[0:00] Good morning. A warm welcome to the service this morning. Good to see some visitors with us this morning as well and returning friends. And if you're able to stay behind for tea and coffee, as usual, there's tea and coffee served at the end of the service and you would be most welcome. Evening service tonight at six. We're coming to the end of our studies in Ecclesiastes, so be encouraged to come out to that service. A few intimations. I won't go through them all, but I'll just highlight a couple of them. First of all, to see the elders prayer meeting is tomorrow night, 7pm, and that's going to be at Grosby at Neil Cameron's house tomorrow night.
[0:39] Ladies Fellowship, Little Fishers Road to Recovery, all usual time and usual places. And the prayer meeting on Wednesday in person and on Zoom at half past seven. Services next Sunday will be taken by myself, God willing. And you can see there those who are on the church cleaning rota for next week.
[1:00] Two more things. First, this is to keep Scott and Fiona and family in your prayers as they prepare to come here. They still haven't finalised accommodation. So if you know of accommodation that might be available, please come and speak to me and I can pass that on to them or put you in touch with them. The last thing, it's way in advance, but just a future date for the diary. It's the communion.
[1:28] Usually it would be in September, but this year the communion date is going to be in October. I was out in America last year and I stayed with David Strain. I went to the church there and he had hoped to come over to preach this year. He'd hoped it would coincide with our communion weekend, but it was a wee bit later. So we had a discussion and thought there's no, there's no verse in the Bible that says we can't shift our communion for a couple of weeks forward. So that's what we're doing. So just for your diaries for future reference, the communion weekend will be the 4th to the 6th of October. And the Reverend David Strain, who is in Jackson, Mississippi just now, but was a Church of Scotland and then Free Church Canada. He will be hopefully taking these services.
[2:21] These, I think, are all the notices just now. So we'll begin this time of worship. We'll sing to God's praise. We'll sing from that familiar and well-loved Psalm, Psalm 100. Psalm 100, the words on the screen.
[2:34] All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth, his praise foretell. Come ye before him and rejoice. Let's stand to sing to God's praise.
[2:46] God's praise.
[3:16] God's praise.
[3:46] We are hisNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNINGNING To approach with joy his court son too Praise God and bless his name always For it is seeming so to do For why the Lord our God is good
[4:56] His mercy is forever sure His truth at all times firmly stood And shall from age to age endure One final intimation that I forgot And that is to say that there will be a WFM meeting On Thursday at 7.30 in the church Also the annual WFM meeting is happening in Stornoway At the Caber Fiatel Friday 7th June Speaker Marion McInnes And there's booking forms in the foyer So these are all the intimations now I think Now let's unite our hearts in prayer
[5:58] Let's pray Our Heavenly Father we thank you for this morning And we thank you for this your day This day that has been separated from all other days Is the Lord's day The day when we remember that Jesus Your son our saviour not only died for us on the cross To take away the penalty for our sin But he rose from the dead On the first day of the week And we thank you that we have the promise That all who believe in him Will also share in that resurrection life And will know life in abundance In this world and in greater measure In all that's to come If we are in Jesus So we thank you Lord That even this day itself Is a reminder for us Of all the reasons that we have To be thankful and to praise you And so we gather Lord in the name of Jesus And we ask that our worship would be in spirit
[7:02] And in truth We pray that you would help us To lift our eyes from ourselves And all the things that would Preoccupy us for six days In this world And help us we pray To fix our eyes upon Jesus We know that day by day We must fix our eyes upon Jesus We know that day by day We are to be in your word We are to be in prayer We are to be mindful of the fact That you are the God who is with us Everywhere Always But we thank you for this special day A gift That you have given to us Where we can be still And we can know that you are God And we can meditate upon The wonder of your character The glory of your attributes And the blessing of your work The work of salvation That we benefit from When we believe in Jesus We thank you that You are the God who is almighty You are the God who is sovereign The God who is overall
[8:04] And that Lord is a comfort to us A steadying comfort to us In a world that is so unsteady We are conscious in our own lives even In the personal details of our lives That even in the course of a day Things can go up And things can go down Circumstances can change In an instant But we thank you that you Are the God who is sovereign In control And the one who is able to help us And come alongside us An ever-present helper In every time of need We thank you that you are The eternal God The God who has no beginning Who has no end And yet the one who stepped Into time To make it possible For those who would be Creatures of time Humans as we are That we would be enabled To come at the end of our days In this world To enjoy eternity with God If we believe in Jesus So give us that faith Lord We pray
