(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's begin this morning. Hymn number 20. Number 20, When I see the blood. Hymn number 20. Once you find your place, we'll lift it up on that first verse together. Hymn number 20 begins Christ our Redeemer died on the cross. Hymn number 20. And we'll lift our voices together unto the Lord this morning. Hymn number 20. Sing it out together now. Christ our Redeemer died on the cross. Died for the sinner. Paid all his due. All who receive him need never fear. Yes, he will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus can save. As he has promised, so will he do. Oh sinner, hear him, trust in his word. Then he will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgement is coming, all will be there. Who have rejected, who have refused. Oh sinner, hasten, let Jesus in. Then God will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Oh what compassion, oh boundless love. Jesus have power, Jesus is true. All who believe are saved from the storm. Oh he will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. When I see the blood. I will pass, I will pass over you. Amen. Good start to our singing this morning. We want to ask Lord's blessing on the service. Father in Heaven, we thank you for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you for his precious blood that washes sin away. We ask you Father to bless Pastor Anderson, keep his family safe Lord. Bless today's sermon. Bless every aspect of it. So in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Over to hymn 175, hymn number 175. It's just like his great love. Hymn number 175. It begins, a friend I have called Jesus whose love is strong and true. Let's lift it up on that first verse together now. Hymn number 175. A friend I have called Jesus whose love is strong and true. And never fails thou ere to strive no matter what I do. I've sinned against his love of his. But when I knelt to pray. Confessing all my guilt to him. The sin clouds roll away. It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way. It's just like his great love. Sometimes the clouds of trouble be dim the sky above. I cannot see my savior's face. I doubt his wondrous love. But he from heaven's mercy sees beholding my despair. In place he breaths the clouds between. And shows me he is there. It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way. It's just like his great love. When sorrows clouds o'er take me and break upon my head. When life seems worse and useless and I will bet your debt. I take my grief to Jesus and I go in vain. For heavenly hope begins as shears. Like sunshine at the rain. It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way. It's just like his great love. Oh I can sing forever on Jesus love divine. His fair and tenderness for this whole life of mine. His love is in and over all and when that waves open when Jesus whispers peace be still. And rolls the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to roll the clouds away. It's just like Jesus to keep me day by day. It's just like Jesus all along the way. It's just like his great love. Alright at this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bullet then slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week we'll be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 23. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms. And then cross the page here. Birthdays for the month of October as well as wedding anniversaries. Keep praying for our expectant ladies. Looks like we've got nine of them. That they will have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. On the back we are working on taking pictures for the yearbook. And this is going to go through November 3rd. It seems like you've got a lot of time but it just goes by so fast. So be sure you get that appointment made. Get in there. Get your beautiful portrait taken. These are really nice high quality portraits. You get the high quality image. And then you also get to be in the yearbook and then we all get to enjoy having the yearbook in a few months when it comes out. So it's a win-win for everybody. I hope you'll participate. And remember this is for everybody. Singles, couples, families, whatever your situation. We want to get you photographed. Below that the annual chili cook-off is coming up later this month. October 31st from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m. All chilis must be made from scratch. Chilis must be entered by the 5 p.m. cutoff. And then usually we also have a number of chilis because you know at some point the judge's taste buds are just so confused that he has. By the time you get to the 21st chili you don't even know which way is up. You don't know what's going on anymore. The full soul loatheth the honeycomb. So it's not really fair to chili number 21. So I think we usually cut it off at 20. Also the first 20 people to bring the chili get entered. We provide fried dishes, spiced cider, and so forth. And so you can think about coming to that Thursday, October 31st. Upcoming events. The missions conference is obviously the big one. That is November 6th or 10. We'll have our normal Wednesday and Sunday church services. But we'll also have morning and evening services Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Also recreational activities going on throughout the day Thursday, Friday, Saturday. One day is Jake's Unlimited. Another day is roller skating. Another day is a German picnic. And then soul winning times every day at 5 o'clock. And so anyway just keep that on the radar. If you end up wanting to do the whole thing that's great. Otherwise you can just kind of a la carte. Pop in on a Friday night or pop in on a Saturday morning. Whatever. So that's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. With a song entitled, Oh It Is Wonderful To Be A Christian. If you don't have an answer you can raise your hand and we'll sing it on that first verse together. Life has purpose now it never had before. Sing it out together now. Life has purpose now it never had before. There is meaning to each day and even more. For a joy and peace I can't explain is mine. Since I found a new life in Christ my Lord divine. Oh it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh it is wonderful to be God's child. Oh it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justified forever reconciled. I can go directly to the Lord in prayer. He has told me I may boldly enter there. And he listens as his promises I plead. I find mercy there and grace for every need. Oh it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh it is wonderful to be God's child. Oh it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justified forever reconciled. And the hope of heaven's glory thrills me so. Where I'll live with Christ forever more I know. That is why the things of earth I loosely hold. I'm eternal, rich as better far than gold. Oh it is wonderful to be a Christian. Oh it is wonderful to be God's child. Oh it is wonderful to have your sins forgiven. Oh it is wonderful to be redeemed. Justified forever reconciled. Good singing everybody. Let's go to your song books to hymn number 81. Hymn number 81, When We See Christ. Hymn number 81. We'll sing it out together on that first off times the day seems long. Our trials hard to bear. We'll lift it up together now on number 81. Off times the day seems long. Our trials hard to bear. We're tempted to complain. To murder and despair. But Christ will soon appear. To patches right away. On tears forever over. In God's eternal day. It will be worth it all. When we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small. When we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face. All sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race. Till we see Christ. Sometimes the sky looks dark. With not a ray of light. We're tossing, driven on. No human help in sight. But there is one in heaven. Who knows where he is there. Let Jesus solve your problem. Just go to him in prayer. It will be worth it all. When we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small. When we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face. All sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race. Till we see Christ. Life's tables soon be o'er. Long storms forever pass. We'll cross the great divide. To glory saved at last. We'll share the joys of death. Apart the hall of crown. The tender will be banished. We'll lay our burden down. It will be worth it all. When we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small. When we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face. All sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race. Till we see Christ. Amen. Alright, at this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1. Follow along silently with brother Corbin Brock as he reads Psalm 19 beginning in verse number 1. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world and them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Father God, we just thank you so much for this opportunity to be here together and have fellowship with like-minded believers and this time of teaching and preaching, Lord. We just praise you for all that's going to take place here today. We pray you fill a path with your Holy Spirit and help our ears to hear what we have for us today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Man, if you would, flip in your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 5. I started last Sunday night preaching on the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to continue with that beginning in verse number 17 of Matthew chapter 5. And of course this is the first sermon of our Lord Jesus Christ that we come to if we start reading the New Testament from left to right. And that's how a lot of people of course get started reading the Bible, right? They open either Genesis or they open Matthew and they start reading the Bible. And so therefore this is one of the most famous portions of Scripture that virtually all Christians who've had anything to do with the Bible have read this. They're familiar with it. It's a powerful passage of Scripture. And also it's foundational, right? Because God in His providence has put this at the beginning of the New Testament and it sort of lays a foundation for Christ's preaching ministry and it sort of just lays down a foundation for New Testament doctrine in general. So it's so important and it is so pivotal as we're reading the Bible and we come to the Sermon on the Mount and it's worth giving special attention. Look down if you would there at your Bible, Matthew chapter 5 verse 17. It says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. Now this is an extremely important point that is made here is that we don't want to think that there is a disconnect between the Old Testament Scriptures and the New Testament Scriptures. They are both the perfect, infallible, inerrant Word of God. Okay, now obviously the New Covenant supersedes the Old Covenant. The New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant. I could give a lot of Scripture on that but I'm just going to give you one quick Scripture. The best one is Hebrews 8 13. It says, In that he sayeth a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. New Testament supersedes or replaces Old Testament. Okay, because Testament and Covenant mean the same thing. But what we don't want to make the mistake of thinking is that somehow the New Testament Scriptures replace the Old Testament Scriptures because they do not. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable is not was profitable is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so the Bible is equally God's Word whether we're reading the Old Testament, whether we're reading the New Testament, whether we're reading the epistles of Paul or the words of Jesus Christ. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. And so Jesus Christ is making it super clear from the get-go here, I did not come here to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not saying that we don't need to read the Bible when it comes to the law or that we don't need to read the Bible when it comes to the prophets or that those things are somehow outdated or no longer true or no longer valid or that they somehow were in, I don't know, somehow that they were ineffective or something that they're deficient in some way. He's saying, no, no, no, I'm not here to destroy the law or prophets. I came to fulfill. Now let's look at other false religious teachers and cult leaders throughout the centuries. This is not what they said. Muhammad did not say, oh, I didn't come here to, you know, destroy the law. He says that the law is wrong, the prophets are wrong, the gospels are wrong. He contradicts everything that they're saying and claims that they, well, they used to be good but they've been corrupted, yada, yada, yada. Jesus Christ is teaching the opposite, right? The Book of Mormon comes along and says, well, the Bible's true as long as it's properly translated and there's problems in it, there's corruption in it, there are mistakes, which is why their leader, Joseph Smith, came out with the Joseph Smith translation. The reason that they don't use it is because, number one, it's so stupid, and number two, because he didn't finish it because he was shot and killed before he could finish it. And so the point is that they do not believe that the King James Bible is the Word of God without error, which is why they are constantly correcting it, changing it, and in their Joseph Smith translation, things read completely differently than any translation in the world. Any Greek, Hebrew text, any English translation, it's just made up stuff that he got from, you know, the angel Moronic or whatever. And so the point is that Jesus Christ is building upon the foundation of the law and the prophets. He's not coming and saying, I'm here to destroy the law and the prophets and to start something new. What he's saying is, I am the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets, the Old Covenant Mosaic law, and so he's going to build upon that foundation. Now, he's going to preach in the next many verses about statements from the Old Testament, and so a lot of people will twist what Jesus is saying that Jesus is somehow denying those Old Testament statements and replacing them with something new. But again, I guess they forgot to read verse 17 because he literally said, that's not what I'm doing. Okay? He's fulfilling them, he is augmenting them, he is enhancing them, and of course, Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of the law and the prophets because the Bible says to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins. And so we live in a day where people think that somehow there's a difference between Old Testament God and New Testament God. They think Old Testament God is mean, New Testament God is loving. This is garbage. The Old Testament is filled with love, grace, mercy, love thy neighbor as thyself is a quote from Leviticus chapter 19. And then the New Testament is full of God's wrath and judgment. Revelation, anyone? Right? So again, this is a false dichotomy. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so when it comes to morality, our morality should be based upon the entire Bible, not just what we find in the New Testament, the entire Bible. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. And there's nothing about God's moral law as found in the Ten Commandments and in the entire Mosaic law that is wrong or deficient. It's all good. It's all right. Okay. Now, are there things that are changed in the New Testament? Absolutely. The Bible says the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. So for example, the Bible specifically explains things that are rolled back in the New Testament. Meats, drinks, divers washings, carnal ordinances, Sabbath days, new moons, these days, the calendar. Look, the bottom line is this. Here's the guiding principle. Unless the New Testament specifically changes something, you go with what the Old Testament says. So unless the New Testament says this is different in the New Testament, you should assume that it's the same because it is because God doesn't just restate everything in the New Testament. Have you noticed that the New Testament is shorter than the Old Testament? God's not going to restate everything. He is expecting you to also believe the law and the prophets as well. And think about when the early church was getting off the ground and when the Apostle Paul is going around preaching and when all the apostles are going out and evangelizing, they didn't have the New Testament. They literally only had the Old Testament scriptures because the New Testament had not yet been written. Okay. When the Apostle Paul is starting his ministry, not one stitch of the New Testament had been written. What are they preaching? When they're going around evangelizing, they're using the word of God. They're using Psalms. They're using Deuteronomy. They're using Isaiah. Right? It's God's word. And it's still relevant in the New Testament, of course. So he says think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now there are two things going on in this statement, maybe even more. But two things that are for sure going on in this statement. Number one, this is a statement about the preservation of God's word. We don't have to wonder if God's word has been lost. Right? God's word is preserved unto all ages. It's kept pure. It is not going anywhere. Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away. But now he's also saying that one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So both Old and New Testaments are providentially preserved by God unto all generations. There are no lost books of the Bible that are going to be discovered. If they are, it's a fraud because God's word is preserved to all generations. And so one thing that's going on here is a statement about the preservation of God's word. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now what do these two words mean, the jot and the tittle? Now here's the thing. Perhaps your Bible is like mine. I think most Bibles are like this. But if you want to flip over in your Bible to Psalm 119, right? So go over to Psalm 119. We're going to be back to Matthew 5. But in Psalm 119 if your Bible is like most Bibles, it will not only have the names of every letter of the Hebrew alphabet but it will also have the actual Hebrew letter next to it. Like I'm looking at mine and it says above verse 1, it says Aleph and then it has a picture of an Aleph. Whose Bible right now has a picture of Aleph next to the word Aleph in it? Whose Bible just says Aleph but it doesn't have the picture? Okay, so it looks like it's about 50-50. But if your Bible does have the picture go over to verse 73 and if you go over to verse 73 you will see that you have this Hebrew letter here, right? Which is pronounced in modern Hebrew Yod and it's spelled J-O-D, right? This is exactly what Jesus is referring to when it says one jot or one tittle. The jot here is this exact thing that you're looking at in your Bible above verse 73. And if you'll notice the picture of it is like a little apostrophe. Now if you look at the rest of the letters, if you look at what Aleph and Bet and Gimel and Dalet look like, you're going to look that they're bigger. They're bigger, more involved letters. The tiniest letter is the Yod or the jot. Does everybody see that? It's the tiniest, smallest little letter. It's just this little stroke, this little apostrophe looking thing. That is the smallest letter, okay? That is what is referred to by the jot. Okay, now we still will use this expression even in English we will use the Greek expression because what you have to understand is that the Greek alphabet was not made from scratch. The Greek alphabet is derived from the Hebrew alphabet, okay? The first alphabet on the planet in the history of mankind is called the Phoenician alphabet, also known as the paleo- Hebrew alphabet. So the paleo- Hebrew slash Phoenician alphabet is the first alphabet that was ever created on the planet. Before that they had other writing systems but they weren't alphabets. Hieroglyphics, you know, other syllabic systems. But the first true alphabet is the Hebrew alphabet, also known as the Phoenician alphabet. Okay, this alphabet then was adapted to be used by the Greeks and what the Greeks did was they changed it by adding vowels because the Hebrew alphabet's all consonants, 22 consonants. The Greeks brought in the vowels. So the first alphabet in the world is the Hebrew alphabet. The first alphabet with vowels is the Greek alphabet. In this world on the planet. Kind of interesting, those are the two languages of scripture. And they're that significant in the history of writing in mankind in general, okay? And this letter in Greek is called the iota, is how we would say it in our everyday parlance in English. And if you ever heard people say, like, I don't even want this to be changed by a single iota. Not one iota. Who's ever heard the word iota used in that way? Right? Well the iota that's being used in that way is exactly the same concept as the jot, okay? That's the point here when he says one jot or one tittle. He's saying the smallest letter of the alphabet because also in Greek the iota is just a really small little mark, you know? So it's just like one little letter is not going to pass from the law, he's saying. The smallest letter, the jot. Okay. But then he says one jot or one tittle. What is a tittle? Well, the tittle is actually, it's literally referring to what you could call a horn, okay? Which is basically on letters that look almost the same. There's like a distinguishing feature so that you can tell them apart, right? Because some letters look really similar. Like, think about how sometimes when you're writing by hand, you might have like a capital D and a capital O and sometimes they could look kind of similar. Am I right? You know? Or like, how about this, a capital I and a lowercase l in a lot of fonts is going to look like virtually the same symbol and can be hard to tell the difference, right? Well, again if you, when you have more time later, look at Psalm 119, if you have the pictures in your Bible, and you look at the letters, you will see that there are some letters that look almost exactly the same. Like the letter he and the letter het. They look almost exactly the same. And so therefore, when you're writing these out by hand, you'll put like a little horn, you'll put a little mark, a little bit of calligraphy to kind of help see the difference between these two things. Sort of like, you know, you have a lowercase a and a lowercase d, right? The d's kind of got that tail going up higher. Something like a capital D has that line on the side. Just these little features that help you tell the difference between two letters that are almost the same. A lowercase g and a lowercase q or something, right? What the Bible is saying here is that till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle will not pass from the law. He's saying the smallest letter is not going to pass from the law. And letters are not going to be mixed up and confused to the point where we're not sure which it was and we lose the meaning. Because when you have an alphabet with no vowels and then you change a consonant, it can change the whole word. It can change the whole meaning. And so it's important that we understand that the Hebrew Bible has been preserved by God so that in the 1500s, when this thing started to be translated into all the languages of Europe, right? When the Hebrew Bible was first published in Venice and distributed throughout the major centers of Europe and translated into languages like English and Spanish and Hungarian and German and all these languages that the Hebrew Bible had been preserved up to that point. So that God in his providence and his wisdom allowed that when the printing press was invented, the movable type printing press in Europe, and those printing press started cranking out Hebrew Bibles, it was the Hebrew text that God had delivered. And then the languages of Europe were able to translate that into modern languages so that we could read it today in English, so that we could read it today in all these other languages. Look, God's word has been preserved. We've got to believe that by faith. And it's not like, well, we've got the gist of it. We roughly have, you know, the sense, who cares if some things got chopped out or added or twisted or changed. Hey, mix up the hey for the het and whatever. Who cares? Well, you know what? God says not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until all be fulfilled. Nothing's gone. Nothing's missing. No true legitimate reading is forgotten. And that's why it's absurd when you have people in the 20th and 21st century coming up with these new meanings and saying, we've all been reading this wrong. Every translation in the world has all been wrong. I found a new meaning because it turns out this whole time hey was really het. And it's just a totally different meaning now. And oh, let's write a paper and get published and we can be in a journal and we're a scholar and whatever. Look, my friend, scholars want to keep themselves in business by making new discoveries. Now, look, if you're a scientist, great. Make some new discoveries. Invent something cool that we can use. But, you know, when you're a Bible textual scholar and you just have this motive to just come out with something new, well, guess what? If it's new, it isn't true. Because God's word was already finished a couple thousand years ago and it's been providentially kept pure. It's been preserved in all ages. And so, therefore, we need to believe the words of Jesus here when he says one jot or one tittle. And by the way, this is a reference to the Hebrew text. Why do I make a big deal about that? Because you got bozos telling you, oh, the Hebrew text is corrupt. We got to do the Greek Old Testament. We got to do the Septuagint. No, my friend, Jesus is talking about the Hebrew Bible when he talks about the jot and the tittle. That's what he's talking about. Because the tittle is something that has to do with Hebrew, not Greek. Okay. And so, therefore, we need to trust by faith that the Hebrew Bible was preserved by God, that the Greek New Testament has been preserved by God, and that, of course, that's what the King James Bible is translated from. And what separates the King James from a lot of these modern versions? One of the, lots of things, but one of the things is that the King James Bible translators translated directly from the Hebrew and the Old Testament, directly from the Greek and the New Testament, whereas modern versions are saying the Hebrew has mistakes, the Greek has mistakes, so let's try to figure it out and reconstruct it, and sometimes they'll deviate. That's why when you're reading an NIV at the bottom of the page, it'll keep having these footnotes in the Old Testament, well, the Hebrew says this. It's like, well, bro, why didn't you translate that then if that's what the Hebrew says? Because they're not translating the Hebrew. They're translating from the Septuagint or something else. Okay. So that's one thing that's going on in this verse. It's a statement about the preservation of God's Word. But it's not just a statement about the preservation of God's Word. It's also saying when it says, uh, that heaven, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall no eyes pass from the law till all be fulfilled. It's also a statement about the relevance of the Old Testament Scripture. It's not just that it's not going to disappear off the face of the earth, although that's important and that's true, and these scholars need to learn that. But it's also a statement about the fact that no Old Testament Scripture is going to cease being relevant until heaven and earth pass. It's not going to go out of style. It's not going to pass and be something that doesn't matter anymore. All Old Testament Scripture still matters and is still relevant. Okay. Because either, A, it's the moral law of God that never