I Came Not to Destroy but to Fulfill

Introduction: The Pivotal Section of the Sermon on the Mount

0:04 We have come in our study to verses 17 to 19, or to verse 20, 17 to 20, this section, this pivotal section in the Sermon on the Mount, having considered the attitudes, the description given by our Lord of the character of a true Christian, then having seen the reaction of such a character, and I don't use the term character in our modern sense of a colloquial expression, but having seen the reaction of the world of such an individual who is poor of spirit, who mourns, who hungers and thirsts after righteousness,

0:45 then our Lord Jesus told his disciples what their function was to be in society as men and women described in the Beatitudes. They were to be light, they were to be soul. Now the rest of the fifth chapter is taken up with an exposition of the spiritual, the spiritual meaning of the law of God. And before our Lord deals with that, those subjects, he gives us these pivotal words in verses 17 to 20, which we are considering this morning.

1:20 Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one job or one tittle shall in no way be fulfilled. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one job or one tittle shall in no way be fulfilled.

1:36 For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one job or one tittle shall in no way be fulfilled. That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

2:21 Here in these verses, as I mentioned on a previous message, in a previous message, our Lord gives several basic principles as a general statement of truth before he deals with particulars. Beginning with verse 21, he begins to deal with a particular commandment, thou shalt not kill. Verse 27, a particular commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. Verse 33, a particular commandment.

2:55 Verse 39, a particular. Verse 43, and so our Lord is going through some particular commandments that had been obscured and glossed over with a lot of traditional, uh, interpretation and a lot of traditional misunderstanding. And our Lord is about to peel away all the layers of misunderstanding and to set these commandments before us in all their naked purity and their importance. Before he does so, he's going to lay out some principles for us.

The Two Extremes: Legalism and Antinomianism

3:32 Now as we consider these principles, and we must do so because our Lord did, we want to do so because in this area of the Christian's relationship to the law of God, there are two basic extremes which have plagued the church ever since her inception. You have the extreme on one hand of what we would call legalism, and the extreme on the other hand which we would call antinomianism. And I'll explain what I mean in a moment. The church has constantly been plagued.

4:10 The church has always been plagued with the tendency to legalism. That is, making salvation dependent upon something I do, or making sanctification dependent on specific rules and regulations of conduct. If you turn to the book of Galatians, you read the words of Paul in verse 16, where he says that by the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. You turn to Colossians, the last part of chapter 2, and Paul says, you people have got regulations.

4:43 Don't touch this, don't handle this, don't taste that. He says the whole business, it has no real power to put to death the doings of the flesh. So legalism is either attempting to be accepted before God, that justification, salvation, by certain deeds that I perform, or trying to go on in God by a certain set of rules, and regulations, that is the curse of legalism. And the church has always been plagued with it.

5:18 Modern Romanism is nothing but a legalistic system drawn out to its highest point, with all its ritual that's supposed to make me accepted before God, and then all the things that are supposed to make me go on with God, such as the thumbing of beads, and the making of crosses, and the genuflexes, and the kneelings, and all this other rigmarole, it's a perfect example of modern legalism. But now the church, like the proverbial pendulum, which swings to one extreme and the other, more about the pendulum in a moment, the church has swung over to another extreme. Because the Bible teaches we're not saved by the law, doing certain deeds,

6:03 we aren't sanctified by regulations. People have said, why have a law and why have regulations? Let's just do as we please. The word anti means against.

6:15 The word nomos, the Greek word for law. So these people are dead set against law. They don't want anything to do with the law. They say, we're under grace.

6:23 We have no relationship to the law. Let's take Moses by the back of the neck and the seat of the trousers and run him out of the church, and let a whisper of Moses ever be seen around the church.

6:37 Antinomians. They want nothing to do with the law. So, when they begin to live loose lives, and you come to them and say, hey, wait a minute, don't you profess to be a Christian? Yes.

6:46 Well, don't you know that the Bible says, thou shalt this and thou... Oh, they say, don't bother me with standards, codes of ethics.

6:54 I'm not under law, I'm under grace. I just do as the Holy Spirit leads me.

