Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew Verse by Verse with Shawn McCraney

Transcripts:

Hey guys, it is March 29th, 2026. We're in Matthew chapter 5. We're at verse 13, picking it up where we left off. Jesus has given the Beatitudes how to be beautiful, how to be blessed as a disciple. So radically different than anything that they had heard before. And we're going to pick it up at verse 13.

And so it says at verse 13, Yeshua says, you are the salt of the earth. Now these are disciples. These are those who came from the multitude. And, but if he says, he warns, he says, but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is therefore good for nothing, but it be cast out and trodden under the foot of men.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on the hill cannot be hid. He said, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but light a candle and it giveth light to everything that is in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good And as I said, this is the Sermon on the Mount to people who have already believed.

These things are not being said to him so that they can believe and become saved. He is telling them that they are actually his. And we know that, at least I believe, that God elected those people from that nation to be his in that day, even predestined, if you want, to them and them alone. But how do we know that that's the context? Well, he speaks in the present perfect indicative in the Greek by saying you are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world. He doesn't say you have to become the salt of the earth. You have to become the light of the world. You are. All right. Now, listen, one of the most difficult things I've found for people in talking with them and counseling them is they have a really hard time to differentiate between their flesh and who they are naturally from who they are in Christ.

They don't understand that once you have recognized, found, discovered, unearthed that spark of Christ within you and you grow in faith and love, you are growing in him in a new identity. That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, it actually makes it really plain. And he says, therefore, ready? He says it to them 2,000 years ago. If any person be in Christ, he's a new creature. New. Old things are passed away.

They're dead. Okay. Behold, all things are become new. Now, we know that when it says all things are become new and old things are dead, that is not talking at all materially. Someone who comes to believe in Christ, someone who discovers Christ in them, whatever it might be, when they do, their cavities don't change.

Their defects of character are not immediately erased. I've heard people say, yeah, I stopped smoking immediately when I came to believe. That's fine. Praise God for the blessing. But bottom line, that body you're in is still going to die. You're still genetically made up with DNA that is predetermined. And so we're not talking materially. And I cannot stress that enough when talking to people.

We know that at least from what we can tell, we materially remain pretty much the same. An overweight believer, 500 pounds overweight when they believe, is going to weigh 500 pounds the next day. Now, it doesn't mean Christ can't help you overcome this former dead person that is now in the grave with him, but your identity is not in that person.

is not in that person. Your identity is in him and him alone and without any other. So a decaying tooth of someone who comes to Christ is going to need repair. This is the material application that doesn't have anything to do with Paul saying all things become new. All right.

What Christ makes new is the heart, the worldview, the operating system by which a person walks through this life. Paul wrote in Galatians 6.15, For in In Christ Yeshua, neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision. He says, but a new creature. In Christ, a new creature avails things, not the outward things we do. You know, if you're covered in tattoos before or after Christ, you're covered in tattoos.

It has nothing to do with the new creature that you are. Believers somehow come to think of themselves, their person, as being individuals who are now Christians. Okay? And it's not so. To really take the scripture, the through line of scripture, it's just not so. Okay? And believers and disciples of Christ, okay, and it sounds kind of radical, but you are Christ. That is who you are. And in him, we are his salt. We are his light that shines out. And we are that thing that stops putrefaction, as salt. We retain the goodness of things as salt in this world, in our families,

in our neighbors, and in our friends. And this can be the tough part when we look in the mirror. I am not, in my identity, Sean McCraney, who follows Christ's teachings. teachings. I have a totally new identity based solely in Christ in me, on Christ, through Christ. This is the new identity as my old one should be dead. Okay? Now, not literally dead. It's still materially eating and drinking and learning and everything like that. But that is not me.

Okay. And this is like Paul said, and that Mallory sings, I have been crucified with Christ. I have been crucified. That means you're dead with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. If you have Christ in you, and we all do, that the whole object is to discover his identity, his power as branches in the vine, to let him rise up and to let him work.

When you do that, he is glorified. And when you remain authentic, your flesh will always be diminished. That's why I don't ever accept compliments about how good I am or anything, because I say, you don't get it. I am not good. This is the message that comes through me. I'm not good and so I don't want to give you any pretense that I am.

But Christ in me has changed the game, changed the narrative, changed the fruit in my life to others. Our identity, we are bought with a price. All of us have been bought with a price, every human being. And we're not our own. And the more readily you and I can adopt him coursing through us and to let the former woman, the former man lay in the grave dead, rising up to the fruit that he produces through his risen victory, the more that he is glorified by having done something in the life of a reprobate, essentially.

