The text I want to draw your
attention to this evening is found at the beginning of that
portion of scripture that we were reading in Matthew chapter
5. I'll read again verses 17 and
18. The Lord Jesus says in his sermon,
think not that I am come to destroy the Lord or the prophets. I am
not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Here then in Matthew
chapter 5 and verses 17 and 18, the subject matter that's set
before us is that of the fulfillment of the law and the finality of
Scripture. Think not that I am come to destroy
the Law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill the fulfillment of the Law. And then Christ says,
Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one
tittle, shall he no wise pass from the Law. to all be fulfilled. There is a finality here also
in the words of God. And three things that I want
to say, three particular points that I want to take up. First
of all how the Lord Jesus nearly is expounding the law of God.
how the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who obeys the law of
God and then finally how God's law, God's words is completed
and finalized in him and his ministry. First of all then we
see something of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as that
one who has come as a prophet. He is of course that great prophet,
spoken of back in Deuteronomy like unto Moses. And yet greater
than Moses, the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. He is that prophet and here we
see him exercising his preaching ministry, The text, of course,
is part of the Sermon on the Mount, seeing the multitudes.
We're told he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them. And so, throughout this chapter,
through the following sixth chapter, right through to the end of the
seventh chapter. And then we're told, when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine, or at his teaching. For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as the scribes. And when we examine the content
of the sermon, what does the Lord do? He expounds. He expounds the scripture. He
expounds God's words. He opens up in particular the
great truth set before us in the Law of Moses. In fact, here in our text we
find the word Law used twice. He says, I am not come to destroy
the Law or the Prophets. And then he says, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jattle, one tittle, shall he no wise pass
from the law. Here there is a clear reference
to the Lord of God, that is to the Lord of the Ten Commandments. Subsequently we see how in the
sermon he refers in particular to two of those commandments. He speaks in verse 21. of that sixth commandment. You
have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not
kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. And then he makes reference in
particular to the seventh in verse 27. You have heard that
it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery. Now the Lord Jesus in here is
preaching and in the course of his ministry he is expounding
and opening up the true meaning of the law and the Ten Commandments
that were given by Moses. Christ fully expounds, he brings
out the full force and the vigour of all that Lord of God that
really is the meaning of this word fulfill that we find him
using in the end of verse 7 and again at the end of verse 18
he speaks of these things having a fulfillment and he himself
is indicating what that is, what it means And now there is a contrast,
of course, between Christ and the ministry of those Pharisees
who set themselves up as the great exponents of the law of
Moses. Here he says to his disciples,
verse 20, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. How these men who set themselves
up as such authorities were those who in reality were perverters
of the word of God, of the law of God. How by their traditions
they perverted what God Himself had declared through His servant
Moses. See what the Lord says later
here in chapter 15 and verse 3, speaking to the same
scribes and Pharisees. Why do ye also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition? He asks. For God commanded, saying,
Honor thy father and mother. Again, he refers specifically
to the Ten Commandments. God commanded, Honor thy father
and mother. And he that curseth father or
mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say
to his father or his mother, It is a gift. by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and on her not his father or his
mother he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition." Or the Lord exposes
the falseness of the teachings of those men. He himself comes
as that one who is the true preacher, declaring all the fullness of
the commandment, all the breadth and the length and the height
and the depth of the commandment. He preaches the fullness of these
things. We see this not only in the Lord
Jesus, we see it subsequently in the ministry of his apostles. Paul, when he calls together
the elders from Ephesus there in Acts chapter 20 as he's about
to leave them, he reminds them of his own ministry. And what
does he say concerning his preaching? And there he's speaking of that
Gospel, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was charged
and commissioned to preach. How he had received that commission
from God himself. It was God who had separated
him to the ministry as he tells the Galatians. But there in Acts
20 he is speaking to the Ephesian elders and he says to them, I
have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. All the counsel of God, the fullness
of the word of God. Again he can address the church
at Rome and say I have fully preached the gospel And these
men are the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And their ministry
