Matthew, 5:13-20

We said, who is Jesus talking to here? Verses 13 through 16, the Lord deals with what the godly remnant, that is those Jews who have believed God and are therefore saved. in relationship to the world. Christ addresses what kind of people these believers are to be using the illustrations of salt and light. Well, hi. Oh, something else momentous. This guy just moved here. This is Chris Smucker, otherwise known as Smuck. And Vani, welcome back. Thank you.

Okay, we have in verses 13 through 16, ìYou are the salt of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.î And in verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket. But on the lampstand, then it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

In the ancient world, salt was used for purposes not unlike what is commonly done today. for seasoning and as a preservative. The seasoning, from the spiritual implication there, those who attain real righteousness are the believing remnant, that is those Jews who have put their trust and confidence in the Messiah. These are the ones who are capable of demonstrating a godly character. The preservative, the believing remnant, are the ones who preserve the existence of the nation and the world. We have notes below on Abraham that we'll be taking a look at here.

In the eastern countries, a lot of the salt was impure. The salt that we get is quite processed. Much more purified. The salt that they had, this is the Dead Sea, that's crystalline formations that are coming up just from the drying out of the Dead Sea.

This is on the south end where they have a lot of the brine ponds. And of course, as I mentioned before, feel free to taste it if you'd like. You probably won't want to do it for very long, but feel free to do so. There's some in the back and a cup right nearby to spit it out as soon as you're ready, which you might be sooner than you imagine.

That's gathered up and then ground up into smaller rock salt type forms. This stuff is not real tasty. But the Dead Sea was one of the sources that they had for salt in those days. And you would not use much of it if you were going to season it for taste with that stuff. It just doesn't work.

But that's one of the sources that they had for different purposes of using salt. Jesus here was most likely referring to salty rocks. Here is an open pit salty rock mine in Israel. It basically looks like a rock. It's got a lot of salts in it that leach out. And that stuff is a little bit more tasty, if you will.

And you ever hear about somebody throwing another rock in the soup? Ever hear about that? Okay. If you ever hear about that expression, well, one of the ways that that would come up is that the rock would be salty, and so you'd throw a rock of this salty rock in the soup.

That would season the soup, and then when you're done, you'd pull the rock out, and you maybe do it a few times, and after that, the salt's leached out of the rock and there's a little bit of salt left but it's not enough to keep doing it and so then because it's a little salty and it is a rock, you don't just throw it out in the field, you put it out on the footpath where it's just sort of gets stomped into the ground and makes the ground a little more solid. So does that make sense? In other words, so then you have some usefulness that way. Let's talk a little bit more about what this looks like.

So in these eastern countries, the salt used was impure or mingled with vegetable or earthly substances so that it might lose the whole of its saltiness and a lot of earthy matter remains. That's from these salty rocks. This was good for nothing except to be used in place of paths and walks as we use gravel. It was aggregate. It was a salty rock with the salt leached out. So if it loses its saltiness, in other words if all the salt is leached out, then all it is is a piece of aggregate.

Slightly salty still but So you don't throw it in the field because you don't want rocks in your field anyway. But you just put it on a footpath or someplace like that where you use it for aggregate. And if it gets a little salt into the footpath, that's fine because it'll kind of kill off the weeds and things that would tend to grow up, right? The other thing is that salt was used in the temple services, right? And so they would have this salty rock material as well as dead sea salt. And when it would lose its saltiness, they would put it down.

Because remember, what were the priests doing all the time with the animals? Slaughtering. And what did they have? Blood, right? And so you don't slip around the blood. What would you like to have down on the ground? Rocks, little rocks. And so they'd have little bits of rock left and they'd put that down to keep from slipping in the blood. Sounds a little gory, but those are the facts. So you'd have bloody, salty rocks.

So the disciples in Jesus' day had the function to be the salt of the earth. They were to do this by living out the Beatitudes and the other things that we see in the Sermon on the Mount. If they didn't show that there was spiritual reality of life in their lives, people would not accept the testimony. They would say, hey, I don't see anything in your life that's salty, that's particular, okay?

The people of the world are quick to see deficiency in one's testimony. You ever seen that? As a matter of fact, one of the criticisms you hear, I think it's really a smoke screen, in fact, is, oh, the people, you know, in the churches or something, they're just hypocrites. Well, for one thing, there's none of us that is fully conformed to Jesus Christ until we walk through heaven's gates, right?

