A Right View of the Law | Matthew 5:17-20 | Pastor Neil McClendon

You say, hey, I got the Ten Commandments.

Did you realize that there's 613 other laws in the Old Testament?

I mean, total of 613.

So if you back out the top 10, you still got 603 laws that stand against you and condemn you.

Yeah, I just I just I just I just live by the Ten Commandments.

That's great, but what about the other 603?

Well, I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, clearly, because you just remembered the Ten Commandments.

But if you think I'm just keeping the top ten and I'm gonna be okay, see, you have a rules-based understanding of God, and therefore a rules-based relationship with God or a belief in God.

You see, to understand deeply is to understand that for the unbeliever, your problem is not do you believe in the virgin birth?

Do I believe Jesus is gonna come again?

Why did bad things happen to good people?

Why did Charlie Kirk get assassinated?

Blah, blah, blah.

Your problem is that the law of God stands against you.

And just like when you see a cop, you get off the gas.

When you see or think about God, you kind of recoil, you step back, you don't step to.

Because deep inside, you know what you're really like.

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

Let's pray together, church.

Lord Jesus, thank you.

When we sing songs like that, what we're saying is whether we're on top of the mountain or we're walking through the valley in the shadow of death, whether we're crushing it or we're just sucking wind, we're gonna be people that praise you.

Uh, we're not gonna be fair weather believers.

We're not gonna say, hey, for me to believe in God and keep believing in God, everything's gotta go my way.

I gotta have a hot boyfriend, a hot girlfriend, I gotta be super popular in school, my socials gotta be on fire, everything's gotta be clicking and popping in my life, or I'm gonna just spit the bit on this whole God and Jesus thing.

No, we live in a fallen world where bad stuff happens to good people, and evil seems to be getting away with everything these days.

And it's just like, what's the use, man?

So we sing songs like that to remind us.

And we witness things like baptism and it reminds us not to waste our retirement.

Don't retire and then just travel.

Retire and become a substitute teacher who lights a lamp and puts it on a lampstand so everybody in the room can see.

There's something different about this guy.

So when she comes to faith, she wants that guy to baptize her.

Yes, Jesus, that wasn't lost on us.

So, Holy Spirit, illuminate your the word today.

It's not just words on a page.

We're not reading a rule book, we're reading a love letter today.

And let it liberate us from all the unnecessary things in our lives and make clear what's necessary and who is necessary.

This is our prayer, God.

Make it our experience.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

Everything I say will come up on the screen back here behind me, okay?

If you're our guest today, let me say uh thank you for exploring a new church.

You're always welcome here.

You may be thinking, you know, I didn't know any of the words, those songs.

I don't really know what's all happening.

Hey, everybody starts at that point, okay?

Uh and so just relax, give yourself some grace.

Uh, we're teaching the book of Matthew.

Matthew's one of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four different men wrote and recorded under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what what Jesus' life and ministry was about.

Uh Matthew is a very Jewish, very religious uh uh guy.

Uh and so he writes to religious people.

And he's trying to say to them, hey, your religious rituals do not make you Christian, okay?

You guys think all these things you do and you're keeping the rules makes you right with God.

Trying to keep the rules just reminds you you can't keep the rules.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

And so in Matthew, I'm gonna talk to you.

I'll start reading in chapter five.

I'll just read four verses, verses 17 to 20.

I'll talk to you about a right view of the law.

And let me just say this, okay?

Jesus is giving instructions for a way of right relating uh with God and people that the law and the prophets, now, when you see the word the law of the prophets, that's a reference to the Old Testament.

Laws, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, whoo! The law puts a beat down on us.

Okay, the law reminds us we can't do this by ourselves, all right?

Uh it's but but the Old Testament has long described this way of relating to God, following God.

But here's what Jesus is saying: following these instructions in the Sermon on the Mount, it fills all of Scripture full.

It doesn't just fill you full.

The goal of Christianity is not self-fulfillment or self-actualization.

Jesus comes and says, I'm gonna live my life in such a way that I'm gonna fill up Scripture.

That all of Scripture is gonna be fulfilled, that all the law is gonna be fulfilled in me and by me.

But first, to understand this, we have to understand Jesus' relation to the law.

So that's why I want to talk to you this morning about a right view of the law.

Uh and I'll just start reading in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17.

