Can You Keep God's Law?

1. 0:00 Good morning, everybody. Before I begin, I'm going to read today's scripture. It's going to be from Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 to 20. I'm pretty sure it's going to come up on the screen. There's a pew Bible in front of you. If you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word. These are the words of the Lord.
2. 0:24 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
3. 0:45 Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. 1:08 And once again, as Isaiah advises us, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God shall last forever. Please be seated. Heavenly Father, we gather this morning at Christ Church Miami as your redeemed people, humbled by the truth that your Son has come not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them in his perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice.
5. 1:43 We confess that every smallest detail of your holy standard exposes our inability to achieve righteousness. Yet, in Christ's active keeping of the law and his passive endurance of its curse, you have satisfied divine justice and secured eternal redemption for us.
6. 1:59 We praise you that the righteousness that we need is not earned by our striving, but received through faith in the one whose life and death reconcile us to you. As we enter this first week of the Advent season, stir our hearts with hope in the promise-keeping God who completes every word he has spoken.
7. 2:18 Let your living and active word, which pierces, divides soul and spirit, which discerns the thoughts and the intentions of the heart, let it now teach us, let it correct us, let it reprove us, and let it train us in all righteousness.
8. 2:36 Illuminate these scriptures by the Holy Spirit, that we might see Jesus as the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. And guard us from self-righteousness and from any careless disregard of your commands. And grant us grace to rest in Christ's finished work while walking in the good works that you have prepared in eternity past.
9. 2:56 Right now, Heavenly Father, I confess my own sins and failure before you, and I exhort every soul here to join me in honest confession, casting yourselves upon your boundless forgiveness in Christ. And to any here who have not yet trusted Christ, let this same word awaken repentance and draw them by your sovereign grace to the Savior and grant them the gift of eternal salvation.
10. 3:22 I would ask that you use this exposition to conform us more to the image of your Son for the glory of your name and the advance of your kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our righteousness, we pray. Amen. Good morning once again, everybody.
11. 3:38 Good morning to anybody who's online. Welcome. For those of you that don't know me yet, there's a few in this crowd. My name is Rick. I'm a ruling elder in this denomination. I'm also under care here, serving with Pastor Kent for ministry credentialing.
12. 3:53 And by way of aside, I've also been a deputy sheriff for the last 30 years. I only mention that last part as an aside because it amuses me that Pastor James and Pastor Kent gave the law portion of the Sermon on the Mount to me, someone who's basically been enforcing the law for his entire career.
13. 4:11 Those of you that are new to the Reformed tradition might think that that's a coincidence. Those of you who've been informed by the Westminster Confession know that God's eternal decree leaves nothing to chance. Either way, I count it as a high privilege to open his word. And I deeply am grateful for this opportunity these men have given me.
14. 4:27 We've again heard from Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 to 20. Last Lord's Day, while preaching on the glorious call for believers to be salt and light from the immediate preceding verses, Pastor Kent carried us into these verses. But since our Lord solemnly declares that not one jot or tittle of the law will pass away until heaven comes, these verses clearly deserve a closer, more lingering look.
15. 4:53 So what I'm going to do this morning is return to expand and expound upon what was graciously previewed last week. This passage crowns scripture with four things. It crowns it with preeminence, with permanence, with pertinence, and with purpose.
16. 5:10 It's preeminent. God's law is the highest source of truth. It's permanent. God's law is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is pertinent. It's the only relevant source for us to turn to, and it's purposeful in that God's law is designed to lead sinners to Christ.
17. 5:30 It's no wonder that Jesus Christ himself declared, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. So why do we need divine law? I hate to break it to you all because we're sinners. We're hardwired for folly, even the best of us.
18. 5:48 We all just celebrated Thanksgiving, and I hope you all enjoyed that time with your family. But this holiday reminds me of a book that I read a few years ago called They Knew That They Were Pilgrims. It was a candid chronicle of the Purin settlements in Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth in the 17th century.
19. 6:05 You see, the godly Calvinists that peopled those places, they left all they knew. They crossed a cruel ocean. They endured starvation, frostbite, sickness, and death after death after death, all so that they could worship God freely as their consciences dictated, much the same way that we're doing this morning.
