Righteousness Exceeding Scribes/Pharisees

The Sermon on the Mount: Context and Transition

0:03 In this longest of the recorded sermons of our Lord Jesus Christ, what could be called the Magnus Cartus of the Kingdom of God,

0:16 this Sermon on the Mount in which our Lord Jesus lays out some of the most basic principles touching the very core, the very heart of what he came to effect in the hearts and lives of men. And we have seen in studying this sermon for some months that our Lord begins in those eight blessings which we call the Beatitudes by delineating the character of a true Christian. If someone were to ask you, what is a true Christian like, you should turn into Matthew 5 and read these eight blessings and you will have a description of a true Christian. Then our Lord went on, following the Beatitudes, or included in the last one, to say how the world would react to such a person. How does the world react to a true Christian? The Lord Jesus said it will react by reviling, persecuting, saying all manner of evil against that person falsely.

1:27 And so our Lord pronounces a blessedness upon such a one. And then our Lord says, but in spite of the way the world reacts, the Christian has a tremendously helpful effect upon the world. And so he describes the Christian as salt and as light in verses 13 to 16. Now we've been studying for three or four weeks the pivotal section in this part of the sermon, verses 17 to 20, in which our Lord is now making a transition from a description of a Christian, the world's reaction to him, and his influence upon the world.

2:07 He's moving from that subject to lay before us in some detail what it means to be a Christian in practical experience. What it means to live a righteous life by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he's going to do so by giving an exposition of the spiritual content of the law of God. To be holy means that I live in accordance, with the precepts of God.

2:37 Holiness is not an experience. Holiness is not a feeling. Holiness is practical conformity to the law and will of God. Our Lord Jesus, of whom it is said, he did no sin, was the one who could say, I do always the things that please my Father.

2:57 Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. And so if we would know what it is to be holy, holy men and holy women, we must know what God's law says, and what that law says to us personally, as it touches our motives, our walk, our talk, our attitudes, and our desires.

3:22 In introducing this, our Lord lays out two principles. Principle number one, that everything he came to do and teach would be in perfect harmony with the Old Testament. So he said, think, it's not that I came to destroy the law, I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

3:48 And we saw in the light of this statement that our Lord Jesus put his imprimatur, he put his stamp of approval upon the authority and the inspiration of the Old Testament scriptures. What's good enough for my Lord is good enough for me. Then our Lord also showed that there was an essential harmony between the Old and the New Testament. And then he made clear in this statement that there is an essential cooperation between law and grace.

4:22 Grace is not the enemy of law. Law is not the enemy of grace. But the God of law is the God of grace. And we, if we are to be mature Christians, must realize that the God of law is the God of grace and embrace the full revelation of his truth.

The Shocking Statement: Righteousness Exceeding Scribes and Pharisees

4:43 Then the second principle in this passage not only is all that he teaches in accord with the Old Testament, but in verse 20 our Lord makes clear that everything he teaches will be in direct contradiction to the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees. In perfect harmony with the Old Testament, but in perfect disharmony with the religious leaders of his day. We're going to study verse 20 this morning. And I believe this is one of the most searching statements ever uttered by our Lord Jesus.

5:21 As I have prayed and meditated on this passage for some hours this week, I've come away feeling that I've faced the blazing eyes of Christ. Those eyes that John said were as a flame of fire. Those eyes that John said were as a flame of fire. Those eyes that John said were as a flame of fire.

5:38 And when his eyes met the eyes of the risen Christ and he saw him in something of his penetrating gaze, he said, I fell at his feet as dead. And I trust this morning that we'll experience something of the searching gaze of Christ as revealed in these words which he uttered. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees, For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

6:10 ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well, you say to me, Pastor, I don't see anything too searching about that.

6:14 Well, you say to me, Pastor, I don't see anything too searching about that. Well, you say to me, Pastor, I don't see anything too searching about that. Well, you say to me, Pastor, I don't see anything too searching about that. Well, one reason we don't is because we do not sit where our Lord's hearers sat.

Who Were the Scribes and Pharisees and How Were They Regarded?

