Sermon Cloud

Intro/Opening: 

• W.C. Fields said, when caught reading the Bible, “I’m looking for the loophole.” There are no “loop holes,” only unbreakable holiness. No one will escape the judgment of God, and the standard of God’s holiness knows no leniency, no mercy when it is time to give an account to Him, to His face. 

God requires genuine righteousness in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Four truths about the righteousness of the kingdom that call us to self-examination. 

1. Righteousness is required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
2. The Righteousness of the Kingdom cannot be gained by human effort
3. The Righteousness of the Kingdom is on the basis of faith
4. Some who think they are righteous will be rejected from the Kingdom.

READ: Matthew 5:19-20.

•  “For I say to you …” - The Lord speaks with absolute authority. He is speaking as God and future Judge.  John 5:22 “He [God the Father] has given all judgement to the Son.” “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30).
•  “To you” - Addressing them directly. The Lord uses the 2^nd person personal pronoun approximately 108x in the Sermon alone. He is looking them right in the eye as it were and saying: “I am not talking about the ‘other person,’ I am talking to you!”

1. Righteousness is required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven

•   “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”
• Jesus is talking about entering the kingdom of heaven. Last week we noted that He was speaking about those who are “in the kingdom of heaven” now He is speaking to those who need to “enter into the kingdom of heaven” - there is an outside/inside dynamic here. 
• By nature all are outside of the kingdom of heaven. Men are by nature enslaved to sin, guilty, and under the wrath of God. The need is to enter into something that is not a natural possession. What is needed to enter the Kingdom is “righteousness.”
• The kingdom of Heaven is about “righteousness” - key theme of the Sermon. 
  • (3:15) - Jesus’ baptism; *5:6 - “hunger and thirst for …”; *5:10 “persecuted for the sake of …”; 6:1 “beware of practicing … before men …”; 6:33 “Seek first His kingdom and His …”
  • 1 Cor. 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not enter the kingdom of God?”
• What is righteousness? Righteousness is doing what conforms to a standard: When God acts it is always righteous because He can only do what is consistent with His nature of holiness (Titus 1:2 “impossible for God to lie”).
• Here He makes it personal and says: “your righteousness” - that is the righteousness that you yourself have. It must conform to God’s standard, and be greater than the Scribes and Pharisees. 
• This was a shocking statement; in the minds of the people the Scribes and Pharisees were the very model of righteousness and stellar kingdom citizens.
• He is stating then, that there are two kinds of righteousness, one that is acceptable and one that is not. And the kind of righteousness that is not acceptable is the kind that the Scribes and Pharisees have; theirs is not the kind that will bring one into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

1. The Righteousness of the Kingdom cannot be gained by human effort

• Could also be translated “If your righteousness should not abound more than the Scribes and Pharisees, you will certainly not even  enter …”
  •  “abundance … more than” - the idea is that of overflowing; like a cup filled to the brim and then running over the top (Matt. 13:12; 14:20; 15:37; 25:29).
• To understand the Lord’s statement we need to know: 1-who the Scribes and Pharisees are, and 2- what kind of righteousness they had (its not the kind you want).  
•  “the Scribes and Pharisees” - These were the religious leaders of the nation of Israel. Rabbi: “If only two men get into heaven, one will be a scribe and the other a Pharisee.” 
•  “Scribes” - Were responsible for the preservation and interpretation of the text. They were experts in the Law. the professional Jewish scholars of the day - masters of minutia.  
• “Pharisees” - the teachers, professors. Guardians and custodians of the religious life of the nation. 
  • While there exact origin is debated, it is clear they developed during the post exilic times. The root meaning of the term “Pharisee” is to separate, that is to say they separated themselves from the common and profane among the people to pursue obedience to the Law (cf 9:11). They were marked by a commitment to exacting obedience to the Law of God. 
• There was a problem with this, however, because the Law was not always specific – such as in keeping the Sabbath holy – there developed an authoritative interpretation of the Law, known as the “oral tradition,” which was  meant to set a hedge of protection around it so as to be very careful not to break one of the commandments. This hedge was interpretations of the Scribes and the Pharisees. So the Law and the traditions became the “Twin Pillars” of Pharisaism.  
• So, what did the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees look like?  
  • Knew Scripture; Prayed; Tithed; Fasted; 
  • [Turn to] Matt. 23: had spiritual authority; were respected; evangelistic; fastidious in the details of obedience; honored the saints 
  • None of these things, by themselves, are evidence of salvation. You, like the Scribes and Pharisees, can have all of these things and still not have the righteousness that will bring you into the kingdom. 
• They had all of these things, yet the Lord condemns them in the strongest possible language. Why? Because their righteousness was only external and not an internal righteousness of the heart. 
• The charge of the Lord against the Pharisees was doing right things, but with the wrong heart; they were hypocrites. God hates hypocrisy; especially religious hypocrisy.
• Tough they appeared committed to the Law they actually had minimized its intent and made it something more manageable. 
  • They made up rules about washing hands (Mk. 7) - but neglected justice and the ignored the command: “Do not covet.” They thought to themselves, “As long as I do those other things I’m ok.”
  • They neglected the heart. They thought as long as they did the right thing who they were on the inside didn’t matter. They were self-deceived, and never understood the righteousness the Law demands (cf 5:21-48).
• Let me give you 4 reasons their “righteousness” was unacceptable.
  • (1) Self-centered (6:1; 23:1-12); (2) Incomplete (23:23); (3) External (23:25); (4) Self-righteous - it was a righteousness based on what they did. 
  • Rom. 9:30-31; 10:1-3  - Jews missed God’s true righteousness because they wrongly pursued a righteousness based on Law and not faith. (Phil. 3:6-9). 
  • ILLUST: Lk. 18:9-14.

