Jesus’ Position on the Scriptures

[00:00:00] Alright, let's get our Bible and turn to the Book of Matthew, chapter five. [00:00:13] Matthew, chapter five. [00:00:17] Continuing, continuing our study in Matthew beginning in verse number 17. Matthew, chapter 5, verse number 17. [00:00:31] The Bible says this. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. [00:00:41] I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. [00:00:46] 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. [00:01:01] 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. [00:01:13] But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [00:01:20] 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. Let's pray together. [00:01:37] Our Father, thank you for the chance to once again look at your word and to examine it, to focus upon it, to study it. Please, Holy Spirit, we ask that you would move among us and teach us, Lord, show us things that we have never seen. Show us things and remind us of things that we've seen before, that we might do them. Like you said in this very passage of Scripture. [00:02:00] Lord, help your people this morning. Please strengthen them and bless those who can't be among us, who are ill, who are down, who are unwell, please give grace there. And we just pray for your help this morning, Lord, that our focus and our mind might be set on the Scripture, upon what you have said. [00:02:22] And so we offer this time to you. We commit it to you. Lord, help me to say the things I should say and refrain from what I should not say. Guide me and guide also your people as we listen to the Word as well. In Jesus name, Amen. [00:02:38] Matthew, chapter five. We continue in the Sermon on the Mount, one of the Lord's longest sermons and covering various topics. And it is a natural question, considering that the Lord was the Lord. Jesus was outside, totally outside of the accepted group of religious authority in his day, the Scribes and the Pharisees. He mentions them in verse number 20. So the Lord came on the scene. He was not educated in Jerusalem, he did not go to the school of the Rabbis. He was not born in a Pharisees home like Saul of Tarsus was. The Lord was just a working man, just an average Joe, just a regular guy. And of course he is the Son of God. And so, so when he comes on the scene and begins to teach, he has no authority, at least from society's perspective, none. [00:03:37] Because all of those who are accepted as people of wisdom, people who have, you know, in our day, it would be the people who have degrees and the, you know, the well educated, the elites. And we know that's kind of been a. It hadn't all turned out very well here recently, but. [00:03:55] But that was the society. Those people, the scribes and the Pharisees were the trusted authorities. And the Lord Jesus was a man who of course, spoke with authority because he had authority. He was not given authority. He had authority by virtue of who he was, who he is. [00:04:12] And when he spoke with authority, the natural question that arose, especially considering that he wasn't, and I love this about Jesus teaching, is that the Lord never did toe the line of any clique or of any group. He was not a partisan, a tribalist, someone who towed someone else's line that was given to him. He spoke with authority. So he had no ax to grind or, you know, a position to defend or anything like that. He spoke with authority from himself. And that really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. But it also raised an important question, which is this, what is his? Because he spoke with authority and often said new things, things that maybe new is not the right word, but things that to that society, maybe they hadn't heard. Maybe that's the best way to put it. [00:05:09] And when he did that, it raised questions about, well, hold on, what do you think about the law? [00:05:18] The Scripture, it raised questions. [00:05:21] And so the Lord at once, early in the sermon, clarified it in verse 17, because he says, think not. In other words, the idea is, reading into it a little bit, you get the idea that there were some that maybe had started to question the Lord's position on the Bible. [00:05:37] Right. That's a good question to ask. What do you think about the Bible? You know, that answers a whole lot of questions. What do you think about the Bible? And so the Lord all at once clarifies it at the beginning of the sermon, the beginning of his ministry, and he says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. Which is the law and the prophets is one of two ways that the Old Testament scripture was divided. You had the law and the prophets. There is another way which is the law and the prophets and, and the writings. But by saying law and prophets, he's including the entire Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament scripture. [00:06:15] He says, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. [00:06:34] So the Lord himself was. Remember, he was a Hebrew man, right in the flesh. Galatians 4. 