Well, before we jump into our study in Matthew, let's take a moment to prepare our hearts to study God's Word. Father, we again give thanks to you. The theme throughout the worship portion, Lord, is got me thinking of what can we say, what can we do to return thanks. And simply saying thank you is appropriate. And you indeed are worthy. We love you. And we thank you for your love for us. We thank you for your word that you have revealed yourself to us. And as we're studying the book of Matthew, we pray for your guiding hand as we move through the text Seeking to understand what you intended to convey not what we think or what we want Or what we think should be but what you did say So I pray that you would give us success in that endeavor in Jesus name. Amen So we come back to the gospel of Matthew and looking at the question, why did the king come but not the kingdom? This is at the heart of the first century issue. The Jewish people understood that when the Messiah came, the kingdom came with him. And so if Jesus is indeed the Messiah, why no kingdom? Some have answered this question by saying, well, it's not a literal earthly physical kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom where Jesus is ruling and reigning in our hearts. That sounds all well and good, right? Jesus is the Lord of our life. And he is on the throne of our heart is kind of the vernacular. That sounds lovely. It sounds good. And it even sounds to the otherwise educated biblically It sounds biblical. But it's not, because there are countless promises of a literal, earthly, physical kingdom. That is the literal, earthly, physical kingdom that Jesus declared was at hand, that John declared was at hand, that his disciples declared was at hand. And so that answer doesn't solve the problem. Why did the king come, but not the kingdom? Matthew, I think, is solely devoted to that question. And he answers it in this gospel by explaining that the Messiah was rejected by his people, by the nation. Not totally. There were Jews that believed and Matthew deals with that. He explains what is the kingdom program for those who believed. Matthew 13 in particular addresses that question. And so we are at the early stages of the gospel. We've seen the incarnation in the preparation of the king. We looked at that glorious teaching of the creator of heaven and earth, took on flesh, became man, dwelt among us, lived among us, suffered among us, and was sinless and blameless among us and was the perfect sacrifice for us. But we haven't gotten there yet in the narrative. Thankfully, that's historically already happened and a done deal. But then we saw the preparation of the king. We're in the phase right now of the declaration of the principles of the king. At this point in time in history, according to where we're at in Matthew, the kingdom was at hand. It was, in other words, ready to be installed into creation. And so there's the declaration of it, but then the principles of that kingdom are shared by Jesus in his teachings. And one of those principles, primarily in the Sermon on the Mount, was the necessity to live under Mosaic Law observance. They must be under the Law, devoted to the Lord, and then they would receive, I believe, the New Covenant, in which the Law would be written on their hearts. And so these are the principles that Jesus is attacking in the Sermon on the Mount, because the Mosaic Law was departed from by the nation. Not entirely, but it was covered up by the religious leaders who added all sorts of traditions and rules and regulations that Moses or God never said, but that they said, or their great-great-great-grandfather said, and they held dear to those traditions and they put it on the same level as God's Word. And there was a problem because they did the traditions that they put in place. And so by doing that, they thought they were righteous. That is essentially the heart of legalism. Legalism is a list of do this and don't do that. And you're a good boy or a good girl. Congratulations. The issue with legalism is it doesn't solve the issue of sin. So you've got a spectrum. I've used this illustration before. On this side of the spectrum is legalism. This side of the spectrum is licentiousness. Legalism is essentially, like I said, a list of do's or don'ts that if you accomplish, you think you're righteous. But it's not true righteousness. It's self-righteousness. Licentiousness, in trying to answer the question of sin, just throws up its hands and says, it can't be answered. Do what you want. And God will hopefully cover the rest. That's not true righteousness. It's unrighteousness. What is the solution to sin? And I think it's grace. And I think it's offered freely through Christ. And that's going to be the culmination of his message. But right now he's trying to let the law function as God intended the law to function. And that was to reveal sin. Right? The law is a mirror that when you look into, you see your imperfections, you see your unrighteousness, you see your inability to achieve that which is demanded with the perfect righteous law. And Paul deals with this head on in the book we just finished in Romans, where the law is wholly good and he upholds the law. But the law cannot bring life. It only produces death because of sin in us. And so Jesus is trying to bring back the true intention of the law so that it