November 24, 2025 • 48 mins
In this sobering and soul-searching message, Pastor Karl dives deep into Matthew 5:17–48, where Jesus declares that He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it—and then raises the bar of righteousness far beyond anything the scribes and Pharisees ever imagined.
Through six piercing examples—anger that murders the heart, lust that commits adultery in the mind, casual divorce, manipulative oaths, retaliation, and hatred disguised as justice—Jesus exposes the truth we all try to avoid: outward obedience is never enough. God judges the heart. Every single one of us stands guilty before His perfect standard.
Yet the bad news is meant to drive us to the best news. Pastor Karl powerfully unpacks how Jesus’ command in verse 48—“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”—is not a cruel impossible demand, but the very reason the Son of God came. We cannot achieve the righteousness God requires, so God freely gives it to us through faith in Christ. Jesus took our unrighteousness and imputes His perfect righteousness to all who repent and trust Him.
A hard-hitting, heart-exposing sermon that leaves no room for self-righteousness, but ends with the liberating joy of the gospel: guilty sinners can be clothed in the very righteousness of God and stand before Him as if we had never sinned. Essential listening for anyone who wonders, “How can I ever be right with a holy God?”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Before we get into
Matthew five, we're going to make itthrough the rest of the chapter.
It's going to be challenging.
It's going to push us.
You're going to be okay.
But it's going to be challenging for us.
But before we get into it,I just want to say thank you.
For some people in our church,I know Jeff McClure
and his guys have been workingevery morning to get stuff set up for us.
(00:25):
But beyond that,renovating the upstairs room
and making it really nice forour students.
Just been doing a fantastic job.
So, Jeff and your guys,thank you very much. Appreciate you.
I know, Tom, Tom Chevelle has been doing,renovation
work in multiple different suitesand multiple places around here.
(00:48):
He's hehe he's currently got a big project
with a bathroom renovation here,and then new carpet and some other rooms.
And he's really been working overtime,
to, to helpimprove some things in the facility.
Really appreciate him as well.
It's good for usto stop and honor these guys.
And then I know
just the the course of this week,
(01:10):
has been really busy for somein our church and some ministries.
I know that Michael Rondon,our next gen pastor, together with Trish
and with Ali,we've had a really busy week on them.
On Monday,they did a huge junior high Thanksgiving,
dinner event extravaganza,
(01:31):
followed up on Wednesdaywith, high school progressive dinner,
followed up on Thursday nightwith young adult
Friendsgiving dinner and then back at itSunday mornings for three services.
Just really working overtime as well.
I hope you understand how many people
(01:51):
and how much work and man and woman hours,go into the ministries and,
and the things around herejust want to honor all of these.
Added to that,
I want to introduce you
to our church plantersand our missionaries,
both in the United Statesand around the world, in other countries,
(02:13):
so you can get to know them.
I they're very near and dear to my heart.
I've been with them on multiple occasionsfor years and years and years.
You haven't.
And so I want you to get to know them,for a couple reasons.
One, because I want youto keep them in your prayers.
I want when we mentionedwhat's going on in Cuba and Guatemala
and all these other places that itresonates with your mind and your heart,
(02:34):
but also because from now until ChristmasEve, I'm going to ask you to prayerfully
consider and then sacrifice over and aboveyour regular tithes and offerings
and give on the app to evangelism slashchurch planting
so that at the end of the year,we can bless these planters
and pastors and missionarieswith an extra gift.
(02:57):
We support them all regularly, generously.
But I want to go over and above whatwe normally do to be able to bless them.
And I'm asking for the churchfor an extra $20,000
between now and Christmas Eve,so we can bless all of these.
And I want to introduce you to as.
So every Sunday I'm going to introduce youto some of these.
And this first oneI introduce to you is O'Neill and Heidi.
(03:20):
That is their two wives.
And, O'Neill and Heidi's new son in law.
They are our lead church planters in Cuba.
And when I first started the churchplanting work in Cuba
back in2008, really ramped it up in 2015, 2016.
And in the last decade,they have, recruited, trained and,
(03:45):
church planters and planted 120 churcheson the island in the past decade.
They're doing incredible work inextraordinarily difficult circumstances.
They love their people.They love the island.
They love the Lord.They want to see Cuba one day. Jesus.
That's one of the events they did forthe children in their little community.
That church building there, we paid for,
(04:06):
they built it,but we we paid for that to, to do that.
They're they're putting it to great use.
It's another pictureof some of the ministry
that they've beendoing there on the island.
And a place called
Trinidad few hours outside of Havana.
Feeding the kids. Tell them about Jesus.
They're just doing incredible work.
And so we just want to make surethat we continue to be able to bless them.
(04:27):
So keep Heidi and O'Neill in your prayersand the ministry
that is doing there and support themgenerously.
You got it.
Yeah.
Hey, Matthew five, we're going to I'mgoing to start in verse 17.
We're going to make itall the way through verse 48.
So I'm going to go fast.
Last week we talked about the Beatitudes,
these statements that Jesus said, blessedare you when you.
(04:49):
And he started with blessed are those who,
those who are poor in spirit,who realize the poverty
of their own spiritbecause there lead them to mourn over sin.
And so you followed up with, blessed arethose who mourn, for they'll be comforted,
bless those who hire and thirstfor righteousness.
And he went through those beatitudes.
We get to this place in
(05:10):
verse 17 after the Beatitudes,
wherehe's he's going to flesh out, for us,
and he's really going to push uson what it means
to live this kingdom ethic.
And so in verse 17, I'm just going,
I'm going to read big chunksand then we'll talk about them,
about these church.
(05:31):
But let me just read verses 17 through 20.
Jesus says,
do not think that I've cometo abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them,but to fulfill them.
For truly I say to you, until heavenand earth pass away, not an iota
nor a dot will pass from the lawuntil it is until all is accomplished.
Therefore, whoever relaxesone of the least of these commandments
(05:54):
and teaches others to do the same will becalled least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does them and teachesthem will be called great
in the kingdom of heaven.
Here's verse 20.
We talked about this a couple weeks ago,
for I tell you, unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
We start in verse 17 when Jesus says,I have not come to abolish
the law or the prophets.
(06:16):
But I've come to fulfill them.
What he's sayinghere is the Old Testament.
All the commands and all termsthat are still legit,
didn't come to do away with them.
I didn't come to supersede them.
I didn't come to say, hey,that's the Old Testament.
Doesn't matter anymore.
They're they're they're they're stable.They're firm.
They're eternal. No doubt.
(06:36):
I didn't come to destroy themor cast them off.
I came to fulfill them.
And when he says fulfilled,he says it means I will complete them.
And so Jesus is going to complete
all of the commandsin the Old Testament in his own life.
He is the fulfillmentof all the commands of God.
(06:57):
And he says, you need to understand this.
The Old Testament is legit.
It's stable, it's sturdy, it's eternal,and it is all fulfilled in me.
We can't do away with the Old Testament,
but I'm going to fulfill it.
And so he makes us do.
And then he says this not one iotaor dot some translations.
Or maybe your footnote says not onejot or tittle will pass away from the law
(07:21):
until all is accomplished,when he uses those words, a jot or tittle
a jot was the smallest letterin the Hebrew alphabet.
A tittle was like the dot of an eyeor the crossing of a t.
And so what he's sayinghere is the law of God.
Even the smallest, most,my nudist point of it
(07:44):
will all be fulfilledand it's fulfilled in me.
You can't bypass a single little thing
of God's immutable law.
It's all going to be fulfilled.
And he says, when you, when you,when you know
these,when you do these, when you teach these,
that's a good thing.
(08:05):
And then verse 20
he says, and we talked about thisa couple of weeks ago,
unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and the Pharisees,you don't get into the kingdom.
All these commands are legit.
They're all eternal. They all remain.
Not one of them is going to pass away
unless your righteousness in obeying themexceeds the scribes and Pharisees.
(08:28):
You don't get in.
Those of you who were herea couple weeks ago, we talked about that.
That was a pretty tough thing.
And we and we started to understandwhat his intent was behind that.
If you weren't here a couple of weeks ago,you need to listen to that message.
But that's the standard in verse 20
that are righteousnessaccording to the law
(08:49):
exceeds that of scribes and Pharisees.
But that, of course, in verse 20,that's the standard.
And now in verse 21,
he'll walk us through six illustrations
of what righteous livingis, and Matthew 522 standard.