4 says, but when the fullness of time was come, of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman. That means he's a man made under the law. That means he's a Jew. [00:06:54] So Jesus was born under the law. That is, he was a part of the Hebrew people. And all of the requirements of the Old Testament, all of which were spoken directly to the Hebrew people. He was obligated. [00:07:10] He was obligated to do. Okay, so it's an important point when you look. When you study the Bible and you read the Bible, especially the Gospels, some of the things Jesus did or didn't do were directly related to the fact that he was a Jew and he placed himself under the law by being born as a Hebrew person. [00:07:36] So Jesus did not come to destroy or alter, we could also say the Old Testament law. He also did not come to replace the Old Testament law. And this is what some people have believed, but he came to fulfill it. In fact, what the Lord would do is he would take the Old Testament scripture and he would build upon it. [00:08:03] So the New Testament and the Old Testament should never be put in contrast to one another. Although there are differences, right? There are differences in the New Testament Scripture because you're dealing with a new covenant, the new covenant. You're dealing with a new way the Lord deals with people and such. But they're not. They're never in conflict. You know, I know we say we're New Testament Christians, and that is true. We are in the New Testament era. We're not Jewish, generally speaking, we're not Jewish. We're under the law of Christ, of course. But that does not mean, however, that the Old Testament has no value to us. No, it is the Word of God. [00:08:46] The Old Testament is the Word of God in no way less than the New Testament Scripture is the Word of God. They're both the Word of God. They are together the Word of God. [00:08:59] So when we read second Timothy 3, 16 says this, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. When we see the Word Scripture in Second Timothy, at that time in which it was written, the Old Testament was. The New Testament was actually still being written. [00:09:25] There were books of the New Testament that had not even been written yet. So that is obviously a reference to what we call the Old Testament. [00:09:34] All Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable. Not only that. Second Peter, chapter 1, verse 20 says this. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. [00:09:58] Again, when Peter says Scripture, he's primarily referring to the Old Testament Scripture. Now this is important. [00:10:08] This is an important point. What did Jesus believe about the Bible? [00:10:15] What did Jesus. What was his position on the Scripture, the Old Testament? That as we have it is absolutely essential for our faith and for our walk as a New Testament Christian. [00:10:38] I know there are people that do not read the Old Testament, but if you do not read the Old Testament and you do not study and know the Old Testament, not only are you severely handicapping, especially the breadth. Now remember, the New Testament has all the essential doctrines. It's all there, right? I mean, it's not like it's. [00:10:59] Something is left out. But what you're doing is you're handicapping especially the breadth and the depth of your faith. [00:11:09] Because the New Testament, it is built upon the foundation of the. Of the law and the prophets. [00:11:15] And that serves as the foundation of moral law, serves as the foundation of God himself, his own righteousness and his creative acts and all of those other things it's built upon. The New Testament is built upon the Old Testament scripture. So you and I need to be reading and knowing the Old Testament Scripture. Our Lord did. [00:11:40] Our Lord did. [00:11:42] Now notice what the verse says in verse Number, verse number 17. Again, he said, I came not. I come not to destroy, but to fulfill. [00:11:53] 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. Now, this fulfillment, it refers to two things. I want to look at these very quickly. [00:12:11] The first thing it refers to is the completion of everything that the Old Testament Scripture foretold about the Messiah. So when Jesus says, I'm come, verse number 17, I am come not to destroy, but to fulfill. Jesus came to fulfill the Scripture. In other words, Jesus was the final and ultimate fulfillment of every sacrifice that we find in the Old Testament scriptures. We studied that on Wednesday night. Remember, Jesus was the great and final high priest that the priests of the Old Testament pictured. The Levites, the Melchizedek. Wherever you look, Jesus was the great and final high priest. In other words, once Jesus came None of that mattered anymore because he is the final one. All of those things existed to picture him. All the sacrifices existed to