Matthew 5:17-6:8

The audience here were not reborn sons of God, they were Jews living under the Old Covenant, The Old Testament, and the Mosaic law.

However, Jesus is also talking to us today and He’s explaining how no person can come to God on the basis of their works. He’s teaching that the one and only way to God is through Him because He’s the fulfilment of the law.

 

Let’s begin today in Matthew 5:17,

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

The law Jesus is talking about here is the law that God gave to the Jewish nation through Moses, and we’ll see how that comes about in the next book of our study, Exodus.

Christ came not to destroy that Law but to fulfill it. He fulfilled it in that He kept it during His earthly life.

He was the only One who was able to meet that standard, which was set before mankind to show God’s perfect righteousness, but that man was never able to meet.

He met that standard, which meant He was not guilty of Sin. He didn’t have the sin nature of natural man you see. He’s not guilty so therefore the law of sin and death doesn’t apply to Him. He doesn’t need to suffer the wages of sin, which is death.

And yet, He is put to death, and He willingly suffers that death. Why? Because that was the entire plan of God before the world began.

His spilled blood on the cross was that innocent blood that was the only thing that could pay the price for sin.

The Jewish nation had a sacrificial system where the innocent blood of animals was spilled to cover over sin temporarily until the One great sin bearer Jesus, The Christ, would come and make that sacrifice with His own blood once and forever.

Then, it was no longer necessary to sacrifice animals to cover over sin for a time. Sin would be fully paid for.

Jesus fulfilled the law which is what’s being said here.

 

Verse 18,

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

 

See He IS the fulfilling of the law.

Not one dotting of an I or crossing of a T will pass from the law until when, till it’s all, all been fulfilled.

Now, today, the law is fulfilled. Every Jot and tittle, every dotting of the I and every crossing of the T has passed. This verse is saying the law will pass when it’s fulfilled. Now it’s fulfilled. Now it’s passed.

 

But, when Jesus gave this sermon these Jews that He’s speaking to are still living under the law and they will be until Jesus completes His finished work on the cross and the law is fulfilled.

 

We’re not living under the law today because the law is fulfilled you see. We should reject the words of anyone who tries to make us believe that even though The Christ has come, and the law is fulfilled, we must still work to be righteous, that we need to do stuff in order to be acceptable to God.

My friends, do you see? If we could work and do anything ourselves to be righteous or to please God it was a terrible injustice to send the Son of God to the cross.

Now, of course, Christians living under the new covenant should do good works. We’re instructed to in many places. But the important thing we’ve got to be aware of is that those works are not to earn salvation. We do good works because we’re saved not to be saved.

 

Now Jesus is going to make every person decidedly uncomfortable, especially the religious rulers, the scribes, and the Pharisees, and all those that believe their own works have been good enough to impress God. I’m sure many of them were expecting to be pointed out as especially good and worthy. There’re powerful people in the crowds that would hear these words and their pride and self-righteousness was being directly attacked and they’re not going to like it one bit! In fact, they’ll eventually take Jesus to be tortured and crucified.

 

Verse 19 is where the mood must have changed dramatically,

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

 

Broken commandments must be paid for. God, who is not only perfectly righteous but also perfectly just, demands it and it can be no other way if God is perfectly just.

And the price for breaking those commandments, even just one commandment one time, is death, meaning eternal separation from God.

James 2:10 tells us,

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

But here’s the rub. We can’t keep those commandments. The only way we escape judgement and condemnation for breaking the commandments is to come to Jesus Christ for salvation because in Him all the law’s demands are met. The law is fulfilled in Him as we’ve just heard Jesus say in verse 18, and then through Him we’re free of its penalty.

Verse 20,

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Can you imagine what those words would have done to everyone hearing them?

Everyone’s saying, “Who in the world can surpass these religious elite? At this time these Jewish people looked at the Pharisees and the scribes as the absolute pinnacle of righteousness, the elite of the elite, and they’ve got to somehow surpass them?

It’s like a student nurse on her first day at a hospital being asked to perform brain surgery.

It’s very important to see Jesus’s point here. Even though these scribes and Pharisees had a high degree of righteousness according to the Law, and it was very impressive from the outside, it was completely unacceptable to God.

Isaiah 64:6 tells us,

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.

How could Jesus’s audience ever hope to surpass that level of righteousness and how can we today?

