The Village Church
Relating to the Law - Audio
to live by faith, not by sight, and when you live by faith, you can say to sing the words of that song and believe it, that my circumstances don't dictate who I am, that all things are working for me, even things I can't see, because our God is constantly working in life despite circumstances. You got to lay hold to that promise when life gets hard, that He's working, even when you can't see it. So if you have your Bibles, please open them to Matthew chapter 5. We're going to continue with our study on the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to be looking at verses 17 through 20. And so this is God's Word, so will you please stand as I read it. Matthew chapter 5 beginning with verse 17. Do not think I have come to abolish the law at the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. But truly, I say to you, to heaven and earth pass away, not an older, not a doctor, pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes on one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same with a call least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them what they call great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness that sees that of the stripes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Let us pray. Father God, these words are not my words, not something that I made up for Father is your truth. It's the verse when you're very mouth and it's not words of man. And so I stand before you nervous as I handle your truth because I'm not worthy. And so Lord, I pray as I pray every week that your spirit will move mightily during this time and that he would take what is preached, apply it to my heart and apply it to everyone's heart that is here, for we all need your word daily. I pray for all this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Imagine with me for a moment that you are one of Jesus's first disciples listening to him preach this sermon on the Mount. And as he goes through the beatitudes, you know, the blessings of the kingdom, the character of the kingdom, you're like, yeah, I get that. Jesus is like, yeah, I understand that. Then he goes on talking about you being distinguished from the world and you're the salt and light of the world and you're like, yes, yeah, Jesus, I understand that too. The beatitudes, I'm salt and light. And then you get down to verse 17, and he starts talking about the law of God, the law and the prophets. And you're like, hmm, yeah, the law and the prophets, you came to fulfill them. I think I know what that means. Okay. And then he gets down to verse 20. And all of a sudden it's a curveball. And he says, why tell you, unless your righteousness that sees that or the shrubs and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And now you're like, what? I mean, you're like Arnold from different strokes. What are you talking about, Jesus? What are you talking about? I got to be more righteous than the Pharisees. Is that even possible? What are you talking about with these words, Jesus? He's talking about two things. Two things we want to look at this morning in verses 17 through 20. First, we want to look at Jesus in the law, how he relates to the law. And secondly, we want to look at the believer in the law, how Christians relate to the law. He begins by correcting what his opponents have been saying about him. He says, do not think I have come to abolish the law in the prophets. This is what his opponents were saying about him, the religious leaders of the day. They thought he came to destroy the Old Testament basically. They saw Jesus as someone who came to abolish the law in the prophets with his new teaching and his new ministry, with his way of doing things. So what is the law in the prophets? It's the Old Testament, the Old Testament, the first five books of Moses, the prophets, the history, the wisdom literature. It's all that. All that was written by the time in Jesus's day. That was God's word. So he says to record straight, do not think that I have come to abolish the law in the prophets. I have not come to abolish them. And if you abolish something, you destroy it. You make it invalid. You do away with it. You kick it to the curb. And the purpose of Christ coming, the purpose of the incarnation in terms of how it relates to the Word of God and the law of God is that I did not come to do that. He did not come to make it invalid. He did not come to make it irrelevant. Jesus is saying forbid it that my ministry and my teachings and the things that I'm doing seduce such a thing to the Word of God. I did not come to abolish the Old Testament. If that wasn't his purpose, but what was his purpose? How does Jesus relate to the law in the prophets? He says, I've come to fulfill them. And again, you're like, well, what does that mean, Jesus? What you're talking about, Jesus, what do you mean you came to fulfill them? What's not all the prophecies fulfilled when they were given in the Old Testament? What are you talking about? What does that mean? When he says he came to fulfill them, it means he came to fill up something. He came to give a true meaning to something. And so if Jesus came to fill up the law in the prophets, then that means they were not complete in themselves. It means what's in the law and the prophets have not fully been accomplished yet. There was still more to come, more to be revealed. And so at the end of the book of Malachi, there should have been a footnote that said to be continued, basically. Now, if you know anything about biblical history, you know, there was a 400-year gap between the testaments, between the New Testament and Old Testament. So for 400 years, the cup of God's revelation was half full, half full. But with the incarnation of Christ, things were getting ready to change. It was going to be filled up. That's what he's saying. I've come