Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's go to Matthew, chapter five. We're going to pick up, starting in verse number 21 in our study of Matthew.
[00:00:09] I want to, I don't want to go verse by verse tonight. I want to cover a passage of Scripture and look at it kind of top down and pick up some principles from it that I think are very important for us to understand the Sermon on the Mount and what the Lord is saying and how he's teaching.
[00:00:33] We laid the groundwork for it this morning when we talked about how that Jesus came when he came into the world as a Hebrew, as a Jew, he came under the law. In other words, that was his place in the world. And as such, given that the law of God is perfectly righteous, therefore that the person who keeps God's perfect law is also perfectly righteous. And that could not be said, for instance, of our own country, because our country has some laws that are righteous and some laws that are unrighteous. And so. But at that time, the law of God, the fact that the Lord Jesus was came into the world under the law, meant that he was put, as it were, to the test of God's holy law and kept it, of course, fulfilled it, as we saw this morning in verse number 17 and 18. So what I would like to do, I'll just go ahead and pray and then I want to look kind of do an overview of verses 21 down through the end of the chapter, verse 48. Okay? So let's pray together. Our Father, thank you for your people that are here tonight and those that are listening in. I thank you that you've given us your word. Thank you especially for the gospel, for the fact that you, Lord, you came into this world. You came under the law. You came born of a woman. You came to redeem them that were under the law, and also to redeem us that were not under the law. And Lord, you came to redeem mankind. We thank you for that. We thank you that you lived a perfectly righteous life, that you fulfilled every command, even these commands that we're reading about tonight. And thank you that you took your righteousness and exchanged it for our sin and died for us. Thank you for dying for us. We have no hope but what you have done for us, we have no righteousness to claim you are our righteousness.
[00:02:29] Lord, please bless our study tonight. Help me to say the things your people need to hear. Help these principles and truths be seen by all of us here tonight clearly in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:02:42] Now, what you'll notice is starting in verse number 21, you will see five, I'm sorry, six blocks of verses, each of them beginning with the same basic formula. As an example, look at verse number 21 and 22. The Bible says this, verse 21, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.
[00:03:22] And whosoever shall say to his brother, raca, that's my pronunciation. I don't know if it's right or not, but that's how I say it.
[00:03:30] Shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. And you see this formula repeated in verse 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Verse 28. But I say unto you, again, you see it in verse number 31. It hath been said formula is a little bit different, but the same basic principle. Verse 32. But I say unto you, verse 33, again, ye have heard it hath been said by them of old time. Verse 34. But I say unto you, verse 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said. Verse 39. But I say unto you, Verse 43, Ye have heard that it hath Been said. Verse 44. But I say unto you, here's the thing. When the Lord starts repeating things in the same formula, I'm very glad the Lord organizes things and he's more organized than I am because it helps us to understand.
[00:04:22] But when he starts to do that, whenever you see a formula in the Bible like this or a pattern, you should probably stop, step back, and look at what is common between the different elements of the pattern. And that's what we're going to do tonight, because that's instructive to us. It helps us to understand that he's using individual things to teach. Of course, every.
[00:04:49] Every block of text of these six teaches things specifically for that item. But also there are general truths that are being taught by the examples of each one of these. So that's what we're going to look at tonight. Now, I want you to notice something that he says in each case. He says it was said by them of old time. But I say unto you, he's dealing with. He's dealing primarily with the law of God, what the law had said. Now, I want to just bring a point, kind of get it out of the way concerning the law of God, because one thing that's going to come up in this passage over and over is the idea that, that if you don't. If the law says, as an example, verse 21, Thou shalt not kill. And the idea being here that if you do not kill, you're righteous.
[00:05:44] That's the idea. If you don't kill, if you don't do the deed, you're good. You don't do the deed, you're good.
[00:05:52] But we have to remember the purpose of the Old Testament law. Why did God give the people of Israel the Old Testament law? The book of Galatians, the book of Romans tells us why God gave the law. It was not to give righteousness. That's plain now. The law is righteous. That's what Paul said in Romans. The law is righteous. It's good, it's perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. But notice that next. And I just. I gave it away. I gave it away. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. So the law was designed to bring us to that point. Right? The stated purpose of the law was what exactly? It was to show mankind that they were sinners, that they were guilty.
