Flipside Christian Church

Before we get into

Matthew five, we're going to make it
through the rest of the chapter.

It's going to be challenging.

It's going to push us.

You're going to be okay.

But it's going to be challenging for us.

But before we get into it,
I just want to say thank you.

For some people in our church,
I know Jeff McClure

and his guys have been working
every morning to get stuff set up for us.

But beyond that,
renovating the upstairs room

and making it really nice for
our students.

Just been doing a fantastic job.

So, Jeff and your guys,
thank you very much. Appreciate you.

I know, Tom, Tom Chevelle has been doing,
renovation

work in multiple different suites
and multiple places around here.

He's he
he he's currently got a big project

with a bathroom renovation here,
and then new carpet and some other rooms.

And he's really been working overtime,

to, to help
improve some things in the facility.

Really appreciate him as well.

It's good for us
to stop and honor these guys.

And then I know

just the the course of this week,

has been really busy for some
in our church and some ministries.

I know that Michael Rondon,
our next gen pastor, together with Trish

and with Ali,
we've had a really busy week on them.

On Monday,
they did a huge junior high Thanksgiving,

dinner event extravaganza,

followed up on Wednesday
with, high school progressive dinner,

followed up on Thursday night
with young adult

Friendsgiving dinner and then back at it
Sunday mornings for three services.

Just really working overtime as well.

I hope you understand how many people

and how much work and man and woman hours,
go into the ministries and,

and the things around here
just want to honor all of these.

Added to that,

I want to introduce you

to our church planters
and our missionaries,

both in the United States
and around the world, in other countries,

so you can get to know them.

I they're very near and dear to my heart.

I've been with them on multiple occasions
for years and years and years.

You haven't.

And so I want you to get to know them,
for a couple reasons.

One, because I want you
to keep them in your prayers.

I want when we mentioned
what's going on in Cuba and Guatemala

and all these other places that it
resonates with your mind and your heart,

but also because from now until Christmas
Eve, I'm going to ask you to prayerfully

consider and then sacrifice over and above
your regular tithes and offerings

and give on the app to evangelism slash
church planting

so that at the end of the year,
we can bless these planters

and pastors and missionaries
with an extra gift.

We support them all regularly, generously.

But I want to go over and above what
we normally do to be able to bless them.

And I'm asking for the church
for an extra $20,000

between now and Christmas Eve,
so we can bless all of these.

And I want to introduce you to as.

So every Sunday I'm going to introduce you
to some of these.

And this first one
I introduce to you is O'Neill and Heidi.

That is their two wives.

And, O'Neill and Heidi's new son in law.

They are our lead church planters in Cuba.

And when I first started the church
planting work in Cuba

back in
2008, really ramped it up in 2015, 2016.

And in the last decade,
they have, recruited, trained and,

church planters and planted 120 churches
on the island in the past decade.

They're doing incredible work in
extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

They love their people.
They love the island.

They love the Lord.
They want to see Cuba one day. Jesus.

That's one of the events they did for
the children in their little community.

That church building there, we paid for,

they built it,
but we we paid for that to, to do that.

They're they're putting it to great use.

It's another picture
of some of the ministry

that they've been
doing there on the island.

And a place called

Trinidad few hours outside of Havana.

Feeding the kids. Tell them about Jesus.

They're just doing incredible work.

And so we just want to make sure
that we continue to be able to bless them.

So keep Heidi and O'Neill in your prayers
and the ministry

that is doing there and support them
generously.

You got it.

Yeah.

Hey, Matthew five, we're going to I'm
going to start in verse 17.

We're going to make it
all the way through verse 48.

So I'm going to go fast.

Last week we talked about the Beatitudes,

these statements that Jesus said, blessed
are you when you.

And he started with blessed are those who,

those who are poor in spirit,
who realize the poverty

of their own spirit
because there lead them to mourn over sin.

And so you followed up with, blessed are
those who mourn, for they'll be comforted,

bless those who hire and thirst
for righteousness.

And he went through those beatitudes.

We get to this place in

verse 17 after the Beatitudes,

where
he's he's going to flesh out, for us,

and he's really going to push us
on what it means

to live this kingdom ethic.

And so in verse 17, I'm just going,

I'm going to read big chunks
and then we'll talk about them,

about these church.

But let me just read verses 17 through 20.

Jesus says,

do not think that I've come
to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them,
but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven
and earth pass away, not an iota

nor a dot will pass from the law
until it is until all is accomplished.