changes, or B, it's a ceremonial law, but all of those things are profitable because the ceremonial law is pointing us to Jesus Christ. And so as we read about animal sacrifices that are no longer a thing, as we read about cleanliness laws that are no longer a thing, as we read about rituals, calendars, Sabbath days, feast days that are no longer a thing, those things all have allegorical, symbolic, figurative significance about Jesus. You say, why do I need to read about the tabernacle being built? Because when you read about the crimson and the scarlet and the blue and the purple, you know what? It's a picture of the blood and the bruising of the body of Jesus. Right? Why is the tabernacle decorated with red, blue, and purple? Because it's a picture of Christ being beaten for us. And the blood by his stripes were healed, the Bible says. And so therefore everything in the Old Testament is relevant, it should all be preached, we should all read it, think about it, meditate on it, study it, and this is especially true when it comes to the morality that is taught in the Old Testament. Because let's face it, the New Testament does not have nearly as many stories as the Old Testament. Old Testament has way more examples, way more stories, and the Bible specifically tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that those Old Testament stories were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, 1 Corinthians 10. So we need those stories, because let's face it, how many stories are there really in the New Testament about people's everyday lives? I mean, in the four gospels, we have stories about Christ's ministry. It's just Jesus doing his ministry, preaching sermons, doing miracles, training disciples. That is not everyday life. It's Christ's ministry in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Okay? Then when we get into the book of Acts, it's the Acts of the Apostles, but it's not the Acts of Joe Plummer. It's just the Acts of the Apostles. And so again, it's focused on just serious missionaries, serious preaching, but we're not getting the everyday life type stories. When we go to the Old Testament, though, we're looking at families, we're looking at stories, we're looking at people going through all kinds of situations, we're looking at leaders doing things right, doing things wrong, we're looking at God's judgment upon nations and cities and individuals. I mean, I could go on and on. I don't need to tell you the diversity of stories in the Old Testament that are instructive to us on how to live our lives and how life is going to go and everything. Let's face it, the New Testament is more church-focused. It's Jesus, it's the apostles, and then most of the epistles are written to churches, not individuals. The ones that are written to individuals are written to pastors. The pastoral epistles, Timothy, Titus, Philemon. Let's face it, my friend, the vast majority of the New Testament is very much focused on church and religion and things that are specific to the ministry, whereas the Old Testament gives us a lot of other things. Think about the Book of Proverbs, right? A lot of things in the Book of Proverbs that are just everyday stuff that you're not necessarily going to get from the New Testament, which is why we need the whole Bible. Not just the New Testament, we need the entire Bible. And so, yes, it's a statement about preservation, but it's not just preservation so it can be in a museum somewhere or that we could reference it like an encyclopedia occasionally or by a scholar. No, it's for us to have daily devotional reading in the Old Testament so that we can know how to live our lives. And let me tell you something, if you're only reading the New Testament, you have an incomplete view of who God is. Because in order to get the full picture of who God is and what he demands and what he expects and what he does and what our worldview should be, it needs to come from the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation. And if you leave out any part of that, you are deficient. And that's why the Bible says that all scriptures by inspiration of God, and it says that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Folks, how do you get furnished unto all good works? You've got to have all of the equipment. You've got to have all the gear. The whole gear is 66 books, not just the New Testament. And so, just to prove to you that that is what this verse is referencing in verse 18, look at the next verse in verse 19, whosoever therefore. Now when we have a therefore, that is a conjunction connecting what we're about to read with what we just read. So, therefore means because of this, so he's saying, look, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled. Because of this, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments. What commandments are we talking about? I mean, what's the context, friend? Verse 17, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. Until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the what? From the law. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So here's the thing, you can break commandments in the Bible and even teach people to break commandments in the Bible and still go to heaven. Because salvation is not of works. But, you're going to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So, guess what? All of us who believe in Jesus are going to heaven. Whosoever believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. He that believeth on me has everlasting life, Jesus said. And so look, all of us who believe in Jesus, we are going to heaven. But, when you get there, it's not the same reward, it's not the same level or status, okay? If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. And different people are going to be given authority and rewards and crowns based upon their behavior. Jesus said, behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. He's coming to reward us by our works. Salvation is not a reward, salvation is a free gift. You go to heaven by grace through faith, not of works. You get rewarded according to your work. So, just believing in Jesus and not doing any work, that's enough to get you to heaven. And trust me, you'd rather be literally the least in the kingdom of heaven than to be in the other place. I mean, that should be obvious. That should go without saying, right? But he says here that if you do break these least commandments and teach men so, you'll be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, obviously when Jesus is saying this, the Old Testament is in full force, all of it is in full force. Because Jesus is still living in the Old Testament when literally animal sacrifices need to be happening. And when Jesus was born, his mother and Joseph, his parents literally brought an animal sacrifice to the temple to purify Mary after the birth of Jesus following the law of God. Doing animal sacrifices. Christ himself, when he would heal a leper, what did he say? Go to the temple and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony of them. He's saying go do an animal sacrifice. Right? So Jesus is participating in the temple system. He's telling people to do an animal sacrifice. His parents did an animal sacrifice. And I call them parents. Obviously we know that Joseph is not his father, stepfather, but the Bible refers to them as parents. But then it'll say Mary, it'll say mother and Joseph. Doesn't call Joseph Jesus' father, but it calls them both parents in the sense that they raise him. And so I'm just using the biblical terminology here. And so the point is that Jesus Christ is preaching this when the Old Testament is in full swing. But when Matthew's writing it down, though, okay, the Old Testament's already been done away. We're already in the New Testament when it's being written down. Now, we don't want to make the foolish mistake that some people will make and say, oh, the Sermon on the Mount was just relevant before it was written down. Right? I mean, obviously, like what would be the, if it's not relevant anymore, why is it written in our New Testament? It's silly. It's one thing to say, well, the Old Testament's for back then and then they used it for hundreds of years and now we're in the New Testament. But, but, whoa, hold on a second. This was literally, we were in the New Testament when this book was written. This book was written decades after Christ rose from the dead. Does everybody understand? Here's the point that I'm making. The point that I'm making is that when it comes to the, the commandments of the Old Testament, some of them have been changed as a result of being in the New Testament. But again, back to what I said earlier, only the things that are specifically done away, which is called the ceremonial law, is what is no longer relevant. The moral law has not changed. And so Christ's statement that says, if you're teaching people to break Old Testament commandments, you are going to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. And again, we're not talking about things that have been changed in the New Testament. So for example, you could look at something and say, like for example, the Bible says not to print any marks on your body. And you could just say, that doesn't matter, that's a little thing, that little outward stuff, who cares, doesn't matter. If you're breaking these commandments and telling people, hey, it's