Newtown Bible Church Sermons
Web Site: Newtown Bible Church
Total Sermons: 69
Total Amens: 2
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True Righteousness & Sexual Purity (Matthew 5:27-30)
The Lord gives a 2nd anti-thesis and counters the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees with the the true righteousness of the kingdom and to which the Law pointed. Namely, that God is not concerned with external but with the inner reality of a transformed nature; a new heart that hungers and thirst for righteousness, and particular, as the Lord will address this morning, in the area of sexual purity. As with the previous section the Lord will give a clear statement followed by 2 examples, showing that: True righteousness identifies sexual sin in the heart and seeks to turn from it at all cost. From the Lord’s statement we will note: 2 necessary elements to winning the battle of sexual purity: (1) the need to identify the sin and (2) the need to pursue sanctification.
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True Righteousness & Anger, pt. 2 (Matthew 5:23-26)
The righteousness that marks one's participation in the kingdom, the righteousness that was always intended, is a level of living in relationship with God that extends to the very depths of the heart. True righteousness, being in the kingdom, being a Christian is a matter of the inner man. Follow the Lord as He gives to illustrations of how this righteousness, in relation to the commandment "You shall not murder," looks in the life of His servants.
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True Righteousness & Anger (Matthew 5:21-22)
The life of the regenerate person, their relationship with God is lived first in the heart. God has always been concerned with the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). He created us to worship, which is first a response of the heart. We are first spiritual beings, who we are on the inside is who we really are - what a person is alone before God that they are: nothing more, nothing less. Jesus is speaking to a very religious culture, who defined righteousness large by their understanding of the Law of Moses, particularly as it was taught by the Scribes & Pharisees. In 5:20 has shocked the people by telling them that the righteousness which gains one entrance into the kingdom is a righteousness that far surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees. The question now: what does this righteousness look like? How are we to understand it. So, Jesus will now in verses 5:21-48, He will explain this righteousness through a series of 6 contrast, or Antithesis, in which He compares the the false righteousness of men (exemplified in Scribes & Pharisees) to the true righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven (5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43).
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Jesus Christ & The Word, Pt. 5 (Matthew 5:20)
Anyone who is religious or "spiritually minded" naturally considers themselves to be OK with God, to have a righteousness that is acceptable to their Creator. Jesus teaches that the righteousness required to enter the kingdom, to be saved from the wrath of God, to have fellowship with God is something far beyond human works. The righteousness required is a righteousness that is granted through faith in the Person of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ & The Word, Pt. 4 (Matthew 5:19)
One of the chief marks of our fallenness is our rebellion to authority. Men want to be free, autonomous, our own person, follow own agenda, pursue own goals. The idol of American culture is individuality. Fallen man kicks at authority, because *Authority assumes *Accountability. Generally people are fine talking about God in generic terms, but when the issue of His absolute authority comes up - things change. Jesus, in 5:17-20, in absolutely unequivocal terms is establishing the absolute authority of the Word of God and His own Person. In verses 17-18, we have seen that Jesus establishes the authority of the Word in three ways: (1) Stands in judgment of false religion (2) It is fulfilled in the Messiah (3) It is permanent Now, 19-20, Jesus will establish the authority of the Word by declaring our accountability to it: (1) Accountable to its prescriptions (2) Accountable to its Righteousness.
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Jesus Christ & The Word, Pt. 3 (Matthew 5:18)
No other doctrine sustains such consistent attack throughout the history of the world, than the doctrine of Scripture. Even in the Garden of Eden the first thing Satan attacked was the reliability of God’s word, which was in fact an attack on the character of God Himself. All attacks on God’s Word are designed to undermine His absolute authority and trustworthiness. Today these attacks come in a variety of forms: Liberalism: attacks authority by rejecting the supernatural and imposing the wisdom and agenda of man on Scripture. Charismatics: attack authority by making experience ultimate authority. Emergents: attack authority by denying the existence of absolute truth. The Jews of Jesus’ day attacked the authority of God’s Word by elevating the authority of their tradition, much like the RCC church does today. However, in a few short verses (5:17-20) Jesus demolishes and destroys these strongholds set up against the knowledge of God and establishes the absolute authority of the Word of God and His Person and work as Messiah. 5:19-20 Authority as it relates to man’s *Accountability. In 5:17-18 Authority from God’s Side; He will do this in primarily three ways: (1) God’s Word sits in judgment on false, man-made religion. (2) He fulfills all of God’s Word by His Person & work as Messiah. (3) The permanence of God’s purposes as revealed in the written Word.
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Jesus Christ & The Word, Pt. 2 (Matthew 5:17)
How can you be sure that Jesus Christ is everything that He says He is? How can you be sure that He alone is the true revelation of God? He alone is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin? And what about the OT, the Law & the prophets, did Jesus completely to away with those things? These are questions that many today ask and they are questions that Jesus’ original hearers were asking also. And it is these He addresses in our passage.
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Jesus Christ & The Word, Pt. 1 (Matthew 5:17)
Inclusio (5:17) and runs to (7:12). In this section He will explain and apply the Law of God and define true righteousness, as opposed to the false righteous of the day. In this opening section answers the question that many of the people among the crowds were wrestling with, and sometimes for different reasons, what some wrestle with today: Exactly what is Jesus’s relationship to the OT Scriptures? Did Jesus come to completely do away with the Law? Does the OT have any value for today? Would it be ok to just remove it from our Bibles? Is there an OT God and a NT God? How is a Christian to relate to the OT? Jesus will answer these questions and in so doing establish both the authority of the OT - and by extension all of God’s Word - and establish the foundation for all men’s accountability to it. Key for any religion, or any society is the issue of authority. If there is no authority there is no basis for truth or for Law. The Jews rightly understood the Scriptures as being revealed by God and the basis for their nation and individual lives. But now with the appearing of Jesus That seemed to be being threatened. Jesus, therefore establishes at the outset, and in clear, unmistakable terms the authority of Scripture. And He will do this by: (A) Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion; (B) by His very Person & Work; (C) Establishing it Permanence. We will take the first two of these this morning in verse 17.
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Christian's Witness to the World, Pt. 2 (Matthew 5:14-16)
Christians are left in this world for one primary purpose: to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (possibly note challenge of bad witnesses) Last week we noted the Christian’s witnesses as salt - witness through the character and purity of life. This is week the Lord compares the church to light, which reveals by dispelling darkness. Christian are commended to the obedience and proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Christian's Witness to the World, Pt. 1 (Matthew 5:13)
We as Christians are in the world “but not of the world.” We are redeemed from sin, new creations in Christ, justified, adopted children of God, citizens of a different kingdom, but, have you ever thought of this: “Why am I still here?” Almost everything that defines you as a Christian you can do better in heaven (worship, love, wont’ sin!). Christians are in the world for one primary purpose: to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church is God’s witness to a decaying and dark world. Jesus will picture this relationship with the world is illustrated with two metaphors: salt and light. These metaphors speak of her dual roles as preserver and proclaimer. We are going to take the first of these this morning and look at the Church’s role of preservation in a decaying world.
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