♪ Bear me o'er life's pitful sea ♪ ♪ Through the gate of life eternal ♪ ♪ May I enter, Lord, with Thee ♪ ♪ Close to Thee, close to Thee ♪ ♪ Close to Thee, close to Thee ♪ ♪ Through the gate of life eternal ♪ ♪ May I enter, Lord, with Thee ♪ All right. We appreciate your good singing here this morning. You can go ahead and set your hymnals aside. And we'll have the little ones go with Mrs. Schwartz to your class to crash. And the rest of us can open our Bibles again to Matthew chapter five. And a continuation of our study on the Sermon on the Mount. Alright? Matthew chapter 5 and beginning at verse 17. Alright? Beginning at verse 17. So where is Jesus as he's preaching this message? He is where? Solomon, do you know where he is? Or do you, Mr. Hyken? Where's Jesus when he's preaching this message? He's on the mountain, isn't he? And he's got his disciples there, we've been looking at the last two weeks, and they are gathered around him, perhaps close by, but there's multitudes that are there. There could be somebody listening that is just not sure, you know, what to believe as far as who the Messiah is, or not sure as far as the ministry of John the Baptist that had been pointing them to the Messiah, whether or not Jesus was the Christ. And those people are listening in to what's taking place. And we've looked at Jesus preaching this message and he's spoken about attitudes and he's dealt with different attitudes that the people could have and then he's dealt with their actions this past Sunday. We looked at that. Now he's going to speak about the believer's relationship or anybody's relationship related to the law. and how the law would basically not change because He has come. And, you know, if you go back to the beginning of creation, how many laws were there in the Garden of Eden? Just one. Wouldn't that be nice if, you know, we didn't have the Ten Commandments, we had the One Commandment. And it was, Thou shalt not eat of the tree the knowledge of good and evil. For the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. One law, one consequence that's clearly given. And that's it. Of the trees in the Garden of Hades, freely. I mean, everything else is fine. But this one thing you can't do. You know, we think perhaps it would be easy to obey that one law, but our nature being what it is, and our succumbing to temptation would be no different than that of Adam and Eve. In the garden, as they yielded to the temptation before them, they took of the tree the knowledge of good and evil. Now, as soon as they ate thereof, what did they have that they didn't have before? They had an awakened conscience. So now they have a conscience that knows right and wrong, so that's added to the law. They have a knowledge of good and evil, that's added to the law. As Moses leads the children of Israel out of Egypt, what takes place? The writing of the law, and so it's put into revelation, it's put into kind of a concrete form, actually a stone form originally, but then inscripturated and put into the scrolls. And so now man has an abundance of rules that teach him how to live in God's economy in a way that pleases God. And this morning, there's people that think that someday they're going to stand before God and the law is going to defend them. that it's gonna be the one that testifies for them and says, you know, this person shall go to heaven because they are not a lawbreaker. People think that. And Jesus is gonna deal with that. Others think that the law is unimportant. You know, I've been saved. I got saved by grace and I'm under grace. And so the law doesn't matter to me anymore. The rules don't matter to me anymore. And yet Jesus is gonna deal with that as well. Think about who Jesus is. Jesus is the truth. And so he is absolute truth and he is the living word. And as such, he's not gonna minimalize the law, he's gonna exalt the law. He's gonna uphold the law. And so this morning, we get to see his perspective on the law and its relationship to us. And so let's pray, ask God to bless his word to our hearts as we study it and consider it this morning. Father, now we're thankful for the time that we could spend in your word, and we do ask that the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts. Father, we need your grace as we come to this book. We need your help as we consider it. And Lord, I ask that the Spirit of God would give me liberty and power and wisdom as I speak. I pray, Lord, that our hearts should be made tender to your truth. Lord, this is a difficult passage. The more I study it, there's just things in it that are difficult. Father, it's difficult to look at the law. We are under grace and yet The law remains, and the law stands in judgment upon us. I praise you as it does that, that grace is greater than our sin, that grace triumphs and grace trumps, and yet, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. And so, Father, help the law to expose our sinfulness and our disobedience, but I pray that it would push us as it's supposed to towards your grace. Father, for those that are unsaved, the law is a very heavy topic, too, because, again, it just is burdensome because it points to our shortcomings. And yet, Father, in that case, may it point people to Jesus Christ for salvation. Father, bless your word now. We need your help in this service. We need the power of the Spirit of God. We need to have our hearts in tune with you, and we pray that you help us to do that. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. All right, so Jesus, as he begins this part of his message, he speaks about the foundation that we have in God's word with the law, and Jesus builds upon it. He says that the Messiah's coming did not end the law. He is the Messiah. He's the one that the Old Testament spoke about, that's the deliverer. He's the one that's anointed by God. He's the one that is gonna die for the sins of the world, as it said in Isaiah 53, that he'd be wounded for our transgressions, he'd be bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement or punishment of our peace would be upon him, and with his stripes we'd be healed. He is that person, but having fulfilled that, he did not come to destroy or end the law. Verse 17, he says, think not that I am come to destroy the law. It's not gonna be set aside. Just because he's come, it doesn't mean that's the end of it. Sin came, and because sin came, the law was given. Now Christ has come, it doesn't mean that the law is gonna end. The law would remain. DL Moody said about the law, the law stops every man's mouth. God will have a man humble himself down on his face before him with not a word to say for himself. Then God will speak to him when he owns that he is a sinner and gets rid of all his own righteousness. Somebody has to be confronted with the law before they get saved. They have to have the testimony of the law show them where they stand before a righteous and a holy God. Imagine that God did call the law to witness for you, you're standing before God someday, and you're hopeful that you get to go to heaven. He calls the law to witness against you. And as the law comes before him, if just dealing with the Ten Commandments as the law, he would ask the law, did they worship anything other than me? And if the law could point at you and say, you know what, they worship their family, they worship their work, they worship their hobbies, they worship their sports, they worship false gods, false deities, false things. then the law would stand and accuse you before God and say, this is what they did. You know, God would then say, well, did they worship any false gods as in idols? Did they make any graven images? Did they bow down to them? Did they worship him? And in our day, you might think, well, I don't have any idols like that. Yet again, some of these same things that I mentioned could enter into that. It could be the telly. It could be the internet. It could be a hobby. It could be sports. It's something that we've crafted that we worship and bow down to and yield to instead of God. Then he'd say to the law, did they vainly use my name? You know, it's very popular in the world to say the phrase, oh my God. But when somebody says that, why do they say it? They say it not to acknowledge that there is a God, they say it to take and use God's name as an exclamation. I worked at the Wilds Christian Camp in North Carolina and we had a ride called the Giant Swing. It was two huge telephone poles, bigger than normal telephone poles that went up and had a bar across the top. And then there were ropes hanging down harnesses. And you got in a full body harness, you know, went around your shoulders and around your legs and had a hook on the back. And there was a clip that would go into that and you would be harnessed with one other person. You lay down Superman style, just hanging from the rope. and then it would begin to take you back like a giant pendulum, okay, pulling you back and up at the same time. And you get up to about 50, 60 feet and there was a release, but you didn't know when the release was coming. That was kind of the fun part. It's just up, up, up, up, and at some point you're going to hear a click, and when you hear a click, That's when you're free-falling at the ground and it was just like jumping out of a, you know, anything. Jumping out of a plane or jumping off a platform. It was just a free-fall most of the way down until the rope caught you and then swung you up the other way. Okay? Very fun. But you know, sadly, the guys that worked that ride said often, these are Christian young people at a Christian camp. When that would release, the first thing that would come out of that person's mouth was that, oh my God, and take God's name in vain. You know, even today, Christians are often ignorant about language. There's things called euphemisms. Euphemisms for God's name include gosh, gee, golly, even. But they mean the same thing. They mean God. And God's, you know, when it comes to this command, the word of God says, for he shall not hold him guiltless. I take it this name in vain. This morning, I would say there's a lot of people that, even believers, if you said to them, look, you shouldn't say that, it's taking God's name in vain. That they would say to you, it's no big deal. And yet it's God's law. It's His law. And it's a precious proof, I use it when I'm witnessing, it's a proof that there is a God to atheists. Why do people say it? It's because it's sin. And we like to sin. You know, God has got his law for a reason. So if he called the law to witness and said, did they take my name in vain? Did they honor the Lord's day? You know, in the Ten Commandments, you know, it'd be the Sabbath day. But I would ask you this, why would God have one day a week that he wanted people to use for worship of him in the Old Testament and in the New Testament just have nothing? And I agree, we're not to keep the Sabbath on Saturday. We're not to use that day as a day of worship. It was done away at the cross as Jesus Christ was raised on the first day of the week. But what day did the church begin to worship as a church? They came together on the first day of the week. And the Bible says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. You know, an irreligious society that says Sunday is not important, worshiping God is not important. Don't you think someday they're going to stand before a holy God and he's going to say to them, why didn't you give me my day? Why