Matthew 5:17

He says this do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now there's four things I want to, they're just short, four short things that I think the Bible's saying to us this morning, and I want to I want to talk about those this morning as it relates to a right view of the law.

Number one, we have to think properly.

We have to think properly.

Notice in verse 17, Jesus says this.

He starts off with a negative.

You should never start a talk with an or a speech with a negative.

He says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and prophets.

Now, why would Jesus say that?

Okay, why does he start with this Debbie Downer statement?

Here's why.

Because he's fixing a hammer six hot button topics that's gonna rock their world, and they're gonna be shaking their head like what?

And it starts like this you have heard of old or you have heard it said, blah, blah, blah.

And then he kind of adds to it, fills it up, and he says, But I say to you, and he's not saying, hey, I'm above the law.

I've not come to abolish the law.

But but he knows how we're gonna think, that they're gonna be like, What?

Are you you think you're above the rules?

And so when I say think properly, this is what I'm saying.

What Jesus is doing is he's deepening their understanding.

Here's the six topics he talks about coming up.

And he says, anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and loving your enemies.

Now here are those six again: anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and loving your enemies.

Ask yourself the simple question: what would our world be like if we understood what the Bible really teaches about those six things?

Anger.

Lust.

Which those two typically lead to divorce.

And it just goes on from there.

You see, Jesus is saying, hey, I I'm not, I'm not like some new guy.

I'm saying something's never been said before.

I'm helping you guys understand what's always been been said.

And to think properly, we have to understand some things about the law.

So let me give you four or five things you have to understand about the law.

Number one, the law cannot change your heart.

The law, the rules cannot change your heart.

Allow me to demonstrate.

How many of you know, how many of you in this room would say, I know the speed limit?

Say amen.

How many of you speed?

Say amen.

See there, you have a room full of sinners, you're in good company.

Yes, you knowing the law doesn't change your heart, all right?

It just doesn't.

You can know all it's not what you know, it's what you experience, okay?

Here's another thing I want you to understand about the law.

God never intended for the law to be a perfect or permanent basis for our relationship with him.

God never intended the law to become a permanent or a perfect or permanent basis for our relationship with him.

It's not based on rules.

And people in the Bible always try to tell Jesus, hey, I keep the rules.

God that's referred to as a rich young ruler, comes up to Jesus and says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus points him to the law.

He says, You know commandments, and he ticks off some of them.

And then the guy goes, All these I've kept since my youth.

In other words, I've never broken a commandment.

And Jesus is like, Oh my gosh, you get to be in charge.

No, Jesus says, Oh, because what he ticked off was, hey, you know, love your honor your mind and father, blah, blah, blah.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

And so the guy says, I've kept all these, and Jesus' like, oh, so you love your neighbor like you love yourself.

And this guy had a lot of money.

So Jesus just flipped it around on him and applied it to him.

And he said, I'll tell you what, because he said, Uh uh, oh, you kept all the commandments?

Okay, I tell you what, if you want to be a part of what I'm doing, here's what I want you to do: I want you to give all your money to the poor and then come follow me.

And the guy's like, Oh, what you talking about, Willis?

Well, if you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, giving him all your stuff won't be a problem.

You see, Jesus doesn't, he takes people's words and just kind of flips them back on them and says, Do you really live what you profess to believe?

You see, but but he never intended the law to be the perfect or permanent basis for our relationship with him.

Here's why.

The rich young ruler is a great example.

You can keep all the rules since you were a little kid and still not have a relationship with God.

Here's the third thing you need to understand Jesus fulfills the demands of the law on the cross.

This is why he says it is finished.

And it's what is good, what is the it that gets finished on the cross?

This way of relating to God is based on you doing your best and hoping it was enough.

You don't need a procedure, you need a person.

You don't need a ritual, you need a reality.

That's why the Bible says it like this in Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

He says, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

See, that's the ritual they relied on to make them right with God.

Oh, I've been circumcised, I'm a good Jewish man here.

He says, You who are dead in the trespasses and your uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside.

This he set aside.

Why?

Nailing it to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and the authorities, and he put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

See, something got accomplished by Jesus that only God could do on the cross.

Here's the fourth thing you need to understand if you're if you're gonna think clearly.

Jesus' fulfillment of the law makes salvation possible for humanity.

If Jesus doesn't fulfill, meet all the requirements, that's what he says in verse 17.

He said, Don't think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

He lives the life that you and I could never live.