20. 6:24 Sounds good so far, right? Yet within months, they were appointing judges, building holding cells, and hiring sheriffs. Why do you think that was? Disorderly drunkenness, theft, adultery, even murder.
21. 6:40 Ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing new under the sun to which I will say the best of men are men at best. They were sinners, and so are we. Everybody falls short of the glory of God. So what's the remedy? Two weeks ago when James started this series on the Beatitudes, we learned that Jesus exposes our spiritual bankruptcy and announces divine rescue.
22. 7:04 Blessing poured out not from earthly ease or circumstance, but from unmerited grace. Last Sunday, we saw that ordinary believers, people like me and people like you, indwelt by Christ, become salt and light, radiating gratitude and witness as praise overflows.
23. 7:23 And now on the threshold of the Advent season, I returned to what Pastor Kent called last week as Jesus's manifesto in these verses 17 to 20. And what is that? Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Here is Advent's anchor.
24. 7:39 Christ completes God's story, and he's coming again. He keeps every promise. That is our hope. This morning, however, we're going to see that the law's demands tower beyond human reach. But praise God, that's going to drive us to receive righteousness as a sheer gift.
25. 7:59 We'll see that the law is no ladder to climb, no T's to cross, no I's to dot. What it is, is it's a mirror that reveals the dirt on your face. But praise God, Jesus alone is the one that washes that dirt away.
26. 8:15 So what's the big idea? I've heard James say it a few times. The big idea is this, is that our righteousness is received in Christ. It's not achieved by us. You see, the covenant of works rooted in the requirement that we keep the law only leads to death.
27. 8:30 But the covenant of grace is rooted in Christ's flawless obedience and his atoning sacrifice, which will fully satisfy God's justice, and it guarantees our assurance. To expound this text this morning, I have three divisions.
28. 8:45 The first is what Jesus does. In Christ, the law is fulfilled completely. And then by us, the law must be honored faithfully, and it must be received sovereignly. The first section shows what Jesus has done.
29. 9:01 The second two sections are going to describe our response. So let us now behold how the law is fulfilled completely in Jesus. This first division, once again, we turn our attention to our text. The first two verses, 17 and 18, once again say this. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
30. 9:19 I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away until the law is accomplished. Here, our Lord addresses himself as the divine accomplisher of God's eternal word, embodying its perfect fulfillment in every detail.
31. 9:41 This declaration is a profound affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of God's law. What is a sovereign? It's a king. Who was our king? Jesus. It shows his unbreakable continuity in his redemptive work. Now, as we grasp the weight of Jesus' words this morning.
32. 9:59 I'm going to ask you to consider the crisis of authority that we're suffering in modern society. Western culture and American culture, there's a profound loss of confidence in law and morality. And as it does so, we see the inevitable result of severing these from their divine foundations.
33. 10:17 Without an absolute basis rooted in the eternally sovereign God, human systems devolve into relativism. That's where we get my truth and your truth, and they can be mutually incompatible and somehow true at the same time.
34. 10:32 What we have is a shifting sand where right and wrong fluctuate with societal whims or personal feelings. Such foundationless existence leads to chaos where order rests solely on coercion or power or a majority consensus.
35. 10:48 Sometimes we think with numbers, there's safety. Let me tell you one place where there's no safety. Genesis 6-5, there was a majority, and the majority did what was evil all the time, continuously. You don't want to be part of that group, friends. Have you ever noticed that when the other political party wins, and by that I mean the one that you didn't vote for, takes the White House every four, eight, or however many years that is, the incoming president is taken to coming in and issuing a slew of executive orders that essentially tries to erase the previous administration's edicts.
36. 11:19 This is often done to the applause of some and the consternation of others, and most of the time I just get whiplash watching it happen. But in our democracy, this vulnerability is acute, as the people's will, increasingly untethered from God's truth, at times spirals into anarchy.
37. 11:37 There was an indictment spoken twice in the book of Judges that applies rejection of authority and inevitably leads to each person to each person doing what is right in their own eyes. And with that, chaos often is the result. Homes fracture, schools falter, churches compromise, and our government stumbles.