6:59 This is the extreme of antinomianism. And the church has always been plagued, as I said earlier, with one or two of these extremes, and most of the time, both extremes are present in the church, because, listen to me, I've got a little secret to you. Both be...

7:15 These tendencies are bound up in the depravity of the human heart.

7:21 That's why there is never any lack of enthusiasm for legalism and antinomianism, because both of these tendencies are the natural soil of the human heart.

Staying at the Center: The Pendulum Analogy and the Need for Diligence

7:36 Now, one dear brother, who's not very philosophical, he's a good friend of mine, he's now in Brazil, but he waxed very philosophical when he said this. He said, the pendulum moves fastest at its center point, and slowest at its extreme. Now, if we had a big grandfather clock here today, and then some kind of an intricate timer, and we could time the pendulum, when does it move fastest? When it's gained momentum and passes the center point, it's moving at its fastest, then it slows down as it reaches the end of its arc, and at the point where it stops here, and just as it begins down, it's perfectly stationary.

8:17 Then it gathers momentum, and slows down, here, and here's the slowest point, here's the slowest point, it moves fastest through the point that lies between the two extremes of the pendulum. What is true of a pendulum is true in the life of a Christian, and is true in the life of a church. The easiest thing in the world is to get out here and stay there, to get out here and stay there, but only the grace of God, and an earnest, honest, honest, diligent study of the whole counsel of God will keep us here. And the moment you begin to neglect the book of God,

9:01 or fail to be watchful over your own corrupt heart, you're going to end up here or there, sure as anything. Only by spiritual diligence, and by honest, thorough, constant study of the word of God, and dependence upon the Holy Ghost, can we be kept from these extremes. Now I know of no passage in the whole Bible which is more effective in accomplishing this task than the one that is before us. Would I be kept from the curse of legalism?

9:38 From the terrible curse of thinking that because I do certain things God will accept me, or a more subtle form of legalism, thinking that because I keep certain external rules and regulations I'm all right? Oh, I don't go out and run off with another man's wife, and I don't go out and shoot somebody, and therefore I'm a holy man? Oh no, this passage is going to strike right to the core of legalism. Right to the core of it.

10:07 And it's going to show us that we can never live the life that we are supposed to live. In order to be accepted with God, we're going to need grace, and pure grace, to give us an acceptable standing with God. But this passage, will also show us that holiness consists not in keeping certain rules and regulations, but in a state of the heart and in an attitude of the mind. For murder is hate and adultery is lust.

10:34 And our Lord is going to check us at the point of our motives and the point of our desires. So would you be kept from the curse of legalism? Then get hold of these verses, 17 to 20. Would you be kept from the curse of antinomianism, which says, oh well, since I'm saved by grace, and I can just trust the indwelling Spirit to bring me to maturity, then I don't need any objective standards.

Extracting Principles from Specific Instances

10:58 Ah, this passage will keep you from that. For Jesus says, don't think that I came to abrogate the law. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Now many times in the Word of God, we have a principle applied in a specific area.

11:18 Now what God wants us to do is to find out what principle was being applied, and extract the principle, and then apply it to ourselves. Let me illustrate. One day a young man came to Jesus and said, good master, what shall I do to have eternal life? Jesus turned to him and said, why callest thou me good?

11:37 There is none good but God. By the way, there's a wonderful exposition of what Jesus meant when he said that. I came across this week. Most satisfying thing I've ever read on.

11:47 If you have that passage as trouble, you come afterward and we'll give you what it is. And he began to deal with the young man. And then he said, one thing thou lackest. Now get this.

11:57 Go sell that thou hast, give to the poor, come follow me, thou shall have treasure in heaven. What was Jesus doing? Am I to tell every sinner who comes to me, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Am I to tell him, go sell that thou hast, give to the poor, come and follow me?

12:14 Some of them haven't got enough work, sell them and give them to the poor. What was Jesus doing? He was taking a general principle and applying it in a specific instance. What's the principle?

12:25 The principle is this. Would I enter into eternal life? Then I must part with the dearest idol of my heart. With the rich young ruler, his idol was his riches.