And then in verses 21 through 47,our six illustrations
(09:09):
that should serve to show one proof
that were guilty of breaking the standard.
Secondly, that all outward
bad begins with inward bad.
It's just not about what we do.
It's about our motivations.
And thirdly, that we judgeby outward acts, but God judges
(09:30):
by inward motivations.
And so these next sixillustrations are going to prove.
There Jesus proved to these three things
that every one of us
guilty of breaking the standard.
That though we look at what people
do, God looks at the intents of the heart,
and all the outward badis simply result of inward bad.
(09:53):
First.
And so
here we go.
You ready?
Yep. Okay.
I got about seven yeses.
I'm keeping track of you. Who?
Here's.
Here's the danger as we go through this,
your am I tendency will be
(10:13):
to make excuses for ourselves
and to explain things away
and to say, well,I realize that's what that says,
but my story is different.
See, what was going on for me is
and we're going to be tempted
to put up some walls and some barriers.
(10:35):
And so that might be truefor other people or not,
or that's not really what he meant,
because what we're going to see hereis going to threaten
our self-sufficiency,
and it's going to threaten our own selfrighteousness.
And that's the point.
And it's not going to be easy.
(10:56):
It's not going to be fun.
But understand.
That the bad
news of the law has to be first,so that the good news of grace
can be beautiful.
And so with that.
Verses 21 through 26,
(11:16):
you have heard that it was said tothose of old,
you shall not murder, and whoever murderswill be liable to judgment.
But I say to you
that everyone who is angry withhis brother will be liable to judgment.
Whoever insultshis brother will be liable to the council,
and whoever says, you fool,will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you're offering your giftat the altar and there, remember that
(11:37):
your brother has something against you,
leave your gift therebefore the altar and go first.
Be reconciled to your brother,and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuserwhile you are going with him to court,
lest your accuser hand you overto the judge and the judge of the guard,
and you be put in prison.
Truly, I say to you, you will neverget out until you've paid the last penny.
(12:01):
The first thing he deals with is anger.
And I love the way Jesus said.
He says, you've heardit said to us, but I say,
what he's saying here is, I have a 40.
There's no other teacher until beforeJesus.
That said,
this is what this is what you you know,this is this is just return irritation.
(12:23):
But I'm telling you,nobody's ever said that before.
So Jesus steps in and says,I have authority
because I am the fulfillment of the law.
So though you may have heard, I'mtelling you
because he's the fulfillment of it
and the first thing he starts withis this issue of anger.
He says, you've heardit said, don't murder,
(12:44):
and whoever commits murderis liable to judgment.
But let me just make this point.
Please notice that the one,
the commandment here of the TenCommandments is about murder, not killing.
The command is not thou shalt not kill.
The command is thou shalt not murder.
And there's a huge difference.
(13:04):
And it so gripes me when culture talks
about the Ten Commandmentsand the Bible saying, thou shalt not kill.
That's not what it says.
It's a it's about murder.
And that's important for a couple reasons.
One, because in Genesis, God institutes
the death penalty for murder.
(13:27):
So it's not about killing,it's about murder.
Do you understand?
So let's not be ignorantwith what the Bible talks about.
So whoever commits murders.
But I tell you, everyone choose angerwith his brothers liable to judgment.
Whoever insults his brotherare liable to counsel or says, you fool,
liable to the fires of hell.
Jesus is talking abouttwo different things in our relationships
(13:50):
with each other.We get upset with each other.
Some of your Bibles might have this
this little footnote that says,whoever says to his brother Raka
during your Bible, say that, yeah, raga,
when's the last timeyou'll tell someone said raga?
Like it doesn't make any sense to usand it doesn't translate well.
(14:11):
Jesus is talking about two differentthings.
He's talking about one.
Insulting someone,
showing contempt for their intelligence.
You know what this is like?
Freaking idiot.
Okay.
And secondly,he's talking about showing contempt
(14:32):
for their character.
They have no morals.
I don't care about people.
That's what he's talking about.
He said, you think the command is justabout killing, murdering somebody?
It's not about that.
It's about when you when you
so disagree with someone,your response is you're freaking idiot.
(14:55):
Well.
Or you just have.
No, they just don't care about people.
You have no morals.
And what amazes me
is how similarthis is to our two political parties.
Because there's one
political party,they're saying you guys are just idiots.
(15:18):
You've lost your minds
and the other political partyand so you can't.
You have no morals,you don't care about people.
Right.
And have all of our self-righteousness.
We have upheld our party line
and said of the other
(15:39):
people have lost their minds.
Just idiots.
Right?
Then Jesus says you're guiltyof the fires of hell.
We can't live up to the standard of
verse 20.
We're guilty.
Do you understand that?
Yeah.
(15:59):
And our self righteousness.
I've never murdered anybody.
And Jesus says, yeah,because that's not what this is about.
Guilty.
You stand condemned.
So much so he says, look,
if you're a churchand you're doing some work for the church,
and you realize that someone elsehas something
(16:21):
to get you, stop what you're doingand go be reconciled with him.
He doesn't say, if you have somethingto get somebody else, he says,
if someone else has some against you, stopwhat you're doing and go be recorded.
You know the fastest wayto be reconciled with somebody
say, look, I understand that you,for whatever reason I've offended you.
I'm sorry.
(16:42):
Accept responsibility.
Even if you think you're in the right.
The fastest way to be reconciledto say, look, I realize that that
that I've done so.
I don't even know it.But all I need you. Look. I'm sorry.
Will you please forgive me?
Won't you even know what you did?
No, I don't, but obviously I'm guilty,so I just ask your forgiveness.
I've done this to multiple peopleand they don't know how to handle it.
(17:06):
Well, you need to understand what you did.
No, I really don't.
I just need to ask your forgiveness.
Because I'm probably guilty,
and it just so disarms them.
They don't know what to do.
They want to prove themselves rightand just and righteous, like whatever.
So fine.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
Then they're on the hook to forgive me.
(17:26):
And so what? Jesus, there's.
Even if you're doing something at church,go be reconciled.
Because if you don't seek reconciliation,
he puts it interms of the judge in prison,
if we don't seek reconciliationwith people and we have this grudge,
we'll live in the prison of unforgivenessand broken relationships.
(17:46):
We don't get out of that until it's fixed.
So you don't think what he's sayingis, don't think the good work
you do for God overridesthe bad relationships with people?
That's what he's saying.
I've been around church a long time,and I see it so often.
(18:08):
We're husbands and wives
just are just mean to each other
and not getting along,and their marriage is in shambles.
But boy, they work hard at church.
And Jesus would say,you know, don't think that your work
at church overridesyour bad relationship with your spouse.
It doesn't.
(18:32):
And so we're guilty.
Got it.
That's one illustration of six.
Let's look at the second one.
Verse 27, lust.
You have heard that it was said,you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyonewho looks at a woman with lustful intent
(18:55):
has already committedadultery with her in his heart.
If you're right, it causes you to sin,tear it out and throw it away,
for it's better that you lose
one of your members than thatyour whole body is thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,cut it off and throw it away, for
it is better that you loseone of your members than that
your whole bodiesgo, your whole body go to hell and to hell
(19:17):
again.
This is what you think it is,
because I'm the fulfillment of it.
Let me tell you what it really is.
This obviouslyseems to be directed at men. Men?
Do you look at a woman lustfully?
You've already committed adultery.Let me just say this.
Let me stop right there. Let me.
Just let me make this clear.
When I was growing up
(19:38):
in church, high school kids, we all.
You always wonder where the line is.
Like how close you're goingto get to the line and still be okay.
Right?
Like how close to the firebefore I get burned?
How close to the edge,like fall off the cliff?
How close can I get?
And we would look at passages like thisand the idea behind it was, okay. So
(19:59):
if thinking
lustful thoughts about a girlis same as doing it, and I'm guilty
for thinking I might as well do itbecause I'm guilty anyway, right?
Does that make sense to anybody like you?
Fine.
If I'm guilty for thinking it,and without the fun,
I might as well be guiltyand have the fun.
So that's not what he's saying.
It's always worse to do it, okay?
(20:21):
Being angry atsomeone is not as bad as killing someone.
Please don't make that assumption.
Thinking lustful thoughtsis not as bad as committing adultery.
It's not as bad.
And this isthis is where some intellectual people
have a difficult withbecause they don't understand.