is but an extension of his ministry. And so we see here how the Lord
Jesus Christ is that one who is bringing out the fullness
of the commandment of God. What does he say as he opens
up these commandments? the sixth commandment, there
spoken of in verse 21. He goes on to say, I say unto
you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother,
racker, or vain fellow, as we have it in the margin, shall
be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever shall say, thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Oh, there is such a rigor
in that commandment that the Pharisees understood nothing
of when Paul the Apostle was Saul of Tarsus when he was a
Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee he didn't understand anything
of the true nature of that Lord of God he only thought in terms
of the externals nothing of the spirituality but here Christ
says quite plainly that the commandment is transgressed where there is
that anger or those evil words being spoken of another and then
again as he comes to expound the the seventh commandment having
referred to it at verse 27 he says then I say unto you that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart." Or when the Lord opens up the words
and shows the real spiritual nature of it how that Lord comes
and searches out our heart. how it exposes to us what we
are out of the hearts of men proceed all manner of evil says
the Lord Jesus Christ and here we see him as that one who is
very much the expounder of that law of God we know that what
thing so ever the law said it said to them who are under the
law Paul says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God or by the deeds of the law shall no
flesh be justified in his sight." By the law. By the law is the
knowledge of sin. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ is doing. He's expounding God's Word. He's opening up the truth of
that Lord of God that had been swamped by the traditions of
the scribes and of the Pharisees. But more than that, when we consider
the Lord Jesus He is not just that one who comes to preach
the Lord of God He is that one who comes to live the Lord of
God He is so different to those scribes
and pharisees the thing that the Lord Jesus Christ says is
the very thing that the Lord Jesus Christ also does very different
to those men Remember again the language of
Christ in chapter 23, as He speaks to the multitudes and to His
disciples. He reminds them, the scribes
and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, all therefore whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not. They say and they do not, but
the Lord Jesus, what He says, He does. Christ is that one who
comes both to preach the law and also to do the law, to obey
the law. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. And how did He fulfill it? Well,
there's that two-fold fulfillment that we see so clearly. He fulfills
it by his obedience in life, but he fulfills it also by his
obedience in dying. There's a twofold aspect of the
work of the Lord Jesus. How he is obedient in life. Even from the very beginning,
we see him as that one who is under the law when the fullness
of the time was come, God sends forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law. And so, there in Luke chapter
2, we're reminded how when eight days were fulfilled, his parents
take him there to the temple for circumcision. That was the
practice amongst the Jews. The child, the male child, was
to be circumcised at eight days of age. And the Lord Jesus was
circumcised. And that's the most significant
aspect of his life, even as a newborn baby. Paul tells us, In Galatians
5.3, I testify to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor
to do the whole law. Every circumcised man is a debtor
to the law of God. He must do the whole of the law
of God. And how true that was in respect
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will do the Law and He will
do all of it. Here in the text He speaks of
the Jot and the Tittle. Till heaven and earth pass one
Jot or one Tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all
be fulfilled. Now that indicates remarkable
obedience and obedience in every detail. The jot is a reference
to one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the smallest
of all the letters. If we turn back to the 119th
psalm, that psalm that is such a remarkable celebration of the
Lord of God. It's built, as we said before,
around the letters of the Hebrew alphabets. It's an acrostic poem,
really, in the origin. And in our authorized version,
you remember, at the head of each of the various sections,
we find the letters of the Hebrew alphabets. And if you look there,
at verse 73 in Psalm 119, there we have the jot, or the jot. And it is the smallest, it's
the minutest of all the letters. You can look at Psalm 119 and
see all those letters, and it is evident that the jot is the
smallest. It's a very tiny letter, but
one of those letters used by God in giving us the Old Testament
Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue. Now the title is generally understood
to have reference to the vowel pointing. Those letters that
we have in the 119th Psalm, they're all consonants, there's no vowels,
and the vowel signs would be indicated by little dots and
dashes that would appear on the various letters. a man who was
a well-versed Hebraist would be able to read the language
without reference to the pointing, the dots and dashes. But that's
what's generally reckoned to be referred to here, where we
read of not only that little letter, the jot, but also the
tittle, the minutest parts of scripture. What the Lord Jesus
is saying is that it all has to be fulfilled, it all has to
be obeyed in every single detail. Think of the language of James.