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.

Here's verse 20.

We talked about this a couple weeks ago,

for I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes

and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.

We start in verse 17 when Jesus says,
I have not come to abolish

the law or the prophets.

But I've come to fulfill them.

What he's saying
here is the Old Testament.

All the commands and all terms
that are still legit,

didn't come to do away with them.

I didn't come to supersede them.

I didn't come to say, hey,
that's the Old Testament.

Doesn't matter anymore.

They're they're they're they're stable.
They're firm.

They're eternal. No doubt.

I didn't come to destroy them
or cast them off.

I came to fulfill them.

And when he says fulfilled,
he says it means I will complete them.

And so Jesus is going to complete

all of the commands
in the Old Testament in his own life.

He is the fulfillment
of all the commands of God.

And he says, you need to understand this.

The Old Testament is legit.

It's stable, it's sturdy, it's eternal,
and it is all fulfilled in me.

We can't do away with the Old Testament,

but I'm going to fulfill it.

And so he makes us do.

And then he says this not one iota
or dot some translations.

Or maybe your footnote says not one
jot or tittle will pass away from the law

until all is accomplished,
when he uses those words, a jot or tittle

a jot was the smallest letter
in the Hebrew alphabet.

A tittle was like the dot of an eye
or the crossing of a t.

And so what he's saying
here is the law of God.

Even the smallest, most,
my nudist point of it

will all be fulfilled
and it's fulfilled in me.

You can't bypass a single little thing

of God's immutable law.

It's all going to be fulfilled.

And he says, when you, when you,
when you know

these,
when you do these, when you teach these,

that's a good thing.

And then verse 20

he says, and we talked about this
a couple of weeks ago,

unless your righteousness exceeds that

of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you don't get into the kingdom.

All these commands are legit.

They're all eternal. They all remain.

Not one of them is going to pass away

unless your righteousness in obeying them
exceeds the scribes and Pharisees.

You don't get in.

Those of you who were here
a couple weeks ago, we talked about that.

That was a pretty tough thing.

And we and we started to understand
what his intent was behind that.

If you weren't here a couple of weeks ago,
you need to listen to that message.

But that's the standard in verse 20

that are righteousness
according to the law

exceeds that of scribes and Pharisees.

But that, of course, in verse 20,
that's the standard.

And now in verse 21,

he'll walk us through six illustrations

of what righteous living
is, and Matthew 522 standard.

And then in verses 21 through 47,
our six illustrations

that should serve to show one proof

that were guilty of breaking the standard.

Secondly, that all outward

bad begins with inward bad.

It's just not about what we do.

It's about our motivations.

And thirdly, that we judge
by outward acts, but God judges

by inward motivations.

And so these next six
illustrations are going to prove.

There Jesus proved to these three things

that every one of us

guilty of breaking the standard.

That though we look at what people

do, God looks at the intents of the heart,

and all the outward bad
is simply result of inward bad.

First.

And so

here we go.

You ready?

Yep. Okay.

I got about seven yeses.

I'm keeping track of you. Who?

Here's.

Here's the danger as we go through this,

your am I tendency will be

to make excuses for ourselves

and to explain things away

and to say, well,
I realize that's what that says,

but my story is different.

See, what was going on for me is

and we're going to be tempted

to put up some walls and some barriers.

And so that might be true
for other people or not,

or that's not really what he meant,

because what we're going to see here
is going to threaten

our self-sufficiency,

and it's going to threaten our own self
righteousness.

And that's the point.

And it's not going to be easy.

It's not going to be fun.

But understand.

That the bad

news of the law has to be first,
so that the good news of grace

can be beautiful.

And so with that.

Verses 21 through 26,

you have heard that it was said to
those of old,

you shall not murder, and whoever murders
will be liable to judgment.

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.

So if you're offering your gift
at the altar and there, remember that

your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there
before the altar and go first.

Be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.

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 of the guard,

and you be put in prison.

Truly, I say to you, you will never
get out until you've paid the last penny.

The first thing he deals with is anger.

And I love the way Jesus said.

He says, you've heard
it said to us, but I say,

what he's saying here is, I have a 40.

There's no other teacher until before
Jesus.

That said,

this is what this is what you you know,
this is this is just return irritation.

But I'm telling you,
nobody's ever said that before.

So Jesus steps in and says,
I have authority

because I am the fulfillment of the law.

