Sermon on the Mount Part 2 - "You've Got it All Wrong"

The Dangers of Religion

Matthew 5:20-48

(Previous sermon)

Matthew 5:17-20, 48  ¹⁷ "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ... ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I. INTRODUCTION

One constant we see through all of recorded human history is that man is religious.  Almost everyone has some degree of belief, and even in this day many people would, if asked, describe themselves as “religious” or at least “spiritual (today’s buzz-word).  There are over 1 billion people around the world who identify themselves as “Christian”, and many of those are very “religious” indeed.  That we are nearly two millennia from the founding of the Jesus Christ’s church back on that famous Pentecost in Jerusalem shows the amazing influence of that evangelist, teacher and rabbi.  One poor man, famously born in a stable on that first Christmas, who lived only about 33 years and ministered in a small country in that far off corner of the world – a tiny country that was totally under the control of the Roman empire and which would be completely wiped out by those Romans a little over 30 years later.  A teacher who after only three years of walking around this small country was put to death and left in a tomb – now has over a billion people alive who call themselves after his name and claim to be following him.

Unfortunately, though so many claim to be followers of Jesus, an awful lot of those who call themselves “Christian” could not tell you almost anything about what He did or what He taught or what he commanded.  How many of that billion people know anything about the life of Christ, or why He came to earth, or what He said, beyond what they may have seen in a movie shown on TV at Easter, or some half-forgotten Sunday School lesson they were taught back when parents still took their kids to church because it was the thing to do back then?   How many would even care to find out?  How many of those react with anger and indignant posturing when someone “dares” to ask them what they think about the words of the Lord from scripture?

No, human religion usually ends up having a more general function in society.  It usually degenerates into a few common points or ideas:

1. Religion is the system by which we distinguish between “us” and “them”, where “us” is the “good” people and “they” are the “bad” people.
2. Religion is the set of special rules, that if we follow them God is made our debtor.  In other words, we “earn” our way to heaven, which then God is obligated to give us as our reward for following them, and
3. Religion is the framework that we can use to feel good about ourselves and whatever we choose to do in life.

The God that we see in scripture, however, refuses to be put into that box.  He has stepped into crucial times in human history – in creation, in the saving of the world through the great flood, in the lives of the patriarchs, and in calling out a special people for himself as a sign to the world. Right after the fall He began the redemption of a race that He himself describes as enemies – announcing his intention to Adam and Eve and then revealing more and more of the story throughout history until the promised redeemer finally came.  He miraculously attested to this Redeemer by raising Him from the dead, and supernaturally has been building his church ever since.  And finally He has given us a written testimony in which He is revealed in all his holy glory. 

These scriptures are a miracle themselves – written by many different and incredibly diverse authors over one and a half millennia which to this day reveal a detailed and wonderfully unified story.  We know that it is hard to get two contemporaries to collaborate on a simple work of fiction and have a unified story, but it is not only unlikely but obviously impossible to get a group of shepherds, government officials, kings, prophets, farmers, tax collectors, doctors, teachers, and fisherman, most of whom did not ever meet each other or even live in the same century, to produce such a diverse but unified revelation.  Jude refers to the content of that revelation as “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”.  It was not accidental, it is not incomplete, it did not come from nowhere or from the fevered imagination of an individual or from a committee of some sort.  As Peter said

2 Peter 1:19-21 ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

These scriptures are a miracle themselves – written by many different and incredibly diverse authors over one and a half millennia which to this day reveal a detailed and wonderfully unified story.  We know that it is hard to get two contemporaries to collaborate on a simple work of fiction and have a unified story, but it is not only unlikely but obviously impossible to get a group of shepherds, government officials, kings, prophets, farmers, tax collectors, doctors, teachers, and fisherman, most of whom did not ever meet each other or even live in the same century, to produce such a diverse but unified revelation.  Jude refers to the content of that revelation as “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”.  It was not accidental, it is not incomplete, it did not come from nowhere or from the fevered imagination of an individual or from a committee of some sort.  As Peter said”

Isaiah 55:10-11  ¹⁰ "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Last week we saw Jesus’ own statements about the law, and we saw that He did not express any ambivalence or backtracking about the issue at all.  We heard those words in again in our reading today, which we summarized last week in these three statements:

1.       No Scripture Was A Mistake: Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill”. 

2.       No Scripture Is Temporary - Matthew 5:18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

3.       No Scripture Is Ignorable (Unimportant) - Matthew 5:19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

But wait!  Didn’t Jesus rebel against the Law?  Wasn’t his teaching a new idea – a new way of life – a rebellion against the Old Testament with its primitive, hateful God of Thunder and Death? “His manifesto in this sermon seem to be different from what I remember from the OT” (you might say).  But if you said that you would be wrong.  Let’s take a quick look:

Matt 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  New? Nope:

Psalm 51:16-17 ¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Matt 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  New?  Nope – many examples, try this:

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Matt 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Mat 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Psalm 89:15-17 ¹⁵ Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, ¹⁶ who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. ¹⁷ For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.