[00:06:46] And so the law spends most of its time talking about giving.
[00:06:52] Giving things. Giving commands that are prohibitive or commands that the Lord requires us to do. Okay, now, why? The law does not spend a lot of time. I did not say it doesn't exist. But. And we'll see that tonight. But the law does not spend a lot of time talking about our thoughts and our thoughts and our heart. It doesn't. You know, you notice that you read the Old Testament, Leviticus, especially Exodus, Deuteronomy, you read those books and you see a lot of commands about what you're not to do and what you are to do. Now, given that we know the law's purpose, which is to show us that we're guilty, that we're sinful, it's almost like the Lord's just cutting to the chase. Now, what the Lord's going to show is there's more to it than just what the law says. In other words, in God's intention in giving the law. But the best way to convict someone of sin is not to question what they're thinking, but what they're doing, because what they're doing is downstream of what they're thinking. So listen, if you see someone violating God's law in action, you already know the heart is already off. Right?
[00:08:11] I know that they had this idea. There was in the Middle Ages, In Roman Catholicism, there was this idea that somehow you could sin, but as long as you were penitent in your heart, it was okay. It wasn't, huh?
[00:08:24] No, that's false. You see, action is downstream of our thoughts. Our thoughts are what produce the action. Okay? That's what we see here. So the Lord laid out the law, and he doesn't spend a lot of time in the law talking about the heart and the intents. It's there, but not as often, because his purpose is to convict men of sin. You don't have to go very far.
[00:08:49] I mean, the number of people that sin inwardly and not outwardly is boom, right there.
[00:08:56] Zero.
[00:08:58] And so the Lord used this to address. Uses the law to convict man because by an act of violation of God's law, you can't say, oh, I wasn't trying, or I wasn't. This.
[00:09:17] It's something clear and definitive to convict man of sin right now. Again, what we're going to see tonight is that that is not all that's there, but that's what we most often see. Now, look at each one of these. In this formula, verse number 21, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Look at verse number 27. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Verse number 33. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time. Now, in each case, notice as an example, verse 21, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not kill. Now, that's a verse of Scripture, is it not?
[00:10:03] Surely everyone's not standing in doubt of this question.
[00:10:06] Exactly. That is a verse of scripture quoted verbatim out of Exodus 20. Right?
[00:10:13] But you notice Jesus did not say, ye have heard what the Scripture saith.
[00:10:21] Notice that Jesus is not quoting the Scripture, although that is a scripture verse. He's quoting the traditions of the Jews.
[00:10:37] That's interesting.
[00:10:40] By saying, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Now you could say, well, that's referring to. That's referring to the Old Testament Scripture. Okay, well, maybe, but in the same context, in almost the same paragraph, Jesus talks about the Scripture and calls it jot and tittle. He calls it the scripture in verses 17, 18, 19, talks about the commandments.
[00:11:06] He talks about the law. He could have said, yeah, I've heard that it was spoken in the law or it was written in the law, but he doesn't say that. You know why? Because the Lord is addressing the source of their authority here's. What's happening.
[00:11:23] These Jews do not know the Bible.
[00:11:29] They don't know what it says because their authority is not the Bible for what they do and what their religion prescribes. You know what their authority is? The traditions of the elders.
[00:11:43] Now listen, how many of you can agree that as you get older, the traditions become more important, do they not? I know in my family they become more important. But even to myself personally, traditions become more and more important as you get older. Because what I've noticed is as I get older, I feel a greater connection for some reason, with the past.
[00:12:05] Everybody kind of follow what I'm saying. I feel a greater connection with the past. And I want to know more about the past and what it brought me to, where I am. Right?
[00:12:15] But tradition by itself is not a good standard.
[00:12:22] Tradition alone without connection to Scripture is not sufficient.
[00:12:27] But that's exactly what is happening.
[00:12:30] That's exactly what is happening here. These Jews don't know the Bible.
[00:12:35] They know that people have told them that the Bible says thus and so, but they don't know what it says.
[00:12:43] That's why they're so confused. And one commentator I read said that it was so bad that the traditions of the elders were so blended with the law that you could not discern where the commandment of God ended and the tradition began. So there was no clear distinction. Now our Lord creates a clear distinction. He talks about the commandments of men and the commandments of God. He draws a really bold line between the two because he wants it to be understood what is the commandments of men and what are the commandments of God? So you understand why they got mad at him.
