Growing up, I'm sure many of you had your own house rules. Whether it was when you were playing games, or hosting guests, or maybe doing homework. There were rules for life in your home. Maybe it was when an elderly person entered into a room, you stood up. Or maybe there was prohibition on certain words that you could or could not say. Or maybe it was simply table etiquette and telling you how to place your dishware. There were clear rules on what was right and what was wrong on how to behave. As children, these rules served as virtuous things that we should aim for. They told us what is honor, how to care. And in some cases, maybe even told us about holiness. These rules served to point beyond themselves. Whether they were house rules, or laws of society, or the instructions that God has given, they were means to form us and shape us and point us to virtue. There was a right doingness that we were to know and pursue. But many laws, many rules, are simply behavior focused. If we do the right action, then we're good. And in many ways, behavior modification is good to some extent. But really, it points to a virtue that is beyond itself. In this passage, Jesus is presenting righteousness, or right doingness, between God and man to show us how we are to live rightly and image God rightly in humanity. It is a righteousness that goes beyond the letter of the law to the heart of the law. It is a picture of living in God's house, this very world that we would have rules to follow. And these rules are more than just respecting the elderly, or a parent, or even playing nicely. They show us how to reveal God, and how we speak, desire, commit, view justice, and love. This is the very fabric of society. And Jesus shows us that his kingdom lives at the level that is deeper than just words. It goes to the heart. It is an obedience of the heart, so that his people would be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. There's a fullness to righteousness that Jesus presents here. There's a fullness to the law. There's a fullness to life that we have yet to know. And so Jesus tells his disciples his house rules so that they would obey from the heart and be whole. And so our big idea is this. Christ's house rules are for the heart and make us whole. And we'll see this to be true as we look through our three points, seeing Jesus' view of the law, Jesus' interpretation of the law, and Jesus' goal of the law. Let's look at our first point, Jesus' view of the law. Look at me at verses 17 to 20. As you open these words, as you read them, you see that Jesus seems to be correcting a presumption that his hearers would have had. They seem to have a belief amongst themselves that Jesus was somehow dismantling the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, that he's removing their significance and their necessity. This false belief that the Old Testament doesn't matter, that its stories and prophecies don't matter, is something that the first century saw very clearly with these Marcian heretics. They sought to throw away the Old Testament and say, oh, well, we just need grace. We just need the New Testament. And there are people today that say similar things. They say, I'm a New Testament Christian, that I just need to know grace and nothing more. And I think they have an idea of truth when they say these things that it is not the law that saves us, but that doesn't mean that the law doesn't matter. What Jesus says here seems to correct all these false notions. He tells us here that he has not come to abolish the law, but has come to fulfill them. And there are two ways that we must understand this word fulfill. It means that Jesus came to confirm and complete the law, but also that he is the one that the law and the prophets pointed towards. In Matthew 11, 13, Jesus says this explicitly. He says that the law and the prophets pointed to me. It is though that these commands and prophecies were signposts pointing to Jesus, telling us where to look, to whom this is truly about. We see this clearly in predictive prophecy, such as Jesus being a manual, God with us. We read this earlier in Matthew's gospel that Isaiah prophesied of a day where God would dwell with his people, and that day had come. But also we see this in the law. Think of the sacrificial system, all of these laws that taught about atonement, that sin would remove from the camp, and that it would be done and full, and Jesus being the Lamb of God, died taking on himself the sins of the world for all those who believe in him. He made atonement by the blood of his cross, so that the guilt of sin would not stand against his elect, but would be forgiven. With the other categories of the law, the judicial law and the moral law, Jesus fulfilled them by obeying them fully. But these laws, unlike the ceremonial law, they still stand today. The general equity of the judicial law are principles that tell us how to live in society. They tell us how justice should be formed. I've mentioned this before, there are things in the law, like having a railing on your rooftop to make sure that your neighbor doesn't fall off of it. There's a general equity principle there that we should care for our neighbors. But the same is true for the moral law. The moral law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and it still stands today. The truths of the 10 commandments, and the