And this is where some ignorant peoplereally misrepresent scripture.
(20:42):
They're not the same.
Killing somebody is much worsethan someone.
Rather, the.
Committee in adultery is much worse.
Like someone said, you can't keep birdsfrom flying over your head,
but you can keepfrom building a nest in your hair.
(21:03):
But actually doing it is a lot worse.
So. So let's just be clear about that now.
They both break God's standard, buthumanly one's a lot worse than the other.
And he's saying men,
when you lustafter someone like you haven't done it,
but in your heartyou've separate yourself from your spouse.
(21:26):
But just so that I'm an equal
or gender offender,
that sounded really bad.
Just so I offend everybody.
Women understand
when you look at that other man
and wish man,I wish my husband was more understand.
I wish they communicate like that.
(21:47):
I wish they were more hand.I wish they were more sensitive
women.
You've left your husband.
You've lustedafter the character of another man.
And so we have to be carefulthat we understand
Scripture.
(22:07):
Men lust sexually, women lust
for a better character.
And Jesus says, you've left.
A guilty.
And he says these words that are justthey're shocking.
If you're right, it causes you to sin.
Poke it out
(22:30):
your right hand. Cut it off.
Listen, he's not talking aboutself-mutilation, mutilation.
He's not talking about that.And here's the problem.
Because self-mutilation doesn't gofar enough.
It's not extreme enough
because you can pluck out your eye
and cut off your hand and still sin.
(22:50):
Early church, father name origin,
brilliant theologian.
Incredibly smart,
who suffered from sexual lust
and had himself castrated
because he took this so literally.
The problem is, it doesn't go far enough.
When Jesus says, you're righteye, your right hand.
(23:12):
Here's here's the point in that culture,the right was the treasured thing.
It was the like the son of my right hand.
It was the favored thing.
It was the strong thing.
And what he's saying is,even if that thing is your favorite thing,
your treasured thing,and it keeps you from living
(23:32):
righteously, get rid of it.
That thing that is most valuable to you.
The thing is, you can't live without.
If it keeps you from being righteous,get rid of it.
I wonder.
If that thing that is so valuable.
The right hand that we can't live without.
(23:56):
Causes unrighteousness.
Amen.
To follow here.
Yes, this is what Jesus is talking about.
And he says, listen, you're you're guilty.
You stand condemned.
You broken the standard.
(24:18):
You're not living upto the standard of the scribes
and Pharisees.
You okay?
Yeah. This.
There's two of the six.
Let's go to number three.
It was also said
whoever divorces his wife,let him give her a certificate of divorce.
(24:41):
But I say to youthat everyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of sexual immorality,immorality, makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries a divorced womancommits adultery.
This is not a popular passagein this culture.
And yet Jesus addresses it.
(25:01):
He says, you've thought about one thing.
I'm telling you.
Part of the difficulty in in this day
when Jesus was was preaching this message,there were two schools of thought.
There were two religious schoolsof thought, two teachings.
One was from Rabbi Hilleland one was from Rabbi Shimei.
(25:21):
And they were the the teachers of Israel.
They were called.
And Rabbi Hillel.
His interpretation of God's lawwas very liberal, very generous.
And so in his liberality and generosity
he said that when the Bible talksabout a woman
displeasing or being immoral,that could be any number of things.
(25:44):
So vast was his reasons.
Allowances for divorce.
He thought that if a woman overseasand the food or burnt the bread
that was immoraland you could divorce her,
it's like woman
I said
paprika, not garlic.
Now get out.
(26:07):
That's how broad.
And so women had no protectionwhatsoever? No.
The school of Shimeiwas very conservative and strict.
And he said the only reasons for divorce,
the only allowances for divorce,is for sexual morality, with witnesses.
So they had to be witnesses.
(26:27):
And so the women were stuckin this place of like,
I have no protection.
And Jesus says, listen, we got it.
We have to understandthe sanctity of marriage
biblically.
The Bible says God hates divorce,
(26:48):
and every divorce at the seed of it
is the result of sin.
And so God hates it.
Now God gives one allowance for divorce,
not as a commandthat if this happens, you must.
But the Bible saysbecause of the hardness of man's heart,
because they will not allow reconciliationor repentance and change.
(27:12):
There's one allowanceand it's the case of sexual immorality.
The difficulty when Jesus uses these wordsis sexual immorality is so broad.
It could be it's so broad.
It's not specific.
There was one
thought that even if one is married,there's two couples married,
and then one finds out that onedid something before they were married.
(27:36):
It's immoral.
And so you can retroactively divorce them.
And so what Jesus is saying hereis, look, marriage is sacred
and it's supposed to be permanent.
So here's the thing, my dear friend,if you are in a marriage
now, stay in it.
(27:57):
Stay in it.
Don't think that.
Well, I married a divorced person. Nowit says are committed to like marriage.
Will get divorced now.
No, don't do it a second time.
Keep holyand pure the sanctity of marriage.
It's not to be trifled with.
(28:19):
It's not to be entered into lightly.
God hates divorce.
And here's, here's, here'slet's just go a little deeper level.
There are some who have not been divorced.
They're still married,but they're living a divorced life
in their marriage.
(28:42):
Completely separated from each other.
Emotionally, physically, relationally,
spiritually.
And that is not the intent of the father
to understand.
(29:03):
And so he's he's just like,look at this, you guys.
You're you're just guilty.
Here's the fourth thing.
Oaths.
Again, you've heard that it is said tothose of you shall not swear falsely,
but shall perform to the Lordwhat you've sworn.
But I say to you,do not take an oath at all, either
by heaven, forit is the throne of God, or by earth, for
(29:25):
it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, forit is the city of the great King.
And do not take an oath by your head,for you cannot make one
hair white or black,apparently, or even make one hair grow.
Let what?
You gotta keep up with me.
Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
(29:46):
Here's what he sayingwhen he says you've heard it.
It was said, you shall not swear falsely,but before him to the Lord.
What you've sworn, what the practice was.
They can make any oath or promise.
As long as they didn't promiseto the Lord, they didn't have to keep it.
And so all these promises and contracts,an oath that they would take
(30:07):
if they didn't say in the nameof the Lord, they weren't liable for them.
And so you had all these shystersand everybody looking for loopholes.
There's a way to get out of my commitment.
I tell people all the time,
be careful about your commitments,
because it's easierto get into one than out of one.
And what Jesus is sayingis, quit being hypocritical.
Quit looking for loopholes.
Quit looking for reasonswhy you don't have to keep your word.
(30:30):
You should be such people
of integrity and characterthat all you have to say is yes or no.
And everybody believes youand everybody trusts you.
That's character.
That's a righteous life.
You understand?
You know,
and I don't know if there's anybody herethat has lived
such a life of integrityand righteousness from day one to now,
(30:54):
that everything we say
is 100% truthful and believable.
And so you and I
are guilty.
We cannot pull the standard of verse
20 exceeds the righteousness. Wow.
(31:16):
Look at this in verse 38.
You have heard that it was said,an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, because I'mthe fulfillment of this whole thing,
do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the rightcheek, turn to him the other also.
And if anyone would sueyou and take your tunic,
let him have your cloak as well.
And if anyone forces you to go one mile,go with him two miles.
(31:38):
Give to the one who begs from you,and do not refuse the one
who would borrow from you. This is tough.
An eye for an eye.
Tooth for a tooth.
Someone slaps you on the right cheek.
Give me the other.
Also.
When Jesus says if someone slaps youon the right cheek, give your other cheek.
(32:00):
He's not talking about physical assault.
In that culture, this was an insult.
It wasn't a physical thing.
It was like,
so what?
He he's not talking about someone
takes a baseball bat to your ribcage,give him your back.
It's only when someone insults you,
get over it.
(32:22):
Accept it.
Let him insult you.
The backhanded slap is equal to an insult.
It wasn't a physical attack.
And so, dear friends,
when someone offends us and insults us.
(32:46):
Why do we?
Why do we feel like we have to?
Oh, yeah. Well.
Why? We
that insecure?
So. So let me ask you this.
What happens when someone insultsyour kid?
(33:12):
Look, about right.
Don't resist the stuff.
You want a model of this?
How about Jesus?
That's the standard.
If anyone insults you,
(33:34):
give him another opportunity.
You don't have to defend yourself.
All right.
Then I would take your tunic.
Give me your cloak.
So, one.