This is why, if you're an atheist, agnostic, you're just a smart person, you're like, hey, dude, I'm not really into all this.

This is like a literally game for me.

I'm sitting in the stands and I'm cheering for my kids, but I don't agree with anything you say.

That's okay.

You have to think about this before you go to bed tonight, okay?

If what I'm saying is true, and I believe it is, that Jesus fulfills the law and this makes salvation possible for humanity, okay?

Uh he why why is that such a big deal?

Because he satisfies God's justice and he ends this curse that comes from being under the law.

It's why every time you're driving, regardless of how where you are or what the speed limit is, every time you see a cop, you get off the gas.

Because you have this innate posture towards the law.

You know, oh, I'm probably I'm probably doing something wrong.

Yeah, absolutely.

But God, when Jesus dies on the cross, he satisfies God's justice, which allows believers to receive forgiveness and be reconciled to God.

And here's the best part you're freed from this life of striving for salvation through good works.

Instead, you live by faith in Jesus and his finished work.

Here's the last one.

Uh, Jesus' fulfillment of the law provides a different motivation for obedience.

Jesus' fulfillment of the law provides a different basis, excuse me, a different motivation for obedience.

Uh, we'll get to it eventually, but in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus is trying to explain to people what what living in the kingdom is like, not living in your little kingdom, but in God's kingdom is like.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And he says this.

He's trying to explain, he said, a man was plowing in a field and he discovered treasure, then he covers it back up.

Well, that separates him from me right there, because if I would have found treasure in my backyard yesterday, I wouldn't be here today.

There'd be a big sign on the thing, ne on the on the screen.

Neil found treasure.

See ya, suckers.

But the Bible, this is how much the Bible values Christianity.

He says, This man plowed in a field, he discovered treasure and he covered it back up, and that's crazy enough right there, boys and girls.

But then he says this, and in his joy, he went and sold everything he had to buy the field that contains the treasure.

He doesn't just want the treasure.

He says, I'll do whatever I gotta do.

I'll buy the whole field.

But here, see, here's what allowed him to do that.

In his joy.

See, when Jesus fulfills the law, what he does is he changes the motivation.

He provides you a different motivation for obedience.

And it's just this it's it's a sense of deep, deep, deep uh uh uh joyful gratitude.

It's not duty.

Oh, well, there's treasure in there.

I get to go to heaven, so I guess I'll I should I should not have sex before I get married.

You think wrongly about it, beloved.

So the first thing we gotta do if we're gonna if we're gonna understand, have a right view of the law, we gotta think properly.

Secondly, you gotta understand deeply.

It's verse 18.

Understand deeply.

Look at what he says.

He says, For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law, until all is accomplished.

Now that's one of those things you read in the Bible, you're like, Whoa, womp.

Let me skip forward to where Jesus does something really powerful.

I would submit to you this morning, if you would understand these four verses of the Bible, your life would never be the same.

You wouldn't think the same, you wouldn't live the same, you wouldn't talk the same.

You would have this deep sense of something shifted in me, okay?

So it's important that we understand deeply what is being said here.

Not a portion of the law will pass away.

Not an iota is like a comma in the Hebrew, it's like the smallest letter that you can make.

Not this little, not not a single jot or tittle is gonna go away from this, okay?

It's gonna be fulfilled by Jesus and accomplished by Jesus.

However, and here's here's the downside.

If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, then you're still under the law.

The law stands against you.

Uh we we we don't talk about this much in church because we start, and I'll talk about that in just a minute, we start at the wrong place.

And so, have you ever noticed when you talk to people about spiritual things, they kind of look at you like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right.

Okay, thanks.

That's your opinion.

I got my opinion.

We've all got our opinion.

Who are you to judge me?

But I'll show you in just a minute.

Well, we we get that response because we start at the wrong place.

When I say understand deeply, I just say this for the unbeliever, the Old Testament law is still in effect.

When I say law, I don't mean just the Ten Commandments.

Like, for example, a while back I met a man, and I people come like if if everyone in this room got honest, some of you in this room have some wacky beliefs.

There's some things you believe you got off the internet.

It's nowhere in the Bible.

You heard it somewhere for some King James preacher when you were nine and you held on to it.

Like I met a guy and he and we got talking, he said, What do you do for a living?

I said, Well, I'll tell you, but I don't want you to get different, uh act differently.

