The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - A Righteousness That Exceeds That Of The Pharisees

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00:00:41.600 My text for today is a text from Pat Buchanan's book, The Unnecessary War.

00:00:45.820 I'm just kidding.

00:00:47.320 Contrary to popular belief, we try to teach the Bible.

00:00:50.420 So our text is the Gospel of Matthew.

00:00:53.160 We're going to be looking at chapter 5, verses 17 through 20.

00:00:56.500 Would you join me in standing for the reading of God's word?

00:00:59.380 Again, this is the gospel according to Matthew.

00:01:01.960 Matthew chapter 5, verse 17 through 20.

00:01:05.580 I'll read our text in its entirety.

00:01:07.240 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:01:09.860 at which point I would appreciate if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:01:13.780 One final time, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 20.

00:01:20.140 The Bible says this.

00:01:22.180 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

00:01:25.600 I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

00:01:29.640 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,

00:01:34.160 not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

00:01:40.880 Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments

00:01:44.440 and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

00:01:49.680 But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

00:01:54.860 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

00:02:04.680 This is the word of the Lord.

00:02:07.320 All right, please be seated. Let's begin.

00:02:10.360 I've taken our text and broken it up into three sections.

00:02:14.160 We'll deal with verse 17 first, where we see that Jesus loves the law.

00:02:20.020 Jesus doesn't merely tolerate the law but really in his heart of hearts he loves the gospel and

00:02:27.300 loves grace no Jesus loves the gospel he loves grace and not merely tolerates but loves and

00:02:35.600 fulfills and upholds the law he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it the second

00:02:42.520 portion will be verses 18 and 19 of our text where we'll see Jesus formula for lack of a better

00:02:49.800 term for how to be great in the kingdom of heaven. How to be great in the kingdom of heaven. As a

00:02:57.360 spoiler alert, I'll say this in short, you will never achieve greatness in the kingdom of heaven

00:03:05.020 by being an antinomian, by being one who juxtaposes grace over and against righteousness

00:03:14.460 and obedience to the law of God.

00:03:17.980 That is a quick path

00:03:19.380 to becoming least in the kingdom of heaven.

00:03:22.720 And perhaps if your doctrinal errors

00:03:27.140 are so severe,

00:03:29.060 entering into the realm of even heresy,

00:03:31.500 then you will not merely be least

00:03:33.020 in the kingdom of heaven,

00:03:34.300 but you will in fact,

00:03:35.780 in the final analysis,

00:03:37.360 find yourself in hell. 0.99

00:03:39.740 And then lastly,

00:03:41.060 verse 20 of our verse,

00:03:42.520 we'll see that what is required in order to enter the kingdom of heaven,

00:03:47.360 not only to be great, but to even receive entrance into the kingdom of heaven at all,

00:03:53.860 is a righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees.

00:03:59.760 Again, a little bit of a spoiler alert here.

00:04:03.600 That righteousness, the easiest way to exegete verse 20, the final verse of our text today,

00:04:09.440 is to hinge the entirety of your exegesis

00:04:15.400 and your doctrinal argumentation

00:04:18.120 on positional righteousness,

00:04:20.760 that is, justification,

00:04:23.060 a righteousness that is immediate,

00:04:25.520 that comes in a single moment

00:04:27.380 by grace through faith in Christ alone.

00:04:31.580 And yet, however,

00:04:33.040 although I don't think it's anything less than that,

00:04:36.020 to be clear, certainly not less,

00:04:38.200 i do believe that jesus is getting at more i do believe that in verse 20 of our text jesus is not

00:04:45.000 merely referencing a positional righteousness that comes by justification that is an alien

00:04:51.520 righteousness a righteousness of another namely jesus christ a righteousness that is alien to

00:04:57.220 ourselves it's not our own it's the righteousness of christ not infused but rather imputed to us

00:05:02.760 by faith and not by works so that no man can boast. That righteousness in order to inherit the

00:05:08.480 kingdom of heaven is vital. Absolutely necessary. No one will be in heaven apart from it. You must

00:05:16.240 be saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. It must be a spotless righteousness, a perfect

00:05:22.120 righteousness, a divine righteousness that even exceeds not merely the righteousness of the

00:05:27.760 Pharisees but the righteousness as I've said many times of angels and cherubim and seraphim

00:05:33.000 the righteousness of the second member of the divine trinity himself God's very own righteousness

00:05:40.480 not earned but imputed received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone you will not

00:05:48.180 inherit the kingdom of God apart from that righteousness and not but and your progressive

00:05:55.460 righteousness, your sanctification, in that category, theological category as well, I believe

00:06:04.100 that Jesus mandates and fully expects that his disciples would be superior to the Pharisees

00:06:13.400 in the category of progressive, not positional, certainly that, but also progressive righteousness.

00:06:20.460 Not only justification, but also sanctification as well.

00:06:25.620 That followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who have in fact truly been justified,

00:06:30.940 will be sanctified, and in that sanctification process,

00:06:35.940 their progressive righteousness, obedience, outward obedience to the law of God,

00:06:41.420 which is fueled by faith and grace, that even that righteousness,

00:06:45.620 That outward obedience will actually be superior to the outward obedience of the Pharisees,

00:06:52.620 who were meticulous, and yet, here's the key.

00:06:55.740 What was the number one insult leveled by Jesus Christ Himself towards the Pharisees?

00:07:05.080 He does not say of the Pharisees, again and again, that you are legalists. 0.96

00:07:10.120 that's how the modern evangelical church which is pathetic and antinomian and wants to to simply 0.94

00:07:18.080 live whatever life we want thinking that grace will cover it all that's what we want to say 0.94

00:07:23.420 we want to say today the modern evangelical church that the problem that jesus had with

00:07:28.520 the pharisees is that he saw them as legalist that's not what the bible teaches what the bible 0.87

00:07:34.840 instead teaches is that Jesus saw them as hypocrites. Woe, you hypocrites. Not legalists 0.99

00:07:42.440 who are holding too tightly to obedience to the law, but rather hypocrites that teach with their 0.96

00:07:50.040 mouths the importance of obedience to the law, but in their very own lives don't actually obey 0.96

00:07:56.000 themselves. Jesus' problem with the Pharisees is not that they raise the bar too high when it comes

00:08:01.840 to righteousness. His problem with the Pharisees is that they themselves were whitewashed tombs. 0.73

00:08:07.660 That they themselves were like cups that were cleansed on the outside, but a petri dish on the

00:08:13.460 inside. That they were a walking contradiction. That they rightly taught. Jesus even says this

00:08:19.580 verbatim. Do as they teach, but not as they do. For they are legalists. No. Hypocrites. Hypocrites. 0.66

00:08:28.160 In other words, the righteousness of the Pharisees, according to Jesus himself, 0.96

00:08:33.980 even not merely were they lacking positional righteousness because they did not have faith in Jesus

00:08:40.920 and were not disciples of Jesus, not only were they lacking in positional righteousness, justification,

00:08:49.360 but they also were lacking in progressive righteousness, sanctification.