One message to go,one mouth to go with him voluntarily.
A second one,
what he's sayingis be willing to suffer loss
(33:55):
and to get taken advantage of personally.
That's what he's saying.
Be willing to be taken advantage of.
You got it.
This is.
Two of you okay?
Yeah.
Without retaliation.
(34:17):
Now, he's not talking about evil.
Government's job is to restrain evil.
But Romans talks about that.
That's the job of government to restrainevil.
He's not talkingabout letting evil run amuck.
But he is
talking about us patientlyenduring insults
(34:37):
and suffering.
Loss.
You look at thisand you think, who can live this way?
Who can live this way?
It's an incredible kingdom ethic.
And we're guilty of breaking it.
Look at this.
You've heard that it was said,you shall not,
(34:57):
Or you shall love your neighborand hate your enemy.
But I say to you, because I'mthe fulfillment of this whole thing,
love your enemiesand pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your fatherwho is in heaven.
For he makes the sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendsrain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you,what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectorsdo the same?
(35:19):
And if you greet only your brothers,what more are you doing that others
do not even the Gentilesdo the same like he sent people.
People who aren't living by the kingdomethic, ethic are good to those
who are good to them.
So when you're good to thosewho are good to you, what good is that?
There's no difference.
It was taught, listen, if someone isgood to you, be good to them.
(35:40):
But if they're bad to you,you have no obligation to be good to them.
That's what was taught.
Jesus says, that's not.
That's not my kingdom.
My kingdom is
that for your enemies.
Your enemies are still your neighbor,
and you must love your neighbor.
(36:00):
And for those who are your enemies,you pray for them
and you do good to them.
You don't respond with kind.
Your enemies, you love them.
Bless them.
(36:22):
You do good to them.
You pray for thembecause even your enemies
are your neighbors, and God'sgrace extends even to your enemies.
He makes the sun shine on the justand the unjust,
and gives rain
to your friends and your enemies.
And because his grace is common, grace
(36:44):
extended to your enemies, then so does
your goodness and your prayers.
A tough kingdom ethic, isn't it?
And Jesus teaches us this
so that we realizehow much we've broken it,
and we stand guilty.
(37:08):
And then look what he does.
Verse 48,
pull up verse 48 on the slide.
You therefore
must be what?
Or faith? Wow!
As your heavenly father is, what faith?
So the first standard
(37:29):
was the scribes and the Pharisees.
And then Jesus goes throughsix things that says, you're guilty.
You can't even live up to that standard.
And now Jesus raisesthe standard to not of the righteousness
of the scribes of the Pharisees,but to the perfection of the father.
Now you must be perfect,just as your father is perfect.
(37:54):
Every one of us,no matter what you say of these six
in your self-righteousness,I have not committed any of those.
None of us can live upto perfection of the father.
And that's the new standard.
So, dear friends.
(38:14):
Guilty.
As much as
we would like to explain awaywhat perfect means, and believe me,
I've heard so many teachers and so manyChristians try to explain that away.
It doesn't mean perfectionbecause God knows we can't be perfect.
What it means is completenessand you can't explain it away.
(38:37):
You cannot explain it away.
It means literally perfectand complete moral character.
Any of us.
And yet God says this is the new standard.
So even if you thought
(38:58):
you were better than the scribesand Pharisees,
you're going to sit there and say,
you have a better character than GodAlmighty.
How dare you!
So every one of us sit here
guilty and condemned.
(39:18):
Happy Sunday.
So if this is the standard, what do we do?
We need another way
to be righteous.
We need another way to be holy.
Because Jesus has just provenyou can't do it.
And when you realizethat this is the standard
(39:41):
and you realize how guilty you are,this is why Jesus started the Beatitudes.
Blessed are those who are poor in spirit,
because it will lead themto mourn over their spiritual state.
And so blessed are you when you mourn,
because you will lead you to hungerand thirst for righteousness.
That's why he started that way,
(40:03):
so he could get us to the placeof mourning over our own unrighteousness
and admit I need another way.
And so thanks be to God
for our sake,
because I cannot be righteous.
He made him Jesus to be sinwho knew no sin,
(40:24):
so that in himI might become the righteousness of God.
So God said, Carl,you are incapable of my standard,
and I have proven it to you time and timeand time again.
You stand condemned and guilty.
You have no way to be rightwith me in yourself.
And so I'm going to take my son.
(40:46):
I'm going to takeall your unrighteousness.
I'm going to put it on him, and then I'mgoing to take all of his righteousness.
And I'm put on the Bible callsit imputation imputed to me.
Look what the Bible says,
so that I become the righteous,not that I become a righteous person.
I become the righteousness of God.
(41:07):
Perfect as he is not perfect in behavior.
But when Jesus, when God looks at me,
he sees the righteousness of His Sonand releases his son.
He sees the unrighteousness of me.
The good news after the bad news.
For he has clothed mewith the garments of salvation
(41:30):
before I wore filthy rags,
and he's covered mewith the robe of righteousness.
I'm covered in it
not because of what I've done,
but because of what God has imputed to me,because of his Son.
Do you understand?
Yeah, that's good news.
(41:50):
Because when I look at myself,
I'm more in.
Because I understand how poor
in spirit I am.
But because of what Jesus has done.
Now God sees meas the righteousness of His Son.
And because that
transaction has taken place, my responsethen is this
(42:16):
put on Jesus.
And when you've done that,now, here's the choice.
Now make no provision for the fleshto gratify his desires.
Now, because of what I'm not,so that all be righteous,
but because I've been made righteous. Now.
I will go through my own choice
(42:38):
to not lust.
Do not break my vows to not retaliate.
I will make no provision
to gratify my natural sinful desires.
Not so that will be righteous,but because I've been made righteous.
Do you understand?
(43:01):
See, religion is man's attemptto get to God.
Christianity is God.
Coming to man.
And through that, Jesus
coming to earth, dying on the cross.
When I accept that,accept my own spiritual depravity
(43:21):
and accept his covering of me.
Now I stand beforeGod, though guilty, as if.
I'm completely righteous.
And that's the good news.
Everything up to that point.
Bad news.
(43:42):
But we have to have the bad newsof the law
to get to the good news of the gospel.
You can appear before God Almighty.
Have me completely justified
if you're sinned.
And completely righteous before him.
(44:06):
Because of what Jesus has done.
But you have to admit your own depravity.
Repent of your sin
and accept him as the leader of your life.
And in that
is great liberation
(44:27):
and joy.
Why don't you pray with me, father?
Thank you.
You are so good to us
to give us the bad news,
so that we can understand the good news.
And, father, you've made it
(44:48):
abundantly clear that in and of ourselveswe are guilty and condemned.
And so I thank you for that realization.
It's hard. It's difficult.
We don't want to accept it,but it's the truth.
I thank you that you don't leave us in
that place.
That you've given us this opportunityto be made right with you
(45:10):
through whatJesus has done, what your son's done.
God, I pray that nobody here misses this.
Oh, we all accept it.
So, father,thank you that you hear our hearts.
And I hear,
I think as you hear the heartsthat are going to pray right now,
if you've never accepted the righteousnessof Jesus over your life,
(45:35):
if you've never repented of your sin,accepted him,
I invite you to do that right nowand just.
Between you and the father,
would you just say,God, I admit it, I stand guilty.
You know of myself.
I'm condemned and I have no hope.
I admit it, it's bad news.
(45:56):
But I thank youfor the good news of Jesus.
I accept what Jesus did
on the cross to forgive my sin.
I confess my sin.
I repent of it,and I accept what Jesus did
to purchase my forgiveness.
I accept it.
(46:17):
Jesus, I invite you into my life.
I want to follow you.
And I want to do everything I can do,
not to gratify my ownnatural desires anymore.
They've led me astray too much.
And this morning I'm giving myself to you.
(46:38):
Father,
I thank you for the opportunityyou've given us to be right with you.
Because of what you've done up.
We do.
Help us live in a waythat's worthy of that.
Now, in your name, I pray. Amen.
You okay?
(46:59):
Here's my ask.
We're going to moveinto a Christmas season next Sunday.
So we're going to push pause on Matthewfor a little bit.
We'll come back to it.
Finish up the sermon on the Mount.
But we're going to go throughthese elements of of Christmas
and what it really means to have Jesus
come to earth to, to, to set in motion
all the stuff we've talked about thisjustification being right with God.