6:18 Well, one reason we don't is because we do not sit where our Lord's hearers sat. don't is because we do not sit where our Lord's hearers sat. If we can somehow this morning, and this is my initial purpose as we begin our study, if we can somehow make our thinking parallel to the thinking of the people of our Lord's day concerning the scribes and the Pharisees, then these words will strike us with some of the weight with which they struck our Lord's hearers. And so our first undertaking this morning is to answer the question, who were the scribes and the Pharisees? And secondly, how were they regarded by the people of their day? First question, who were the scribes and the Pharisees? The scribes. The scribes were those who had an official office. The Pharisees were those who belonged

7:15 to a particular sect. Scribe and author. Office. Pharisees, a sect or a religious group. The scribes were recognized as the doctors of the law. They were recognized as the official expositors of God's law. Their jobs, let me list several of them. First of all, the scribe was one who actually copied the text of God's word. You didn't have printing presses, so God's word had to be transferred and propagated. God's word is propagated and expanded in its outreach, as men would sit hour by hour copying the text of Scripture. Now, if it were English, it would be bad enough. But some time, if you want your interest, I've got a Hebrew Bible downstairs I'll let you look at it.

8:08 And the Hebrew language, made up with letters that just a slight curve and instead of a right angle, if you just round it off a little bit, changes the whole meaning of a word. One little dot. One little extension as we saw earlier in Scripture. And people would earlier in our study, one little jot, one little tittle. And so the scribe's task was to carefully transfer from one copy to another the Word of God. Secondly, the scribe was the one who sought to preserve the Word of God from any interpolation, people who would try to write something in. It was his task to compare the different manuscripts and to be sure that no one brought any change into the text of God's Word. Then the job of the scribe was to define or to read the law of God. First of all, Ezra the scribe, you remember

8:59 it says in the book of Ezra that he stood and he read the law of God from morning till night. It was his task to be the official reader, and then not only to read, but to apply the law to the hearts and lives of the people. It was his task to define and define the limits of each law and each precept, and then the scribes became the group who fixed the certain traditions. Traditions would gather around certain precepts, and the scribes were the ones who said, this is the official tradition which we are supposed to obey. Now this was the task of the scribe. Now what about the Pharisee? The Pharisee did not denote a particular office, but as I mentioned earlier, a particular sect. The other sect was the two sects in our Lord's day were the Sadducees. They are mentioned in the Scripture. And

9:52 then another group that is not mentioned in the Scriptures, but is mentioned in secular history, the Ethanes. They were another group in that day. So you have the Pharisees. The word Pharisee means a separated one. Now if you want to remember the relationship between the scribe and Pharisee, this is the most simple way. And as I've done a lot of reading this week on this subject, it's boiled down to this. The scribes were the ones who had the official office of preserving the law, copying the law, interpreting the law. The Pharisees were a sect, a group of men who sought to carry out in practical experience the dictates of the scribes. They wore a particular guard.

10:41 They minutely observed the law in every single area, and they submitted to Christ. In fact, traditions as Jesus speaks in Mark chapter 7 that the scribes had set up so that every area of the life of the Pharisee was touched by some specific precept set up by the scribes and their interpretation of the law.

11:06 Now, how were they regarded by the people of their day? By their generation, the scribes and Pharisees were looked upon as the very essence of holiness and sanctity and piety. There was a saying common in our Lord's day, if but two people would make heaven, one would be a scribe, the other would be a Pharisee. Most of the people had this attitude, if I can only approach about one-third of the sanctity and piety of a scribe and a Pharisee, then surely there will be some hope for me.

11:43 They were regarded with almost a worshipful reverence. As being the divine vehicles, the divinely appointed vehicles through which the truth of God would come to men. Let me quote several of the writers of that day. This is what they said about the scribes and Pharisees.

12:04 They are well-plastered pits full of knowledge out of which not a drop of knowledge can escape. This is how they regarded them. They were destined for special glory. Everything that a scribe or a Pharisee taught was to be believed, even if he told you that your left hand was your right hand.

12:28 They were regarded with such reverence as being the official messengers to apply the truth of God, that if one came up to me and said, are you left-handed? I said, yeah, I do everything with this hand. He said, no, you're right-handed. Your left hand's your right.

12:41 I was supposed to believe it. Contrary to my reason, contrary to what everyone else said, because he was the one who was the one who interpreted the law of God, he was the infallible mouthpiece to tell me the truth. Now, does this open up the passage a little bit more? To people who looked at the scribes and Pharisees as being seated upon the very pinnacle of attainment in holiness and grace, looked upon in such a light that if only two people would make heaven, one would be a scribe, one would be a Pharisee.

The Impact of Jesus's Words on His Audience

13:19 Jesus breaks into that situation and that pattern of thinking, and he says, Verily I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall what? Exceed. The word here means come up to and overflow surpassingly the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees. You shall in no wise what?