00:08:54.580 They were not actually righteous in any sense.

00:08:59.540 They were not inwardly righteous from the heart.

00:09:02.340 And they were not outwardly righteous with their hands and feet.

00:09:06.880 They merely had righteousness that came from their lips.

00:09:13.000 They gave righteousness lip service.

00:09:15.640 They tipped the hat, as it were, to righteousness.

00:09:18.780 But they did not have righteousness of the heart.

00:09:22.100 No justification.

00:09:22.920 nor did they have righteousness with their hands and feet

00:09:27.020 in terms of progressive righteousness, sanctification.

00:09:30.900 And the Christian, if he is in fact to be a Christian

00:09:34.360 and not merely to be great in the kingdom of heaven 0.85

00:09:37.500 but merely enter the kingdom of heaven,

00:09:40.060 his righteousness must supersede

00:09:44.060 both the positional and progressive righteousness of the Pharisees.

00:09:49.460 And if you think that that's a controversial view,

00:09:51.760 the first time I heard it was from R.C. Sproul. However, I have discovered that R.C. Sproul can

00:09:58.020 say many things and Joel Webin cannot. So it will still be a problem to be sure. But with you,

00:10:05.000 I am hopeful of better things. You who belong to this church and love the word of God. So let's

00:10:10.360 begin. Verse 17. Let's read it once more so that it's fresh in our minds. The point here, big idea

00:10:16.540 being that Jesus loves the law, not merely the gospel, but the law. He does not come to abolish

00:10:22.220 the law, but yet rather to fulfill it. Matthew 5, 17 says, do not think that I have come to abolish

00:10:28.820 the law or the prophets. I have come, not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Utilizing the

00:10:35.080 late great Puritan Matthew Henry on this particular verse, he commentates as follows. The rule which

00:10:41.520 Christ came to establish exactly agreed with the scriptures of the Old Testament, here called the

00:10:47.360 law and the prophets. Jesus protests against the thought of canceling and weakening the Old

00:10:53.860 Testament. Jesus is not a fan of unhitching from the Old Testament. Let not, now here's the thing,

00:11:00.800 by Jesus saying this, I've not come to abolish the law, but rather fulfill it. He is guarding,

00:11:05.020 he's setting up a hedge against two pitfalls on either side of the path, two ditches, that it's

00:11:10.900 possible for us as New Testament disciples of Christ to fall into ourselves. Here's the two

00:11:17.360 hedges on either side of the road. Here it is. On one hand, he protests against the thought of

00:11:23.320 canceling and weakening the Old Testament. In other words, let not the pious Jews, those who do care 1.00

00:11:31.500 about holiness and care about obedience to the law, let not the pious Jews who have an affection 0.96

00:11:37.460 for the law and the prophets fear that I have come to destroy them. So he's putting those 1.00

00:11:43.820 in that camp as he's preaching, he's putting them at ease saying for those of you who care

00:11:50.240 greatly about the law of God and all that is written in the prophets of the law, do not think

00:11:56.940 that I have come to eradicate and abolish and replace it. I haven't. I love Moses. Moses was

00:12:04.740 sent by me. I love Abraham. Abraham was sent by me. Before Abraham was, I am, says Jesus. And he

00:12:13.060 looked forward prophetically in a messianic sense of that prophecy and promise. He looked forward

00:12:19.400 to my day and he rejoiced. Abraham rejoiced in me and I rejoice in Abraham and in Moses and in all

00:12:27.300 the law and the prophets and those things which have been inscripturated by the very Spirit of

00:12:32.160 God, both inspired by the Spirit and also preserved. I have not come to eradicate any of

00:12:40.920 that. So for those of you who care greatly about the law of God and obedience to Him, put your mind

00:12:47.180 and hearts at ease, for I have come only to confirm and uphold and fulfill, not to abolish.

00:12:54.840 That's one hedge. Now, on the other hand, likewise, let not the profane Jews who have 1.00

00:13:03.560 a disaffection to the law and the prophets and are weary of that yoke hope that I have come to 1.00

00:13:10.480 destroy them. Let not carnal libertines imagine that the Messiah is come to discharge them from

00:13:19.320 the obligation of divine precepts, and yet to secure to them divine promises. That's a good

00:13:26.200 line. Let me read that one more time. Don't let the carnal among you, don't let, not the

00:13:34.220 legalist, but on this hand, the antinomians, which means those who are against law, who want to live

00:13:42.300 lawlessly, those who want to live according to their own lustful passions, the lustful desires

00:13:50.160 of the flesh, let them not get too excited. For I am not here to abolish the law, but to fulfill it

00:13:57.760 and uphold it. I'm not here to give you a get out of jail free card. Instead, I am here once more

00:14:06.080 to fulfill the law of God, not to abolish it.

00:14:09.620 Do not let carnal libertines

00:14:11.660 imagine that the Messiah has come

00:14:13.880 to discharge them from obligation

00:14:15.880 to divine precepts, that is commandments,

00:14:19.340 positive commands,

00:14:20.980 and yet somehow secure to them divine promises.

00:14:24.940 I have not come to abolish the precepts of God

00:14:28.020 while handing to you the promises of God.

00:14:31.260 No, I am here to uphold all His precepts,

00:14:35.100 his commands, and also with them offer to you promises as well. I've come for both to make

00:14:44.560 the happy and yet to give them leave to live as a wish, to make them happy and yet to give them

00:14:52.700 leave to live as a wish. He's saying, I'm not coming for that. I'm not coming to give you

00:14:58.340 promises without any commands. I'm not coming to make you happy and yet allow you to live as you

00:15:05.960 wish. So on the one hand, here's a hedge for those of you who are very concerned with the laws of God.

