MATT.5:17-22 “LET’S COMPARE OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”
A) These words were spoken by the Savior, and they are strong, searching words of Jesus!
* The word except is used only five times by our Savior in this sense and means: unless, if not!
* Matt.18:3 “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into .......”
* Luke 13:3;5 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
* John 3:3 “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
* John 3:5 “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the .......”
B) Now, the Pharisee was the most religious person, externally, the world has ever known!
* There’s not a man or a woman who walks the black dirt of this planet that could hope to live
up to any higher standard of morals than the Pharisees in the day of Christ!
* Now you see how much religion a man can have and not have any!
* The word Pharisee means: Separate ... about the same as consecrated!
C) The Pharisees were the worst bunch that Jesus had to contend with!
* And they are the worst foes to real genuine godliness that walk on God’s green earth!
* 1Pet.3:15 “But sanctify (be holy, purify) the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to
give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with .......”
* Now, I want to ask you, “Can you give a better reason for your hope than the Pharisee did?”
(1) “WELL, I’M A GOOD CHURCH MEMBER!” * But that doesn’t save you!
A) It’s one thing to have your name on some old dusty, rusty church record,
* And it’s another thing to have it on the record in the sky! * Got to be a member of The Church!
* Church membership is the greased plank which the devil is using to slide millions into hell!
B) The Pharisee belonged to the high-brow church of their day!
* They were the church going bunch of their day! * They were faithful too!
* When it was time to go to synagogue, they were there! * How about you?
(2) “WELL PREACHER, BUT I DO BELIEVE IN WORKING FOR MY CHURCH!”
A) Let’s look at the Pharisee and see if he believed in working for his church ... Matt.23:15!
* “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For 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.”
* Working for your church doesn’t any more make you a Christian than working in a livery stable
makes you a horse!
* There’s a lot of church members walking about God’s heritage with unclean hands, handling
holy things, and your heart is as black and filthy as the hinges on the gates of hell!
* The church in her endeavors to serve God and mammon is becoming cross-eyed and losing
the power to know good and evil!
B) The church today has compromised with sin!
* Because some think they have the right to go to prayer meeting, and then take off to a leg
show or card party! * That is the reason we fight!
* Some think they have the right to go to church meetings and then attend dances and other places
of amusement that are questionable! * I say they lie ... That is where we fight!
* You’re no better than that God forsaken gang!
* You can’t get your pleasures where the world gets theirs!
C) Well, what kind of work do you do? * Do you pray? Witness? Personal work?
* I can tell your kind by your absence on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights!
(3) YOU SAY, “WELL, I PRAY!” * Well, let’s see if the Pharisee did! * Matt.23:14
* “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for
pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
A) The Pharisees were on the job when it come to making long winded prayers!
* Can you see them now? They could pray for everything in general and nothing in particular!
* They could go to church on the Sabbath and stand and make beautiful prayers, and then rob
and swindle and defraud the poor the next day!
(4) “BUT I BELIEVE IN GIVING OF MY MEANS TO SUPPORT THE GOSPEL!”
* Well, let’s see if the Pharisee did ... Luke 18:12 “I give tithes of all that I possess.”
* Matt.23:23 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise
and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith:
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
A) The tithe is 10% of your income! * If you make $200.00 a week ... $20.00 is the tithe, etc.
* And don’t congratulate yourself that you’re giving that, because you are just paying what you
owe! * Your gifts and offerings come out of the other 90% of your income!
B) In the days of Malachi, the Jewish nation had backslidden and gone to the boneyard in
a spiritual way! * Calamities, misfortunes and avalanches of failures were falling upon them!
* Their cattle were dying in the stalls, trees and vines were shedding their fruit before their time,
and heaven was withholding rain!
* Malachi, a prophet of God, came on the scene and said, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have ...”
* They cried, “Wherein have we robbed thee?” * He said, “In tithes and offerings.”
* Then he said, “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.”
C) This whole nation has robbed God ... Stealing from God! * Then the prophet said in Mal.3:10
* “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me
now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Mal.3:11)
* The command is, “give as the Lord has prospered you!”
* Prov.3:9 “Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.”
* But instead of following these divine precepts, we get all we can, can all we get, and then sit
on the can! * Robbing God is a sign of selfishness! * God will bless you if you tithe!
* It is as impossible for a man to tithe and not prosper as it is to stand in the rain and not get wet!
D) Why? Because it is the law of God! * Listen to 2Cor.9:6-7
* “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”
* Remember, the Pharisees tithed right down to the mint, anise and cummin!
* And yet, when I talk to you about paying God what you owe Him, you wiggle, twist and squirm
like you got a hornet in your pants!
E) I have heard that a big nose is a good sign of intellectuality .......
* A big mouth ... great character; Big chin ... courage; Big ears ... generosity!
* Maybe I need some ear fertilizer or some ear pullers to make yours bigger!
* Pharisees tithed because of their righteousness ... Does your righteousness excel theirs?
(5) “WELL, I DO FAST!” * Are we better than the Pharisee?
A) Luke 18:12 ....... This Pharisee said, “I fast twice a week.”
* Only fasting we do is sit fast to our seat!
* Suppose our churches in this town who believed in working for their church,
* And who would pray, and tithe, and fast twice a week, what it would do in a community!
B) The Pharisees had all these qualifications, and yet, Jesus told His disciples,
* “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
* Our righteousness has to ... must exceed that of the Pharisees!
(6) THE PHARISEES WERE SEPARATE FROM SINNERS! * Turn to Matt.23:25-27
* The Pharisee was the most religious person in the world, externally!
* Let me say it again ... There is not a man or a woman in SC who could hope to live up to any
higher standard of morals than the Pharisee attained in the days of Jesus!
A) It’s a sad thing to see a fellow shouting, when he’s as crooked as a corkscrew ...
* And so low down, he has to reach up to touch bottom!
* They want the preacher to hush up in 20-30 minutes, but can sit and watch TV for hours!
* Why do people go to church and snap a watch in the face of the preacher,
* And sigh and moan and groan and yawn? * Because their hearts’ are not in it!
CLOSE
A) Where are you ahead of the Pharisee? Does your righteousness exceed theirs?
* You say, “I work for my church,” So did the Pharisee!
* “I pray,” So did the Pharisee! * “I tithe,” So did the Pharisee! * “I fast,” So did the Pharisee!
* “I keep the commandments,” So did the Pharisee!
B) “I’m separated,” So was the Pharisee!
* “I live right outwardly,” So did the Pharisee! * You name it ... they did it!
* Here is the point ... Except (unless, if not) your righteousness shall exceed (To be in excess, be
the better, to excel) the righteousness of the Pharisees,
* Ye shall in no case (no exception) enter into the kingdom of heaven!
C) Ask yourself, “Is my life exceeding the righteousness of the Pharisees?
* If it’s not, then I recommend that you come to this altar and have a good talk with the Lord!
