Fitness For The Kingdom As Demanded By Jesus

Background: Matt. 23:13-33; Luke 18:9-14.

Basis:

"For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20).

In the vocabulary of Jesus those excepts are both startling and amazing. They come in such unexpected places and with such forceful assertion. Listen to Him as He rings them out:

"I tell you.... except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Lake 13:2).

"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3).

"Jesus answered and said unto him Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3) ... Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." (John 6:53).

Here, however, this declared exception is enforced by a further emphasis: For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Literally, You shall under no other condition, with no possible exception enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In these days of graft, bribery, and corruption, it is refreshing to find some things which are absolute and therefore not subject to the whims of the human mind.

The words before us are weighty in the extreme. They were uttered, not in an evangelistic service, but in the holiness meeting, as the first two verses of the chapter show-Jesus leaving the multitudes in the valley and going up onto the hillside, where His disciples followed Him. Why did He leave the multitudes? Because what He had to say on this occasion did not concern them. The truth that day was for His own disciples. "He opened his mouth, and taught them."

The one thought preeminently occupying the Jewish mind of Christ's day was that of the Kingdom, a heavenly rule to be set up on earth in which Israel as a nation chiefly was to participate. The basis of the hope was sound, although some of the deductions were erroneous and misleading. Our Lord does not seem to have paused at this time to straighten out their thinking concerning it; but, laying hold of the Kingdom idea, He applies the spiritual plumb line, insisting on heaven's standard for Kingdom enjoyment.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Here then at once is a recognition of the Kingdom fact and a declaration of the Kingdom fitness.

A study of the fact itself would take us into a much wider field than these lectures will permit us to cover. Suffice it to say, therefore, as we view Kingdom truth in its widest sweep, that it has three distinctive phases, namely, inward, worldward, and heavenward.

The inward aspect sets forth the Kingdom as a spiritual mystery relating itself to the heart.

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom ... Ye must be born again (John 3:3, 7).

"The kingdom . . . . is . . . . righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17).

The worldward aspect shows the Kingdom as a visible manifestation-the literal reign of the Son of God in power and glory on the earth.

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory . . . . then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory" (Matt. 25:31).

The heavenward aspect indicates the Kingdom as an eternal state-the heavenly life of the redeemed in the great beyond.

"The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Pet. 1:11).

Our concern today is with the Kingdom fitness. It is summarized in one word, righteousness, and that of a distinctive kind. To become assured of Kingdom enjoyment we must make sure of the Kingdom experience. It is here that we meet the danger, which is one of which the Master was keenly conscious-that of becoming content with less than is offered and consequently possessing less than is required. We shall therefore take up these two thoughts:

I. The righteousness which Jesus repudiates.

II. The righteousness which Jesus requires.

I. The Righteousness Which Jesus Here Repudiates "The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees."

Such an expression immediately suggests a question. What was wrong with the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?

We are soon reminded that when approaching this subject we are not dealing with people who are outwardly wicked, but with men who are spending their lives in the service of religion and expending all their strength to extend and establish the creed they hold. Addressing them, our Lord declared:

"Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matt. 23:15).

The most dreadful woes, the sternest threatenings hurled by Jesus were directed, not at the outcasts, but at those who made the loudest religious profession. They were censured, not for the profession they made, but because their profession and their experience did not agree.

If we look a little closer here, we may discover that such a condition may not be without application in our own day. A glance at the history of the Pharisees will be suggestive.

Nothing is seen of them in the Old Testament. Search where you will from Genesis to Malachi, they are nowhere in sight. Yet when the New Testament opens they are not only named but found to be functioning as a recognized religious sect, an integral part of the Jewish national life. It immediately becomes evident that we must look for their origin elsewhere. This we find, as already you may have guessed, in that period between the Old and New Testaments, known to Bible students as the silent four hundred years.

If we may state it in modern language, Pharisaism was The Holiness Movement of its day, and a mighty movement too. The hypocrisy with which Jesus so freely charged the Pharisees was not marked in their beginnings. A national drift was in evidence. Influences were at work which were not only detrimental to piety but which seemed likely to drag down the nation to spiritual ruin.

At the center of things, however, was a saving remnant; men determined at all cost to be loyal to Jehovah and to maintain a vital religion. The result of all this was the emergence of a new religious order, a body of separatists which became known as the Pharisees.

Like the Holy Club which appeared at Oxford centuries later, these men began to discipline their lives, making rules for daily living, setting special times for prayer, designing a form of dress by which they might be known, and in general seeking to conform to the then recognized canons of piety which would mark them before the world as being loyal to Jehovah and His cause.