didn't you honor me on my day? Do they vainly or do they honor the Lord's day? Then he could ask, did they honor their parents? Were they submitted to their parents always, every day, every moment? Did they ever dishonor their parents? Because if they have, they've broken this command. Did they kill? And Jesus is gonna elaborate on that in this passage, but we're not gonna get there today, but did they kill? Did they commit the crime of murder? Did they take man's life in anger? Did they kill? Did they commit adultery? And again, Jesus is going to expound on that as he follows up what we're going to look at today. But he's going to expound on that and say what that is. But we could at least say, did they commit the very act of adultery? Did they break their marriage vows and sin with somebody else? And God would ask them, did they steal? Was there ever a time that this person took something that wasn't theirs, whether they thought it was a big deal or not, of any value or not? Did they acquire something in a wrong way? Did they take something that wasn't theirs? Did they falsely accuse their neighbor? They're jealous of their neighbor. And so like Jezebel is seeking to get the vineyard for Ahab. She lies about Naboth, and Naboth is killed. Did they bear false witness against anybody for their own agenda, putting a slant or slander upon somebody? Then he could ask, did they covet? Were they happy with what I gave them, or did they covet? Did they constantly longing after things and desiring other things, and so seeking those things because, again, Ahab just wasn't content with what he had? Did they covet? The law, again, it's a tough thing, isn't it? If we're held accountable to such a high standard, that is a very tough thing. But you know what? Just because Jesus came does not mean that he destroyed the law. His coming did not say, well, the law, it doesn't matter anymore. He upheld the law. Galatians 3.24 says, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Why the law? The law is something that reminds us this morning, we're sinners. It condemns us. And if your hope someday is to stand before God and say, I'm a good person, I'm gonna go to heaven, the law is not gonna defend you, the law is gonna condemn you. So what does the law do? The law points us to Jesus Christ. It ought to make us really consider our hearts before Holy God and say, you know what? If I die trusting in my self-righteousness, what I have accomplished, it's of no value because the law condemns me. Jesus didn't destroy it. The Messiah's coming did not make the Old Testament outdated. Think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. The prophets were the writers of the Old Testament. They're the ones that penned all those verses about the coming of the Messiah and what's going to take place. And they're the ones that spoke with the authority of God as they stood against their wicked generation standing up for a holy God. And Jesus says, I'm not coming to set that aside. You know, the Old Testament, I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but the Old Testament is not half the Bible. The Old Testament is really three quarters of the Bible. 75% of scripture is Old Testament, only 25% is the New Testament. It has 36 of the 66 books. The Bible's a marble, it's written over 1500 years by something close to 44 human authors, 66 books over these many years, and it all agrees. It's an amazing book. But when Jesus came, he wasn't gonna set aside the Old Testament and say, well, that's old, and so this is new. He didn't come to start something new. In reality, you could say he came to fulfill something old. What Jesus' ministry does, it builds upon the Old Testament, because Jesus' arrival verified the law in the prophets. It verified them. And he would not abolish the law, but he'd establish it. His coming verified that all that was said back there, back then, all that has taken place now. And it's a beautiful compliment that God's given to us in the New Testament, that it shows the fulfillment of what was said in the Old Testament. There's yet some things to be fulfilled. But what a precious unity there is in the word of God. It's not old and new, it's separate. It's old and new together and better for it. The Old Testament, it has increased in value for us. So he would not abolish it, but establish it. He says, I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. You know, have you ever been reading through scripture and seen the phrase, but this took place to fulfill, to fulfill. This was done to fulfill this, right? Matthew, just considering that, our book that we're in, if you go back to the previous chapters before the Sermon on the Mount, it says in Matthew 1, verses 22 and 23, it says, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child. and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Okay, all this was done that it might be fulfilled. Why a virgin? Why Mary? Of course, the seed would be from God and protect Jesus. Couldn't come through a corrupt seed, but also Jesus was the seed of God put into the womb of Mary. I mean, there's obvious reasons why Jesus would be virgin born. And yet the word of God said it. It said it 600 years before in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 7.14 says, Now that's a fact. Have you ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Dead Sea Scrolls are an archaeological find that included in them the book of Isaiah, okay? Dated 650 years before Christ. That's a fact. But what it says there in so many places is truth about the Messiah. One such truth found in chapter seven is that he would be virgin born. And so the word of God tells us, as we read through the book of Matthew, Jesus was born of a