 

Now, as if that little speech wasn’t enough to completely unsettle those good citizens we move to Matthew 5:21-22 where Jesus is really going to turn up the heat,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

Raca means vain, empty, worthless, good for nothing.

Listen friends, this is not a message to a believing Christian.

Jesus has just threatened every person whose ever been angry at a brother with judgement and judgment means eternal damnation!

This is burying every Jewish person under the voice of Jesus. Who can say he’s never been angry with a brother?

 

Now to verses 23 to 26,

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

 

Jesus is telling them the importance of being reconciled to a brother and the consequences if they’re not.

The alter that Jesus is talking about here is not, of course, what’s popularly called the alter in a modern church. It’s the alter in the temple where sacrifice and offering was made for the covering of sin.

There’s no alter today except the cross of Christ where the Lamb of God was slain for the sins of the world.

 

Now, in verses 27 and 28, Jesus gives one for all us men and I suspect many women also.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.’

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

 

Try to imagine the scene. Probably the majority of the people listening would’ve begun to get a bit comfortable and self-righteous because I dare say most hadn’t cheated on their wives or husbands.

But then Jesus rocks that whole attitude by raising the bar yet again and when he finishes this sentence everyone’s guilty. Everyone’s choking on this saying.

Any man who thinks he’s right before God without Christ simply needs to look at these verses.

If there’s any honesty at all in a person they’ll not claim to be keeping the Law. Remember that there were ten commandments and although Matthew doesn’t mention it, it’s most likely that Jesus lifted the standard on all ten of them.

 

My friend, the Sermon on the Mount shows me that I’ve sinned and that I need to come to Christ for mercy and help. To say that we’re living by the Sermon on the Mount while all the time breaking it is to deceive ourselves.

In the following verses, verses 29 to 30, the Lord deals in a tremendous way with the Law and man’s relationship to it.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

 

This is severe, extremely severe.

To cut off body parts is much more preferred than going to hell with a whole body!!!

This is the severity with which we should regard sin.

We can’t kid ourselves and fool around pretending we’re a quote good person and therefore God’s duty is to take us to heaven and give us eternal life. It’s a deadly and desperately wrong viewpoint.

The New Testament is packed with evidence of this.

Romans 5:20

‘Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin’.

Ephesians 2:8-9

‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast’.

Romans 5:1

‘Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’.

Romans 4:4-5

‘Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.  However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness’.

We could go on and on bringing evidence.

The Sermon on the Mount ought to drive us to the Cross of Christ where we cry out for mercy. To do that is to honour the Law. We shouldn’t try to kid ourselves into thinking that we’re keeping it.

 

Now, in verses 31 and 32, Jesus takes the law relating to divorce to a higher degree..

 “Furthermore, it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

We’ll deal with the divorce question in some detail when we get to chapter 19.

 

In Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus handles the law relating to oaths or making promises,

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’

But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

 

What Jesus is showing here is that the law demands such a high degree of honesty in a person’s dealings that they never need to take an oath.

 

Now in Matthew 5:38 , we see Jesus defining the response to retaliation,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

 

The Mosaic law did teach this in Exodus 21:23-24,

But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

 

But Jesus again raises the bar to where it’s impossible for both those people who were present and us today. It’s a total and complete walking away from our perceived right to retaliate and leaving vengeance to God.

 

In verses 43 to 47 Jesus turns His attention to the law that relates to loving your neighbour.

You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

 

The first half of this law, “You shall love your neighbour” is found in Moses’ law in Leviticus 19:18. The second part, hate your enemies, is not in scripture at all but it’s how the scribes and Pharisees explained and applied that Old Testament command.

Jesus’ application is exactly the opposite, resulting in a much higher standard again: Love for our neighbours should extend even to those neighbours who are enemies.

 

Now let’s address those who believe Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount to believers, to Christians, and that he demands we live up to that standard or we’ll lose our salvation.

Let’s say someone attacks and seriously injures one of our children.

Would you say there’d be a span of time in which we’d regard that person as an enemy? Could we bless him and pray for him? Now over time we may be able to as God leads us but I’m almost certain there’ll be some period of time of hatred toward him by us.

Well within that time span, we were guilty of breaking the law.

Now, this isn’t just a matter of going and repenting.