(47:22):
And so during Christmas
time, people will come to churchif someone just invites them.
Okay, so understand how this works.
You're already here.
People who aren't here will come to church
if someone invites them herebecause you're already here.
What does that mean? That you now become?
Invite us.
(47:43):
And so if you know people in your huddlethat don't go to church
regularly, invite them.
As we go through this Christmas series,you understand?
Yeah.
All right, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
You did a good jobgoing through Matthew five today.
I realize it was bad news up front, butwe got to the good news at the end, right?
(48:05):
That's the gospel. Let's sing.
Before we get into
Matthew five, we're going to make itthrough the rest of the chapter.
It's going to be challenging.
It's going to push us.
You're going to be okay.
But it's going to be challenging for us.
But before we get into it,I just want to say thank you.
For some people in our church,I know Jeff McClure
and his guys have been workingevery morning to get stuff set up for us.
(00:25):
But beyond that,renovating the upstairs room
and making it really nice forour students.
Just been doing a fantastic job.
So, Jeff and your guys,thank you very much. Appreciate you.
I know, Tom, Tom Chevelle has been doing,renovation
work in multiple different suitesand multiple places around here.
(00:48):
He's hehe he's currently got a big project
with a bathroom renovation here,and then new carpet and some other rooms.
And he's really been working overtime,
to, to helpimprove some things in the facility.
Really appreciate him as well.
It's good for usto stop and honor these guys.
And then I know
just the the course of this week,
(01:10):
has been really busy for somein our church and some ministries.
I know that Michael Rondon,our next gen pastor, together with Trish
and with Ali,we've had a really busy week on them.
On Monday,they did a huge junior high Thanksgiving,
dinner event extravaganza,
(01:31):
followed up on Wednesdaywith, high school progressive dinner,
followed up on Thursday nightwith young adult
Friendsgiving dinner and then back at itSunday mornings for three services.
Just really working overtime as well.
I hope you understand how many people
(01:51):
and how much work and man and woman hours,go into the ministries and,
and the things around herejust want to honor all of these.
Added to that,
I want to introduce you
to our church plantersand our missionaries,
both in the United Statesand around the world, in other countries,
(02:13):
so you can get to know them.
I they're very near and dear to my heart.
I've been with them on multiple occasionsfor years and years and years.
You haven't.
And so I want you to get to know them,for a couple reasons.
One, because I want youto keep them in your prayers.
I want when we mentionedwhat's going on in Cuba and Guatemala
and all these other places that itresonates with your mind and your heart,
(02:34):
but also because from now until ChristmasEve, I'm going to ask you to prayerfully
consider and then sacrifice over and aboveyour regular tithes and offerings
and give on the app to evangelism slashchurch planting
so that at the end of the year,we can bless these planters
and pastors and missionarieswith an extra gift.
(02:57):
We support them all regularly, generously.
But I want to go over and above whatwe normally do to be able to bless them.
And I'm asking for the churchfor an extra $20,000
between now and Christmas Eve,so we can bless all of these.
And I want to introduce you to as.
So every Sunday I'm going to introduce youto some of these.
And this first oneI introduce to you is O'Neill and Heidi.
(03:20):
That is their two wives.
And, O'Neill and Heidi's new son in law.
They are our lead church planters in Cuba.
And when I first started the churchplanting work in Cuba
back in2008, really ramped it up in 2015, 2016.
And in the last decade,they have, recruited, trained and,
(03:45):
church planters and planted 120 churcheson the island in the past decade.
They're doing incredible work inextraordinarily difficult circumstances.
They love their people.They love the island.
They love the Lord.They want to see Cuba one day. Jesus.
That's one of the events they did forthe children in their little community.
That church building there, we paid for,
(04:06):
they built it,but we we paid for that to, to do that.
They're they're putting it to great use.
It's another pictureof some of the ministry
that they've beendoing there on the island.
And a place called
Trinidad few hours outside of Havana.
Feeding the kids. Tell them about Jesus.
They're just doing incredible work.
And so we just want to make surethat we continue to be able to bless them.
(04:27):
So keep Heidi and O'Neill in your prayersand the ministry
that is doing there and support themgenerously.
You got it.
Yeah.
Hey, Matthew five, we're going to I'mgoing to start in verse 17.
We're going to make itall the way through verse 48.
So I'm going to go fast.
Last week we talked about the Beatitudes,
these statements that Jesus said, blessedare you when you.
(04:49):
And he started with blessed are those who,
those who are poor in spirit,who realize the poverty
of their own spiritbecause there lead them to mourn over sin.
And so you followed up with, blessed arethose who mourn, for they'll be comforted,
bless those who hire and thirstfor righteousness.
And he went through those beatitudes.
We get to this place in
(05:10):
verse 17 after the Beatitudes,
wherehe's he's going to flesh out, for us,
and he's really going to push uson what it means
to live this kingdom ethic.
And so in verse 17, I'm just going,
I'm going to read big chunksand then we'll talk about them,
about these church.
(05:31):
But let me just read verses 17 through 20.
Jesus says,
do not think that I've cometo abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them,but to fulfill them.
For truly I say to you, until heavenand earth pass away, not an iota
nor a dot will pass from the lawuntil it is until all is accomplished.
Therefore, whoever relaxesone of the least of these commandments
(05:54):
and teaches others to do the same will becalled least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does them and teachesthem will be called great
in the kingdom of heaven.
Here's verse 20.
We talked about this a couple weeks ago,
for I tell you, unless your righteousnessexceeds that of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will never enterthe kingdom of heaven.
We start in verse 17 when Jesus says,I have not come to abolish
the law or the prophets.
(06:16):
But I've come to fulfill them.
What he's sayinghere is the Old Testament.
All the commands and all termsthat are still legit,
didn't come to do away with them.
I didn't come to supersede them.
I didn't come to say, hey,that's the Old Testament.
Doesn't matter anymore.
They're they're they're they're stable.They're firm.
They're eternal. No doubt.
(06:36):
I didn't come to destroy themor cast them off.
I came to fulfill them.
And when he says fulfilled,he says it means I will complete them.
And so Jesus is going to complete
all of the commandsin the Old Testament in his own life.
He is the fulfillmentof all the commands of God.
(06:57):
And he says, you need to understand this.
The Old Testament is legit.
It's stable, it's sturdy, it's eternal,and it is all fulfilled in me.
We can't do away with the Old Testament,
but I'm going to fulfill it.
And so he makes us do.
And then he says this not one iotaor dot some translations.
Or maybe your footnote says not onejot or tittle will pass away from the law
(07:21):
until all is accomplished,when he uses those words, a jot or tittle
a jot was the smallest letterin the Hebrew alphabet.
A tittle was like the dot of an eyeor the crossing of a t.
And so what he's sayinghere is the law of God.
Even the smallest, most,my nudist point of it
(07:44):
will all be fulfilledand it's fulfilled in me.
You can't bypass a single little thing
of God's immutable law.
It's all going to be fulfilled.
And he says, when you, when you,when you know
these,when you do these, when you teach these,
that's a good thing.
(08:05):
And then verse 20
he says, and we talked about thisa couple of weeks ago,
unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and the Pharisees,you don't get into the kingdom.
All these commands are legit.
They're all eternal. They all remain.
Not one of them is going to pass away
unless your righteousness in obeying themexceeds the scribes and Pharisees.
(08:28):
You don't get in.
Those of you who were herea couple weeks ago, we talked about that.
That was a pretty tough thing.
And we and we started to understandwhat his intent was behind that.
If you weren't here a couple of weeks ago,you need to listen to that message.
But that's the standard in verse 20
that are righteousnessaccording to the law
(08:49):
exceeds that of scribes and Pharisees.
But that, of course, in verse 20,that's the standard.
And now in verse 21,
he'll walk us through six illustrations
of what righteous livingis, and Matthew 522 standard.
And then in verses 21 through 47,our six illustrations
(09:09):
that should serve to show one proof
that were guilty of breaking the standard.
Secondly, that all outward
bad begins with inward bad.
It's just not about what we do.
It's about our motivations.
And thirdly, that we judgeby outward acts, but God judges
(09:30):
by inward motivations.
And so these next sixillustrations are going to prove.
There Jesus proved to these three things
that every one of us
guilty of breaking the standard.
That though we look at what people
do, God looks at the intents of the heart,
and all the outward badis simply result of inward bad.
(09:53):
First.
And so
here we go.