to fill up the rest of God's revelation. That's what he means by I came to fulfill the Old Testament. And he did that how through his person, through his teaching, through his work, through the cross. And Mark 1, chapter Mark 1 verse 14, when Jesus began his ministry, he started out with this phrase, "The time is fulfilled." Think about that. This is the words he spoke when he began his ministry. "The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel." Time is fulfilled. Jesus ushered in the age of fulfillment for he came to fulfill the Old Testament. And so what was written in the law and the prophets was just, was not just limited to his historical context. You got to see that when you read through the Old Testament, it was not just written for the historical context. It was written there. It was just not for the people of Israel. It looked forward to something. It pointed forward to something greater that was still to come. The Old Testament foreshadowed the New Testament. It was a foreshadow or the good things that was still to come in the future. And what was that good thing that was still to come in Messiah? The Christ was still to come. And so with this fulfillment language, Jesus is letting us, he's letting his disciples and the crowd know that the law and the prophets were much bigger than the cultural boxes they put it in. The law and the prophets were much bigger than the Jewish cultural box they put it in. He's letting them know that they are not at the center of it when you get to the heart of it. They are not the fulfillment of it. He is. I'm at the center of the law and the prophets. I'm the fulfillment of it. The Old Testament bore witness to Jesus Christ and bore witness to him. Just read the book of Hebrews. The whole book of Hebrews is about that fact. If you ever read through it, everything was looking forward to Christ. He is the fulfillment of the office of priests, prophet and king. He's greater than Abraham. He's greater than Moses. He's a fulfillment of the tabernacle itself. The psychofitual system always pointing forward to him. All the prophecies in the Old Testament find their greater fulfillment in Christ. As one author says, in Jesus, an Old Testament design is for the first time realizing the actual building. Think about that. An Old Testament design is now realizing the actual building and that's in the person and work of Christ. He is the fulfillment of it. It pushes forward to him. How does Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? First, he fulfills the more requirements of the law through his prayerful obedience. He fulfills the ceremonial requirements of the law by being a psychofitual lamb for the punishment of our sins and the torment of our sins. So his death upon the cross fulfills the law. There he fulfills the law by giving a true meaning of the law, meaning he talked about the law more than just external obedience, but he brought in the internal stuff of the law, the heart issues of it. Jesus also fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. And for example, several of those prophecies were mentioned in the first couple of chapters of the book of Matthew. Jesus being conceived was a fulfillment. It took place. Matthew 1, 22 says, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord spoke by the Prophet, the whole, the virgin shall be, the perversion shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Immanuel." Jesus fulfilled that. The place of his birth and birth on him, birth on him was a fulfillment of the prophets that were spoken in Michael 5, 8. So he came to fulfill all these prophecies and the requirements of the law. The suffering servant in Isaiah is also fulfilled in Jesus. Do you see what Jesus means now? "I didn't come to abolish the law in the prophets, but to fulfill them through everything that he did, from his birth to his death, from his birth to his death, his resurrection and ascension, all those things were meant to fulfill all that was written." Now, if you're going to build a house or any type of building, now what is one of the first things you're going to do before you break ground and know getting on the building committee is not the answer. What are the first things you're going to do if you look to build a house? You're going to get some plans on it, right? A blueprint or what you want the house or building to look like. And the purpose of the blueprint is to provide a complete set of instructions on how you want the house to look, how you want it to be constructed. Now, when the house is built, do you still need those blueprints? When the house is set, your house is built. Are you still set in the yard looking at the blueprint? Man, is such a good house. I can't wait to us build or do you actually go into the house? You go into the house. But I guess you need some furniture, yes, but that's not the part of my illustration. So you enter the house and then you can throw out those blueprints, right? Did you throw out your blueprints? You don't? You keep them? You keep your blueprints? Personally, I don't think the blueprints have any other value once the house is built. And if we're as believers, if you treat the Old Testament as a blueprint for the New Testament, I think you have a tendency to develop an attitude that the New Testament is better than the Old. Because if you think the actual house is of more value than the blueprint, right? You don't live in the blueprint. You live in the house. And so if you have this attitude that the Old Testament is somehow inferior to the New, it's less of value than the New, then you can get this idea that the New Testament is just for New believers, New Testament believers, and the Old Testament is for Old Testament believers, and you create a gap between the two. You see, Jesus is fulfilling under law. It doesn't mean he put this value on the Old Testament. It