Man and the Righteousness Required

Amen. If you would take your Bible and turn back to Matthew chapter 5. It's good to see everyone here this morning in worship. It's good to assemble like we do so often. We assemble to see friends. Yes, we assemble to share life together as brothers and sisters in Christ. But we assemble together to be under His word and be taught by His word. And we just are about God forming us into the people that God wants us to be by being in His word faithfully. Sunday morning, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights.

I think most everyone here knows that we are in our series through the Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. I have entitled this series "The Extraordinary Christian Life." The Lord is unfolding for us, the true Christian life, and I think that we're going to see that series title really jump out to us this morning as we wrap up verses 17 to 20. Now, like I said earlier in our scripture reading, we're in our fourth week here in these verses, and we'll be finishing up this section. This is the third section in the Sermon on the Mount, and we'll finish up by looking at and examining verse 20.

Now, whether you know it or not, these verses, verses 17 to 20, are really some of the most difficult passages in the scriptures to interpret. In verses 17 to 18, we have how Jesus relates to the Old Testament scriptures. If we get this wrong, we deface or destroy really the Old Testament scriptures. And then on top of that, we put Jesus in the wrong. Simply, if we flub up verses 17 to 18, we mar Jesus and His relationship to the Old Testament scriptures, which have come from God. And then in verse 19, we have seen how man relates to the Old Testament scriptures.

If we get that wrong, we steer man into one or two errors, and these errors are very common. We make man a legalist or we make man a grace abuser. A legalist meaning that we heap upon people all kinds of rules and regulations from the scriptures and from man. This is done in an attempt to keep the Old Testament scriptures. But a grace abuser, that means that we lead people to disregard or even disobey Old Testament scriptures. Old Testament scriptures that God keeps us and tends for us to keep. Now, either error is a sin. Now, what about verse 20? Here in verse 20, things get bigger and things get greater.

Now, I picture this teaching, this event in these verses, and especially verse 20. I picture this event like a great mountain. Jesus has climbed to where no man has ascended and He has explained how the promised Messiah would relate to the Old Testament scriptures. Now, the Jews had terribly misunderstood how the Messiah would relate to the scriptures. He had come to fulfill and accomplish the entirety of the Old Testament in every way. And then it is as if Jesus is reaching down to man and He pulls man up to where He has ascended.

Jesus shows us that in Him, man can relate to the Old Testament scriptures in grace and forgiveness instead of punishment and damnation. Simply, man can keep the Old Testament scriptures in Him. And I said this before, truthfully, Jesus is continuing to fulfill and accomplish everything written in the Old Testament through His people, through His redeemed people. Now, notice what Jesus is doing specifically in verse 20. From this vantage point, He looks down over all of the Jews and all that the Jews were doing in the nation of Israel.

And He is saying, "Unless your righteousness is greater or much different than the Jews, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Of course, that's my paraphrase of the verse. In the eyes of the disciples and the Jews, Jesus was going where no prophet, no teacher and no Jewish leader had ever gone before. Jesus was going beyond the accepted religious standard in their day. And no doubt, there were many in the crowd that were astonished. There were many in the crowd that were confused. And many were definitely, definitely offended. They would need much more teaching. They would need more explanation from Christ.

And that is what Jesus begins to do starting in verse 21, really all throughout the rest of the sermon on the Mount. Now, here this morning in verse 20, I said it earlier to me. Jesus is looking out all over Israel. He's looking over the Jews, and He is explaining to the crowds just how righteous they had to be to enter into the kingdom of God. Now, this leads us to how we're going to examine this verse. We're going to make three observations out of verse 20. This is going to be three questions. We're going to look at who were the scribes and the Pharisees? What was their righteousness?

And then we're going to ask what righteousness is required. All this comes out of the verse. Who were these scribes and Pharisees? What was their righteousness? And what righteousness is required? Let's go back to the verse, and then we'll begin to ask these questions. Jesus says, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven." So our first question from the verse. Number one, who were the scribes and the Pharisees? Who were these scribes and these Pharisees? Now, it is obvious that this teaching is aimed at those listening.

Remember, we have the disciples. I say they're on the front row. We have the Jews that are there. There are some Gentiles. But those who were in the crowds. Now, look at the wording in the verse. He says, "You and you are." He is aiming this at them. But we see Jesus singling out the scribes and the Pharisees. Two groups of religious leaders that were there in Israel. He was using them to me as a starting point. He was starting with their righteousness, which is what the crowds would have known. From most all of the Jews, the righteous standard set by the scribes and the Pharisees, it was the standard to live by.

