testament righteousness. So we must see this profound continuity. between his righteousness and the righteousness called for in the Old Testament. Basically, that is going to be our message in the next point, which is the Christian and the law. But I will not get there tonight. Do you see that Jesus lived what we're going to call a radical righteousness? This is the radical righteousness Christ lived. This is the radical righteousness that Christ taught. And here he's calling us to that righteousness. Christ's righteousness is radical not because it is new, but because he lived it. Do you see? That is the difference. That's why he's saying here, and I'm almost giving it away a little bit, but in verse 20, For I say to you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no wise, in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Brethren, it's very clear. There's a difference of the righteousness of Christ and truly the righteousness of true Christians today than the righteousness that we see in the Pharisees and the scribes. And before you start judging that, you better be careful. They weren't just any immoral people. But the problem is, it's like today, With religious people in the church, it's just outward. It's just outward. And that won't get you to heaven. It has to be a radical, inward righteousness. And we'll see that next week. Let's pray. Will you stand with me?