fine to print marks on your body, well, Jesus says, you're going to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Because where in the New Testament does it say, well, now in the New Testament, I want you to print marks on your body. I mean, I could show you a specific verse that the Sabbath's not a thing anymore. I could show you a specific verse that the new moons and the feast days are not a thing anymore. I could show you specific verses saying that the dietary laws are not a thing anymore, and that the animal sacrifices are not a thing anymore. You know, we could read the book of Hebrews, we could read the book of Galatians, we could read the book of Acts, and we could prove all those things. But please show me one verse in the Bible that says, well, you know, it's okay for men to put on women's clothing now. Or it's okay for women to put on men's clothing. Yet, in today's Christianity, they will teach, if you pull out Deuteronomy 22 5, the woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so or an abomination of the Lord thy God does it. Well, that's the Old Testament. So Jesus died on the cross to allow cross-dressing. So, you know, I've jokingly said that, you know, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was rent in twain. But apparently that was the veil between the men's department and the women's department that was in these people's bizarre view of Scripture. You see, there's nothing in the Bible that changes the fact that men should look like men and women should look like women, that you should not cross-dress, that you should not print marks upon your body, right? And if we go through the Old Testament, anything that the Old Testament teaches about marriage, child-rearing, business, ethics, of doing business with people, right and wrong, lying, telling the truth, stealing, purity, adultery, all of those things are still valid. That's not the ceremonial law, that is the moral law, okay? And so it's important to understand that just because some things have changed in the New Testament, such as the priesthood or the dietary stuff, we don't want to just throw out the Old Testament. And that's exactly what Jesus is trying to prevent here by saying, don't think that I've come to destroy the law of the prophets. But you know, if you're going to sit there and say, well, all these commandments in the Old Testament don't matter, oh, don't print any marks on you, that doesn't matter, then what is Jesus saying here? What is he even talking about? And look, you say, well, yeah, y'all major on the minors. Well, here's the thing about that, if I'm majoring on the minors, doesn't Jesus literally say that if you break these least commandments and teach men so, you're going to be called the least in the kingdom of heaven? It sounds like Jesus is saying that if God commanded it, do it. Well, it's minor. Okay, do the minor. Do the big commandment and do the little commandment. And you know what's so funny about this is that doing the little commandments is easier. The big commandments are harder. So why not just do the, like, how hard is it to just not get a tattoo? Like, oh, yeah, the Christian life, I'm really struggling. Jesus, stop giving me your toughest battles. You know, you put a tattoo parlor right across the street from my house, you know, because every single time I pull out of my neighborhood, I'm confronted with a tattoo parlor. I literally, like, I get off on my street and I'm just facing a tattoo parlor. And I'm just like, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. No, I'm not, because it's like the easiest thing in the world. You know, there's also like a smoke shop right next to it. And I'm just like, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. No, I'm just like, that's kind of easy, man. There are some things in the Christian life that are hard. There are some things that are a struggle every day that are challenging, that are difficult. Taking up the cross and following Jesus every day is difficult. But you know what, some of these least things like just, get a haircut. Like, it's not that hard. But you know what, you see people just really dig in on these things. I want to dress like the other gender. I want to have my hair like the other gender. I just want to get that tattoo. I had somebody recently tell me, every man wants to get a tattoo. But what's funny is, I was hanging out with an unsaved guy in Armenia and he's just like, man, I hate tattoos. He's like, do you hate tattoos? And it wasn't a religious thing for him. He's just like, man, I just hate tattoos. I said, yeah. I said, why would I put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari? You know what I mean? It was just a joke. But at the same time, you know what, and I'm not saying that I have some Ferrari body or something. Obviously, I just have a normal I'm just saying I have a normal white dude body. But the point is, though, that if you're going to sit there and believe that God sees your body as something valuable, because let's face it, in God's economy, all of our bodies are more expensive than a Ferrari. It's not like saying, oh, I'm a Ferrari or whatever. I think everybody's a Ferrari. That's why I don't think that the bumper stickers should go on anybody. Because I'm not saying, well, you ugly, so get a tattoo. That's not what I said. Your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost. And look, I'm not mad at you if you have a tattoo, because literally, probably more than 50% of our church has tattoos. So if you have a tattoo right now, you're not alone. But you know what, it's just, the point is, these are the things that in our day, people argue with. They argue when you try to show them Old Testament verses about drinking alcohol, they reject it. You show them verses that have to do with gambling, you show them verses that have to do with, you know, whatever, the way that you dress, and they just want to throw it all out. And they're wrong. And the preachers who are teaching this stuff are going to be at the bottom shelf in the kingdom of heaven. Okay, that's what Jesus said. I didn't write the Bible. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. But on this earth, you're going to be called a legalist. Oh, you're so legalistic, you know, teaching all these do's. Man, it's not about the do's and don'ts, it's about a relationship, man. But yet Jesus says, do these commandments. And Christ also said, if you love me, keep my suggestions. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And the Bible says that even in the New Testament, even though we're not following necessarily the ceremonial stuff from the Mosaic law, we're supposed to walk according to the law of liberty, the perfect law of liberty, the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. I thought the Great Commission was going to teach all nations, baptize them, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Well, let's just teach the big ones. The big teachings. You know, just the big ones. No, no, he said, whatsoever I've commanded you, whatsoever I've suggested, no. Whatsoever I recommended, no. Whatsoever I've commanded you, teach it to the whole world. And it is my job as a preacher, yes, to preach the gospel, yes, to preach baptism, but also to get up and preach that you should observe to do all things whatsoever Jesus Christ commanded you. And not only that, to tell you to search the Old Testament scriptures to figure out the morality of the God who created the universe. He decides what's right. He decides what's wrong. He decides what's good. He decides what evil. But again, we have the church of, well, come on. Everybody knows Baptist Church. I mean, we all can agree, right? Baptist Church. No, I'm part of, what does the Bible say Baptist Church? I'm part of chapter and verse Baptist, not just, well, come on, can you believe it? Folks, you've got to saturate your mind in the word of God in order to get a biblical worldview. And to the degree that you do that, you will have a biblical worldview. If you're saved and reading the Bible, you will have a biblical worldview. If you're saved and don't read the Bible, you're not going to have a biblical worldview. You're going to have a world worldview. You're going to have an America worldview. You're going to have a 2024 worldview. I have a biblical worldview. He says, Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men, so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven, right? We want to respect God's word, God's laws, God's commandments. Then he says this in verse 20, he says, For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God. Again, we have here a double meaning. Almost everything in the Bible has a double meaning. The Bible is very deep and God is saying multiple things on multiple levels when we read his word. That's why you can read the Bible over and over again and keep getting more and more out of it. But again, we have a double meaning here. OK, one meaning here is that the scribes and the Pharisees are literally breaking God's commandments and teaching people to break God's commandments. They have made the word of God of none effect by their tradition. That's what Jesus says. He said, Look, you are straining in a net and swallowing a camel, right? You are teaching people false doctrine. And so in the one sense he's saying the scribes and the Pharisees are seen by society as