[9:04] That every one of us this morning Would be believing in Jesus We know that to sit In a church service Is a good thing to do But it's not enough We pray that every one of us Would come And that we would believe In your Son The one who gives us life The one who brings to us salvation And so we ask Father That you would hear us As we confess our sin And as we look to you in faith We thank you that we hear The words of Jesus in the Gospel Saying come to me All who are weary All who are burdened And I will give you rest We pray for that rest For our souls We thank you that you've promised That when we confess our sin You are faithful and just To forgive us And to purify us From all unrighteousness So even as we think about our lives And our shortfalls In so many areas We pray that you would cleanse us In the blood of the Lamb That we may be clean And we pray that you would clothe us
[10:04] In the righteousness of Christ In spite of all our efforts We have to say with the Apostle Paul The good that we want to do As your people We so often don't do The evil that we want to Step away from and stop We find we're so often Falling back into Who will rescue us From this body of death We thank you that the answer To that cry That prayer Is Jesus And so we pray that we would be Rescued by Jesus That we would be clothed In the righteousness of Jesus And that our worship This morning Would be in spirit And in truth As we meditate upon Who you are And all Lord That you have done for us In Christ We thank you Lord That you hear our prayers We thank you That we are able to come In the name of Jesus Our prayers are heard And our prayers are answered And we thank you for The blessing of seeing Answered prayer As we look around us For those who are Who are well
[11:05] Who once were Who once were sick We thank you Lord For those who Have gone through hard times But as you have promised Lord And as we have prayed You have sustained them And us And we thank you Lord For the blessing Of much In the way of joy In life And we praise you Especially for For a new life For a new birth We thank you For the safe Arrival of Julia Mary Morrison And we thank you For the safe Keeping of Iona We thank you For the new child That's born And we pray your blessing Upon her And upon Iona And upon Andrew And upon Joseph Upon the whole family We ask Lord That as she grows That she would grow up To know you And to trust you And we look forward To seeing her In the congregation here We thank you For the blessing Of seeing these young ones Whom we have prayed for And whom we see around us
[12:06] We remember the words Of Jesus Who said Let the children come to me Don't hinder them And we ask that there would be Nothing that we would do That we would hold them Nothing that we would do That would hold them At a distance Help us Through our words And in our lives To bring These young ones To Jesus So bless the young We pray Those amongst us Those who come into church On little fishes On a Tuesday And come on a Thursday Afternoon as well As we see them In our community Lord We pray That you would reach them That you would draw All these young ones To yourself We pray for those Who are elderly as well We think of Harris House We think of Leverborough Care Home And we pray for those Whom we love In these places That you would bless them Lord That you would be near to them And that you would That you would be With all those Who care for them We thank you That these two places Are places where The gospel light shines And we ask that it
[13:06] Would continue to shine In the years to come We pray for those Not just at the beginning And at the end Of life But we pray for those In the middle years When life is busy And when responsibilities Are multiple And when it's so easy To be distracted And to stop seeking First your kingdom Help us we pray To seek first The kingdom of God And we thank you Lord That when we put you first You order our lives In such a way As to give us What we are able to carry And you order our lives In such a way Where we can know The joy Of all that you put Before us And the blessing Of living to glorify you Hear our prayers Help us Lord We praise our nation We see the instability Of the political landscape In Scotland And across England As well Across the whole Country of Britain You have told us To pray for those Whom you have allowed
[14:07] To be an authority Over us And so we pray Asking that they Would look to you And asking that we As a nation Would turn back To your ways Lord And in a world That is so unstable In a world that groans Under the weight of sin And with much In the way of suffering We ask Lord That you would be At work Bringing relief To those who are suffering Helping those Who are in need And helping us To see where we Can make a difference We thank you That when Jesus Comes back He will redeem Us And all of creation And so Lord We say As it says in Revelation Come Lord Jesus And may we be ready For the day that you come All these things We pray In Jesus name Amen Boys and girls Would you like to Come forward Please How's everybody today
[15:12] Good Come on forward Michael Take your usual place Those in the live stream Won't see this But those in the church We'll see I've got a couple of pictures To show you this morning Which we can see But it's just Best not to put these things On YouTube Who's this?