truths of the moral law still stand today. They are to be obeyed as God's people. Jesus in no way is promoting lawlessness, and neither were his apostles when they spoke of God's grace. The law according to Jesus will never pass away. Look at me at verse 18. This phrase, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass away from the law, is hotly debated. Some think that in the new heavens and the new earth that the law will cease to exist. Others say that this is a level of hyperbole, similar to saying that the law, the law will exist until hell gets cold. There's this idea that it will never cease to exist. And though I am partial to the second interpretation, both of these understandings try to tell us the same or similar idea that God's law stands for the fullness of time. God in no way is contradicting himself in the teaching of Jesus. Instead, he is confirming and completing and explaining these words that God has spoken of old do endure for us today, for us to know and follow just as the New Testament has taught us. So therefore, Jesus says, whoever relaxes one of these commandments and teaches others to do also will be not counted in the kingdom of heaven. This word, to be least, I believe is synonymous with verse 20, where Jesus says they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The law does not save us, but peeping God's commandments is a reflection of God changing us from the inside out. It's the evidence that the heart of stone has been made a heart of flesh, that God has given us his spirit so that we would obey him, living as his people rightly. This is what the Old Testament taught, that these instructions that they were given were instructions for life, how they are to live with humans and how they are to live with God. They were given as house rules for God's people to know how to live in God's family and the world, embodying kingdom righteousness now and forever. Like I've said a few times, the word righteousness, we often associate with the idea of justification, this Pauline idea, but that's one part of the definition of the word righteousness. The Bible throughout gives us the description of a just way of living with God and neighbor. And what Jesus says here is that this just way of living is more than formality or custom. The scribes and the Pharisees were the pinnacle image of law keeping at the time. And he says, to enter his kingdom, our righteousness, the way that we live with our neighbor and with God must exceed the way in which they live. There's more to following God than just the letter of the law. It's the heart of the law. And we'll see this most clearly in our following point. But as Jesus is saying this, he is clarifying for his disciples one of two ditches. There's a ditch that thinking that the law doesn't matter, which theologians call antinomianism, promoting lawlessness because the work of Christ has just forgiven us so we don't need to care about being obedient. As if you can just keep sinning to no avail, thinking that it doesn't matter. Jesus does not teach that. He says to you and me, he says, follow me, obey my commands if you are my disciples. We cannot use grace like this doormat and think that we can just rub our feet on it over and over. The grace of Jesus Christ is a doorway into new life that we would follow and live in his house. The other ditch is legalism or formalism, thinking simply that keeping the letter of the law is the means of salvation and justification. Jesus presents the law as his house rules to be followed and embodied reflecting truly that we are God's children. The reality that we are in his family. They're not for our pardon, they are simply the proof. The exceeding righteousness that Jesus speaks of here is not produced by us, by somehow living this bootstrapped, white knuckled life. It is a reflection of Jesus Christ in us. It is Christ working in us that we would reflect his righteousness as we obey his commands and teach others to do the same. And so as I say all of this, where do you stand today? Do the actions and the teachings of your mouth accord with the kingdom of heaven? Or have you fallen into one of these two ditches? Have you loosened the law in some way justifying disobedience? Or are you somehow gripping the law thinking that that's going to be for your justification? Think practically for a second. There are some who say that Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath, so I do not need to keep it. But church, I must remind you that this is in the moral law. We are called to rest. Our whole household is called to rest. The flip side of that is that are you now using those words as a checkbox of external righteousness, that if you rest or if you just come to a worship service, then you are good with God? Neither are true. God looks to the heart, he sees your heart. He goes beyond the actions. Jesus shows us it is not by relaxing or checking a box. It is by obeying from the heart because he has changed the heart, reflecting the righteousness that is not our own, but his. Obeying does not qualify, or disobeigh does not amplify his grace. Living in obedience is just the reflection of God doing the work in us. Jesus is looking for the righteousness that is not our own. One that is exemplified of him living through us. So this is Jesus, you of the law. He tells us that it's not just, that he tells us