that. But the most important thing about any service is God's Word. We want to hear from God. It is His Word. It's infallible. It's inerrant. It's for us today. And this is possibly the greatest message ever preached, certainly the greatest of preachers. We've gone through the Beatitudes. We've gone through the fact that we are to be salt and light, and now, in 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, jot, or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men also, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. We are to rightly divide the word of truth. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Did you notice that? Whosoever shall do and teach them. more is caught than taught. 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. May the Lord's blessing to the reading of his words. Pray for a moment. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the music. We thank you that farther along we will know all about it. Lord, we wanna go today. Matter of fact, I feel like traveling on this very day to be at home with you, which is far better, as Paul said. But Lord, until that point in time, may we keep serving. May we keep doing what you'd have us to do. May we be salt and light to a world so desperately in need of seeing Christians who walk and talk the same. So Lord, convict my heart, convict the hearts of all of us if we have sinned, lingering, languishing, or loudly proclaiming itself in our lives. May we confess that, forsake that, repent, and do as you have us to do. Lord, if we want to know about you, we must obey your commands. If you love me, keep my commandments. So we'll invest our time together. We thank you so much for visitors today. May you bless them for having gathered with us. We thank you for the homecoming. We so look forward to in heaven, where we will be with you forever and ever. And so I pray that you help us as we think about these things today, work in our hearts and lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. If you're taking down a note, outline, first of all, we see two main points, the purpose of the Lord and the proclamation of the Lord. There is space on the back of your bulletin. I'm going to try to repeat the points twice so you can have time to write them down. So we see, first of all, the purpose of the Lord. and 17 and 18. Why does he say these words? By the way, can I just remind you once again that these words written in red and the words written in black are all God's word to us. He just simply spoke these in the red so that people could hear what he said. but it is all God's Word. Do not think that simply because it's not read that it's possible. No, it's God's Word. And He is the Word. Jesus is the Word. You cannot separate, I don't believe, God's Word, the Bible, the Scriptures, from Jesus, the person. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. He is the Word. So how can he go against his very self by going against the Word? It just does not make sense. So under this purpose, first of all, we see the confusion about that purpose, the confusion about his purpose. 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. Now, the people of that era revered two things. They revered the scriptures as interpreted by the scribes. as a rule of life. And the other thing they revered was their scribes and the Pharisees by their example. So two things, the scriptures as interpreted by the scribes, the lawgivers, if you would, or lawgivers of that era, the people who studied the law, and then the example of the scribes and the Pharisees. That's the two things. So they thought because Christ was opposed to the things they revered, that he was just not right. They thought that Christ did not follow the traditions in His conduct, so He was unholy. What they did not realize were that the traditions of man had violated the Scriptures of God, and He's not going to obey something that violated His own Word. So he wasn't violating the Word of God. He was not obeying their traditions. And so that's where the people got hung up on that. So he says to them, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. That was not his purpose. How would he destroy himself? If he is the Word of God, he's not going to destroy himself, he's going to declare it. And he calls them up for it on the carpet for it. He says, why do you transgress, in Matthew 15, 3, why do you also transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? Because opposition to the traditions taught by the religious leaders was not opposition to the Word, but opposition to false teaching. We have traditions here in America, in churches today, that we hold on the same light as the Bible, the Word of God. Jews today believe not only in the written word, but also the oral word. And so they get hung up on that. Listen, there's but one word from God is called His Word, the Bible. He wrote it. He gave it. He inspired it. He's preserved it for us. I like what A.W. Pink says. He says, because Christ despised the tradition of the elders, the religious leaders supposed him to be a deceiver, going about to destroy the very foundations of piety, which means religious fervor, if you would, because he threw far more emphasis upon the great moral principles rather than ceremonial institutions. Many were ready to imagine that he repudiated or he did not support the entire Levitical system. And because the Lord Jesus did not echo the prevailing theology of the day, Pink says he was regarded as a heretic. See, there is an echo chamber. Now, we've heard that phrase today. Sometimes we get accused of maybe preaching in or living in or talking in an echo chamber, because this is our circle of friends, and we know what they're going to say. They're going to echo it back to us. I will say, another echo