12:41 Now, I don't tell everybody, you must part with your riches. But there's a principle that I tell anyone who wants to get serious about eternal life. After I lay before them the provisions of God in Christ, I say, now are you ready and willing to come to Jesus on his terms? Are you ready to part with the dearest idol in your life to sell that thing that is more dear to you than life itself?

13:05 Now, there you're taking the principle and applying it in another specific instance. Now, when we fail to do this, we fail to understand the Bible. And we set up an artificial set of standards while missing the core of God's truth. Let me give another illustration.

13:23 There's a woman with whom our Lord is dealing. And she says to him, Oh, Master, give me this living water. I want some of this water. I don't want to have to come down to this well anymore.

13:32 Give me some of that living water. Jesus said, Call your husband. Call your husband. Oh, I don't have a husband.

13:43 Yes, that's right, you don't. You've had five, and the one you're living with now is not your husband. Oh, sir, I perceive thou art a prophet. What was the Lord doing?

13:53 He was applying a general principle in a specific instance. What was the principle? The principle was this. If I would drink of the water of life, I've got to be willing to be honest about my sin.

14:07 She wanted water. Jesus said, Do you want it bad enough to get exposed? Then call your husband. If you don't want the water of life bad enough to expose your sin, you don't want it bad enough.

14:20 Now, that's the principle that applies to everybody. I don't tell people, Go call your husband. You don't. No, no, that wouldn't be true.

14:28 Most people are living normal, decent lives. They're not running around with someone else's wife. But the principle applies to every one of us that if we would be blessed with the water of life, we must be exposed and be willing to acknowledge our sin. Now, Jesus does that in these verses before us.

14:50 He is taking general principles and is applying them in specific instances. Our job as students of the Word, my job as a pastor, is to try to discover the principle that's involved, extract the principle, and then apply it where you and I live right here and now. If we don't do that, what sense is there when we read, Him that would ask your cloak, give him your cloak also. Who in the world ever came up to you and asked you for your cloak?

15:24 Come on now. When did you have somebody come up and ask you for your cloak? You never had anybody do that, did you? Have you ever had anybody come ask you for your cloak?

15:39 Well, what are we to do then? Just chuck out that? No, no. That's a specific application of a general principle.

15:46 And it's the principle that's binding on me. And then I can apply it wherever and whenever I need. You ever have anybody ask you to come out and do a little work at the church when you had something planned on your own for the evening? Now the principle's touching you where you need it.

16:08 See? The Lord is crossing our natural desire. And it's the principle that applies. Now, with these introductory words before us, shall we look at the text?

Principle 1: Consistency with the Old Testament and Contradiction of False Teaching

16:20 We'll see how far we get this morning. Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.

16:46 Principle number one is this. And I'm indebted to Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book and the Sermon on the Mount for this. The first great principle of this passage is this. That everything that Jesus Christ is, everything that he does and will ever do, will be perfectly consistent with the Old Testament revelation.

17:08 Don't think that I've come to destroy either the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Then in verses 19 and 20 where he says about breaking and teaching men to break and about a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord is saying, everything I do is inconsistency with the Old Testament. But number two, everything I do is going to be directly contradictory to what the scribes and Pharisees teach.

17:37 And what they practice. Our Lord says, all my ministry and teaching lines up with the Old Testament. All my ministry and teaching cuts across the grain of the scribes and the Pharisees. Now, if there are any who find fault with exposing evil and calling or identifying evil in such a way that people know who you mean and what you mean, they have our Lord to contend with.

18:09 He didn't say to his disciples now, accept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of some religious leaders who live somewhere at some time in some place and in some manner or other you aren't a little bit different from them, you're not going to make out too well. Oh no, he came right to the heart of it. He said, accept your righteousness exceed the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees. He named them.

18:33 Now, if you don't like the specific exposure of evil and evil workers and evil people, you have our Lord to contend with. For our Lord in his ministry said it another time, go tell that old fox Herod another time, he said, beware of the leaven, the false teaching of the scribes and of the Pharisees. The Apostle Paul spoke of different ones who were perverting the proof, Hymenaeus and Philetus, Alexander the coppersmith. There is in the Word of God a place for specific, clear-cut exposure of evil.