being the most righteous people and yet their righteousness is lacking because they are teaching people to disobey the truth of what God's word actually says. Now who are the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, first of all, the scribes are people who just copy the Bible all day, right? Because I mean you don't have a printing press, you don't have a computer, you don't have printers, you don't have a machine. Human beings had to copy the Bible. If anybody's ever tried copying the Bible it's a hard job. Just try copying a few chapters in English and you're going to be like, Oh, my hand, man, this is, this is hard. Like it's rough. So these are some serious people and these people are definitely deep in the word of God. But here's the thing. Again, in order to really get the truth from the word of God, you got to A, be saved. You got to B, want to know the truth and C, you have to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. So the scribes unfortunately were full of themselves, sometimes arrogant, puffed up, prideful, infected by false doctrine, sometimes not even saved and so therefore copying the word of God, the natural man, receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. If you're not saved, you could go to prison and, Oh, I was in prison, I read the Bible ten times in prison. If you weren't saved, it's not going to, if you're saved, that's great. And if you actually also are open to what the spirit is saying. And then you got to be a doer of the word or you're going to forget what you read the Bible says. James chapter 1. And so the idea here with the scribes is that these people have dedicated their lives to copying the Bible. So on an intellectual level, they know what it says because they're just writing it, writing it, writing it, writing it, the scribes. Everybody understand the scribes? Okay. Now let's talk about the Pharisees. Okay. Who are the Pharisees? Well, their name literally means the separated ones. Okay. And if you think about, you can kind of even get hints of this, even if you don't speak any language other than English because when you're just reading the Old Testament, you'll notice that like there's a guy named, uh, Perez. Right. Perez. Remember, Perez and Tamar, you know, Judah at Pharaoh's and Zara of Tamar, right? The guys named Perez has to do with the fact that he broke forth right? And then if you remember, uh, Perez Uzzah was what David called the name of the place where God made a breach upon Uzzah right? So this word Perez also, remember the writing on the wall in Daniel chapter 5, right? Mini, mini, tiko, you farsen? And then when Daniel interprets it, he says Mini, tiko, but instead of Ufarsen, he says Perez instead of Ufarsen. Anybody ever notice that before? Okay. In Daniel chapter 5, you can look it up later, you'll see that Ufarsen becomes Perez because all it is, is it's just, it's just like a different grammatical form coming from that root. The root is Perez, which again, and what does it mean in that? You know, it's divided, right? Mini, mini, tiko, Ufarsen has to do with the fact that he's numbered Mini, tiko, wade, and Ufarsen divided. Those are the three words. And then he explains it to him, he says, you know, you've been numbered, you've been found wanting, you've been weighed in the balances, you're found wanting, and your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Okay. And I'm not trying to, sorry to go a little, I'm kind of a geek when it comes to languages, but the point is, though, that this Perez si, Pharisee, is those who are separated. Okay. And it's, it's from that same linguistic root, a breach, a break, a separation, separated, divided. And the idea here is that these are people who have declared themselves to be holy people. Okay. Now, according to the Old Testament law, and I don't want to spend too much time on this, but according to the Old Testament law, the tabernacle is a place that is holy. The vessels in the tabernacle are holy vessels. And so there's a separation between that which is holy and that which is just everyday, normal, profane stuff, right? Well, what the Pharisees have done is they've taken some of the holiness standards or cleanliness or strictness of the tabernacle and later the temple, and they're basically extending that into their personal lives to live lives of extreme separation, cleanliness, and holiness. Okay. And so the idea here is, though, that they're going beyond what God has prescribed, number one. So God has prescribed a certain level of righteousness, holiness, morality. They're taking God's commands, taking them further, stuff that is for the temple. They're taking it outside the temple and just, they have to have all this washing of cups, washing of plates, washing of couches, and all these things that God didn't prescribe, washing their hands before they eat. They have all these cleanliness rules where they're extrapolating from what God actually taught. But they're adding to the commandments so they can be super holy, super separated, super different, and of course, what kind of person does this teaching appeal to? A prideful person. Right? Who wants to be like uber holy, super separated, a prideful person. And so therefore, I'm not saying that all of the Pharisees necessarily had this attitude, but you can see how the sect of the Pharisees could attract that type of person. And so you've got a lot of just arrogant, prideful, bad people that are Pharisees. They're not saved. Okay. They're not trusting in the Lord for their salvation. They're trusting in their own righteousness. Okay. And so the Pharisees also, not only have they added to God's law, but they've also subtracted. So stuff that they want to do is okay. They make exceptions for themselves. And so they actually end up, although looking at them from the outside, you can say like, oh man, the scribes and the Pharisees are super righteous and super holy. Jesus is calling them out for having a low level of righteousness, number one. And he's going to do that throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He's going to point out their hypocrisy. He's going to call them whited sepulchers that appear beautiful on the outside, but then they're full of hypocrisy and dead men's bones and they devour widows' houses and for pretense make long prayer and therefore they shall receive the greater damnation. And of course, Matthew 23 is a big one, right? Just rebuking the Pharisees all throughout the Bible. We're going to see that. But that's not all that's going on in this verse. That's one of the things that's going on in this verse is he's saying, hey, the Pharisees and the scribes' righteousness is lacking, number one. It's only outward. It's only on the outside. And people today, they might look at like a Catholic priest and just, oh, he's so holy. Mother Teresa, oh, he's so holy. The pope, oh. Right? Or some monk at Mount Athos or something, oh, he's so godly, so separated or whatever. But we know that these people are rotten and they're not even saved. Same type of thing going on here, okay, in the Bible. And so the more important meaning for us, though, okay, in 2024, when we read this passage that says, for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. The more important thing that is being taught here, the most important thing here is that you cannot go to heaven without being totally perfectly righteous. Does everybody understand that? And that's why if we go to the very end of the chapter, what does it say in verse 48? Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Okay, so the idea here is that you're not going to go to heaven without a very high level of righteousness that exceeds the people that you think are good enough. You might think the scribes are good enough. You might think the Pharisees are good enough. But guess what? Your righteousness is going to have to exceed that in order for you to go to heaven. Then the whole rest of the chapter is going to go on to prove that point because notice that's verse number 20 and then verse 21 is where we get into the meat of the chapter. The entire rest of the chapter is proving that point that's made in verse 20. Because he's going to bring up six different things where people think they're good enough and then he's going to raise the standard even higher, raise the bar even higher to the point where everyone is guilty. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Because the point of Matthew chapter 5 here is to show us that we're all sinners. Obviously God knows that it is impossible for us to be perfect in the sense of being sinless. We will never be sinless. God already knows that we are clay and flesh and that we cannot be sinless. But he's saying in order to go to heaven, here's the righteousness you have to have. It's not enough. And let's just quickly go through the examples this morning. He says it's not just enough not to kill people. And look, when we go out and knock doors, soul winning, isn't this what people say? Well I've never killed anybody. I mean I haven't done anything that bad. I've never killed anyone. But here's what Christ is saying. It's not enough to just not kill someone. He says in verse 21, you've heard that it was said by them of all time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. Watch this. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Look, everybody at some point is going to get angry at their brother without a cause. And again brother here isn't just a physical brother. This could also be ethnic brother. This could also be religious brother. Your brother in Christ. Right? Your extended relative or your literal brother. Now look, the modern versions of course corrupt this verse and it just says well if you're angry. The King James says angry without a cause. And by the way, old Bible versions in all of the languages are going to say without a cause or something like that. I think I remember when I was a teenager buying the 1602 Reina Valera Spanish Bible and I'm pretty sure for without a cause it said locamente. Like you just kind of crazily get mad. I'm not a Spanish expert but you know I know what loco means. And it said hey you know locamente, getting mad at your brother. That's different than just getting mad. You're getting mad without a cause, without a reason because guess what? There are reasons to get mad. There are times when anger is appropriate. The Bible says be angry and sin not. So apparently you can be angry without sinning. Jesus gets angry. In Mark chapter 3 he looked on them with anger. God's angry with the wicked every day. And so the you think Jesus was angry when he made a whip of cords? Oh sorry don't say cord. He made a when he made a scourge of cords and drove them out of the temple and flipped over the tables. You think he was mad? I think he was. But he had a righteous indignation because they had made God's house into a house of merchandise and the disciples when they saw Jesus go in there with that whip of cords you know what they said? The zeal of God's house has eaten him up. That sounds like he's mad if they're saying man this really ate him up. Zeal for God's house really ate him up. And so the point is that the Bible is teaching here that anger without a cause is sinful. It's not just murder. Now look getting angry without a cause is way more minor than murder. But it's still a sin. And what's he saying? You think you're righteous but there's none there's none righteous no not one. You think you're without sin? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so it's like well I didn't kill anybody okay did you get angry at your brother without a cause? Right? Everybody's just been driving down the road somebody does something stupid in traffic maybe it's even an accident and they blow up. Or they get mad about this get mad about that lose their temper over stupid dumb things. Hey that is a sin. To get angry for no reason or to get angry over something stupid is a sin. Also he talks about provoking other people to anger. Saying unto them reika or saying unto them thou fool. Again we could go to other portions of scripture where Jesus is calling people thou fool and where the Apostle Paul is calling people thou fool. But the idea here is without a cause getting angry and saying provocative things is sinful. You don't have to murder someone to be a bad person right? Any sin disqualifies you from going into heaven on your own righteousness. That's the point. So in order to understand the rest of the chapter verse 20 is the set up for verses 21 through 48. Okay your righteousness has to exceed. They say don't kill obviously but again people will misread this and try to negate the Old Testament does anybody going to make the argument that thou shall not kill no longer applies? Who here thinks that killing was bad in the Old Testament but now it's okay in the New Testament to murder? No one. But then it's funny because later in the chapter that's the exact argument they'll make about some of the statements that are made. Okay which is absurd isn't it? There's six examples they're all parallel. Okay and you can even you can even say that you know the number six is significant as a number of kind of coming short or being human or something right as far as the symbolism there. So the first example is thou shall not kill. The next example is verse 27 you've heard that it was said by them of old time thou shall not commit adultery but I stand to you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And so here's the thing just because you've never committed adultery doesn't mean that you're not a sinner or that you're not that you're somehow righteous enough to get to heaven because every single man has looked on a woman to lust after her in their life. Pastor Anderson you and Jimmy Carter both admit that? Well yeah because anybody who's actually honest would admit that. You know I mean unless you have like a biological thing or something where you have no desire in that area I'm pretty sure that in your whole life on this planet at some point you're going to do that sin. Okay. Everybody's like no it's just you Pastor Anderson. The point is look look you could be totally pure you can be a virgin on your wedding day. I was. You could get married. You can stay faithful to your wife the entire time but at the end of the day though you are not sinless and you're not going to heaven because of your righteousness because looking on a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her in your heart. And not only that he goes on and says well you know you've heard it has been said whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but then he says but here's the thing you know if you divorce your wife saving for the cause of fornication he says you are causing her to commit adultery and if you marry her that is divorced you're committing adultery. So again just because you didn't commit actual adultery you've either maybe lusted in your heart and maybe is kind of a joke there and then the other part is hey you if you married a divorced woman or divorced your spouse you're guilty also. So look you're not sinless because God's going to get you on one of these if he didn't get you on the anger if he didn't get you on provoking people for no reason if he didn't get you on the lust if he didn't get you on divorce you know eventually he's going to get you. You know again verse 33 you've heard that it's been said of them of old time thou shall not forswear thyself but shall perform to the Lord thy notes but I say unto you swear not at all. He's saying look you shouldn't even be swearing oaths at all why don't you just let your yay be yay and let your nay be nay. You shouldn't have excuse me you shouldn't have to say you know may God strike me dead you know this and that. You shouldn't have to do that because it should just be that yes is yes and no is no. And again this is something that people have done right this is something that probably everyone has done at some point in their life. Okay as we go on it says in verse 38 you've heard that it's been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that you resist not evil and again people will try to say oh eye for an eye tooth for a tooth Jesus negated that. Let's go back to verse 17. Think not that I've come to destroy the law of the prophets. Jesus is not saying that eye for an eye is wrong. Sorry Martin Luther King but eye for an eye is not wrong. Hand for hand is not wrong. Foot for foot is not wrong. Burning for burning is not wrong. But what Jesus is doing is bringing a higher level of righteousness saying I say unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also. You see in order to be perfect in order to have perfect righteousness the kind that would get you into heaven you have to turn the other cheek too. It's not enough to just be a crusader for ultimate justice all the time because in order to get to heaven you would have to practice the righteousness of forgiveness. You would have to practice the righteousness of turning the other cheek letting things go and not avenging every wrong because vengeance belongs unto the Lord. Right we don't have to avenge every wrong. And by the way calling people out for their wickedness is not taking vengeance. Let me just stop and give a little commercial break here real quick. You know I've been accused of avenging myself and taking vengeance. Listen to me. You know what taking vengeance would look like if I went and beat the crap out of somebody or killed somebody for doing me evil and stealing my child. That's what revenge would look like. Right? Beating the hell out of somebody or killing them. And I would never do that because vengeance belongs to the Lord. But getting up and saying Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. That's not taking vengeance. Going and kicking Alexander the coppersmith's butt. That would be vengeance. Killing Alexander the coppersmith. Burning Alexander's house to the ground. That would be wicked. That would be vengeance. That would be avenging yourself. Getting up and saying God rebuke you. You've done wickedly. That's not taking vengeance. Alright back to our regular scheduled broadcast. He says in verse 43 I'm just going through these quickly. I've already preached through these in great detail many different times. And so I'm rather trying to give you more of a big picture of the whole section here in this particular series here. But he says in verse number 43 you've heard that it's been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now this particular statement is not found in the word of God. Now is eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth found in the perfect word of God? Yes it is. Jesus is not negating anything that the Bible actually says. This particular statement