Matthew. And we'll be reading Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through
20. Matthew chapter 5 starting in
verse 17. Do not think that I have come
to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them,
but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth. Until heaven
and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the smallest
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law
until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices
and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom
of heaven. For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers
of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. some incredible words from our
Lord directly from his mouth. Our Lord is speaking here directly
about the two covenants of which both were created by him, the
law and the gospel of grace. The Lord ratified or put in place
the new covenant when he shed his blood on the cross. And ever
since then, there's been a debate among churches over what authority
the law still has. What does the law mean to us? What does the old covenant mean
to us now that there's a new covenant? In the days of the
apostles, they struggled with this right away. Some professed
believers, Jews, went on to say that no person could be saved
apart from being circumcised, and this was shortly after Christ
died and rose again. So it didn't take long for people
to get confused. There was a lot of Jews that
said, yes, Christ is everything, but if you're not circumcised,
you're not saved. against that, like he couldn't
have stood up against it any harder than he did. I mean, it's
actually in Galatians 1 through 6, the issue was completely denounced
by Paul in the book of Galatians in such a fierce degree that
Paul counted such an error to be another gospel completely,
not a slightly incorrect version of Christ's gospel. It was no
longer the gospel of Christ. just by adding that tiny little
asterisk. I'm gonna read it here, Galatians
1.6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the
one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning
to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently,
some people are throwing you into confusion, are trying to
pervert the gospel of Christ. I mean, he was harsh. But even
if we or any angel from God, from heaven, should preach a
gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be under
God's curse. Even said if an angel comes down
from heaven and preaches something other than Christ, let that angel
be cursed. As we have already said, so now
I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what
you accepted, let them be under God's curse. That's why I pray this morning
so heavily on Christ being here. Because that's a terrifying thought. I don't want to put myself into
this at all. But this is heavy. You know,
I get up here and I want to tell you about Jesus, and I don't
want to screw it up. So I look to Him. Because, look at these words.
You add or subtract anything from the words that Christ had
given us, the gospel of Christ and Him crucified, and it is
no longer the gospel to the point of Paul says, let them be. under
the curse of God. But that is not the issue we
want to address this morning. There are honest believers on
both sides of what the law still means to us. Is the law expressed
in the Ten Commandments the authoritative and sufficient rule and guide
for how we should live? Seeing that solid believers in
the gospel of Christ are to be found on both sides of the issue,
we need to look for an answer outside of man. We need to look
to the authority on the issue of what the law means to God's
people. By the grace of God, it's very
easily laid out in front of us by the ultimate authority, our
Lord Jesus Christ. It says it right here in Matthew.
He spoke simply, he spoke clearly, and that wasn't always the case.
Sometimes he used stories that were very confusing. That was
not confusing to those people at the time, especially. It's
a little clearer for us now, but he was very clear about this
one. and it not only settles the debate,
but it moves us on to something much more glorious and wonderful
to see other than which side of this debate is correct. He
moves us on to another glorious picture of the gospel of Christ. If you're listening right now,
if you're here, if you're online, we can assume that you claim
to be a follower of Jesus Christ. If you are his disciple, if you
are one of his people, if you believe on him, then you want
to know what he has to say. And not only do you want to know
what he has to say, you're waiting to hear what he has to say because
that will completely decide how you feel, what you think, and
what you believe. If you are not willing to hear
and believe what Christ says, then you are simply not his follower.
No matter how much you go to church, no matter how actively
religious you are, if you don't look to what Christ has to say
and believe on his words, then you are not a disciple of Christ. But if Christ is your Lord, then
you want to know what he has to say. You take delight in all
his words, and his word on any matter settles that matter for
you. If you don't know how to feel
about something, and you find what Christ says about that matter,
it settles that matter for any believer. He is the ultimate
authority. What he says is right. What he
says is good. So what did our Lord say about
the law of Moses, the law of Sinai? We go back to Matthew
5, verse 17 and 18. Do not think that I have come
to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them,
but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth. until heaven
and earth disappear, not the smallest letter nor the least
stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until
everything is accomplished. The first thing to know about
what our Lord's attitude is towards the law is that he does not speak
poorly of it. He actually honors the law. And
why shouldn't he, if you think about this? Christ created the
law. The first thing to note, again,
is that he honors it. And why shouldn't he? It is he
who gave us the law in the first place. When Christ honored the law,
he was simply honoring that which he himself had written with his
own finger 1,500 years prior. I was looking through some of
Joe's notes, and he made this determination, which I thought
was really interesting. It said, as far as he could determine,
on all but two or three occasions, whenever God has spoken to the
world, it was always through Christ. When God walked with
Adam in the Garden of Eden, it was our Lord Jesus making an
appearance. The one who identified himself to Moses, I am that I
am, that was Christ. Before he was born as a man.