might have its proper function and drive the nation to their recognition of their need for a Savior, but also fulfilling the righteous requirement that God had instilled with the law. So we just covered, just by way of review, verses 1-12, the blessings of the heirs of the kingdom, the Beatitudes, as it is popularly called. And these were a pronouncement of blessings for those who would inherit the kingdom. And then we jumped into, we started to look at verses 13-20, which I had titled, The Necessity of Law-Keeping for Israel's Restoration. I've been going back time and time again to the book of Deuteronomy, And I want to apologize, but I won't, because it's so important for us to have that background, that knowledge, because the audience that was listening to Jesus on that mount or plane, I believe, just on that note, there's discrepancy in the synoptics. I think that this was probably a message delivered more than once. And one was on a mount, one was on a plane, and one was probably in a city, one was in a room, one was on the lake. Who knows? But I think he offered this more than once. But those people listening to him, according to Matthew, on the mount, was aware of the Old Testament promises of the kingdom, but also the requirement of the law. But it was muddied by the religious leaders saying, well, do this and do that instead, or do this and do that plus what Moses said. And Jesus is going to correct that thinking. So there's two parts to this passage, verses 13 through 16 are the people's purpose, that is the nation of Israel's purpose, and 17 through 20 is the Messiah's purpose. Now I'm very careful in the book of Matthew, and I'll continue to do so, but you might wonder, why all this talk about Israel? Because that's the direct audience of this book. So often, I've heard, especially in this next passage, the salt of the earth and the light of the world applied to the church. Now, does the church have a similar function to Israel in a way, applicationally, is salt of the earth and light of the world? Absolutely. But it was very intentional for Jesus to say these things in relation to Israel's purpose. And then 17 through 20, he explains his purpose. Why did he come? And he has to correct a lot of false Thinking that was going around in the first century one of which was that he's gonna come and he's gonna overthrow Rome Now when the Messiah comes will he overthrow all the world empires? Yes Is that what he came to do that for his first? Advent or his first coming? No, he needed to pay for sin So the people's purpose versus 13 through 16 now, this is review. So we'll kind of go through this somewhat quickly and There were two metaphors used. You were the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Now we talked about the first one. The salt of the earth was the intended purpose of Israel. We looked at last time, Exodus 19, five through six, where God intended them to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a nation that has an influence on the world. Now again, applicationally, this is true of the church, right? God has worked in Israel, is working in Israel. He's working in the church. We have this influence. But as of right now, refrain from jumping to that prematurely. We want to understand how the original audience would have understood this, and how the original speaker intended this to be communicated. And I think he's very intentional on what he says. First of all, in verse 13, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? Now, he's obviously talking in figure, a figure of speech to convey the purpose of the nation of Israel. Now, there's been commentators that have suggested different ideas of what exactly salt's picture here, what it's emphasizing. Some well know, some of you may well know, that salt has a preserving aspect. You can salt meat and it preserves it for a long period of time. It has a flavoring aspect, right? It can enhance a meal. When we did our internship in the UP, that was something unaware apparently by my ancestors, which I have ancestors who are Finnish. Finnish people, I learned, don't like seasoning, so they didn't use a lot of salt. So some have suggested it has a flavoring aspect, but it's, I think, the idea of preservation or influence in the world. Their purpose was to be a witness, a testimony to the earth. But if it loses its flavor, how can it be reflavored is what Jesus says. And the implication there, I think, is you've lost your flavor. You've lost your salt. So what do we do now? So the expected result, he says something, and I think it could be missed, but I do think he's very intentional in what he says. If salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out, and trampled underfoot by men." Now that seems pretty straightforward, nothing unusual, right? But again, if you are familiar with the whole counsel of God in the Old Testament passages, it seems like he could be suggesting something. Thrown out would be the idea of being thrown out of the land. The Israelites, under the Book of Deuteronomy, the covenant that is made there with the wilderness generation and God, to follow the Mosaic Law, and if they do so, they'll be blessed. If they don't, they'll be cursed. Well, if they continue to disobey, they will be thrown out. So in other words, if they don't serve their purpose, God will remove them from the land. The