This is only a small sample of the rich material available, and we could go like this though all of the Beatitudes, but hopefully it makes the point: Jesus was not introducing a new religion in the New Testament.  He was not introducing us to a new, more loving God – the loving God of the NT is the loving God of the OT.  One of the most repeated phrases in the OT is “your lovingkindness is everlasting!”

But, you might say, the next section of Jesus’ great sermon is different.  He is clearly contradicting the OT, isn’t he?  If we look at it we even see the constant repetition of the formula “you have heard it said… but I say to you”.  To understand this, we need to go back to our discussion of “religion”.  Remember that one of the functions of religion is to make people “feel good about themselves”.   In fact, many religious leaders today even say that that is their goal – one famous So Cal televangelist once said that “the ultimate sin is to damage a person’s self-esteem”. Yet what happened whenever someone in scripture actually met God?  Isaiah the prophet is illustrative of what meeting God does to a person:

Isaiah 6:1-5  ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" ⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

People who meet God have one universal experience – they are reminded of their sinfulness and need of salvation.  In Isaiah’s case an angel was sent to cleanse his lips with a coal from the altar – covering his sin long enough for his commissioning as a prophet.  Yet years later Isaiah still had no illusions about his good works:

Isaiah 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

II. This is NOT Just another religion

But even after this, by Jesus’ day the religion of the OT no longer gave people a sense of their own sinfulness and need for God.  It had evolved into just another religion, with new and detailed interpretations of God’s laws that were fulfilling the human need for self-glorification and for looking down on others.  Jesus, however, explodes the self-righteousness of all of his followers in an amazing diatribe.  The passage has interesting bookends:

Matthew 5: 20, 48  ²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ... ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The “religious” people of Jesus’ day were self-satisfied and proud.  Not only had they meticulously counted 613 laws in the OT, they had accumulated huge amounts of teaching and discussion about those laws and they were adept at following all of the extra rules that they had put together from them.  Every area of life was covered, and they followed every little rule, down to the tithing of tiny seeds and spices.  And because they followed all of the outward laws, they were satisfied that they were righteous before God.  But Jesus says that even if his listeners followed every one of the rules which was followed by the most religious people they knew they would “NEVER ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”.  “Wow, Jesus, what a buzzkill!  Don’t you know that religion is about feeling happy?”  Well, Jesus had just finished his “happy are” statements, and every one of them was not about outward behavior but was instead about the condition of the heart.  It was character that God was looking for.

But instead, Jesus says that their righteousness had to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.  The word exceed is not just about going a bit further – it is about overflowing, abounding, being pre-eminent.  In case they miss what He is going to say next, he ends this discussion by telling them in verse 48 that the standard is to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”.  Is there any particular number of “good deeds” that will take us to that standard?  No, it is not humanly possible.  But the Law has a two-fold purpose:

1.       It gives us a goal for behavior and a standard to always try to attain to, and (conversely)

2.       It points out to us that we will never get there and that we need a Savior (and leads us to call on Jesus Christ)

Galatians 3:21-22  ²¹ Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. ²² But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

With all this in mind, let’s look briefly at what Jesus taught.  He gives six different examples of the teaching of the religious leaders of the day, all introduced by the phrase “you have heard it said”.  This is informative, because when Jesus referred to scripture he always honored it and said “it is written”.  In each of these cases, He is NOT repudiating the law, but instead is peeling away the accumulated crud of the teachers of his day to get to the core of what God had revealed.  In other words, Jesus’ message was a “get back to the Bible” message.  He was attacking the religion invented by the rabbis, not the truth as revealed by his Father.  He was revealing the true heart of the Father and completely laying waste to the supposed religious wisdom of his day. 

The message of the gospel is simple – (Rom 3:23) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and (Rom 6:23) for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord.  As one famous evangelist said: “I’ve got to get people lost before I can get them saved”.  A heart that is convinced that it has no sin is a heart that will never open itself to the loving and saving grace of God.  “That’s just for those other people – the bad ones” it says.

Let’s look at the examples, which, include Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Swearing, Revenge, and loving Enemies.