And that's why in this teaching to his disciples, Yeezus, I'm going to call him Yeezus Jesus I like that name what Kanye calls him Jesus yes you are all right you can call him Jesus all you want Kanye just don't mess with his real name just kidding but Yeshua speaks in the present you are you are the light of the world and, that's how John described Christ.

Remember, he said that he was the light that came into the world. So when Christ says to his disciples, you are, man, let's get that straight. You are the salt of the earth. Not you will be, you are. And in this way, we see ourselves and others that who proclaim him, especially, we treat them and ourselves as Christ, not as people who are trying to be believers that follow Christ.

And so in that, it changes the way that we relate with each other. We see that they have a master who's just like us and we work with them in patience and love in the defections of their former fleshly man or woman that is forever going to trip up. You see, that's how it works. We don't judge them for their failures. Christ took care of those failures.

We assess them and love them as Christ with us. All right. It's not a positive mental attitude stuff either, or acting, faking it until you're making it. We are him by faith. This wonderful, beautiful, amazing, powerful thing about this fact is that when anyone sees, and it's an act of faith, amazing faith proffered by amazing grace, but when a person truly embraces that they are Christ in this world, their former person has died, they have a brand new identity to walk in, and of and through Christ alone, the tendencies to operate by the being that's dead start to fade.

Okay? And they begin to evaporate as you submit to this new identity. Now, I preach this strongly because I've lived it. It's taken 40 years. It's taken 20 years of dedicated. And was I making messes? Oh, of course. My flesh was like the donkey, you know, just you aren't going to control me. Nothing's going to control me.

It's like the blind man who couldn't see anything. It's like, it's like, uh, and, and then he was healed. It's like the demoniac who was cutting himself with rocks. And then Christ comes into his life and he sat there in his right mind. It's like the prodigal son who came to himself. When Christ comes in, he gives you a new identity.

And when people suggest to me that I am not his, that I'm a failure, that I'm a heretic, or whatever else they say, I say, all I can tell you is what I was compared to what I am is because of him. So your interpretation of me doesn't matter at all. Friends, please hear me the best you can. It is only by and through this gift and the reality of God and only by and through this gift that believers are able to overcome their flesh rightly.

Otherwise, you will be at war otherwise you will be at war constantly with that former person you see but when you see yourself as his and him operating in you you then start to choose what he would do right and you know it kind of harkens back to that that what would Jesus do line but it's kind of true you know what would Jesus do line, but it's kind of true.

You know, what would he do? And while we have that kind of as a popular statement, I don't see that many people doing what he would do. So all the other approaches are just appeals, religious appeals to our fleshly systems, our genetics that we follow and adhere to, but it's the indwelling of Christ, the captain, the savior, the shepherd of our souls, that we walk by the power of the risen Lord.

He's risen from that grave. We died with him, and we've risen with him and that we are not Christians or people that practice Christianity. This is central to the Yeshua message. We in our flesh are not practicing religiosity. We are Christ, not in our flesh.

The spirit in us, just like christ was god christ was god in him but his flesh was not god we are christ but our flesh is not christ do you see how that works to truly walk in the power of the risen lord by embracing his identity, we're spiritually untouchable. You can't be touched by the will and ways of men, their opinions, religion. You can walk free. Absolutely. I testify to that.

I mean, what on earth, when you think about it, could the risen Christ walking out of the tomb be defiled with, tempted with, fall to nothing. That's liberty. That's empowerment. That's personal new identity in him. And, you know, so while we're not going to ever be perfect in our flesh, there is a merit in the mindset of asking ourselves in the face of different things, what would Jesus do? What would Yeshua do? And by the power of his risen spirit, we act accordingly.

But, you know, I think really more appropriately, to be truthful is not what what would Jesus do? It would really be who am I? What is my identity? You know, when you get to next week, we're going to talk a lot about adult adultery, because that's what's coming up. But when it comes to that, it's this interesting because your mindset changes the way things are happening.

When a person lets Christ reign in them, and they struggle with like lust for others and adultery, when they allow Christ to be their guide, that leaves and they see another person that they desire in the flesh as someone who needs their Christian, their Christ like and they see another person that they desire in the flesh as someone who needs their Christian, their Christ-like love and identity in their lives and all the lust of the flesh and the temptation leaves you when you let Christ be who you are.

And it's just something you, so what would the real me, the new man be with Christ in me is more the question. So it's even better than what would Jesus do? Because that's almost like a religious decision versus I am Christ in my body. Versus I am Christ in my body. I will do what Christ would do. Right? So remember what Paul said in Colossians 3, 1 through 3.