38. 11:58 And yet Jesus confronts this very peril by asserting that the absolute basis for truth, law, and morals is none other than the law of God itself. And I'm here to tell you this morning that we ignore it or disregard it at our own peril.
39. 12:14 God has sovereignly laid down his absolute, eternal, and abiding law, revealing it to humanity through Moses and the prophets. As God's own son, Jesus unequivocally declares that he has not come to contradict or nullify even the slightest aspect of the law.
40. 12:32 He's instead come to uphold it and to fulfill it entirely. The word abolish in verse 17 evokes this idea of destroying, tearing down, or ripping destruction to oblivion. Kind of the way in our modern times we see everything in our past being challenged and trying to be destroyed.
41. 12:51 Listen, we weren't perfect, but nobody ever, ever has been perfect. Only Jesus is perfect. They're trying to get us to forget our past. But regarding the law and changing it, Jesus rejects the notion outright. Instead, he came to fulfill, to complete, and to fill up what was already divinely ordained.
42. 13:10 I have a little bit of a spoiler alert here, but in the weeks to come, we're going to see that this is how murder is also expanded to include sinful anger. And I'm sorry to say, guys, how adultery also means lust. Stay tuned.
43. 13:26 The fulfillment of this is not an addition or an alteration, but the perfect realization of God's unchanging word. Now, I know you've heard this, the claim that the Bible being ancient no longer fits our modern world because, let's face it, we move forward and times have changed.
44. 13:42 You've ever heard an atheist deride the Bible as a bronze age book? Okay, back when people had spears, you know, and there was no internet. But the truth is really the reverse. The Bible eternally fits every age because it is God's perfect, infallible, inerrant word.
45. 14:00 It stands as the unchanging standard by which all else is measured. The world in its fallen nature has always resisted conformity to Scripture, not because the world evolves beyond it, but because Scripture remains immutally opposed to the world's rebellion against God.
46. 14:18 Yes, outwardly, society's advance in technology and customs. I checked this morning. It's no longer cool to say you're a member of the KKK. That's progress. However, humanity's orientation towards sin still and always will persist, ever at enmity against the divine will.
47. 14:37 The world is never aligned with Scripture. Rather, Scripture exposes and judges the world in every age. Now, the law in question that we're talking about here, it's in the Old Testament. We see it first in the book of Exodus, starting in chapter 20, where Moses goes up the mountain at Mount Sinai, 11 chapters there.
48. 14:57 It also includes the book of Leviticus and is largely restated and expanded upon in the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus Christ fulfills every portion of the law that is described in those books. He obeys what is called the moral law perfectly. That's the Ten Commandments.
49. 15:12 He's the only person that obeys them perfectly in word, deed, and thought, where all others fail. He satisfies the ceremonial lamb as the true Passover lamb and the final day of atonement sacrifice, the very tabernacle in whom God dwells with men.
50. 15:29 He also opposes the judicial law by rendering to God the perfect righteousness that Israel's theocracy never could produce. But most importantly, he embodies the heart of the law. James preached on this about two months ago about the two great commandments, love God and love people.
51. 15:47 Jesus shows that perfect love for God and neighbor without the slightest deviation. In short, Jesus is the living goal and the perfect embodiment of the entire Mosaic revelation. This divine revelation, this legislation reveals God's holy character.
52. 16:08 What it does is it exposes universal human sinfulness and serves as a guardian that leads sinners to Christ. Once again, this law was never intended as a ladder for self-salvation. All you'll ever do is work, work, work, work, and you'll never achieve it.
53. 16:26 It is a mirror that shows you where the dirt is. Last time I checked, the mirror doesn't wash your face. Reflects our inner inability to meet God's standards. Therefore, once again, it highlights our need for grace. It declares our guilt, but it magnifies the glory of the gospel where Christ alone provides the righteousness that we lack.
54. 16:47 Now, unfortunately, the scribes and the Pharisees, religious leaders who should have known better, diluted God's law by overlaying it with human traditions. Elaborate rules that appeared stringent but were achievable only through external effort alone.
55. 17:02 Check your boxes off, read your Bible, go to church, pay your tithe, say nice things. But they lowered the divine standard to mere human capacity. Many burdened by the Pharisees' hypocritical legalism hope for a liberation from ritualistic bondage.