doesn't mean he turned the Old Testament into trash. It simply means he actually gives it more honor. About fulfilling it. He makes the Old Testament more beautiful. Because you know why he makes it more beautiful? Because when you know that he's a fulfillment of it, you know that crisis throughout the Old Testament, you see in there, foreshadowed there, and you know he hadn't come yet. And so the Old Testament is not a blueprint. Jesus had high regards for the law and the prophets. They bore witness to him. And think about that. Why would he make it relevant? They ended up talking about him. This is like my wife giving me marriage vows. I'm like, well, and she's giving the vows to me. So this should mean something. So he's not making the Old Testament irrelevant. He says, "Truly I tell you unto heaven and earth pass away." Now the smallest dot from the law will fall away until all is accomplished. That's a strong affirmation by Christ. Strong affirmation he's making about the Old Testament. He clearly negates any misunderstanding that we could have. My common did not make the Old Testament irrelevant. I actually came to fulfill it, to accomplish all that's in them. And so the law and the prophets are still relevant. It is still God's holy authoritative word. His divine revelation. His testimony about him. And it foreshadowed all that was to come in Christ. This phrase unto all is accomplished. It has a present and future reality to it. Something we've been talking about since we started going through this sermon on the Mount. So this means with Christ's first coming, the first coming of Christ was not going to bring all the fulfillment of all those things at that first coming. He has fulfilled some of this stuff now. Psalm is going to come later in the second coming of Christ. Well, what do you mean by the Alex? First of all, God's eternal enemy has not been completely defeated yet. Satan. God's people, we have not entered our true promise land yet, have we? Right? And God's kingdom, has it fully come yet? No, it's still to come. So Christ's first coming brought a partial fulfillment of those things. But in the end, in due time, when he comes back, all of it would be completed. All of it would be fulfilled and due time. There is a present and future reality to the fulfillment. Does that make sense or are you confused? So are you saying to make sense? That's why I can get through a sermon or you've been honest. All right. Well, let me step in talking. You're like, what is he talking about? So Jesus in the law and perfect harmony, there are no issues between them. There is no conflict. You can't separate Christ from the word. But what about his people? What is our relationship to the law? How should we respond to it? How should we relate to the law in the process as New Testament believers, as people of God versus 19 and 20? Therefore, whoever relaxes on one of the leads of these commandments and teaches others to do the same would be called leads in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness, it sees that of the shrubs and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And once again, what are you talking about here Christ? What are you talking about? This is what he's saying. If I didn't come to abolish the law in the prophets, if I didn't come to destroy them, if I didn't come to make them irrelevant, then neither of those were called by my name. If I didn't do it, then neither are we. Therefore, whoever relaxes or is loose on the leads of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called leads in the kingdom of heaven. See, there's a connection between God's word, his law, whatever, all this in his word and God's kingdom. And the connection is that as citizens of his kingdom, we are under the authority of his word. Can't be in the kingdom and say his word doesn't matter. We're all under authority of something. And as Christians, we're under authority of this, everything that's in it, everything that's in it. And at this point in the history of the church, it was just the Old Testament. And if you relax and teaches others to do the same on the leads of the commandments, not just the way they are ones, but Jesus is in the least of them. You will be called leads in the kingdom of heaven. Now, what does he mean by relax? One Christian said it, it means to loosen its hold on our conscience or to loosen its authority in our life. Can we just believe and say that God's law has no value for us? It doesn't matter to us. Can we say that? It's the fact that we're under grace. I mean, we can say that. That it has no value. That we should teach others that have no value. No. Again, to say that, any part of God's law, any part of God's word has no value to you, the same thing is saying God himself has no value to you. Because he can't separate God from his word. Can we? In the beginning, what's what? Okay. And so if you're saying there are parts of his word that has no value to me at all, then there's parts of God of my life that God does not have any control over or speak enough or at the end. His word can't separate him from his word at the point I'm trying to make. And notice what Jesus does not say. It does not say by doing and teaching these things, you would get into the kingdom. See, he doesn't say that now. He's saying doing them and teaching them you'll be called great in the kingdom. You see, some Christians don't like sermons about God's law because they think you're going to start preaching legalism. And if you want to know what that means, it means a works based type of faith where all you do is do good works and you have the burden of the law on your shoulders. And so you become self righteous. You see, we have to make a distinguish between God's law, the moral law, and how we use the law. You see, there's a difference now. You have to distinguish between God's law and how