If then you were raised with Christ. Raised with him. That's the key to it all. Seek those things which are above. Where Christ is. And at that time, sitting on the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Listen to this. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Now that was to the bride then, but I believe it could be to any citizen of the kingdom today. So listen to these beautiful words of the king. Ready? You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt, but if the salt has lost his savor, his sanctifying elements, wherewith shall it be salted? Meaning, how is it even of value? He said, it's therefore good for nothing, but it be cast out and be trodden under the foot of men.

And so he first teaches his disciples, you are salt, salt of the earth. Salt is an amazing, I mean, we could spend an hour talking about salt. It makes food taste so much better. Oh my goodness. It purifies water. It melts ice. And it preserves all sorts of things that are subject to decay and putrefaction.

of things that are subject to decay and putrefaction. In the old days, they called salt beef salt or salt beef or something, and they used it with meat to cure it and to keep it preserved. What Yeshua is saying to those who are his disciples by their lives of faith and love is to add savor, to serve as bringing taste and flavor and a preservation to those around you in the fallen world that have a tendency toward corruption.

The risen Christ can go into a corrupt setting and never be defiled as salt. And so I think we could assume that if Christ in man was to fail, the entire world, I think think would be so ripe, no presence of Christ in the world would be so ripe that the degradation would be so terrible, God would wipe us out like he did before.

But that's why Christ has had the victory, and he spiritually reigns. So God is not going to wipe us out like he did at the times of Noah or he did at Jerusalem. They have lost their savor. He's not going to wipe the world out because Christ in us, salt and light, preserves this world. After calling them salt, Yeshua points out something that is possible for people who first are called salt of the earth, saying, if the salt becomes tasteless, you know, or has lost its preserving properties, he rhetorically asks, what good is it? You know? And he says, it's not

good in the least. It has no value. So we're seeing from him what God's desires are from those who believe on his Son and who have his Son reign in them. Here in the U.S. salt is a chemical compound. And I say that because because in other places salts are a little bit different. It's called muriate of soda.

And if the saltiness of it, meaning the properties of its saline qualities, is lost, is not chemically there, it's no different than a rock. It's just a kind of a rock of elements. It's just a kind of a rock of elements. Okay? And in Eastern countries, if they had salt that had lost its savor, was weakened because it was ming stony pebbles, to give grip on the road for wheels and for people's feet, etc.

And men would stomp on that, and that's why he says to cast it out and be stomped under the feet. There are interesting passages when presented to people who promote ideas of once saved, always saved. Because Christ clearly teaches here, you're the salt of the earth, perfect condition. You are. But he says, but if the salt loses, that means you can be somebody who is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and you can lose your savor.

And that's a separate discussion on how that happens. Yeshua says in the Greek, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, it's no good. The question we have to ask in light of What is it that makes a Christian a follower of Yeshua or Yeezy? What makes a Christian salty or not salty? Okay, that's the question to ask as we read this.

I mean, what is it about us that forms our new identity of Christ? And is it our personal goodness? Is it our use by the world? Is that what gives us our salt that we can be really popular or rich? The number of shelters we raise or the amount of money we give to the poor, is that our saltiness? You know, we're going to respond to this in a minute, but Yeshua goes on first calling us and calling them salt.

And he says, you are the light of the world. And but a city that is set on a hill can't be hid. It cannot be hid, especially in that day. If you were out, they didn't have any streetlights and billboards and light pollution. But if you're traveling through the desert, way out in the distance, you can see a dim light.

And you get closer and closer, it grows bigger and bigger. That's a city up on a hill and you can't hide it. It's light is shining, cannot be hid. We are salt. We are light. Amazing applications to those who truly walk and believe and love him. Salt preserves. Guess what? So does light. It preserves. Like salt, light prevents mold.

And it heals and it prevents decay and corruption. And it serves as a preservative in a dark and decaying world. Scripture often refers to the light of the world, and the light of the world is often equated to the sun. And that's in a material sense, just the sun above us. Yeshua said in John 11, 9, If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world.

He sees by the light of this world is a better way to put it. He can see because he's walking in the day where he's going. Light is everything to God. Why? Because God is light. Christ was light that came into the world. And light not only sanitizes, it warms, it illuminates, it makes our path clear, it brings clarity to our vision and to what we see and understand.

And guess what darkness does? It brings confusion, depression, failure, right? depression, failure, right? So with the scripture often referring to this world as being in darkness, Yeshua is essentially telling his believers in him that we are lights in a dark and dismal world that thrives and abides in ignorance, that stumbles with its decisions.

Just as the sun makes objects visible to us, it also reveals their true form in nature. When you're out in the day, you can see the true form of a thing, versus in the night you can only discover it by shadows. So and in the light of the day we can see a thing's beauty and its defects. You know you don't want to go buy a car in the middle of the night in a dark place.

