The Place of the Law
Matthew 5:17-20
October 3, 2004
Introduction
It¡¦s good to be back here with you today. Last week I was the guest speaker at Lowry Pilgrim Church, for their MissionFest, and I had a good time.
But like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I, too, feel that there¡¦s no place like home. I enjoy speaking at other places at times, but I love it hear, and I love you dearly.
This morning we continue to work our way through the gospel according to Matthew.
We finished looking at the Beatitudes a few weeks ago, then the issue of being salt and light in the world.
Today we pick it up in chapter 5, as Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount, and today He turns His attention to something we don¡¦t talk a whole lot about, and that is the Law of God.
We tend to think as New Testament types of folk who love Jesus, that we don¡¦t need to think much about the Law, because we believe that Jesus took care of all that.
Well, that¡¦s true to an extent. But Jesus feels that the Law is important, and that He has an important part to play in seeing it accomplished.
Please follow along as I read Jesus¡¦ words in chapter 5, verses 17-20, which are printed in your note-taking guide.
"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. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 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 commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 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.¡¨
Jesus says that the law is still relevant to those who follow Him. In helping to show you how and why that is, I want us to look at some facts concerning the law, and then it¡¦s application in the lives of people who call themselves Christians.
Ready? Here we go. Let¡¦s look at ¡K
Three Facts concerning the Law
1. God established the Law.
The Law is generally considered the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. And of the course the Prophets are¡Kthe prophets.
But we can look at the whole OT as the Law and be safe.
There are three main purposes for the law that I think all people need to recognize, and the first purpose is¡K
„Ï To honor God.
Look through the Old Testament and you will find a number of places where God says, ¡§Because I am your God, do this, or don¡¦t do that.¡¨
God is jealous for His glory, and wants us to reflect that concern in our conduct and attitudes.
Obedience to God honors Him. When we see children obeying their parents, it is easy to see that they respect and honor their parents, especially if that obedience is done quickly, and not done grudgingly.
The second purpose of the law is¡K
„Ï To protect His children.
Parents, raise your hands. Let me ask you something. Do you have rules in your house that govern the conduct of your children, no matter their ages?
(Nod head) ¡V This means, ¡§Yes.¡¨
Let me ask you another question. Are these rules in place just to aggravate your kids?
The teenagers are saying yes, but what do they know?
The rules in your household are meant to protect your kids, right? And save you no small amount of embarrassment, no doubt.
Folks, God cares for us and seeks to protect us from not only our own bad decisions but from the bad decisions of other people, as we hang out with people who love Jesus.
One of the purposes of the law is to protect the children of God. The third main purpose of the law is¡K
„Ï To point to Christ.
He says that the Law would remain until everything has been accomplished. Jesus is the main thrust of what the law is meant to accomplish.
This is the main purpose of the law and the prophets, and that¡¦s where I want us to spend the next few moments as we look at the fact that¡K
2. Jesus fulfilled the Law.
Jesus claims that pretty much the entire Old Testament points to Him and that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
We could spend the next couple weeks discussing this, but let me just take two examples. First¡K
„« The Passover.
Remember in the book of Exodus, as the Hebrews are preparing to leave Egypt, what was the last thing God told them to do before leaving?
He told them to prepare their homes so the angel of death would not touch them when the last of the plagues came, the plague on the first-born.
In this plague, God was going to kill every first-born son in the land of Egypt, except for those who had smeared the blood of a lamb on their doorposts.
When the angel of death saw the blood of the lamb, he would ¡§pass over¡¨ that house.
The people were delivered by the blood of the lamb. They put their faith in what God had told them about the importance of the blood.
In the New Testament, we see John the Baptist preparing people for the Messiah. When he sees Jesus, what does he call Him? The lamb of God.
Let me show another example as I try to tie these together. The second example is¡K
„« The sacrificial system.
In the Old Testament, we find a listing of the sacrifices needed to atone for sin.
The main sacrifice was a spotless first-born lamb. When the sacrifice was made, the sin was taken away.
Remember what John the Baptist called Jesus? The lamb of God¡Kwho takes away the sins of the world.
Let¡¦s tie this in by looking at Hebrews 9:22:
without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Folks, deliverance from sin and death has always the thrust of the Old Testament, from the very beginning. And the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that everything involved in the old sacrificial system is just a foreshadowing of Jesus, who would be the final and complete sacrifice for sins.
He came to die, so that we might be delivered from the penalty of sin, the power of sin in our lives, and one day, the presence of sin as we live in glory with Jesus Himself.
I hope that your hope is in Him and His sacrifice for your sins.
Jesus fulfilled the Law. The third fact about the Law I want us to look at today is that¡K
3. God expects obedience to the Law.
Believe it or not, God didn¡¦t give the law just so we could have something to complain about!
¡§God doesn¡¦t let me do this. He doesn¡¦t let me do that. Hmph!¡¨
Obedience equals greatness in the kingdom. Disobedience equals ¡§least-ness¡¨ in the kingdom.
You know, we¡¦re so worried about looking good in the eyes of our friends and our family. But we don¡¦t often worry about looking good in the eyes of God.