13:48 The verse preceding, he talked, about being great and left in the kingdom. Here he says, you won't even enter the kingdom. Can you put yourselves in their place?

14:00 If there were scribes and Pharisees there, could it be, let's use our imagination, that our Lord stood or sat upon that place in the mountain, his disciples near him in the inner circle, the great multitude spread out before him on the slope of the hill, and in that group there were some scribes and Pharisees. Who stood, as Jesus said, with their special garb, loving to be called rabbi and master. And can't you picture them finding a very conspicuous place in the great crowd and standing there with a very pompous look, maybe even while our Lord had been uttering his first words, ye are the light of the world. People would look over at the scribes and Pharisees with almost a worshipful reverence look, a reverencing look, and say in their hearts, ah, surely. Christ must be speaking about these men, our revered spiritual leaders, these men who have attained such pinnacles of holiness, who pray in the marketplaces, who interpret to us the law of God. Maybe even in the midst of our Lord's sermon, some of the multitude looked at these scribes and Pharisees who had placed themselves in conspicuous places, and now the Lord Jesus says, I say unto you, common people. I say unto you, common people, that unless your righteousness goes far beyond that of

15:26 your most revered leaders, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Can you feel the weight of this thing? This thing must have shocked them to the core and jarred them to the roots.

15:41 And I trust that somehow God may be pleased to do the same for us. May I try to give a few parallels of what this would be like? Suppose there's some young...

15:52 There's a fellow who's just been looked at by some of the scouts. He's a player, say, at Cheaton Hall or somewhere else, a baseball player.

16:01 And some scouts have been looking at him. He seems to have a little ability that might make him at least get up into Class A ball. And so they come to him and they begin to talk to him. He says, ah, yes, I'm interested in being a major league player.

16:12 I want to qualify. And the scout turns to him and says, except your ability exceeds the ability of Mickey Mantle, you shall never enter the major league.

16:24 Everything goes on. None of it. He's looked upon Mickey Mantle or some other baseball star as the epitome of athletic ability in that field. And he feels, if I could only be half the hitter and half the fielder that he is, I'll be satisfied.

16:37 How would he feel if the scout came along and said, look, to begin with, you won't even start unless your ability exceeds your highest idol. Suppose someone should come to some budding young singer who feels maybe she's got a little natural talent. And some talent...

16:54 A talent scout hears him and says, look, except your ability to sing exceeds that of Leontine Price, or if it's a fellow, except it exceeds Richard Tucker, you can't even begin. It would utterly defeat them and shatter them. Now, that's exactly the effect our Lord's words had upon the people of his day. I've taken 15 minutes to give you this background so that we can feel the weight and the power of what the Lord Jesus Christ said.

The Nature of Pharisaical Righteousness

17:25 Now, the next question we've got to answer is this. What was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Jesus said that except your righteousness shall exceed theirs, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, what was their righteousness?

17:44 First of all, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees consisted in a strict adherence to the letter of the law. They would never be caught in the act. The adultery. Oh, they would never think of taking another man's wife and actually living in illicit relations with her.

18:05 They had a strict adherence to the law that said, thou shalt not kill. And they prided themselves in the fact that if they didn't go and club somebody on the head and see him die in a pool of his blood, they had kept that law. Later on in the sermon, you'll see how the Lord Jesus is tearing away their false concepts. He says, Lust in the heart is adultery, not the act of the body.

18:32 Murder is hate in the heart, not a club in the hand.

18:39 But the Pharisees had a righteousness which consisted in a strict adherence to the letter of the law. You remember what Paul said of himself in Philippians 3? He said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees as touching the law blameless. The letter of the law, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal.

18:58 Paul said, I was blameless. I had a clear conscience. Then their righteousness consisted, secondly, in a strict adherence to all the external demands of religion. Oh, what a system they had.

19:15 Some of those Pharisees were the cleanest people that ever lived on earth, outwardly. They felt that any time you touched a dead body, any time you touched anything that was ceremonially unclean. That's a hard word. That's a hard word to say.

19:30 But they had to bathe themselves. And so they were continually washing themselves, not only this way, but they'd take complete baths in their whole body. Because who knows? I might touch you this morning going out, but you may have touched someone who was unclean and I dare not run the risk of being unclean.