00:15:11.420 I have not come to abolish them. And for those of you who are hoping that I have come to abolish

00:15:16.600 them so that you can be happy with the promises and yet free from the precepts and live as you

00:15:21.940 wish. I have not come to do that either. That's the first thing that Jesus is getting at in verse

00:15:27.780 17 of our text he did not come to abolish but to fulfill the law now in terms of his fulfillment

00:15:33.960 jesus fulfills all of the law but it is i think helpful for us with perhaps some doctrinal

00:15:43.060 clarification to speak of different categories of the law of god and and the differences in how he

00:15:51.180 fulfilled each of them there are some distinctions every single iota of the law of god was fulfilled

00:15:58.320 by christ but not all of it was fulfilled in the same sense what i mean by that is the simplest

00:16:05.620 way i could explain and there are some problems with this grid but i think that in general it's

00:16:12.160 mostly helpful and mostly true so i present it to you today that the law can be broken down not just

00:16:18.040 into its three uses, as we often address in the liturgy

00:16:22.140 of our Lord's Day worship service. The three uses being the first, that the

00:16:26.000 law of God functions as a mirror, that it reflects to us the very holiness of

00:16:30.040 God, and by way of consequence, in staring into the law of God and seeing God's

00:16:34.220 holiness, it causes us to see our lack thereof, and therefore

00:16:38.160 our sinfulness, and therefore it shows us the great chasm that exists between

00:16:42.000 a thrice holy God and sinful man, and therefore our need for a Savior

00:16:45.900 and drives us to Christ.

00:16:47.300 That's the first use, like a mirror.

00:16:49.540 The second is the law functions as a shield.

00:16:52.280 And as a shield, what it does is it restrains wickedness.

00:16:55.640 It does not restrain, apart from actual salvation,

00:16:59.480 which comes through the gospel.

00:17:00.900 The law of God is powerless to restrain wickedness

00:17:03.480 at the level of the heart.

00:17:04.920 But the law of God is highly effective

00:17:07.280 in restraining outward wickedness.

00:17:10.560 That is, wicked deeds done outwardly

00:17:13.260 that do not align with the moral law of God.

00:17:15.540 In other words, you can have an unregenerate murderer who all of a sudden, if there's a law that says, if you murder, you will die.

00:17:24.680 He's going to be highly incentivized to stop murdering. 0.76

00:17:29.600 And he may never be a Christian, may never believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 0.58

00:17:34.840 And in the final analysis, when he breathes his last breath, he spends eternity under the wrath of God in hell.

00:17:41.380 And yet, for that temporal window, that moment of his life on earth,

00:17:46.860 there were many outward wicked things that he was tempted and even eagerly desirous to do.

00:17:53.360 And yet, he did not.

00:17:55.300 Because he was outwardly restrained by the law of God.

00:17:58.620 And the law of God restrains people in two ways.

00:18:01.840 One would be, well, it would be spoken of in Romans chapter 1, and particularly Romans chapter 2.

00:18:08.560 This is natural law.

00:18:10.300 That the law of God, even for the unregenerate man,

00:18:12.760 is written on the hearts of all men.

00:18:15.500 This is part of the reason for the record

00:18:17.500 that I still, despite perhaps my better judgment,

00:18:21.780 remain a credo-baptist.

00:18:24.220 I am still persuaded that the law of God

00:18:27.780 being written on the heart,

00:18:28.780 when we look at certain texts like Ezekiel 36,

00:18:31.160 which I believe is prophetically speaking

00:18:33.620 of the New Covenant,

00:18:34.600 that Ezekiel says that one of the marks of the New Covenant

00:18:39.500 is that the law of God would be written on the hearts of men.

00:18:42.780 But it goes further.

00:18:44.120 It doesn't only say that because if that's all that was said,

00:18:47.300 there would be a problem because that's not really new.

00:18:50.320 That's not really distinct from the unregenerate,

00:18:53.240 from those who are outside of the New Covenant,

00:18:55.120 who don't have faith.

00:18:55.940 Why? Because Romans 2 tells us

00:18:58.400 the argumentation of the Apostle Paul himself

00:19:01.020 to pagan Gentiles is precisely this.

00:19:04.260 He says, you stand condemned and without an excuse, as he previously said in Romans chapter 1. 0.91

00:19:11.320 You're without an apologia, without an argument, without a defense.

00:19:15.100 You stand condemned.

00:19:16.240 Why? 0.99

00:19:16.640 Because you know, you know that you're a sinner. 0.97

00:19:19.480 You're not ignorant.

00:19:21.200 Ignorance, first and foremost, is not an excuse to be disobedient to the law.

00:19:26.100 But furthermore, if you claim ignorance, you're only heaping up further condemnation

00:19:30.100 because now you've committed another sin, namely the sin of lying. 0.88

00:19:33.100 because you're not ignorant. Your own, Paul says, Romans chapter 2, own conscience. Your own

00:19:39.020 conscience is testifying against you. You know, what he's saying essentially is this, is that you

00:19:44.660 have a moral compass written on the fabric of your own soul. As a human being made in the image of

00:19:50.680 God, even apart from saving grace, even as an unregenerate non-Christian man, your own moral 0.99

00:19:57.100 compass testifies against you. Not only have you failed to live up to God's standard, you can't 1.00

00:20:02.700 even live up to your standard. The law of God has been written on the hearts of every man on the

00:20:08.440 basis not only of Christian faith, but on the very basis of mankind being made in the image of God,

00:20:14.020 even apart from Christian faith. So Ezekiel 36 goes further. Ezekiel 36, speaking of the new

00:20:20.600 covenant, it is superior to what Paul writes of natural law, even for the unregenerate man in

00:20:26.080 Romans chapter 2. What Ezekiel 36, speaking of the new covenant, says is not only will the law of God

00:20:31.760 be written on your hearts but I think by way of implication we can exegete from that that the law

00:20:37.160 of God written on the hearts of every man even before he was saved will now be illuminated and

00:20:41.680 intensified for the Christian because the very spirit of God now dwells within you calling your

00:20:47.000 attention to that law written on your heart and then furthermore Ezekiel 36 says and I will cause

00:20:52.720 you to walk in my ways and I will place the fear of myself the fear of the Lord within you

00:21:00.180 these are two additional benefits spoken of of the new covenant that are lacking