[00:13:21] Because to them it was blended.
[00:13:24] But to Jesus it wasn't blended. It was clear. Because this is what the Bible says, right? Okay. So you gotta understand that the authority that the Lord is pointing out and addressing here is not the Bible. Although this, this is a case where the tradition that said thou shalt not kill was sound, right? That is true. Because that is. That is a tradition that is consistent with scripture. But then is all the other things that were the problem. Okay?
[00:13:56] So we have to be careful of tradition. It's good and it's fine as long as it is consistent in agreement with Scripture. But it by itself is not. Is not really a good place to base our faith upon, what to base our faith upon. Now.
[00:14:11] So the Lord challenges or addresses rather the authority that is being used for the basis of their religion. He's challenging the authority of it. In other words, you need to do what God said, not what they're telling you. God said, you need to know what he actually said, not what they're telling you. He actually said, the Lord is appealing.
[00:14:41] Remember what I said this morning? He sets the foundation to be a Bible Christian, to be a Christian whose foundation for faith is the text of the written word of God. And here he applies it. Why do we not kill? Because God said, thou shalt not kill in the Scripture, not because the tradition of the elders said, God said, thou shalt not kill.
[00:15:07] So the authority of this society was the traditions.
[00:15:11] And the Scripture was not cited as the source. The tradition was the authority. That's the first thing I want you to notice, and that is consistent with all six of these truths, all six of these blocks of text here.
[00:15:29] Now notice in verse number 22 as an example. So the Lord says, you've heard this, but I say this. Now, a lot of people have taken that, because it's a contrasting structure there. A lot of people have taken that to mean that Jesus is instituting something new or changing something. Or some people have described it like this, where he's setting a higher standard.
[00:15:56] And to be honest, I used to think that, but now I don't think that's the case. I don't think he's setting a higher standard.
[00:16:05] I think what he's doing is he's going back to the source and he is interpreting the law as it was intended.
[00:16:18] Now, there are things that Jesus would say that were new, that were not written in the law. And then Paul came along and God revealed things to Paul that were not fully. At least they were revealed maybe in a. In an embryonic form or something in the law, but not fully.
[00:16:38] So the Lord is actually not.
[00:16:43] What I think, from what I studied is he's not setting a new standard. He's not setting a higher standard. Remember, the Lord is under the law, so he's operating within that, okay? But what he's doing is he's taking the Old Testament law and he's interpreting the commandments. Because remember, the Lord Jesus Christ is the author, right? So whatever Jesus says about these commandments is therefore true.
[00:17:11] So when Jesus says something and he gives a new light on the commandment, at no point do you see Jesus contradict any of these commandments. He doesn't. In fact, in every case, you know what he does? He says, you have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever, whosoever shall, whosoever kill, whatever shall be in danger of the judgment. He doesn't say, oh, well, it doesn't mean that.
[00:17:34] Watch out, you Bible scholars. You guys know what I'm talking. Be careful of people who take something plainly written in Scripture and allegorize it.
[00:17:45] Be careful.
[00:17:46] Jesus doesn't do that.
[00:17:48] So he takes the Scripture and he says, you've heard this, but I'm telling you that. Not that that is wrong, but the thing you're missing about the command, I'm pulling you back to what it says and helping you to see the way it was intended to be understood from the beginning, from when God gave it. And Jesus is qualified to do that because he's the author. That's why he spoke with authority.
[00:18:19] Authority.
[00:18:21] Now, and you also have to understand is how the. And I'll show you in just a minute, but how they had taken the scribes and the elders and the Pharisees, the ones who knew the Scripture but taught the tradition, how they had corrupted the truths of Scripture for their own benefit and those kinds of things. And they had perverted what God had said. And Jesus took offense to that.
[00:18:53] And by rightly interpreting the Scripture in its context, here's what he did. If you want to write these two things down, these are two principles that you see Jesus do using the word of God. The first thing he did is he put an emphasis upon the underlying principle behind the commandment.
[00:19:16] He put an emphasis on the underlying principle behind the commandment. We'll say more about that in a minute. But the second thing Jesus did is he put an emphasis upon man's heart, not just his action.