Whenever God spoke to the prophets, it was the voice of the son of
God. That is one reason that John's
gospel, the book of John, starts with, in the beginning was the
word. The word is none other than the
eternal son of God. and God is seen fit to do all
his revealing, all of his revealing through his son with whom he's
well pleased. The only other occasions, and
I thought this was so interesting, the only other occasions of God
speaking to the world outside of using Christ to reveal it
was when he was speaking to or about Christ himself. Just to
say, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. So we know that the Lord Jesus
honored the law of Sinai for it was him who gave it. Here
in Matthew, he also honors the law by correcting the charge
that he had come to abolish the law. So when Christ showed up
with his gospel, The Jewish leaders of the day, the spiritual leaders
of the day, the religious hierarchy of the day, had never heard anything
like what Jesus was bringing as far as the message is concerned.
They had lived their entire lives according to fulfilling the law
of Sinai. They hung everything they had
on that law. It was their righteousness. was
all about fulfilling this law, and they thought they could actually
do it. And we'll get into that a little bit later about what
Christ says about them believing they can actually fulfill the
law. But when they heard this, they assumed what Christ was
actually saying is, I'm here to take the law and set it aside.
I'm here to get rid of it. So they assumed that he was actually
flying in the face of Moses, flying in the face of the Ten
Commandments. I am here to make it no longer
matter. That's what they thought. Often
the way that they asked him their questions revealed that they
thought he was actually disputing the Old Covenant. So the Lord
makes it very clear and says, I do not take what I am saying
as an overthrow of the law. It couldn't be clearer than that.
I am not here to abolish the law and the prophets. I'm here
to fulfill it. But we must be certain to understand
what he actually meant by these words. In particular, the word
translated abolish. The Lord Jesus spoke in Aramaic,
so we don't have the exact word that the Lord used in the New
Testament because that was written in Greek. But the Greek word
that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to use to give meaning
to what the Lord said in Aramaic is a combination of the Greek
words down and loosen. A noun version of this word,
just to hit that again, down and loosen. I did not come to
abolish the law and that word has its root meanings in down
and loosen. And it's also used when Joseph
and Mary come into Bethlehem. and it's actually a word tied
to the word in, and it means when you get there, you put your
stuff down and you loosen your animals and you let them rest. It was also used often in describing
destruction of something. The closest phrase in English
would be to tear down. So this is the same word that
Christ's accusers actually used at his trial when they claimed
that he was here to destroy the temple, to tear down. This word
indicates destruction by force or violence. The Lord Jesus is
saying right here, I did not come to get rid of the law by
force or violence. Christ further honored the law
by demonstrating once again that not the least part of it would
pass away unless one of two conditions were met. It says, for I truly tell you, until
heaven and earth disappear, that's the one condition, not the smallest
letter or the least stroke of the pen will disappear from the
law until everything is accomplished. So either heaven and earth must
pass away or the law must be fulfilled. One of those two things
has to happen or nothing changes regarding the law of Moses and
what it means to us. Not even the dot of an I or the
crossing of a T. He's very specific. Not the least
stroke of a pen. The weight of God's law and the
destruction and justice that follows that law, none of it
changes. for any of us until either heaven
or earth pass away or that law is fulfilled. And when he mentions the least
stroke of a pen, the dot of an I, the cross of a T, Christ could
not have expressed his honor for the law in a more powerful
way than he did. So the law is fully applied to
us right now unless one of those two conditions are met. Now the
very fact that we're here right now is proof that obviously heaven
and earth have not passed away. The universe still exists. So
we certainly cannot apply that one. We cannot use that as a
way to hopefully remove ourselves from under the law. But there
is one other condition given for the passing of the law if
it is fulfilled. It says, until everything is
accomplished. Under no circumstances will the
law be destroyed, abolished, or torn down. And we cannot say
that the law has passed because the universe has come to an end,
but here is what we are taught in the gospel of Christ and him
crucified. That the old covenant, the law
given to God's people back in those days with Moses
on the mountain, that specific law has been fulfilled. It is really the entire gospel
laid out in the simplest sentence. The law has been fulfilled. How
and by who? We'll go into that. but the law
for God's people has been fulfilled. In saying that the law and the
prophets, because notice that he says earlier, he says, I'm
not here to get rid of the law and the prophets, abolish the
law and the prophets, mentions the prophets. When we recall the fact that
he said the law and the prophets, it's saying that the law and
the prophets, he had basically encompassed the entirety of what
we would call the Old Testament. But, given what he said in the
following verses and chapters, we know that he specifically
meant the commandments and regulations given in the Old Testament, even
referring twice a little bit later on to two of the commandments
of the 10th. The Lord Jesus fulfilled and
brought to pass everything in the law and the prophets of the
Old Testament. He fully fulfilled the demand
of the law for righteous living. Because that's really what it
comes down to, right? The law is a demand for righteous living. One that we cannot accomplish.