00:21:06.420 intentionally absent in romans 2 when speaking of natural law for the unregenerate man for the

00:21:12.480 unregenerate man you do have the second use of god's law functioning as a shield at the individual

00:21:17.880 level the heart level that the law of god is written on his heart in his conscience so that

00:21:23.520 even a non-christian has a sense of guilt again another sprawlism i don't know why i'm thinking

00:21:30.060 of Sproul today. But he had a lot of good things. Disagree on some points, but he had a lot of good

00:21:35.140 things. One of them was this. When he would give examples of doing personal evangelism, he said

00:21:41.340 that oftentimes there were individuals that he'd be sharing the gospel with who were particularly

00:21:45.620 hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And eventually they'd go back and forth arguing over

00:21:51.220 situational ethics and arguing over doctrine and arguing over scripture and arguing over this and

00:21:56.880 that and the other. And eventually, if it wasn't really progressing and getting anywhere, it wasn't

00:22:01.920 very productive, he would eventually land the plane on a single question. The question being this,

00:22:06.820 what do you do with your guilt? Now notice, intentionally by design, the question was not,

00:22:13.040 do you have guilt? But rather, the question was assuming, knowing with confidence that the person,

00:22:20.220 as all people do, wrestles with guilt. He rather, instead of asking, do you have guilt? He simply

00:22:25.800 asked, what do you do with your guilt? And for the non-Christian, there is no sufficient answer. 0.99

00:22:32.540 The honest answer for the non-Christian is, I attempt to assuage my conscience at some degree 0.99

00:22:38.560 or another by balancing the scales of doing some good things to counteract all the bad things I 0.97

00:22:45.020 know I've done. But at the end of the day, my head hits the pillow and I lie awake at night. And

00:22:50.080 before drifting off to sleep, I struggle still knowing that I'm a sinner, still knowing that

00:22:55.240 At some level, I'm a monster and that I'm not just ignorant, but there's real malice and there's real sinister and wicked intent that I'm a bad person.

00:23:04.600 And what do I do with my guilt?

00:23:06.060 I try to counteract it.

00:23:07.660 I try to put my conscience to sleep.

00:23:09.860 But the true answer is, what do I do with my guilt?

00:23:12.300 Nothing.

00:23:13.440 I've been lying in the puddle, the sea of my own guilt constantly in perpetuity without any solution, without any hope.

00:23:25.020 at all because only the gospel has the power to defeat guilt no fear and death no guilt in life

00:23:33.540 only the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to deal with that problem the gospel of Jesus Christ the

00:23:40.780 son of God enduring and drinking in himself the full cup of the white hot wrath of God so that

00:23:47.640 not one drop of God's wrath remains for those who are in Christ Jesus the blood of the lamb over the 0.61

00:23:54.100 mantle, that the angel of death and the wrath of God should pass from you and your house, only Christ 0.56

00:24:00.040 can accomplish that. It is the only solution, the only answer to the guilt of man. But what Sproul

00:24:07.540 is referencing is back to the second use of the law of God. There is an individual inward use,

00:24:13.080 even for the unregenerate Christian. The fear of God has not been placed within them.

00:24:19.060 That's the new covenant, Ezekiel 36.

00:24:21.400 The law of God has not yet been intensified and illuminated on their hearts

00:24:27.380 as the Spirit of God, now dwelling within the new creation,

00:24:32.120 uses and works in conjunction with the law of God written on the heart

00:24:35.500 and intensifies it with conviction of sin.

00:24:38.980 That's not there.

00:24:40.640 And the promise of God causing us to walk in His precepts, that's not there. 0.97

00:24:48.180 But even for the non-Christian, the law of God written on their hearts in a natural sense, 0.97

00:24:54.380 a conscience, a sense of guilt, some inner sense of ethics is still there. 0.96

00:25:00.540 And Paul argues in Romans 2, that's precisely what condemns them.

00:25:05.160 That's precisely what renders them excuseless, what renders them guilty before God.

00:25:12.800 And so the second use as a shield of the law of God,

00:25:16.320 first use, mirror, drives us to Christ, shows us our need.

00:25:19.340 Second use, shield.

00:25:20.160 There is a shielding, restraining effect of the law of God

00:25:25.280 for corporate people, polis,

00:25:29.400 insofar as the law of God is actually legislated

00:25:32.620 and upheld and enforced by natural governments,

00:25:36.680 by human civil magistrates.

00:25:39.040 So insofar as a nation adopts the law of God, legislates and enforces it righteously,

00:25:45.520 there is a corporate restraining effect.

00:25:48.540 It doesn't change the heart.

00:25:50.560 It doesn't restrain evil at the level of intent and motive and desire.

00:25:55.660 But it does restrain outward deeds of evil done by the populace within that nation.

00:26:01.080 It holds evil at bay with the fear of God.

00:26:04.120 No, with the fear of the sword.

00:26:06.820 And that's enough.

00:26:07.420 There is no fear of God before the eyes of the wicked.

00:26:10.140 That's Romans chapter 3.

00:26:11.340 But there can still be fear of the sword.

00:26:14.980 So there's a restraining effect, shield, at a national level,

00:26:18.460 but also restraining effect at the conscience level, individual level.

00:26:22.460 And that's Romans chapter 2.

00:26:24.020 It's Romans 13 and Romans chapter 2.

00:26:27.140 That's the second use of the law of God as shield.

00:26:29.620 Third use is compass.

00:26:31.560 Mirror, shows us our need for Christ, drives us to Christ.

00:26:34.800 shield restraining evil not at the level of the heart but outwardly and then lastly compass and

00:26:41.600 this is what david says when he says i delight in your law it is a lamp unto my feet and a light

00:26:46.960 unto my path that the law of god shows this is a the third use is is in reference to the christian

00:26:52.620 for those who have been born again the first use has kicked in showed us our sin showed us god's

00:26:58.000 holiness showed us our need for a savior and by grace the holy spirit drew us to christ and we

00:27:04.580 We were caused to become regenerated by the spirit, caused to become a new creation and gifted the gifts, granted the gifts, not conjured by the work of man, but the gifts of faith and repentance to turn to Christ faith and turn from sin repentance.

00:27:19.580 And now as a new creation, as a Christian, because the first use of the law of God worked.

00:27:24.880 Now the third use kicks in.

