The Sermon on the Mount brought all this to an end. Christ effectively blocked every detour and brought men back to the standards of God’s holiness. …He(Christ sic) demonstrated that defilement lay in the heart. Now He uttered the words that brought these men under God’s light and also under the gaze of the people: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall 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. For I say unto you,"—and this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:19-20).

They (His listeners) knew their hearts well enough to wince at the words… the climax was reached when He named them, and in naming them destroyed the standards which they had so carefully erected. They had taken the law and whittled it down throughout the centuries. In place of the simple commandments that cannot be misunderstood, they had substituted a complex commentary that enabled them to disobey the law as God gave it and yet salve their own consciences.

MEEKNESS..NOT WEAKNESS
TEXT: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

Again the whip lashed. The meek shall inherit the earth? What nonsense! These Pharisees knew that they had taken possession of the earth, but they also knew that they had not received it through meekness. The only humility which they knew was that which served as a cloak for their grasping thievery.
Now, the Lord is announcing the righteous principle. Later, He will strip the mask from these alleged holy men and leave them no basis for their hollow pretence. He will say to them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation" (Matthew 23:14). But in the Sermon on the Mount, the Kingdom offer is being made. He is announcing that in the Kingdom when He shall reign upon the earth, possession will be vested in those who are meek.
We are not to think of this word in any unfavorable sense. Meekness is not fawning servility. It is that quality in a man which proves him to be patient under injuries, not vain or haughty or resentful; forbearing, kind. In truth, it is the gift of God and is a part of the new life that is given to us at the new birth when we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our own personal Savior. All that an unsaved man may ever know of meekness is the humility, like that of Dickens’ interesting character, Uriah Heep, whose sniveling mockery lasted as long as there was a shred to his mask. Any meekness that the world can know will differ from this only in degree, but it will always be of this kind, for true meekness is the fruit of the indwelling life of the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 5:22).
Dr. Barnhouse’s exhortation must be heeded by the Church today. We should neither be arrogant and haughty nor fawning and servile under pressure. Stand firm in truth and love, seeking to win our persecutors to Christ. We should all let God’s grace work within us this necessary fruit of he Spirit.

Source: He Came Unto His Own ,Donald Barnhouse

Further Reading: Matt. 11:25-30

These words must have cut like a whip across the minds of the unregenerate listeners. If there is anything that a man cannot know by himself, it is that he must take a place of humility before God. There is a natural repulsion against the idea of being poor in spirit. Man is rich in pride and he wants to shield himself from any thought of poverty of resources, whether of strength, of morals, or of intellect. This is the direct statement of the Lord Jesus that there must be a miraculous change in the lives of men if they are to participate with Him in His Kingdom glory. How can a man see himself properly in the sight of God? It is only when we have understood the great truths of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin that we are forced to flee from ourselves, pleading that we have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We then ask God to effect within us the miracle of grace which He now promises to perform on the basis of the death of Jesus Christ, the Substitute who died in our place.

We must realize that the Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, and that He came unto His own as the Jewish Messiah. Why, then, did His own not receive Him?