Christ has fulfilled that demand. He fully performed every commandment
in thought, in desire, and in action. There is not a single
moral or ethical command of the law of Sinai that did not find
perfect fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are so far from
that, we can't even understand that. I feel like I can't go five seconds.
Where Christ, the full fulfillment of every demand that God made,
found perfect home in Christ our Lord. It helps us to understand that
we can never keep any of the law. And yet Christ kept all
of it. Furthermore, Christ fulfilled
the demand of the law for punishment. So it wasn't just a demand for
righteous living, it was a demand for punishment if you didn't.
So Christ not only fulfilled the demand for the righteous
living, he is also fulfilling the demand for punishment because
we did not. The law said, cursed is everyone
that does not continue in every point of the law to do it. That
word cursed is not an accident. In Galatians 3, Paul writes,
It is written, In his suffering, Christ became all that it means
to be cursed by God. He bore the sins of his people.
He was hung upon a tree to signify that he had been cursed by God,
his father, for our sins. And in the six hours that he
hung there, God poured out the entirety of his wrath on his
beloved son. Against the sins that Christ
bore that belong to us So much that when it was finished There was there was no more that
a just and holy God could demand So the Old Testament The old
covenant, excuse me, is a demand for righteous living. And if
you fail, a demand for justice. God poured out his judgment on
his son to the degree that when it was finished, there was no
more God could demand. No more demand for righteous
living. No more demand for punishment. It was gone. He poured it all out on his son
and his son paid for all of it to the point where there is nothing
left to demand from God's people. They are perfect in his sight. Christ fulfilled the curse of
the law. It really becomes this crazy
circle of thought when you start to think about the law was given
to us by Christ, fulfilled by Christ. He fulfilled the curse
of the law that he gave us. The more you look at it, the
more you realize all of this is Christ, all of it, from beginning
to end. He is our ark of safety in the
flood of God's wrath. Because he fulfilled these types
and promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, like the ark. All of these are prophecies of
him. And that's why he's talking about,
not only am I here to fulfill the law, but I'm also here to
fulfill the prophets. I am this ark. He is the lamb
that Abraham said God would provide, the lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. He is our Passover. He is the
temple of God where men can meet with God. He is our great high priest who
offered himself without spot. He is the son of David whose
reign shall never cease. These are all prophecies of him
and he fulfilled them all. He is the altogether lovely one
in the Song of Solomon. He is Isaiah's child born and
son given. He is the branch that arose from
Jesse's stump. The suffering servant of Jehovah.
He is Hosea who loves us even in our complete failure, who loves us in our unfaithfulness and buys us back from our own
foolishness. That is what he means when he
says, I am here to fulfill the law, and that none of it will
go away until all is accomplished. and He accomplished all of it.
Christ took all the demands, commands, requirements, illustrations,
and prophecies of the Old Testament, and He made them real. They were
no longer words. They were real in Him. Therefore,
under the authority of the law fulfilled, Christ replaced it
with something so much better. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
uses a phrase repeatedly, and that's, if you just continue
in Matthew, that is the Sermon on the Mount. He says, He talks
about that a lot, and he's referring to the law, to the old covenant.
But then he always follows it with, And this is very, very specific
and for very good reason. Sometimes he's correcting the
misinterpretations of the leaders, the religious leaders of that
day. But in these two cases, he quotes God's law. He said,
you have heard it said, thou shalt not murder. And then he
says, but I say unto you, anyone who is angry with his brother
is guilty of murder. Why is he telling us that at
that moment? Why is he saying to these religious
leaders and his followers, You've heard the Ten Commandments,
you've heard the law, and you think you can follow it, but
I tell you, you can't. You have heard, thou shalt not
murder, but I say to you, if you hate your brother, you're
guilty of murder. What does that mean to those
religious leaders of that day? They're sitting there thinking
that they had done so well their entire lives, and now all of
a sudden they're being torn down. If you've had a thought, you're
guilty. Very specific to show us that
this law of Moses, of Sinai, is simply unattainable, which,
to the religious leaders of the day, that was infuriating. This
was their life. And then he said, as he fulfilled
the law, he wrote a new covenant. So you need one to see the other. You need the old covenant to
recognize the new covenant. He directly quotes God's own
law multiple times. Again, he replaces that law with
grace. He replaced what must be earned
which is what the old law is about. What can you earn? He
replaces what must be earned with, by definition, what cannot
be earned, grace. Grace, by definition, is unmerited
favor. So you're replacing this law
that says you must do this and if you don't, this. He's replacing
that earned merit with unearned or unmerited favor. Law, requirements, gift of grace. He and he alone replaced the
covenant of never-ending work that could only end in failure.