[00:19:33] That's what you see him doing. Neither of those contradicts the text of the command.
[00:19:41] This is why I say he's not setting a higher standard. He's merely revealing and pointing out the inward principle of the command.
[00:19:54] Now, here's the thing, here's the kicker. When you read the thou shalts and thou shalt nots, you think, well, it's just talking about the action, actually not. Because when you look in the Old Testament, you see that God does address the inward motives in certain places. So it's not that it wasn't there, like as an example, just to illustrate what I'm saying, in verses 21 to 26, it's talking about murder, but the inward motive is what? Anger and hate. Right? That's what we're talking about. So inwardly is anger and hate, which you can't see, but it manifests itself outwardly in murder. Right? That's the principle Jesus is teaching. And for each one of these six there's something similar to that.
[00:20:44] But in the Old Testament, the Lord does address those things. Also, here's the difference.
[00:20:51] The Jews didn't know that because they were only listening to the traditions and they didn't know the Bible.
[00:20:59] But Jesus knew the Bible.
[00:21:02] And because Jesus knew the Bible, he knew all this other stuff that they did not know. Let's look at a couple of them.
[00:21:12] Look at Isaiah 29. Hold your place in Matthew, if you would. Isaiah, chapter 29. Look at verse number 13. Isaiah 29, verse 13. Now this verse that I want to read, verse 13, is quoted by Jesus in Matthew, chapter 15, verses 8 and 9. Okay?
[00:21:59] And the context in which Jesus quoted it was in reference to the traditions.
[00:22:05] Men. Okay, so you can understand. The Lord cited this verse in Isaiah to deal with the tradition. Now notice what it says. Isaiah 29, verse number 13.
[00:22:19] Wherefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me.
[00:22:37] Now pause there a second. So what do you see? What do you see here? You see people that outwardly appear to be obeying the commands of God, but inwardly are not.
[00:22:52] Is that not what Jesus is talking about?
[00:22:55] Right. That's what he's talking about. We'll see it in a minute. But, and this is in the Old Testament.
[00:23:02] This is an Old Testament teaching. Now it's prophetic, but it's an Old Testament truth that's seen this difference between, well, I didn't kill. I didn't. I mean, I didn't. I didn't shoot him with my, with my AR15.
[00:23:15] I'm good. And the Lord says, no, you honor me with your mouth. You honor me outwardly, but your heart is far from that. You see? You see that distinction?
[00:23:31] Notice the next clause in the verse.
[00:23:36] And their fear toward me, that is the people's fear of God is taught by the precept of men.
[00:23:48] That's what we're talking about in Matthew 5. In other words, they didn't know the Bible. They knew the precept of men about the Bible, and so they feared God by means of this tradition. And the Lord says, that ought not be. You ought to know what it says.
[00:24:07] You see, that's what he's point. He's finding fault with that.
[00:24:12] And it's quoted as I said in Matthew 15, verses 8, 9. Look at one other place in Leviticus, chapter 19. Leviticus, chapter 19, as they call them, the white pages of the Bible, verse 17. Now, just as a reminder. In Matthew 5, the Lord addresses murder. He addresses adultery. He addresses divorce. He addresses swearing an oath. He addresses an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth revenge. He addresses loving one's neighbor and hating one's enemy. All right, those are the six topics. Okay. All right. Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 17. That doesn't look like I'm in chapter 20. That's why. Okay, here we go. Notice what it says?
[00:25:24] Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
[00:25:30] Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.
[00:25:37] What is the heart source of murder?
[00:25:42] It's hatred, right? It's hatred. Here the Lord says, thou shalt not hate thy neighbor. Hate thy brother rather.
[00:25:52] So the Old Testament law does address the heart, the inward thing that produces the outward violation of the command. You see this verse number 18? Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In Matthew 5, the Lord addresses eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, which is the pretext for vengeance.
[00:26:17] Right here. He says, you're not supposed to be doing that. You're not supposed to have vengeance and bitterness in your heart towards your brother. Is that what it says? So here's what I want you to see.
[00:26:29] This is just. This is so interesting. So this is why I say the Lord's not saying anything new.
[00:26:37] He's just saying what the scripture truly taught the whole time. That was veiled from them because they were not reading the text of Scripture.