56. 17:18 Man-made traditions invalidated God's word. They fostered self-righteousness while ignoring the heart's obedience. In contrast, Jesus upholds the law's preeminence for three profound reasons. One, it's authored by God. Two, it's affirmed by the prophets.
57. 17:36 And three, it's accomplished by Jesus himself. First, we see this again. The law is authored by God. It's given at Mount Sinai, starting in Exodus 20, verse 1, we hear this preface. And God spoke all these words saying. Saying what?
58. 17:51 I'm God. Have no other gods before me. Don't worship me with images. Don't take my name in vain. This day, the Sabbath, keep it holy. Honor your mother and your father. Do not commit murder. Do not commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't lie.
59. 18:06 Don't covet. Ten commandments, not ten suggestions. Or worse, ten tips for a more fulfilled life. Second, the laws affirmed by the prophets were expounded, reinforced, and they applied it. Their messages were a mixture of warnings, admonitions, predictions, and promises, all rooted in these mosaic truths.
60. 18:28 They preached against idolatry, adultery, and every violation of the commandments, to kings and commoners alike calling all to covenant fidelity. I'm here to tell you that it did not go well for some of them. Telling people the truth about things they don't want to hear makes people mad sometimes.
61. 18:44 But as God's mouthpieces, the prophets extended his law, ensuring its continuity and its relevance. Those are the first two. The most important one is this. The crowning reason for the law's preeminence, it has been accomplished by Jesus.
62. 19:02 He did not merely teach or exemplify the law. He was its fulfillment. In this month, we're going to celebrate his incarnation. Every Lord's Day, we talk about his life, his death, his resurrection, his ongoing ministry through the Spirit as we're indwelt by that Spirit.
63. 19:18 He accomplishes every facet of the law. He fulfilled the moral law through his perfect righteousness, obeying every command flawlessly. He fulfilled the judicial law by marking Israel's apostasy at the cross, interrupting God's national dealings with them while extending his kingdom to the church.
64. 19:35 All people, Jew and Gentile alike, elect from every nation. If you want to get into that more, there's a study on Sunday morning. We're in the middle of Romans chapters 9 through 11. The ceremonial law with its sacrifices and rituals culminated in Jesus, the perfect high priest and lamb.
65. 19:53 You know, it's no wonder that the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5-7 calls Jesus Christ our pastor. Passover, clearly linking the climactic moment of the Exodus when the Jews were miraculously delivered from God's wrath with the same deliverance we experience in Christ in the New Covenant, the same holiness that marked the Passover night, and the original one is required for the church today.
66. 20:18 Jesus' death tore the temple veil, rendering all of these offerings obsolete. The tabernacle symbols, the door, the altar, the laver, the lamps, they all point to him. Jesus said, I am the door of the sheep hold. I am the light of the world.
67. 20:35 I am the bread of life. Feasts like Passover and tabernacles foreshadow his deliverance and his eternal reunion with us. In a way, you could say all of history is his story. From Genesis to Malachi, the Old Testament is Jesus Christ.
68. 20:53 It's author, it's subject, and it's fulfillment. And while the shadows and the theocratic sanctions of the ceremonial and the judicial law merely pointed to Christ, those ended at the cross, the moral law endures more firmly now than ever, fulfilled in us through the Spirit as Christ imputes his righteousness to us.
69. 21:16 We don't obey out of fear. We obey out of gratitude. In verse 18, Jesus has a solemn truly. Yes, Kent, I think it's literally amen. But he underscores this permanence that I'm talking about. He says, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota.
70. 21:33 That's like the crossing of a T or a dot smaller than a period will pass away until everything is accomplished. This affirms Scripture's verbal inerrancy. Every part of it lasts. Every word, every tense, every form divinely inspired and authoritative.
71. 21:50 Jesus himself treated the Old Testament as such. To accept Christ is to accept Scripture's authority. The two are inseparable. If Scripture's errors, Christ errors. But that's an impossibility for the Holy Son of God.