Jesus didn't say, you know, look at these people or look at those. They're absolutely perfect. What he says is look at me. That's what Jesus said. And so in this instance here, he's saying people need to see your saltiness. They need to see it lived out.

Salt serves the negative job of delaying decay. And we're going to be addressing that a little later on. How much of a task and responsibility is it for Christians to go out and impact the world in various ways? Should we be thoroughly involved in getting the political system straightened out? Things like that. We'll deal with that question.

So the idea of the disciples becoming tasteless salt warns the disciples of the danger of compromise and conformity. What is salt but it is different from that which it salts? Different from that to which it gives a seasoning? If it no longer is able to make what it is put into or put next to salty, if it can't do that anymore, it's lost its usefulness, hasn't it? One of the ways that they would use salt, and of course, here are the disciples. Many of the disciples had what occupation?

Fishermen. And Jesus was giving this right next to the Sea of Galilee, right? What the fishermen used to do, they would sell three forms of fish. One was fresh fish, but except for right around the Sea of Galilee, that was actually fairly uncommon. Another was fermented fish paste. Sorry to tell you that right after breakfast, but fermented fish paste, and that was actually a staple of the Roman soldiers. But the second form, the one I haven't mentioned, is dried salted fish.

Remember the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and there was fish and bread? And the fish was typically this, they would have a fish called musht, that was caught by net out of the Sea of Galilee, and when they would salt it, they would put it down in a layer, put a layer of rock salt down, then put another layer of fish, and then a layer of rock salt, and they would have these fish stacks separated by layers of salt that would dry out, and then the fish would be, once it's all dried out, then that'd be something you could carry, would be preserved, and you could take it somewhere, And as Jesus did, break it up and it would be served that way. So that was another use for the salt and the preservative example that would be very relevant to the people right there, right there who are listening to the Sermon on the Mount.

They would all know quite well what that meant. Now, so here is, excuse me, find my place here. Let's look at page 2, top of page 2. Abraham took hold of the principle that the presence of the righteous will deter and defer judgment. This is the instance where Abraham is talking with the Lord and this has to do with Sodom because remember his nephew is there in Sodom, right? How many righteous does it take and you will preserve Sodom, right? And so that's the effect that Abraham is referring to. So he goes and counts down, you know, 40, 30, 20, 10. How much saltiness, if you will, to preserve the city of Sodom.

So the believer in the church age here provides the savor of Christ. See, salty is something they were to be, right? That was a matter of being. It isn't a program to carry out. It's a matter of this is what I am and this is how I live. That's what he was getting across to them. In the church age, it's interesting, other than a comment by Paul about teaching that is seasoned with salt, I would say a close one that we have to that is those in the church age, those in the church, are to have the savor of Christ in them. And Paul used the example of an aroma. an aroma having an impact. Now, let's have this question looked at here.

Let's read 2 Corinthians 2.14, What are we to grow in? Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we're to grow in.

But that sweet aroma, does everybody think it's sweet? I see head shaking. No. How come? Why not? A lot of people think it's weak. A lot of people think they're weak. Are they right? Well, in one sense, we're relying on the Lord's strength. So in one way, it appears weak. But on the other hand, it is a strength from the Lord. Right? It's an empowerment from the Lord. Is the Lord's power and strength limited? No. So it is, in effect, it's not weak, but others not understanding that might think so. So this saver might be reacted to negatively by some people, huh? How about this next one?

You are the light of the world. Let's take a look at that because that was something that also has a lot of real background. This was a typical olive oil lamp and this is a very simple one, but it's also more likely to be commonplace. There are others that were fancier. I've seen pictures of some with a closed top. This one is just a piece of open pottery with part of it folded over. I've seen some with a closed top and then a menorah. on the top.

So this is one of the simpler examples but they would put olive oil in there. The lamp would simply be a piece of pottery and then the olive oil and then a wick made of cotton or flax and then light it. It was typically the woman of the house, her responsibility. The wife commonly but like say an older daughter might be given the responsibility as well.

To keep that going, it was considered shameful in the culture of Israel at the time to let that one lamp in the house go out. It was a shameful thing if that happened. It meant that you were very derelict, negligent in duty. Isn't that something? Basically, all the time, all the time. And the main reason is because lighting something was a tough thing to do too. They wouldn't, you know, just strike a match or get the lighter. So basically, they kept one going all the time, one going all the time.