19:08 Exposure of evil and evil teaching. May God help us from being caught up in this, what Brother Tozer called this, togetherness orgy, where everybody's throwing kisses at everybody else and nobody's exposing anything. If you happen to meet somebody downtown and wonders if you go to the church where the pastor wrote a letter to the chaplain or the policeman, something or other, you tell them, that's the church. I got a letter a few weeks ago asking if I would come and say a prayer for the dead policeman at the policeman's memorial day, and the letter was from a Protestant minister.

19:49 Well, I sat down and wrote him a letter, and I said, Sir, I'm disturbed that you professing to be a Protestant would embrace a Romish practice like praying for the dead. And I said, I object. And let him know why, on the grounds of Scripture and on the grounds of his own position as a minister of the gospel. And beloved, we need this.

20:07 We don't need to become contentious and nasty and throw stones. But where truth is involved, may God give us the kind of commitment to truth that stands clear. Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.

Defining 'Law or Prophets' and 'Destroy' vs. 'Fulfill'

20:27 Now, what do you mean when he said law or prophet? Generally speaking, and many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with this, when you find the terms law and prophet together, they refer to the whole Old Testament. Flip over to Matthew 7 and verse 12 for a moment, if you will, please. We want to lay hold of the term.

20:48 Matthew 7 and verse 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them. For this is the law and the prophets. Law and the prophets.

21:07 Chapter 10, verse 13. All right, that's the wrong reference. Let's look at 2240. I'm sorry.

21:23 2240. Matthew 2240. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets. Now, when you find this phrase, the law and the prophets, it's a phrase referring to the whole Old Testament revelation.

21:45 Sometimes the whole Old Testament is simply called the law. In John 10 and verse 34, Jesus said, It is written in your law, I said ye are God. That quotation is found in Psalm 82.6.

22:02 But Jesus said it is written in your law. In other words, the whole Old Testament sometimes was called the law. Generally, it was called the law and the prophets, and more specifically, in Luke 24.44, it says that Jesus showed unto them in all the law, the Psalms, and the prophets, the things concerning himself.

22:27 The most narrow definition or description of the Old Testament, just the word law. Generally, it's called law and prophets. More specifically, it's called in Luke 24, the law, the Psalms, and the prophets. So this is a reference to the whole Old Testament revelation as the Jews then possessed it in their days.

22:52 This is basically, if some of you want to know, why we don't include as being the word of God the apocryphal books, those extra books that are in the Roman Catholic Bible, for the simple reason that when our Lord Jesus lived and he put his stamp of approval on the Old Testament as the Jews then had it, those books were not included. They were not included in the Jewish Bible which our Lord put his stamp of approval upon, which the apostles quoted. That's our basic reason for not receiving them into what we call the canon of Scripture. Just thought you might want to know that if sometime a Roman Catholic should ask you as you're seeking to witness to him or to her.

23:36 But here in Matthew, notice that Jesus does not say, think not that I came to destroy the law and the prophets, but he uses the little phrase, think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. In other words, our Lord is making a distinction between what is taught in the law and what is taught in the prophets. The term law then here would refer to the first five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The prophets would refer to the Psalms, the poetical books, and the prophets, the major and the minor prophets.

24:21 Our Lord says, I have not come to destroy either the law or the prophets. Well, you say, Pastor, what's included in the law? Well, I agree with the great bulk of Bible teachers and expositors down through the centuries that the law is all that was revealed through Moses that comes under three basic heads. You have the moral law summed up in the Ten Commandments, the ceremonial law with all its details of worship, and how the Jewish people were to approach God, the heifers, the bulls, the goats, the goatskins, the badgerskins, the erection of the tabernacle, and all of this.

25:04 And then there was also with that certain laws of ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness. All of this was tied in with their worship. And then there was the third division of the Old Testament law. There was the judicial aspect where God gave rules as to how they were to conduct themselves in the particular situation, in which God placed them.