salt that has lost its flavor is only good to be thrown out. And then we talked about the trampled underfoot by men. This is a phrase that occurs frequently in the Old Testament, but also appears in the New, where it seems to have a relationship with Gentiles treading the land underfoot. It's related to being thrown out. So not only is Israel thrown out, but God allows Gentiles, foreign nations, to occupy or even control the Holy Land, the land of promise. And so I think this is very intentional by Jesus. And it would have been a sharp warning to the Israelites listening to them who thought they were good. They thought they were righteous. They thought they were okay. And I think this is a foreshadow that everything is not okay. So then we come to, you are the light of the world. Verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Now, another reason I don't think this is talking about the church is the church a city. No. Contrary to what Augustine said in The City of God, a book he wrote that I think caused a lot of damage to the church and church history and introduced and popularized amillennialism, that idea that God's rule and reign is in our hearts and we will bring forth the kingdom. We will build it. We're not kingdom builders. I'm sorry. We're kingdom heirs. We're sons of the kingdom through faith in Christ, but the only influence I dare say we have on the kingdom is increasing that number of heirs of the kingdom by the gospel. The more people that get saved, the more heirs there are, and I think that's the limits of our Kingdom influence at least right now, although you can make an argument with rewards in that conversation that our works done now will be Contributing to what we do in that kingdom. So there is a lot to say in that regard But as far as building establishing the kingdom, it's not our job So the function of the chosen nation was again to be a light to the world I've explained this before but through God's two programs that Israel and the church Israel was a come-and-see method He established a nation that the world would see. And the influence of the nation of Israel was in that come and see model. Whereas the church is a go and tell. We've been told to go out, to make disciples, to share the gospel. Our light is like a flashlight. We go out. Whereas Israel is like a lighthouse, a place where the lost come to receive safe harbor. And we are a searchlight. We go out and find them. So the implied assessment of 1st century Israel, verse 15. So a city on a hill, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. So a light has an illuminating aspect, right? So he's clearly using this figure to speak of the purpose for the nation of Israel. You are a light to the nations. That's your purpose, that's your function. But right now you are putting a basket over your light. You're not serving your function. Far from it, you're repelling people from God because of your behavior, your antics. And so the implied assessment of that generation So then the charge to function properly, verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So the correction comes in verse 16. Now here's one that I feel totally comfortable drawing application to us. Are we a light in this world? Absolutely. Do we hide our candle under a bushel? Nope. At least one grew up singing that song. But sometimes we do, right? Thinking in step of similar to what Jonathan shared, what are the ways that we let our light shine? Or what are ways that we keep our light from shining? I think it's interesting taking this idea and coupling it with the figure that John uses in 1st John. He equates fellowship with God as walking in the light. In other words, when you are in fellowship with God, you are walking in light. So taking that and kind of seeing the comparison here, if you're in fellowship with God, your light is shining. Whether you're aware of that or not, your light is shining. And it's because I believe in fellowship with the Lord, you're walking by the Spirit, abiding in Christ, and the fruit of the Spirit is being produced through you. And people see that, and they glorify God. But if you're not in fellowship with the Lord, you're walking in darkness, right? And you think, well, I'm walking in darkness. That means no one sees what I'm doing, right? It's hidden. Well, sadly, it's not a parallelism there. It's the direct opposite. You walk in darkness and they see, and they equate, oh, that person's a Christian. They call themselves a Christian. And it blasphemes the name of God. And we are not functioning as God would have us function. So, summary application. God intended Israel to be an influence in the world. This is pictured by the image of salt. They are to have an influence in the world. God also, later in history, relative to Jesus speaking these things, has the church influencing the world. So again, it's appropriate to mention, but we don't want to overemphasize and read the church into here and just totally remove Israel from the context. So the question, are we making the same mistakes that Israel did? Now we can look at this two ways. We could look at it locally, but also collectively. The universal church is the church influencing the world. I don't think so. Maybe in some ways, not so in others. We're cozying up with the world. We're dating the world. We like the world. We promote what the world