Just be the same.

He said, Okay.

And so I said, I pastor a church here in the city.

He went, Oh, okay.

Well, I got some beliefs you should probably understand.

I thought this is about to get good.

And this did not involve alcohol or anything.

This is just a man just talking in a restaurant.

And he, I said, So tell me what your interesting beliefs.

He said, Well, I don't go to church.

I don't believe in organized religion.

I said, Who said this is organized?

But but anyway, and he goes, Let me finish.

This is the part that's gonna get you.

He said, I don't read the Bible, I just obey the Ten Commandments.

And I thought, wow, I'm talking to, I'm talking to the rich young ruler right here in Floyd's, okay?

And and and so we're just talking, and he's, I said, What do you you you just yeah, yeah, I don't, I memorized the Ten Commandments when I was a little boy, and that's what I live by.

And I said, Okay, did you realize this?

That you say, hey, I got the Ten Commandments.

Did you realize that there's 613 other laws in the Old Testament?

I mean, total of 613.

So if you back out the top 10, you still got 603 laws that stand against you and condemn you.

Yeah, I just I just I I just I just live by the Ten Commandments.

That's great, but what about the other 603?

Well, I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, clearly, because you just memorize the Ten Commandments.

But if you think I'm just keeping the top ten and I'm gonna be okay, so you have a rules-based understanding of God, and therefore a rules-based relationship with God or a belief in God.

You see, to understand deeply is to understand that for the unbeliever, your problem is not do you believe in the virgin birth?

Do I believe Jesus is gonna come again?

Why did bad things happen to good people?

Why did Charlie Kirk get assassinated?

Blah, blah, blah.

Your problem is that the law of God stands against you.

And just like when you see a cop, you get off the gas.

When you see or think about God, you kind of recoil, you step back, you don't step to.

Because deep inside, you know what you're really like.

Here's the third thing.

We've got to teach rightly.

We got to teach rightly.

It's verse 19.

After Jesus says, hey, not one iota of the law is gonna go away.

Not until heaven and earth pass away.

So as long as people, the earth exists, the law is in effect for the unbeliever.

That's why he says it starts verse 19 with therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

When I say teach rightly, to teach rightly is to teach the balance between law and gospel.

This is what I was referring to earlier.

We got to teach the balance between law and gospel.

Uh uh and I said earlier, one of the biggest mistakes that we make is we start when we're talking to people about spiritual things, we start with the gospel.

We start with the good news.

And what you should really do, and that's why people are kind of like, yeah, thanks, I've heard this my whole life.

What you should really do is start with the law, which is bad news.

Because here's why.

When people understand the law, the bad news, it makes the good news fascinating.

Have you noticed that the good news is not fascinating to people anymore?

They're kind of like, yeah.

It's like, hey, I got 212 channels on my cable package.

Ding, ding, ding.

That's how they think about spiritual things.

It says, hey, I'm just flipping through the channels, finding something that I agree with.

But you start with the law and it points out the bad news, it's kind of like, uh-oh.

You're like, what do you mean?

Galatians chapter 3 says it like this, starting in verse 23.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

He says, now before faith came.

Now before faith came, in other words, I used to be a certain way.

I think of the uh uh of the old song by B.B.

King.

I did what I did before love to before love came to town.

Before faith came, we were held captive under the law.

See what the law does?

The law takes you to the bottom of the swim pool and holds you down until the bubble stops.

You can't get free from this.

Before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

For those of you here who have yet to come to faith, you're held captive under the weight of the law and you're imprisoned.

Also, you have to come up with a way to achieve a right standing before God.

This is what the word justified means when he says that in order that we might be justified by faith.

Everybody in this room has a thought pattern, a process, a system of belief that you think makes you right with God.

And anything that doesn't depend on faith in Jesus is wrong.

This is what the Bible teaches.

Now, here's the last thing I want you to hear this morning.

Hear clearly.

And I want to pump the brakes here and slow down a little bit because verse 20, the last little verse, Jesus says this, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, we get it wrong about what it means to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Uh and so there's a good chance we get it wrong when the Bible says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.

Well, what you don't need to hear and don't need to think is that, hey, uh, man, the scribes and the Pharisees.

Now think about it, it probably not not a lot of you understand who the scribes and the Pharisees are.

They were like the religious police of the day.

Okay?

These are the guys that were experts on the truth and dropouts on the way.