You don't know what you're really getting. It hides its defects. It might look really good. You know and you get what are called beer goggles which is a popular phrase in college. good. You know, and you get what are called beer goggles, which is a popular phrase in college. You know, you do something bad with somebody, you wake up and you find out, I didn't know that's what I was getting into. The Amish call it buying a pig in a poke.

So in the world of God's kingdom, Yeshua is the light with a capital L. He is just in revealing the moral world as the physical sun reveals the material. Christ illuminates the spiritual around us. And that's why the more you identify with him, the more you'll be able to rightly discern, like the risen Lord, what is evil, what is good, and you can become impervious to its defects.

So it is with you and me and him. We are the salt of the earth, aren't we? We are the light of this world, right? Using light as the principle, he says, that line, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Many of the cities of Judea were placed on the summits or sides of mountains like they are here in salt lake city you drive along what's called the wasatch front and at night you can see the cities set up on the hills from far away perhaps as yeshua was there teaching perhaps remember he was up in a mountain perhaps he saw cities you know perhaps he was able

to look out there and he was borrowing from his surroundings and his teachings. He was such an excellent teacher, not an excellent teacher, he's the teacher, right? And so in other words, the eyes of the world are going to be upon those who identify with him. They are going to see what you actually bring forth.

And they fall upon us, just like the eyes of somebody in the material world look upon a city that is shining in a dark place. And we will be seen and we cannot hide at all any more than a city set on a hill can be hid. And when those cities are most obviously set on a hill, when do we see a city most brightly? You know, obviously the answer is obvious. It's in the dark.

That's where we see the cities of light most lightly. And so in our ministry out into the world, And so in our ministry out into the world, it is not collective behind the walls of an inclusive group. Yeshuans take their salt and light out into the dark places, fearless because we walk by the risen Lord, fearless of what the world will do to us.

And we shine a light that shines most bright in the darkest of situations. And this is what religion says, no. They say, no, stay from that. But when you are personally walking by your new identity in Christ, you do not have to fear the dark. I have a big growing fondness for owls. Owls are creatures of the night.

They actually can sit in the dark and they can go and they can pick up the predators around them, the snakes and the scorpions. They don't have to fear this world. They can get involved in this world into the darkest places of this world and be shining lights. That's what it means to be a Yeshua. It doesn't mean gathering in a room.

It means going out individually as God leads you and shine and act as salt, bring flavor to things, bring joy to every circumstance. It's not positive mental attitude. It's Christ who gives life more abundantly. So he shines brightest in the dark, and it's when we stand out most in the world, in the presence of dark. Not because we're part of it.

We are not part of it, but because we have the abilities to be in it, to see clearly, to not fear, and to not let the dark of this world take us over. His meaning seems to be, what will people see when they look at you? And it seems to be that implication. He continues with the analogy, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel. You know, you don't light a candle and hide it.

He says, but on a candlestick, you raise it up. And it gives light to all that are in that candle. house. Boy, you know, I have people come to me always and they're saying, what do I do? I've come to know the Lord and my family is Mormon. My family's Catholic. What do I do? My wife doesn't believe. My husband is so devoted to this religion. I say, be Jesus. Bring a light into your house.

Don't divide. Don't divorce. Don't destroy your family. Be salt and light. I don't know why we got to the point where we had thought we had to make a decision here on that. Why should I divorce my husband? He doesn't believe. God, what is wrong with us? I would suggest that we could read this and say, neither does God light a candle and then put it under a bushel but on a candlestick because it gives light to everyone that are in the dark world house around us.

We, Yeshuans, should be salt and light to everyone always. That's the call on our life. And it's not any of the stuff we're seeing online or in the world. Let me preach it. One of the primary reasons why God illuminated those men then and why we have been enlightened today is so others might see the light, taste the salt of our lives, look and see what really is there and be benefited, drawn to it, and see it by virtue of that and not by preaching and dogmatic religious demands.

In our estimation, believers ought to shine in the world of things like Las Vegas shines in the desert night. I mean, that's what Christians should be. You drive through the desert, you come across Vegas, you're 30 miles out and you can see the light of it. You know, and that's the world.

But Vegas draws things like a moth to its material light, right? All the moths come in from the desert to get there, right? And it's a false light. It's a dark light. And that's what we should be really as Christians, but a light light, one that really does give living. In Christianity, there's little reason to take this little light of yours, this salt of yours, and hide it.

And where Yeshua says to take it and put it under a bushel, the word in the Greek means put it under a dry good, like takes a container that measures flour and hide it under that. To say to put it under a bushel would be like to hide it under a metal measuring cup.