promotes. We thumbs up what the world puts a thumbs up to. So in many ways, I think we are making those same mistakes. But what about locally? Are we making the same mistakes? Are we having an influence on our community? Now, I think in many ways, yes. But could we be doing more? In many ways, yes, right? God has placed us in this community. Now, I understand we, and I think this needs to be said, because I've heard so many people read the book of Acts and say, we should be having those results. And if we just do it the right way, the way God would have us do it, we will have those same results. Here's the problem. We are dealing with history, thousands of years, hundreds of years, in which people have been preached to, taught, told, grown up with, aware of the gospel. And so there creates a hostility. I talk about this when I explain door-to-door evangelism. I'm not against door-to-door evangelism, but growing up in Utah, I'm not totally in favor because you know where I'm going with this. Someone's coming to your door, what do you already anticipate is going to be a discussion? So you're already building a negative thing. Can people be saved through door-to-door evangelism? Absolutely. But I don't think that's the method prescribed in scripture. I think relational evangelism is. By far, if you think about how you came to faith, it was probably someone you were in a relationship with, right? A mom, a dad, a friend, a teacher. Someone in your life that God put there, by the way, shared the gospel with you. They had an influence on you. They shone their light in your life. And you believed and were saved. And now you are that person in someone else's life. Have you shared the gospel with all of your friends and family? I'm always careful because I never want to bully the church. But it's a helpful challenge, and it's a challenge for me. And if it makes anyone feel better, there are some friends and family that I have not. I've tried with many, and it didn't go far. Many of my friends have become believers. Now, they don't live like good believers, but I trust that they understood the gospel and they believed. And I anticipate I'll see them in glory. But have you shared the gospel? And I would just encourage you and challenge you to do so if you haven't. And there are ways that I've thought of just to give you a little bit of application on that. It can be intimidating, right? Having a face-to-face conversation with someone you love, someone you're close to, you'd think it'd be easy, but it could be even harder than a stranger. Well, one thing I did... is I remember at that time at Frontier, we were learning about church history, and there were apologists in the early church, and they would write letters to people, and they would give a defense for the gospel, give a defense over a certain doctrine, and I thought, that's a really great tool. And so I did that. I wrote a letter to my, this is going to sound weird, my sister's dad. We have different dads. I'm not rejecting my dad. I wrote a letter to my sister's dad. He was a man. He's since passed, and he's had a significant influence on my life. He was like a dad to me in many ways, and he was not a believer. And I wrote him a letter, and I just explained, I care for you, I love you, and I want to see you forever. And the only way that that's going to happen is if you trust in Jesus Christ. And I explained the gospel. And that way, you disarm all of their defenses. You give them the gospel, they can read it in their own time, and they understand from that two things. One, your love and care for them. And two, the gospel. And it allows you the opportunity to communicate it clearly, because that's another deficiency that we have, is we don't communicate the gospel clearly. Now, I'm not saying we as in Fellowship Bible Church, but as a church as a whole, there is so much mud, so much confusion on what the gospel is. Make Jesus Lord of your life. Give 10%. Go to church. Be baptized. That's not the gospel. The gospel is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. You and your household, right? That's what he told the Philippian jailer. Now he's not saying, if you believe, your household is saved, too. He's saying, you and your household believe, and you shall be saved. That's the gospel. And that's good news, right? And then our job of walking beside them and encouraging them. And so are we making the same mistakes that Israel did? Israel has been used by God to shine his revelation and plan for creation to the rest of the world. The application there. The church presently is steward to God's light. Are we good stewards? Are we shining brightly? Now with that, can a light be increased or can the brightness of a light be increased? Certainly. So there's another aspect to this, right? Are we increasing our brightness? Now, how might we do that? Well, I would suggest through the knowledge of God's word. Now again, you can look at this three, three ways, one universally, two locally, but also personally. Are you as an individual growing in your understanding of God's word? that if someone asks you a question, you have the ability to answer it according to God's Word. You have the opportunity to shine a light in their darkness. I'm doing a study right now for my exegetical paper that's due this week, and it's a phenomenal passage, and I have half a mind to take