That was your night light, okay? So they had these oil lamps and so getting oil and keeping the oil lamp lit, this is one reason Jesus told the parable of the ten virgins and the ones who did not keep the lamp going, that was a bad thing. So that's the reason for the implication that not keeping the lamp going was a bad thing. This Amodius, interesting, Jesus used the Latin word transliterated into Greek. Jesus used the Latin word, modius, whoop, that wasn't in the plan.

We overheated here. The modius was a small bucket-like item and what the modius would do is, it would use it for measuring dry goods typically. And a lot of times they were made of either metal or clay. And so those would be a common household item. It disappeared on me here, but they would have those and sometimes with a handle so you could easily carry it around.

And because like you might go to the store and say, I want to, you know, get some of this. And of course the way to make sure you got, you know, an honest measure is you got your own, right? And so you might go to the marketplace, that's their equivalent of the store, and get so many measures with this motius. Well, Jesus would take that household thing that they all had and say, you know, you don't take that and put it over the top of the lamp, do you? You instead put it where you can use it. It was typically on either a protruding niche built into the wall or sometimes they would actually have a lamp stand that would stand up.

Okay. So this, you are the light of the world. The idea of them being light is for them to maintain high visibility. High visibility. Light speaks of shining in a sin-darkened world. Light in Scripture represents purity, truth, knowledge, divine revelation, and God's presence. The Old Testament reveals the Messiah as the true light of the world. And that's one thing, when you look at the Old Testament, Light is commonly focused and centered upon the Messiah. And so being as ones who believe in the Messiah, being as ones who have put their trust and confidence in Him, they too become lights of the world.

Isaiah 49 and 42, which we studied, both have passages. Isaiah 49, 6, is a too small a thing that you, notice that's capital in the English there, should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Or in Isaiah 42, 6, I am the Lord.

I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations. So these believing Jews, those who had put their trust and confidence in the Messiah, were to express the character of that Messiah, Jesus Christ. So it was right for them, as believers in the Messiah, to be conveying light to the world. So some who had dwelt in darkness, and I would actually even change that to the many, would be drawn to that light and seek to join the light and even become the light. The great mass of people were dwelling in darkness, right? So he was calling them to be a light, to be a light standing out.

Here's the city set on a hill cannot be hid. What I was going to show you, and fell out here so I'll describe it. Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount on the Sea of Galilee and he was up at the northwest portion of the Sea of Galilee. On the opposite side, and the Sea of Galilee was not huge so it was quite visible, on the opposite side was a city on a hill called Hippas.

And the city on a hill, of course, at nighttime, what were the people to do but they had to at least keep one light on, right? At least one. So every house had this little glow. So even when everybody's gone to bed, you still have some light showing up. One other thing.

The fishermen who fished around the Sea of Galilee, most of them fished at night. They'd fish all night. So they would see all the fishermen who were listening to Jesus, they'd seen the city, the lights from the city on the hill themselves. In effect, they'd used it as a place of orientation.

You know, where am I out here in the dark? Especially on a very dark night. or a night with a lot of cloud cover. You look out, oh, there's Hippos. There's my orientation. So here's a light on the hill. It was visible. A great many of the people, especially those who were in the fishing business, and a great many of the disciples were, would see this light on a hill. It was not only was it quite visible, but it was also, this is how we keep oriented because we don't have GPS units. Now GPS units are compasses, but we can always look around. Where's the city? There it is.

There's the city on a hill. There were other cities on a hill. If they went down to Jerusalem, which was also a city on a hill, They went down to Jerusalem, they would go through the city that in the Old Testament was Bethshean. In the New Testament era, Scythopolis was its name. They would go through this city. It was a city on a hill on the way down to Jerusalem. And so either way, whether they were looking on the Sea of Galilee, on the way down to Jerusalem, or at Jerusalem itself, they knew what a city on a hill was. And they knew what that was like.

Especially in a place where you don't have, you know, like we've got freeways out in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes a freeway away from the city will have lights all along it. But if you're in a place where there isn't a lit freeway, And you're usually walking in dark paths if you're walking at night, which was not something you'd like to do a lot. But nonetheless, you could still see it. You could see the city on the hill. And especially since everybody, every household, had at least one light going all the time.

Yes? You always go up to Jerusalem. Yes, up to Jerusalem. And that's a common thing. And even Galatians, we've seen that. Up to Jerusalem. Yep. Thanks. And that's a key thing. It was definitely a city on the hill. Doug, I think you and I were talking before.

