Mat 5:17-20, The One Righteousness Can Only Live in the Heart.

Class Outline:

Thursday June 13, 2024

MAT 5:20

 

Though a small minority, the Pharisees and Scribes were the paragons of spirituality and virtue in Israel. They had enormous influence on the thinking of the people.

 

Jesus sums up a Pharisee, LUK 18:10.

 

When people hear that their righteousness must surpass the scribes and Pharisees, they are shocked. (Jesus again uses a double negative; the strongest negative in Greek - “You will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”)

 

We must understand that we are sinners just like they were, and therefore, their errors have warning for us. There is a real and terrible possibility of our deluding and fooling ourselves.

 

ROM 7:11

sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

 

1CO 6:9

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived;

 

2TI 3:13

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived

 

Before we start comparing ourselves with the scribes and Pharisees, we should understand what their righteousness was, or at least what they called righteousness. Our Lord shows us in the gospels.

 

The first and basic charge against them is that their religion was entirely external and formal instead of being a religion of the heart.

 

LUK 16:14-15

 

1SA 16:5

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

 

LUK 11:37-46

 

Why is it so important to be righteous of heart?

 

They were so careful about the outside and neglected the inside. The inside is the heart. For the heart to love, give as charity, show mercy, the old self must die.

 

MAT 23:27-28

 

Things like envy, spite, anger, jealousy, pride, fear can all be hidden while we wear a righteous mask.

 

One measure is what you do in your solitude. What a man does with his own solitude is a good measure of his character.

 

The scribes and Pharisees were also more concerned with ceremonial righteousness than moral.

 

Washing of hands, wearing the right clothes, tithing, fasting, giving, attending the temple services, while neglecting the poor, needy, oppressed, and loving money. Ceremony is outward.

 

A third characteristic of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was their man-made rules and regulations.

 

They devised religious schemes. One picture of this was their way around their duty to financially fulfill their parent’s needs, and Christ said that they used such schemes for many other things, skirting the law of Moses. 

 

MAR 7:9-13

 

Next, they glorified themselves rather than seeking to glorify God.

 

This again is a heart issue. Do you love God or yourself? The scribes and Pharisees were self-satisfied.

 

Dr. Charles Erdman (at 90 years old), “I have become convinced that those persons are most filled with the Holy Spirit who are least conscious of it; all they know is that they wish to serve Jesus Christ, and they feel that they are unprofitable servants.”

 

LUK 18:10-14.

 

The Pharisees had terrible attitudes towards others.

 

His condemnation is a life completely void of the Beatitudes. The disciple of Christ is poor in spirit, caring in his heart to the point of weeping, meek, and merciful. He does not magnify performed tasks, in fact the tasks are only the product of what he loves most.

 

Matt 23:23-24

 

If you are doing religious things but do not love God and your neighbor, you are not walking in righteousness. But where does it come from?

 

The substance of things … There is a reality to the things of human life that have meaning.

 

Where or from where is the substance of kindness? It is not the result of spontaneous chemical, physical, and biological processes.

 

COL 2:16-3:4