a break and preach it to you, because it is a powerful, powerful truth in Ephesians 4, 17-24. Many translations and many commentators want to say that it's an imperative. Put off the old man and put on the new. Well, I'm convinced, and Dave helped me with this, I believe when we first met, so two years ago, he mentioned that. And as I've studied it and I've looked at it, it is quite clear what he's saying. Having put off the old man and having put on the new, he's explaining their position. Where is it going with that? Oh, it was so good. I'm so excited. But where I was going with that is in that passage, he says, you no longer, which is also a lot of people want to make an imperative. It's not an imperative. He's saying you no longer live the way the rest of the Gentiles live in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened. Unbelievers have a darkened insight. We learned that in Romans 1, right? You suppress the truth in unrighteousness, your foolish heart is what? Darkened. You suppress the truth of the gospel, your heart, your mind, which I think in the Jewish frame of reference is essentially synonymous, is darkened. Your thinking is futile. It's worthless. You can't see. We have an opportunity to shine the light in that darkness. Now is there a chance they continue to suppress the truth? Certainly. But let's give them that chance. I think all too often we don't give unbelievers the opportunity to suppress the truth of the gospel because we don't share it. We don't live it. And all too often someone will ask a question unrelated to the gospel, maybe related to the gospel, and we don't know. Now it's perfectly acceptable to say, you know what, I don't know and let me find out. But we should know. Countless rebukes are issued in scripture of, you should be beyond this. The writer of Hebrews talks about this. You should be beyond this. But behold, we have to talk about the ABCs. May that not be true of Fellowship Bible Church. May that not be true of you individually. Are you personally growing in your knowledge of God's word? Are you leading your family into that? Are you encouraging our local body in that as a steward of God's light? Are we shining or do we need to change our batteries? So now we come to the Messiah's purpose, verses 17 through 20. The purpose stated 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." So very clearly, but it's as if he needs to say this because the audience might be thinking that Jesus was countering the Mosaic Law, but his purpose is the exact opposite. So those who have been following Jesus have probably seen some confrontations with the religious leaders and they're thinking, oh, Jesus must be against the law. And so he says, do not think that I came to destroy the law, but rather to fulfill it. which would also cause the gears to turn, and they'd be puzzled, and they'd think, oh, is he with the religious leaders then? And then he's going to explain, no, I'm not with them, I'm with God. And I'm going to explain rightly the true law's intent. He emphasizes this purpose in verse 18, 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. Now a few questions here. First of all, what does Jesus mean by, till heaven and earth pass away? Is that just kind of a... He's exaggerating the point. Is he using hyperbolic language? Or is there perhaps intentionality? I think there's intentionality. First of all, look at Isaiah 65, if you will. Book of Isaiah is a very powerful, powerful book that I hope to study someday. You better do a few shorter books before we do that, though, because it will be a while. Isaiah 65 and verse 17. Now, this is the context. Many of your Bibles may have a heading. This my heading says New Heavens and New Earth. This was not a new concept. It was prophesied in the Old Testament. The end of Isaiah is talking about the kingdom. In fact, a few passages before this talks about, or no, after this, starting in verse 18, the glorious conditions of the millennial kingdom. Essentially, if you want to know what heaven is going to be like, read Isaiah 65. It will tell you. And when we studied this on our Wednesday night, our study of heaven and the afterlife, I made the point, I'll make it here, heaven is going to be much more earthly than we realize. Sometimes we think of, you know, heaven's going to be this eternal church service in the sky, where fat babies are playing harps on the clouds, and we sing all day. That's not heaven. Heaven, I think, is going to be a lot like It is right now, except with all the junk, without all the clutter. It'll be beautiful. It'll be as God intended it from the beginning in the garden. We'll walk on this earth. We'll serve on this earth. We'll teach people. We'll serve people and God in what God has called us to do in reigning with Him. But in verse 17, he says this, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. So this is the idea, till heaven and earth pass away. So the idea of the coming of the kingdom will lead to the passing away of the heavens and the earth. Now, I don't think the revelation has been revealed yet that there's going to be a thousand years in the kingdom. And then at the end of the thousand years is when the new heavens and the new earth is created. That gets revealed by John as far as the timeline there. But this concept of a new heavens and new earth implies the passing away