25:24 He gave them marriage laws. He gave them laws of how to judge one between another. So the law of God is broken down into these three areas. You have the ceremonial law, the judicial law, and the moral law.

25:38 Jesus said, Think not that I came to destroy any aspect of that law. Then he says, Think not that I came to destroy the prophets. The prophets were those people who took God's holy law and applied it to the people in their generation and called them to repentance and to conformity to the will of God. The prophets were those who not only stood ministering to their own generation applying the law of God, but they stood in their generation and they prefigured and pretold the coming of the One who was typified in all the ceremonies of the Old Testament, and who would one day come.

26:22 Isaiah saw Him as the suffering Lamb of God. Zechariah saw Him as the One who would come riding upon a colt in the fold of an ant. Micah saw Him as the One whose goings forth would be from old even from everlasting. And so the prophets stood applying the law in its inner sense and foretelling the coming of Jesus.

26:49 So much for the phrase law or prophets. Now what did Jesus mean by the word destroy? Think not that I came to destroy. I came not to destroy but to fulfill.

27:04 Now it's obvious that these two words are used in contrast. Destroy and fulfill. The word destroy means to decry the force, to annul, to abrogate, to discard, to throw down is a literal translation. It's the same word used where Jesus said in Matthew 24 to His disciples when they came out and saw the temple.

27:28 They said, oh, look at this temple. Isn't it magnificent? And Jesus said, There shall not be one stone left upon another that shall not be thrown down. Same word used.

27:38 Now Jesus said, Don't think that I am come to throw down the law. Don't think that I am come to throw it down, to discard it, to annul it, to abrogate it. No, I came not to destroy but to fulfill. If destroying is to discard, then to fulfill is to retain it.

27:58 If to destroy means to annul it, then to fulfill it means to enforce it. If to destroy means to abrogate, then to fulfill means to ratify. If to destroy means to throw down, then to fulfill means to establish. The most normal sense of the word fulfill simply means to do what a certain thing says should be done.

28:27 Romans 13.8 says, He that loves his neighbor hath fulfilled the law, for love is the fulfilling of the law. It's doing what the law commands. Now can we put our terms together?

28:42 We've defined law, profit, and the key words destroy and fulfill. Now can we put it all together? Jesus said, Don't think for a moment that I have come to discard, to throw away, to annul either the precepts of the law, the types of the law, the figures of me in the law. Think not that I've come to annul the standards of the law.

29:14 Think not that I've come to relax the penalty of a broken law. Think not that I've come to destroy the law. Think not that I've come to destroy the prophets. Don't think that I've come to negate what Isaiah said.

29:31 When Isaiah stood in his generation and cried out against the empty form of Israel in chapter 1, Jesus said, Don't think I've come to cross out what he said. I've come to enforce what Isaiah said. When he spoke of one who would come as a lamb and before her shears be dumb and open not his mouth, I've come to fill that prediction to the full in my very sufferings and in my death. Think not that I came to destroy either the law or the prophets.

How Jesus Fulfilled the Law

30:04 I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. But you say, How did our Lord fulfill the law? How did He fulfill the prophets? Well, let's think of it for a moment.

30:18 There's the ceremonial law. How did Jesus fulfill it? Every time the knife was plunged into the very life of that little innocent lamb and the lamb let out its bleat and then it poured out its blood and it died in the hands of the offerer, the priest, it was a little voice prefiguring the coming of one who as the Lamb of God would let out one's bleat that would forever mystify the sons of Adam when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

30:59 And every type of the Old Testament ceremonial law with its washings, with its cleansings, with its sacrifices has been gloriously fulfilled in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the whole book of Hebrews. Christ came not to destroy all the ceremonial law. He came to fulfill it as its final type and having been fulfilled in Him, there's no need for it anymore.

31:28 But He didn't cast it aside. He took it up into Himself and fulfilled it by being the very reality of that which was but a picture. That's the whole book of Hebrews, isn't it? How it takes one instant after another of the Old Testament ceremonial type the ceremonial law and shows its fulfillment in Christ.