If you went that route, you'd go from Sea of Galilee, which is 700 feet below sea level, okay? You'd go down through Sythopolis and then along the Jordan River coming down to about Jericho and then, and Jericho's even lower than the Sea of Galilee, then go up to Jerusalem. Quite a climb. Very steep.

And so it's definitely up, right? And it's the city on a hill, no doubt about it. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. It's going to stand out. It's going to be quite evident. All right, let's look at the top of page three. I came about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains." And by the way, we studied this in Isaiah a little over a year ago, so this passage has the teaching materials on the website if you'd like to look at it. But it goes like this, "...and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it."

This is a city on a hill that the whole world will come. to enjoy its light. This is Jerusalem here. Many peoples will come and say, by the way, many peoples, what does that mean in the Jewish mind? Nations, right, the Gentiles. Many peoples. The Jews thought of themselves as the people and the nation, and the Gentiles were the nations and the peoples.

Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He, Jesus Christ, will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, the Gentiles, right? And never again will they learn war.

Come, house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Now it says, Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and he gives light to all who are in the house. Certainly not in a basket, but the word that they used here is actually modius, which more or most commonly was actually a clay or sometimes even a metal item for measuring. It was something that they commonly, and I had it on there before the projector went down on me, they commonly would put on coins as like this was a standard of economy and our production capacity as a way of showing that.

What we see here is a warning against withdrawal from the world that does not lead others to see the light. One Jewish group that we'll be putting further emphasis on here in New Testament times did teach withdrawal and that was the Essenes. They were the ones that taught to love your brother but hate your enemy. So they taught that and they were ones who withdrew. And Jesus is saying, no, that's not quite right. They also were the ones who are thought to have hidden the Dead Sea Scrolls, most of them.

It can seem at times like the way to protect the light from getting dimmed is to withdraw from the darkness. But Jesus warns against that inclination and false impression. Instead, he urges that the light be placed so as to maximize its exposure, certainly not to hide the light source.

If you've ever, you know, been in any sort of household where money doesn't just flow like water, there's concern over, you know, a rising utility bill, right? So you'd check the thermostat and you'd turn the lights off and, you know, things like that, right? You know, and caulk. Well, in those days, you think of it, they didn't pay the power company. They didn't pay the gas company. What did they pay for? olive oil, right? That was their utility bill, okay? And so how do you watch your utility bill? You don't use the olive oil inefficiently.

Certainly don't put something over the top of it. What do you do? You put it out so you maximize the light capacity. They would put it along a wall with like a protrusion sticking out of the wall, and they'd put it on one of those, or they'd actually have a stand. I had a picture of one up here, but they actually have a stand they would put in the middle of the room to even further maximize the use of it. Yes, yes.

It's basically the same stuff. They didn't have a way to do anything real fancy. They basically used the same oil. It was possible if they knew an oil got contaminated in some way that, okay, we can still burn it. In that case, it might be a difference. Other than that, it's basically use the same oil for both. Unless you knew of some contamination. In which case, yeah, we're going to use that for fuel and light and not for cooking.

Now they do a lot of stuff. That was pretty uncommon. because the ability to control temperature and things like that just wasn't there. They had different sizes of presses. Some of the presses were fairly small and they had different means of presses. We've heard of the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane is an olive oil press. That's what a Gethsemane is.

And so what they would have in that case, a lot of times it would be a vertical stone dropping into a place carved out for it. And then that would press the oil and use levers to press down on the olive oil and come out that way or the other way. You may have seen this as they have a kind of a rotating wheel that would go around in a larger stone pan so to speak. Those they would often times have a donkey or an ox running those. But the ability to control temperature just was not there. It was typically cold press because that's what they could easily do and what they got out that's what they would sell for both Typically, if they could get the animals to go for it, they would do that and go back out in the fields and use it for some kind of organic material. You had your hand raised? The rotary kind, yes. Yes. Yes.

And it was real common because, I mean, you think about it, we have this power grid to get the power out, right? So what they had to do was to have a regular distribution system for this olive oil, grow it everywhere you can, and press it everywhere you can, because you've got to get it out there just like we have a system for sending out power and gas and things like that. So this is something absolutely essential. You've got to have this. this olive oil to keep the light going.

There was such a thing as a candle but it wasn't real common because they didn't have paraffin like we get out of basically out of crude oil. They didn't have paraffin so to burn a candle meant you're going to burn beeswax and they didn't raise bees. So it would be an unusual thing to actually have a beeswax candle because they didn't raise them commercially.