(3) The Righteousness of the Kingdom is on the basis of faith. 

• So, what “righteousness” is it that conforms to God’s standards? What kind of righteousness is acceptable to God? It is the righteousness that comes by faith; it has always been by faith. 
• Interesting that the Lord does not explain to them how to be righteous, only the kind of righteousness that they need. But they should have understood this.
• It is a righteousness that is: (1) given not achieved; (2) active not static.
• (1) Given by Grace
  • Gen. 15:6 “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” But what about Noah?  [Heb. 11 - Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham].
• The only righteousness that has ever been acceptable to God is the righteousness that comes on the basis of faith. There are only two ways to be righteous: 1- either you earn, or 2-it is given. 
• If you have anything less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, you will not enter the kingdom. And this righteousness is a gift of God through faith.

[Turn to Romans] 

• Rom. 1:17 “righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith …” [Habakkuk]
  • 3:21-26  in Christ atoning work the “righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets … righteousness of God through faith … [cross was] to demonstrate His righteousness … demonstration of His righteousness at the present time”
    • This is why Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and all the rest could be saved, because of the Son who was going to come and bear the penalty for those sins on their behalf. 

2 Cor. 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (cf. Rom. 5:17 “gift of righteousness”; Eph. 2:8).

• (2) Active not static. 
• The Lord is talking about an actual doing of righteousness, but the difference is that it is a doing that comes from an internal reality of the heart. (Rom. 6:1-5).
  • Those who have received the righteousness of God through faith in Christ, will do righteousness! Receiving righteousness, produces righteousness (cf.  Matt. 5:6). This is the furthest thing from cheap grace or easy believism. 
    • The very fact that a person has been made righteous will compel them to pursue righteousness from their innermost being! 
    • Regeneration affects the entirety of a person’s being (mind, will, affections). (Eph. 4:24).
  • 1 Pet. 2:24 Christ’s death on the cross was so that “we might die to sin and live to righteousness” - 
  • *1 John 2:29; 3:7, 10 - those who have been made righteous, are those who practice righteousness as the habit of their life.
  • It is, then an internal righteous. The righteousness He is speaking of is the righteousness that overflows from a heart of faith in Christ; deeds that are borne of a longing to be conformed to the nature of God. A love for righteousness because He is righteous. A principle of righteousness implanted in the soul at regeneration. 
• The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart ….” then no act can be righteous that is not borne of the motivation of love to the one true God.
  • “If you love Me you will keep my commandments” - love produces obedience; love must precede all true obedience (Rom. 14; 1 Cor. 13:1-3).
• People may be involved in great acts of human goodness and helpfulness and yet be unrighteous and under judgement.
• People can do good deeds, but not for His glory; not done out of faith; not done out of love for God and neighbor. The external action can be the same, while one conforms to God, the other does not. One is a righteous act, one is an unrighteous act. 
  • Rom. 3:10-13 - all human acts, no matter where they fall on the human spectrum of goodness and sacrifice, are neither good, nor righteous before God.
  • Unless you have that kind of righteousness, that kind of obedience you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

(4) Some who think they are righteous will be rejected from the Kingdom.

“you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” - emphatic, strongest negation in the Greek. There are no loopholes. 

• The Scribes and Pharisees thought they were in the kingdom. Most religious people, or people who simply consider themselves “spiritual” thing they are going to heaven, or are going to a good afterlife and will be accepted by God when they die. 
  • Very few would actually say, and none who are religious would say, “Yes, I know my religion is empty and futile and all my goodness is unacceptable and when I die I will be shown to be self-deceived and will be sentenced to eternal judgment in hell.”
  • Most, if not all, assume their level of righteousness, as they define it, is sufficient to make them right with God. Yet Matthew warns that many who think that will in fact be horribly shocked at the judgment. They are on a “Broad road that leads to destruction” (7:13).
• “into the kingdom of heaven” - Matthew uses this same phrase 4 other times (18:3 “unless you humble yourself as a child”; 19:23 “hard for a rich man”; 23:13 “you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do no enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in”) and each is in the context of warning against not entering “into the kingdom of heaven,” that is of being rejected from heaven. The Lord will also end this very sermon 7:21.
• How do you know? Here are two suggestions on how to gauge: 
  • (1) If you reject Jesus Christ as your only hope for righteousness; that He and He alone has meet the requirements of the Law on your behalf - then you are outside of the kingdom; you are still in your sins. 
    • There is no word for you but to “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” - if you do not, you will be judged and spend eternity in a place called hell. 
  • (2) The focus of your obedience is self rather than God. You find more satisfaction in the deed than concern about the motive of the deed before God. You draw more satisfaction from the praise you receive from others than from the internal testimony of having pleased God. You are satisfied with personal performance rather they thankful to God for His grace. 
  • (3) You easily judge others because they do not meet your standards; you, in your heart, consider yourself to be more righteous than others who do not do the things you do. 
• The questions is to you: “Do you have a righteousness that surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees?” “Do trust in the righteousness of Christ alone as your only source of being right with God?” “Do you long for righteousness in your heart from faith and love for God, or to met a standard that will make you acceptable to God?”