you use the law. And like I told the folks down in Birmingham last week, I told them don't hate on grace because you think grace makes you license in your life. And so you don't hate on the law because the law don't make your legalist, your heart does. You got to know that. There's no part of God's word that makes you legal, makes you legalistic. It's your simple heart that takes us down. You have to distinguish between that. It's how we use it that makes it sinful. The law is not sinful. Paul makes that clear romance. Paul makes that clear romance. Now, we know that obedience to a law can't make us right with God. We know that right. Only Christ can do that. So how is it still relevant? How is it of still value? How are we to teach them and then use it? We use it as a rule of life. What does that mean? In the words of the Psalms of Psalm 119, your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. That's a rule of life. Your word, a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. That's how we use it. We use it as a rule of life, not as a way to gain life. Again, it's a difference. A rule of life. That's how we approach God's law, any part of God's word. You see, being sons and daughters of the king is not just embracing the father's love and grace and mercy. It's also embracing the father's instruction. They both go together. You embrace grace and love and mercy from the father, but also his guidance, his wisdom, his discipline, and his instructions. Let's say, for example, you came to me for parental advice. Now, I'm not an expert, but I'll give you the best advice I can. And I told you as a parent, and I said to you, all you need to do to be a good parent, you know, just love your kids. Give them grace, show them mercy. But now when it comes to guidance and instruction and wisdom and discipline, you don't need to do any of those things. You don't even need to set boundaries for them. Just love them. What would you leave my office feeling like? That guy don't know what he's talking about. I don't know. Honey, we're not ever going to see him again. Now, why would you expect God to do that in your life? Why? Because it's a thing. If there is no guidance, there is no instruction, there is no wisdom. If he doesn't set boundaries, he doesn't love you. Because if he, he puts them there because he loves you. If that's what he does. His word is given to you because he loves you. And if he didn't love you, we wouldn't have it. It's a different way of looking at it. It's a different way of looking at a viewing God's law is following the instruction to his people. The reason some of us struggle with legalism is because we don't know God as father. That's why. Not just any father, but a good father. The reason you think you got to work to earn his approval is because you have a bad view of God as father. That's why. Not because you're a bad person or you just don't understand certain things because you don't know God as father. Think about that. Father, that you have a father that you don't have to work for his approval. Who loves you despite of you? And if you understand that, you receive the word differently. When I understood God as father, I started receiving his word differently. Before God broke me of my self-righteousness, all he was was a dictator God who was there to make me fall. And when I messed up, he didn't love me anymore. That's how I lived the first five years of my Christian life under that yoke trying to earn favor I already had. But most of you know my story of depression. When he took me through that, he loved me. I looked back on that. That was love because it was only there where I learned to embrace grace. It was through my battle with that. That was when I received God as I saw him as father because I saw him bring folks into my life, pastors into my life, friends into my life to help shepherd me through that stuff because he loved me. That Alex, you don't have to work for my approval. You already got it son. Through Christ. And that's what the fatherhood of God, if you can understand that, it changes you man. But the problem is that we transfer on God our views about earthly fathers. That's what I did. That's what we all do. He's not a man that he should lie. You see he's not like an earthly dad. He never lets us down. He never falls short. He always good all the time, all the time, all the time. And his word every part of it is instruction to us, God is to us a rule of life, a rule of life. How can it be a rule of life for us? It began, I think, having a good understanding of what Jesus is saying in verse 20. For I tell you, on the actual righteousness it sees that of strob's and Pharisees you would never enter the kingdom of heaven. These words here, I'm sure that took the disciples off guard. Because if they had to be more righteous than the Pharisees, man, there's no way they can get into the kingdom of heaven. I mean, because you got to know the Pharisees and the strob, they were religious leaders of the day. And the masses of people considered these folks, man, these folks are holy, man. They're on a different level than us. This is how they saw them. If anyone's gonna get to heaven, it's gonna be them. Because they, man, they sold out for Jesus, put it that way. The language that we use, that was them. The people you think on that more whole isn't that you know your life, the Pharisees were better than them. That's what he's saying. That's how they live their life. You see, Jesus is calling us to be more righteous than them. Is that possible? When he says this, he's letting his disciples know and us know that there is something wrong with the righteousness of the Pharisees. You got to see that with this statement, that there's something wrong with their view of righteousness. You see, for the Pharisees, that their righteousness was a self-kind of righteousness, external