19:47 So whether you were unclean or not, ceremony, I'd have to be sure to clean myself. Oh, they were strict in their outward purity. In all the external demands of religion. Jesus said, They tithed mint, anise, and cumin.

20:04 They're spices. God says, You shall tithe all that you have. They said, All right. Even our spices we must tithe.

20:10 Give a tenth to the Lord. They washed at all times. They were zealous in propagating their form of religion. Jesus said, You compass land and sea to make one parcel out.

20:22 Oh, they were zealous to get others to join their particular group. Their righteousness consisted, first of all, in a strict adherence to the letter of the law. A strict adherence to all the external demands of their religion. And listen, It consisted in an impressive array of good deeds to display before men.

20:45 Jesus said in Matthew 23, Ye indeed appear beautiful unto men. All the men looked upon the Pharisees and the scribes and said, Oh, that's it. There's the essence of holiness. Now, they had a righteousness.

21:04 And their righteousness consisted of those three things. Have you got them? A strict adherence to the letter of the law. A strict adherence to the external demands of religion.

21:18 And thirdly, An impressive array of good deeds before the eyes of men. Jesus said, Ye indeed appear beautiful unto men.

Defect #1: Righteousness Resting on a Wrong Foundation

21:32 Now, What was defective in their righteousness? They had a righteousness. We've seen what it consisted of. But Jesus said to the people of his day, Unless your righteousness exceeds, goes far beyond theirs, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

21:50 What was defective with their righteousness? And I'm going to give you three things that I trust the Holy Ghost will burn into your hearts this morning. As he's burned into mine. The first thing defective with their righteousness, was that it rested upon a wrong foundation.

22:12 What was the foundation of a Pharisee's righteousness?

22:18 It was a two-fold foundation.

22:22 And I can prove this to you from a specific passage. A Pharisee's righteousness and a scribe's righteousness was founded on two things. What he was, and what he had done and had not done.

22:38 Will you turn please to Luke for a moment? Chapter 8.

22:44 Luke chapter 18.

22:51 We all know that to commend ourselves to God we must be righteous. Either with a righteousness of our own or one that's given to us. But we know that unrighteous people cannot appear before God. We know we've got to be righteous to enter heaven.

23:08 So the Pharisee knows this. And notice what it says in Luke 18 beginning with verse 9. And he spake also this parable, unto certain who trusted in themselves. There's the foundation.

23:26 Trusted in themselves that they were righteous and set all others at naught. Two men went up to the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, now notice, I thank thee that I'm not as the rest of men, as extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I get.

23:59 Now do you see what the Pharisee was saying? He was saying, God, I believe I have a righteousness which commends me to you, and that righteousness is based upon two things, God, and I want you to know what it is. First of all, I thank you that I am not as other men. In other words, I am not as other men.

24:19 In other words, there's something about me that commends me to you. I don't do the things that other men do. I am a pure man. I keep the external demands of the law.

24:32 Therefore, what I am in myself commends me to thee, and God, if that's not enough, wait till I tell you what I've done. I fast, I tithe, what I do will make up for any lack of what I am. Therefore, God, I thank you that I am a pure man. Therefore, God, because of what I am and what I do, I commend myself to thee as a righteous person.

24:57 You see what the righteousness was? It rested on the wrong foundation. And you know why it did? And I want you to get this.

25:09 Because the poor Pharisee misunderstood the whole purpose of the law. What was the purpose of the law? The Scripture reveals that God gave His law in order that men might see the inner corruption of their hearts and smartingly, desperately feel their need of a salvation by grace. But the poor Pharisee didn't realize this.

25:39 Because the law of God in its external demands acted as a barrier to natural outward sins of vice, adultery, fornication, murder, and stealing, and all the rest. The Pharisee says, O God, thy law has hedged me up from being a wicked man. Therefore, I am righteous. No, no.

26:04 The Pharisee never allowed the law to reveal to him its spiritual demand. And if this Pharisee, recorded in Luke 9, 18, had seen that the law which said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, was zeroing in on every lustful, frat he'd ever thought, that poor Pharisee would have bowed his head and said, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner with a lustful heart. If he realized that that commandment which said, Thou shalt not commit murder, condemned every angry thought he ever had, he would have stood before God saying, O God, I'm a helpless, hopeless murderer. Have mercy upon my poor loss. But he mistook the functional law for the law. And because the law held in outward vice, he never saw himself as a wretched sinner in his heart.