So we need to start with a basic question. Who were the scribes and the Pharisees? So let's start first with the scribes. The scribes. See, the scribes were very educated men, and their primary occupation was the systematic study of the Old Testament scriptures and explaining or teaching the Old Testament scriptures. In the New Testament, they are often called teachers of the law, experts in the law. The King James even calls them lawyers. And understanding those terms are helpful because when you come across them, you can understand that the scriptures are talking about this group, the scribes.

Now the scribes date back to the pre-Babylonian exile days, and they were government secretaries, they were public writers, and then some were official copiers of the Old Testament scriptures. One familiar Old Testament figure, Ezra. Ezra, seen in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah, he was a scribe. In the book of Ezra, we see that Ezra set himself up. He set himself up to study the law and to teach the law to those Jews who were coming back out of Babylonian captivity. Now that's just a brief, brief history. But a question. What about the scribes in this day? What about the scribes right here when Jesus was teaching?

In New Testament times, they were seen as the undisputed experts in the Old Testament scriptures. They taught in the synagogues. They trained their students in the Old Testament writings and their traditions. Basically, in Jesus' day, most all instruction from the Old Testament was in the hands of the scribes. In our language, we can say they were the preachers and the teachers of the day. But we need to remember how the Jews in Jesus' day viewed the scribes. The people respected the scribes in every way. They saw them as godly and living according to the Old Testament scriptures. So they were respected. They were esteemed.

They were admired by the Jews. But then second, the Pharisees. These Pharisees that are listed in the verse. Now the scribes held an office, but the Pharisees did not. They were more of a religious party or a religious order. According to most scholars, their history goes back to pre-Babylonian captivity as well. Oh, their history is a little more murky. But what about the Pharisees in this day? During the time of Jesus, there were four religious parties within Judaism. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and then those dagger men that we've learned about, the zealots.

Of the four of the Pharisees, they were the most numerous and they were the most influential. Just like the scribes, the Pharisees were very, very serious students of the scriptures, and they were very serious students of the traditions. The New Testament mentions the scribes and the Pharisees together very often. As a matter of fact, one scholar that I ran across this week said that 19 times they're grouped together in the New Testament because they were both very, very serious students of the scriptures and the traditions.

But the Pharisees were really good at taking their interpretation of the scriptures and traditions and putting them in the practice before the people. They were very good at living out what they studied. But we need to remember how the Jews viewed the Pharisees in their day. The Pharisees were very respected by the people as well. They had a very large impact on everyday Jewish life because of how many Pharisees there were and how they had taken their interpretation of the scriptures and traditions and put them into practice. In many ways, they were the true practitioners of the Jewish religion.

And the people saw them as living godly lives according to the scriptures and traditions as well. So they were respected by the Jews. They were esteemed and they were admired just like the scribes. Now question, why do I take the time here? Why do we need to understand these Pharisees and scribes? We need to have an understanding of three things here. Who these men were, how they had impacted the Jewish religion, and what relationship they had to the people. Simply, the scribes and Pharisees made it their life to study and teach the Old Testament scriptures. Their efforts can be seen in their traditions.

They saw their traditions as keeping the Old Testament scriptures in every way. And both the scribes and the Pharisees were very, very respected by the people. And together, the scribes and the Pharisees had shaped all of Jewish religious life. And that is not an overstatement at all. So that's brief, but we have examined the first question. Who were these scribes and who were these Pharisees? Now let's move on to our second question out of verse 20. I want us to ask the question, what was their righteousness?

Go back to the verse, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that, that of the scribes and Pharisees." We must ask this question because Jesus makes their righteousness His point of reference. Another way of saying it, Jesus starts with their standard right here in the verse. And He contrasts their standard with God's standard. Now their righteousness was not, and I repeat that. It was not the true righteousness which the Old Testament scriptures required. I've said this numerous times. They had missed it totally. They had missed it in every way. Now there are three ways we can see how they missed it.

And this is very, very good for us. I ran across this list and some material from John MacArthur. I really took his list and I kind of made it my own. And I want us to see that they had three ways in which they had missed it. The scribes and the Pharisees, they had an external righteousness. They had a partial righteousness. And then they had a self-centered righteousness. And I want to cover those briefly. So just follow along with me. First, I want us to see their external righteousness. Now I can't say it enough how the scribes and Pharisees were only concerned about the outward, the outward observance of the law and their traditions.