[15:38] Pardon? Joseph's baby Joseph's baby Well yeah Yeah This is I think there's two pictures Is there Mary Catherine Yeah So there's a closer one So this Is Well we should say Congratulations I don't think Andrew And Iona Will be here today I wouldn't expect it But I I imagine they're They're at home And they'll watch this At some point So We want to say Congratulations Don't we To Iona And to Andrew And to Joseph For his baby Because On Friday Morning I think it was At ten past eight Ish Little Julia Mary Morrison Was born And she's well And mum's well And so We say Congratulations to them And we say Thank you to God Don't we For The safe arrival
[16:38] Of this wee one That we look forward To meeting So it's a great thing Isn't it When a new baby Comes Comes into To a family And Iona's happy And Andrew's happy And Joseph's happy Who else is in the family There's lots of people That are happy Who else will be happy Do you think Michael And Ben And Finley There's Granny And there's Shenners Some here And some in different places There's great grannies And they're happy And there's uncles And there's aunties And there's cousins And there's a whole congregation There's a whole community And everybody's so happy When we see A new baby coming Into the world And we stay happy For all the years Even at half past three In the morning We're still happy
[17:38] It's a great blessing To have A new Wee one Into Into The congregation And into Into a big family It's great when a baby is born Now Do you remember Jesus Speaking to a man Called Nicodemus You ever heard that story When Jesus spoke to a man Called Nicodemus And Nicodemus He was like a He was kind of like A top minister Back in the time When Jesus was living He was He was a teacher In Israel Is what the title That he had And he knew his bible And he was an expert In theology But he didn't know Jesus And what did Jesus say to him Do you remember To one famous thing That Jesus said to Nicodemus Do you remember Let's see the older ones I've got a clue Maria
[18:39] You're a teacher And you don't know These things Well he said that It's a good answer But it's not what I'm looking for He said you must Be born Again And see when We believe in Jesus Then we're born again Everybody's born And so you all have birthdays Don't you Do you all know your birthdays But when we believe in Jesus We're born again In our hearts That's what Jesus said New life The life of Jesus Comes into our hearts And our sins are forgiven And And And Jesus comes to To live with us And what do you think That does to our hearts How does How does that make you feel When you become a Christian And when you hear about Somebody who becomes a Christian What do you think Henry
[19:40] You're quiet today If you hear about Someone who becomes a Christian Or if someone becomes a Christian How do we feel Michael Thumbs up We're happy There's joy Because Everlasting life Has come in To that person's heart And when we're born again Jesus is our saviour And God is our father And so every other person Who believes in Jesus Becomes a relative We're brought into a family And so Just as Just as Julia Has this big family Who love her And who care for her And who are so delighted That she's She's in the world When we become Christians We're brought into A family God is our father Jesus Is our saviour The Holy Spirit
[20:41] He lives in us And every other person Who's a Christian Is a brother Or a sister In Jesus And you know the amazing thing as well It says In the Bible That when one sinner Repents When one person Prays and says Lord Jesus Will you please Take my sin away Will you please Make me a Christian Do you know what it says It says that there's Great rejoicing There's like a big party In heaven So there's all these people In our family That we haven't even met yet Who are in heaven There's all these people In different churches Across the whole world Who are brothers And sisters In Jesus And so it's a great thing To be a Christian And we can become a Christian By asking Jesus To come into our lives So today We want to Thank God For the new life
[21:42] That we see In little baby Julia And we want to Thank God For the new life That he offers to us In our hearts If we believe In Jesus So let's Let's pray Lord God We thank you For We thank you For baby Julia We thank you Lord For the pictures That we saw On the screen We thank you That as we've prayed She's been brought Into this world safely And we look forward To meeting her And we pray That you would bless her And that you would Bless all of the family And we ask Lord That you would Help us As we think About Nicodemus And as we think About the conversation That Jesus had With Nicodemus Saying you must Be born again We pray that Each one of us Would be born again That we wouldn't Just know the Bible We wouldn't just Know what theology Means But we pray That we would Know Jesus And that we would Have the life Of Jesus In our hearts That we would Be born again And that we would
[22:42] Know the blessing Of being in a big Family That goes across All nations And goes across All time We thank you That we're Joined together In Jesus Forever When we trust In him So help us We pray Whether we're Very young Or whether we're A bit older To trust In Jesus And to know What it means And what it feels Like to be born Again And we ask all This in Jesus name Amen We're going to sing Now we're going to sing The hymn That's on the screen Bless the Lord Oh my soul Bless the Lord Oh my soul Oh my soul Worship his holy name Say like never before