72. 22:06 Thus, in fulfilling the law completely, Jesus anchors our hope. We receive his righteousness by faith, not by achievement. And as his kingdom citizens, we honor his word. We receive it for salvation. We treasure it as sweeter than honey.
73. 22:22 We obey it diligently. We defend its purity. And we preach its gospel. Let us then, right now, this morning, submit to this fulfilled law. Resting in Christ's sovereignty and his accomplishment. Now, having beheld his sovereign fulfillment of every divine command, we're now going to turn to my second heading, what must we do?
74. 22:42 We have to honor his commands faithfully. We see what he has done. No offense. Now we see what we do. Jesus, having accomplished the law completely, now summons us to uphold his commands without relaxation or rationalization.
75. 22:58 That's going to be the tough part, folks, as I get into this. Faithful obedience flows not from self-effort, but from grateful hearts resting in the righteousness that is already received. In the second division, we confront the solemn charge in verse 19.
76. 23:13 Once again, I read, And whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
77. 23:28 Here, Jesus is addressing us directly as his disciples, his followers. He's summoning us to neither relax nor rationalize his imperatives, but to uphold them with grateful obedience rooted in the righteousness that we received. Relaxing here implies loosening, annulling, setting aside.
78. 23:47 You ever pick and choose the verses that you like? I'm talking to you right now, okay? But according to James 2, verse 10, if you break even the least commandment, trying to pull it off yourself, you've broken all of them. That's a pretty tough standard, folks.
79. 24:03 What's worse is teaching others to follow suit compounds the offense, according to this verse. Misleading souls and diminishing one's standing in the kingdom. Pastor Kent said something last week that makes me consider a contemporary example that strikes at the heart of the Sixth Commandment.
80. 24:21 Once again, that's thou shall not kill or thou shall not commit murder. Recent Pew Research, this is a legitimate research company from the end of 2024, so fairly recently, reveals that 27% of white evangelicals, 71% of black Protestants, 64% of white non-evangelical Protestants, and 59% of Roman Catholics, get this, believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
81. 24:50 What progressives euphemize as reproductive health care is homicide according to what scripture clearly teaches?
82. 25:11 If we truly believe that life begins when God knits it together in the womb, I'm here to tell you that no cultural pressure, no personal circumstance, and certainly no political loyalty can justify the relaxing of this commandment. To this, I would remind these professing Christians who are sinfully wrong about abortion of the severe warning from Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 20.
83. 25:33 That's one of those prophets that Jesus is talking about. Isaiah said this, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil. Now having said all of that, my purpose is not to condemn any here who have committed or advocated for this sin.
84. 25:48 Every one of us stands guilty before a holy God in different ways this morning. But with scripture as a gentle and a faithful God, we were called to repentance at the cross where mercy triumphs. So this is my pastoral advice, if you're stung by what I just said. Hear this good news.
85. 26:04 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Beloved, there is full pardon, complete cleansing, and everlasting welcome at the foot of the cross for every repentant murderer, every repentant adulterer, every repentant liar, every repentant coward.
86. 26:28 That includes me, and that includes you. But make no mistake. Abortion is evil, and advocating for it is vile. I bring this up because this is no trifling matter this morning. According to this text this morning, when it gets to the whole counsel of God, selective obedience is disguised rebellion.
87. 26:49 It's a quiet erosion of divine authority. If we teach others to loosen even the least of these commandments about the sanctity of life, about the sanctity of marriage, whether by word or by silence, or worse, by imitating Satan's first lie, did God really say?
88. 27:06 If we do that, we place ourselves under Jesus' solemn warning this morning. The most we can hope for with verse 19 in view is to be called least in the kingdom. But it's worse than that. The worst you might one day hear is the terrifying rebuke from Jesus given at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7.
89. 27:24 This is directed at false professors where he tells them, depart from me, I never knew you. So what then is our freedom in Christ? Jesus answers it in verse 19. It cannot mean diminishing or disobeying God's word.
90. 27:39 And to that I'm going to add this. He said, it can also not mean that formal obedience to specified rules is all that is required. Where the hypocrite can honor God with his acts and disgrace him with his secret life. Our freedom is to do what he says and to trust him.