00:27:26.700 This is exclusively for the Christian that the law of God speaks to the Christian and says, here is the path to obedience to God. 0.91

00:27:34.160 And it is not the path that leads us to salvation. 0.93

00:27:37.800 The third use of the law for the Christian is 0.99

00:27:39.540 the path that leads us from salvation

00:27:42.140 into further sanctification.

00:27:45.100 So it's not saying, hey, here's the law of God

00:27:47.440 and how you need to outwardly obey.

00:27:49.340 And if you go down this path far enough,

00:27:51.020 eventually you will merit the favor and love of God

00:27:53.880 and be born again.

00:27:54.920 No, that's a heresy.

00:27:56.960 Rather, it's you've already been born again.

00:27:59.440 First John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us.

00:28:02.520 And because we now love and have been caused to become new creations,

00:28:06.520 the first question that is asked by those who truly love Christ

00:28:09.840 is how can I show you my love?

00:28:12.380 And Jesus says, if you love me, you'll obey me.

00:28:14.860 Obey what? My commands.

00:28:16.720 Here's the law. Here's how to walk.

00:28:18.800 Not to earn salvation, but as a response of gratitude

00:28:21.600 for the free salvation we already received by grace through faith in Christ.

00:28:26.580 That's the third use of the law.

00:28:27.920 So mirror, shield, compass.

00:28:32.120 None of that deals with the text.

00:28:33.580 Okay, so back to the point.

00:28:35.260 But it's good.

00:28:36.120 It's good stuff.

00:28:37.320 Some of my best.

00:28:38.340 All right, so, okay.

00:28:39.620 Here's the point.

00:28:40.500 That's the three uses of the law of God.

00:28:42.920 The three categories.

00:28:44.620 Remember that?

00:28:45.480 Like 15 minutes ago.

00:28:47.080 The three categories of the law of God are as follows.

00:28:50.160 Again, there's some problems here.

00:28:52.260 There are arguments to be made of,

00:28:53.900 well, I don't know if these categories are.

00:28:56.020 In general, though, in general,

00:28:58.120 this has been held historically within the Reformed tradition

00:29:01.460 I don't think that we need to reinvent the wheel and get cute.

00:29:05.720 I personally, for those, most of you won't even know what this is.

00:29:08.700 And I would say, if you're like, what's that?

00:29:10.060 I don't know what it is.

00:29:10.720 I would say, good, let's just, let's keep it that way.

00:29:13.700 I'm glad you don't know what it is, but I am not a federal visionist.

00:29:17.300 I don't think it's helpful.

00:29:19.200 I think just the good old, good old categories of, you know, covenant of works and, you know,

00:29:24.060 and covenant of grace, I think that works just fine.

00:29:26.560 I understand.

00:29:27.340 well covenant works technically is a covenant of life you know or it's a creational covenant and

00:29:32.100 if Adam was you know he would technically still be operating by faith and and you know and by grace

00:29:36.780 and I get it but you just muddy the waters it's doctrinally confusing I don't think it's

00:29:41.900 particularly helpful so uh if you're in Adam you're spiritually dead you're going to hell unless

00:29:46.140 you unless by grace you're born again and now in Christ as a new covenant you know federal head

00:29:50.680 a new covenant head so covenant of works that's a reformed tradition always has been covenant of

00:29:55.740 grace. And then within that, the Reformed tradition holds to three different categories of the law of

00:30:00.880 God. You have the moral law, you have the civil code, civil law, and ceremonial. Now Jesus, in his

00:30:07.120 fulfillment of the law, back to verse 17, first verse of our text, his fulfillment is total. It's

00:30:12.820 in total. A total fulfillment of all the law of God, all three of these categories, moral, civil,

00:30:18.620 and ceremonial. But there is a distinction in the way in which he fulfills the law in each of these

00:30:24.260 three categories and certainly distinction in in regards to what that means for you and me

00:30:29.220 okay jesus fulfillment of the ceremonial law his fulfillment so let's start there some

00:30:37.220 ceremonial law this is the priestly animal sacrificial system uh that belonged to judaism

00:30:43.600 in israel at that time and at that time as you guys know i've said it before it's it's it's it

00:30:50.300 bears saying again and i won't spend much time on it but uh even at that time this is after 400 years

00:30:56.220 of as um as the scripture says elsewhere in the old testament that the sky had turned to brass or

00:31:02.460 some translations say bronze and the word of the lord was few meaning that leading up to the scene

00:31:08.360 when jesus comes um in in his incarnation uh you have that's that's on the heels of 400 years

00:31:16.480 of primarily, predominantly silence

00:31:19.780 from the Lord to Israel.

00:31:22.960 And during those 400 years,

00:31:25.400 with mostly silence from the Lord,

00:31:28.620 the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes

00:31:31.520 and rulers of the law wasted no time

00:31:33.540 during those four centuries

00:31:35.140 when the word of the Lord was few 0.99

00:31:37.100 to make sure to pervert Judaism 0.91

00:31:40.280 as much as they possibly could. 0.98

00:31:42.520 So that when Jesus arrives on the scene,

00:31:44.340 that's why he's constantly juxtaposing look at his preaching style look at his argumentation his

00:31:49.460 rhetoric again and again what he's constantly doing is he's doing this he said you have heard

00:31:53.340 it was said but i tell you you have heard it was said but i tell you now here's the mistake that i

00:31:58.780 think a lot of modern evangelicals make and even within the reformed tradition we read that in the

00:32:03.900 sermon on the mount where that's where we currently are in this series through the gospel according

00:32:08.060 to matthew we read that and we think that jesus is juxtaposing moses against himself christ

00:32:15.360 he's not when he says you have heard it said he's not saying moses said and moses was wrong i tell

00:32:23.720 you but i tell you something different no when he says you have heard it was said he's saying you

00:32:29.440 have heard your rabbis your rabbinical teachers exegeting and teaching Moses with the twist

00:32:38.500 they have so neutered and perverted and twisted Moses that it's no longer Moses so Jesus isn't 0.68

00:32:46.360 saying you've heard it was said Moses said but I say no he's saying you've heard your modern day 0.84

00:32:52.100 Judaizers teach something that in the name of Moses but it's not actually Moses and so my point

00:32:59.880 is this that's 400 years of the skies being turned to bronze where the word of the Lord is is rare 0.93

00:33:04.780 and Judaism at that time was all already severely perverted

00:33:09.220 and I think that it's safe to say without any of this being anti-semitic or anything like that

00:33:18.620 It's safe to say, if that's where we were after 400 years, from Malachi to Jesus,

00:33:25.320 where do you think Judaism is now 2,000 years later? 0.51

00:33:31.760 Do you think it's more on track? 0.97

00:33:35.100 No, of course not. That's silly. 0.94

00:33:38.500 And you can hate an ideology. 0.98

00:33:42.200 That's wrong. Let me say that better.