point to Him. And so once he is here, what's the use of the sacrifices? Now, just for those theologians out there, in the millennial kingdom of Christ, there will be sacrifices, but they will be memorial sacrifices pointing back to Him. [00:13:28] But the Lord Jesus fulfilled all of those things. [00:13:32] Furthermore, Jesus is the living fulfillment of every part of the tabernacle temple and every piece of furniture, the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, the burnt offering, the ark of the covenant itself, the laver, all the colors, all the ribbon, every part of it. Jesus. All of those things pointed to Jesus. The Book of Hebrews tells us that plainly. [00:14:01] Jesus was the embodiment of meaning of every feast and every festival in the Old Testament. Feast of tabernacles, the passover, all the other ones. Jesus. They all point to Jesus. [00:14:14] Jesus fulfilled every prophecy regarding the Messiah. [00:14:20] His birth in Bethlehem, his death upon the cross, his character. All of those things were prophesied in the Scriptures. [00:14:29] And before heaven and earth pass, our Lord will fulfill every prophecy that is still outstanding, every one of them. [00:14:41] Because there are prophecies concerning Himself that have not yet been fulfilled, but he will fulfill them. Notice what he says here. Till heaven and earth pass. So he's got some time yet to do those things. [00:14:54] Think of judgment. That's prophesied in the Old Testament. The kingdom of Christ is prophesied in the Old Testament. His glory, righteousness over the whole earth. All of those things are clearly and directly prophesied in the Old Testament. Jesus will do them. [00:15:13] Jesus will do them. In these verses, our Lord expressly claims to fulfill every part of every letter of the written Old Testament scripture. So that's the first thing that fulfill means. That's what Jesus came to do. To complete everything that was foretold. But that's not the only way that it means to fulfill. [00:15:37] Another way you can see the word fulfill. And it's also, we won't look at the verses, but to fulfill the commandments, the law and the prophets. Here means that the commandments that God gave Jesus fully obeyed. To fulfill the law means to do what the law commands. [00:15:59] And Jesus did that as well. [00:16:01] Jesus, our Lord, obeyed every commandment of God in the Old Testament. In verse number 19, he talks about the least commandments. [00:16:13] He fulfilled those as well. Look, take a peek at John, chapter eight, if you would. [00:16:22] John chapter eight, John, chapter eight, verse. If you would look down at verse number, verse number 44, John 8 verse 44 says this. [00:16:56] The Lord now is speaking to the Jews. He says this, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father, ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. And abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar in the Father, Father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? Notice that. Which of you convinceth me of sin? What does that mean? Which of you convinceth me of sin? [00:17:27] In other words, what the Lord is saying is. Look at the commandments. [00:17:33] Look at the commandments. [00:17:35] Name one that I have not done. [00:17:41] One instance. [00:17:42] One instance when the Lord Jesus did not perfectly obey every command that was written. [00:17:55] Was there ever a time, even with the least commandments, the trifling things, was there ever a time that the Lord slipped up? Was there ever a time that our Lord just forgot? You know, that's often the excuse, right? Why we don't obey God's command? Why? I just forgot, you know, I always told my kids, always tell my kids. What did I tell them? [00:18:19] Part of obeying is remembering. Y'all remember that. You better remember it. [00:18:26] Part of obeying is the Lord never forgot a commandment. Not one time, no matter how small, not even the smallest sliver of a commandment. He fulfilled them all. [00:18:39] He says, which of you convinceth me of sin? Name one commandment that I have violated at any time. This is not bragging. If the Lord bragged, he would be justified. He would justifiably be bragging. But he did. This is the Lord stating a fact, which is to say not one time did he ever do anything that was against God's law. He perfectly fulfilled God's law. But I want to make this clear. [00:19:09] Our Lord did not, however, take care to obey every commandment of men. [00:19:17] In fact, when you study the life of Christ, you see that our Lord was just absolutely. Here's the 10 cent word. Punctilious. [00:19:28] You like that word, don't you? You like it? [00:19:33] Hey, Siri, what does punctilious mean? [00:19:36] The Lord obeyed to the letter every command of the Lord, of His Father, right? The Lord his God, right? But he made sure. It's almost like he on purpose did not obey the commandments of. Like, for instance, when they came in, when they