They gave almost no thoughts to their attitudes. They gave almost no thoughts to their motives. They gave almost no thoughts to their very thoughts in their minds and hearts. It was simply externals. I give you an example. Take the matter of hate versus murder. No matter how bad they hated someone, as long as they did not kill them, well, in their eyes, they were not breaking a single commandment. They did the same thing with lust and sexual immorality. No matter how much they lusted in their heart, as long as they did not commit the physical act of adultery, well, in their eyes, they were breaking no law.

Probably the best place to see how Jesus dealt with this fatal flaw, and it is a fatal flaw, is in Matthew chapter 23. The great woe statements that some of us are familiar with. Jesus pronounced judgment on the scribes and the Pharisees because they only cared about the externals, never the internals. I'll read you a few verses out of Matthew 23. This will help us see the externals. Verse 25 on down to verse 28. Notice what Jesus says to them. "Woe to you," this is a pronouncement of judgment. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgent.

You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean." Now, look at how all of this comes together. When we look at the Sermon on the Mount, compared to the Pharisees and the scribes, we have a tremendous collision. Their external righteousness is exactly what Jesus is blasting all through the Sermon on the Mount. From the beginning in verse 2, Jesus says that God's number one concern is about the heart of the man. Jesus starts with how man relates to God in his heart, and as we will continue, as we will start seeing in verse 21, Jesus continues to blast their externals one by one.

And he will teach that religious externals that do not come from the right attitude, the right motive, the right heart, they really count for nothing. So we see that their righteousness was an external righteousness. But then second, we see their partial righteousness. We see that they had a partial righteousness. Now, it is easy for us to see their external righteousness, but their partial righteousness can be overlooked or missed. We see this pointed out again in the Great Woe statements in Matthew 23, verse 23. Notice what he says here.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others." See, the scribes and Pharisees were unbelievably careful to tithe the smallest of seeds and the smallest of plants from their gardens, although that was not commanded in the Old Testament law. But they had completely ignored showing love, showing mercy, showing justice and kindness to other people. Now, look at how all of this works together.

Because they had totally missed the matters of the heart, they had no ability to show love and mercy and justice and faithfulness, even common kindness. Now, why was that the case? How would this happen? Because they did not have a changed heart. Love and mercy and justice and faithfulness are a matter of the heart, and because they did not have a changed heart, they could not exhibit those qualities. And their rules and regulations could not mimic showing love and grace and mercy and justice and faithfulness. And listen, all of this is dealt with the Sermon on the Mount, their external righteousness and their partial righteousness.

But let's continue. Third, I want us to see their self-centered righteousness, their self-centered righteousness. Now, at this point, we will see that the problem of the scribes and Pharisees, it gets worse. Notice how it's getting worse? The religion that they had built up for themselves, it was for self. It was not for God, and it was not for others. It was self-centered. It was prideful in every way. They sought to satisfy their own flesh, and they sought to bring glory to themselves. They loved to have the approval of men and not God. We see this in Luke chapter 18.

Luke chapter 18, when Jesus taught the parable of the one who trusted in himself and his righteousness as compared to the sinner with a true heart. In Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 9, listen to this parable Jesus teaches, He also told them this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. And here's the parable. "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed, 'Thus, God, I thank you, that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner.' And Jesus says, 'I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who fumbles himself will be exalted.'" And here in Luke 18, Jesus exposes the self-centered, the self-righteous heart of the Pharisee. In this parable, Jesus exposes not just the heart of the scribes and the Pharisees, but He exposes their religious deeds for what they were. But notice the contrast here.

The godly man is broken for his sin. He is broken because of his sin and his sinfulness. He is mournful for the condition of his heart, and he does not place any confidence in his external behavior, but he cries out to God for mercy. Again, this self-centered righteousness is blasted all throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' teaching concerning the heart of the man would have revealed this self-centered, self-righteous behavior for what it is. And boy, listen, the scribes and Pharisees did not like it from day one. Now, why do I take the time here? What's this question that we've explored? What was their righteousness? Why the time?

We must see that theirs was purely an external religion. Their religion was totally external, and void of the matters of the heart. They had the rules with no heart. And what did Jesus say? He said, "You have neglected the weightier, the most important matters of law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness." But here I want us to step back from what we've examined. I want us to step back. Who the scribes and Pharisees were and their righteousness. We must get that theirs was external. Yes, but we must also see two more realities here. First, Jesus hated their hypocrisy. Yes, we see that all through Matthew 23. He blasted their hypocrisy.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is simply saying, "You Jews have it all wrong." But second, we must see that their standard was the accepted standard of the day. The Jewish people saw the scribes and Pharisees as the standard. They respected them. They admired them. They esteemed them. And they would have not seen them as hypocrites at all. Now, an application. I want us to see two things here. What have we examined? We've examined two questions, two weighty questions. Who were the scribes and Pharisees, and what was their righteousness? We need to see that this is somewhat educational.