performance, works-based righteousness. You see, they use the law to gain life, not as a rule of life. They thought by having this external righteousness, it was gonna give them the life that got them to the other side of glory. In Jesus' sin, your righteousness has to be better than that, more than just an external type of righteousness. See, the Pharisees, they added to the law God now. The law God said one thing, that added things on top of it so they wouldn't get to that thing. I mean, that's what they did. And they placed this heavy yoke on the burdens of other people. They added to God's law 248 extra regulations, extra regulations, 365 extra prohibition if they added. These things became basically man-made traditions. And so they followed those things so they wouldn't break this thing. And by doing that, they totally missed the point, totally missed the point of God's law. And in Matthew 23, Jesus calls them out for it. In Matthew 23, you have the seven woes to the Pharisees that Christ said to them that you preach, but you don't practice. He says, woe to you, strobes and Pharisees, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees. First, clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may also be clean. What kind of righteousness that sees that of the Pharisees is one that is not just external. Here's a lesson to interpreting Scripture. You interpret it with Scripture. That's something you got to instill in your mind. You interpret Scripture with Scripture. For the righteousness that sees that of Pharisees and strobes is what Paul talks about in Romans 3. Paul says, "By the works of the law, no human being would be justified in God's sight. By the works of the law, no human being would be justified in God's sight." That's what the Pharisees was doing. Trying to be justified before God, by the works of the law. Paul says, no. He says, "Since through the law comes what knowledge of sin." So when you look at the first thing you should look at the law, it should point out your sin. Not man. I know I can do that. Can't do that. Yeah, I'm good right there. No, the first thing Paul said comes to knowledge of sin when you read the law. And he goes on to say, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law." Now check this out, "Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it." Think about that. The same law and prophets that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5. Paul here is saying, "This law and prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God." It points to it. It points to the righteousness of God. And how many of us miss that? How many of us read the Old Testament that way? So what is this righteousness of God that the law and the prophets bear witness to? The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The righteous shall live by what? Faith. Faith. That's the righteousness that it sees down the Pharisees. Because faith has to do with something inside of us. Not all the good things we think we do. Something has happened eternally. To get this righteousness that is from God is through saving faith in Jesus Christ alone. And no one else alone. Faith is arresting and in dependency upon Christ. One Christian said, "Jesus Christ not only justifies us by sharing his righteousness with us. He also sanctifies and transforms us to make us righteous." That's Christ. He does this through the work of His Spirit. For the Spirit of God who works faith in us. If you are a Christian, you become the Spirit of God that has ripped in your heart. And when He replaced your heart, a stone gave you a heart of flesh. And now He's written God's law on your heart of flesh. That's what He's talking about. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe. Repent and believe in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's through faith in Him. Do you have that faith? Are you still trying to earn your own salvation? If I'm able to tell you, you ain't ever gonna earn it. You ain't ever gonna earn it. You can't ever be good enough. Because we're sinful. Not just the action of things we do. I'm talking about here. Here we're sinful. If you want that type of relationship, if you want to know Christ, you can talk to me at the end of the service. You can talk to someone else at the end of the service. And we can talk to you about the good news of the gospel. The good news of what it means to be a Christian. Because it's awesome. It's wonderful. It's exciting to have the approval of the Almighty all the time. All the time. Let this sink into your heart. Here's approval over you. Is that all times, even when you leave here and fail. Because His righteousness to you is a gift through faith in Christ. Not based upon what you do. Let us pray. Father, I thank you that we know that the righteousness that it seized out of the Pharisees is one through faith and Christ Jesus, all over. And for those of us who struggle with that, Lord, I pray Your Spirit will minister to us and show us the beauty of the gospel. The righteousness from God is through faith in Christ and nothing else. The righteous are led by faith. Not our good works. Teach us what it means to live by faith in the places where we truly live. And our jobs and our families in the hardest ships of life. How do we live by faith there? It's easy on Sunday morning to put up the mask. When we go to work tomorrow, help us to live by faith there. Help us to live by faith when raising our kids. Help us to live by faith and when we're loving our spouses and when we're trying to have a good marriage. Teach us their father what it means to live by faith. And so, Lord, we trust you with our life. Trust you with our families. Trust you with our welfare. And we know that we have a good, good, good, good, good, good, good father. A good father. And I pray, Spirit, you're right up on our hearts. And Christ, I'm up for Him. Amen.