[23:44] Oh my soul I worship your holy name The sun comes up It's a new day dawning It's time to sing This song again Whatever may pass And whatever lies Before me Let me be singing When the evening comes Bless the Lord Oh my soul Oh my soul Worship his holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship your holy name You're rich in love And you're slow to anger
[24:44] Your name is great And your heart is kind For all your goodness I will keep on singing Ten thousand reasons For my heart to find Bless the Lord Oh my soul Oh my soul Worship his holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship your holy name And on that day When my strength is failing The end draws near And my time has come Still my soul Will sing your phrase The end of the day In the day Ten thousand years And then forevermore
[25:45] Bless the Lord Oh my soul Oh my soul Worship his holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship your holy name I'll worship your holy name I'll worship your holy name Okay boys and girls If you head to Sunday school Remember to pray for them As they go And if we could turn in our Bibles
[26:55] Please to Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 I think I'll read from verse 1 It might not be on the screen But I was going to read from verse 17 But I think we'll read actually The latter part of the chapter Within the sermon itself So let's read from Matthew chapter 5 And verse 1 This is God's word Seeing the crowds Jesus went up on the mountain And when he sat down His disciples came to him And he opened his mouth And taught them Saying Blessed are the poor in spirit For theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are you when others revile you
[28:23] And utter all kinds of evil Against you falsely on my account Rejoice and be glad For your reward is great in heaven For so they persecuted the prophets Who were before you So just to sort of see the flow of this We see Jesus He draws his disciples into him And they listen to him And then as they come to him They know the blessing of Jesus Those who come to Jesus Those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Are saved And then when we're saved When we know God's blessing We are blessed in order to be a blessing When Jesus comes into our hearts To use the language of the children's talk There's a change When we're born again When the life of God lives within us There's a change It's evident And so Jesus speaks then About being salt And being light You are the salt of the earth He says But if salt has lost its taste
[29:25] How shall its saltiness be restored It's no longer good for anything Except to be thrown out And trampled Under people's feet You are the light of the world A city set on a hill Cannot be hidden Nor do people light a lamp And put it under a basket But on a stand And it gives light to all in the house In the same way Let your light shine before others So that they may see your good works And give glory To your Father Who is in heaven Do not think that I have come To abolish the law of the prophets I have not come to abolish them But to fulfill them For truly I say to you Until heaven pass And earth pass away Not an iota Not a dot Will pass from the law Until all is accomplished Therefore Whoever relaxes One of the least of these commandments And teaches others to do the same Will be called least In the kingdom of heaven But whoever does them And teaches them Will be called great In the kingdom of heaven For I tell you Unless your righteousness Exceeds that of the scribes
[30:25] And Pharisees You will never Enter the kingdom Of heaven And then Jesus In the next section Through to the end Of the chapter He starts to To drill down Into the details Of our lives If we are Christians If we know the blessing Of God In us That blessing Should be seen From us We'll be salty We'll have a taste Of Jesus about us We'll be bright Something of the light Of Christ Will be seen In us We will not Dismiss the law We'll seek to live By the law And then Jesus He goes into These particular areas Of our lives And he begins To work out In detail What it looks like To live As Christians And we'll come to that In the sermon So may God bless That reading Of his word Just now We'll sing again now To God's praise And we'll sing
[31:26] From Psalm 116 Verses 5 To 7 Psalm 116 Verses 5 To 7 I'll read them In English And we'll sing These two stanzas In Gaelic And remain seated To sing God merciful And righteous As he gracious As our Lord God saves the meek I was brought low He did me help afford O thou my soul Do thou return And to thy quiet rest For largely low The Lord to thee His bounty Hath expressed These two verses Of Psalm 116 We sing to God's praise Atta Jehovah Atta Jehovah Atta Jehovah Atta JeNING Atta JeNING .
[33:10] . Thank you.
[34:10] Thank you.
[34:40] Thank you.
[35:10] Thank you. Amen. If you could turn back please to Matthew chapter 5.
[35:21] Amen. Amen. is a curse and it leads to further curses.
[35:57] But we thank you that Jesus came to take the curse away from us. And we thank you that in him we are offered life, we are offered blessing. So open our ears, Lord, we pray that we would hear that, touch our hearts, that we would desire that blessing and give us vision, Lord.
[36:16] We pray for the children. We ask, Lord, that as they hear the message of the gospel, simply in Sunday school, that you would open their hearts, that they would indeed come to you and trust you and know you.
[36:29] And we pray that you would be at work. And the churches around us as well in this area, we pray for Ian Murdo in the Church of Scotland. We pray for Bruce Jordan in the Free Presbyterian Church.
[36:41] We pray for Mark and Leverbara and Andrew and Scalpy and for Mr. Kemp and others, Lord, in the different congregations.