31:53 Then as far as the judicial law is concerned, dealing with Israel in a particular place, our Lord Jesus came and by His presence in Israel, God's final last word to Israel as a nation then, and He says, You know not the time of your visitation. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And because as a result of their rejection of the Lord Jesus, the nation of Israel was cut off as being a nation, the civil, the judicial laws which applied to them in particular as a nation has been done away. What about the moral law?

32:34 That law which said, This do and thou shalt live, this fail to do and thou shalt die. Our Lord wonderfully fulfilled that law. He obeyed it in His life. But the Scripture says He was made under the law.

32:48 . He could face the people of His day and say, Which of you can convince me of sin? The Scripture tells us that He was holy, undefiled, separate from sins. And what is holiness?

33:05 Not a feeling, not a sentiment. Holiness is practical conformity to the will of God as revealed in the law of God. And our Lord was holy. He kept the law of God.

33:20 Perfectly. Its moral standards as embodied in the Ten Commandments were impeccably kept in the external action and in the internal attitude by our lovely Lord. He not only obeyed it in its life, but, wonder of wonders, our Lord satisfied that law in His death. For that law said to every lawbreaker, This fail to do and thou shalt die.

33:48 And the curse of God is upon everyone who breaks that law. But my Bible says in Galatians 3 and verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Our Lord did not come and by His mission and ministry abrogate the law, the penalty of a broken law.

34:15 He took that penalty upon Himself and fulfilled it for His people, so that God's law has not been relaxed in its demands. It's been satisfied. It's been satisfied. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

34:32 And so our Lord Jesus could say, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it by obeying it in my life, by taking its penalty upon me in my death. But that's not all. Listen carefully now. By writing that law upon the hearts of all of His people and giving them the power to obey it.

34:57 For the promise of the new covenant is this, and I'm quoting now from Ezekiel 36, God says, I will take out the heart of stone and I will give them a heart of flesh and I will write my laws upon their hearts and I will cause them to keep my statutes and to do my judgments. What statutes? In the new covenant, it's no longer keeping the statutes of offering the bull and the goat, for that's been fulfilled in Christ. It can no longer mean the statutes of the civil or the judicial law which applied to a particular nation which now is no longer a nation.

35:38 God is talking about His moral law, the Ten Commandments, the embodiment of that law, and He says, I'll write that law upon their hearts and I will cause them to obey me. So that when I turn to the eighth chapter of Romans, I read words like this. What the law could not do and it was weak to the flesh, it couldn't save. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh.

36:08 Why? Now get this. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. So that Jesus fulfills the law not only by putting Himself under it and obeying it, going to the cross and taking its curse upon Himself, but now by His Spirit He inscribes that law upon the heart of every one of His children and gives them desire and power to obey it so that the righteous standard of that law is fulfilled in all who believe.

36:49 This is what our Lord meant when He said, Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. Now get hold of this. If you have any concept of the gospel which nullifies the present standard of God's law in the Christians, you didn't get it from the Lord Jesus because He said, Think not that I came to destroy.

How Jesus Fulfilled the Prophets

37:18 I came not to destroy but to fulfill. But you say, How did He fulfill the prophets? He says here not only did He come to fulfill the law but the prophets. He fulfilled the prophets by enforcing all that they taught.

37:32 The prophets stood in their generation as men who saw God's Son. And as you read through the Old Testament prophets you find that these were men who felt that their present circumstances in the religious world was like a binding straitjacket and they longed to burst the bonds of it and they called men and women back to a hard experience with God. Listen to the prophet Jeremiah when he says to Israel, speaking in the first person as though God were using his mouth, he says, What unrighteousness have you found in me, saith the Lord, that you have gone a-whoring after other gods?

38:14 And Jeremiah stands calling God's people back to hard love and hard experience with Jehovah. They had become content with sacrifices and ceremony with no heart and the prophets stood and called them back to seek Him with the heart. Isaiah does the same thing. In chapter 1 you read him saying, What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices, the keeping of new moons, solemn assemblies?