of the former, right? And so Jesus is essentially saying, heaven and earth will not pass away until all is fulfilled. Now, keep a finger in Isaiah, because we'll be right back, or actually, it's in the next chapter, so let's read this next verse. Chapter 66, verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants in your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. Now, keep that phrase in mind. We're going to come to that later in Matthew's Gospel, where their fire is not quenched and their worm does not die. It's not just something he made up. It's been referenced in the Old Testament. But again, focusing on the new heavens and the new earth, it implies the passing away of the current heaven and earth. So to explain this, there's a chart here on the Day of the Lord. Now, there's a couple ways that you can understand the Day of the Lord, and I think the context will make it plain. The Day of the Lord can be used in a literal 24-hour day. The Day of the Lord, which I believe is Also called the great and terrible day of the Lord that is the return of Christ at the end of the seven years Christ will return and it is said to be the great and terrible day of the Lord and it's great and terrible for those who are the inhabitants of the earth because it is His time to come and destroy them But also there's a reference to a broader sense in which the seven years is spoken of as the day of the Lord. In fact, for technical reasons, and you know that I love to be technical whenever I can, I like to not use tribulation language. I say day of the Lord. So I believe in the pre-day of the Lord rapture. You miss out on the nickname pre-trib, though, if you do that. So you run that risk. But the Day of the Lord is that seven year period. But I also think you can include the thousand years in that. And I think it's fascinating if you do that, because if you think back to Genesis, when God is creating, how is the day cycle? There was evening, morning, day one, day two, day three. So there's dark in the Day of the Lord, the seven years. And the darkest part of the night is when? Just before the dawn? So the great and terrible day of the Lord is the darkest point in history for mankind that have rejected God. But then it gives way to the day, the light. And that light is a thousand years, the millennial blessing portion of the day of the Lord. And at the end of that is when the heavens and the earth will pass away. And so that tells us that the law is going to have some function in the millennial kingdom. Now that poses a lot of problems for people. And I think I've brought this up before, but a lot of people have problems with us who are dispensational because they say, well, you believe there's going to be sacrifices in the kingdom? Yes, I do. So you rejecting Christ's sacrifice? Not at all. Were those sacrifices ever removing anyone's sins? Just covering them, right? Are we being saved when we take communion? What are we doing? Remembering. What will we be doing then? Remembering. And how appropriate when a sacrifice is made. I think that's one thing, not that I'm advocating for resuming sacrifices, but think about that vivid imagery of taking your animal that you've been protecting, nurturing, keeping alive, keeping its legs from getting broken, and you take it to the temple and you watch the priest slit its throat and bleed. And the cries of other sheep that are dying. That would stick with you, right? But what would stick with you is the realization that I don't live unless something else dies. That sacrifice, and it prepares us for Christ, but also in the kingdom, it will remind us of what Christ did for us. What is meant by till all is fulfilled? Well, there's two things at least. Number one, the righteous requirement of the law. Sinful man cannot fulfill that. Paul talks about that in Romans. But Christ did fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. He was sinlessly perfect. He obeyed the Mosaic law perfectly. But there's also the element of fulfilling Deuteronomy 30. So go there if you would. Deuteronomy 30, and let's start in verse 1. We'll kind of jump through verses 1 through 10 a little bit. Verse 1, so this is after the blessings and the cursing section of 28 and 29. In other words, the law was given if you obey, blessed, if you disobey, cursed, or disciplined. And then he says in verse 1 of chapter 30, now it shall come to pass. In other words, this is prophetic. When all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possess, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And then notice verse six, and think of the new covenant. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments, which I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand and the fruit of your body and the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as he rejoiced over your fathers. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes, which are written in the book of the law. And if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. This is the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount, to return back to the Lord, that they might receive these promises that God issued. Now, quick question, by way of review, what were the three quoted passages that Jesus referenced in his trial in the wilderness? What book? Deuteronomy. I find that fascinating. And I would suggest that his contemplation during those 40 days was the book of Deuteronomy. Perhaps other passages, of course, he is the word, right? He would have those things in mind. But I think his focus was Deuteronomy, because I think his mission, his purpose was to fulfill this promise. The nation would return to the Lord. And then the new covenant would be made with them, in which God would write His law on their hearts, and they would be caused to walk in His ways, and to be blessed forevermore. But they needed to accept Him. And that they will not. They would not. They will in the future. So back in Matthew, the correction stated in verse 19, 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." Again, the kingdom has a relationship to the Mosaic Law, and Jesus is correcting the wrong thinking that may have been going around. Kingdom entrance relates to law observance. Again, Deuteronomy 30, 1-10. I'm not saying anyone is saved by law keeping, by the way. I'm saying according to the context of Israel entering the kingdom, the nation must be adhering to the Mosaic law. The rejection of the religious leader's righteousness in verse 20, this has caused some confusion among commentators. He says, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. What he's saying here is very clever because they all thought the scribes and the Pharisees, those are the righteous of the righteous, right? And Jesus is saying your righteousness needs to exceed theirs. So for some, they could see it as hopeless. But again, what's the function of the law? To show you your inability at righteousness. And I think Jesus is highlighting that and using something familiar to them and saying it has to exceed that. And then they think, who then can be saved? That's something his disciples ask much later in this gospel. The righteousness of the S's and P's is not worthy, in other words. He's rejecting it. That's the other subtle thing he's doing, right? If your righteousness needs to exceed theirs to enter, theirs is not able to enter, right? So he rejects their righteousness. It is not worthy. And I love that phrase. And we sang about this song. Trevor used this theme last week, the worthiness of Christ. I know I say this a lot, but one of my favorite passages is in Revelation when John is weeping. Have you ever wondered why? Why is he weeping? Doesn't he know? Because that scroll, no one's found worthy to open it. Now that scroll is essentially, I think, Reynald Showers said it's a title deed to the earth, and I think that's appropriate. I think that's accurate. But that scroll, the way scrolls were rolled up, there could be several scrolls within a scroll. And those scrolls, you come to find out, are the 21 judgments in the book of Revelation. Those 21 judgments are what? The time to discipline Israel and judge the wicked. If you can't open it, those things can't happen. If those things can't happen, Satan wins. So John is weeping. But then he saw the lamp. Who is worthy? He's the only one worthy. And he gifted his worthiness to us by faith. And so often, as I mentioned earlier, I find myself, what can we bring? What can we give to God that wasn't first given to us by Him? I think about Satan. Why did Satan fall? Pride. Why was he proud? Because he was beautiful. Why was he beautiful? Because God created him. At the end of the day, the heart of the issue boils down to the most simple and profound truth. God gives grace to the humble. and he resists the proud. It takes humility to believe. Pride stands in the way. That's why I vehemently reject anyone who calls what we adhere to easy believism. Pride is not easy. Overcoming pride is not easy. But Christ gives his worthy righteousness to us through faith. Through Jesus, they can have perfect righteousness gifted to them. Summary application. Jesus upheld the law. Jesus came to fulfill the righteousness of the law. Jesus promotes law keeping among the people. Jesus rejects the traditions of man negating the true intention of the law. These are points I'm gonna keep coming back to as we get into the heart because the very next passage and beyond he's going to now give Commentary on the Mosaic law you have heard it said this but I tell you this he's not rejecting He's correcting the misunderstanding of the true intention of the law. I This sets the frame of Jesus's following discussion on the law and the necessary corrections to the traditions promoted by the religious leaders. If Israel is to keep their salt and shine their light, it is necessary that they keep the law. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your worthiness, that your son is the worthy lamb who was slain. And he will open the scroll. John saw it. It happened according to your eternal plan and purpose. And we await that day in which that scroll is opened. Satan and his people are evicted. And your son establishes his perfect righteous throne on this earth. We long for that day, Lord. There is so much hatred, so much wickedness, so many temptations even that draw us away from you. But Lord, I pray that we return thanks that we give ourselves we offer our bodies a living sacrifice unto you that we might be fruitful in these last days. And indeed, Lord, I pray they are the last days I pray you return for us your church, and that you open the scroll that leads to your kingdom. We love you and thank you in Jesus name. Amen.