[00:26:49] This is the difference between being a Bible believing Christian and somebody that's a part of a denomination or something like that. This is the difference. To be a Bible believing Christian means that you and I, as individual children of God, and therefore priests of God, have direct access to God. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. We have the Bible in our lap. We have the Bible access. We have access to the Bible ourselves. And there's no intermediary between ourselves and our Bible. We read it ourselves.
[00:27:30] Isn't that fantastic? That was not always the case in the Christendom.
[00:27:35] There was. I mean, there was a thousand years that religion tried to put something between the adherent, if I could say it like that, to be charitable, the adherent and the scripture. Sometimes it was a different language, sometimes it was a priesthood, sometimes it was, you know, various things throughout history. But here's the thing. God has always wanted us as an individual Christian, to have to know and to have access directly to the text of Scripture. That's what it means to be a Bible Christian, because when you have access to it all, you can rightly interpret what it says, right? And you don't fall into these pitfalls that they fell into, or at least as much. So if you would go back to Matthew 5. So when I say Jesus, you know, some people say, well, Jesus is saying things new. Not really.
[00:28:31] Not really those things. And that's one thing. When I was studying this, not for this message, but prior, when I was studying this, I started to realize, actually, to be honest with you, as I was reading through the Old Testament in those white pages and I got to those places in Exodus and my mind went to Matthew 5 and I was like, well, Jesus wasn't saying anything new. It was written there the whole time.
[00:28:54] The difference was he knew it and they didn't because he was a Bible Christian unit. You know what I mean?
[00:29:02] A Bible believing person.
[00:29:07] All right, now going Back to Matthew 5, each one of these, I'll just give you a brief summary of each one.
[00:29:14] In the case of murder, it was thought that as long as you didn't raise a weapon against a man, you were keeping the law.
[00:29:22] But the Lord pointed out that the driver behind murder is anger and hate, which we already saw. The Lord forbid it in the Old Testament.
[00:29:34] In the second one, it was thought that as long as you didn't touch the woman, you were keeping the law. After all, the Lord said, thou shalt not commit adultery. You don't touch her, you're not committing adultery. But Jesus pointed out that the driver of adultery is lust.
[00:29:50] And actually, what's interesting again, I know I'm repeating myself, but I want to drive it home.
[00:29:58] The root of adultery is actually addressed in the tenth Commandment.
[00:30:04] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. So it was just a matter of knowing what it said.
[00:30:11] The Lord says not to look on a woman with lust, but that was covered in the 10th Commandment.
[00:30:18] You just had to know what it said.
[00:30:21] You say, well, lust and covet is different. No, it's not. It's the same. The same thing means the same thing. It means the same thing in the third case, when the Lord addresses divorce.
[00:30:33] The motive behind divorce, especially in this case, was they just wanted to switch wives. They got tired of her, look for a reason, dumped her, go away.
[00:30:45] Matthew 9, 19, 3. We'll cover this much, much. Apparently much later. We might be. We might be old and gray by the time I get to Matthew 19. But where they ask the Lord, can a man put away his wife for any cause? Why would you ask such a question for any cause? Just make up something.
[00:31:09] But what Jesus that was the motive behind the issue of divorce is just dumping your wife.
[00:31:16] And Jesus said, hang on now, because actually. And we'll get to it when we get to this, but he's quoting from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 24. And what the Lord says is exactly what Deuteronomy 24:1 says. Exactly. It is exactly the same. He's just saying this is what it says. And so you're violating it, you're committing adultery.
[00:31:40] You see what I'm saying? He's.
[00:31:42] He's showing them the motive that would lead a man or a woman to want to just willy nilly change wives, change husbands. It violated the whole intent of marriage.
[00:31:55] Then he talks about oaths, swearing oaths. What's so interesting is an oath is something you know you would. And the Lord addresses this later in Matthew, but he says, you know, swearing an oath by swearing by heaven, or swearing by this, or swearing by that. The problem is that the oath itself was a cover for dishonesty because a person thought, as long as I don't say an oath, it's not important for me to tell the truth. To be honest. Did you know the Old Testament told Israel not to deceive their neighbor? It said deceive, not lie. Deceive. The word is actually used, deceive. It was already there, know it.
[00:32:39] But they were using the oath. In other words, if they weren't saying an oath, it was okay to be loose with the truth.