He concludes this part at verse 16 and says, let your light so shine before four men, that they may see your good works, which are through him alone, and glorify God who is in heaven, your Father who is in heaven, which was what Christ came to do. Get us to glorify this God that we love and believe in. Now this verse is really important because it says some things that are not readily understood at first sight. Listen to it again with a little emphasis from moi. Ready? Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

How are we to understand this? Two ways. Please listen carefully, consider this. We would naturally read this passage like this. We let our light, the way God has made us, our good things, our good nature, all the things that we are to shine before men so that they're able to see our good actions that we choose by allowing Christ to reign in us, our patience, our generosity, which will lead them, the people that we are with, to glorify God which is in heaven. And here's the thing, it's not a single act. It's a lifetime of action poured into others that you give salt and

light, salt and light, salt and light, so they can freely decide when to see that they want what you have. It doesn't come through manipulation or demand. It comes by the Spirit. I would suggest there's another way to read the verse, though. Let me tell you why.

In John 6, 28, the Jews came to Yeshua, and you know this, and they said, what should we do that we might work the works of God? And how did Yeshua reply? This is the work of God, he said to them then, that you believe on him who he sent okay taking the whole of scripture my friends and looking at the gospel of the good news we have read his words and we have to read his words in light of that time in that place we know our literal physical works you know of good could never save or redeem us, but they are a manifestation of our faith and love, which is the real work of a Yeshuaan. That being said, we kind of suggest that

this is how to understand the passage. We let our light so shine, which are our literal Yeshuaan lives, our loving actions caused and produced by him in us which allow men to see our good works in the lives that we live which is faith and love alone faith and love alone not religion not differences faith and love, and then these things will glorify our Father which is in heaven.

To take this past in the normative sense suddenly places it in the arena of religion. And the way the world of religion, of religious people influence others to join them, okay, it's subtle. But in other words, if Yeshua was saying, let the light of being religious so shine before men that they may see your material religious good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, that is what he would have said, but that's not what he meant.

Then we have an entirely different gospel, if that was the case. One that the predominant religion of this state propagates. You see, that let the light of your being a Mormon so shine before men that they may see your material Mormon good works and glorify Mormonism. Okay, but that isn't what he is suggesting. And when anybody takes a religion and represents it, that is what they are tacitly doing.

So if we reread the passage in we choose to do, so shine before men that they may see our faith and love, which is the only thing we've got, faith and love. And the faith is subjective. No one can tell us what it really is except us and God. And glorify our Father which is in heaven for what could give God more glory than for a free will individual, especially a broken free will individual who has nothing to offer this world or that has everything to offer this world and chooses to represent God to others. You get it?

And then Christ moves on to another subject. Verse 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. Again to them. We don't have law and prophets. He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He said, Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, that was the heaven and earth created for Israel. It is not the material heaven and earth pass. That was the heaven and earth created for Israel.

It is not the material heaven and earth upon which we live, and the scripture never says we'll be destroyed. It's the heaven and earth of law, a heavenly economy of law, earthly economy of God's law, until heaven and earth, he says, pass, meaning it will, not one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

That's why he came. Okay. Whosoever shall therefore break one of the least of these commandments and teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and 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 that he was establishing.

For I say unto you, this one Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. Boom! That blew them away. He said it right there. He cites the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And he says, if you're not more righteous than them, you're never entering the kingdom of heaven.

And then he says, you have heard that it was said of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever should kill be in danger of judgment. And he goes on and goes on, and we're going to cover that next week, but go back to verse 17. We'll wrap it up with this. Remember, he's teaching his disciples up in a mountain, a hill, away from the masses.

And as we read through the teachings, they come out very aphoristically. That means they are filled with impactful lines that take a lot to really understand. understand, and they could appear kind of disconnected one from another as you read through it. And he begins here and he says, don't think that I've come to destroy the law and the prophets.

You know, your nation and the heavenly economy in which it was built at that time, I am not come to destroy it. I've come to fulfill it. Yeshua was just entering in on his life work, his passion. He was facing teaching a group of Jews who lived under 1,500 years of a law under culture. So he clearly is telling them what he came to do. And I think he clarifies his intentions here, because in the end, no matter what he did, he would be charged with teaching in opposition to the scribes and Pharisees, and some of them were to charge him with trying to destroy the law and to abolish the customs of the nation, so he tells them right here, plainly, I have not come

to do that. I'm not doing that. Okay. And he tells them that what he came to do was not to destroy the foundation of prophets and apostles and the law, but to fulfill it, to complete it. And that meant after completing all that the 1500 years of God's dealing with them, first in the five books of Moses and then the prophets thereafter, he had to come and do what they all said, what they all meant to God. He was doing that. Why? First, it all pointed to him. Everything in the law and all the practices