Pardon? Okay, here's the deal with honey. We went through this with Isaiah and it was still true in New Testament times. During the Old Testament era particularly, honey was only raised, the bees and there was a whole apiary thing where they raised bees commercially, was only done by the Egyptian priests.

And the Israelites had honey when they found wild honey. And they had the comb when they found, you know, the wax comb either left somewhere or they'd get the wild honey. But other than that, honey, the term that's used for honey was basically anything that's a sweet syrup. And it might be wild honey when they could find it, but most commonly it would be like a date or a fig juice. Yeah. So real interesting, the olive oil was the main thing that they would burn.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your fathers in heaven. So which light is to shine? Let's ask that question. Let your light so shine. What's he talking about there? Should we be showy about our good works? What is he intending? What he was saying is this is God's light, not you're just trying real hard to be light. This is God's light. Let that light shine. Later on in the Sermon on the Mount, He's actually going to give warnings against being showy, isn't He? So this isn't put on a good show. This is not an exhortation to put on a good show. But He's telling them, let real righteousness... Pardon?

Ah, let your light shine before men. And I have not checked on this, but my first inclination, often times when the Bible is translated, let, it's actually an imperative. I'd have to look that up, so I don't know offhand what the answer is, but I will look that up. But that's a good question. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works. The other thing is, what's the outcome of doing this? What's the outcome of letting your light shine so that people see the good works?

Ah, they glorify the Lord. What Jesus was warning about, and we'll see later on in the Sermon on the Mount, showiness, people would do things to make sure that everybody saw how righteous they were. How is that different from this? Yeah. In other words, in here, let your light shine so as the Father is glorified. And what he's warning about later is just be careful that you're not one of those people where you're trying to get you glorified. See the difference? That's the distinction he's calling for here. And we'll see that.

Here he's looking at, this is letting your light shine so that the Father is glorified. Don't let your light shine in such a way that you're attempting to get glorified yourself. So this is the seeing your good works. Under the principle of grace, the evidence for salvation of the believer is the presence of the Lord in each one. The believer in this age of grace, we have seen as the light of the Lord. And we are seen as the light of the Lord.

Ephesians 5.8, For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Now there is a difference here. Light in the Lord. Isn't that interesting? in the Lord. It's the position that believers have in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Why doesn't he just say walk as light? Why does he say walk as children of light? Why the distinction?

In other words, you think about it, the use of children of or son of in the Bible, talks about close relationship to. So that's one thing is we have a close relationship to the Lord. See? So children of or son of in the Bible is used in that sense. Having a close relationship to and having an identity with. Having a character that shows that close relationship and identity. That's what the picture is here. And you can use that principle throughout as you go through studying Scripture.

This is walk as children of light. What does it say? Sons of disobedience. Right? In the same book, Ephesians. Sons of disobedience. What are sons of disobedience? Those who have a close relationship to disobedience. Those who have the character of disobedience. Which is you. You, believers, instead have this close relationship to the Lord who is light. and have that character of light. Let's look at the top of page 4.

Do not think that I come to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. And whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

One of the key things to recognize in this is that Jesus is using terminology, and especially talking about the Law and the Prophets, that I would call it rabbi speak. Terminology that the rabbis would commonly use with each other. When we read this and take it at face value, the tendency, as a matter of fact, and historically a lot of people are looking at this as historical fulfillment, but the Jews used, and especially when talking about the law, they talked about ethical or moral fulfillment. that is carrying it out. First, interpreting it correctly, and secondly, living it out, in terms of living it out morally, living it out ethically. That's what is being conveyed here. A similar use of the term is to fulfill all righteousness.

Remember, what was it, 315? John 3.15. Christ is saying to John the Baptist, You know, it's time to baptize him. And John's saying, you know, you should baptize me, you know.

But he says, no, we're here to fulfill righteousness. It is not historic fulfillment. In fact, while there are a great many prophecies about the Messiah coming, fulfilled, In fact, somebody who's counted them down to detail gets somewhere around 300 prophecies. Historic fulfillment, okay? But this is looking at an ethical fulfillment, a moral fulfillment.