IIIa. Murder (v21-26)

Matt 5:21-26  ²¹ "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³ So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. ²⁶ Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

In this case Jesus refers to an actual law (“you shall not murder” – one of the Ten Commandments  (Ex 20:13 and Deut 5:17), and to the fact that the Law did call for punishment (the death penalty) for murder.  The law did not prescribe punishment for people who merely thought about murder or who planned a murder but somehow bungled it so that nobody was hurt.  In fact, even the OT law differentiated between premeditated murder and accidental manslaughter.  So what is Jesus getting at?

·         In this example we see the danger of the thought often expressed by people who are confronted with the gospel: “but I never killed anyone!” With this statement we can wash our hands of any chance that God may not consider us righteousness.  But, Jesus is like the old radio character: ”who knows what evil lies in the hearts of men – the shadow knows!” 

·         Jesus says three things to devastate that thought:

1.       (v22) anger, insults, and looking down at others fall into the same family of sin as murder in God’s eyes.  The message is NOT that God sees no difference between actual murder and calling someone “stupid”.  The message is that even the “plain, vanilla hater” is lost in sin and needs forgiveness from God.  Once you are a sinner, you can only spend eternity separated from the Holy God you have sinned against.  Only He can provide you with salvation.

2.       (v23) If someone else has something against you, God does not want or value your “religion” until you have dealt with the situation.  (lots of hypocrisy even in churches about this one)

·         And, like the others, it is not that this was something new that Jesus was saying: "¹⁶ You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. ¹⁷ You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him." (Lev 19:16-17)

IIIb. Adultery (v27-30)

Matt 5:27-30 ²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. penny.

Again Jesus refers to a law in the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:14 and Deut 5:18).  Again He expands upon the letter of the law to reveal the heart condition that will send the self-righteous to hell.  Remember that He is NOT singling out specific sins that are worse than others (another common feature of the human religions of self-righteousness). No, he is using a well-known law to show them how easily they can go astray and miss the entire point of the law, to reveal the heart of a sinner so that he will turn to God for forgiveness.

The Pharisees were big on this one.  Remember that later a group of people would try to entrap Jesus with an adulteress – “caught in the act”.  Would he stone her as “the law required”?  But then their hypocrisy was so terrible that it stinks from the pages to this day.  The LAW required both people involved in the adultery to be stoned. Where was the man?  I would guess that the man was in the crowd, firmly convinced that he was righteous, and Jesus’ call for the one who is without sin to case the first stone (some point out that his wording literally mean “this sin”) cut through their little charade.

Jesus really cuts through the baloney of the self-righteous by exposing the sin that adultery is just the outward expression of, but which will but someone in hell just as quickly as the ultimate expression – immoral lust.  Sin is that tendency to use the good gifts of God in a way that dishonor the giver of the gifts, and immorality comes from the heart. (not what goes into the mouth but…).

But He goes further – the severity and urgency of the danger is illustrated by Jesus use of hyperbolic language here.  He is not calling for self mutilation, but merely pointing out that God’s judgment of sin is a severe danger and not to be trifled with.  [MacArthur] “the point is that it would be “more profitable” to lose a member of one’s own body than to bear the eternal consequences of the guilt from such a sin.  

IIIc. Divorce (v31-32)

Matt 5:31-32  ³¹ "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' ³² But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

By Jesus’ day, there was an entire school of teaching that followed the rabbi Hillel that taught that a man could legitimately divorce his wife for “spoiling dinner, being troublesome or given to quarrels, or speaking disrespectfully of her husband’s parents”.  Divorce was allowed for nearly everything, and it was very man-centered (like in current Islam, in which the divorce formula is merely to say “I divorce thee” three times, for any reason you like. – though they did at least rule recently that texting it was not good enough). 

Jesus later was questioned by them about this again and gave a similar answer:

Matt 19:7-9  ⁷ They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" ⁸ He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

The Pharisees pointed to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, but Jesus points out that they had completely mangled the intent of the verses.  It is instructive to actually read the verses:

Deut 24:1-4 "When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

In these verses, God was not commanding or even recommending divorce, but was regulating a more egregious practice that dishonored women and left them powerless and degraded by conniving men.  The command had to be given because of their hardness of heart.  In a practice (even followed today in some Muslim countries) the prostitution of women was cloaked under “temporary marriages”.  God gave a law that prohibited the passing of women around between men in this degrading way, and the Pharisees had latched onto that as a sign of God’s approval of all divorce.  The reality was different, of course.  Jesus said that the goal of God was for the exaltation and permanence of the marriage relationship.  Divorce was allowed but only for immorality, so the “get out of here because you burned my dinner” excuse showed how far they were from God’s heart.  Once again they were “invalidating the word of God by their tradition”. 

  

IIId. Swearing (v33-37)

Matt 5:33-37  ³³ "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' ³⁴ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil..