that this radical righteousness is what we need to enter his gates. It's not one that we can somehow just pursue conveniently or simply formally. It's something that God transformatively has to lead us to. So let's move to our second point, Jesus' interpretation of the law. Jesus as a good preacher, he does this work of telling us the antithesis and the exegesis of the law. The word antithesis is telling us that something is incorrect with the teaching. Revealing to us the depths of the Hebrew scriptures. Whereas, or sorry, antithesis is telling us that something is wrong. Exegesis is the work of telling us of its depth. And Jesus does both in these six examples. Jesus rightly interprets the law for us, not contradicting the law of Moses, because he's already told us that it will not pass away. It will not be abolished. Instead, he rightly interprets to his hearers what this law has said. You might wonder why Jesus highlights these six commandments, murder, adultery, divorce, oats, retaliation, loving your enemies. And I'd love to tell you, but we're not told. What we are told, or what is more likely is that these commands are the ones that Matthew's audience are struggling with, that were ones that were taught incorrectly. And so he teaches his people what these commands mean and how they are to be followed. These teachings, that Jesus teaches to his audience in Matthew's gospel are still pertinent for us today. They're the things that our communities still struggle with, whether it be anger, lust, marriage, keeping one's word, how to reconcile, or loving those who we naturally do not. They are words that we must hear today. And so Jesus' first commandment that he teaches on is the sixth commandment. Thou shall not murder. In practice, many can sort of, quote unquote, easily follow this command. But at their heart level, many can still be filled with contempt for their fellow man. In Jesus' teaching here, he's not equating anger and murder or lust and adultery. He's not saying that they're one and the same. He's saying that they are both bad and God sees them and there are consequences for them. There is a creation to sin. There's a level to which things are worse than another. But so often, just like the first century, we can sort of brush our sin under the rug and say it's not so bad. And what Jesus does here is he gets at the heart. And what Jesus says to his audience is that you cannot excuse your anger. Just because you haven't led to the logical end of murder, you cannot excuse your anger. Anger is still worthy of consequence according to Jesus. This doesn't mean that all anger is bad. There are times in the Old Testament where we see that God is angry, that he has a wrath for sin. But in my opinion, the anger that you and I experience day to day is seldomly righteous. We often burn hot, not because God has been dishonored or because sin is running amok. We are angry because we're offended or we think that somebody is being illogical or unrational. We get angry because people disagree with us because they don't do what we want. We are mostly angry because people have infringed on our kingdom, not God's kingdom. Whether that leads you to call somebody a fool or some other insult, Jesus says that is sinful and worthy of judgment. Just because our sin of anger wasn't taken to the end of murder doesn't get us a pass. Jesus calls us to a form of righteousness that is beyond the letter of the law. And what he says is even if you are trying to worship God, maybe you are here this morning, he says if you realize as you're worshiping God that somebody else has something against you, go seek reconciliation. Just like those in the first century, we are comfortable just seeking forgiveness from God and not from one another. We'll often try and be in a comfortable state, both with our sin and our offenses by whitewashing them with God and not getting right with our neighbor. But Jesus encourages and admonishes us to get right horizontally just as we do vertically. There are many scriptures that tell us this such as live at peace with everyone around you as much as it depends on you or do not let the sun go down on your anger. The council of scripture calls out our sin of anger away from contempt of one another towards forgiveness and reconciliation. This is Jesus exegesis of the sixth commandment. He calls his followers to deeper rules for the household. He cares about their thoughts and emotions. We are often tempted to think that our emotions are not simple, that somehow we can just blame it on somebody else for our reactions. And Jesus says otherwise, the onus is on you and me. You cannot blame your poor attitude and your quick emotions on others. God will call them to account. He calls us to control our emotions. Similarly, he calls us to control our desires. Let's look at Jesus' teaching on the second commandment that he gives, the teaching on adultery. As he's teaching on adultery, people can think that they get the check mark of righteousness as long as they don't cheat on their spouse. If they don't cheat on their spouse, then they're not guilty of sin. And what Jesus says, he says he sees the heart. That if a man or woman looks at another person with lust, they have committed adultery in their hearts. Lust is the seed that adultery grows from. Think of this, pet sins in your hearts will grow into ravenous