So what I have here, it has been estimated there are a few hundred itinerant rabbis in Israel at the time. So Jesus in one sense was like some of these rabbis and even used some of the terminology or some of their terms. And he also called out disciples, like the rabbis did, and told parables. As a matter of fact, we have a record of 4,000 parables that rabbis of approximately this era would tell. And he spoke of the Law of Moses, just like the others did. Now, these rabbis are known to have used rabbinical terms very similar to what Christ used in these verses above. And here's what we have bolded. What we'll find as we proceed through the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus used the common rabbinical terms, the terms that the rabbis used, and did and said things that were similar to what we read to the other rabbis in the culture.

What made Jesus stand out sharply from the other rabbis of the time were the things that he said and did that were not at all like the other rabbis. It was the things that he said and did that were not at all like the other rabbis that caused them to want to kill him.

He was called rabbi. As a matter of fact, when you look at it in the New Testament, Christ was called rabbi most by his own disciples. Even Nicodemus, John chapter 3, calls him rabbi. And Nicodemus is a rabbi. So he was a rabbi in that sense, but what he did and said that was sharply in contrast from what rabbis typically did are what made him stand out and made him exceedingly memorable.

He said, for example, things like, I am. In John, we see he'd say things like, before Abraham was born, I am. No rabbi ever said that. except Jesus. One of the things we even see in Jesus' own teachings is that the disciples, under all the rabbis, were taught to talk about God as our Father. And you could even say in plural, your Father. But you didn't dare say, my Father, except and unless you were Jesus, okay? He didn't dare say, my father. That was shocking to claim to have a personal, special relationship with a father like that. That was, well, you just didn't do that, right?

And that's why they would pick up stones. That's why they would get upset. Nor did they speak with the authority and finality that Jesus did because He was God incarnate. At the end of several of the messages in the Gospels, they said, and the people were amazed at His teaching. The people were astonished at His teaching because He would say things with finality. This is the truth. That other thing is false.

You know not the Scriptures nor the power of God. He would tell the guys who were like the leaders of Israel. You don't know anything. What do you mean? We don't know anything. And then he's going to say something at the end of this passage here that's mind-boggling. Oh, it's going to blow their circuits. No other rabbi spoke of dying for sins. Remember, he started telling them what in advance? What was Jesus going to do? He's going to go to Jerusalem and he's going to die. and be buried and raised up.

And of course, they understood that well, right? No, it just blew their circuits again. And the other rabbis didn't say that either. So, not even the disciples understood. On the day of the crucifixion, the disciples, were they all saying, yeah, this has got to happen. It's okay. No, they still didn't understand.

This was not at all like any other rabbi ever said and did. Shocking stuff. Any other rabbis raised from the dead? Not so much, right? And so it was an interesting study in contrast. On the one hand, he would talk like the other rabbis talked. On the other hand, he would talk like no other rabbi talked, saying startling, stunning things, so that 2,000 years later, here we are now, studying his words, and I bet you'd be hard-pressed out of hundreds of rabbis to name more than a few. We don't remember the others, we remember this one. Matthew 5, 17-19 and above, Jesus was using rabbinical terms in dealing with issues that were common among the rabbis and their disciples. He is making five key points that we will study more closely in the pages to follow, except that we are running out of time. So, let me read them here quickly.

1. He did not come for the purpose of violating the law of Moses or the prophets. Two, he did come for the purpose of preserving and sustaining the law of Moses by interpreting it properly as originally given, which meant to set aside the traditions which had been added.

Set aside the things that the Pharisees had been teaching you. All that stuff about you've got to wash like this, and you've got to do that, and you can't do this on the Sabbath, and you've got to do that. No. If the Law of Moses says it, do it. If it doesn't, ignore it. Okay?

Number three, the entire Law of Moses will remain authoritative among those to whom it was given, that is the people of Israel, until this present heaven and earth pass away. Remember, some of you were in the second Peter. First and second Peter class, both of them refer to the end of this present heavens and earth. So the law of Moses will continue. Revelation 21 verse 1 says, And I saw the heavens and the earth pass away.

That's the end. Ah, what we have, and we get to this after a bit, but we may not have time for it. What we have is we in the church, as we've been seeing in Galatians, have died to the law. Is the law dead? No. But the law is still around. You can still find it. As a matter of fact, if I could show it to you, I have 613 laws, all 613 laws of Moses on one slide. The law is still very much around.

Our relationship to it, however, is one of separation. We have been separated from it. The law did itself not terminate or end, but we've been separated from it. For the Jews during the coming kingdom, what will be their relationship to the law? Will they be separated from the law?