You ready?
Yep. Okay.
I got about seven yeses.
I'm keeping track of you. Who?
Here's.
Here's the danger as we go through this,
your am I tendency will be
(10:13):
to make excuses for ourselves
and to explain things away
and to say, well,I realize that's what that says,
but my story is different.
See, what was going on for me is
and we're going to be tempted
to put up some walls and some barriers.
(10:35):
And so that might be truefor other people or not,
or that's not really what he meant,
because what we're going to see hereis going to threaten
our self-sufficiency,
and it's going to threaten our own selfrighteousness.
And that's the point.
And it's not going to be easy.
(10:56):
It's not going to be fun.
But understand.
That the bad
news of the law has to be first,so that the good news of grace
can be beautiful.
And so with that.
Verses 21 through 26,
(11:16):
you have heard that it was said tothose of old,
you shall not murder, and whoever murderswill be liable to judgment.
But I say to you
that everyone who is angry withhis brother will be liable to judgment.
Whoever insultshis brother will be liable to the council,
and whoever says, you fool,will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you're offering your giftat the altar and there, remember that
(11:37):
your brother has something against you,
leave your gift therebefore the altar and go first.
Be reconciled to your brother,and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuserwhile you are going with him to court,
lest your accuser hand you overto the judge and the judge of the guard,
and you be put in prison.
Truly, I say to you, you will neverget out until you've paid the last penny.
(12:01):
The first thing he deals with is anger.
And I love the way Jesus said.
He says, you've heardit said to us, but I say,
what he's saying here is, I have a 40.
There's no other teacher until beforeJesus.
That said,
this is what this is what you you know,this is this is just return irritation.
(12:23):
But I'm telling you,nobody's ever said that before.
So Jesus steps in and says,I have authority
because I am the fulfillment of the law.
So though you may have heard, I'mtelling you
because he's the fulfillment of it
and the first thing he starts withis this issue of anger.
He says, you've heardit said, don't murder,
(12:44):
and whoever commits murderis liable to judgment.
But let me just make this point.
Please notice that the one,
the commandment here of the TenCommandments is about murder, not killing.
The command is not thou shalt not kill.
The command is thou shalt not murder.
And there's a huge difference.
(13:04):
And it so gripes me when culture talks
about the Ten Commandmentsand the Bible saying, thou shalt not kill.
That's not what it says.
It's a it's about murder.
And that's important for a couple reasons.
One, because in Genesis, God institutes
the death penalty for murder.
(13:27):
So it's not about killing,it's about murder.
Do you understand?
So let's not be ignorantwith what the Bible talks about.
So whoever commits murders.
But I tell you, everyone choose angerwith his brothers liable to judgment.
Whoever insults his brotherare liable to counsel or says, you fool,
liable to the fires of hell.
Jesus is talking abouttwo different things in our relationships
(13:50):
with each other.We get upset with each other.
Some of your Bibles might have this
this little footnote that says,whoever says to his brother Raka
during your Bible, say that, yeah, raga,
when's the last timeyou'll tell someone said raga?
Like it doesn't make any sense to usand it doesn't translate well.
(14:11):
Jesus is talking about two differentthings.
He's talking about one.
Insulting someone,
showing contempt for their intelligence.
You know what this is like?
Freaking idiot.
Okay.
And secondly,he's talking about showing contempt
(14:32):
for their character.
They have no morals.
I don't care about people.
That's what he's talking about.
He said, you think the command is justabout killing, murdering somebody?
It's not about that.
It's about when you when you
so disagree with someone,your response is you're freaking idiot.
(14:55):
Well.
Or you just have.
No, they just don't care about people.
You have no morals.
And what amazes me
is how similarthis is to our two political parties.
Because there's one
political party,they're saying you guys are just idiots.
(15:18):
You've lost your minds
and the other political partyand so you can't.
You have no morals,you don't care about people.
Right.
And have all of our self-righteousness.
We have upheld our party line
and said of the other
(15:39):
people have lost their minds.
Just idiots.
Right?
Then Jesus says you're guiltyof the fires of hell.
We can't live up to the standard of
verse 20.
We're guilty.
Do you understand that?
Yeah.
(15:59):
And our self righteousness.
I've never murdered anybody.
And Jesus says, yeah,because that's not what this is about.
Guilty.
You stand condemned.
So much so he says, look,
if you're a churchand you're doing some work for the church,
and you realize that someone elsehas something
(16:21):
to get you, stop what you're doingand go be reconciled with him.
He doesn't say, if you have somethingto get somebody else, he says,
if someone else has some against you, stopwhat you're doing and go be recorded.
You know the fastest wayto be reconciled with somebody
say, look, I understand that you,for whatever reason I've offended you.
I'm sorry.
(16:42):
Accept responsibility.
Even if you think you're in the right.
The fastest way to be reconciledto say, look, I realize that that
that I've done so.
I don't even know it.But all I need you. Look. I'm sorry.
Will you please forgive me?
Won't you even know what you did?
No, I don't, but obviously I'm guilty,so I just ask your forgiveness.
I've done this to multiple peopleand they don't know how to handle it.
(17:06):
Well, you need to understand what you did.
No, I really don't.
I just need to ask your forgiveness.
Because I'm probably guilty,
and it just so disarms them.
They don't know what to do.
They want to prove themselves rightand just and righteous, like whatever.
So fine.
I'm sorry.
Forgive me.
Then they're on the hook to forgive me.
(17:26):
And so what? Jesus, there's.
Even if you're doing something at church,go be reconciled.
Because if you don't seek reconciliation,
he puts it interms of the judge in prison,
if we don't seek reconciliationwith people and we have this grudge,
we'll live in the prison of unforgivenessand broken relationships.
(17:46):
We don't get out of that until it's fixed.
So you don't think what he's sayingis, don't think the good work
you do for God overridesthe bad relationships with people?
That's what he's saying.
I've been around church a long time,and I see it so often.
(18:08):
We're husbands and wives
just are just mean to each other
and not getting along,and their marriage is in shambles.
But boy, they work hard at church.
And Jesus would say,you know, don't think that your work
at church overridesyour bad relationship with your spouse.
It doesn't.
(18:32):
And so we're guilty.
Got it.
That's one illustration of six.
Let's look at the second one.
Verse 27, lust.
You have heard that it was said,you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyonewho looks at a woman with lustful intent
(18:55):
has already committedadultery with her in his heart.
If you're right, it causes you to sin,tear it out and throw it away,
for it's better that you lose
one of your members than thatyour whole body is thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,cut it off and throw it away, for
it is better that you loseone of your members than that
your whole bodiesgo, your whole body go to hell and to hell
(19:17):
again.
This is what you think it is,
because I'm the fulfillment of it.
Let me tell you what it really is.
This obviouslyseems to be directed at men. Men?
Do you look at a woman lustfully?
You've already committed adultery.Let me just say this.
Let me stop right there. Let me.
Just let me make this clear.
When I was growing up
(19:38):
in church, high school kids, we all.
You always wonder where the line is.
Like how close you're goingto get to the line and still be okay.
Right?
Like how close to the firebefore I get burned?
How close to the edge,like fall off the cliff?
How close can I get?
And we would look at passages like thisand the idea behind it was, okay. So
(19:59):
if thinking
lustful thoughts about a girlis same as doing it, and I'm guilty
for thinking I might as well do itbecause I'm guilty anyway, right?
Does that make sense to anybody like you?
Fine.
If I'm guilty for thinking it,and without the fun,
I might as well be guiltyand have the fun.
So that's not what he's saying.
It's always worse to do it, okay?
(20:21):
Being angry atsomeone is not as bad as killing someone.
Please don't make that assumption.
Thinking lustful thoughtsis not as bad as committing adultery.
It's not as bad.
And this isthis is where some intellectual people
have a difficult withbecause they don't understand.
And this is where some ignorant peoplereally misrepresent scripture.
(20:42):
They're not the same.
Killing somebody is much worsethan someone.
Rather, the.
Committee in adultery is much worse.
Like someone said, you can't keep birdsfrom flying over your head,
but you can keepfrom building a nest in your hair.
(21:03):
But actually doing it is a lot worse.
So. So let's just be clear about that now.
They both break God's standard, buthumanly one's a lot worse than the other.
And he's saying men,
when you lustafter someone like you haven't done it,
but in your heartyou've separate yourself from your spouse.