came back from the marketplace, the elders, and probably in the Talmud had said there was a certain ritual, you had to wash a certain number of times when you came from the market or else you were unclean. You were not permitted to eat. [00:20:09] The scripture didn't say that. God did not say that. Men said that. And when the Lord came in, now this is our Lord. You think he didn't know? He knew that he knew what they said. But when his disciples came from the market, did he say, now listen, guys, we don't want to offend them, so just go ahead and wash? No, you didn't. You think, well, that's not very nice. [00:20:29] When they came in, they sat down and ate. Now we'll put aside the hygiene, the wisdom of the hygiene of that act, but the morality is perfectly moral. [00:20:41] And they sat down with the Lord and ate together. And there were all these. There were the elders and the scribes and the Pharisees that were sitting around and were like, I can't believe he didn't. He didn't. Why? They didn't wash and they didn't wash everything. Just like they just came from the market. [00:20:56] It's almost like he did it on purpose. [00:21:00] There were times when our Lord, he expressly said, I am not doing the commandments of men because the commandments of men are being used to disobey the commandments of God. Right? And the Lord Jesus took all of his Father's commandments, no matter how small, seriously. [00:21:24] But he was not towing men's lines. He was not obeying the commandments of men. And you know, those commandments exist to this day. Now, I know some of you who are, you know, who know about Christian. [00:21:38] What a trendy Christian conversations. Can we put it like that? You know, anything, here's the way it works. Just so for those of you that don't know, here's the way it works. Anything that I don't want to do is a commandment of men. And anything that I think we ought to do is a commandment of God. Right? Isn't that how it works? [00:21:56] That's the way it is. So something that is overtly condemned in scripture as evil is. If we don't want to do it, we just say, well, it's a commandment of men. It's just a man's idea. Whoa. It's not. Not that way. [00:22:10] What saith the scripture? That's all the Lord was concerned with. Don't you understand? That's all he was concerned with. What does the Bible say? And conscientiously and intentionally doing what his father told him to do. You know, people say, well, that's legalist. How so? [00:22:30] Obeying. Is that not why we're saved. [00:22:34] We're saved by grace to live for God to do his commandments. [00:22:43] That's why we're. He saves us and gives us new life which gives us the ability, by his grace and by his Spirit to obey Him. That is a. Listen, that's a New Testament truth as well as an Old Testament truth. You remember in the Old Testament, the Lord said in the New Covenant, he said, I will put my law Where? [00:23:07] In their hearts. [00:23:10] In their hearts. So why do you think he did that? So we would feel warm and fuzzy? No, so that we would do from the heart what he said to do. [00:23:20] Right. [00:23:22] Listen, this is just practical Christianity. We're not saved by obeying God's commandments. We blew that a long time ago. We're saved by the grace of God. We'll get to that in a minute. [00:23:31] But now that we're saved, we're supposed to obey God's commandments. Our Lord, as a practical example, obeyed his Father's commandments. [00:23:41] But there's another thing he's doing. In these two verses. [00:23:45] The Lord is laying the groundwork. [00:23:50] The Lord is laying the groundwork. Follow me, if you would, for what we now call Bible Christianity. That's my term, Bible Christianity. What do I mean by that? [00:24:03] I mean by Bible Christianity is this. I don't mean Baptist. Although, generally speaking, the belief system of Baptist people, historical Baptist people, I believe, is correct according to the Scripture. I say according to the Scripture. Those four words are the most important words of that sentence. [00:24:24] Are the most important words of the sentence. If there ever comes a time that the Baptist people depart from the Scripture we as Baptists are obligated to refuse. You understand? The Scriptures are first. They are first. [00:24:40] And besides that, throughout history people that have believed like we believe have been called by other names as well. And that's okay. [00:24:51] But the Lord is laying the groundwork for what we call Bible Christianity. That is what I mean by that, is a faith in Jesus Christ that is based in the faith in the text of Scripture. [00:25:03] That is, our faith rests upon what the Scriptures say. And the Scriptures being the supreme and only authority to be obeyed. [00:25:15] You understand? That's what he's saying. Look at verse 17:18. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. That is the Bible in the Lord's day. That is the Bible. [00:25:27] He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till. Listen to what he says. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise Pass from the law till all be fulfilled. What does he mean by jot and tittle? Jot is the modern English spelling of the Hebrew letter. One of the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet is YOD. It's YOD in English, but in our modern Germanic version, it's jot. J, O, T it. Is that letter in the Hebrew Alphabet a tittle? How many? Is there anybody here that is a real nerd knows what a seraph is? [00:26:11] David Aguilar. I should not be surprised. Okay, Joseph is going to be honest and admit no, that was pretty good. Different spelling. S E, R, I, F in a text. You know, sometimes when you type out a text, you see an F or a T and it'll have a little swish on some fonts. That'll have like a little swish. That's a serif. This is a tittle. That's the English equivalent of a tittle. The little swish on a Hebrew letter. Why does that matter? [00:26:46] Listen to what Jesus is saying. First of all, he's referring to the written scripture. Not listen. Not traditions of men that have been passed down through the oral traditions down through the ages. No, he's talking about a document written in Hebrew. That was the Bible that he believed. And he says this written text will be fulfilled to the letter. That's why he uses jot and tittle. [00:27:18] What is the Lord saying? [00:27:21] He is absolutely affirming his faith and the truth of God's law. He was, we might call a biblicist. He was a true blue, believed the text of the Bible completely from Genesis to Malachi, if you will, every word, every letter. This is how he's describing his own position on the Bible. [00:27:50] This is his clear statement of personal confidence that every word of the written text of Scripture was true. [00:27:58] So listen, just think through this with me. [00:28:03] Jesus gives a personal affirmation of the text of Scripture as true. Do we do that? Listen now, extending this out to us. Do we accept that the word of God is true? The written word of God is true. That is essential to being a Bible Christian. [00:28:25] It is essential and it is what our Lord believed. [00:28:29] It is what our Lord believed. He further shows that the reliability of Scripture extends not only to the ideas, but to the smallest letters and parts. [00:28:43] Proverbs 30, verse 5 says essentially the same thing. It says this. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in you see that? Every word of God. [00:28:57] And then our lord. [00:28:59] Verse number 19. Read this verse. Interesting verse. Whosoever, therefore you Follow that. The word therefore. It's connecting it to what he just said about the Bible. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments. You think of the little letters, insignificant parts, a word here or there. [00:29:20] And shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord takes what he says about the scripture in verses 18 and 19 and applies it in practical life to this truth. [00:29:40] We believe every word. Do you believe every word of the Bible? [00:29:44] Do you believe every word of the Bible? Do you believe God's authority and reliability of the Scriptures extends to every word? Yes. [00:29:53] Yes. [00:29:56] Then do and teach every word. [00:30:01] See that? That's where it gets a little bit cutting, does it not? [00:30:05] Because we have a tendency. [00:30:07] We have big commandments and we have small commandments. We have big things, and we occupy ourselves with the big things. I'm not drinking, I'm not committing adultery. I'm not stealing, I'm not using foul language. And all of that is important. But our Lord did not stop there. Our Lord also believed every minor part of the Scripture and occupied himself with doing those things as well. You remember when Jesus was talking about the Pharisees and he says, ye tithe of Annas and cumin and all those things, and you're concentrating on these small little details and have omitted the weightier matters of the law. What did Jesus say to do? He said, you should have done the big things and not leave the little things undone. [00:31:01] Listen, we occupy ourselves on the big things and then we pat ourselves on the back that we're doing good. [00:31:11] But our faith in the Scripture extends down to the, like the Lord, the letters, the small things, the least commandments. Are we doing those? [00:31:19] Because a lot of times what we view as the least commandments. You know what, it usually is just this is a dirty little secret. [00:31:26] It is usually the things of the heart that nobody sees. [00:31:33] Minor trivia. We think, well, I'm doing all that. I'm doing all the right things. Outwardly, I'm obeying the rules. [00:31:44] But what about the least? What about your heart in doing those things, your motivations? [00:31:51] We, as a practical matter, view those things as lesser. As long as we do the big stuff, they're