91. 27:56 Here I'm reminded of something else that Pastor Kent said last week. He's all full of good stuff. He said that in order to be good citizens as Christians, he had some advice for us. He told us that we should vote. He also said that we should write our elected leaders. Presumably to remind them that they are God's appointed servants.
92. 28:15 That argument's in Romans chapter 13. Never forget that God has providentially placed all of you here where we can choose and petition our leaders. Apparently in the world, that's a pretty big deal. I would like to ask Christians in China, Eritrea, and the Sudan, how they feel about our casual disregard of this privilege that we share.
93. 28:36 What a gift that we've been given. But I'm not here to talk about that right now. I want to expand on what Kent said. In addition to voting and writing, you should pray for your elected leaders. A lot.
94. 28:51 From what I can see, they need a lot of help. This is even if, no, especially if they're not the one you voted for, which probably means they're not your idea of a dream come true. Jesus said to pray for your enemies and your persecutors.
95. 29:07 We should follow his lead, right? Here's a thought. Whether there's an R in front of their name or a D, it doesn't matter. What you should earnestly pray is that they would fear the God of the Bible and do what he says. I think that that would go a long way towards solving a lot of our national problems.
96. 29:23 And for what it's worth, it's also good for those of you who are dating. If you're going to marry someone, make sure that they fear God and does what he says, man or woman, but you're not done there. If they're not a believer, you should earnestly pray for their conversion, that the Father, through the Spirit, would draw them to the Son for the salvation of their souls.
97. 29:43 Spend a lot of time doing that, but sometimes that doesn't seem to work. And it's okay. I checked in the Bible. I've read the book of Psalms. Sometimes it's okay to pray for an obstinate person to be confounded. If they're not going to get the message to be converted, pray that God would make things difficult.
98. 29:59 for them to bring them to their senses. There's relevance for this in the Bible. Remember that thing called the Exodus? There was a leader called Pharaoh. He thought he was God. We've never heard of that happening before, right? And God sent him a progressive series of impediments, what I would call attention-getters, that were called plagues, to bring him to his senses.
99. 30:20 Now, did Pharaoh come to his senses? No, he didn't. It's the last thing that you can pray for when necessary. This is the last resort. You can pray for condemnation. Oh, that's really hard to hear me say that, right? It's okay for asking God to condemn someone like Hitler, okay?
100. 30:39 Let your justice be exalted by striking a truly wicked person down. Now, when I say that, make sure it's an actual Hitler, just not somebody you disagree with, okay? So, pray for conversion, mostly. Pray for confounding, and possibly for condemnation.
101. 30:57 Just don't start with judgment. God doesn't, neither should we. And I say that because I know how I think sometimes, and if I think that way, maybe one or two of you might think that way too. Sometimes what we want to do is call far down from heaven on Jesus' perceived enemies, okay?
102. 31:12 We forget that he said, I came to seek and save that which was lost. That was his message in the Gospels. He told the disciples, no. And as far as I can tell, he hasn't returned yet. He's still saying no to that. Consider our nation, how our sins mount up to heaven.
103. 31:31 We've already talked about human trafficking. What about the violence, the hatred, the vitriol? I've already talked about the killing of the unborn. What about the way we glamorize sexual sin? You didn't know you were going to hear this this morning. I'm sorry.
104. 31:46 But we normalize it in music. We plaster it in our movies. We laugh at it in comedy, and we celebrate it in our culture. So much so that what used to scandalize us now entertains us. I see the looks on some of your faces. You're saying, wait a minute, Rick.
105. 32:01 Aren't we the Americans? We're the good guys, aren't we? We're certainly blessed, but I'm here to tell you this morning. Only God is good. And Jesus has not yet called fire down on us, so thank him. And while you're at it, be humble, because everyone here has broken his law, which gets me back to our text.
106. 32:21 Viewed in humility, that I hope I've just made us feel a little bit humble, the law points us to Jesus. Lived in the Spirit. Eventually, it's going to conform us to him. That, my friends, is the great goal of the law, to make us like Jesus.
107. 32:36 I'm sorry, I'm not done here yet. I got more about verse 19. Another warning in this that I see this morning is that even the best among us are sometimes tempted to do this. We pick and choose the verses that we like. What we do is we treat Scripture like a mere comfort dispenser, rather than submitting to its full, unyielding authority.