(21:26):
But just so that I'm an equal
or gender offender,
that sounded really bad.
Just so I offend everybody.
Women understand
when you look at that other man
and wish man,I wish my husband was more understand.
I wish they communicate like that.
(21:47):
I wish they were more hand.I wish they were more sensitive
women.
You've left your husband.
You've lustedafter the character of another man.
And so we have to be carefulthat we understand
Scripture.
(22:07):
Men lust sexually, women lust
for a better character.
And Jesus says, you've left.
A guilty.
And he says these words that are justthey're shocking.
If you're right, it causes you to sin.
Poke it out
(22:30):
your right hand. Cut it off.
Listen, he's not talking aboutself-mutilation, mutilation.
He's not talking about that.And here's the problem.
Because self-mutilation doesn't gofar enough.
It's not extreme enough
because you can pluck out your eye
and cut off your hand and still sin.
(22:50):
Early church, father name origin,
brilliant theologian.
Incredibly smart,
who suffered from sexual lust
and had himself castrated
because he took this so literally.
The problem is, it doesn't go far enough.
When Jesus says, you're righteye, your right hand.
(23:12):
Here's here's the point in that culture,the right was the treasured thing.
It was the like the son of my right hand.
It was the favored thing.
It was the strong thing.
And what he's saying is,even if that thing is your favorite thing,
your treasured thing,and it keeps you from living
(23:32):
righteously, get rid of it.
That thing that is most valuable to you.
The thing is, you can't live without.
If it keeps you from being righteous,get rid of it.
I wonder.
If that thing that is so valuable.
The right hand that we can't live without.
(23:56):
Causes unrighteousness.
Amen.
To follow here.
Yes, this is what Jesus is talking about.
And he says, listen, you're you're guilty.
You stand condemned.
You broken the standard.
(24:18):
You're not living upto the standard of the scribes
and Pharisees.
You okay?
Yeah. This.
There's two of the six.
Let's go to number three.
It was also said
whoever divorces his wife,let him give her a certificate of divorce.
(24:41):
But I say to youthat everyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of sexual immorality,immorality, makes her commit adultery.
And whoever marries a divorced womancommits adultery.
This is not a popular passagein this culture.
And yet Jesus addresses it.
(25:01):
He says, you've thought about one thing.
I'm telling you.
Part of the difficulty in in this day
when Jesus was was preaching this message,there were two schools of thought.
There were two religious schoolsof thought, two teachings.
One was from Rabbi Hilleland one was from Rabbi Shimei.
(25:21):
And they were the the teachers of Israel.
They were called.
And Rabbi Hillel.
His interpretation of God's lawwas very liberal, very generous.
And so in his liberality and generosity
he said that when the Bible talksabout a woman
displeasing or being immoral,that could be any number of things.
(25:44):
So vast was his reasons.
Allowances for divorce.
He thought that if a woman overseasand the food or burnt the bread
that was immoraland you could divorce her,
it's like woman
I said
paprika, not garlic.
Now get out.
(26:07):
That's how broad.
And so women had no protectionwhatsoever? No.
The school of Shimeiwas very conservative and strict.
And he said the only reasons for divorce,
the only allowances for divorce,is for sexual morality, with witnesses.
So they had to be witnesses.
(26:27):
And so the women were stuckin this place of like,
I have no protection.
And Jesus says, listen, we got it.
We have to understandthe sanctity of marriage
biblically.
The Bible says God hates divorce,
(26:48):
and every divorce at the seed of it
is the result of sin.
And so God hates it.
Now God gives one allowance for divorce,
not as a commandthat if this happens, you must.
But the Bible saysbecause of the hardness of man's heart,
because they will not allow reconciliationor repentance and change.
(27:12):
There's one allowanceand it's the case of sexual immorality.
The difficulty when Jesus uses these wordsis sexual immorality is so broad.
It could be it's so broad.
It's not specific.
There was one
thought that even if one is married,there's two couples married,
and then one finds out that onedid something before they were married.
(27:36):
It's immoral.
And so you can retroactively divorce them.
And so what Jesus is saying hereis, look, marriage is sacred
and it's supposed to be permanent.
So here's the thing, my dear friend,if you are in a marriage
now, stay in it.
(27:57):
Stay in it.
Don't think that.
Well, I married a divorced person. Nowit says are committed to like marriage.
Will get divorced now.
No, don't do it a second time.
Keep holyand pure the sanctity of marriage.
It's not to be trifled with.
(28:19):
It's not to be entered into lightly.
God hates divorce.
And here's, here's, here'slet's just go a little deeper level.
There are some who have not been divorced.
They're still married,but they're living a divorced life
in their marriage.
(28:42):
Completely separated from each other.
Emotionally, physically, relationally,
spiritually.
And that is not the intent of the father
to understand.
(29:03):
And so he's he's just like,look at this, you guys.
You're you're just guilty.
Here's the fourth thing.
Oaths.
Again, you've heard that it is said tothose of you shall not swear falsely,
but shall perform to the Lordwhat you've sworn.
But I say to you,do not take an oath at all, either
by heaven, forit is the throne of God, or by earth, for
(29:25):
it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, forit is the city of the great King.
And do not take an oath by your head,for you cannot make one
hair white or black,apparently, or even make one hair grow.
Let what?
You gotta keep up with me.
Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
(29:46):
Here's what he sayingwhen he says you've heard it.
It was said, you shall not swear falsely,but before him to the Lord.
What you've sworn, what the practice was.
They can make any oath or promise.
As long as they didn't promiseto the Lord, they didn't have to keep it.
And so all these promises and contracts,an oath that they would take
(30:07):
if they didn't say in the nameof the Lord, they weren't liable for them.
And so you had all these shystersand everybody looking for loopholes.
There's a way to get out of my commitment.
I tell people all the time,
be careful about your commitments,
because it's easierto get into one than out of one.
And what Jesus is sayingis, quit being hypocritical.
Quit looking for loopholes.
Quit looking for reasonswhy you don't have to keep your word.
(30:30):
You should be such people
of integrity and characterthat all you have to say is yes or no.
And everybody believes youand everybody trusts you.
That's character.
That's a righteous life.
You understand?
You know,
and I don't know if there's anybody herethat has lived
such a life of integrityand righteousness from day one to now,
(30:54):
that everything we say
is 100% truthful and believable.
And so you and I
are guilty.
We cannot pull the standard of verse
20 exceeds the righteousness. Wow.
(31:16):
Look at this in verse 38.
You have heard that it was said,an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, because I'mthe fulfillment of this whole thing,
do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the rightcheek, turn to him the other also.
And if anyone would sueyou and take your tunic,
let him have your cloak as well.
And if anyone forces you to go one mile,go with him two miles.
(31:38):
Give to the one who begs from you,and do not refuse the one
who would borrow from you. This is tough.
An eye for an eye.
Tooth for a tooth.
Someone slaps you on the right cheek.
Give me the other.
Also.
When Jesus says if someone slaps youon the right cheek, give your other cheek.
(32:00):
He's not talking about physical assault.
In that culture, this was an insult.
It wasn't a physical thing.
It was like,
so what?
He he's not talking about someone
takes a baseball bat to your ribcage,give him your back.
It's only when someone insults you,
get over it.
(32:22):
Accept it.
Let him insult you.
The backhanded slap is equal to an insult.
It wasn't a physical attack.
And so, dear friends,
when someone offends us and insults us.
(32:46):
Why do we?
Why do we feel like we have to?
Oh, yeah. Well.
Why? We
that insecure?
So. So let me ask you this.
What happens when someone insultsyour kid?
(33:12):
Look, about right.
Don't resist the stuff.
You want a model of this?
How about Jesus?
That's the standard.
If anyone insults you,
(33:34):
give him another opportunity.
You don't have to defend yourself.
All right.
Then I would take your tunic.
Give me your cloak.
So, one.
One message to go,one mouth to go with him voluntarily.
A second one,
what he's sayingis be willing to suffer loss
(33:55):
and to get taken advantage of personally.
That's what he's saying.
Be willing to be taken advantage of.
You got it.
This is.
Two of you okay?
Yeah.
Without retaliation.
(34:17):
Now, he's not talking about evil.
Government's job is to restrain evil.
But Romans talks about that.
That's the job of government to restrainevil.
He's not talkingabout letting evil run amuck.
But he is
talking about us patientlyenduring insults
(34:37):
and suffering.