27:11 And he dared to come before God saying, What I am commends me to God. Then he also misunderstood the purpose of good works and the function of good works. Is it wrong to tithe and to fast? No.

27:30 But this man was making his works the foundation of being accepted with God rather than the fruit of his acceptance with God. If I've been accepted before God in Christ, good works will follow as the fruit of my acceptance. But the foundation, as we sang today, is Christ and Christ alone. Oh, but you say, Pastor, there's nobody here like that.

28:00 I love it. I'm going to unburden myself with something that's increasingly my conviction. Will you listen carefully? I am convinced that in our evangelical fundamental churches we have a repetition of this.

28:18 Now listen carefully. I talk to people and I say, Do you know that you are accepted before God, that you're righteous? Do you know what they tell me? Listen now.

28:29 They say, Oh, yes. I went forward. I prayed the sinner's prayer. I did something.

28:40 Now I read my Bible. I pray. I go to church. What are they doing?

28:47 They're saying what I am and what I do commends me to God. Very seldom do I hear someone say, Oh, yes, Brother Martin, I know that I'm right with God. How well I remember when God showed me the corruption of my heart and the depravity of my nature and I fled to Christ and I'm clinging to Christ today as my only hope. I'm clinging to Christ as my only foundation.

29:15 I meet few who tell me that. Instead, we have a subtle form of Phariseeism. People resting on the wrong foundation. They're resting on what they are and what they've done instead of who Christ is.

29:37 Do you see it? You say that you're accepted before God. Why? Oh, you say, I went forward.

29:44 That's the charity thing. I've done this. I've done something. Oh, can you sit here this morning and say, yes, I see that that holy law of God which condemns adultery has condemned my life.

30:04 It's condemning not only murder but faith. It's condemning not only actually trying to get my neighbor's possessions but even longing after them. I've seen myself a hopeless sinner and I fled to Christ. And I say from my heart this morning, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress.

30:34 Nothing, nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. I fear for some of you that you rest upon a false foundation. And I've faced death this week.

30:50 I've been in the room an hour before death came. And I walked by the bed before the funeral parlor came and took out the body of our dear sister Mary. I've spent some hours out at the rest home. And I've seen Mr. Blair, just a shadow from death. And I went into another room of another two souls on the brink of death. And out into the courtyard and faced death, death. And there's a renewed determination in my heart that by the grace of God as a pastor I'm going to plead with you people to check the foundation upon which you rest.

31:32 Have you seen yourself so vile as to look for mercy nowhere but in Him? Beloved, that's the issue. Accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You'll never enter the kingdom of heaven.

32:11 You've got to have a righteousness that exceeds theirs in its foundation. They have the foundation in themselves. But my Bible says, other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ. You asked me this morning, Pastor, what's your hope of righteousness?

32:30 I answer without any reservation, Christ and Christ alone. My most noble deeds and most sanctified efforts are tainted with sin and with self. And there's only one place of perfection and that's the righteousness of God in Christ. And there I pray.

Defect #2: Righteousness Constructed by Wrong Principles (Externalism)

32:54 Is that where you came this morning? Then the second thing defected in the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees was that they not only rested on a wrong foundation, but get this now, they constructed their righteousness out of wrong principles. The principles are like the beams in a house. They're like the floor joists and the studs in the wall.

33:27 The great principles which govern you are the things out of which your life is constructed. And these Pharisees not only were building on a wrong foundation, but they were erecting a structure of righteousness with wrong principles. Now what were two of these basic principles that were wrong? The first one was that they were more concerned about the external than the internal.

34:03 A little phrase has leaked out of that passage in Matthew 23 where I've gotten most of my material for this morning. Jesus said in Matthew 23, 25 to 28, in that portion, this little phrase occurs. Listen now. Ye outwardly appear beautiful unto men, but inwardly ye are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

34:29 Now I want to extract just a phrase from that. Get it now. Ye outwardly appear, but inwardly ye are. That's the first wrong principle of the Pharisees.

34:43 Ye outwardly appear greatly concerned about the external. How they dress, how they pray, sure that they claim for money, we allow, before they dropped it in the offering plate so that everyone would see. And then with a look of humility they cast it into the plate. Outwardly appear, Jesus said, inwardly ye are.

35:15 They built on the wrong foundation and then they constructed with the wrong principle in their whole religious system that external was more important than internal. In the realm of holiness, all they knew about was external holiness. You've got to wash your hands a certain number of times. You've got to fast so much in the week.