[36:52] We ask, Father, that wherever the gospel is preached, wherever we hear about Jesus living and dying and rising, for us to be saved, we pray that you would be working in the power of the Holy Spirit and that we would know blessing not only here, but across the island, across the nation, across all nations in this day.
[37:17] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. If you go here to the kitchen in church, recently, I'm not quite sure when it happened, a few weeks ago anyway, there's always been a big tidy.
[37:35] A month or two back, the kitchen, it was a busy place and there was biscuits and there was crisps and there was all kinds of things flying around in different places, tea bags and coffee and sugar and different locations, different places.
[37:53] It was a bit haphazard. But now there is order. There's boxes. There's labels. And everything has its place.
[38:07] And everything is compartmentalized. So that's what happened in the kitchen and we're thankful for whoever it was that was involved in that work.
[38:18] But that kind of thing doesn't just happen in kitchens. Some people live their lives that way. Everything is compartmentalized. Work is in one box and leisure is in another box and family time is in another box and time with friends is in another box.
[38:40] And there's no mixing of what's in the boxes. And one of the things that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount is that Christianity can't be put in a box and opened for a couple of hours on Sunday and maybe an hour on a Wednesday night for those who are super keen.
[39:05] If we are Christians if we are disciples of Jesus it or he affects every part of our lives every day every place every task every relationship is affected it's changed.
[39:28] And we see that in the verses that we read in Matthew chapter 5 two points this morning. The first thing we see as we focus on verse 17 to 20 is that righteousness is fulfilled in Jesus.
[39:48] And the second point that we see in the verses surrounding that we could look back at salt and light allegory and we can look forward into all these different categories anger and lust and divorce and oaths etc.
[40:03] What we see is the righteousness that's fulfilled in Jesus and that's offered to us it then flows into every area of life.
[40:16] So these are the two points. First of all righteousness it's fulfilled in Jesus. Now it's important as we read these passages especially passages like the Sermon on the Mount which is so well known it's important that we actually try to think back into the original context so we can think about what this meant back then for those listening before we actually take this and apply it immediately to ourselves.
[40:48] So if we were to go back in time and ask the question of those who sat on the mountain as Jesus preached what does a righteous life look like? what are we supposed to do and not do in our lives?
[41:02] The way they would have answered that question would have been by going back to the Old Testament. They'd have opened up the law the Ten Commandments they'd have gone to the prophets and they would have answered the question that way if we want to know what righteousness looks like we need the Ten Commandments we need the law of God we need to listen to what the prophets said and that was all true God spoke through the Ten Commandments God spoke through the prophets he made clear what was right he made clear what was wrong and if we were to scan through the Old Testament we see God's people Israel and they're given the law they're given the word of the prophets and they're trying to live righteous lives but what we see time after time after time is no matter how hard they tried and sometimes they tried hard and sometimes they didn't try hard but no matter how hard they tried they consistently failed they could not live righteous lives and we see that repeatedly going through the
[42:11] Old Testament and now we're in the New Testament and we see on the mountain as Jesus is preaching there's a crowd there the disciples are close to them they gather in but there's a crowd there and part of the crowd were the scribes and the Pharisees and they were like the legal enthusiasts they were those who were most serious about the law they were so serious about keeping the Ten Commandments that they formulated 613 of their own rules which were like a handbook to help you to know how to interpret and how to live out the Ten Commandments they were the experts on how to live a righteous life but they too were failing to keep God's law they were failing to live righteous lives and even though they had theological degrees and even though they were experts in the Old
[43:15] Testament and even though they were serious about their religion they were failing to live righteous lives and Jesus made that clear Jesus says in verse 20 for I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and that verdict from Jesus would have really annoyed the scribes and the Pharisees because they thought they were okay they thought they had the pass mark they thought they were exemplary and yet Jesus says they haven't made the cut for heaven in spite of their righteous living in spite of their serious religion they haven't done enough to enter the kingdom of heaven and then imagine the ordinary people in the crowd they're looking at the religious leaders and they're saying well if these serious religious men aren't going to get over the line what hope do I have if these guys in spite of all their religious efforts aren't getting a place in heaven how can I ever have any kind of hope and Jesus came into this world to answer that question
[44:42] Jesus came into this world to bring hope Jesus came into this world to proclaim good news for those who were unrighteous and the good news was and the good news is that the righteous life that we could never live no matter how hard we try he has lived it for us Jesus has lived that righteous life for us he has fulfilled righteousness he's lived it out now when we see the law of God we never at any point see Jesus dismiss the law he doesn't ever say you don't need to worry about the law he's very serious about the law and we hear that in verses 18 and 19
[45:42] Jesus says truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away not an iota not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches!