He tells us, "...whosoever shall keep the whole Lord of God and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." One transgression
Now that transgression might not be a deed, it might not be
a word, it might just be one evil thought. One angry thought. One wanton thought. And all is spoiled. All the rigour,
the vigour of the Lord of God. This is what the Lord Jesus is
speaking of, His obedience. that obedience that is necessary
to the justification of a man. Moses says there back in the
law in Deuteronomy chapter 6 at the end of the chapter, it shall
be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments
which the Lord our God has commanded us. No exception. Here is righteousness,
there's got to be an obedience, a doing of every single one of
God's commandments. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one who has come to fulfill all that law as the surety of
His people, standing in their law place, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That's
what He has come to do. Verily I say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all has been fulfilled, and all has been fulfilled.
Romans 10.4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. All the wonder of it, friends,
that great doctrine, that great truth of the sinner's justification. that perfect righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that robe of righteousness, those garments
of salvation, that by God are imputed and reckoned to the accounts
of all those who are in Christ, all those who are trusting in
Him, Oh, remember Paul's great desire to be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, he says.
But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. The Lord Jesus is that one then
who has come to obey. He doesn't just preach the law,
He lives it. He lives it. and he lives it
so perfectly the father declares quite plainly this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased or how the father owns and acknowledges
him at his baptizing the beginning of his ministry there in the
manger of transfiguration when those favoured disciples see
something of the glories of his deity and then ultimately how
the father owns and acknowledges him in the resurrection from
the dead he's declared to be the Son of God, by the Spirit
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. This is the Lord
Jesus, obedient. Obedient in every part of His
life. And yet here is the great mystery,
that man who never sinned, there was never any cause of death
in him. He was free from every taint
of sin. We know these things, they are
so plain to us from the page of Holy Scripture. He is kept
free from all the taint of Adam's original sin, by the miracle of his birth,
he is born of a virgin, he is conceived by the Holy Ghost,
and what he's conceived is that Holy Thing, that human nature that is joined
to the eternal Son of God, and that human nature is free from
the taint of Adam's original sin, and joined to the person
of the eternal Son of God in the great mystery of the Incarnation,
and then he lives his life. Oh, he lives that life that is
sinless. And he can never die. The soul
that sinneth, he shall die. The wages of sin is death, but
there's no cause of death in him. And yet we're told, being
found in fashion as a man, he became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. How could this be? Well, there's
a double imputation. It's not only his righteousness,
it is imputed to his people, reckoned to their account, but
all their sin, all their transgressions of that Lord of God are imputed to Christ, laid upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. What does Paul say? As many as
are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone who continueth not in all things written in the book
of the law to do them. Oh, we, we're those who have
transgressed. We don't continue in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. Oh, but what's a
blessing if we're those who are brought to understand that we
have an interest in the dying of the Lord Jesus. Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, Paul says, being made
a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a truant. What has he done? He has paid
that great ransom price. He has paid that debt that was
owed to the law. Some have strange ideas and notions
with regards to the ransom and to whom the ransom was paid.
I've heard some say, oh, that ransom was paid to the devil. There's no payment to the devil.