00:33:44.500 You must. It's not permissible.

00:33:46.460 it is morally obligated you must hate any ideology or any false religion that hates christ

00:33:56.260 of course you must of course and so jesus comes on the scene things are already well off track

00:34:04.340 but he comes into this system it's already perverted that was the point it's already

00:34:08.920 perverted but there is something that god actually did institute right it's perverted

00:34:14.120 But underneath all the perversion, all the twistings and all the trims and trappings that don't belong there and the traditions of men, there is an actual real religion that at that time, under that covenant, that covenantal period, was instituted by God himself.

00:34:30.540 and in this priestly temple sacrificial system in israel the purity of it that god actually

00:34:38.280 instituted that ceremonial piece which would deal the ceremonial law meaning uh washings there were

00:34:45.200 certain washing rituals with hands and these kinds of things um animal sacrifices um other

00:34:52.220 ceremonial laws, things dealing with cleansing, okay, certain food rituals and dietary restrictions,

00:35:01.580 no shellfish, no pork, these kinds of, these would all be what we would consider to be ceremonial.

00:35:07.820 And so Jesus fulfilled all the law. That's verse 17. Not some, all of the law and the prophets.

00:35:14.720 Not just the moral law of God, which we'll get to in a moment, and that's the most significant,

00:35:18.560 but also the civil laws and the ceremonial laws.

00:35:22.620 But there's a distinction in how he fulfilled

00:35:25.480 each of these three categories of the law

00:35:27.560 and certainly a distinction of the ramifications,

00:35:31.840 the results of his fulfillment of all three categories of the law

00:35:34.780 as it pertains to us.

00:35:37.100 Jesus' fulfillment of the ceremonial laws,

00:35:39.580 what does that mean for us?

00:35:41.380 He fulfilled those laws in such a way,

00:35:44.360 with such finality, with such beauty and such perfection

00:35:48.440 that for us to engage in an attempt to uphold any of the ceremonial laws today

00:35:54.440 would actually undermine the sufficiency of His fulfillment.

00:36:00.300 Meaning that if you and I on the Lord's Day were bringing in animals for sacrifice,

00:36:05.700 it would actually undercut the perfect, final, finished, sufficient work of Christ.

00:36:12.160 he fulfilled the ceremonial laws so perfectly that for us to continue to continue an observance

00:36:20.320 of the ceremonial laws, what that looks like, the righteous observance of the ceremonial laws for

00:36:26.080 the New Testament Christian today, what that looks like is not performing any of those things. 0.54

00:36:32.220 Because we're saying every time we don't do an animal sacrifice, every time we don't go through

00:36:37.760 washing rituals that you can wash your hands for sanitary purposes but not as a religious thing

00:36:43.320 every time we don't wash our hands and and we don't undergo certain food uh sacrifice like that

00:36:49.380 that's why not only is it permissible to eat certain things that were not permissible for

00:36:56.360 Israel under the old covenant but I eat those things now in faith in fact there are times I

00:37:02.060 will go out of my way, especially during Lent. It's a great time. So whenever it's Lent, when that

00:37:07.920 rolls around those 40 days, I'm going to, every bit of shellfish and every bit of pork, I don't

00:37:13.860 even really like pork. Beef is way better for you. Eat beef. But I have to make an exception because

00:37:19.580 I want to honor the Lord. For 40 days during Lent, we're eating pork, we're eating crab, we're eating

00:37:24.620 shrimp, all these things. And they're not particularly healthy because there actually is an

00:37:28.700 endearing, you know, like with the civil code, there's the general equity. I think there is even

00:37:33.200 a general equity of sorts of the ceremonial law of God. If you eat nothing but shrimp, you'll

00:37:38.900 probably shave off like 10 years of your life. So it's not a great thing to do from a, again, 0.88

00:37:43.200 from a scientific perspective, a health perspective, but you get my point, right? I'm a

00:37:47.280 Protestant. We protest, right? So I'm going to protest Rome and I'm going to say, you know,

00:37:51.620 hey, it's Lent. Everybody's giving something up. I'm going to add some things on. I'm going to be

00:37:55.260 eaten all the things that we're not supposed to eat, because now we are, because Christ is

00:38:00.180 sufficient. Christ is perfect. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law of God. So what does it look

00:38:04.780 like for the New Testament Christian in regards to the ceremonial laws and Christ's fulfillment

00:38:09.020 of them? It means that we can engage those things, embrace those things, and receive them with

00:38:13.620 gladness and joy in faith. It is not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, but rather

00:38:19.040 what comes out of it. That's what Jesus said. And thus, the parenthetical statement right there in

00:38:23.000 the gospel narrative says, and thus he declared all foods clean. Okay? Now notice that is actually

00:38:28.700 the opposite of the way he fulfilled the moral law. Take that same logic and apply it to the

00:38:36.880 moral law. The moral law of God being most succinctly a summary law, a summary in the

00:38:41.900 Decalogue. Exodus chapter 20, the Ten Commandments. In regards to the moral law, if we said, you know

00:38:46.920 what? Christ has so sufficiently fulfilled the moral law of God that the best way that we can

00:38:51.900 honor his fulfillment of these moral commandments is by breaking every single one of them that we

00:38:57.080 possibly can. That would be a problem. That's a conflation, theologically. That's not

00:39:04.760 the way that he... He did fulfill the moral law of God perfectly. It's not like he fulfilled

00:39:09.600 the ceremonial laws more perfectly or in a superior fashion, and then he kind of fulfilled

00:39:14.640 the... No, he perfectly fulfilled all the law, moral, civil, ceremony, all of it. And yet,

00:39:19.880 the way that we appreciate and show gratitude and love and faith and trust in Jesus with his

00:39:27.560 perfect fulfillment of the moral laws is by seeking to obey those moral laws in faith by

00:39:33.260 grace and knowing when we fail that we've been covered. And the way that we appreciate his

00:39:38.880 fulfillment of the ceremonial laws is when Lent rolls around, we order lobster if we can afford

00:39:44.660 it and we get out of, you know, Kamala and Biden's economy. So that's, that's the difference. Do you

00:39:50.200 understand that Jesus, I'll use it with the sacrificial thing. So forget the dietary

00:39:55.060 restrictions for a moment. I think the better example that'll be clear in your minds is this.