108. 32:56 My advice this morning is to be careful and beware of approaching the Bible like a spiritual vending machine for the soul. You know the way this is done. You insert a problem, and you extract a soothing verse. Many hearts instinctively flee to the gentle embrace of Jeremiah 29 11, where God declares, I have plans to prosper you.
109. 33:16 Did you know those plans were in the midst of a horrible judgment that was falling upon the people of Israel? What about the often misquoted Philippians 4 13 that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That doesn't mean that you're going to swim the English Channel or win the next Super Bowl.
110. 33:33 It means you're content in any circumstances because you have Christ who is all that you need. Matthew 11 28, come to me and I will give you rest. Or the beloved Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. Don't get me wrong, these are precious and true. Yet the same infallible word also thunders that your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
111. 33:58 It says that there is none righteous, no not one, and that unless you repent, you will likewise perish. How about this one for an altar call? If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.
112. 34:14 Every syllable, comfort and condemnation alike, confrontation, breathes with divine authority for all scripture is God-breathed and profitable. Scripture should indeed soothe, don't get me wrong, but as sinners ever in need of grace, remember that God's word is not a manual for a better life.
113. 34:34 It is a wrecking ball for a comfortable one. And the gospel is not a life improvement plan. It's a death certificate to self. It rebukes before it trains. It convicts before it consoles. And the parts that make you squirm are probably the parts that you need to hear the best, the most.
114. 34:50 The verses that offend my sensibilities are probably targeting my secret sins. If your Bible reading seldom convicts you, if you have never read a passage and said, Jesus said what? If you've never done that, consider the gentle possibility that you're browsing and not submitting.
115. 35:10 I say this because Jesus has harsh words for those who relax his commands. With verse 19 in mind, then let nobody relax even the least commandment or teach others to do so, lest standing in his kingdom be diminished. But praise God, it also says that those who obey and teach faithfully shall be called great.
116. 35:29 Receive Christ's perfect law keeping, rest in his righteousness and let the full counsel of scripture shape your heart every day. Perhaps you can start this week with one uncomfortable chapter, allowing it to uproot what must die so that true greatness can live.
117. 35:47 Let us follow Job who refused to curse God when the heavens fell, but instead received the whole counsel of the Almighty, the sweet promises that heal, the sharp words that cut, both necessary, both true, both given in love so that we might be complete and prepared for every good work.
118. 36:05 So thus Jesus warns against tampering with his commands, but at the same time invites us to gracious obedience, once again made possible because righteousness is received in him, not achieved by us. This brings me to my final vision this morning.
119. 36:23 In addition to honoring the law faithfully, we must receive its righteousness sovereignly. Matthew 5 20, Jesus delivers this climactic thrust. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
120. 36:42 Never? I like Kent's one-word exegesis of this verse last week. Do you remember it? Oops. Here's a devastating exposure of self-righteousness. But at the same time, it's a gracious invitation to imputed righteousness.
121. 37:00 You see, the scribes and the Pharisees embodied meticulous externalism. The word says that they tithed mint and cumin. Okay, what that means is, imagine you're at a restaurant, you're putting some condiments on your french fries. They would take a special moment to put a couple of grains of salt and pepper aside for God.
122. 37:18 I mean, that is box-checking externalism. I think it misses the point. What's necessary? A perfect alien righteousness that no human effort can produce. I pray you're getting this. I mean, I'm saying it over and over again this morning. This verse right here crushes legalism and moralism, driving sinners to despair of merit, but encouraging us to cling closely and solely to Christ's flawless obedience, which again is imputed by faith alone.
123. 37:47 It is the false teaching of salvation by self-effort that Jesus is confronting head-on. The Bible says that Abraham, the father of Jews, the Jews was justified by faith, not works. The scripture says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
124. 38:04 Scripture shuts all under sin so that the promise only may be given to those who believe. That's from the book of Galatians. Outside of actual sin itself, I think the Bible opposes nothing more vehemently than the religion of human achievement.