The devil is a usurper. In fact, I would say that even
to suggest that there was any price paid to Satan, he's verging
on blasphemy. the ransom is paid to God in
all His holiness and righteousness and justice He is made of a woman,
He is made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
the redemption price, the ransom is paid to the law of God the
law demands such a payment God can by no means clear the guilt
And so the Lord Jesus comes as that one who is obedient, not only in
living, but obedient also in dying. He doesn't just preach
the Lord of God. Well, how he obeys it. And how
in his obedience he honors it and magnifies it. gives to the
Lord all that is due to Him. It is God's law. Why? The Lord
is holy and the commandment holy and just and good and Christ
has honored it on behalf of His people and He is, as I've said,
the end of righteousness. The end of the law to righteousness
to all them that believe in Him. And this is what the Lord is
saying in the course of His preaching. This is what He has come to do. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. I remind you what
we've sought to say thus far. We've spoken of Christ as that
one who comes to preach, to proclaim the law in all its fullness,
but he also has come as that one who will honour and magnify
it by his life. He doesn't just say the truth,
he does the truth. And then thirdly, finally, we
see how he is that one who comes to complete all the words of
God. See how he speaks here, not just
of the law, but also the prophets. He hasn't come to destroy the
law, he says, or the prophets, but he has come to fulfill law
and prophets. Now, think of the ministry of
the prophets in the Old Testament. They were God's mouthpiece. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Spirit of God. They could say thus and thus
hath the Lord. But there was that that they
did appeal to. As Isaiah reminds us, to the law and to the testimony,
he says, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. The true prophets were those
who appealed to the law of God, and like the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the greatest of all the prophets, they also expounded
the law of God. the Law and the Prophets. Is
it not a reference there then to God's Word? And we know how
that there was the reading of Law and of Prophets in the synagogues. There in Acts 15, 21 we read,
Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being
read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. They would read
Moses every Sabbath day, but not just the reading of Moses,
there was also evidently the reading of those prophets who
were expounding Moses' law. Look at the language again that
we find in Acts chapter 13, and there at verse 15. This is Paul at Antioch in Pisidia
entering the synagogue on the Sabbath down. It says, after
the reading of the law and the prophets The rulers of the synagogue
sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any
word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up, and
beckoning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear
God, give audience. And then we have that great sermon
that Paul preaches on that occasion, recorded in Acts 13. We have
that reference here to the order of the service in the synagogue
after the reading of the Law and of the Prophets. It was that
regular reading of the words of God. And how significant that
is. For this is actually that Christ
has come to fulfill Law and Prophets. And so again, what do we see
when we take account of the Lord's ministry here upon the earth?
We have in chapter 17 the record of that transfiguration that
took place upon the mount. We've made reference to it just
now, that Christ takes with him those favored disciples, Peter
and James and John. And they go up into a high mountain
and they're apart from all others, and he's transfigured before
them, it says, And his face did shine as the sun, his raiment
was white as the light. And then it says this, Behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him. Moses, the Lord, Elias or Elijah,
who is representative of the prophetic office. And they're
talking there with the Lord Jesus. Now, In the account that we have
in Luke, it says quite clearly what they
spoke of. They spoke of His decease, which
He should accomplish at Jerusalem. Law and Prophets. What do the
Law and Prophets speak of? Ultimately they speak of Christ,
they speak of His decease, His death. His death, that death
that he must endure there outside the city gates at Jerusalem. And then in Mark's account, we're
told how that ultimately those favored see nothing but Christ. They saw no man anymore. Moses
and Elijah are gone. No man anymore save Jesus only,
it says. in Mark 9 verse 8. All the Lord
you see is accomplished to all that is spoken of there by Moses
and by the prophets. Isn't Christ the fulfillment
of all that we read of those Levitical laws? All those types
and shadows? All those sacrifices and offerings? All have their fulfillments in
Christ. He is the glorious antitype of
all those things. And how all the prophets, they
speak of Him. He is the spirit of prophecy. And I remind you again of the
significance of this word that we have twice here in the text. He says in verse 17 concerning
those law The Lord of God and the ministry of the prophets
I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. And then again at
the end of verse 18, one jot or one tittle shall in no ways
pass from the Lord. He says, till all be fulfilled. Well what is this fulfillment? It means to fill up, to complete. to perfect. You see all the divine
revelation that we have in Holy Scripture, it ends, it's completed
in the New Testament. No more any revelation from God. Think of the opening words there
we have in In the Hebrew epistle, God, who
at sundry times in diverse manner spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the world to be in the brightness of his glory, the express image
of his person, and so forth. Lord, this is that final revelation
This is a completion of the Word of God. It comes with Christ. And this is what Christ is declaring
in the words of our text. And so, when we come to the end
of the New Testament, we have those striking words in Revelation
chapter 22, I testify unto every man that
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that
are written in this book. And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city
and from the things which are written in this book. and that's
not just the book of the Revelation that is the totality of the Word
of God all the books of Holy Scripture all is now being finished,
finalized in the Lord Jesus Christ that one who has come, the fulfillment
all the fulfillment of all these things, everything filled up,
everything completed and It's not just what the Lord Jesus
Christ says as that preacher that prophets, it's also the
way He says it. Look at verse 18, Verily I say
unto you. Now there we have the first use. of that word in the New Testament. Now the word is used many, many,
many times subsequently. It's used many times, of course,
in John's Gospel. Time and again the Lord Jesus
will prefix His teaching by saying, verily, or verily, verily I say
unto you. And they're not idle words. They're
not idle words. The Lord Jesus doesn't speak
idle words, empty words. What He said Himself that men
would give account for every idle word, every word of Christ
is weighty and important. And so to this, verily, I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one chit or shall
in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. What is this word, Beryl? Well,
it's the word Amen. It means truly, let it be so. It's a word that we should use
at the end of our prayers. We say our Amen's. Let it be
so. But the Lord Jesus is that one
who himself is the Amen. Is he not spoken of in that way
in the book of the Revelation, the Amen? The faithful and true
witness. Oh, he is that one who is the
great prophet of God. Has given us that final revelation
of God. No prophets after this prophet.