chamber would be something like, my wife likes Diet Mountain Dew. She would say, no siree, that is not an echo chamber. Now, if I said, my wife likes Diet Mountain Dew, she said, yes, I do, that would be an echo chamber. That's not going to be an echo chamber, because it's not happening. So what they wanted was Jesus to fall in line with the traditions of men rather than the written word or the spoken word of God. He wasn't going to do it. So the confusion about the purpose, secondly, under number one, is the confirmation of the purpose, the confirmation of his purpose, I am come, I'm not come, sorry, to destroy but to fulfill. among this confusion and Jesus declares his intention was to destroy, that's what God had said. He came to fulfill it according to his own word. And his word was not contrary to the word of God. Every prophecy given about his life, birth, and death, every prophecy given, he is going to fulfill. The story, if we watch this, and Boaz, of course, was a big part. And the one guy accused Boaz of not being a true Jew. And by the end, he comes and says, you know what? You know what, Ruth? I'm not 100% Jew either. Do you remember who Boaz's mother was? Rahab the harlot. He still saves if you will come. That's the thing, you must come in repentance and faith. And I would say probably 100% of us are Gentile today, probably. A Jew is one who has ethnicity, if you would trace it back to Jewish line. You cannot become a Jew by saying, you can become a proselyte to Judaism today, but you can't become a Jew. You have to be born that thing, you have to be part of that line. But anyway, God's people, have rejected him wholesale today in the most part, but there are some who have received him as Savior. What a wonderful thing. But whether you are Jew or Gentile, you must come to God by repentance and faith today. He died on the cross that we might have life. If you've never given your heart and life to him in repentance and faith, you need to do that. You look around, it seems the time is short. when he's gonna come back? Do you know that Israel just killed, I believe it was, the number one Hezbollah person this week? Even Hezbollah admitted it. Do you not think we're on the cusp of a war that could take us right into the tribulation time? And I think personally, we're out of here before that. But God has a plan. It's gonna come to pass. He did not come to destroy the law. He came to complete it. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, no one could arraign him before the law. No one could truly give an official charge. I watched this week about the arraignment of the sheriff who shot the judge down in Whitesburg. What a sad thing that is. He was arraigned this week, given what he's being charged with, etc. You cannot arraign the Lord of glory. He is sinless. Now there were some trumped-up charges, if you will, at the very end where they used these trumped-up charges to crucify him, but they were not true. They were just that. They were false charges. They had to keep looking for two people who would agree together and finally found two. He came to fulfill the law. By the way, Miss Ruth, Mr. Boaz had a son named Obed, had a son named Jesse, had a son named David, who had 30 generations later, the glory came when Christ came. Hmm, you mean God will use you? Yes, he will use you if you'll surrender and submit and bow yourself before him. Though free from the law with its stern demands, no longer ruled by harsh commands, I'm bound by Christ's love and am truly free and to live and act responsibly. What Christ has done for us, it should stir us to right living. It should stir us to make an impact on the world for God. Confusion about this, there was the confirmation about his purpose, and thirdly under this, the completion of his purpose, the completion in verse 18. 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. He came to fulfill the law. And just think for just a moment about what it's saying. First of all, there's the preservation of the word of God, The preservation. God proclaimed that the Word would endure. God has preserved His Word. I personally believe He's divinely preserved His Word even for us today. Yes, He's inspired it. Yes, He wrote it. But I believe He also has preserved it. When I look into the Scripture today, I can see Him in there. He has kept it for us so we can have absolute certainty that what we have in our hands is from God to us. And we can know a plan of the ages. Most of all, you can know that you need a Savior and that Savior is the Christ who came. The preservation of the word of God, it endures. It endures. It was Voltaire. who so boldly said that he was going to eradicate the, he has like four or three first names and I can't pronounce them, but he was a philosopher. He said in a hundred years, the only Bible that's going to be on earth is going to reside in a museum. He said it took 12 men to get the Bible out. It's going to take one to destroy it. And 100 years later, his entire grand total works were sold for $2, the same auction one copy of the Bible was sold for a million. And they even used his house, the Geneva Bible Society, used his house to hold Bibles in it. So Voltaire's realizing for eternity that he was wrong, and God's word shall stand. His word shall stand. preservation also there's the perseverance of the word in 18 till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law to all be fulfilled the priests and scribes may have sought to hinder him and challenge his fulfillment of the word but they were not able to do so his word provided his word's going to persevere He affirms the authority extended to us. It's one jot and one tittle. Now that's, you should look at your Bible just a moment. So first of all, look at Psalm 119 verse 73. Psalm 119 verse 73, the jot or yod, yod, y-o-d in Hebrew, is the smallest letter. of the Hebrew alphabet. I want you to see it for yourself. Psalm 119. 