with the covenant of grace, which is completely free, unmerited, and perfectly orchestrated
by none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot fail. On Mount Calvary, Christ wrote
a much better law than he did on Mount Sinai. The difference is hard to grasp
what it means to you if you are a believer in Christ. The difference
between the Law of Sinai and the Law of Mount Calvary. If
you are a believer, you get it. Somewhat. Someday you'll really
get it. But even more than this, Christ
replaced the righteousness of the law with a much better righteousness. In verse 20 of Matthew 5, the
Lord says that if our righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, we will by no means enter the
kingdom of God. Can you do that? Can you exceed
the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the law who spent
their entire lives devoted to trying to keep that law? I mean, he says this for a very
specific reason. These guys worked real hard,
harder than we do. Can you do that on your own? Is your conduct more in keeping
with the law than the conduct of a Pharisee? What did our Lord
mean by this righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees? Paul explains in Romans 3.21,
it says, but now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known. A righteousness
to which the law and prophets have testified. The first law and the prophets
were pointing to Christ, were pointing to another law that
was coming, a much better law. This is nothing more or less
than the righteousness which the law and prophets could only
talk about. They were just pointing towards
it with words. The law and the prophets were
so menial compared to who Christ is, they were just words. They
could only talk about it, but Christ made that grace real by his life and by his death.
This righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law in multiple ways. First of all,
it's real righteousness, not hypothetical. All they could
do was talk about it. Christ made it happen. Secondly, it's righteousness
that we actually receive from God. instead of righteousness
that we have to create to try to provide to him. What righteousness
can you give to God? What righteousness would you
feel comfortable showing to God in hopes that he'd be impressed? So this righteousness that Christ
has provided is so much better in that it is from God, not from
us. Here is one way that you may
know whether you have this righteousness. Is your righteousness something
you have received from God or something you are trying to produce that you could present to him? In Romans 10, Paul wrote, because
the Jews were ignorant of the righteousness that comes from
God, they tried to establish their own righteousness. But
the righteousness we receive from God far surpasses any righteousness
we render to God. Our Lord Jesus honored, fulfilled,
and replaced the law that he gave to Israel through Moses.
And it is our privilege to live in the time of the fulfillment
of the realization of that law and all of the prophecies made
by the prophets. We are so blessed to live in
this time. The question for you is pretty
simple. What righteousness are you pursuing? That of your own
doing by obedience to the law, or that which comes directly
from God and is received through faith in Christ? The difference between these
two righteousnesses, the difference between trying to create your
own and realizing you cannot, and simply receiving Christ's
is the difference between life and death, eternally. It's the difference between justification
and condemnation. There's no gray area. It's the
difference between heaven and hell. Your righteousness or Christ's. We are very thankful, and this
sounds strange, but we should be very thankful for both covenants. Because without the first covenant,
we wouldn't know that we need the second covenant. Without
the law showing us who we are and the needs that we have, we
would never know that we desperately need a new covenant. created
and fully carried out by our Lord. And both of them came from
Christ. The first was presented to us
as an agreement with two parties. One where we had to uphold our
end of the bargain. That was the Old Testament. The
second, the second covenant, The gospel
of Jesus Christ and him crucified is simply a gift. A finalized agreement. It is
Christ saying here is life. Here is forgiveness. Here is real righteousness. It is finished. It is complete. And I'm not even giving you the
option to say no. Here. It is perfect. It is perfect
because I, Jesus Christ, have fulfilled the law and the prophets. Nothing more is expected from
you. Would we rather have an agreement
that we have to hold up our end of the bargain, or would we rather
have that kind of gift? A gift where he says, I love
you. You don't deserve it, but I love you. You are mine. You are safe forever. Our Father, thank you so much. We thank you so much for the
wonderful covenant of grace, of mercy and faithfulness, and
the gift of love that you've shown your people, that you've
given your people freely. And we ask, Lord, that you'll
bless us with the First of all, the ability in this world to
keep that in our minds and in our hearts. But Lord, even as
we go back into this world and we get caught up in things, we
know, Lord, that you don't let go of us. And we thank you, Lord, that
all of it, everything has been carried out by you, including every aspect of every
day of our lives. And we lean on you, Lord, and
we're so thankful we can. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Oliver, you want to help? Can
you handle it on your own? As Oliver hands out the bread,
we can take out our course books and turn them to number eight. See the table spread before you,
number eight?