So though you may have heard, I'm
telling you

because he's the fulfillment of it

and the first thing he starts with
is this issue of anger.

He says, you've heard
it said, don't murder,

and whoever commits murder
is liable to judgment.

But let me just make this point.

Please notice that the one,

the commandment here of the Ten
Commandments is about murder, not killing.

The command is not thou shalt not kill.

The command is thou shalt not murder.

And there's a huge difference.

And it so gripes me when culture talks

about the Ten Commandments
and the Bible saying, thou shalt not kill.

That's not what it says.

It's a it's about murder.

And that's important for a couple reasons.

One, because in Genesis, God institutes

the death penalty for murder.

So it's not about killing,
it's about murder.

Do you understand?

So let's not be ignorant
with what the Bible talks about.

So whoever commits murders.

But I tell you, everyone choose anger
with his brothers liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother
are liable to counsel or says, you fool,

liable to the fires of hell.

Jesus is talking about
two different things in our relationships

with each other.
We get upset with each other.

Some of your Bibles might have this

this little footnote that says,
whoever says to his brother Raka

during your Bible, say that, yeah, raga,

when's the last time
you'll tell someone said raga?

Like it doesn't make any sense to us
and it doesn't translate well.

Jesus is talking about two different
things.

He's talking about one.

Insulting someone,

showing contempt for their intelligence.

You know what this is like?

Freaking idiot.

Okay.

And secondly,
he's talking about showing contempt

for their character.

They have no morals.

I don't care about people.

That's what he's talking about.

He said, you think the command is just
about killing, murdering somebody?

It's not about that.

It's about when you when you

so disagree with someone,
your response is you're freaking idiot.

Well.

Or you just have.

No, they just don't care about people.

You have no morals.

And what amazes me

is how similar
this is to our two political parties.

Because there's one

political party,
they're saying you guys are just idiots.

You've lost your minds

and the other political party
and so you can't.

You have no morals,
you don't care about people.

Right.

And have all of our self-righteousness.

We have upheld our party line

and said of the other

people have lost their minds.

Just idiots.

Right?

Then Jesus says you're guilty
of the fires of hell.

We can't live up to the standard of

verse 20.

We're guilty.

Do you understand that?

Yeah.

And our self righteousness.

I've never murdered anybody.

And Jesus says, yeah,
because that's not what this is about.

Guilty.

You stand condemned.

So much so he says, look,

if you're a church
and you're doing some work for the church,

and you realize that someone else
has something

to get you, stop what you're doing
and go be reconciled with him.

He doesn't say, if you have something
to get somebody else, he says,

if someone else has some against you, stop
what you're doing and go be recorded.

You know the fastest way
to be reconciled with somebody

say, look, I understand that you,
for whatever reason I've offended you.

I'm sorry.

Accept responsibility.

Even if you think you're in the right.

The fastest way to be reconciled
to say, look, I realize that that

that I've done so.

I don't even know it.
But all I need you. Look. I'm sorry.

Will you please forgive me?

Won't you even know what you did?

No, I don't, but obviously I'm guilty,
so I just ask your forgiveness.

I've done this to multiple people
and they don't know how to handle it.

Well, you need to understand what you did.

No, I really don't.

I just need to ask your forgiveness.

Because I'm probably guilty,

and it just so disarms them.

They don't know what to do.

They want to prove themselves right
and just and righteous, like whatever.

So fine.

I'm sorry.

Forgive me.

Then they're on the hook to forgive me.

And so what? Jesus, there's.

Even if you're doing something at church,
go be reconciled.

Because if you don't seek reconciliation,

he puts it in
terms of the judge in prison,

if we don't seek reconciliation
with people and we have this grudge,

we'll live in the prison of unforgiveness
and broken relationships.

We don't get out of that until it's fixed.

So you don't think what he's saying
is, don't think the good work

you do for God overrides
the bad relationships with people?

That's what he's saying.

I've been around church a long time,
and I see it so often.

We're husbands and wives

just are just mean to each other

and not getting along,
and their marriage is in shambles.

But boy, they work hard at church.

And Jesus would say,
you know, don't think that your work

at church overrides
your bad relationship with your spouse.

It doesn't.

And so we're guilty.

Got it.

That's one illustration of six.

Let's look at the second one.

Verse 27, lust.

You have heard that it was said,
you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone
who looks at a woman with lustful intent

has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.

If you're right, it causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away,

for it's better that you lose

one of your members than that
your whole body is thrown into hell.