00:40:00.880 Think of the animal sacrifices, right? Bulls, rams, goats, lambs, doves, grain, all these different

00:40:10.140 sacrifices that had to be made. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the

00:40:15.720 sins of the world. When Jesus died, that sacrifice was so perfect. It's not, because this is what

00:40:22.300 we'll say, even confessionally, it'll say the word abrogated, that the ceremonial laws have not only

00:40:28.160 been fulfilled, right? God fulfilled, Jesus fulfilled the moral laws, but he fulfilled and

00:40:32.960 abrogated the ceremonial laws. I get the language. I think it's good. It's fine. But technically,

00:40:38.940 the ceremonial laws of god rush dune even says this they're not actually in the technical sense

00:40:44.680 abrogated meaning that they've gone away they just they evaporate into the ether why and here's

00:40:50.820 the reason why it matters okay because we love confessions but we love the bible more and what

00:40:55.920 the bible says in our in our text today uh verse 18 now moving forward a little bit he says for

00:41:01.560 truly i say to you until heaven and earth pass away has that happened has heaven and earth passed

00:41:06.020 away? No. So until that happens, which has not happened yet, until heaven and earth pass away,

00:41:10.820 not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law, not just moral, but the whole law of God, which

00:41:17.240 include the ceremonial laws, not a single dot or iota will pass away until all is accomplished.

00:41:23.520 So technically, in the technical theological sense, the ceremonial laws of God have not been

00:41:27.920 abrogated, but they have been fulfilled just like the moral law. They have been fulfilled by Christ,

00:41:33.600 but fulfilled with such finality that they never need to be done again.

00:41:38.780 All the ritual washings, Christ has washed you no longer with water, but by his blood.

00:41:44.180 And when it comes to his blood and that washing, it is so sufficient,

00:41:48.320 so efficacious that you never need to take a bath again.

00:41:52.460 Does that sound familiar?

00:41:53.480 Didn't Jesus literally exactly say that to Peter?

00:41:55.840 He says, well, then if this is the case, I have no part in you

00:41:58.880 unless I allow you to wash my feet, then wash my head and body also.

00:42:02.200 But Jesus says, no.

00:42:04.060 You don't need that kind of washing.

00:42:05.780 That washing is already done.

00:42:09.020 He was speaking in the theological sense.

00:42:10.900 Although he had not yet gone and died,

00:42:12.820 he knew that the sacrifice was once and for all for the saints

00:42:16.260 and applied even for Old Testament saints,

00:42:18.800 such as Peter, retroactively,

00:42:20.540 by the finished work of Christ

00:42:21.980 because he was put forward in the providence of God

00:42:24.680 according to the counsels of eternity

00:42:26.600 before the world was even made.

00:42:28.980 It pleased the Father to crush him.

00:42:31.120 And that sacrifice was already counted as righteousness for Peter by faith.

00:42:36.940 So Peter didn't need to be washed.

00:42:39.060 Why? Because the ceremonial laws no longer are there because they disappeared.

00:42:43.200 No, not one dot, not one iota, not one dotted I, not one cross T will disappear.

00:42:48.420 They're still there.

00:42:49.760 You have to wash.

00:42:51.100 You have to wash again and again and again and again if it's water.

00:42:54.880 But once it becomes blood, then you never have to wash again.

00:42:58.280 Not because the law disappeared, but because the obedience of Christ to that particular law is a obedience that is so efficacious that it's a one-time obedience and never needs to be obeyed again.

00:43:08.960 That's the ceremonial law, fulfilled in that sense.

00:43:12.420 The moral law of God, we don't have to obey His law in order to supplement the righteousness of Christ.

00:43:18.620 Likewise, in that category as well, perfectly sufficient.

00:43:21.540 and yet what we do is we seek to obey the moral commandments of christ as a sign of our faith

00:43:29.020 our trust and our gratitude for what jesus has done for us we're not doing it in order to inherit

00:43:34.940 salvation we're not doing it to make up for the partial obedience of christ no his active obedience

00:43:40.840 and his passive obedience are perfect and full and sufficient and done what does he say on the cross

00:43:46.400 it is started. No, it is finished. It's finished. It's enough. It's enough.

00:43:55.700 And yet we seek to obey in gratitude, not in desperation to earn, but in gratitude for what

00:44:02.060 Christ has already earned. So his fulfillment is total over every kind of law, all three categories

00:44:10.060 of the law of God, but our response to that fulfillment does differ. In regards to the

00:44:16.160 ceremonial law, his perfect fulfillment of those laws means that we can embrace in faith certain

00:44:23.660 things that old covenant Israel could not. And his fulfillment of the moral law, the Decalogue,

00:44:30.020 the Ten Commandments, and all their expressions as they find their general equity in the civil law

00:44:34.220 as well throughout the Old Testament, his perfect fulfillment of the moral law, our response to

00:44:39.900 that is that we seek to be moral and that we don't put the Lord God to the test. And we don't

00:44:45.200 view his grace and sacrifice as a license for sin. But we know in the final analysis that we are

00:44:51.880 justified by his obedience and not our own. Okay, that's verse 17. That's mostly verse 18. And we're

00:44:59.960 going to skip and go now to verse 19. We're going to go to verse 20. But notice what Jesus says in

00:45:06.240 terms of greatness. The last thing I'll add on this middle portion, verses 18 and 19. In terms

00:45:10.820 of greatness, he says this. It is both the doing and the teaching. And again, he's indicting the

00:45:16.640 Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the rulers, religious rulers of his day. He's

00:45:22.220 saying you teach, but you do not do. Remember, his indictment against them is not that you're

00:45:27.520 legalist, that you hold the law too tightly. You care too much about holiness. That's your problem.

00:45:33.320 That's what the evangelical,

00:45:34.480 modern evangelical church today

00:45:35.840 wants to think Jesus' problem

00:45:37.700 with the Pharisees was.