They were the lady at youth camp who walked around with a dollar bill, making sure that your chores were within the dollar bill width of your knee.

Because that was just y'all, that was just my experience.

My first experience with Christianity, I was 16.

I was a pot-smoking, angry wild man, and my boss would fire me and make me go to youth camp with his youth group, which I hated by the way, because they all smoke weed too.

They just went to Sunday school on Sundays and I stayed home.

But I digress, I'm not bitter.

Uh but I remember being in camp and there was a lady that was walking around with a dollar bill, checking the length of everybody's shorts to make sure that they were with the width of a dollar bill to you.

And I was just like, I was not a Christian, but I had some really religious thoughts.

And one of them was, is this what Jesus died for?

The lady would stand by the door in the cafeteria and go, come here, girls, put your hands to your side and hold down a dollar bill.

And I was like, uh, and it didn't help that the lady was a little overweight.

So I just thought, maybe you're just jealous.

And so somebody said, What do you think about that?

I said, I just think I got to know the lady that's jealous of these girls that got a nicer body than hers.

I had to go see the principal for that one.

They're like, Neil, we don't talk that way.

And so my note that I wrote down was, Christians do not tell the truth.

So I got back and my boss said, What'd you think?

I said, That was terrible.

If that's what it takes to go to heaven, I want to go to hell.

And he was like, All right, go to work.

He never took the Bible and said, You wicked.

Little sinner.

But what he did do is he loved his wife and he ran his businesses multiple and he was very successful in a way that made me like he used to say, Jesus Christ is the best business partner man ever had.

And I would say, Yeah, you rich people all say that to justify your excess.

And he would just smile and say, son, you've not lived long enough to be this angry.

You should figure out why.

Because I'm surrounded by morons.

That's why.

And he would just smile and say, You know, son, anger starts inside of you before it gets out of you.

Oh, shut up.

I was just like, thank, thank, thank, thank, thank you, Plato.

But I would go back to work and I could hear him in my head.

And I knew he was right.

Anger starts inside of you, son, before it works its way outside of you.

So when I say hear clearly, I don't want you to hear and think, I gotta double my efforts.

I gotta get my dollar bill out and check the length of my shorts and make sure I'm all good, okay?

No, no, what you should do is admit that you're self-righteous, which is why you don't trust in God.

You don't trust in God because you're an engineer and you're smart, you're self-righteous.

You look to yourself for your righteousness.

This is the biggest problem in America today, and it is the biggest problem in this room right now.

It's not pornography, it's not alcohol, it's not lying, it's not stealing.

It's at your core.

You are self-righteous.

I mean, you you you you when the chips are down, you you like God and you kind of believe there is a God, but when the chips are down, you don't trust God, you trust in yourself.

You appreciate God, you even pray to him on occasion, but when push comes to shove, I'm betting on me.

This is what I mean by self-righteous.

Uh and I'll demonstrate.

Back in 1760, get a load of that.

1760, there was a preacher named George Whitfield, okay?

And he preached a sermon called The Method of Grace.

If you went home today and Googled Method of Grace, George Whitfield, it would come up.

It was so, so incredibly popular, okay?

And he said this in the sermon.

He said, There's two things you need in order to be a Christian.

First, you have to repent of your sins.

You have to repent of your sins.

But he would say, and that's no big deal because the Pharisees even do that.

And then he said, second, you have to repent of your righteousness.

And people were like, What?

I mean, this is 1760.

They didn't have the internet, they didn't have cell phones, they didn't have a smartphone, they didn't have a flip phone, they didn't have a rotary dial phone.

I don't think phone has been invented yet.

They rode horses around the country to preach.

And he said this.

He said, You have to repent of your righteousness.

Here's why.

Self-righteousness is the last idol to be plucked out of the heart before you can become a Christian.

You're not a Christian until you see that not only are you able to be your own savior through disobedience to God, but you can also be your own savior through obedience to God.

Until you see that you can try to keep control of your life, you can avoid Jesus as Savior by obeying the rules.

You will repent of your sins, you'll surrender, you'll pray, you'll go to church, but deep inside it's never really clicked for you.

You never seem to know God because you repented of your sin, but you've never seen and repented of your self-righteousness.

And people would come in droves.

And one of the greatest things that came out of the first and second Great Awakening was people realized how self-reliantly self-righteous they had become.