[00:32:45] And Jesus nails that. But what does he go back to? He goes back to the intent, why the law was given.
[00:32:53] In the case of verse 38, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That was the eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I'm so getting ahead of myself. But just hang with me. Was it was being used as a pretext to commit revenge, to avenge yourself. In other words, they hurt me, I get them back.
[00:33:14] After all, they eye for an eye.
[00:33:17] And that was not what the scripture was saying.
[00:33:23] And that in fact, are you. Do I hear an echo?
[00:33:28] The Old Testament law said you were not supposed to avenge it. Actually said it. In fact, I think we read it in our text.
[00:33:35] And then in the final one he talks about, ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
[00:33:45] And of course this is covered later. But he says the way that they would categorize their neighbors and their enemies, you could just kind of redraw, you know, gerrymander, as it were, Brother Rob, they could gerrymander what was a neighbor and redraw the lines around who was a neighbor. So it included only the people you like, and then everybody else was your enemy, was not considered your neighbor. And so you could mistreat them.
[00:34:11] And of course, that wasn't what the Bible said. They didn't know that because they didn't know the Bible.
[00:34:21] And so in every case, the Lord says, you've heard this, but this is the way it is. But here's what I want you to remember.
[00:34:31] Remember the principles.
[00:34:34] The Lord is interpreting the Scripture in its context with an emphasis upon number one, the underlying principle that is the basis of this, of the command number two, with emphasis upon man's heart, not solely his action.
[00:34:55] Take a peek at Romans 2, Romans chapter 2, verse 15. As an example. We'll read 15 and 16, Romans 2, verse 15 and 16, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, talking about the Gentiles, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile excusing or else accusing or else excusing one another. Notice 16. In the day when God shall judge the what?
[00:35:46] The secrets of men by Jesus Christ. According to my gospel, it does not say God will just judge the actions, although the Bible does say that.
[00:35:58] In fact, I think it's in six who will render to every man according to his deeds. That's what he does right his actions. But in verse number, in verse number 16, he says, God will judge the secrets of men. Now, the secrets of men are what? The secrets of men are the inward thoughts nobody sees that are the motivations for the actions. The secrets of men are the things that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5. The secret of murder is hate and anger. The secret of divorce is the desire to change wives.
[00:36:50] The secret sin of adultery is lust, and so on. The secret sin of violating an oath is wanting to deceive.
[00:36:59] Does everybody follow me? God's going to judge that, right?
[00:37:05] See, it was there all the time.
[00:37:10] God will judge a man not solely based upon what he does, but also his motivations that drive his actions. That has been a truth since the beginning.
[00:37:21] That has been a truth since the beginning.
[00:37:25] Ecclesiastes. What's the last part of Ecclesiastes? Let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For what does it say? God shall bring every work into judgment with every. What does it say? Secret thing, whether it be Good, whether it be evil.
[00:37:48] It is these motivations that Jesus is pointing out and relating those to the acts which God will also judge.
[00:37:56] The hater is guilty of murder, the luster is guilty of adultery, and so on.
[00:38:04] But here's the thing, this pattern, what the Lord does in pointing out the principle underneath the command is something that it was in the Old Testament, but I guess maybe hidden, veiled because of the tradition.
[00:38:26] But it's a truth. It's a truth that is carried into the New Testament that we see and it's actually in the New Testament scriptures.
[00:38:36] It becomes an integral part of New Testament teaching to not just give the command, but to talk about what's underlying the command.
[00:38:47] Not to just talk about the action, but the heart behind the action. Let me give you a few examples of this because this is a. And when we teach the Bible, when we study the Bible, when you teach in a Sunday school class, when you preach a message, you have to do what Jesus did. Not only talk about what God expects of you, but the heart and the principle behind what God expects of you. This is the way Paul taught very regularly. Let me give you three examples in Ephesians and we'll be done. Ephesians, chapter four.
[00:39:26] So we should not only consider the outward manifestation of a particular sin, but we must also consider the heart that drives that, that sin.
[00:39:39] Ephesians 4, verse number 20. Let me get, let me get there real quick. Ephesians 4, verse number 25.
[00:39:52] This is a pretty simple and straightforward command, right? Notice what it says. Consistent with the Old Testament scripture. Built no doubt upon the Old Testament scripture. Paul says this wherefore putting away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor.