You don't need me to tell you that Muhammad is a false prophet. And his religion is a false religion.
The Lord Jesus is that One who is the greatest of the prophets,
and the last of the prophets. And He speaks with all the authority
of God, because He is God. He is God's manifest in the flesh. Now God is that One who, as the
prerogative of giving laws, That's God's prerogative, to
give commandments. Look at what the Lord says, the
Lord God says there in Leviticus 18.5, He shall therefore keep
my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do them, he shall
live. I am the Lord. And how significant
are those final words? Those last four words, I am the
Lord, we find something similar again in Leviticus chapter 19 and verse
37. In fact it's virtually a repetition
of what we have at the beginning of chapter 18. There at the end
of chapter 19 in Leviticus, Therefore shall you observe all my statutes,
and all my judgments, and do them, I am the Lord." Oh, it's
God's prerogative. And so, this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he has that prerogative of giving new laws. He's a fulfillment of all the
Old Testament laws. He gives new commandments. "'A
new commandment I give unto you,' he tells his disciples, "'that
ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." A new commandment. And remember how John in that
second chapter in his epistle, his first general epistle, he
speaks of a new commandment and an old commandment. Of course
there's no contradiction really between Old and New Testament
in that sense. But the Lord is that One who
has the prerogative to give new commandments. Why? When we see
Him at the end of this Gospel in Matthew, we have that great
commission at the end of the 28th chapter, He says, Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and now
I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Amen."
Or there are those things, those commandments that the Lord Jesus
Christ has given that are to be taught and proclaimed and
amongst them of course is this commandment baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
that's a new commandment. It's a commandment of the Lord
Jesus and we as those who profess to be Christians, followers of
Christ, we are to obey His commandments. We are those who say we are subject,
this is our article of faith, we say that we are subject to
Gospel precepts. We are no longer under the the
Lord of Moses as we have it in the Old Testament, of course
we are not. Our authority now is something great, because all
has had its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus, its Gospel precepts. These are the things that we
should delight in. Oh, we love the promises of the
Gospel, and there are many exceeding great and precious promises.
How comforting they are, they're all Yah, they're all Amen in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a foundation for our faith.
Oh, but if we're those who have real faith and true love to the
Lord Jesus, we won't be partial in His words. We'll not only
love His promises, we'll love His precepts and desire to walk
in the path of obedience to all those holy commandments that
He has given to us here in the New Testament Scriptures. Here we see then the finality,
the completion of all the Word of God in the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He says to those Jews, search
the Scriptures, in them you think that you have life, and these
are they that testify of me. All ultimately brings us to that,
all leads up to Him, the Lord Jesus, the Scriptures and the
Lord. bear one tremendous name the written and incarnate word
in all things are the same or if we love him if we have that
faith that is true that faith that worketh by love we love
him, we love his words and we love it in all its totality and
desire that we might more and more conform to this word of
truth. He says, think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily, truly, it's an Amen. I say unto you, till heaven and
earth pass one jot or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the
law till all be fulfilled. Oh, it's all fulfilled. It's
all in Christ. O God, grant that we might be
favoured then with that faith that is ever looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. The Lord bless His Word. Amen.