pointed to him in his life. Okay. They were a shadow of the reality to come. So all the things they were doing, he had to fulfill all the Jews did under the law and described by the prophets pointed to him. And we could go through dozens of stories and show how it's all pointing to him. And people who don't believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, they just have to read and study the Old Testament to see what was a foreshadowing of him. And their faith will increase in the fact that Yeshua was the king. So there is no destroying going on for the Jews by Yeshua,

but a completing of all things by him. We might imagine the law and the prophets being a foundation completely ready prior to the pouring of the cement. Okay? Just imagine if you ever poured cement, you've got a four by four foot space, you've got wood borders, you've got rebar wired together in different directions, you've got the plumbing laid below the rebar, you have dobies holding the rebar up.

I've done some concrete work, so I know sort of this stuff. And that is what the law in the Oldbar up. I've done some concrete work, so I know sort of this stuff. And that is what the law in the Old Testament was. It was a framed out piece of a foundation with all the plumbing and all the electrical and all the drains and everything in place with the rebar over it, sitting up on dobies, tied down and set. And Christ was coming to fulfill it.

That's what he came to do. And what was he going to fulfill it with? Concrete. Himself. Actually, the scripture teaches a little bit different. But that was the law and the prophets. He actually was going to be the chief cornerstone with the foundation of law and prophets.

But as a chief cornerstone, he was going to fulfill that foundation once and for all, first for the Jews, then for the world. And when Yeshua came, he did not rip that foundation up. He didn't dismantle it or destroy it. He built upon it. And that's what we do as Yeshuans. We build upon the established foundation of the Old Testament. We stand upon the apostolic record of what the apostles described for the bride in that day.

We see that building as started and finished, actually with that bride framing it up, putting the drywall on, putting a roof on it, bringing lights in it. And we now are the children of that house that come into it based off all that stuff that has been prepared. That's the way to see the faith today. All right.

So his purpose was to be the chief cornerstone and once it was finished, his material work on earth, his apostles finishing the foundation with their lives and their blood mixed with that mortar, the believers began to build on that foundation into a holy priesthood, into a building made without hands by his power and his love, all right? People think we are still contributing to that edifice. We are not.

That edifice is the new Jerusalem above. We are joining that pre-made edifice of old and new testament stuff that God has done, And we walk now in the fulfillment of all God has done. Paul endorses the concept that I just described when he says to those who came to faith in Ephesians 2, now therefore, to those who came, you're no more strangers and foreigners. These were the Ephesians.

They were not Jews, but fellow citizens with the saints and with the household of God and are built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. Yeshua the Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple of the Lord and who all the building fitly framed together In the New Jerusalem, that's what was being built.

That's what is there. So Yeshua did not come to destroy, but to complete. And the believers through the apostles would build upon that. And in fulfilling all that, he set the Jews free from all the duties and obligations that were upon them through the law.

Okay? Now remember, the law of Moses contained many sacrifices and rites which served as a shadow of the Messiah to come. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9 verses 1 through 15. Now, some of this language is going to be tough for you to understand if you haven't gone through Hebrews. But go with me there. The whole chapter actually, but it's for us to understand the purpose of Yeshua was relative to the Old or First Covenant, the writer says, beginning at verse 1.

Ready? For verily the First Covenant, Old Testament, Ketubah contract with God and the nation, had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. It was made of materialism. For there was a tabernacle made. The first wherein was a candlestick and a table and shewbread, which is called the sanctuary.

And after the second veil, they had these veils that hung down to separate the areas, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had a golden censer, the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid about with gold, wherein the gold pot had the manna, and Aaron's rod had budded in the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak particularly. I don't have time to even explain all that. Okay? He goes on in verse 6. Now, when these things were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle,

accomplishing the service of God, material religion, sacrifice blood. But into the second tabernacle, the second holy of holies, went the high priest alone once a year. Okay? Not without blood, meaning he took blood into that place. Which he offered for himself first and his sins and for the heirs of the people second.

The Holy Spirit thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all, that's above, that's the holiest of all, was not yet made clear or manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. Meaning that former tabernacle, now temple in Yeshua's day, it would never be known what God had done above while that still stood.

It had to come down for the new covenant that God was establishing through the victorious works of his son to be put in place. Okay? Which was a figure. He's talking about that tabernacle. It was a figure. That means a shadow. For the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to conscience.

Meaning that they could go and do this, but their conscience were still riddled with guilt. He says, which stood not only in meats and drinks, all this material stuff, and diverse washings and cardinal ordinances imposed upon them until the time of reformation. That means when Christ would come and reform all of it.

But Christ, now he shifts. But Christ, being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and bulls. It's not material. Neither by the blood of bulls and goats and calves, but by his own blood.