119 verse 73. 119 verse 73. Now as you know, or may not know, the Psalm 119 is an acrostic. So you have all these different chapters started by different letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In 73 we have the jot. if you would, the YOD, Y-O-D, J-O-D, and see that little letter beside the J-O-D or the Y-O-D? That's the jot. It's that smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It almost looks like a comma, if you would, and that's what that jot is, so that will not pass, and the tittle is found in 81. Look over at 81, above 81, you see K-A-P-H or C-A-P-H, and then look back over at verse nine, and you will see the tittle, or perhaps you won't see the tittle. The tittle is in nine, over nine, but the C-A-P-H does not have the tittle. It's not even a letter. It's like a little, it's called the little horn. It's so small, it's like if you had a, one of the Hebrew letters is a line with two, a straight line down here, and then a partial line, and the tittle would be filling up that partial line. Another one is where they're straight perpendicular to each other, and there's a little bit of a hump on the other side of that line, making it not quite exactly line up. That hump is a tittle. Not one jot, not one tittle will pass from the law until all be fulfilled. God's very careful. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. So He's given it to us. As a matter of fact, I believe it so much, I'm placing my eternity on it. That's how much I believe it. And I would die for it. I mean, either disclaim the Bible and reject Christianity or get shot in the head. Shoot away. I'm going to heaven. I'm going home. Going home. One man said, no other statement made by our Lord more clearly states his absolute contention that scripture is verbally inerrant, totally without error. That is, scripture is God's own word, not only down to every single written word, but down to every letter and the smallest part of every letter. Forever, O Lord, thy word is set on heaven. Psalm 119, 89, 1 Peter 125. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you, the purpose of the Lord. was to correct the misconception and confusion of the people. Secondly, there is the proclamation of the Lord. The proclamation of the Lord. We find it, first of all, in verse 19, he speaks of his, of recklessness, the proclamation of the Lord, number two, then under that, he speaks of recklessness, 19, back to our text, Psalm, Matthew 5, 19, the first part, 5, 19, the first part, whosoever, therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men, so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So clearly, speaking of born-again people, people who will be in the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, pretty much those two terms are synonymous for the most part because he refers to them standing in the kingdom of heaven. You must realize the importance of what Jesus says. We must rightly divide the word of truth. There are those who are teaching the truth to their own end. They've found some little portion of the Bible and they go to town on that particular portion. Do not be doing that. We are to rightly divide the word of truth. It extends to those who want to misinterpret the Word of God for others. There are the six passages in all of Scripture that very clearly teach against homosexuality, and that has been six of the most recently reinterpreted passages in all of the Bible in the last 20 years. Oh, did you know this? Did you know that they've got it wrong all these years and all these different things? God's Word was in His mind before it was ever on the quill of man. And God does not change. He does not change for our culture. It's our culture who needs to change and get back in line with the Word of God. America needs to repent and return to what the Bible says. Men and women who want to love God's Word and have the sanctity of human life. It should not even be a question in your mind, God. From the creation of the human being in the womb, they are a viable human being. Isn't it interesting that the children in the womb are not deciding about those who are already outside the womb whether they should live or not? Ever thought about that? What about if they had a chance to decide about us? If we should live, I'm not wanted. We'll just take care of that. Do you see how wrong we are? Can you not imagine? And now we're trumpeting that all these things that are completely wrong are now right. It's an upside down world it seems, but not God's world. God's world has remained the same. His word does not change. It is for eternity the same. A sobering rebuke to those today who do not study to show themselves approved unto God. They simply find a passage and close their Bible. Read a passage. An independent Baptist has been well known for this in the past. Read a passage, close their Bible, and then go through the skyscraper sermon, one story upon another. That's not what we come to hear. I came to hear from God's Word. This is the centerpiece of the message? What does the Bible say? You must guard against trying to manipulate the word of God to fit into our ideology. And we must not take it out of the context. The context is simply the circumstances that form the setting of an event or something is said. Leave it in the context of what the Bible, it's not like we're, well, let's bring the Bible up to, no, we go back and see what God said in that era and how the people received it when they heard it. The context was clear. They knew exactly what he says to them. Not only he speaks of recklessness, he speaks of reward in 19. Speaks of reward. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the shame shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. There are those who are reckless, and then there are those who rightly divide the word of truth. And with God's, the spirit. G. Campbell Morgan, before he would preach, I believe he read his passage 50 times. So I'm working up to 10. Working up to 10, start with that. We're to read that passage and let the Holy Spirit teach us and learn from Him. As He speaks to us, the Spirit is not going to teach us contrary to the Word of God or this Jesus. He's going to teach us exactly what Jesus would say, for they are in perfect harmony. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians, some interesting verses. You want to hold your finger and look at 1 Thessalonians 2. 1 Thessalonians, not Celestalonians. 1 Thessalonians. All the T books are together in your New Testament. Paul wrote the Church of Thessalonica. Probably the best known passage would be 4.13 forward, but 2.4. First Thessalonians, but as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Verse nine, for ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because ye would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preach unto you the gospel of God. 13, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye receive the word of God, which ye have heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, But as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." This is God's Word to us. God's Word shall stand. You say, Pastor, I don't believe it. It's still God's Word to man. It's still true. Whether you believe it or not, God said it. And that's settled. Now the question is, have you truly trusted Christ as Savior? God said it. I believe it. God said it. It's settled. Now I trust you have believed it. That's a catchy tune. But the truth is, God's word is settled. Have you received him? And it speaks of redemption, verse 20. Recklessness, reward. He speaks about this proclamation of redemption. 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, the kingdom of God. Basically, those two terms are synonymous. There is, first of all, the priority. He's dealing with how to go to heaven. Now, isn't that a very important topic to talk about? How are we going to go to heaven? That's a very important, that's the most important decision you'll ever make. The basis for anyone's entrance into heaven is righteousness. The priority, you must have righteousness, and not just any righteousness. You must have right living that's perfect. You must have never committed a sin. You must have done everything right from going forward. Now, when your child's a little baby, you think, oh, a precious one. They will never, ever do anything wrong. And then they turn two and three. and 13, and then they get the 17, and then they get the 18. And oh my goodness, it's a wonder our children live through their young. I'm going to jerk a knot in your head like you've never seen, young man. Yes, mom, please, please don't hurt me too bad. The priority. You must be righteous. It's not speaking of baptism. It's not speaking of your works. It's speaking of when God looks at you, he must see no sin. God can only live with sinless beings. And right now, there's not a one in here that qualifies. We've still got this old nature in us that, did you sin this week? Have you sinned today? Yes, most likely. Might be one in a million who hasn't, perhaps ten today already. The purity. Accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And I can imagine their jaw dropping. The scribes and the Pharisees, they are the pinnacle of religious virtue. We are looking to, we want to be like them. We want to be just like them. They're just so holy. They're just so righteous. And your righteousness has got to exceed theirs. That's impossible. Yes. And even theirs isn't enough. Yes. As a matter of fact, Isaiah said that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Menstrual claws. Our righteousnesses are as... They're not much at all. They're less than that. But our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the most religious people if you ever want to get to heaven. And so I'm telling you, there's only one way to have that. You must have the righteousness of a perfect holy savior imputed to you and your sins must be put on the perfect savior. It's the only way. Only way. Romans 10. Verse two, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe us. Have you believed and received his righteousness? He is perfect. He is pure. He lacks nothing. He speaks of redemption, purity, priority, and then also finally poverty. That except your righteousness, verse 20, shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God. So the title of the message is good enough? Question mark. Is your righteousness good enough? But pastor, I don't care how good you are. I can guarantee we were not as righteous as the scribes and Pharisees outwardly as they were. I'm telling you, we were not. We're not. But that didn't matter. That's not what saved them. What saved them was a saving faith in Christ at what He did, was going to do, or did, now it's for us, did at Calvary. We confess our sins. We ask Him to forgive us our sins and to come into our hearts and lives and be our Savior from our sin. That's salvation. Many thought that Jesus had lived good enough to merit. I'm telling you, you ask people on the street today, probably 75% or more would say, if you were to stand before God, why are they gonna let you into heaven? Well, I think, Mr. Wright, that my good works outweigh my bad, and so my good works are gonna weigh more, and so he's gonna let me in. Nope. He's not. We're depending on you. You're depending on your own life, some kind of moral standard. It will not work. Because Christ emphasized, says Butler, grace and mercy, and was a