Lev 19:12; Num 30:2;  Deut 23:21-23

We love to think of ourselves as truthful people but think nothing of telling “white lies” all the time.  We see this even more in our current society, which has reached the point where lying is not only accepted, but considered a virtue.  One recent president was known for lying so much (no cherry tree story there) that our country was flooded with special news reports for the next year telling us about how lying was the glue that held society together.

In movies we laugh at the “fun” little scene where the protagonist of the story tells a lie and the camera zooms in on their crossed fingers behind their back or to a close-up of them winking.  Ha ha! We laugh.  “Good thing he remembered to cross his fingers or he would be lying in a bad way!”  We are so used to lying that we frequently say things like “cross my heart and hope to die!”, or “I swear to God!” to indicate that, whatever we might usually do, we are not lying at this current moment (probably). 

Again, in the “religion” of the scribes and Pharisees, they had come to the point where even oaths were not binding, unless they used certain words and phrases. This so upset Jesus later that he unloaded both barrels on them:

Matt 23:15-22  ¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. ¹⁶ "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' ¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? ¹⁸ And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' ¹⁹ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. ²² And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

There is no doubt where God stands on truth.  Paul wrote to Timothy:

Titus 1:1-2  ¹ Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, ² in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

Lying is something that God cannot do, which is good for us, since it secures our eternal hope!  Jesus does not lie, but lying is not just in our nature:

John 8:44-45  ⁴⁴ "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

So what is the standard of God?  Truthfulness. This is not a proscription against making oaths (I believe that this was an old Brethren distinctive – saying “I affirm” instead of “I swear” in court testimony), since many Bible characters, including God, take oaths.  Instead this is a call for us to be so truthful that we would never consider it being okay to lie just because we did not swear to tell the truth.  And of course we feel the net closing around us, because we shade the truth all the time.  But there are two more elements:

IIIe. Tit for Tat (v38-42)

Matt 5:38-42  ³⁸ "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' ³⁹ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹ And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

See Ex 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20; Deut 19:21

The religious had turned the lex talionis (law of retaliation) from the law into a prescription giving the right to, as the saying goes “I don’t get mad, I get even”.  But this law has NOTHING to do with revenge, but like the law on divorce it prevented the kinds of overreach and cruelty that mankind is prone to aspire to.  All it meant was that the penalty given by the government officials in a civil case should be proportional to the crime.  In other words, don’t chop off the hand of someone because he steals, etc.   God himself reserves the right for vengeance: Deut 32:35a  “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution”.

Jesus gives several examples here, many of which seem unreasonable, at least in the usual human sense. As MacArthur puts it: “Jesus applies this principle of non-retaliation to (1) affronts against one’s dignity (v39), (2) lawsuits to gain one’s personal assets (v40), infringements of one’s liberty (v41), and violations of property rights (v42). He is calling for a full surrender of all personal rights.”

  

IIIf. Enemies (v43-47)

Matt 5:43-47  ⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is 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. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

If the first five items don’t seem impossible to you, then this one takes the cake.  The Jews knew very well that God had commanded them to “love their neighbor”, and they were content to do so, as long as it meant literally “my countryman in good standing” but not “those Samarians” or “those gentiles” or “those sinners” or “those tax collectors”, etc.

Lev 19:16-18  ¹⁶ You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. ¹⁷ "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. ¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

This applied to their countryman and brothers, but that was not all that God had told them”

Prov 25:21-22  ²¹ If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, ²² for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

IV. Conclusion

As we pointed out last week, this sermon utterly crushes human systems of works-righteousness, leaving those who are seeking to be justified by works without any hope of reaching God by that means.   As Paul wrote to the Romans (7:7b NASB) “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law…” and to the Galatians (3:23-24 NASB) “23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

This teaching by our Lord underscores the danger of “religion” in a very dramatic way.  We are experts at putting together systems that shield us from any conviction of our sin that might come to us from God.  It is interesting to note that Jesus almost always made a distinction between the sinner and his sin except in one case.  The self-righteous religionists got his full anger and fiery words of condemnation.  “You brood of vipers” and “sons of hell” were his epithets for them.  Why?  Because self-righteousness is the one thing that will keep people from turning humbly to the gospel for salvation.  When asked “why should God let you into heaven?”, the answer is “Because I am generally a good person”.  Jesus exposes our hearts for what they are – fatally broken and stained with sin.  We are in rebellion against God, but salvation is free to anyone:

Jhn 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Eph 2:8-9 ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

There are no “self made men” is heaven, only people who have trusted Christ for salvation.  

Nobody will be able to say “isn’t it great that I earned my way here”.  

God will get all the glory, but we will live in joy through his grace.

(Next sermon)