He entered in once into the holy place, just once, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Did you hear that? That's why Christ came. For if, the writer says to these Jewish audience then, for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the appearing of the flesh, if it did that and it sanctified them temporarily, he says in verse 14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God.

Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Back at verse 18 in Matthew 5, Yeshua adds, for verily I say unto you, until, meaning it's going to happen, heaven and earth pass, meaning the former economy of the law. One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till it's all fulfilled.

That law would be entirely fulfilled, entirely, hear me, not just at the resurrection, that was the beginning of it, not at his ascension, that was the beginning of it, for a time ascension, that was the beginning of it, for a time for everything to come to pass. But at his return. That's when all would be fulfilled, because the high priest in the Holy of Holies above comes out to take his righteous, pure, and holy bride.

That's when all of the former things would be wiped out and destroyed in terms of material religion. Whenever we read verily in scripture, you guys know this, it means, hey, this is important when we read verily, verily. Verily, verily. It's like, I am screaming at you this point. Verily, verily. It means stop everything and pay attention to what I'm saying.

It's vital, and Yeshua says, verily, verily, till heaven and earth pass away, till this heaven under which the law was made and the nation was made, till this economy that has flourished passes, all these things will remain in place until I fulfill the rest. I bring it all together. All right? Can you see why we stand on the eschatology we stand on? And why we now as Jeshuans present a different way to see the faith? It's not to discard the Old Testament.

It's not to discard the foundation. It's not to discard the building of the saints that made that new edifice spiritually that resides in the kingdom above. It's to build upon it, be part of it, and bring more people in where the bride and Christ say, come, drink of the waters freely by him. Here he clearly describes what their heaven and earth would do.

It would pass only once the whole design was completed. Not one jot, not one yod in the Hebrew. The name of a yod is the letter I. And so a jot is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Not one I, not one dot above the I, if you want to put it that way in our understanding. The smallest letter in the law, and not one tittle will pass away.

The Hebrew letters were written in small points, episses they call them, and they serve to distinguish one letter from another, which is why translation can get so difficult. And so to change one of those small markings would change the whole meaning and destroy the sense that was meant.

Therefore, the Jews were very cautious in how they wrote their letters and considered the smallest change or omission in the text as destroying the meaning. And so if they made a mistake like that they would get rid of that manuscript and start over that's how good they were at keeping that law and that's why we have such a good record of it when Yeshua said not one jot not one little eye mark not one little tittle mark, not one little demarcation, would be lost.

He meant that even the smallest part of God's perfect law given to the nation, his perfect will, would be lost in what Christ was bringing. That's why we stand strongly on the whole book of the Bible. Now, the laws of the Jews were commonly divided into moral, ceremonial, and judicial laws. We're almost done. I'm trying to get done a little longer today.

The moral laws are such that grow out of the nature of things, and moral laws essentially aren't changed. God has a moral law. He knows. We keep trying to change the moral law, but the moral law is summarized in the duty of loving God first and loving neighbor as self back in the Old Testament. That was the moral law. And they will always exist as love is what God is.

So we understand that that moral law is there, and then we choose how we're going to approach it. Are we loving? The Ten Word Commandments were an expression of the moral law. Then the ceremonial laws that the Jews had regulated, the religious rites and rituals and ceremonies, and those would change as circumstances, and whether it was a tabernacle that moved or whether it was a temple that stayed. There were things that would change with the ceremonial law.

And sometimes people mix the moral law with the ceremonial and the ceremonial with the moral. Religions often do that. Okay. And let me attempt to explain the difference through a different application. An army general might be commanding his soldiers to appear in red coats and sometimes in a blue or a yellow coat. Okay? We would liken this to examples of the ceremonial law.

However, the duty of obeying the general is likened to the moral law. The general says, dress in these coats. That is the ceremonial law for the military commander. But the moral law for the military commander to the soldiers is, you better follow me. Okay? Get it? A parent might allow their children to participate in some activities sometimes and not in other activities at others.

That's the ceremonial law, okay? But the child is always to respect the parents' wishes. That's the moral law. And so looking to the Jews, laws have regulated these matters of ceremony and worship, and they might be changed, but in the end, love is the moral law that God always had for them.

Finally, the third specialty or species of law for them was judicial, and that regulated the courts in which they had justices, kings, and priests contained in the Old Testament. And of course, this was the nature of the ceremonial law and the moral law, is these justices replaced God, and they would take the people and assess them.

The judicial law might regulate the courts of the Jews, and it was adapted in their civil society. There are people who read the Old Testament, and they think we should enter into a Judaic Christian judicial law again, and that defies what Christ taught in his record. It defies the spirit of truth. It defies all of it. It harkens back to a former system.