35:37 You've got to pray. All they knew about purity was an external purity. All they knew about worship was external worship. Being in the right place at the right time, saying the right thing.

35:45 Jesus said, in vain do they worship me. Oh, yes, they worship me. But he says, in vain. And I tell you, dear ones, again, my heart is searched.

35:57 Upon what principle or with what principle do they worship me? And I tell you, dear ones, with what principle or with what principle am I erecting a practical righteousness? I'm not talking now about the foundational righteousness that is given to me. That's outside of me at the right hand of the Father.

36:17 But I'm talking now about the righteousness that's worked in me by the Holy Spirit. Is it a righteousness in which I'm more concerned about the external than the internal? If so, then I have a righteousness akin to the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees. If Christianity is anything, it's a religion of the heart.

36:41 But these poor people, it was all a religion of the external. I fear we have that. I hear people tell me, I ask them, are you going on with God? Oh, yes.

36:59 I'm at the right place at the right time doing the right thing. I read my Bible. I pray. I go to church.

37:06 I'm at the right place at the right time doing the right thing. When you take out your holiness from the heart, what do you do when the thoughts of pride enter your mind? When the thought of lust enters the mind, do you cry out, oh God, praise me of that. You see it.

37:41 Though men never see it. Though my wife never sees it. Though my husband never sees it. Lord, I will see it.

37:47 And I want to have a pure heart. Lord, cleanse me. What about when your heart begins to covet certain things? You say, oh God, deliver me from the grasping after things that I have grasping after things.

38:01 Give me a heart that is at rest content with such things as I have. Do you know anything about internal purity? Or is your righteousness merely an external one? Man looketh on the outward appearance.

38:13 That's all I can see. But God looketh upon the heart. And the difference between a Christian and a Pharisee is this. The Pharisee's content and glad that man can only see on the outward appearance.

38:29 And he builds his whole life on the outward appearance. But a Christian knowing that God sees the heart, his concern is what can I do to be right with my God? That's the dividing line between a Pharisee and a Christian. Beloved, let me say if you are a stranger to internal purity, you are never going to see God in a saving way.

39:03 For my Bible says, Blessed are the pure For they shall see God move into your heart and lead the counsels therein. You can't move into mine. But listen, if all I'm concerned about as a preacher is preaching passable sermons and making calls and filling ministerial duties, and if I as a preacher don't have a heart to be holy and be like Christ, I'll go with the devil in my preaching.

39:46 Do you hear me? Dear friend, you can listen to me preach and listen to preachers far more capable than I and receive every word they say. Thus it gives you a holy heart.

40:06 You'll perish in the same hell. Word for the devil in his eyes.

Defect #2 (Continued): Wrong Principles (Minute Details vs. Great Issues)

40:18 Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. For their righteousness was more concerned about external than internal. Another area where they built on wrong principles was this. They were more concerned with minute details than the great issues of their relationship to God.

40:44 Jesus said, and it's almost ironical. In fact, there is, there's a bitter irony in this. He said, oh, you blind Pharisees, you strain out gnats and you swallow camels. Now, you see, when the Jewish man would tramp out his wine, there'd be a big, large stone that was hollowed out, and they'd put the, the grapes in, and there was a hole at the side, and the men would get in and trample it with their feet.

41:12 Then they would catch the wine that come out, and then they'd put it into wine skins, and before they'd do that, or sometimes after they drew it out, they would strain the wine through some mesh cloth, and I'd have to strain out any little gnats that might have gotten into it. And Jesus said, you're so careful to strain out gnats, but he says, you know what you're doing on the wall, spiritually? You're swallowing down whole camels. And that's not camel cigarettes either.

41:41 He says, you're swallowing camels.

41:46 Not minute details, but you missed the great principles. He said in another place in Matthew 23, you tied mint and anise and cumin. He says, wonderful. But he says, you've left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith.

42:07 He says, you're so occupied with details that you missed the great principles. He says, you're so occupied with details that you missed the great principles. That should govern your life.

42:16 And again I say that I fear that this is much of the fabric of present-day evangelical Christianity. Oh, how much concerned. And there are people here this morning, and God knows my heart bleeds as I say this. You're so glad that you don't smoke, and you don't drink, and you don't do this, and don't do that.

42:37 And all the particulars are in their place.

42:42 And you're in hunger for God. Do you know anything about that? It is anything. It is someone whose heart's been captured by God and who's to know Him.

42:54 Do you know anything about hunger for God?