Let’s hear again what James says about this in James 2:10,

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

We’re done for. We can’t even mess up once. Now remember we’re speaking to those that believe that the sermon on the mount is given to Christians.

If we’re guilty then we’re not saved, we’ve lost our salvation because the guilty cannot inherit eternal life.

But hold on!

The entire New Testament tells us something completely different. Time after time it says this isn’t so. Christians are sealed.

Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us,

In Him you also trusted, (the “you” here is the Gentiles, you, and me), In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Guaranteed? Sealed? Who sealed us and guaranteed our inheritance?

The Holy Spirit! God. Are the sins that you and I commit greater than the guarantee and the sealing of God?

Friends if our eternal salvation relied on us in any way no human being would ever be saved. Heaven would be eternally empty of humans. But it doesn’t rely on us. It is 100% God.

 

This New Covenant wasn’t made between God and man on a handshake that relied on mankind keeping his side of the deal. Man’s actions are excluded from the deal.

Just like we saw in the covenant made with Abraham back in our Genesis study in Genesis 15. God excluded Abraham’s part in the deal.

He made the covenant with Abraham but excluded his requirement to do anything. The deal wasn’t relying on anything Abraham did, in fact God put Abraham to sleep when He made the covenant. There was no one worthy of making and keeping a covenant with God you see so Hebrews 6 13 tells us that because there was no one greater than God who He could swear by, He swore by Himself.

The same with the New covenant. It’s a covenant made without relying on mankind fulling conditions. Only that he believes.

You see God’s not silly; He knows full well that no man’s able to keep a bargain that relies on his own perfection.

My friends, it’s simply impossible for these covenants to ever be broken.

 

Romans 8:2 tells us that,

Being saved is being free for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,

 

Those who tell us we’ve got to keep the sermon on the mount to keep our salvation and that if we don’t we lose it, are living without hope because their hope is in their own performance, not Christ’s.

And if those ones try to tell us that they themselves keep the sermon on the mount to the letter, all their lives, not slipping up once well quite frankly my friends, they’re liars and we should reject what they say.

 

Finally, in this chapter of Matthew we hit verse 48,

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

It almost sounds like Jesus is summing up the entire sermon up to this point with these words. He’s saying, “Look, forget all I’ve just said. I’ll nutshell it for you. All you need to do is be perfect like your Father in heaven.”

How is this possible? How can you and I be perfect?

The only way to be perfect in the sight of God is when we’re in Christ, because only in Him that the law is fulfilled to the letter and God pronounces us “not guilty”.

Romans 8:1,

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…

There’s no condemnation in Him, and we get in Him by faith. The only way we can become perfect is through our faith in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21,

He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him

Trying to attain perfection by our own efforts is absolutely futile.

 

We’re now at chapter 6 of Matthew which deals with the external part of religion, what others see or more importantly what we want others to see.

We’ve seen in chapter 5 that the King speaks of the righteousness that must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and that comes only through trust in Christ.

 

In chapter 6 Jesus tells His audience about how the motive for what we do is all important under the law.

We need to keep reminding ourselves that throughout these chapters He’s still speaking to Jewish “pre Cross”, Pre New Covenant” people who are still under the Old Covenant. They’re still keeping the law..

The thrust of this part of the sermon is that all these things have a bearing on salvation and eternal life under the law, but under the New Covenant salvation doesn’t rely on this doing by us, even though there’re many lessons for us today in our Christian walk.

First, our Lord talks about alms or offerings and charity and we need to keep in mind that all this has to do with external appearances or more importantly the reasoning of the heart behind that’s behind them.

We begin Matthew 6:1-2,

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 

Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 

 

Jesus is very scathing here. In that day when the Pharisees gave something to the poor, they’d often go down to a busy street corner and blow a trumpet.

Although the purpose was to call the poor and needy together to receive their gifts, it was a great opportunity to let others see their good works.

Jesus said that when the Pharisees did it that way, they have their reward. What was their reward?

Well, what was it that they were after? Jesus said they did it to get glory from men. The applause they got from people for their open show was their reward. Their giving was not between themselves and God you see, it was a display, a play act with the goal of impressing all those around them.

 

When we give today do we desire the same thing?

Giving is between us and God.

Christian giving today can easily be used for creating an image of how righteous we are to others and, like all other aspects of the law it’s impossible to maintain that standard at all times and, of course, if God is judging us on that, we lose.