Yes, we are educating ourselves to who these men were, what they believed, how they related to the Jews. There is proper biblical information here that we need. But we must see that this definitely is applied in our day. We definitely have people in the church just like this today. And we must understand we have modern-day Pharisees and scribes, and we must know how they operate. We need to see that modern-day Pharisees are more concerned with rules and regulations and traditions than the matters of the heart. These people struggle with things like patience. They struggle with things like empathy.

They struggle with things like love and mercy and grace. Those things which come from the heart, which comes from a work of God within the heart. Oh, listen, they might express those things with words, but the modern-day Pharisee never seems to express them in action in everyday life. And listen, the Pharisees will always fail two tests. There are two tests, and you see it all through the Scripture as Jesus related to the Pharisees and scribes in His day. First, how they deal with lost people. Think about the scribes and Pharisees. They couldn't get over the fact that Jesus would consort with lost sinners. They never loved lost sinners.

And today, when you have a modern-day scribe and a modern-day Pharisee, they will never love lost people in action. Only words. And then second, how they deal with sinners. Even in the life of the church, they do not feel comfortable with sinners. Why? Because they don't have empathy. They don't have patience. They don't have love and mercy and grace. They only deal with sinners with rule after rule. Their traditions, their rules. And listen, they only feel comfortable with the people who keep the same rules and traditions. Look at the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' day. They never could relate to the lost.

They never could relate to sinners. And they were only comfortable with people just like themselves. And they will only assemble in our day with those who keep the same rules and same traditions. And yes, listen, there are Pharisees and scribes. They are alive today. And I'm afraid many times they can be right next to us in the life of the church. Now let's continue on. Remember, I said we were going to examine three questions out of verse 20. My third question is what righteousness is required. Now here we have what I call a shift in the message all along. We've been focusing on these scribes and Pharisees, I know.

We had to do that because that was the accepted standard. That was the standard of the day. Jesus is making a comparison. Not that he is saying that one standard is better than the other. No, he is saying that one standard is right. He is wrong. His was right. Now at this point I'm moving, I kind of see it like this, to the you and the you-er of the verse. Go back to the verse, verse 20. "For I tell you, you," so he's getting personal. "You, unless your righteousness," here we see Jesus calling those listening to the righteousness they would need to enter into the kingdom.

And that what he says at the end, he says, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now I want to point you to a key word here in the verse. This word exceeds, look back at the verse. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds," the New American standard uses the word surpass. Now there is a picture associated with this word, and I ran across it several times in study this week. The picture here is of a river, and this river is overflowing from its banks. Now I question, what is Jesus saying here?

There is a big, big, big misunderstanding that people can make at this point. Is Jesus saying that man must outperform the scribes and the Pharisees in their externals? Is he saying that man should do better than the scribes and Pharisees and the externals? Well, no, because that form of righteousness can never attain heaven. In Matthew 19, verses 16 to 30, when Jesus is dealing with the rich young ruler, he says that it is impossible for man to attain righteousness. Paul says this in Galatians 2, 16. He says that no man is made right before God by his own works, no matter how good he may be.

Here Jesus is saying, "Man must have a righteousness that is totally clean, totally genuine, and totally true, not a righteousness which can be tainted by sin." Jesus is saying that man must have a righteousness that comes from the outside of the man, a righteousness that is greater than man and his righteousness. Jesus is saying that man must have a perfect righteousness. Yes, a perfect righteousness. And listen, folks, that is impossible. It is totally impossible for man if he is left to himself. I love how the Bible commentator D.A. Carson deals with verse 20, and I'm quoting, it's just a small little phrase.

He says, and I'm quoting, "By another route we have returned to the inner purity described in the beatitudes." Oh, listen, I believe D.A. Carson is right. I say it like this, we've really come full circle back to the inner work in the man, the inner work that man desperately needs so as to enter into the kingdom of heaven. We have come full circle back to a work man needs from the inside, not a righteousness which seemingly comes from man's outward appearance. I'll read you Galatians 2.16.

Paul says, and I'm quoting, "Yet we know that a person is not justified." That's made right with God by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. Listen again to what Paul is saying. He is saying a person is not justified by works, but by faith through Christ Jesus. He says we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified. And notice what we have here.