No. What will happen? It will be written on their hearts. The New Covenant, and we can point specifically to Jeremiah 31-31, also written of in Ezekiel and Isaiah. Those three books, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah are the three books that talk about the New Covenant when the Jews will have the law written on their hearts. They will not even need a rabbi. It says, no rabbi.

You have the law written on your hearts and you will carry it out. And because you all carry it out from the heart, Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 through 14, they will be blessed, fully blessed, because they will all live out the law to the fullest from the heart. Number four, misinterpreting the law of Moses will cause one to be called least in the kingdom. And number five, keeping and teaching the law of Moses as correctly understood and originally given will cause one to be called great in the kingdom.

Notice there's the least of these commandments. They had heavy and light commandments. The rabbis had gone through and weighted the commandments. So you had heavy commandments and light ones. And so the heavy ones, you've got to make sure you put emphasis on those. And you've got the light ones that aren't quite so tight. And so they had the heavy and the light commandments. And Jesus was saying, it doesn't matter, heavy or light, do them all. Do them all. So don't separate them out like the rabbis had. Because we have run out of time, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to move on to page 6.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Who was the standard of righteousness among the Jews at the time? the scribes and the pharisees. Now, so if you were to say there's some condition for getting in, which a lot of them really didn't believe. A lot of them really didn't believe there was a condition for getting into the kingdom of heaven. They just figured, I'm Jewish, I'm in. But, if anyone was going to be measured on that basis, it would be the scribes and the pharisees. Everybody would have said so. So Jesus said, no, if you're not above those guys, you're not getting in.

This was like, forget it. No way. You know, one of the things that was thought to be a real limit in earlier eras was the four minute mile. That was like some real, you know, Standard where you got to be able to run the mile and it was broken obviously as a record But still they're just working on getting under that four minutes, you know But it's like Jesus come and say unless you can run a whole lot faster than those guys forget it.

You just don't even enter This this is really setting the bar high, but what was he talking about? Was he talking about being more perfect or what was his point? Why would he say such a thing? What was the problem with the Scribes and the Pharisees that he was pointing at here?

A different standard. And how is it different? You're correct, but how is it different? The self-righteousness. Many of them did their show for the outside. and for them to be glorified rather than for the Father to be glorified. And what else? Something else that Jesus is going to talk about in the Sermon on the Mount is don't just do things on the outside. Do them where?

On the heart. Even saying sin is not just defined by what you do on the outside. Sin is defined by what happens on the heart. And so that's the thing he's looking at. Carol's right. It is a different standard because It's not man-made. It's not a show for other people and that's the end of it. And it is not superficial. It's from the heart.

That's what he was pointing at. And actually, you look at verse 20, what he's going to do is he's going to spend the rest of the Sermon on the Mount explaining what that means. What the scribes and the Pharisees do, you can see that. Everybody looks up to them as these are the top guys, these are the ones who really know it and really live it, and he's going to say, oh no, there's some things we have to do that go far more deep in the heart and that go far more heavenly in terms of they actually were looking for rewards that were stored in heaven for the Messiah to bring to earth, in the kingdom. That was the viewpoint. All right, I want you to take this. We who are under the principle of grace have been separated from the law of Moses and instead are to live by the position, knowledge, power, and righteousness of Christ.

So Philippians 3, 7 through 11. Here's Paul, who by the way, says in the book of Acts 23, 6, that he was a Pharisee. He said, I am a Pharisee. But what does he say about all his Pharisaical qualifications? By the way, there were seven. which is the number of perfection, right? Seven qualifications.

But whatever things were gained to me in the qualifications I had under the law of Moses, those things I have counted loss. I have written them off. They're a write-off. Loss. For the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss. Accounting. Loss. In view of the surpassing value, this is the word surpassing that is the surpassing riches of His grace. Overthrown. Out of the ballpark righteousness. Surpassing value of knowing Christ. Isn't that interesting? Knowledge of Christ is the key thing. Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things counting them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.

Counting them sewage. That word is actually used for just raw sewage. All the righteousness I had under the law was raw sewage compared to knowing Christ. That I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may, here it is again, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Knowing Him by grace, completely.

Now, I've kind of raced through the last part because I've blown out the time here. Feel free to stick around and ask questions. And by all means, have as much dead sea salt as you'd like. OK? Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for your word and for the insights that we gain from your precious word. And we just pray for your working, the truths of your word in our hearts and lives. In Jesus' name, amen.