13th September 2024

13th September 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 5:17-20 focus v20)


Message (Alan Burke)


We’re going to be working though the sermon on the Mount to the middle of December and what I probably didn’t prepare myself for in the study before I began preparing is just how hard hitting it is. Like if you have your bible open in front of you look down to the second part of v22, …anyone who says ‘you fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. The greek is actually much more direct, it says deserving of the fire of hell. Then look down to v28, if you have looked at a woman lustfully you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart. We might have thought we have done a good job at keeping the commandments of God but these leave any self confidence we may have in the gutter. Here as Jesus continues in teaching he says in v20; “…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”.


These guys were known as law keepers, as righteous men, they did everything that was required of them according to the law of God externally. What is more they sought that others would do the same, that others would obey the law just as they in every way sought to be obedient to the law of God. To give you an idea of their righteousness there are 248 commandments give and the 365 provisions of the law they put them together with explanation of how to follow them to the letter. They were seen as holy, they were those that you’d look at and you couldn’t fail to feel rubbish about your own piety in comparison to them. 


There are lots of people who by the worlds standards good people and but we can’t rely on that for our righteousness even our best efforts cant come close to the Pharisees and teachers of the law and as the rest of Sermon on the Mount makes clear that we should have no confidence in our own righteousness. The truth is that there is not one of us here who can keep the law, the truth no matter how hard that is for us to accept is that there is not one of us who are righteous, all of us deserve not the grace of God but the wrath of God and if we are trying to do it in our own strength, our own word we cannot keep the law, we fail. Our law keeping, Our goodness, self righteousness will will never justify us, our law keeping, or rather our attempts to keep the law will not make us right with the Lord, no matter how good we think we are, no matter how well we think we are doing we all leave the entirety of the law in shatters.


How then are we justified? We are justified through Jesus, the one who perfectly kept the law for us, it is his perfect righteousness that is imputed to us, it is given to us, put into our account, we are clothed with his righteousness. For what Christ has done for us means hat there is a glorious exchange, on the cross our sin was placed upon him on the cross of Calvary, he took what we deserve, we have been given what he has achieved for us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q89. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.
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