SEMESTER 5
269 – God’s Law Versus Isreal’s Tradition
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: SOTERIOLOGY V LESSON # 69
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
(GOD’S LAW VERSUS ISRAEL’S TRADITION)
Read: Mat. 5:17-26
INTRODUCTION:
1. First, view the common error of Christ changing the Law in light of verse 17.
2. Such an idea is antagonistic to the attributes of God.
i. Perfection,
3. Omniscience,
4. Immutability, etc.
i. The issue here is not, “The Law says, but I say.” It is rather “Ye say, in your tradition, but I (God) say.”
ii. It is to show the corrupted interpretation these “Great Law-keepers” put on that law.
iii. And finally, it shows the only hope man, under the Law, has. (Agree with thine adversary.)
I. ISRAEL’S CLAIM OF LAW KEEPING AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THEM
1. Their endeavor was to establish their own righteousness. (Rom. 10:3)
2. Their doctrine was Salvation through the law. (Acts 15:24)
3. Their claim was that they kept the law. (Joh. 9:28)
4. The truth about them was they never really kept the law. (Acts 15:10)
5. Their problem was, they were as lost as one who never sought to obey God. (Gal 3:10)
II. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
1. The heart of the criminal seeks to circumvent not to obey the law.
III: People try to legally license their crime today.
2. Goal: obey the letter of the law so as neither to restrain, or penalize self.
3. The Scribes and Pharisees were foolish enough to try this with God. (Mat. 5:20)
4. There are people who try this today, by dress, Sabbaths, abstinence, etc.
5. The person whose heart is in tune with God’s law will never make claims of obedience.
III. THE REAL ISSUE IS THE HEART ISSUE (MAT. 5:22
)
1. Their standard was, the act of murder endangers a man of judgment, both human and divine.
2. But I say (here is the spirit of the law as it relates to the heart).
i. Angry with brother – Judgment (I Joh. 3:14 and 15)
ii. Says unto his brother Raca – Council.
iii. Say thou fool in danger of hell fire.
3. This is a REgressive description of bad brotherly conduct, not PROgressive.
4. The teaching is this: you are looking at great infractions of the law as endangering.
5. But the person who, though he does none of these things, esteems himself better and wiser may well have an unregenerate heart.
III: The publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9, 13,14)
IV. MAN’S HOPE IS RECONCILIATION NOT LEGAL VICTORY (MAT. 5:25-26)
1. Do not claim a right relationship to God while hating your fellow man. (Mat. 5:23 and 24)
2. If you trust yourself and despise others, your true enemy is God.
3. Would you dare go to court with God, with only the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ righteousness?
4. Be reconciled with God, thine adversary, while life lasts.
5. To go to the judgment bar under the Law is to never pay off and never come out.
6. How may the offender be reconciled with God? (Rom. 5:10 and 11)