Loss.
You look at thisand you think, who can live this way?
Who can live this way?
It's an incredible kingdom ethic.
And we're guilty of breaking it.
Look at this.
You've heard that it was said,you shall not,
(34:57):
Or you shall love your neighborand hate your enemy.
But I say to you, because I'mthe fulfillment of this whole thing,
love your enemiesand pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your fatherwho is in heaven.
For he makes the sun rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendsrain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you,what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectorsdo the same?
(35:19):
And if you greet only your brothers,what more are you doing that others
do not even the Gentilesdo the same like he sent people.
People who aren't living by the kingdomethic, ethic are good to those
who are good to them.
So when you're good to thosewho are good to you, what good is that?
There's no difference.
It was taught, listen, if someone isgood to you, be good to them.
(35:40):
But if they're bad to you,you have no obligation to be good to them.
That's what was taught.
Jesus says, that's not.
That's not my kingdom.
My kingdom is
that for your enemies.
Your enemies are still your neighbor,
and you must love your neighbor.
(36:00):
And for those who are your enemies,you pray for them
and you do good to them.
You don't respond with kind.
Your enemies, you love them.
Bless them.
(36:22):
You do good to them.
You pray for thembecause even your enemies
are your neighbors, and God'sgrace extends even to your enemies.
He makes the sun shine on the justand the unjust,
and gives rain
to your friends and your enemies.
And because his grace is common, grace
(36:44):
extended to your enemies, then so does
your goodness and your prayers.
A tough kingdom ethic, isn't it?
And Jesus teaches us this
so that we realizehow much we've broken it,
and we stand guilty.
(37:08):
And then look what he does.
Verse 48,
pull up verse 48 on the slide.
You therefore
must be what?
Or faith? Wow!
As your heavenly father is, what faith?
So the first standard
(37:29):
was the scribes and the Pharisees.
And then Jesus goes throughsix things that says, you're guilty.
You can't even live up to that standard.
And now Jesus raisesthe standard to not of the righteousness
of the scribes of the Pharisees,but to the perfection of the father.
Now you must be perfect,just as your father is perfect.
(37:54):
Every one of us,no matter what you say of these six
in your self-righteousness,I have not committed any of those.
None of us can live upto perfection of the father.
And that's the new standard.
So, dear friends.
(38:14):
Guilty.
As much as
we would like to explain awaywhat perfect means, and believe me,
I've heard so many teachers and so manyChristians try to explain that away.
It doesn't mean perfectionbecause God knows we can't be perfect.
What it means is completenessand you can't explain it away.
(38:37):
You cannot explain it away.
It means literally perfectand complete moral character.
Any of us.
And yet God says this is the new standard.
So even if you thought
(38:58):
you were better than the scribesand Pharisees,
you're going to sit there and say,
you have a better character than GodAlmighty.
How dare you!
So every one of us sit here
guilty and condemned.
(39:18):
Happy Sunday.
So if this is the standard, what do we do?
We need another way
to be righteous.
We need another way to be holy.
Because Jesus has just provenyou can't do it.
And when you realizethat this is the standard
(39:41):
and you realize how guilty you are,this is why Jesus started the Beatitudes.
Blessed are those who are poor in spirit,
because it will lead themto mourn over their spiritual state.
And so blessed are you when you mourn,
because you will lead you to hungerand thirst for righteousness.
That's why he started that way,
(40:03):
so he could get us to the placeof mourning over our own unrighteousness
and admit I need another way.
And so thanks be to God
for our sake,
because I cannot be righteous.
He made him Jesus to be sinwho knew no sin,
(40:24):
so that in himI might become the righteousness of God.
So God said, Carl,you are incapable of my standard,
and I have proven it to you time and timeand time again.
You stand condemned and guilty.
You have no way to be rightwith me in yourself.
And so I'm going to take my son.
(40:46):
I'm going to takeall your unrighteousness.
I'm going to put it on him, and then I'mgoing to take all of his righteousness.
And I'm put on the Bible callsit imputation imputed to me.
Look what the Bible says,
so that I become the righteous,not that I become a righteous person.
I become the righteousness of God.
(41:07):
Perfect as he is not perfect in behavior.
But when Jesus, when God looks at me,
he sees the righteousness of His Sonand releases his son.
He sees the unrighteousness of me.
The good news after the bad news.
For he has clothed mewith the garments of salvation
(41:30):
before I wore filthy rags,
and he's covered mewith the robe of righteousness.
I'm covered in it
not because of what I've done,
but because of what God has imputed to me,because of his Son.
Do you understand?
Yeah, that's good news.
(41:50):
Because when I look at myself,
I'm more in.
Because I understand how poor
in spirit I am.
But because of what Jesus has done.
Now God sees meas the righteousness of His Son.
And because that
transaction has taken place, my responsethen is this
(42:16):
put on Jesus.
And when you've done that,now, here's the choice.
Now make no provision for the fleshto gratify his desires.
Now, because of what I'm not,so that all be righteous,
but because I've been made righteous. Now.
I will go through my own choice
(42:38):
to not lust.
Do not break my vows to not retaliate.
I will make no provision
to gratify my natural sinful desires.
Not so that will be righteous,but because I've been made righteous.
Do you understand?
(43:01):
See, religion is man's attemptto get to God.
Christianity is God.
Coming to man.
And through that, Jesus
coming to earth, dying on the cross.
When I accept that,accept my own spiritual depravity
(43:21):
and accept his covering of me.
Now I stand beforeGod, though guilty, as if.
I'm completely righteous.
And that's the good news.
Everything up to that point.
Bad news.
(43:42):
But we have to have the bad newsof the law
to get to the good news of the gospel.
You can appear before God Almighty.
Have me completely justified
if you're sinned.
And completely righteous before him.
(44:06):
Because of what Jesus has done.
But you have to admit your own depravity.
Repent of your sin
and accept him as the leader of your life.
And in that
is great liberation
(44:27):
and joy.
Why don't you pray with me, father?
Thank you.
You are so good to us
to give us the bad news,
so that we can understand the good news.
And, father, you've made it
(44:48):
abundantly clear that in and of ourselveswe are guilty and condemned.
And so I thank you for that realization.
It's hard. It's difficult.
We don't want to accept it,but it's the truth.
I thank you that you don't leave us in
that place.
That you've given us this opportunityto be made right with you
(45:10):
through whatJesus has done, what your son's done.
God, I pray that nobody here misses this.
Oh, we all accept it.
So, father,thank you that you hear our hearts.
And I hear,
I think as you hear the heartsthat are going to pray right now,
if you've never accepted the righteousnessof Jesus over your life,
(45:35):
if you've never repented of your sin,accepted him,
I invite you to do that right nowand just.
Between you and the father,
would you just say,God, I admit it, I stand guilty.
You know of myself.
I'm condemned and I have no hope.
I admit it, it's bad news.
(45:56):
But I thank youfor the good news of Jesus.
I accept what Jesus did
on the cross to forgive my sin.
I confess my sin.
I repent of it,and I accept what Jesus did
to purchase my forgiveness.
I accept it.
(46:17):
Jesus, I invite you into my life.
I want to follow you.
And I want to do everything I can do,
not to gratify my ownnatural desires anymore.
They've led me astray too much.
And this morning I'm giving myself to you.
(46:38):
Father,
I thank you for the opportunityyou've given us to be right with you.
Because of what you've done up.
We do.
Help us live in a waythat's worthy of that.
Now, in your name, I pray. Amen.
You okay?
(46:59):
Here's my ask.
We're going to moveinto a Christmas season next Sunday.
So we're going to push pause on Matthewfor a little bit.
We'll come back to it.
Finish up the sermon on the Mount.
But we're going to go throughthese elements of of Christmas
and what it really means to have Jesus
come to earth to, to, to set in motion
all the stuff we've talked about thisjustification being right with God.
(47:22):
And so during Christmas
time, people will come to churchif someone just invites them.
Okay, so understand how this works.
You're already here.
People who aren't here will come to church
if someone invites them herebecause you're already here.
What does that mean? That you now become?
Invite us.
(47:43):
And so if you know people in your huddlethat don't go to church
regularly, invite them.
As we go through this Christmas series,you understand?
Yeah.
All right, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
You did a good jobgoing through Matthew five today.
I realize it was bad news up front, butwe got to the good news at the end, right?
(48:05):
That's the gospel. Let's sing.
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