Here in verse 20, "We have nothing less than the age-old doctrine of justification by grace through faith. This doctrine is fleshed out more and more in the rest of the New Testament revelation." Really, mostly in Paul's writings. Now specifically, listen to what Paul says over in Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 10. Notice what Paul says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." And this is not of your own doing. See, he is attacking works. This is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

"For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in Him." And listen, folks, this is exactly what Jesus is saying man needs right here in verse 20. So what do we have here in verse 20? "This righteousness which Christ demands can't come from man, it must come from God." We have this inner work of purity and righteousness spoken of all throughout the Beatitudes. Carson says we're coming back by another route. I say we have come full circle in verse 20 right back to what he began to teach starting in verse 2. Now in application, there's so much that we need to see.

Just out of this part of verse 20, just out of this question, what righteousness is required? We must see that man being right with God is not like the great big buffet line of religion that we see out there. Now think about it. There are all kinds of religions. There are all kinds of seeming ways to heaven and to be made right with God. See, in our culture, it's just take your pick, right? I've got to respect your religion and you've got to respect my religion, but that's not true. That's false. Being right with God is more like a multiple choice test with two options. We have two options and only one is right.

One is man's works or man's righteousness and one is God's righteousness or a righteousness that is imparted from God to man. And listen, on a more personal note, you hear this morning, you are either depending on your righteousness or some standard that you have created or you are living in God's righteousness because you have experienced grace through faith. His grace, His saving grace through faith in Christ. You see? It's one of two and only one is right. Now as I begin to conclude examining the verse, I want us to notice what we've seen here just in the verse. Truthfully, there is a lot.

And I want you to see all of this is authoritative. Yes, this is authoritative. What does Jesus say? For I tell you, well, who's Jesus? He's deity, God in the flesh, the very Son of God. And He said, I never say one word on my own. All that I say comes from the Father. This is supremely authoritative. But then also, this is definitive. What does Jesus say? Unless, for I tell you, unless Jesus is drawing a line in the sand here and He is saying unless. And then this is comparative. Jesus compares man's righteousness with the righteousness that is required. And man comes up short every time. And then also, this is impossible.

Those who heard this with their ears and their hearts in that day. Now, what I mean by that, those who had the help of the Holy Spirit to understand this, they were dumbfounded, they were destitute, and they were dependent because they saw themselves totally destitute before God's standard. But yet, this is possible. This is only possible with God. This is possible with the work of God in man. I stand before you here this morning, not just as a husband, not just as a father, not just as a minister of the gospel and the pastor of the Nola Baptist Church. I stand before you now, living out what's before you here.

What I have is a righteousness that I could not attain, I could not work for, I could not buy, I couldn't borrow, I couldn't even steal it, it is a righteousness that came by God working in my life, saving me. You know, I've said this so many times in this pulpit, when you meet someone who's truly been born of God, they can explain it, they can articulate it, they can tell you about it, they can tell you how God revealed their sin and revealed their lostness and how God brought them to that place of expressing faith in Christ, and they'll look back on that time and that event and they'll tell you how God saved the sinner and they'll tell you that the righteousness that they have came from God.

All that they have, all that they'll ever be will be because of God's grace in their life. And that's what we see in the verse. But you know, as I close, I go back to the picture that I gave you earlier. I just pictured this event like a great mountain. I mean the tallest mountain that we could ever imagine. Jesus has climbed to where no man has ascended, and he explained that he has come to fulfill and accomplish everything in the Old Testament Scriptures and every way. Isn't that what he said in verse 17 and 18? Jesus then elevates God's perfect law in every way. He holds every word, every letter, and every mark in God's commandments high.

He declares they are eternal and they must be kept in every way by mankind. We see that in verse 19. But then Jesus reaches down to man and he pulls man up to where he has ascended. Jesus shows us that in him, man can relate to the perfect standard as seen in God's law in grace, in forgiveness, instead of punishment and hell and eternal damnation. Simply, man can keep the Old Testament Scriptures in him, in his grace. And here we see in verse 20 that man can enter into the kingdom of heaven only, only, only. Jesus says unless he has Christ's righteousness. So what do we see here this morning?

Jesus says, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven." And I'm calling what we've looked at in verse 20. Really just wrapping up this third section, man and the righteousness that is required. Let's pray. And then we're going to sing that old familiar hymn, "Rock of Ages." And I believe you're going to see, as we sing, really so much that is taught in verse 20, echoed in that old hymn. Let's pray.