not lesser. And what the Lord's going to say in John 5, the rest of John 5, we'll study later, is this. They're not lesser. They are actually the greater. [00:32:09] Because what is in the heart is what drives what we do on the outside. [00:32:13] We got it all backward. [00:32:19] We should not look at any part of the Scripture and say, well, that doesn't really matter, but we do in life. And this is. And look at verse number 19, what it says at the end of verse number 19. But whosoever shall do and teach them the least commandments, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [00:32:40] Let me just give you a little brief word of encouragement. It says, whosoever shall do and teach, if you or I take it upon ourselves to teach others what the Lord says, we had better do. [00:32:59] That thing that we are teaching, it is not good enough to tell people the truth. [00:33:05] We ourselves need to be doing the truth. You know who I'm talking to? I'm talking to Mommy and Daddy right now. [00:33:15] If we're telling our kids, they need to have a good attitude. We need to have a good attitude. If we're telling our kids that we need to be clean on the Internet, we need to be clean on the Internet. If we're telling our kids that we need to love one another, we had better love one another. If we're telling our kids that they should respect their mother, then we should respect their mother. If we're telling our kids that they need to honor their father, then we need to honor their father. [00:33:40] If we're telling our kids that church is important, then it needs to be important to us. We need to do and teach what God says. [00:33:56] You know, this kind of, what we might call Bible Christianity that is based solely on the text of Scripture. The. That's what the Lord's describing. [00:34:04] Paul put it in Acts 20, verse 27. You know this verse? He says this. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. [00:34:17] Matthew 28, verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you all. [00:34:25] That's the big and the little, that extends down to every part. [00:34:31] We call it plenary. For there's your 10, that's your second tense, that word, plenary. Inspiration. [00:34:42] Now look at verse 20. [00:34:49] For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case, in no case, enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now notice in verse 19, those people who aren't obeying God's least commandments, they're called least in the kingdom. You see that Least. But at least they're in the kingdom of heaven. These people aren't even in. You see it? [00:35:17] Verse 20. [00:35:19] Now, when the Lord said this, imagine being A Jew at this time, except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Think about it. These were the most righteous. The word Pharisee means separatist. That's what it means. [00:35:37] They were people who. They went out of their way to avoid things so that they wouldn't get close to something that would violate God's commandments. You understand? They had rules upon rules. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rules that they kept. [00:35:51] And so to the Jew, they heard that. How? I mean, how can you do more than what they are doing? [00:35:57] It would have been just incredulous. Unbelievable. What in the world is he talking about? [00:36:02] But as we learn later, take a peek at Matthew 23. I want to show you a couple things here. [00:36:08] Matthew, chapter 23, verse number 25. Look what it says. Verse number 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. Same group. [00:36:30] Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. [00:36:42] Verse number 28 or verse number 27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, even so, and of all uncleanness, even so. Ye also appear outwardly. Appear righteous, does that word unto men. But within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. So when Jesus said, your righteousness must exceed that of that of the scribes and Pharisees, what was the character of the scribes and Pharisees? Righteousness, number one. [00:37:12] They were concerned only with outward righteousness, the way they appeared to man. [00:37:19] They were wholly not concerned with what was on the inside. [00:37:25] That's the first thing. [00:37:28] They were not concerned with, what was on the inside. And that is a recipe for hypocrisy. [00:37:37] The inside should be the very first thing you remember when the Jews came back from Babylon. And Ezra. This is why you need the Old Testament, right? Right here. Ezra came back first. And what did they build? Nehemiah came later. Nehemiah built a. [00:37:51] Come on now. A wall. But Ezra came back first. And what did Ezra build? [00:37:57] The temple. Why do you need a wall without a temple? [00:38:01] The temple is where they met with the Lord. The wall protected the city. The inner is more important than the outer. [00:38:12] But that's what the Pharisees believed. Their righteousness was only the outward righteousness look at verse number four. Same chapter 23 says this, speaking of the Pharisees. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men, men's shoulders. Notice this, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Look at verse 28. I'm sorry. 23 again of the Pharisees. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, faith, these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. [00:39:01] So the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees concerned itself only with the outside. [00:39:08] Second, they were concerned only with keeping some select commandments and ignoring other commandments, which is what I just got done saying. [00:39:20] But the third thing is this. Take a peek at Luke 18. We're almost finished. Hang in there. Luke 18. Luke chapter 18, verse number nine. [00:39:39] This is the introduction to the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, the two men that went into the temple to pray. [00:39:48] Here's what he says, verse number nine. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. [00:40:01] Notice in verse 11, what did the Pharisee pray? God, I thank thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners, Unjust. That's part of it. Look at verse 13, or verse number 12, rather. I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess. [00:40:22] The Pharisee rattled off his works of righteousness, thinking that made him righteous. [00:40:30] That is what the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. That's why you have to have more and more laws and rules and laws and rules. That's why. Because you think it makes you righteous. [00:40:41] Jesus said in Matthew, chapter five, he says, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. [00:40:58] So, in contrast to the way the scribes and Pharisees viewed it, the righteousness that is required. And if you or I, if we do not have this righteousness, we are not going to heaven. You understand? [00:41:14] The Pharisees were not going to heaven. They were not in God's kingdom. [00:41:20] They were going to hell fire. And if we do not have something of higher, better, more excellent quality in the matter of righteousness than this, we are going to the same place they're going. Listen now, this is the difference between heaven and hell, it is a matter of righteousness. [00:41:41] What kind of righteousness do you have? [00:41:45] Do you have the kind that is concerned only with the outward? Or do you have a righteousness that deals with the inward? The kind that only cares about keeping a few commandments? Or the kind that takes all of God's word into account? Is it the kind that's based upon what you have done, whether you've kept the commandments? Or is it based upon something else, Something higher, something perfect? [00:42:12] Look at Romans 3 and we'll be finished. [00:42:15] I want to conclude here. [00:42:17] Romans chapter 3, verse 20. Please, please listen to these verses. Romans 3, verse 20. [00:42:44] Therefore, by the deeds of the law, that's what the Pharisees are trying to do. [00:42:52] Laws, and laws, and laws upon laws. Keep the laws, keep the laws. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. That's the same word as righteous. You know that in Scripture. Same word, justified. Righteous. Therefore there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. [00:43:13] This is what the Pharisees got all wrong. They had hundreds and hundreds of laws. None of them could make them righteous. [00:43:22] For by the law is the knowledge of sin. [00:43:26] But now the righteousness of God, not of myself, but of God without the law, is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That's what Jesus is talking about, right? [00:43:40] I see how they're all connected. The words are all the same. [00:43:44] Even the righteousness of God, that is. It's from God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe to trust in Him. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This is the righteousness you must have. Or you will never, never get to heaven. [00:44:10] Doesn't matter how good of a person you try to be. Doesn't matter how many rules you try to follow. [00:44:16] It doesn't matter how many of the Ten Commandments you attempt to follow. [00:44:21] That righteousness is wholly wrong. You've got to have something way better. And the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ performed when he fulfilled the law is perfect, far exceeding that of the Pharisees. And when you put your faith in the One who died on the cross, for you bled as a sinner in your place because he wasn't a sinner. When you put your faith in him, he gives you his own righteousness. [00:44:50] You didn't earn it. Jesus fulfilled it. [00:44:54] That is the only hope you've got. [00:44:57] That's the only hope you've got. [00:44:59] You'll not get into the kingdom of heaven. Otherwise, let's pray.