When the form of Jewish polity was changed, that judicial law was no more binding on them. Ceremonial law was fulfilled by the coming of Christ because the shadow of it, of all the ceremonial laws that religion still practiced today, was fulfilled. The shadow was done in the ceremonial law and evaporated in the substance of his person. The moral law was confirmed and unchanged. However, the moral law through Christ was amplified and enhanced.

And that's what we're going to start reading about next week. How he said, you've heard that you should not commit adultery, but I say. You have heard that you should not commit murder, but I say. should not commit murder, but I say. So Christ came and he fulfilled the former covenant, and then he amplified, he amplified what that law looks like morally in those who are his.

That is a whole new subject. So, you know, where the law and the prophets said, don't kill, these are the pipes and the rebar and the frame. Yeshua said, don't even get angry or say raka or thou fool to them. And again, we'll cover that next week. So standing on his completion of the moral law, the ceremonial law, and the law of their judgment.

justice system, that's the concrete of the foundation believers in him are able to love not only those who are their friends, but those who despitefully use us, who hate us, who persecute us for his sake. This becomes a very different operating system, you guys. different operating system, you guys.

Remember this, the new identity is Him and not our morally reformed flesh acting religiously on a foundation that was set for a bride to stand upon as they were going to be the framework and the drywall and the roof of that foundation. drywall and the roof of that foundation. And so Yeshua came, did not destroy the law in any way, but fulfilled it. Wow. So Yeshua begins to teach something that at first glance is very hard to understand.

If you just open the Bible and start reading Matthew chapter five, you're not going to understand how that applies to you. And because of that, you'll assign it all to yourself in a very anachronistic way. So remember his mission in the flesh to reach the lost sheep of the house of Israel under the law to show them their need to see and receive him as the Messiah. And so he has to convict them.

So in verse 19, Yeshua says to his Jewish disciples, to whom he was teaching, whoever therefore shall break the 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, 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. And it seems that the Pharisees divided these precepts of moral law into lesser and greater evils. Yeshua flips that all on his head.

And he says, if you break the least of these commandments, you're the least in the kingdom of heaven. But the person who does and teaches them will be called great. And then he says one of the grand slam lines of all that we're going to launch from next week in this declarative statement.

He says to them, ready? For I say unto you that you accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, you shall in no wise, no case, enter into the kingdom of heaven. I mean, the most righteous people, righteous-looking people, following the law people were the scribes and the Pharisees. And when he says that, it's insane. Unless, he says this, unless your holiness, unless your conduct, unless your lives are more holy than the religiously pious men around you, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

He doesn't say that their righteousness must equal the Pharisees. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

So in verse 19, Yeshua states that anyone who breaks the least of the commandments will be least in the kingdom of heaven. Then in verse 20, he states that unless the righteousness levels of a person exceeds the righteousness levels of a group of men who are seen as the most righteous people on earth, they would not have salvation. And now we can read into this in a couple of ways as we wrap it up.

First, the obvious ways. The Pharisees were known as being outwardly pious in the least. And some of them were inwardly pious too, meaning some of them had a true heart for God. In this sense, what Yeshua was commanding of his disciples was entirely impossible for the fishermen and tax collectors and the sick and the alienated that were gathered around him.

It was impossible. How on earth would these men's righteousness ever exceed the righteousness of men who were born in privilege, cut their teeth on learning the law, had been educated, were of a different class? How could that be possible? Another way we could read this would be Yeshua was saying or inferring that the Pharisees' righteousness consisted of outward observances of ceremonial and traditional law. ablutions and ceremonies of religion, but they also neglected justice and truth and purity and

holiness of heart and did not strive to be pure in their motives of love before God and men. In order for the disciples to become more righteous than the Pharisees, they had to be in summary, righteous from their heart. That's where it was going to come from, in their heart. Or finally, we could assume he was teaching both approaches, because in either sense, these men were being convicted in this process, and in this process, excuse me, they were personally being led to realize that they had no way available to them to exceed the

Pharisees and the scribes righteousness, internally or externally, without Christ, without Him. The same holds true him. The same holds true for us today. You see, when it comes to outward religious dedication, the Pharisees made the Mormons and the Baptists look like Bohemians. Nobody on earth could hold a candle to their religious devotions, their religious presentations, and even the lives they lived.

So we fail there. And then internally, who can without fail approach the living God with pure hearts and intentions on every frontier all the time with the heart they have beating in their chest naturally. None of us can. Our natural hearts, we can't do it. In the end, the words of Yeshua here will serve to condemn anybody who reads them, but show their need for him in their life.

See you next week. Thank you.