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 bodies
go, your whole body go to hell and to hell

again.

This is what you think it is,

because I'm the fulfillment of it.

Let me tell you what it really is.

This obviously
seems to be directed at men. Men?

Do you look at a woman lustfully?

You've already committed adultery.
Let me just say this.

Let me stop right there. Let me.

Just let me make this clear.

When I was growing up

in church, high school kids, we all.

You always wonder where the line is.

Like how close you're going
to get to the line and still be okay.

Right?

Like how close to the fire
before I get burned?

How close to the edge,
like fall off the cliff?

How close can I get?

And we would look at passages like this
and the idea behind it was, okay. So

if thinking

lustful thoughts about a girl
is same as doing it, and I'm guilty

for thinking I might as well do it
because I'm guilty anyway, right?

Does that make sense to anybody like you?

Fine.

If I'm guilty for thinking it,
and without the fun,

I might as well be guilty
and have the fun.

So that's not what he's saying.

It's always worse to do it, okay?

Being angry at
someone is not as bad as killing someone.

Please don't make that assumption.

Thinking lustful thoughts
is not as bad as committing adultery.

It's not as bad.

And this is
this is where some intellectual people

have a difficult with
because they don't understand.

And this is where some ignorant people
really misrepresent scripture.

They're not the same.

Killing somebody is much worse
than someone.

Rather, the.

Committee in adultery is much worse.

Like someone said, you can't keep birds
from flying over your head,

but you can keep
from building a nest in your hair.

But actually doing it is a lot worse.

So. So let's just be clear about that now.

They both break God's standard, but
humanly one's a lot worse than the other.

And he's saying men,

when you lust
after someone like you haven't done it,

but in your heart
you've separate yourself from your spouse.

But just so that I'm an equal

or gender offender,

that sounded really bad.

Just so I offend everybody.

Women understand

when you look at that other man

and wish man,
I wish my husband was more understand.

I wish they communicate like that.

I wish they were more hand.
I wish they were more sensitive

women.

You've left your husband.

You've lusted
after the character of another man.

And so we have to be careful
that we understand

Scripture.

Men lust sexually, women lust

for a better character.

And Jesus says, you've left.

A guilty.

And he says these words that are just
they're shocking.

If you're right, it causes you to sin.

Poke it out

your right hand. Cut it off.

Listen, he's not talking about
self-mutilation, mutilation.

He's not talking about that.
And here's the problem.

Because self-mutilation doesn't go
far enough.

It's not extreme enough

because you can pluck out your eye

and cut off your hand and still sin.

Early church, father name origin,

brilliant theologian.

Incredibly smart,

who suffered from sexual lust

and had himself castrated

because he took this so literally.

The problem is, it doesn't go far enough.

When Jesus says, you're right
eye, your right hand.

Here's here's the point in that culture,
the right was the treasured thing.

It was the like the son of my right hand.

It was the favored thing.

It was the strong thing.

And what he's saying is,
even if that thing is your favorite thing,

your treasured thing,
and it keeps you from living

righteously, get rid of it.

That thing that is most valuable to you.

The thing is, you can't live without.

If it keeps you from being righteous,
get rid of it.

I wonder.

If that thing that is so valuable.

The right hand that we can't live without.

Causes unrighteousness.

Amen.

To follow here.

Yes, this is what Jesus is talking about.

And he says, listen, you're you're guilty.

You stand condemned.

You broken the standard.

You're not living up
to the standard of the scribes

and Pharisees.

You okay?

Yeah. This.

There's two of the six.

Let's go to number three.

It was also said

whoever divorces his wife,
let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you
that everyone who divorces his wife,

except on the ground of sexual immorality,
immorality, makes her commit adultery.

And whoever marries a divorced woman
commits adultery.

This is not a popular passage
in this culture.

And yet Jesus addresses it.

He says, you've thought about one thing.

I'm telling you.

Part of the difficulty in in this day

when Jesus was was preaching this message,
there were two schools of thought.

There were two religious schools
of thought, two teachings.

One was from Rabbi Hillel
and one was from Rabbi Shimei.

And they were the the teachers of Israel.

They were called.

And Rabbi Hillel.

His interpretation of God's law
was very liberal, very generous.

And so in his liberality and generosity

he said that when the Bible talks
about a woman

displeasing or being immoral,
that could be any number of things.

So vast was his reasons.