42:57 Oh, yes, I know. You don't do this. You don't do this. You do this.

43:01 All the details. But what about this great principle that Jesus died to win my heart? Have you won, young? Pray.

43:12 Jesus said, the weightier matters of the law. Pray. Do you live in the world of unseen reality? Oh, yes, I know.

43:20 You don't do this. You don't do this. You don't do this. But are you a man or woman of faith?

43:25 A man or woman of faith is the one who gears his life in the light of what's to come.

43:31 A lot of American Christianity is as worldly and carnal and as much absorbed in the world of time as those who make no profession of Christ.

43:42 The call goes out from mission boards during the summer months. Giving falls off. Missionaries rock. You read the article in the Christian periodical that a missionary died of malnutrition on one of our mission fields.

43:55 Cheaply because support money didn't come through to put bread on his table.

44:02 Beloved, the work of God coming down into a grinder, a grinding hall. What? Christians buy their boats, buy their TVs, buy their ones, their twos, their threes. Little plush.

44:17 Yet we say we're people of faith. Faith doesn't live for two worlds. Faith lives for one world. And living for that world, we serve this one by the power of God.

44:27 Chapter and verse. All right. Hebrews 11. By faith they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims and had here no abiding city.

44:40 For they looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to call them brethren. The only people God owns as his are those whose faith is genuine enough. Cut them loose from this world to live for the world to come.

45:03 And all Christianity that says with one hand it's got the world to come and with another hand clings to this world. That Christianity will perish with the world.

45:15 Beloved, the day may soon be upon us when there's going to come a purging. All those who are living for this world, when the issue is that world or this. And you can have this one. Confess them and we'll usher you into that one.

45:38 If my heart isn't attached to that. That one. I'll deny him. And my Bible says if we deny him, he shall deny.

45:54 I'm willing to run the risk of being fought out of myself.

46:00 A bit overwrought.

46:03 But somehow the voice of God will break through to some heart.

46:09 Beloved, what's the principle of your experience? Concerned about the tales like the Pharisees straining out mass. Bypassing the great issues. Oh, you say, Pastor, shouldn't we be concerned about the tales?

46:22 Sure. If I'm concerned about hungering for God. Being a man of faith. Living for eternity.

46:29 Those great principles will reach out like mighty tentacles and touch every area of my life. But my concern about the details will simply be the outworking of my concern about the great principles of God's truth. See?

46:47 That's why Paul said, Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever, you do do all to the glory of God. He says, Get to the place where the living to God's glory is the motivating factor. And if that's true, then it will even reach out and touch your eating, your drinking, and whatsoever you do. We can't have a heart concerned about the great principles of truth and not be concerned about the tales.

47:12 It'll touch the details. But we can be concerned about little details and miss the core of the whole thing.

47:20 Frankly, this thing troubles me. My dear uncle came down. We had visitors for him come in last night around 8 o'clock from New Hampshire.

47:31 No church. Pastors just resigned. Know what the problem is?

47:37 What a problem isn't the church board going out and all having marijuana parties? Now, they're not running around with one another's wives. Oh, no. They've sprained out all the knots of so-called worldliness.

47:50 You know what the problem is? Lack of love. Lack of trust. Aren't these the weightier matters?

48:00 Aren't these the weightier matters of the law?

48:02 Aren't these the weightier matters of the law?

48:08 May God give us a people here consumed by the weighty matters.

Defect #3: Righteousness Governed by Wrong Motives

48:16 Well, I hurry on to my last point this morning.

48:21 The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was not only defected because it rested on a wrong foundation, constructed by wrong principles, but thirdly, it was governed by wrong motives. If you want to check this, you look in your Bible and, in Matthew chapter 6,

48:42 just look down from the passage we're considering, and you'll notice this little phrase occurs three times.

48:50 Matthew 6, verse 2. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. Now notice. That they may have glory of men.

49:08 The motivation for their giving was glory from men. Now notice verse 5. And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Then we move down to verse 16.

49:29 When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of the sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men. What was the grand motivating factor to the whole righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? It was self-glory. I desire to be accepted of men.

49:50 I desire to be recognized by men. Now we need to recognize that motive many times is the thing that determines whether what I do is virtuous or whether it's vice. Anything wrong with giving, praying, and fasting? No.

50:11 God's commanded all three, hasn't He? To give, to pray, to fast. The Pharisees did what they were supposed to do. Wherein lie the curse of God upon them?