beasts. If you feed them, walk them, pet them, love them, nobody, people might not see your pet sin of lust. But God does. Jesus calls his disciples and he calls us to kill our sin, to put it to death. Any member that is leading us astray, he says to cut it off. If it be your eye or your hand, cut it off. This is not just a sin, and you might've heard of my words, it's not just a sin for men or young men. Lust is a sin for all people. Young, old, women, child, doesn't matter. Male or female. This is a sin that creeps in our hearts. And Jesus calls us to a level of vigilance and mortification that many of us are unwilling to do. As Jesus is speaking, he is no way is calling or saying that one can lose their salvation by saying the consequence of hell. But he does put into question our authentic relationship with God. Is it truly genuine? If you are unwilling to put lust to death that is creeping in your heart, have you truly been transformed? That's the question that we should be asking. How seriously you take sin, I believe is how seriously you take your faith. Do you run from it? Do you seek to stop it? Do you put yourself out of harm's way at all costs, removing all figurative hands or eyes that are leading you to sin? Or do you keep the pet? Walk it, look at it. For some, this might mean you need to take a greater look at how you spend your time online. For others, you need to consider how you spend your imagination. For some, where are you going at night or during the day, both physically and online? God is looking at our hearts. You might try to hide this, but God sees it. Often adultery and lust are justified by biology. I need to, I have a sex drive or I have hormones. But these are poor excuses, church. Beneath lust and adultery is discontentment and greed. It is in biology. Biology might be contributing, but it is discontentment and greed. It is for the person that is discontented with their singleness or discontented with their spouse, thinking that they need to acquire more, get more, and so they live in their imaginations or they pursue things online that are lust and adultery. Lust and adultery turn image bearers into consumable products instead of people to be loved. They serve our fantasies and our desires and we don't even treat them as humans anymore. And to fight this sin of lust and adultery, I believe part of the battle is just seeing people rightly, seeing that they are made in the image of God to be honored and not consumed. But as sisters, there's multiple ways or reasons people turn to this sin. We must see that there is a consequence in eternity for it. Jesus says, as the apostle Paul will say later in the New Testament, the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's how Paul speaks, but Jesus speaks similarly. There is a severity to sin that the world in our hearts will minimize and trivialize. But there is a real consequence to all unrepentant sin, but especially anger and lust. In his passage, you can read of the six commands, the two that mention how anger and lust. If you are living in a posture of contempt or viewing others as consumable, to brother and sister, you're in a dire place. The call to you this morning is to turn from your sin and ask God to change you from the inside out so that you would not know the consequence of hell, but know the life of the kingdom of heaven. So would you do that today? Would you see the severity and the stakes today? The remaining four commandments we will view as couplets, as they are related in some way to one another. We'll look at divorce and oats together, and we will look at retaliation and loving one neighbor together. Similar to the ideas of Israel, relaxing the law, there were individuals in the first century doing just that when it came to divorce. They were given principles for their hardened hearts, for divorce in Deuteronomy 24. There was a haleel rabbitic tradition that was promoting no-fault divorce, that a man could divorce his wife for whatever reason. There are examples that people give where a bad meal was cooked, then they can pursue divorce. Or if they grew dissatisfied with their spouse, then they can pursue divorce. And we see and hear people say statements like this today. However, there is a Shemiye tradition, which Jesus is saying in his response here, that divorce is only permissible on the grounds of sexual immorality. And so the way that Jesus exegetes the law here is to show us the reasons for divorce other than sexual immorality causes for adultery to take place. And this might be a little difficult to understand, but what Jesus is saying is that in the first century, men were the ones that were pursuing divorce. And so the reason that women not be recognized in the same way and say that you are making your wife commit adultery is something that we need to sort of fix in our minds. But what he's saying is that the one flesh union in marriage is either broken by death or infidelity. And if marriage is not broken for one of those two reasons, then you are still married is what Jesus is saying. This text assumes that women got remarried. And so husbands who are using no fault divorce are causing their wives to commit adultery because they are not breaking their marriage on these grounds or hasn't dissolved on these grounds. And related to this, the wrongfully divorced woman, if she remarries, will cause for more adultery to take place as you see in verse 32 at the end of verse 32. This statement we must understand is not prohibiting remarriage, it's qualifying remarriage. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul will include abandonment as the grounds for divorce and remarriage. And this is why the Westminster divines say, I'm quoting here, in the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to seek divorce. And after the divorce to remarry, just as if the offending party were dead. I'll read that again just because I was a little confusing. In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to seek a divorce and after divorce to remarry, just as if the offending party were dead. Although the corruption of mankind is such that people are apt to seek arrangements to justify unwarranted separation of those whom God has joined together in marriage. Nothing but adultery or willful desertion cannot be removed. And as cannot be remediated by the church or civil authorities is sufficient cause to dissolve the bound of marriage. And so you even see in the standards of our church, the two reasons, one, the reasons that divorce can be permissible is abandonment and sexual morality. And so we must see this even though the text doesn't directly touch upon it to have an understanding of the council of scripture. Somebody this morning as I say this might feel like you've pursued divorce for the wrong reasons. Maybe you're watching online, I don't know. But the teaching of this passage isn't to try and rectify that by getting a divorce again. Two wrongs do not make a right. Instead, the council to you this morning is to live as you are, live faithfully in the new marriage that you have made and live unto God. Jesus calls his people to fidelity in marriage and to keeping their words. Look at me at verse 33. It was common for people to swear oaths and qualify their commitments and testimonies. At the time, the Pharisees taught that if you didn't swear by God or if you didn't swear by God, then your oath is not binding. So if you swore by heaven, per example, as the text says, then it's not binding. And so people were using this tactic to live in a state of dishonesty and perjury. So Jesus turns to his hearers and he tells them, be honest from the heart. No qualifiers, no, simply have your yes be yes and your no be no. And we must understand again, this is not a prohibition on making oaths. Some people have taken this and be like, well, if I go to court, if I'm becoming a citizen of another country, I'm not going to make an oath. That is not what Jesus is saying here. What he is speaking about is false testimony and false promises based on looking more reliable or convincing than just saying yes or no. God himself makes oaths in the Bible. And this is not him qualifying his honest speech from his dishonest speech. These oaths were given to reassure us and comfort us seeing that our God is reliable. That's when we speak. Let us speak honestly, not making oaths that we cannot keep based on things that we cannot change like our heads. Instead, being a people that simply say yes or no. Now let us look at our last couplet, retaliation and loving our neighbors before we move to looking at our last point. Look at me at verse 38. An eye for an eye and a truth for a truth is a teaching that is found in the Mosaic law. It was a teaching about retributive justice, meaning if someone had stolen from you, there was a punishment of repayment. Or if somebody had committed murder, then there was a death penalty. Jesus in no way here is contradicting the law. These principles for the judicial law still stand today. What Jesus is speaking about is taking this principle and using it in your personal relationships for the sake of revenge. For when you are offended that you are to somehow be vengeful, in the first century it was likely that this law was used and taught to permit individuals to seek revenge and even hold grudges. So Jesus rightly interprets the law for his years. Each of the examples that Jesus gives sound or to call our minds the idea of insult and offense. Not theft or murder. And Jesus calls his followers when offended to respond with generosity and reconciliation, not retribution. This is their resistance of those who are evil. To be slapped on the right cheek for a person that sort of would slap with their dominant hand would require the individual to be backhanded. This was a slap of insult. And so Jesus says, give the other also. Let the insult go, don't hold it against them and give that other cheek. A re-extension of relationship even when you are insulted. Or to be sued and they take your tunic, this individual is likely poor, they had nothing that they could be sued for so they take their very clothes, which probably doubled as a blanket. He says, give them your undergarments also. Do not respond in kind in these moments to insult and shame, instead respond with generosity. The Roman soldiers would have had the right to take common people and give them their belongings and tell them, hey, travel a mile, go the mile. And Jesus says, give them too. Exceed the requirements and give gladly, including giving to the poor and the needy. Jesus says, do not respond with indifference or give them what they deserve, respond with reconciliation and generosity. This is the ethic of his followers, not revenge and