virgin. She didn't know a man. She had no physical relationship with a man before conceiving this seed and bearing the son, Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter two, verses 14 and 15, in the story of them fleeing to Egypt with the young two-year-old Jesus Christ. When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. God called his son out of Egypt. Interesting the Word of God said that where does say it was says it in Hosea 11 1 when Israel was a child Then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt Yes, it's fulfilled in two ways. It's fulfilled in the fact that as a child Israel as a nation came out of Egypt, but it's fulfilled in Christ my son I called my son out of Egypt Matthew 4 13 says in leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying the people which sat in darkness saw great light and to them which sat in the region and shadowed death light has sprung up. Interesting. There's all of a sudden there's illumination that's taking place in these nations and it's Christ coming But where is that written? Isaiah 9, 2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. And in chapter nine, verse one, it lists those places where Christ was. Amazing. Jesus didn't come to do away with the law. Jesus came to fulfill it. He is the fulfillment of this foundation that God has given. And so you think about that and you might think, well, Jesus knew the Old Testament. And so he thought to himself, okay, I know the prophecies about the Messiah as well as anybody. And so I'm going to do those things. When it says that he went here, I'm going to go here. When it says he went this way, he went this way. And so I'm just going to fulfill it. And then you have to ask yourself, well, how did he fulfill prophecies about his birth? You know, he had to fulfill his virgin birth. How could he do that? He had to fulfill the fact that he'd be born in Bethlehem. And by the way, why was he in Bethlehem? Because the world went there to be taxed. It's not that they were from there, it's that they went there. You know, in Bethlehem, they might have been constantly taking a survey of the young virgins and saying, you know, is anybody pregnant? Is anybody pregnant? And trying to figure out when the Messiah's gonna come, because he's gonna be virgin born in Bethlehem. not knowing that God, in his wisdom, is going to bring Joseph and Mary from another area back to Bethlehem. He'd have to fulfill that. How could he do that? His travels in his infancy, he had nothing to do with that. As a two-year-old, he didn't say to mom and daddy, mom and daddy, I want to go to Egypt. Let's go to Egypt. He couldn't do it. He had to fulfill how he would die. He didn't die by the Jews, he died by the Romans. So he'd have to get the Jews mad at him, but then have the Romans kill him. He'd have to die on a cross. Which, and by the way, when Psalm 22 is written, which speaks about the pierce of my hands and my feet, crucifixion didn't exist. So he'd have to have that all worked out. So many things. You know, there's no way this morning that Jesus Christ worked himself into the position of Messiah. He came to fulfill, but he came to do so naturally, because he is the fulfillment of all those prophecies that have been given. So he would not abolish, but establish the law. He would take nothing away from God's revelation. Verse 18 says, for verily or truly, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Okay, if you had to go into the synagogue back in Jesus' day, and they took out the Old Testament, what are they holding? A scroll, right? And in the scroll, if it's not been translated into Greek, then it's Hebrew. I was witnessing to a Jew a few weeks back when Garrett was here. We went up in the highlands and I shared this story about that Jew. But what was neat, as I told that Jew about Psalm 22, he said, well, let's look at it. And you know what he did? He took out the Hebrew scriptures on his phone. It's quite a change, isn't it? From scrolls to phones, right? But he started reading it. It was great to hear him read it, because it would have been what it would have been like back in Jesus' day. He's reading the Hebrew, and it was great. But then he goes, oh, look here. And it was a comparative study Bible type thing where he could bring the English up on the other side. You know, Jesus was saying in Hebrew, there's these small diacritical markings called a jot and a tittle. They're the smallest of the small. It's kind of like us, you know, an exclamation point in the period. Underneath, you know, you got the, it's like, it's like the littlest marking or a little, you know, we got this hyphen, right? It's that, it's Jesus saying, until the end of the earth, heaven and earth pass away, not the littlest thing is gonna pass from my law. Now, did he say, not the least commandment? No. Did he say, not the least story? No. He said, not even the littlest, tiniest markings on a page is gonna change. That's amazing. You know what we call that? We call that preservation. God's preserved his word. He's preserved it minutely for us. You know, the scribes, you might wonder, how was the Bible copied? Scribes were the people that, they were the copyists. If they misspelled anything, they would burn the page and then they'd take a bath, you know, they'd wash themselves before they'd write scripture again. That's how carefully scripture was guarded. Scripture was written in archaic languages that could not change. And so you can't say, well, you know, English today is changing, and English is. But Hebrew and Greek are not. They're dead languages, and they're wonderful languages, but they're dead. And so it's not changing what God has written. You know, not a jot or a tittle. Let me ask you this morning, does God want us to literally interpret his word? If he says to us, as Jesus did, not the smallest little dash or dot on the pages of Hebrew scripture is going to be changed until the end of time. Does he want us to be literal in our understanding of scripture? You know, of necessity, we have to say yes. Or that doesn't make sense. If liberalism is okay, or modernism is okay, where I can just say, well, that means this to me, but that means that to you, then it doesn't matter if a jot or tittle changes, does it? Because that's what's happening. It's kind of like, I could illustrate it this way. If I was a teacher, and I wrote on the board the statement, you are required to bring your homework tomorrow. exclamation point. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's pretty clear, isn't it? But you know, somebody could come along, a student in the class goes, yeah, I don't want to bring homework tomorrow. Do you want to bring homework tomorrow? And they're like, they agree. No, we don't want to bring homework tomorrow. So to tell you what we do, we're not going to change anything except that little straight line at the end of that statement. Straight line is the top of the exclamation point, right? What we're going to do, let's make a squiggly line instead. Let's make a little hook and a line coming down. Let's change it to a question mark instead of an exclamation point. And then let's read it. You are required to bring your homework tomorrow. And then they could say what? The teacher is wondering if we should bring our homework tomorrow. Right? Everybody go home and say, I wonder what the teacher thought about that. You know, he's kind of wondering about whether we should bring our homework tomorrow. We go to school the next day and the teacher says, where's your homework? And they said, look at the board. And the board has a, you know, question mark instead of period. Oh, we thought you were asking, should we bring our homework instead of commanding us to bring our homework? You know what Jesus has said? He said, you're not allowed to change it. No. Doesn't matter what you want, doesn't matter how you feel, doesn't matter how society changes, you can't take the word of God and change it in the least little bit. Because I say, behold I, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled. There's a lot of people that really struggle with that. They want their own private interpretation of the Word of God. They want to say, that means this to me, and that means that to you. And yet the Word of God says in 2 Peter 1 20, knowing this verse, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. In other words, somebody can't get something from the Word of God that somebody else can't get. Because it's not a private interpretation. It means what it says, it says what it means. And so again, Jesus is standing up for the authority of the scriptures. And now Jesus is gonna relate God's view of his law. Because you might ask the question, well, all right, Jesus is saying, you know, the law's not gonna change, but do I have to agree with that? Do I have to abide by that? Is God gonna hold me to that high standard that Jesus has of the law? And you know, in our text here, And it's true, believers have different views, don't they? There'll be some groups that would have a very high view of God's law and God's word and the standards for holiness and the standards for righteousness. There'll be other groups that have a low standard, right? Maybe a low view and say, well, it's not really that important, you know, that's give and take, whatever. But how does God view that? In heaven, lowly regarded citizens in heaven are lawbreakers. They're saved. These are people that are born again. These are people that have entered into the kingdom of heaven. They have a heavenly citizenship, right? They have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. But if they're a lowly citizen in heaven, they're a lawbreaker. They took a low view of God's law, verse 19. It says, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments. Now he is speaking about the commandments, but he's saying whosoever shall break one of these least commandments. Now you might ask the question then, well, what is the least commandment? And apparently there's greater commandments and lesser commandments. I think we understand that this morning. I could ask it this way. Have you ever met somebody personally? You know, because the answer to this is yes, there are people like this. But have you ever met somebody that said it was just a little murder? you know, they killed somebody. It was just a little murder, you know, a little white murder, you know, to use the same term that they use about something else. Nobody does that, right? But you've heard people say, but it was just a little lie. Just, you know, a little white lie, right? So, who so ever shall break one of these least commandments? And perhaps they have their reason, right? Even as a believer, they might say, you know, the government shouldn't get so much money for my taxes. And so it's just a little untruth. You know, I just kind of fudged just a little bit there and said, it's not that big a deal. I'm going to lie about that. Or it could be for benefits. You know, I'm just going to, you know, it's not a big deal. I could use a little bit more money. It's not a big deal. Don't tell me it's a big deal. It's not a big deal. Right. There's other ways we can illustrate. Let's illustrate that way. And they say, you know what? I'm not gonna do that. And so least commandments. So think about things that Christians would justify and say, well, it's okay, not that big a deal. And in doing so, they encourage others in their low views. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so. So this person might say to somebody else, you know, I just do this. And to use her illustration, you can get a big tax break if you just, you know, just don't talk about that, you know, don't just, they know, you know, nobody asked and I haven't answered. They can encourage them verbally or they can encourage them by doing it. They know that's what you do. Our actions speak louder than our words. And so by our actions, we're teaching. And so we're saying to other people, hey, do this with us. It's no big deal. Just kind of get along with us and that'll be okay. Well, what does Jesus say about that? He said they would be given a lowly place for their low views. He says, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Okay, whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach other men to do the same, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, if I asked you today, how would you feel to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven? You might say this, well, it's fine, I'm saved. But can I remind us that Jesus tells us that there's going to be consequences for our disobedience, that they're not going to be fun? There's no way that we're going to be satisfied in heaven to be the least in the kingdom of heaven. We're not going to hear Jesus say to us when we enter into that gate into glory and see our savior. He's not going to say, well done, my good and faithful servant. I don't know how he's gonna look at us, but I think it might be, you know, the same look that he gave Peter when Peter denied him. You know, the eyes of Christ meant Peter, and Peter wept. It's gonna be a shame to realize that, yeah, I'm saved, okay. But I violated the word of God. I sinned, and I did the same thing that put Jesus Christ on the cross. As a believer, I did that. Again, in sorrow, Jesus said, No, if you're gonna take this low view of my law, you're gonna have the lowest place in my kingdom. But highly regarded citizens in heaven are law abiders. They're not law breakers, they're law abiders. They obeyed even the least of the laws. It says, but whosoever shall do, do. This person doesn't just teach and say, you gotta obey God. This is somebody that lives it. This is somebody that has a life that backs it up. They have a life that's consistent with the word of God. They're circumspect, they know right and wrong. Hebrews 5.14 says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are at a full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. They're not on the milk of the word of God, they're on the meat of the word of God. They're digging deep in the word of God and they don't wonder You know what God thinks about that, they know because they've studied it. And they can tell you scripture as to why they believe, what they believe, and why they do what they do. And so Jesus says, whosoever shall do and teach them. They taught others again, just like law breakers, we teach by our words and we teach by our actions. So law abiders do the same. And so they take a high view of God's truth. and they take a high view in practice of what the Word of God says, and they teach others by that. You know, let me ask you, how do you think lawbreakers of God's kingdom, they're saved, but they're lawbreakers, how do you think lawbreakers feel around law abiders? Comfortable or uncomfortable? Uncomfortable. You know, I've often wondered why it is within the body of Christ there's such a wide range of practice. We've got the same God, we've got the same Holy Spirit, we've got the same scripture. You know the answer is because there's lawbreakers and there's lawbikers. There's people that live holy and there's sanctified lives and there's people that live unholy, unsanctified lives. Are they both saved? Yes, by God's grace. But just like getting saved is a choice, sanctification is a choice. A high understanding of the word of God is a choice, but can I just encourage those of you that would take a high view, it's worth doing because you're gonna be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They'd be given a high place for the high view. The same shall be called great. Don't be discouraged that somebody with a lower view, an understanding of the word of God when it comes to purity and modesty and sanctified listening of the right kind of music, sanctified eyes of watching the right thing, a sanctified heart that doesn't go certain places, doesn't do certain things. Don't be discouraged if somebody despises you for it. Realize this, by the grace of God, you've got a higher place in glory. The same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. You know what the word of God says that in Psalms? It says in Psalm 19, beginning at verse seven, it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. Now listen, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Somebody that has a high view of the Word of God, they're not just going to be rewarded on earth, but they will be. They'll be rewarded in glory. That's precious. Jesus says, you know what? I'll tell you. giving an internal perspective on my word, it's so important that if you take it literally, you obey it, you follow it, you live it, that there's gonna be reward to those that do, and there's gonna be punishment to those that don't based on their status within the kingdom of heaven. And by the way, I didn't say this, but the kingdom of heaven is eternity. The kingdom of heaven is what it sounds like. It is speaking about those that are in, have been saved, We'll see that in this next verse in verse 20. Verse 20 says, Okay, we know it takes righteousness to enter into heaven. It's God's righteousness, not self-righteousness, and that's what