As Christians we should be seen doing good works, but if the motivation is simply to be seen somethings wrong.

How we do our good works, and what our motive is for doing them is important, but our salvation doesn’t rely on it.

Verse 3 to 6,

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 

Don’t be like the hypocrites, Jesus says to these people.

Their motivation is to be seen of men. It was common for some to wear a prayer shawl to advertise the fact that they were praying and that’s still a widespread practice in Israel to this day.

Do we Christians today always follow these sayings, to the letter?

I’ve seen people stand up in a congregation and start rattling off long winded prayers and many times it’s like a plea to look at me please, I’m special you know.

Can any of us truly say that we’ve never felt that splash of pride in something good we’ve done?

We most definitely should have the right motivation for our prayers and our giving but thank God that our eternal life doesn’t rely on us keeping this law and, it is law.

Verse 7 and 8,

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 

 

One famous Jewish prayer begins like this: “Blessed, praised, and glorified, exalted, and honoured, magnified and lauded be the name of the Holy One.”

What Jesus is saying to these folk is that under the law trying to impress God with many words or repetitive mantras effects their works program.

Today, God knows what we need before we ask, and He knows our heart and our motivation for everything we do.

What we should do is follow the counsel of Ecclesiastes 5:2,

Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are on earth. So let your words be few.

A Christian’s prayers are measured by weight, and not by length. Many of the most powerful prayers are as short as they were strong.

The Lord Jesus says that if we ask the Father one time, He hears us.

Now, we’ll say it again, all this section we just looked at today is part of the sermon on the mount given to those people who are still under the law.

At this time Jesus is still about 3 and a half years away from the cross and the birth of the New Covenant, so this Old Covenant is nearly finished. It’s in its last 31/2 years of its 1500 year lifespan, but it isn’t finished yet.

 

Now, we can’t go through these verses in the sermon on the mount without noticing how many times Jesus talks of a reward.

This’s been a quite confusing issue with Christians today, but it shouldn’t be.

The idea of rewards in this sermon can easily shunt us right back into a works program where it’s about me working harder, smarter, or better than you and getting a reward for it. Then I could strut through the golden roads of heaven with my armful of rewards and sneer at those poor sods who can’t even fill their wallet.

This obviously isn’t so.

First we should notice that the word “rewards” plural isn’t used in the New Testament. It’s the word “reward” singular. And additionally, the plural of the word “rewards” is only used 4 times in the Old Testament and never in the New Testament and when it appears as plural in the Old Testament it’s talking about earthly rewards between humans.

It’s also very interesting that some scholars believe the term “reward” used in these verses is a translation of a Greek commercial term for cancelled bills and is almost identical to the English phrase “paid in full”.

 

So, yet again, remembering that we’re listening to Jesus speak to Jews under the Old Testament law we see that the whole reason for trying to keep the law is salvation. The Old Testament Jew kept the law in order to receive eternal life, salvation. Salvation is the reward. Some try to turn this into some kind of heavenly jewellery chest, but the reward is receiving eternal salvation.

 

Some think that other rewards are given out in heaven, and they quote 1st Corinthians 3 verses 10 to 15. We’ll not read those verses, however Paul’s talking here about sharing the Gospel, and it’s simply that the reward for properly doing that is when the person who’s receives the Gospel correctly comes to eternal salvation. The loss suffered here is the person who receives it incorrectly and is eternally lost but the person giving out the gospel in either case is saved if he is a believer.

The receiving of crowns is sometimes confused with rewards also but they shouldn’t be. There are many crowns mentioned in Scripture, including the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory and others. The crowns point to those who’ve received eternal life through faith in Christ one day sharing in His glory.

 

These verses are just the same as the rest of the sermon on the mount in that they’re showing those under the law how far they fall short. You see, just as with us today, although it’d be nice to think that we’re not like those people who did deeds to be noticed and that we were always humble and godly in everything we do but, if we’re honest, none of us are that good. Some might be better at it than others, but we all fall short again.

Now, God’s going to give a sample prayer and we are of course talking about the famous and so called Lord’s prayer.

Anyone who speaks or writes on the so-called Lord’s Prayer has entered a field of controversy and we’ll find out why next time. Until then my friends may God guide you and keep you.