retaliation. Retribution is in the hands of God. And so may we live that that is true. Not taking matters into our own hands, but when given the opportunity, when we are insulted, when we are offended, to respond with kindness. Exemplifying this, Jesus' last teaching, he teaches, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In verse 43, we were given a phrase that does not appear in the Old Testament. Love your neighbors or... Verse 43, he said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies. That phrase does not actually occur in the Old Testament. But this was likely the prevalent ethic of the day, taking the counsel of scripture and distorting it to serve their own means. And Jesus says, no, this is not how the people of God are to live. This does not reflect our relationship as sons and daughters of God. He says that God gives common grace to the evil and to the unjust, giving them sunlight and rain, showing that God is not in a posture of hatred, even towards those who live unjustly and evilly before him. He still loves them, he still cares for them. And the Bible tells us, and the scriptures tell us here that we are to operate like God. As sons and daughters of God, would we treat our enemies as God treats his enemies. The Bible tells us that if an individual does not believe in God, they are an enemy of God because they hate God. And God to his enemies does not smite them, he seeks to love them. Though they are in rebellion to him, and if they continue in that, they will experience the consequences of hell and death. While they are alive, God is forbearing with them, loving them. And for us today, would we live as modeling our God, not living in a posture of trying to persecute our accusers or enemies, but instead praying for them. In the other church, we see this lived out. If you think of the story of Acts 6 with Stephen the Martyr, you know that Stephen was stoned as he was proselytizing for Jesus. And as he is stoned, as he is being persecuted, what does he do? He cries out to God, he prays for those who are persecuted, and he says, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And this prayer was heard, and the guy that organized those killings, Saul of Tarsus, who comes to be Paul the Apostle, is forgiven. He is loved, he is changed. The enemy and persecutor was turned to a follower. And church, this is not just the story of Paul, it's the story of all of us. That we were once enemies of God, persecuting God, putting him on trial and his followers, but God and his forebearance and patience with us at the right time died for us. So that we would put our faith in him, that we would no longer be enemies of God, but we would do reconcile to God as sons and daughters, now reflecting him and knowing him, living by his house rules from the heart because our hearts have been changed. And as we do that, we experience him and know the fullness of life that he's given us. And this leads us to our last point, the goal of the law. Look at verse 48 with me. Therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. This therefore statement serves as a summation for this whole section. This is partly reason why I preached such a long passage this morning is for us to see that this text as a whole. As Christ followers, we are to have a family resemblance and the commands that Jesus gives us here point to himself and beyond that, they point to the Father. And as we live them, we are sharing in the image of God rightly. The word teleos here that's used, that's translated as perfect could also mean a whole, complete, mature. It's not just this idea of moral perfection of God is the wholeness and the fullness of God that we are invited to share in as followers. This last verse can sound like a burden church, but it isn't. It is a declaration and invitation as children of God. If you are in Christ, if your heart has been changed and you're walking in his ways, then be like the Father. Know the fullness that God has called you to. Even if you feel and see how you are failing, turn repent and turn to our God that he may change you and you may walk in his ways. Similar last week, we spoke about letting our good work shine before others. And as those good works point to our Father in heaven, it's almost as though this text tells us what these good works are in these commands. And so we are invited to be whole from the heart, to be perfect in sharing in what the Father is like by the work of Christ. For those who have believed and accepted this invitation already, would you see these house rules and follow them not just by the letter, but from the heart, knowing that there is a beauty to life, a fullness to life that God has called us to. And for the unbeliever in this room, would you see, maybe even today, the beauty of this family, the wonder of this ethic, the invitation to be a member, to not just know the house rules in mind, but to know them from the heart so that you may be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. This morning, the invitation is stretched out to you so that you may believe, so that you may know and be whole, to know the wholeness of God who has made us whole. Until church, we know this in full. Let us look to the one who fulfilled the law, the one who the law points to, the one who fully kept it, the one who made us righteous, the only righteous one, Jesus Christ. Let us pray.