[46:02] them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven so Jesus was not somebody who swept the law aside he didn't say you can forget about the law Jesus he highlights the law he emphasizes the law of God but he knew that they and we could not live a perfectly righteous life he knew that we could not keep God's law so Christ came to fulfill the law and he lived a perfect righteous life for us verse 17 says do not think that I have come to abolish the law says Jesus or the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them at the moment our young people are sitting exams some of the students have been sitting exams and possibly are still sitting exams the school children are definitely still sitting exams and so the exams are set and they work hard and they study to varying degrees and then they're tested and then they're marked and when
[47:23] August comes what we see is that some get higher marks and some get lower marks but I don't think anybody gets 100% at least I've never heard of anyone getting 100% and spiritually speaking the same is true we all seek to live lives if we're Christians that are righteous we want to live well and we can look at ourselves and we can look around and we can see that some lives look quite clean some lives they look on surface on face level they look quite moral they look quite righteous and then there are some lives that are very clearly and openly bad and unrighteous but no one lives a life that is perfectly righteous no one except
[48:29] Jesus and yet Jesus who scored 100% in righteousness he offers us his righteousness his 100% if we believe in him and when we believe all our unrighteousness all our sin he takes away and all his righteousness all his perfection he offers to us that's what we see happening on the cross the wages of sin is death and Jesus who was the life he lays his life down he pays the penalty of our sin of our unrighteousness he pays the wages he takes our unrighteousness away from us into his body on the tree and when we believe in him he gifts he gives he graciously gives his righteousness his perfection to us he takes our paper our exam paper which may say 0% or it may say 10% or it may say 20% he takes it from us with all the scribbles and all the corrections and all the mess and he gives us his perfect mark it's what happened on the cross the scholars call it the great exchange it's the greatest deal it's the greatest exchange that was ever offered to us 2 corinthians 5 verse 20 and 21 is where we hear the summary of that verse
[50:20] I've read it so often the apostle Paul says we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God how can I be reconciled to God a sinner how is it possible and then Paul answers for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God righteousness!
[50:55] righteousness is fulfilled it's perfected in Jesus and it's offered to us in the gospel freely we can't buy it we can't earn it it's offered to us and we can receive it if we believe if we want to be if we want to be righteous today we want to be perfectly righteous if we want to know that we are reconciled with God that we're no longer enemies of God but we're saved and we're brought into his family if we want to have a place in heaven guaranteed it's not about what we do it's about what Jesus did for us he fulfilled righteousness he lived for us he died for us and he offers salvation to us we're going to sing at the end he died that we might be forgiven he died to make us good righteous that we might go at last to heaven saved by his precious blood can I ask this morning have you asked for the righteousness of Christ have you asked him to take your sin away it's a real pressing direct personal question can you think of the day that you bowed your knee and you asked Jesus to take your unrighteousness your sin away and you asked him to clothe you with his righteousness because if you haven't done that you're not saved if you and I have not done that there's no place in heaven for us there's some places that you can't get into unless you're dressed in a particular way
[53:26] I remember once trying to get into a restaurant in a McDonald hotel I was wearing trainers and they said sorry you're not getting in don't get in with trainers didn't have any shoes with me so I didn't get in I had to go to the other McDonald's and we don't get into heaven wearing our own clothes we do not get into heaven with our own good works Isaiah tells us that the best of our works are like filthy rags and filthy rags are not suitable attire for heaven so how can we get into heaven what do we have to be clothed in we're clothed in the robes of the righteousness of Christ we just have to ask for them righteousness is fulfilled in Jesus it's offered to us but we have to receive that righteousness it doesn't happen automatically it involves you and I getting on our knees confessing our sin agreeing with
[54:38] God that we are unrighteous agreeing that Jesus is righteous and asking for his charity asking for his grace only then are we saved only then is the door of heaven unlocked but guaranteed it is unlocked no one who comes confessing their son no one who comes asking for the righteousness righteousness of Jesus will be refused but you have to come righteousness is fulfilled in Jesus the second point the final point is righteousness it flows into every area of life a few weeks ago now there was the wedding here in the church they're just recovering over there on my left so Ailey and Colin were married and it was a beautiful day and we saw that and we saw the pictures and we saw their smiles and when a bride and groom are married one of the things that happens is confetti gets thrown over them and that happy stuff it just gets everywhere absolutely everywhere and I was reminded of that I was reminded of my uncle