Allowances for divorce.

He thought that if a woman overseas
and the food or burnt the bread

that was immoral
and you could divorce her,

it's like woman

I said

paprika, not garlic.

Now get out.

That's how broad.

And so women had no protection
whatsoever? No.

The school of Shimei
was very conservative and strict.

And he said the only reasons for divorce,

the only allowances for divorce,
is for sexual morality, with witnesses.

So they had to be witnesses.

And so the women were stuck
in this place of like,

I have no protection.

And Jesus says, listen, we got it.

We have to understand
the sanctity of marriage

biblically.

The Bible says God hates divorce,

and every divorce at the seed of it

is the result of sin.

And so God hates it.

Now God gives one allowance for divorce,

not as a command
that if this happens, you must.

But the Bible says
because of the hardness of man's heart,

because they will not allow reconciliation
or repentance and change.

There's one allowance
and it's the case of sexual immorality.

The difficulty when Jesus uses these words
is sexual immorality is so broad.

It could be it's so broad.

It's not specific.

There was one

thought that even if one is married,
there's two couples married,

and then one finds out that one
did something before they were married.

It's immoral.

And so you can retroactively divorce them.

And so what Jesus is saying here
is, look, marriage is sacred

and it's supposed to be permanent.

So here's the thing, my dear friend,
if you are in a marriage

now, stay in it.

Stay in it.

Don't think that.

Well, I married a divorced person. Now
it says are committed to like marriage.

Will get divorced now.

No, don't do it a second time.

Keep holy
and pure the sanctity of marriage.

It's not to be trifled with.

It's not to be entered into lightly.

God hates divorce.

And here's, here's, here's
let's just go a little deeper level.

There are some who have not been divorced.

They're still married,
but they're living a divorced life

in their marriage.

Completely separated from each other.

Emotionally, physically, relationally,

spiritually.

And that is not the intent of the father

to understand.

And so he's he's just like,
look at this, you guys.

You're you're just guilty.

Here's the fourth thing.

Oaths.

Again, you've heard that it is said to
those of you shall not swear falsely,

but shall perform to the Lord
what you've sworn.

But I say to you,
do not take an oath at all, either

by heaven, for
it is the throne of God, or by earth, for

it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for
it is the city of the great King.

And do not take an oath by your head,
for you cannot make one

hair white or black,
apparently, or even make one hair grow.

Let what?

You gotta keep up with me.

Let what you say be simply yes or no.

Anything more than this comes from evil.

Here's what he saying
when he says you've heard it.

It was said, you shall not swear falsely,
but before him to the Lord.

What you've sworn, what the practice was.

They can make any oath or promise.

As long as they didn't promise
to the Lord, they didn't have to keep it.

And so all these promises and contracts,
an oath that they would take

if they didn't say in the name
of the Lord, they weren't liable for them.

And so you had all these shysters
and everybody looking for loopholes.

There's a way to get out of my commitment.

I tell people all the time,

be careful about your commitments,

because it's easier
to get into one than out of one.

And what Jesus is saying
is, quit being hypocritical.

Quit looking for loopholes.

Quit looking for reasons
why you don't have to keep your word.

You should be such people

of integrity and character
that all you have to say is yes or no.

And everybody believes you
and everybody trusts you.

That's character.

That's a righteous life.

You understand?

You know,

and I don't know if there's anybody here
that has lived

such a life of integrity
and righteousness from day one to now,

that everything we say

is 100% truthful and believable.

And so you and I

are guilty.

We cannot pull the standard of verse

20 exceeds the righteousness. Wow.

Look at this in verse 38.

You have heard that it was said,
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, because I'm
the fulfillment of this whole thing,

do not resist the one who is evil.

But if anyone slaps you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue
you and take your tunic,

let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile,
go with him two miles.

Give to the one who begs from you,
and do not refuse the one

who would borrow from you. This is tough.

An eye for an eye.

Tooth for a tooth.

Someone slaps you on the right cheek.

Give me the other.

Also.

When Jesus says if someone slaps you
on the right cheek, give your other cheek.

He's not talking about physical assault.

In that culture, this was an insult.

It wasn't a physical thing.

It was like,

so what?

He he's not talking about someone

takes a baseball bat to your ribcage,
give him your back.

It's only when someone insults you,

get over it.

Accept it.

Let him insult you.

The backhanded slap is equal to an insult.

It wasn't a physical attack.