50:21 The motive that moved them. The motivation was to be seen of men. Now, are we to hide our religious experience and our righteousness under a bushel? No.

50:34 Jesus said, Let your light shine, that men may see your good works. This idea, Well, I'm a silent Christian. I don't want to be ostentatious. I'll hide my Christianity, under a bushel.

50:47 You know, but if you can hide it under a bushel, there isn't much there.

50:52 Jesus said, Let your light shine. So what's the motive? Remember, we studied that passage. That men may see your good works, and what?

51:02 Glorify your Father. Sure, I want men to know I'm a Christian, that I give to the work of God, that I pray, that I seek God. But what's my motive? Lord, that men may see the work of Thy grace in me, and glorify Thee.

51:18 See? The motive is the issue. Not the act. The motive.

51:24 And the problem with the righteousness of the Pharisees was that it rested on a wrong foundation. It was constructed by wrong principles, and it was permeated with polluted motives. It was like the leaven that leavened the whole lump.

51:41 It was the dry rock in all of their religious exercises to be seen of men.

51:53 One of the greatest, one of the greatest curses of the human heart. The holiest men who've ever lived cry out against it. I've been reading from my own prophet Robert McMurray McShane's biography again. And McShane said words like these, The lust of praise has ever been my besetting sin.

52:11 I feel the pride of my heart, and I bewail it. That's the cry of a Christian. Conscious of this motive that would creep in, we cry out against it. But the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, nursed this pride, and fed it, and cultured it, and warmed it, and covered it, and fondled it.

52:31 Oh dear one, what motivates your religious exercises? Why are you here this morning? Don't answer to me, but answer me. Why are you here this morning?

52:42 Why do you say it's Sunday, and that's the thing to do? In other words, when you're here, just so you can live at peace with your conscience, you're motivated by a selfish motive. That's why I'm here, because if I missed a few Sundays, well, no problem. Maybe you'd begin to think that I was backslidden.

52:59 I don't want you to think that of me, so I had to come and take my place this morning. Then you're motivated by a selfish motive. You want to keep your reputation. Thank God, I believe there's some, I trust many, who can honestly say, I'm here, O God, Thou knowest, because I love Thee.

53:17 And I want to see Thy face, Lord. I want to hear Thy voice. I want to know more truly what I must do to please Thee. Beloved, that's the motive.

Conclusion: The Call to Exceed Pharisaical Righteousness

53:27 That's acceptable to God. Dear men and women to whom God has sent me, and for whom I must give an account, may these words burn into your heart as we close this morning. Accept your righteousness, accept my righteousness, shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. It must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in its foundation.

54:06 The foundation of the scribes and Pharisees, what I am, I fear for many in our congregation, for some in our congregation. What I am, I don't smoke, I don't swear, I don't do this, I do this. I've made a decision. What I am, what I've done, is the basis of my righteousness.

54:26 More beloved, Christ and Christ alone is righteousness. Then it was constructed on wrong principles.

54:38 More concerned with external than internal, more concerned with detail than great principles. Accept your righteousness, exceed that, and you are found to be more concerned with the heart than with the external, with the great principles of faith and love and mercy, other than the details of separation. Then it was permeated with a wrong motive. Accept your righteousness, exceed theirs, you'll in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.

55:09 Oh, may God be pleased, and this has been my prayer, and I trust there's been some measure of faith in it, that some men and women were marked this morning as the morning when the Holy Ghost wounded them and caused them to begin to question the righteousness which they thought was going to commend them to God. Oh, God will own His Word today to drive you to seek that righteousness which is in Christ alone. This is the only reward I ask of God for the ministry. May God be pleased to give it to me for His glory.

55:46 Shall we pray? Oh, Father, You've met the eyes of our Savior, felt the impress of His searching Word. Oh, God, seal this Word. Honor Thy beloved Son in causing the Son to flee to Him.

56:12 As Thy people, Lord, we confess that the plague of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is so much with us. Help us that we'll be more concerned about the heart, more concerned about the great issues than stumbling and scribbling, quabbling, squabbling over details. Lord, help us. Help us, we pray, to have an eye single to Your glory.

56:39 For Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, as we're dismissed this morning, I'd remind all of you men, women, the prison service this afternoon, those who can go and help in the ministry, meet at the prison at 5 until 2. Others of you, we trust that you'll pray.

56:59 God may bless and own these ministries for His glory. Let us stand now and be dismissed with prayer.