Now, the scribes and Pharisees, this is why Jesus says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because these were the guys that tithed of their spice rack, ladies.

When they got pressed, they would say, Oh, I tithe of my mint, my cumin, and my deal.

They were like meticulous.

I fast twice a day, I pray four times a day.

I mean, these guys calculated how far you could walk on the Sabbath without it being considered work.

They were deeply self-righteous.

They prided themselves on their discipline, their habits, and their ability to keep the rules.

And they loved practicing their righteousness before people.

They would stand on the street corner and pray out loud, Lord, I thank you.

I'm not like other men.

You just want to shoot these people.

And they would dress up too.

That's another thing.

Somebody asked me not long ago, they said, Hey, why don't you dress nicer?

I love you church people, because I just quit back.

If you pay more, I dress nicer.

But this is all I can afford on what I get paid.

And I said, you know, dressing nice is okay.

If you're dressed nice today, that's great.

Uh but dressing up doesn't make you right with God.

And I said, I don't dress up because the Pharisees would dress up in these really elaborate robes and go stand on the street corner, and everybody knew who they were.

And real men that worked for a living had grease on their fingernails, would walk by and just roll their eyes, go pfft.

And say the same thing I would say when I was 16.

If people like you go to heaven, I don't mind going to hell.

And I meant every word of that.

Because I didn't have language for it then, but it was just a lot of self-righteous people.

So it's hard for me to go, man, I can't quite uh understand that.

Now you would you're probably thinking, yeah, I'm not like those people.

I'm not self-righteous.

Really?

I brought you a little quiz, okay?

Here are, I think there's six signs of self-righteousness, and then we'll be done this morning.

You still with me?

Uh now this is gonna don't just just listen, okay?

If you want me, I'll email you this.

Don't try to write down everything I say.

The points come up on the screen.

But here's some signs of self-righteousness in ways that we don't think about it, all right?

Uh number one, you do not take feedback or criticism well.

When a self-righteous person's behavior is criticized, their carefully constructed moral pedestal is threatened.

And because their self-worth depends on being right, any negative feedback feels like a direct assault on their character and it leads to embarrassment, which we'll talk about here in a minute.

Uh and and and when that person, when a self-righteous person is embarrassed, they get defensive and often an angry reaction happens.

Uh, this is why the Pharisees' initial reaction to Jesus was, we gotta kill him.

When he said, 'You have heard of old, but verily, verily I say unto you,' they're like, You shut your mouth.

You say my mama's fat one more time.

We're gonna fight right here on the playground.

It's so up-ended.

Here, you say, Well, what do you mean?

They don't like feedback or criticism.

The first time Jesus spoke in the temple, remember what the people said?

The common man?

They said, He doesn't speak like a scribe or a Pharisee, he speaks as one who's got authority.

And they were like, Yeah, dang you, Jesus.

Because the second sign you're self-righteous, you're outwardly focused.

It doesn't matter what you're really like on the inside because you're the only one that knows.

That's why Jesus, we'll get to this in Matthew 23.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, he has these seven woes, and one of them is woe to you, you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

And he says this, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish.

But on the inside, you're full of greed and self-indulgence.

Some of you just clean the outside of the cup and the dish.

You beat your kids on the way to uh church this morning.

You spoke harshly to your wife, and when you got out, now smile.

Hey, how you doing?

Good to see you.

It's a great day to be in the Lord's house, Pastor.

And I'm like, really?

Yes, your hourly focus.

Number three, you're competitive, not good-natured, uh uh, just kind of ribbon.

Uh, hey, we'll play for a dollar today, okay?

No, no, no.

You're driven.

You love to keep score.

Uh the Pharisees love to keep score.

They would see Jesus, they're like, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

How dare he?

They caught a woman in the very act of adultery.

Bucknecked as the day she was born, they threw her at the feet of Jesus.

They're competitive.

Now the law tells us, Moses tells us to stone such women, Jesus.

What do you say?

And they're standing there with their rocks, just tossing them up, waiting to cave her skull in.

And Jesus, you can't pin down an all-knowing God.

Jesus just reaches down and starts writing in the dirt.

Like, oh, are you guys talking again?

And the Bible says, we don't know what he wrote.

He might, I think he wrote the name of all the women they'd committed adultery with.

And he's like, and the Bible says they dropped their rocks and departed.

Yes, they were competitive.