[00:40:08] Now here's the key. You see this often now in the scripture. Not all the time, but you see it often. The next word, what's the next word in the verse four that tells us the cause, the reason for what we just read for we are members, one of another. You see, that's, that's the principle behind the command not to, to lie.
[00:40:32] Because we're members, we're part of one body. We're integrated together as a body. One member should not be hurting the other member. That's self harm, right?
[00:40:46] That's why we shouldn't lie to one another.
[00:40:50] We should be honest.
[00:40:53] So here's the thing.
[00:40:55] The moment you think or hear someone say, well I didn't lie, something's wrong.
[00:41:04] That's exactly what the Pharisees were doing. Well, I didn't kill him. I hate him with all my heart. I wish he would die. I hope God kills him.
[00:41:14] But I didn't kill him, so I'm good. No, no, no, no, you can't do that. When you get to Ephesians 4, you can't do it in the Old Testament either, but this is what the tradition said. But in Ephesians 4, what does it say? Lying out one to another, right? But then you have the principle behind it, which is you're members, one of another, you're members of the body. So would you then deceive, withhold the truth, or any other version of lying?
[00:41:42] See, the principle forbids it, even if technically, by the letter, you're keeping it, you're violating the principle. That's all Jesus is talking about, right? Look at Ephesians, chapter five.
[00:41:59] I'm just using familiar passages because there's something that's readily understood and available to us. Verse number 22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. That's a command. Now, the Lord could have said, submit yourselves unto your husband. And again, we could be like, well, I mean, I am submitting, I'm doing what he says.
[00:42:28] For here it is, the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he's the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
[00:42:45] So the command to submit to be subject to one's husband for a wife is built upon the truth and principle that that relationship is supposed to be patterned after the Church in Christ.
[00:43:01] And so for a wife to technically, by the letter, submit herself to her husband, but then undermine him at every turn, because this is how it usually happens among Christian ladies, Christian women, if it does happen, this is often how it happens. So that to undermine your husband's wishes, but in such a way that you can still claim and say and appear to be submissive, but that, here's the thing that might, by the letter pass muster, but it does not pass muster on the principle, you see, because if you are considering your husband, the relationship with Christ, like a relationship with your husband, well, that's going to include not only the outward obvious ways of in submission, but it's also going to include the manipulative kind of backdoor undermining of your husband's role.
[00:44:01] But it's also true of the husband in 5, verse number 25 says this, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Verse number 28, notice what it says. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself, for there's the word. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. The husband says, well, I provide for, I love or I provide for.
[00:44:32] Husbands have a bad.
[00:44:35] Have a bad way that they define loving their wives.
[00:44:43] They sum it all up as if loving one's wife means giving them money, making sure they're not living under a bridge.
[00:44:57] But here's the thing.
[00:45:00] If we're to love our wives, men, if we're to love our wives as Christ loved the church, then anytime that we could technically, by the letter, say we're loving our wives, but it's not consistent with the way Christ treats the church.
[00:45:17] Our attempt to obey the letter is irrelevant. And listen, here's the thing. The Lord, with this thing and every other thing, the Lord is going to judge the motives and he's going to judge the secrets. He's going to judge the thoughts as well as the actions.
[00:45:36] This is why in the New Testament so often, emphasis is placed on the inward.
[00:45:43] Because when the inward is right, the outward fixes itself, does it not?
[00:45:50] And among religious people, which is what we all are, I'm a religious person, right? I don't have a problem with that. Religious people, just like the Jews, tend to have this, have the idea that as long as we're following the outward command, we're good.
[00:46:05] But that's not, that's not the principle here. It's the principle underneath, the basis of the command.
[00:46:13] And this is exactly what the Lord is addressing.
[00:46:18] I hope that gives some context to Matthew chapter five. As we go through each thing, we'll hear this over and over and again. But as we go through each thing, we can see, oh well, yeah, this is the Lord's addressing what was there the whole time. We just, it was just, it was just hidden from the Jews. They didn't see it.
[00:46:37] The Lord has always been interested, even back in the Old Testament, he's always been interested in the heart, in the principle, in the motive that drove the sin, and get that right.
[00:46:49] So hopefully that'll be a good reminder to us as we read the scripture. Let's pray together.
