According To Matthew 5:17-48 [NLTse]

Message
As I’ve spoken of several times over the years, every summer my family vacations off the coast of Acadia National Park in northeastern Maine. One of the famous attractions around Acadia is a place called “Thunder Hole”. Thunder Hole is a small inlet, naturally carved out of the rocks, where the coastal waves come crashing in. At the end of the inlet is a small cavern just below the water’s surface. When the tide is right, air gets trapped in this little cavern every time the waves recede. And as each new wave comes breaking in a booming thunder-like sound rumbles as the air explodes out of the little cavern super-compressed by the crashing surf. Water may spout as high as 40 feet with a thunderous roar! And, of course, it’s called “Thunder Hole”.
When I was little (my family’s been vacationing there since before I was born) I remember visiting Thunder Hole. There was no fence around the ledge then: You could walk right up to the overhang and see into the little cavern. They put up the fence because Thunder Hole’s more dangerous than it looks. On sun shiny days, even when storms are hundreds of miles out to sea, their currents crash powerfully against Thunder Hole and can without warning break over the rocky ledge and slam you onto the rocks or suck you back into the sea and carry you away in its fierce rip tide. Even so, when you visit you can regularly see tourists climbing through the fence hoping to catch a glimpse of the cavern and watch the water erupt to spout and spray above them.
I share all this about Thunder Hole with you because of God’s Word to us this morning from the Sermon on the Mount. Elder Neil Frazer read to us the Lord Jesus’ words, “I have not come to abolish the Law… but to accomplish their purpose… I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
So let’s start by reminding each other that the cross of Jesus Christ has not done away with the Law of God. The Lord Jesus has revealed to us that human beings don’t have to keep every small detail of the Law to be made right with God and to live with Him here on the Earth and, in the life to come, in the new Heaven and the new Earth. But Jesus clearly says to us today, “…unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”
Although it’s been popular to teach the impossibility of keeping all of God’s commandments, and how despairing the Jews must have been thinking they needed to keep the Law in order to be saved, the apostle Paul said the Law could be kept, and wrote to the Philippians that he himself had kept it: “5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old,” Paul wrote. “I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish Law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the Law without fault.” (3:5-6)
So though some teach that we Christians no longer need to keep God’s commands because the Lord Jesus has accomplished their purpose on the cross, here the Lord Jesus Himself tells us this is not so: If we ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, we will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But if we obey God’s laws and teach them we will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. And if the Pharisees were able to keep the Law in their own power, how much more ought we be able to keep it, and not just the letter of the Law but the very intention of the Law, as well, having God’s Holy Spirit dwelling inside and empowering our lives!
We don’t keep God’s Law so that He might love us, so that He might adopt us and make us new in this life. No, we keep God’s Law because the Lord Jesus has told us, “If you love Me, obey My commandments,” “those who accept My commandments and obey them are the ones who love Me,” and “all who love Me will do what I say.” (14:15, 21, 23) We obey God’s commandments because God does love us, because God has adopted us and made us new. Because God has done all these things in bringing us to trust Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we obey God’s commandments because He tells us that’s the way we can show Him our love in return!
But, again, it’s not just keeping the Law – God’s commandments – “do not murder”, “do not covet”, and so on the Lord Jesus calls us to keep, it’s the intention of God’s Law, as well. So the Lord Jesus says, “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder’… But I say, if you are even angry with someone you… if you call someone an idiot… if you curse someone… you are in danger of the fires of Hell…
“You have heard the Law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife’… But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery…
“You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows’… But I say, do not make any vows…
“You have heard the Law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye’… But I say, do not resist an evil person…
“You have heard the Law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!”
Taking God’s commandments and expanding their application was not unique to the Lord Jesus, many of the rabbi’s of Jesus’ day did likewise. (The Lord simply did it with greater authority.) It’s a practice called “fencing the Law”. (And here’s where Thunder Hole comes back in.) Just as Park officials erected the fence to protect people from the dangers of Thunder Hole, the rabbi’s would “fence the Law”, that is, expand upon it and broaden its scope, in order to keep people from breaking it or even violating its intention that can sometimes happen when we get too close.
I told you about the tourists you can see climbing through the fence around Thunder Hole to get a closer look. Well, three of those tourists were swept out to sea one bright sunny day in 2009 because of a severe storm that was raging 300 miles away in the North Atlantic, and 20+ others were hospitalized for broken bones and other injuries after they were slammed against the rocks by just one, freak, pounding wave. That fence was for their good, but they thought they knew better.
Likewise, Christians get angry at those who’ve hurt them, call them names, and even tell horrible stories about them and yet often feel righteous in doing so because at least they didn’t murder them! Our economy thrives by nurturing covetousness, and we Christians often go along – coveting their hair, their car, their clothes, their wife, their husband, their girlfriend, their home, their vacation, on and on – (“lust” is the New Testament word for the Old Testament word “to covet”) and we’ve become convinced it’s okay as long as we aren’t stealing to get it, or committing adultery to get him or her, or lying or cheating to get what we want…
So the Lord Jesus, with God’s Own authority, is “fencing the Law” for us. He’s saying, “Adultery is death, so don’t even lust after someone who’s not yours. Stealing is death, so don’t even covet what’s not yours. Breaking your promises is death, so don’t even make any promises. Retribution leads to death, so don’t even resist those who would do you wrong…” and on and on.
Obeying God’s commandments to us are a big part of the ways God tells us we can show Him we love Him. And disobeying His commands to do what we want or to go along with the crowd in big and little ways nurtures death and suffering in our lives and the lives of those around us.
What ways are you tempted? Which of the commandments do you have the most trouble keeping? I believe the Lord Jesus is offering you and me the blessing today of “fencing these Laws” we struggle with. Do you have trouble saying “no” to your friends when they try to get you to do something you know is wrong? Fence the Law and stop even hanging around with those so-called friends! Do you have trouble not turning into that bar or liquor store parking lot when you drive by? Fence the Law and plan a different route for getting where you need to go that avoids having to drive by such places!
I don’t know each of your struggles, but you don’t need me to erect your “fences” for you anyway. The Lord’s given you His Holy Spirit! Ask Him to help you build a safety “fence” around those commandments you struggle with. You want to show Him your love for Him, and He wants you to show Him your love for Him. You don’t want to nurture death or darkness in the lives of those around you, nor does the Lord want you to be any part of such things. So you can trust the Lord will help you, if you ask planning to carry it out!
Let’s pray and ask Him…

Protect Your children from thinking we need to earn Your love and good gifts
Protect Your children from thinking we can earn Your love and good gifts by keeping Your commandments
Help us be assured and confident of all the good things You have accomplished for us on the cross and the good gifts You have given us in Your resurrection through the Holy Spirit
Teach us Your Law
Make clear to us those commandments we are vulnerable to disobeying
Grant us the wisdom and devotion to build the fences necessary to keep us from temptation and to keep us victoriously showing our love for You