love your enemy, love your friend hate your enemy is not biblical. You will not find this teaching in the Old Testament. You will find the opposite in the Old Testament. The Old Testament already tells you that if your enemy's ass or ox falls in the ditch you help him out. If you see his ox or his ass going astray you bring it back to him. You love your neighbor as yourself and also even when your enemy falls don't rejoice. When your enemy's stuff is lost bring it back to him. Folks this is not Jesus pitting Old Testament against New Testament. What is Jesus doing? Jesus is saying that the people who are claiming to be righteous based on their own merits because they're so separated or because they read the Bible all day that that is somehow good enough to get them into heaven These people are not good enough and neither are you because every single one of us is guilty of one of these things. Jesus is not negating an Old Testament teaching about hating your enemy because the Old Testament never taught you to hate your enemy. The Old Testament teaches you to love your enemies just like the New Testament does. And he says but I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. This is another level of righteousness but it is something that God expects. God expects us to be perfectly righteous as far as the requirements for getting into heaven. He's not going to allow us to get into heaven as a sinner. And if we violate any of the things in this chapter we've sinned. Anything Matthew 5 is telling us not to do if we do it we've sinned. Right? So if we are angry with our brother without a cause, looking on a woman to lust after her, divorcing your spouse, marrying someone who's divorced, forswearing yourself or just swearing by God's throne, the earth, heaven, Jerusalem, whatever if we are avenging ourselves and taking justice into our own hands, if we are hating our enemies and people do wrong to us, we hate them. We're not talking about hating God's enemies or hating false prophets or pedophiles or something. We're talking about hating people who do you wrong instead of overcoming evil with good. You know, here's the thing. Any of these things are wrong. But at the same time, here's what we don't want to do and I'm going to close the sermon on this thought. What we don't want to do is walk away with the impression of, oh, this is my path to heaven. Live perfectly. Get rid of all inappropriate anger. Never look on a woman to lust after her. And you know, if I need to, just pluck out my eyeballs and then I won't look at a woman to lust after her anymore. That's not the takeaway here. But to the unregenerate man, that can sometimes be the takeaway. It's like, oh, well, I just have to stop doing this stuff to go to heaven. It's impossible. Because you're human. You're going to come short. The whole point here is that Christ is setting us up for the gospel to understand that because none of us are good enough, we can be saved only as a free gift of grace by believing in Jesus. Because then all the things that we did, all of the unrighteous anger or lust or vengeance or whatever, all of that stuff is forgiven and forgotten. That's what the Bible is actually teaching here. And you know, there's been bad teaching out of this passage. For example, Steve Lawson is a great example of this. You know, and he's a guy that's been in the news lately. He was a big name, huge name, Calvinist and a big time repent of your sins preacher. Big time. Like whenever you saw his stuff, he's pushing this like repent of your sins salvation. And of course, he was just busted recently for just being a serial adulterer for just years and years and years just living in adultery. You know, he's like in his 70s and he's just committing adultery with some woman in her 20s for just years and years and years. And I doubt, I really doubt somebody just starts committing adultery in their 70s. Like you're just pure your whole life and they're like, you know, I'm 6, I'm 65 now. Time to go out and commit adultery. Anybody who believes that is kind of just, has a bizarre view of reality. But here's the thing about that. There's a clip that's been going around of Steve Lawson quoting from the Sermon on the Mount saying that the Bible says that if you look on a woman to lust after you've committed adultery with her already in your heart and that if you're right eye offend you pluck it out and cast it from you, it's profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Now look, obviously we know that that sin will send you to hell because any sin will send you to hell because again, to go to heaven you'd have to be perfectly righteous. So without Jesus, any sin takes you to hell. One lie will take you to hell. Looking with lust, whatever. But he twists it to saying, well the reason it says that is he said because if you're looking on a woman to lust after her, you've just proven, and you saw this brother Matt, so you saw the exact same video we talked about this, correct me if I'm wrong, he literally said you're just proving that you haven't been saved. If you're looking at a woman to lust after, you're proving that you're unregenerated. You're proving that you're not saved and he's saying that you know, you need to repent of your sins to be saved. Meanwhile, bro is literally committing full blown physical adultery. He's not just looking at a woman to lust after, I mean he's just going all the way. Every day, month, week, year, whatever, for years, however long it went on. Imagine the irony of getting up and declaring people unsaved because they think a bad thought or look at something and then meanwhile, you're committing something that the Bible says is worthy of death. Does everybody see that? And so the point here is not, you know, if you get all the sin out of your life, you'll somehow go to heaven. That's ridiculous. The point here is, number one, God expects a high level of righteousness. And so I'm not saying, oh, don't worry about these, don't worry about these rules in Matthew 5. No, we should strive to follow all these rules in Matthew 5. And again, okay, do we need to back up and look at verse number 19? Right? So it's like, if at any point you get off into something stupid in Matthew 5, it's like, we could make a little flow chart. Like, hey, do you think that this is negating something in the Old Testament? Go back and read verse 17 ten times. And then if at any point you're like, oh, I don't really have to follow this commandment. God's just showing us that we're all sinners, so I don't need to worry about actually following it. Okay, see verse 19. Does everybody see what I'm saying? Verses 17 and 19 and verse 20, they're all setting this up. So he's not saying it's okay not to do that. Do what the Bible says. But not to earn your way into heaven. Because that's a fool's errand, my friend. Okay? And we need to try to live as good of a life as we can, as godly of a life as we can. But at the end of the day, that has nothing to do with going to heaven. Because our righteousness would have to exceed the most righteous so-called people in this world. And guess how we get that righteousness that exceeds all that? Is just Jesus righteous. Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Jesus Christ's righteousness is imputed unto us when we believe in Jesus. And that's what gives us the righteousness to skate on into heaven, not on our own merits, but on the merits of Jesus. And that's why the publicans and the harlots will enter the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees, according to the Bible. Because they are just humble enough to realize, yeah, I suck. I need Jesus. Whereas the Pharisees are like, oh, well, you know, oh, sure, thanks for giving me a checklist. Now I can just do all this perfectly and go to heaven. Good luck with that, buddy. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much for this great sermon, Lord, from, uh, Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount. And Lord God, help us to just, uh, understand that we should never get prideful about our own righteousness because we're always gonna come short. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And Lord God, help us also to preach the message of salvation by faith to a lost and dying world that thinks that they can somehow earn their way into heaven by being good. Lord, help us to realize the bar is far too high and that it's only available by grace. And Lord, help us also to raise the bar in our own lives just as Christians to just live better lives because if we love you, we should keep your commandments and not teach people that your commandments don't matter. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Men, take your hymnals together. Go to hymn 261. Hymn 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Hymn number 261. We'll sing it out together on that first verse. Oh soul are you weary and troubled. Hymn number 261. Sing it out now. Oh soul are you weary and troubled. No light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior. And light for abundance and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting He pass and we follow Him there. For us and no more have dominion. For more than congress we are born. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is not He. His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Amen. Good singing this morning. We are dismissed. Amen. Amen.