And so, dear friends,

when someone offends us and insults us.

Why do we?

Why do we feel like we have to?

Oh, yeah. Well.

Why? We

that insecure?

So. So let me ask you this.

What happens when someone insults
your kid?

Look, about right.

Don't resist the stuff.

You want a model of this?

How about Jesus?

That's the standard.

If anyone insults you,

give him another opportunity.

You don't have to defend yourself.

All right.

Then I would take your tunic.

Give me your cloak.

So, one.

One message to go,
one mouth to go with him voluntarily.

A second one,

what he's saying
is be willing to suffer loss

and to get taken advantage of personally.

That's what he's saying.

Be willing to be taken advantage of.

You got it.

This is.

Two of you okay?

Yeah.

Without retaliation.

Now, he's not talking about evil.

Government's job is to restrain evil.

But Romans talks about that.

That's the job of government to restrain
evil.

He's not talking
about letting evil run amuck.

But he is

talking about us patiently
enduring insults

and suffering.

Loss.

You look at this
and you think, who can live this way?

Who can live this way?

It's an incredible kingdom ethic.

And we're guilty of breaking it.

Look at this.

You've heard that it was said,
you shall not,

Or you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, because I'm
the fulfillment of this whole thing,

love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,

so that you may be sons of your father
who is in heaven.

For he makes the 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 do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors
do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers,
what more are you doing that others

do not even the Gentiles
do the same like he sent people.

People who aren't living by the kingdom
ethic, ethic are good to those

who are good to them.

So when you're good to those
who are good to you, what good is that?

There's no difference.

It was taught, listen, if someone is
good to you, be good to them.

But if they're bad to you,
you have no obligation to be good to them.

That's what was taught.

Jesus says, that's not.

That's not my kingdom.

My kingdom is

that for your enemies.

Your enemies are still your neighbor,

and you must love your neighbor.

And for those who are your enemies,
you pray for them

and you do good to them.

You don't respond with kind.

Your enemies, you love them.

Bless them.

You do good to them.

You pray for them
because even your enemies

are your neighbors, and God's
grace extends even to your enemies.

He makes the sun shine on the just
and the unjust,

and gives rain

to your friends and your enemies.

And because his grace is common, grace

extended to your enemies, then so does

your goodness and your prayers.

A tough kingdom ethic, isn't it?

And Jesus teaches us this

so that we realize
how much we've broken it,

and we stand guilty.

And then look what he does.

Verse 48,

pull up verse 48 on the slide.

You therefore

must be what?

Or faith? Wow!

As your heavenly father is, what faith?

So the first standard

was the scribes and the Pharisees.

And then Jesus goes through
six things that says, you're guilty.

You can't even live up to that standard.

And now Jesus raises
the standard to not of the righteousness

of the scribes of the Pharisees,
but to the perfection of the father.

Now you must be perfect,
just as your father is perfect.

Every one of us,
no matter what you say of these six

in your self-righteousness,
I have not committed any of those.

None of us can live up
to perfection of the father.

And that's the new standard.

So, dear friends.

Guilty.

As much as

we would like to explain away
what perfect means, and believe me,

I've heard so many teachers and so many
Christians try to explain that away.

It doesn't mean perfection
because God knows we can't be perfect.

What it means is completeness
and you can't explain it away.

You cannot explain it away.

It means literally perfect
and complete moral character.

Any of us.

And yet God says this is the new standard.

So even if you thought

you were better than the scribes
and Pharisees,

you're going to sit there and say,

you have a better character than God
Almighty.

How dare you!

So every one of us sit here

guilty and condemned.

Happy Sunday.

So if this is the standard, what do we do?

We need another way

to be righteous.

We need another way to be holy.

Because Jesus has just proven
you can't do it.

And when you realize
that this is the standard

and you realize how guilty you are,
this is why Jesus started the Beatitudes.

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit,

because it will lead them
to mourn over their spiritual state.

And so blessed are you when you mourn,

because you will lead you to hunger
and thirst for righteousness.

That's why he started that way,

so he could get us to the place
of mourning over our own unrighteousness

and admit I need another way.

And so thanks be to God

for our sake,

because I cannot be righteous.

He made him Jesus to be sin
who knew no sin,

so that in him
I might become the righteousness of God.

So God said, Carl,
you are incapable of my standard,

and I have proven it to you time and time
and time again.

You stand condemned and guilty.

You have no way to be right
with me in yourself.