[55:59] Uncle Jim who passed away a couple of years ago he was a taxi driver in Aberdeen and every car he ever owned was absolutely immaculate another level immaculate and because it was so clean it was once used for a family wedding it was only ever once used for a family wedding he refused thereafter and Uncle Jim was sitting just outside the church as the bride and the groom came out and he had the car ready and warmed up and it was immaculate and everyone was smiling and everyone was happy including Uncle Jim and then as the bride and groom started to make their way towards the wedding car people started to throw confetti and Jim's face was starting to fall because the confetti was coming thick and fast and it was the door of the church and then it was down the path and then the car doors opened and the confetti was still getting thrown in and so his car his immaculate car was absolutely covered in confetti and every day for months to come when he put the fan on and the taxi confetti would fly out and he would remember with great fondness that happy day of the weather it gets everywhere that's the point and the righteousness of Jesus when we receive it it should be seen everywhere in our lives it should get into every corner every relationship every situation the illustration of salt and light is an illustration that conveys the same message just a wee bit of salt and it flavours the whole soup doesn't just go in one area it goes throughout the whole brew a little bit of light as it enters a room it fills the whole room doesn't stay in one small area and in this next section
[58:01] Jesus he teaches that his righteousness should flow into every relationship every part of our lives and in the rest of the chapter Jesus he moves from one area of life to another just to drive that point home so let's just if you've got your Bibles open let's just read through these verses the first area that Jesus deals with is the area of anger if you've got an ESV you've got the headings I'm just following the ESV headings and so Jesus he speaks to those who are his disciples those who have received salvation those who have received his righteousness and he's teaching about how that should transform their lives and he begins with anger he says in verse 21 you've heard it said to those of old you shall not murder but whoever and whoever murders will be liable to judgment but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire so if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison truly I say to you you will not get out until you have paid the last penny now I'm just going to skim over this at high high speed the first area that
[59:52] Jesus addresses is anger and all of us know something of the challenge of that rising anger sometimes we try to excuse our anger I've heard many people say things like well you know I just have a short fuse it's just the way I am I'm sorry if you get offended by that you know I just talk straight I just spit it I just say it as it is I'm sorry if that bothers you and in saying that kind of thing we're trying to excuse our anger and say it's okay it's just how I am there's other people who never who never lose the rag outwardly who never kind of speak with that kind of direct harsh tone but when they get angry they stew and they sulk and they withdraw and the atmosphere in the room changes and you know we can we can sit in a room we can sit in a church building feuding with somebody else in the same building and never deal with it because of the anger that's in there and it can cause years of tension and awkwardness in a church or a community and it can rob a place of blessing because of that simmering anger anger is one of these sins that we sometimes classify as a respectable sin but Jesus doesn't seem to view anger that way when we think about it
[61:37] Jesus went to the cross to deal with the right anger of God towards us so that we could be reconciled with God and because of that if we belong to Jesus we have no grounds to lash out in anger or to sulk in a quiet anger and refused to be reconciled with a brother or a sister so the first area that Jesus presses into is the area of anger the second area that Jesus goes to is the area of lust verse 27 to 30 Jesus says you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go to hell now lust is another respectable sin of our day lust is probably more palatable today in our culture than any culture has ever known and as we apply this to ourselves we recognise that we can't act in lust we recognise that adultery is wrong we recognise that lustful advances physically are wrong but what goes on in our minds and our hearts the things that other people don't see we can be more relaxed about that's the challenge here and Jesus when he addresses the crowd he is not only speaking about the outward act he goes to heart level he goes to head level so the thoughts that we think the lingering look at a person whether it's in real life or whether it's on a screen
[64:18] Jesus teaches us to ruthlessly cut the sin of lust out of our lives because it's like a fire and if it begins it is going to just take it's going to take control so Jesus says cut it out ruthlessly continuously cut it out weerspeed the commentator says deal immediately and decisively with sin don't taper off cut off spiritual surgery is more important than physical surgery for the sins of the body can lead to eternal judgment and the message here is that if the righteousness of Jesus is to be seen and felt through our lives lust must be torn out continually so that's a second area that Jesus presses into the third area is divorce verse 31 it was also said
[65:33] Jesus speaks here whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery now Jesus here in the sermon he boldly goes where others fear to go now we tend in our lives and in our relationships we tend to keep boundaries and especially when it comes to marriage there are boundaries that's kind of recognised within our culture we we just don't ask each other how's your marriage tell me about your marriage because we would expect people to say it's none of your business maybe we're too cautious actually about sometimes asking the question how is your marriage because it's an area where many people can struggle but what we see here is that