Number four, you have a comparative mindset.

A comparative mindset, you compare yourself to others for the purpose of feeling superior.

This is the Pharisees standing on the street corner.

I thank God I'm not like other men.

I give of all that I possess.

Number five, you have a lack of community orientation.

You have a lack of community orientation because you're better than everybody, you're more disciplined than everybody, in better shape than everybody, your kids are better than all other kids, you're a better planner than everybody.

It's hard for you to find all these people that are less than you really enjoyable.

So why spend time with them?

This is why a self-righteous person, especially if you're married, if two people, self-righteous people are married, as you get older, you get more isolated and alone.

Yes.

Because you're self-righteous.

You don't have people over, you don't have friends.

You overparent your kids because your kids are your best friends.

And your kids are like, this is creepy.

Mom, dad, make friends.

Here's the last one.

You are not to be embarrassed.

Put a star by this one.

You are not to be embarrassed.

Self-righteousness is a defense mechanism that masks deep-seated insecurities, a fear of failure or an inability to be wrong, which makes people highly sensitive to embarrassment.

When a person projects an image of moral superiority, any challenge to that facade can trigger intense feelings of shame and vulnerability, resulting in embarrassment.

This often leads to uncontrollable outbursts of anger.

Self-righteousness is a defense mechanism against core shame.

So you can have people that are very put together, very disciplined, blah, blah, blah.

They have all this stuff.

But you embarrass them and they are in your world.

And you're like, whoa, whoa.

Yes.

Because somebody saw behind the curtain.

Now, to be self-righteous is to trust yourself, in yourself above anybody else, and you invite other people to trust in you as well.

I often say to men in counseling, it's hard to be your wife's husband and her savior at the same time.

And they never like that.

Like I said I said to a man recently, do you realize that you, because he's come, he came because he wants to talk about parenting.

And I said, You don't really parent your kids, you're their savior.

And so your kids, they don't need your kids, they are not Christians, and they will probably not become Christians until you stop the way you relate to them because you meet all their needs.

They don't need Jesus.

They got dad, and dad's got a lot of money.

And dad bails them out.

You put them in what one of his kids has been in rehab four times.

He said, What do I do?

I said, Cut him off.

He stood up and was like, Oh, well, you probably don't have kids.

I have two.

And I told both of them then we got ready to go to college, hey, you get up and get off the reservation, you're gonna be paying your own bills.

And they're like, I know, Dad.

Why are you saying I don't think you're going to, but I'm just this house gonna shake down in this house.

I don't care about your friends.

And the man looked at me and he said, What do you mean I'm their savior?

Oh, you gotta admit this.

You love your kids relying on you.

This is why your kids don't adult, that's why your kids are 28 and still mooching money off you.

He stood up, he said, You are ticking me off.

Actually, he said something else.

I cleaned it up for Sunday morning.

And I said, What do you want me to do?

You said, and I'm just telling you, the reason your kids are like they are because they don't take the demands of the gospel seriously, they don't take God seriously, because God is not their savior, dad is, and you've got the money to do it.

That's the best part.

He goes, You don't I say I'm not about not spending money on your kids.

Okay?

Don't miss that.

It's about you love being their Messiah.

You're like underdog, here I am to save the day.

And I said, I'll give you an example, okay?

I'll give you an example.

When is the last time you said to your kids, that sounds really, really difficult.

Your mom and dad are praying for you, and I can't wait to see how God comes through.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

I mean, why would I say that when I could do it myself?

You're self-righteous.

You want your kids to think of you what they should only think of God.

Yes.

You have a self-righteousness, you have a righteousness of your own that comes from keeping the rules and making the right decisions.

That's why this past month you told your money guy, hey, push into the market because the interest rates is gonna drop, we're gonna make a killing.

And you did.

And so when that happens and you're able to help kids, which hey, I'm not again, don't send me emails.

You are you saying don't help your kids?

No, I'm saying don't be self-righteous.

You pushed into the market heavier than you've ever been, and you crushed it this past week.

And so the next time you help your kids or you help somebody or you give to something, you're like, well, you know, I made some shrewd financial decisions because I saw the interest rate coming down, because Trump's been pressuring the Fed, and this is the way it works, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You say things like that instead of, oh man, you know what?

God's been so good to our family.

We are glad to help you out in this situation.

And we're able to because of God's goodness to us.