And so I'm going to take my son.

I'm going to take
all your unrighteousness.

I'm going to put it on him, and then I'm
going to take all of his righteousness.

And I'm put on the Bible calls
it imputation imputed to me.

Look what the Bible says,

so that I become the righteous,
not that I become a righteous person.

I become the righteousness of God.

Perfect as he is not perfect in behavior.

But when Jesus, when God looks at me,

he sees the righteousness of His Son
and releases his son.

He sees the unrighteousness of me.

The good news after the bad news.

For he has clothed me
with the garments of salvation

before I wore filthy rags,

and he's covered me
with the robe of righteousness.

I'm covered in it

not because of what I've done,

but because of what God has imputed to me,
because of his Son.

Do you understand?

Yeah, that's good news.

Because when I look at myself,

I'm more in.

Because I understand how poor

in spirit I am.

But because of what Jesus has done.

Now God sees me
as the righteousness of His Son.

And because that

transaction has taken place, my response
then is this

put on Jesus.

And when you've done that,
now, here's the choice.

Now make no provision for the flesh
to gratify his desires.

Now, because of what I'm not,
so that all be righteous,

but because I've been made righteous. Now.

I will go through my own choice

to not lust.

Do not break my vows to not retaliate.

I will make no provision

to gratify my natural sinful desires.

Not so that will be righteous,
but because I've been made righteous.

Do you understand?

See, religion is man's attempt
to get to God.

Christianity is God.

Coming to man.

And through that, Jesus

coming to earth, dying on the cross.

When I accept that,
accept my own spiritual depravity

and accept his covering of me.

Now I stand before
God, though guilty, as if.

I'm completely righteous.

And that's the good news.

Everything up to that point.

Bad news.

But we have to have the bad news
of the law

to get to the good news of the gospel.

You can appear before God Almighty.

Have me completely justified

if you're sinned.

And completely righteous before him.

Because of what Jesus has done.

But you have to admit your own depravity.

Repent of your sin

and accept him as the leader of your life.

And in that

is great liberation

and joy.

Why don't you pray with me, father?

Thank you.

You are so good to us

to give us the bad news,

so that we can understand the good news.

And, father, you've made it

abundantly clear that in and of ourselves
we are guilty and condemned.

And so I thank you for that realization.

It's hard. It's difficult.

We don't want to accept it,
but it's the truth.

I thank you that you don't leave us in

that place.

That you've given us this opportunity
to be made right with you

through what
Jesus has done, what your son's done.

God, I pray that nobody here misses this.

Oh, we all accept it.

So, father,
thank you that you hear our hearts.

And I hear,

I think as you hear the hearts
that are going to pray right now,

if you've never accepted the righteousness
of Jesus over your life,

if you've never repented of your sin,
accepted him,

I invite you to do that right now
and just.

Between you and the father,

would you just say,
God, I admit it, I stand guilty.

You know of myself.

I'm condemned and I have no hope.

I admit it, it's bad news.

But I thank you
for the good news of Jesus.

I accept what Jesus did

on the cross to forgive my sin.

I confess my sin.

I repent of it,
and I accept what Jesus did

to purchase my forgiveness.

I accept it.

Jesus, I invite you into my life.

I want to follow you.

And I want to do everything I can do,

not to gratify my own
natural desires anymore.

They've led me astray too much.

And this morning I'm giving myself to you.

Father,

I thank you for the opportunity
you've given us to be right with you.

Because of what you've done up.

We do.

Help us live in a way
that's worthy of that.

Now, in your name, I pray. Amen.

You okay?

Here's my ask.

We're going to move
into a Christmas season next Sunday.

So we're going to push pause on Matthew
for a little bit.

We'll come back to it.

Finish up the sermon on the Mount.

But we're going to go through
these elements of of Christmas

and what it really means to have Jesus

come to earth to, to, to set in motion

all the stuff we've talked about this
justification being right with God.

And so during Christmas

time, people will come to church
if someone just invites them.

Okay, so understand how this works.

You're already here.

People who aren't here will come to church

if someone invites them here
because you're already here.

What does that mean? That you now become?

Invite us.

And so if you know people in your huddle
that don't go to church

regularly, invite them.

As we go through this Christmas series,
you understand?

Yeah.

All right, I love you.

I'm proud of you.

You did a good job
going through Matthew five today.

I realize it was bad news up front, but
we got to the good news at the end, right?

That's the gospel. Let's sing.