friend of publicans and sinners. In contrast, the scribes and Pharisees, whose piety was esteemed to be supreme, because of those two things, it caused the people to wonder, has Christ lowered the standards for entrance into heaven? However, our text distinguishes that Christ's standards were not lower. His standards are higher. And we're gonna see that as we go through the Sermon on the Mount. He said, he that commits adultery, I say, and you even look on a woman and lust in his heart, you've committed adultery. He was not, oh, we're gonna make it a whole lot easier for you to get, no, he's making it, listen, you have to give, give it all. You must humble yourself and repent to receive it. He always raised the standards. Not the best human righteousness, but God's righteousness, the perfect, holy, sinless God. That's the only way a sinful people can enter into heaven, to dwell with God. And your righteousness must exceed. An absolute requirement, in no case. That is a double negative. Now, typically in our English grammar, my wife would probably shudder if I said something to her like, I don't never. Oh, I can see her now. I don't never want to drink that, Dr. Pepper, ever again. Don't never want to do that. Ooh, get rid of the heebie-jeebies. Double negative. But in the Greek text, it's typical, normal, and matter of fact, it carries a big weight. So here we have a double negative. In no case, in no case. Absolutely not. Mom, can I borrow that? Absolutely not. Whatever it is, you're not getting it. Mom, can I? Absolutely not. I remember my mom saying once, over my dead body will he do that. So that was a pretty much a, I don't know if it's a double, that's like a quadruple negative. Over my dead body. No, no, no, no, no. You're not going. You're not leaving the garden. Get back there and work. Yes, ma'am. We have, for example, all the Father given to me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will and know wise. Cast out. Double negative. No wise. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. It's the proclamation that if you're going to come to Christ, you must come His way. It is His heaven. He's coming to dwell with us. He's the focal point. Not you. Not me. He is the Lord of glory. We are the creature. He's the creator. And so He wants us to, He's proclaiming to us He did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. That for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Have you believed? It's not that he limited it, he came to fulfill it. Two stories told of, there was a big piano concert and a lot of people would come and Paderewski was going to be the pianist, outstanding Polish pianist. So mom took her little boy, her little boy's taking piano lessons and so she took him into the auditorium. And she sat him down, and she saw a friend over there. And so she walked over, not sure why she did, but she left her little boy, who was taking beginner piano lessons, on the seat by her. And she walked over to talk to this lady. And while she was walking, of course, this little toddler got up and started meandering around. He meandered around, went up the backstage, and went to the door and said, no admittance. And he opens the door, and lo and behold, he sees this Steinway nine-foot grand piano. And here he goes out there, and he goes over to the piano. And before the curtains pull up, and I don't know. And he keeps playing that, and the mother, and his mother, and the mother looks around. She's gone, and so she's frantically looking for her little boy. Where's my little boy gone? And then the curtain opens, and. He's playing that piano, twinkle, twinkle. And just at that moment, she realizes and sees him, Paderewski comes into the auditorium, into the concert hall, and he leans down, he says, don't stop, keep playing. And he sits down, I was gonna try to work it up, and as he's playing, He just makes it sound, the left hand down here and the right, he plays obbligato with it and it sounds like, matter of fact, when the concert's over, the people didn't remember a thing he played except twinkle, twinkle, little star with that little boy. God says to us, Don't stop, keep playing. I have come to fulfill the law, not to destroy it. If you believe on me, obey my commands. We have three people this morning who are going to obey God's command to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. How about you today? Are you following God wholeheartedly? Or are you just sort of playing at Christianity? Let's pray together, please. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. Thank you for listening today. The most important thing I would ask you to listen to is the Holy Spirit. Christian, if you've allowed things into your life that are displeasing to God, would you confess, forsake those? And this morning, if you do not know Christ as Savior, can I tell you He came not to destroy, but to fulfill. He came not to... He came because He loved. not to make your life miserable. He made it came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. And I'm telling you, if you've never trusted Christ, you can't see the joy that he gives, the peace that passes understanding. Yes, we still struggle with sin as Christians. Yes, we still have difficulties. I think we even have more difficulties. But I'm telling you, an unsaved person, when you trust Christ as Savior, we have a friend that stick us closer than any brother. We have the Word of God. We have the Spirit of God. We have all these things to help us. And there's a joy I can put my head on the pillow at night knowing that absent from the body, present with the Lord. If you do not know Christ, please receive Him. Heavenly Father, in invitation time, I pray that you work in our hearts and lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.