he's saying. You know, he's given the Huy Standard of the Word of God, hasn't he? He's built up the Word of God. He said the Word of God is to be obeyed, it's to be followed, and it's to be cherished. And those that do, they're gonna be rewarded eternally. But having said all that, those that follow the Word of God, those that follow this law as best they can, the law can't save anybody. Even though it's very important, even though it's vital, even though Jesus Christ didn't come to destroy it, he didn't come to end it, he lifts it up. Yet in following this law for righteousness, it's not possible. Unless you're more righteous than the Pharisees and the Scribes. Jesus says, for I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. Okay, the Pharisees. The other day I was walking and I was praying and I opened my mouth to inhale and I got a bug with it. So as I sucked that bug in, according to the law, you're not supposed to eat winged creatures. I didn't really want to eat them, but I did. The Pharisees, to prevent that, they would strain their drinks because these gnats were unclean. They would strain their drinks so that it would not have a gnat in it, lest they violated God's law. Jesus said to them, you strain your drinks so that you don't drink this unclean insect. I'm telling you, in doing so, you've eaten the biggest animal that we know of that's unclean, that's the camel. He said that in Matthew 23, 24, ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. They're self-righteous. They thought they were doing it just right. Let me ask you, when's the last time you strained a drink so you didn't drink down a winged creature that God said is unclean? And Jesus said, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. I met people all the time. I say, why should you go to heaven? And they say, I'm a good person. I would love to ask them, do you understand what a Pharisee is? A Pharisee in the day, I mean, they followed outwardly God's law. I mean, they lived it. I mean, they went overboard seeking righteousness through the law. You know what they didn't find? Righteousness through the law. That's why the only thing the law does this morning, it does it so very well. It brings us to Jesus Christ for righteousness because we can't get it any other way. We can't get it through works. It's not of works. It's Christ. You know? It says, if you don't excel, beat that standard, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. No exception. God's not gonna say, well, you're the first exception I made to this rule, and so I'll let you into glory. the only thing the law will do is condemn us. But just because it does, Jesus Christ, when he saves us, he does not say to us this morning, you know what? You're under grace, you're not under the law. Because he, with Paul, would stand up and say, what, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. You know, believer, the word of God is clear. The law still is standing. still accountable to it. We still will give an account to God for how we obey the revelation that God's given to us. It's not a burden because God's grace is there for us to help us to abide by his truth. When we sin, we've got Jesus Christ in his blood. We can ask his forgiveness and forsake our sin and he'll cleanse us of our sin and forgive us, right? So it's not the law is to be followed. Praise God that when we break it, because we will, we have grace and we can be forgiven. But unbelievers that hope to trust in the law someday when they stand before God, it's just gonna condemn them. And they need to realize that what they need is Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, his complete payment for their sin, his resurrection from the dead, that they can trust in that. Because if they're trusting in the works, they're not gonna get to heaven. And just one more thing, and that is, how do I know if I'm trusting in my works rather than trusting in Christ? And the answer is when you ask somebody, or if you were asked the question, when you die, why would God let you to heaven? If you said the first words out of your mouth is because I'm a good person, then the answer is you're trusting in yourself and the law condemns you. And so the important thing is that we trust in Christ and Christ alone. Let's pray and ask God to bless his word to our hearts. Father, thank you for this message that Jesus gave, the Sermon on the Mount. Father, we praise you for his upholding the law. Thank you that you've given us a completion to your word, not a new word. Father, we don't have new revelation that violates the old. We have new revelation that fulfills the old and complements the old, and we praise you for that. Lord, help us to value the precious truth that we have. If anybody here this morning is not saved, if they're trusting in their goodness, if they're trusting in keeping the law, I pray, Father, that they be honest with themselves this morning that the law condemns them. Father, as believers, help us not to have a diminished view of your law. Father, I fear today, lest we're living in the generation that's going to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Father, even those that have a high view of your word, I fear that they don't have just what the apostles had. They don't have what the early church had. They don't wanna have what generations of the church have had, even 100 years ago, 200 years ago, how people feared to break the word of God, how they feared to live unholy. And yet, Father, holiness is a foreign topic in our day. It's something the Church of God disdains and looks down on, and it's something that Jesus Christ exalts. Father, give us grace to live holy. Bless your word to our hearts. It's in Christ's name I pray.