[66:40] Jesus God the son the designer of marriage he speaks into our marriages and he makes clear that the righteousness of Jesus should be evident in our faithfulness and our morality now sometimes divorce is inevitable sometimes divorce is biblical and Jesus teaches in more detail on that in Matthew 19 we're not going there today but back at the time of writing divorces were ten a penny they were quick they were easy wives were disposable wives were very very badly treated and Jesus challenges the culture back then in this area of marriage and divorce and in our culture in an age of no fault divorce where you can get a divorce incredibly quickly and easily Jesus is challenging us in our culture and our experience today next area is oaths verse 33 again you have heard it said of those of old you shall not swear falsely but shall perform to the
[67:53] Lord what you have sworn but I say to you do not take an oath at all either by heaven for it's the throne of God or by the earth for it's the footstool his footstool or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king and do not take an oath by your head for you cannot make one hair white or black let what you say simply be yes or no anything more than this comes from evil and in this area Jesus is speaking about telling the truth he's not forbidding us to take a legal oath he's not saying that we should go to court and refuse to take an oath that's not the point what he's challenging us about here is about telling the truth and speaking plainly one commentator says have such integrity so that people will believe what you say so the righteousness of Jesus as it flows into our lives it should affect what we say it should affect what we listen to it should affect what we share on social media because our talk is to be truthful not deceitful in the last two sections in verse 38 to verse 42
[69:25] Jesus is talking about retaliation and in verses 43 to verses 47 Jesus is talking about loving our enemies and the summary of these two sections because my time is gone is Jesus says to us show grace we're saved by grace we're sustained by grace and Jesus calls us when we're tempted to retaliate because we've been badly treated he's saying to us if you're my disciple my righteousness in you should be shown in the way that you respond with grace not with vengeance and in the second section about loving your enemies Jesus is saying show mercy don't just tolerate those who make you who make an enemy of you but show them mercy you you've received mercy says
[70:25] Jesus so show mercy it's challenging isn't it when we listen to to this this sermon we see Jesus here moving from area to area in our life with a kind of access all areas paths and he's wandering from this place to that place and everywhere he goes whether it's anger or lust or loving our enemies or retaliation or marriage every area that he wanders through we feel challenged at least I do and then in the final verse verse 48 Jesus he turns the pressure up to maximum and he says in verse 48 you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect as if everything before wasn't hard enough he finishes with a standard of absolute perfection be like your father he says and this is the hammer blow for anybody who might think that they can save themselves this is the dead end for people who say well you know
[71:57] I try to live a good life I don't hurt people I give to charity I go to church surely that's good enough surely that's going to be enough to get me over the line surely that's going to take me into heaven all these things that I try to do Jesus Jesus responds to the person who professes to be good enough by saying you need to be more than good the standard is not that you do better than this person or that person the standard is perfection be perfect says Jesus perfect righteousness is what is required and the truth is we can't do it that's the bad news but the good news is that Jesus has done it for us he has fulfilled righteousness for us he has lived for us he has died for us and if we trust him he makes us righteous in the eyes of
[73:13] God and as we stay close to him his righteousness hopefully will be seen and felt through our lives which will hopefully be salty the taste of Jesus about them and bright with the light of Christ shining from him we'll pray heavenly father we thank you for your word we feel the challenge the bite of it but we thank you that as we see our own failures as we see our own unrighteousness we are driven to Jesus your son and we thank you that he is the saviour the only saviour we thank you that he lived perfectly for us every area of life where we fall short we thank you that he has not fallen short but he has lived perfectly we thank you that he is righteous and we thank you that as we confess our unrighteousness as we confess our sin as we come to the cross we see that our unrighteousness our sin is taken into the body of
[74:32] Jesus on the tree as he dies and we thank you that his righteousness is gifted graciously to us so that we may live forever to help each one of us we pray to receive that righteousness that salvation that is freely offered and help us we pray as we go from this place into our life's experience to stay close to you that something of the flavour of the light of the righteousness of Christ might be seen in us and through us and we pray all this in Jesus name Amen we'll sing to finish mission praise 674 there is a green hill far away with a city warm with a
[75:37] Is that we held far away Without a city war Where the dear Lord was crucified Who died to save us all We may not know, we cannot tell What pains He had to bear But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered death He died that we might be forgiven He died to make us good
[76:39] That we might go at last to heaven Save by His precious blood There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin He only could unlock the gate Of heaven and let us live Oh dearly, dearly has He loved And we must love Him too And trust in His redeeming blood And try His works to do
[77:41] And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit Be with us all, now and forevermore Amen