Now I don¡¦t mean you earn God¡¦s love by your obedience. The Bible is very clear that you don¡¦t earn God¡¦s love. You already have it, if you¡¦ll just take it for your own.
But when was the last time you really took stock of your life and said, ¡§I wonder if God is pleased with me. I wonder if my lifestyle, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my words are in line with God?
Let me give you another way to look at obedience.
It¡¦s kinda like God has this umbrella of protection over us. As long as we obey, we remain under that umbrella, protected from the elements, or in this case, the consequences of sinful behavior.
And make no mistake. There are consequences for sinful behavior. And we face those consequences when we say, ¡§I don¡¦t want your protection ¡V I want to do my own thing.¡¨
And God say, ¡§Okay ¡V go for it, but I warned you in my Word, so don¡¦t come complaining to me when the consequences come from your actions.¡¨
The Bible says that God offers protection for those who love and obey. He offers no such protection for those who don¡¦t.
He does offer forgiveness, no question. But often-times the consequences of our sins still come.
Some would argue that obedience to God and His law is no longer necessary, because God¡¦s grace covers it all. And certainly, some things in the Old Testament don¡¦t apply anymore, right?
So we should stop talking about obedience and disobedience and just focus on loving Jesus.
And it¡¦s true that some things in the Old Testament have been nullified in the New, but that is only because of what Jesus did, not because of just the changing times.
Jesus declared all foods clean, for instance, so now we can eat pork. But that¡¦s because the issue of ¡§clean¡¨ and ¡§unclean¡¨ have been taken care of by the sacrifice of Jesus.
So there are some Old Testament commands that no longer apply. But notice I said SOME. And certainly, the moral principles behind them have not been done away with.
But Jesus said He expects us to obey his commands. Jesus expects obedience ¡V in fact, He demands it.
In Matthew 28, as Jesus is giving the disciples the great commission to make disciples, He says we are to be¡K
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Jesus also says in John 14, that¡K
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
Is He a tyrant for making such a demand? Hardly. Remember the purposes of the law? To bring God glory, to protect us, and to point to Christ.
And folks, this is the secret to the full and abundant life Jesus promises to His followers. He is able to shower the blessings to us as we obey.
Missionary pioneer, Hudson Taylor said, "The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will." Halfhearted obedience satisfies neither us, nor God.
Let¡¦s move on to a question that I think needs some attention. Jesus says in our passage today that¡K
¡§¡Kunless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.¡¨
¡§More righteous than the Pharisees?¡¨
Now that would be tough. These guys were the kings of ¡§obedience-tryers.¡¨ They thrived on trying to be righteous before God and man.
They were so intent on obeying the Law that they tried to think of every possible scenario for possible disobedience and tried to head it off at the pass.
They wanted to do all they could to prevent sinning and becoming soiled by those who did sin.
For instance, the Law says that we are to keep the Sabbath holy and not do any work on it, so the Pharisees came up with a ton of Sabbath ¡§laws¡¨ to help people keep the Sabbath.
One of the things you weren¡¦t supposed to do on the Sabbath was to carry a burden.
Well then what is a burden? I¡¦m glad you asked. Here is a Rabbinical definition of a burden, "Less then a burden is food equal to a dried fig, enough wine to fill a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a wound and enough oil to anoint a small member. (Denn Guptill, Sermoncentral.com)
But the problem was that the Scriptural principles of the law became buried under the regulations put down by the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, and these regulations became a law unto themselves. And the keeping of THESE laws became more important than the laws of God.
If there was a grade for these guys, they would get an ¡§A¡¨ for effort. But it wasn¡¦t good enough.
Why?
Eph. 2:8-9 ¡V
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
„Ï No amount of human effort is good enough.
„Ï Their faith was in their efforts, not God.
Let me close this section by telling you the story I heard about a missionary with New Tribes Missions.
One day this man came to teach the class about the Law and it¡¦s place in the overall scheme of Scripture.
He came to the front of the class, but he had a big glob of mud on his face. He didn¡¦t seem to notice it, and the students were too polite to say anything about it.
He continued to teach, and finally, the students got brave and told him he had mud on his face.
So he pulled out a mirror from his pocket, examined his face and saw the mud.
Then he did something odd. He used the mirror to try and clean his face, but all that happened was that the mud smeared on his face, making the mess worse.
As the students finished their laughing, the teacher made his point: the law reveals our sin, but it cannot clean it up. The Law is a mirror.
The law points to our need for a savior, Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away our sins.
Conclusion
Listen to Hebrews 10:19-23 ¡V
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Jesus shed His blood for you on the cross so that you could be pure before God.
Have you taken hold of that for yourself? It¡¦s there for you, but you need to take it for your very own.
Those who have, have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven.
They also have access to God in prayer, and to the blessings He has in store for His children.
The law has a place ¡V it¡¦s there for God¡¦s glory and our benefit.
Jesus came to fulfill what the law could not do ¡V clean us from our sin. Only the blood of Jesus can do that.
And then you will be more righteous than the Pharisees, because it¡¦s not your righteousness that counts, but Christ¡¦s.
So where is your hope? Is it in your own efforts at being religious? I hate to tell you this, but that won¡¦t cut it.
Put your faith in Jesus and what He did, and you¡¦ve got it made.
Let¡¦s pray.