Years came and went; but the passing of time left these men supremely occupied with the things which marked their separation, to the neglect of soul culture, until when Jesus came He found them to be the proud exponents of a lifeless orthodoxy but the opponents of all spiritual religion. They never wavered in their fundamentalism, but they dried up in their spiritual experience. "The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees" had four distinctive characteristics.

1. It was the backwash of a time-honored past.

In it we see the remnant of an outworn movement which religiously was claiming attention, yet spiritually had ceased to function. It was the relic of an experience which was now merely a memory and a name.

Who were the Pharisees? The backslidden Holiness Movement of their day.

2. It was an experience which had become woven about themselves.

The central thought was the capital "I" Watch that Pharisee as he struts to the tune of his own self-importance within the Temple courts: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess" (Luke 18: 11, 12).

"I" -- "I"-- "I"-- "I" -- "I." Aren't I wonderful? Glory be to me! So fenced around is he with capital I's that neither God nor men can touch him. Paul called it "going about to establish their own righteousness," and not submitting "themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom 10: 3).

In our Lord's parabolic description two things are prominent. The first is their assumption and the second is their presumption. "They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, a n d despised others" (Luke 18:9).

3. It was something entirely external.

It had to do with and majored on how many prayers should be said and what kind of clothes should be worn. None with a definite knowledge of God and the holy life would deny that these things have their part. They are most certainly products of a walk with God, but they must never be made its central fact.

To those majoring on these things our Lord declared: ". . . . ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" (Matt. 23:27).

4. It was the burdensome endeavor to keep up a spiritual appearance.

Holiness, to the Pharisees, was a burden on the back rather than a blessing within the heart. This business of keeping up an appearance in the spiritual realm is a perilous thing both for churches and for individuals. Let us beware lest we be found among those who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.

II The Righteousness Which Jesus Here Requires

It is a righteousness which exceeds that possessed by the scribes and Pharisees.

It is at this point that the controversy really begins: first, between the formal religionist and the believing souls; and, further, among believers themselves.

In this, the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord has nothing to say about redemption, either its fact or its method. That, in the early ministry of Jesus, is anticipated rather than stated; its fuller teaching is reserved until the preliminary approach is complete.

According to Matthew's record the ministry of our Lord was sharply divided into two distinct phases, each division being introduced by the words, "From that time."

"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4:17).

"From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must.... suffer...." (16:21).

All this is followed by the doctrinal unfoldings through the apostles by the Holy Spirit in the epistolary writings.

Here, however, in the scripture before us, we are given at least a hint, the fuller content of which is supplied as revelation develops. For the purpose of our present study we must anticipate what later was more fully unfolded concerning the righteousness which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. This righteousness is seen to be distinctive in its character, which may be summed up in a threefold statement.

1. Its origin lies, not in the believing soul itself, but in the Person and merits of Another.

Here, it will be instructive to compare the Pharisee of whom Jesus spoke with another Pharisee who found a more excellent way.

"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luke 18:9-14).

"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the sprit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:3-14).

Note the difference in emphasis in the two passages. In the first passage, it is "I" -- "I" -"I" -- "I," a story of the exalted and inflated ego; while in the second it is "Christ," "my Lord," "him," "his." The "I" is only mentioned as it relates itself to Christ. Now it is "not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2: 20); "that in all things he might have the pre-eminence" (Col. 1:18). Now the all-consuming passion is that "Christ shall be magnified" (Phil. 2:20).

And every virtue we possess And every victory won And every thought of holiness Are His alone.

2. While originating only "in Christ," the experience of which we here speak is the glorious revelation of "Christ in you.

" ....he hath made him in to be sin for us.. ..that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (II Cor. 5:21).

".... The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints .... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26, 27).

Here then is not an imputation of Christ's righteousness merely, which covers the sinning soul yet leaves it sinful; it is an impartation of His very nature, whereby sin is destroyed and the disposition of holiness assured. It is a divine work which is sin-killing and Christ-exalting.

3. This experience "in Christ" and "Chris; in you" is of a distinctly practical nature -- so much so that it lives itself out with grace and power in the midst of a hostile world.

It is manifest in humble dependence, patient endurance, lowly service, an obedient spirit, and an enduring hope.

It is a present salvation from all sin all the time, with no gaps between.

His only righteousness I show,
His saving truth proclaim.
'Tis all my business here below
To cry, Behold the Lamb!