00:45:38.720 That was not his problem.

00:45:40.360 His problem was not,

00:45:41.160 you care too much about holiness.

00:45:43.040 And if you really love God,

00:45:44.660 you'll relax the law of God a little bit.

00:45:49.080 You'll loosen up.

00:45:50.800 No?

00:45:52.020 You care immensely about holiness

00:45:54.160 and it's in your lips.

00:45:55.560 It's in your teachings.

00:45:57.400 But you don't actually do it.

00:45:59.380 Your problem is not that you're legalist. 1.00

00:46:01.080 Your problem is that you are hypocrites. 0.99

00:46:03.640 And so how? 0.99

00:46:05.800 Juxtapose, in contrast to the religious rulers of his day, 1.00

00:46:09.220 those Judaizers who perverted the law of God. 1.00

00:46:12.280 What does Jesus say to be great in the kingdom? 1.00

00:46:14.800 You can't just teach it, but you have to do it.

00:46:18.740 It is both the teaching of the law of God and doing, obeying the law of God.

00:46:23.340 That is what makes someone great in the kingdom of heaven.

00:46:26.700 Here's the last one.

00:46:27.800 I already covered it in the intro a little bit.

00:46:29.800 I'll give a little bit more of a fine point detail on it. We'll be done. Verse 20. Let's

00:46:34.040 read it once more so it's fresh in our minds. Matthew 5 20. For I tell you, unless your

00:46:38.560 righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of

00:46:42.580 heaven. I've written in your notes the following. Jesus is not merely addressing the need for a

00:46:47.840 superior positional righteousness. Justification. He is also speaking to the need for a superior

00:46:54.180 progressive righteousness, sanctification.

00:46:57.580 In other words, Jesus is not saying

00:46:59.920 that the Pharisees have a meticulous

00:47:01.940 outward righteousness,

00:47:03.560 but inwardly their hearts remain corrupted.

00:47:06.420 Therefore, you merely need to receive

00:47:08.540 the superior inward righteousness

00:47:10.040 of Christ by faith.

00:47:11.880 That's not what he's saying.

00:47:13.480 It's not at least entirely what he's saying.

00:47:16.940 Instead, Jesus is actually saying

00:47:19.520 the Pharisees are not truly righteous

00:47:21.640 in any sense of the word,

00:47:23.340 neither inwardly nor outwardly. They possess a willingness. I'm sorry, they are hypocrites.

00:47:31.220 The problem with the Pharisees is not merely a failure to obey from the heart, but rather 0.98

00:47:35.720 they possess a willingness to twist the scriptures so that even their outward obedience falls utterly

00:47:42.180 short of what God commands. Therefore, you must have both. You must be justified inwardly by faith.

00:47:49.940 That way you have an inward, positional righteousness, justification,

00:47:55.460 and also sanctified outwardly by holding faithfully to the Scriptures

00:48:00.600 without twisting or perverting them

00:48:03.000 and seeking to actually obey them, outwardly obey them in your actions,

00:48:07.960 your word, your deeds, your speech, and to do all this by grace.

00:48:14.740 In order not to be great, to be great in the kingdom of heaven,

00:48:18.160 You must obey the law and properly instruct, lovingly instruct others to obey the law as well.

00:48:26.840 Teaching the law and being a doer of the law.

00:48:31.040 And you can do this whether you're a pastor or not.

00:48:33.060 But simply as a Christian, as a father, as a mother with your children.

00:48:36.700 And as you seek to disciple others even outside of your home.

00:48:40.660 You can obey the law and teach the law.

00:48:43.700 And as we do so, by the grace of God, faithfully,

00:48:47.100 that's the way to achieve greatness, according to Jesus, in the kingdom of heaven.

00:48:52.320 But before greatness, the first question is merely entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

00:48:58.260 An entrance into the kingdom of heaven, not merely to be great, but simply to enter.

00:49:03.700 To enter the kingdom of heaven requires not just teaching the law to others while obeying,

00:49:09.480 But it requires a superior righteousness to the righteousness of the Pharisees.

00:49:16.060 And of course, first and foremost, this is speaking of the inward righteousness of the heart

00:49:20.600 that is received by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone,

00:49:23.680 being declared righteous in a moment by God

00:49:27.640 and the perfect work of Jesus Christ imputed to you by faith.

00:49:32.220 But secondly, it's not just being declared righteous in a moment,

00:49:35.660 but made righteous over a lifetime by the Spirit

00:49:39.780 as we seek to obey the law of God outwardly

00:49:43.760 from a heart that has been transformed by grace.

00:49:48.280 Positional righteousness must be superior.

00:49:51.000 That's the righteousness of Christ. 0.60

00:49:52.520 You get it by faith and faith alone.

00:49:55.100 But progressive righteousness,

00:49:56.600 I believe if the positional righteousness

00:49:58.900 in terms of justification is actually there,

00:50:02.360 then the progressive righteousness

00:50:03.720 in terms of sanctification

00:50:05.140 will also be superior to the Pharisees.

00:50:07.920 Because, remember one final time, 0.99

00:50:10.380 the Pharisees were not legalists, but hypocrites. 0.97

00:50:13.700 Not only were they lacking the righteousness of justification 0.88

00:50:16.460 that comes through faith by denying Christ and rejecting Him,

00:50:20.120 but they were also, therefore, lacking the progressive righteousness of sanctification

00:50:24.980 that comes by outward obedience to the law.

00:50:27.760 They taught the law, but they did not obey the law themselves. 0.94

00:50:31.260 The Christian will have both.

00:50:32.860 They'll have the righteousness imputed from Christ by faith.

00:50:37.260 But they'll also, because they've been justified,

00:50:40.040 as in evidence, they'll be sanctified.

00:50:42.860 And they'll have the outward progressive righteousness

00:50:45.040 that actually, in that category as well,

00:50:48.220 is superior to the Pharisees

00:50:50.000 because the Pharisees weren't legalists. 1.00

00:50:52.660 The Pharisees were hypocrites. 0.99

00:50:54.620 Let's pray. 0.97

00:50:55.220 Father, thank you for your word.

00:50:56.820 Bless it to your people, all for your glory.

00:50:59.060 In Jesus' name, amen.

The NXR Podcast - October 07, 2024

THE SERMON - A Righteousness That Exceeds That Of The Pharisees

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