38:41 I'm tired of it, God says. Tired of it. Jesus said, Don't think I've come to cancel out what these prophets said. And when you scribes and Pharisees begin to get disturbed at me when I tell you that God is not content with merely having you draw nigh with your lips, I'm not telling you anything you haven't heard before.

39:03 I'm not setting aside your prophets whom you profess to obey. I'm fulfilling your prophets. I'm standing in the midst as the prophet speaking as they never spoke. So our Lord fulfilled the prophets by enforcing the prophetic message which was constantly a message of heart's return unto God.

39:25 And then He fulfilled the prophets wherever they spoke of the coming one. Isn't it interesting in Peter you read that the prophets sought diligently to understand what the Spirit in them did signify when it spoke beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. It indicates that there were times that the prophets were caught out of themselves and rose apparently under an inspiration almost of ecstatic rapture. And later on they said, well what did I write?

39:57 I know I was under the power of the Spirit of Prophecy and here I've written. Imagine what Isaiah must have felt like after he had penned the 53rd chapter about the suffering servant of Jehovah who would be slain, who would be cut off out of the land of the living. And when he came back to a normal state of mind and he began to consider, what is this? What is this?

40:20 And he would search the Old Testament. He would search the Old Testament scriptures. Peter says they sought diligently to understand the very things they wrote. And now Jesus stands and says, don't think I've come to nullify that.

40:32 I've come to fulfill it in my very life, in my death, and in my glorious resurrection. I came not to destroy either the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. Then we'll take up next week why the Lord Jesus couldn't destroy the law or the prophets.

The Indestructible Authority of God's Word

40:54 I'll give you a little preview of what we're going to do. Notice verse 18. For, here's the reason why. He said, the reason I cannot come and destroy the law or the prophets, here's the reason.

41:06 For, verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law till all things be accomplished. You see the reason Jesus gives why even he himself could not nullify the law or the prophets? He said, because their word is so binding that even the Son of God can't set it aside. And if ever Jesus Christ put his imprimatur, his stamp of approval upon the Old Testament, he did it here.

41:45 He said, so sacred are the Old Testament writings that not one jot or tittle, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the smallest little knot, like an apostrophe. He said, none of it can pass away until it's all fulfilled. That's why he said, I can't set it aside. He said, no one has the power.

42:05 It's the word of God. And next week we're going to consider that. How that Jesus in this passage puts his stamp of approval upon the authority, the validity, the inspiration of the Old Testament scriptures. We're going to see how he shows the essential harmony between the Old and the New Testaments.

Future Study and Concluding Application

42:26 And we're going to see, God willing, how he declares the essential harmony between law and grace. Those three things are where we want to go next week, God willing. The essential authority of the Old Testament, the essential harmony between the Old and the New Testaments, and the essential harmony between God's law and God's grace. I want to say, Pastor, this is heavy going.

42:53 This is hard. You want to be out here? You want to be out here? You want to be here, independent.

43:02 If you do, you've got to get hold of these principles that will keep you from this extreme of legalism, from this extreme of antinomianism, that you might see the blessed harmony between Moses and Jesus, between Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary, between the prophets and the apostles, and the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I close, I'd remind you, dear ones, that not one jot or kittle is going to pass from this law. And when this book says that all impenitent, rebel sinners who will not bow to God's Son are going to perish, mark it, they're going to perish. When this book says the wrath of God

43:46 abides on those that believe not, though I've never seen His wrath, though I've never seen hell, though I've never seen the judgment and bow of God, it's more sure than if I had seen it, for my eyes could deceive me. But this book will not deceive me. And so I say to any impenitent men or women who haven't thrown down the arms of rebellion and bowed to the Son of God, this book today speaks a terrible word to you. The wrath of God abides on you.

44:20 But it speaks a hopeful word. It says if you'll repent and believe and call upon Him, there's no doubt there's no mercy. Dear child of God, it speaks frightful words to you and to me. It says we're going to give an account of the deeds done in our body.

44:35 But it speaks comforting words and says that there is available to us all the grace necessary for life and for godliness that we may live to His praise.