125. 38:20 Consider the parable told by our Lord in Luke chapter 18. He says to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And then a Pharisee prays boastfully, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Translation, that loser over there.
126. 38:36 I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get. And in case you're keeping track, God, he doesn't. Which one of us is better? Yet the tax collector, the despised trader, to get you to understand how they look to them, think of a crack-addicted prostitute, that's about how much they wanted to be near them.
127. 38:55 Stood far away, beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. In Jesus' indictment, this man, the breastbeater, went to his house justified rather than the other.
128. 39:10 If the model Pharisee falls short, who can enter? Which gets us back to the purpose of God's law. It's preeminent, it's permanent, and it's pertinent, once again, to reveal our utter helplessness, not human goodness. Those of you this morning who are in Christ, you already know this.
129. 39:29 Those of you who have yet to yield to Jesus this morning, you need this. Right now, specifically, I'm addressing those whom Pastor Drake has winsomely invited to belong before you believe. By all means, come as you are and hear this gospel proclaimed.
130. 39:47 But for the love of heaven, do not remain as you are. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Maybe right now. At the beginning of this message, I told you I'm still a cop. got about a year left. You don't need to hear my war stories about how people meet their ends in often violent ways.
131. 40:06 You can watch the news for that. But in my experience, the many deaths that I've investigated, most of the time the victims did not see it coming. They were going about their business, minding their own business, until eternity came calling.
132. 40:22 Hear me on this. At that moment, you want to be ready. At that moment, you need to be ready. So what can you do? First, you need to renounce self-righteousness.
133. 40:38 Reject every claim of merit for external rigor without inner regeneration is a pretense and a sham. Next, you need to repent of religious pride. Humble yourself as the tax collector, beating your breasts in poverty of spirit.
134. 40:55 Remember the beatitude from two weeks ago. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Once you've done that, receive Christ's righteousness. Rest in his perfect obedience, freely imputed, which is your only plea before the throne.
135. 41:10 At the day of your judgment, your only hope is for the perfect God-man to stand in your place. Knowledge of that will lead you to relish the spirit's renewal as you walk in grateful obedience and you see the law fulfilled in you as you abide in Christ.
136. 41:27 And lastly, based on Christ's finished work, rejoice in kingdom entrance. It's secured not by achievement, but by sovereign design, by faith alone, in Christ alone. Beloved, what I'm getting at here is that all too many today try every way to God but his.
137. 41:44 They try to pay any price except placing their faith in Christ's finished work. They accept any gift except free salvation. Like the Pharisees, they remain religious but unregenerate. They shall not enter the kingdom of God.
138. 41:59 Do not make their mistake. No, this day, maybe this morning, flee to Christ. Receive his righteousness sovereignly. Honor him faithfully and trust that he has fulfilled the law in your place perfectly. Do that and you will live forever in the kingdom that he has prepared for you.
139. 42:18 Heavenly Father, this morning we stand in awe of your Son, our Lord Jesus, the perfect law keeper, never faltering in obedience. He satisfied every demand on our behalf so that his righteousness might be received by faith alone.
140. 42:35 You, your perfect holiness are the ultimate lawgiver, issuing a standard that mirrors your own righteousness. And Jesus fulfilled every jot and tittle of your holy law, not to abolish but to accomplish it perfectly for us. We praise you that the righteousness we could never achieve is freely imputed through faith in him alone.
141. 42:55 Father, I pray right now that you draw the unconverted among us irresistibly to the Savior. For none can come unless you sovereignly pull them by your Spirit. Strengthen every faltering heart that struggles to believe and yet cries for help in unbelief.
142. 43:10 Grant them the grace to trust the one who bids them come. And to any who linger in unrepentant sinful delay, awaken them with the sober truth that the day of judgment is appointed and they know not the hour. Let them not presume upon your patience, but flee to Christ while the door of mercy stands open wide.
143. 43:27 And by your grace this morning, inform us more to the image of your Son. May we honor your commands faithfully. Rest in your righteousness sovereignly and shine as salt and light in a world that desperately needs the gospel. Use this word to advance your kingdom and for the glory of Christ our Lord.
144. 43:44 For it's in Jesus' matchless name we pray. Amen.

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