The Bible says it like this in Philippians chapter 3, and I'll be done.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

You still with me?

Can you feel it in here?

See, you should come to church and be made to think.

You shouldn't have happy, clappy dancers and music and lights and smoke and da-da-da-da-da-da.

And you walk out and you're like, Oh, okay, what happened?

Uh let's go to torches and get some queso.

You should walk out today and go, I think I'm kind of mad at you.

Wonderful.

I've got a coffee maker in my office.

Come up, let's have coffee this week.

All you self-righteous parents.

Yes.

Yes.

The guy said, So, so boil it down for me.

Okay, just boil it down.

I said, You want to raise your kids where they depend on God, not you.

And not only do your kids depend on you, you love them depending on you.

I think you rub it in like beauty cream.

Mmm, this feels so good.

And then he said some things I can't repeat on a Sunday.

Here's the way the Bible, this is the Apostle Paul.

Very, very religious person, very self-righteous.

He was immaculate at keeping the rules.

And look at me.

Deep inside, he knew something was missing.

Something ain't right.

I lay in bed at night.

I got everything.

I lay in bed at night, and these poor people are more joyful than me.

How can that be?

I need to kill more Christians.

He says, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same thing to you is no trouble to me, and it is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Talking about the circumcision people.

Hey, hey, you you you you gotta get circumcised.

That makes you a Christian.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, that's self-righteousness.

I have more.

Here's my religion, here's my resume.

I'm circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin.

I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.

As to the law, a Pharisee.

As to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

I slapped a grandma.

Get this as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

I mean, what a what a smug schmutz.

But whatever gain I had, this is where he turns the corner.

Whatever gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own.

Why?

Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Have you ever had a moment in life where you realize Christ Jesus has made me his own?

That's what Hayden was saying this morning.

She stood in the waters of baptism.

Hey, I'm not perfect, but I am different.

And there was a point in my life when Christ Jesus made me his own.

And I stopped trusting in myself.

I stopped living for myself.

I stopped thinking about myself at all times, in all circumstances, in all situations.

Why?

I stopped being self-righteous.

And I believed what Christ had done on the cross in my place and for my sin is the only thing that makes me right with God, which is what righteousness is.

That's what you heard this morning.

This is what the Bible teaches.

And this is why Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount, hey guys, before we get going and I start just spitting rhymes like Eminem in someone's basement, you gotta understand.

I didn't come to abolish the law, the law is still in effect.

And the law is like a schoolmaster that gets you by the back of the neck and takes you to the principal's office and says, This kid cannot keep the rules.

Yeah.

Last thing I just want to point to, last part of verse 20, after Jesus says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, the scribes and Pharisees, hear this last part.

You will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

I want you to think differently about entering the kingdom of heaven because some people, and the church has done this for years.

They say, Well, that's when you die, you go to heaven.

What Jesus is saying here in the Sermon on the Mount is entering the kingdom of heaven isn't about going to a place called heaven, but it refers to coming under God's rule, becoming one of those who recognize his kingship and live by its standards.

This is what Jesus is setting before these people.

He's saying, basically, hey, do you want to be self-ruled and self-righteous?

Or look at me, do you want to be ruled by God and righteous because of your faith in God?

This is the essence of Christianity.

And it is what Jesus is going to unpack in the Sermon on the Mount.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.

Some questions come up on the screen.

That's for your consideration, contemplation.

We actually meet in community groups, homes all over our city, and talk about these things.

But for right now, let's just be still and just, Lord, what had my name on it?

And what he's saying because he's trying to get people to understand.

I'm fixing to talk about lust and anger and divorce.

And you're gonna miss it.

You're not gonna understand.

I didn't come to throw the rule book out.

I came to meet all the requirements of the rules so you could have a relationship with me and not just with some religion of your choice.

Give some thought to that right now.

Jesus, that simple song explains why you said in Matthew chapter 11, Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and you'll find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

God, we're tired of the place deep, deep down.

And all the tricks and techniques that we learned, they ain't working anymore.

Pouring bourbon on it ain't making it better.

And so, Lord, there's a rest for the people of God.

I pray that we'd begin to live the life that makes this rest just part of our life.

Not a, hey, when I get to heaven one day, I'm gonna be able to rest.

But we can rest now and invite everyone around us to enter into the rest that God makes available.

Thank you for that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

Thank you for listening to this message.

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