Preached in Markham Baptist Church, October 22, 2006

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount we read that the crowds are amazed at Jesus’ teaching because He taught as “one who had authority”.  Well, if amazement was their final reaction, I would suggest to you that anticipation was their original feeling.  They had heard that Jesus was preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:15) and so you can taste the anticipation of the crowd as they gather to hear this sermon.

“What do you think Jesus is going to say in this sermon?”

 “I’m not sure.  But I’ve heard he’s preaching the good news.”

“O well, then, it must be that things are going to get a little easier.”

“A little easier?”

 “Yeah.  What better news could there be than to hear that God is going to let up on the whole idea of keeping the law!”

“Oh, I know what you mean.  All those rules and regulations.  Who can keep them?  I break 12 of them before I have breakfast in the morning.”

“Well there are the Pharisees.”

“O yeah, the Pharisees are experts in keeping the law.  They’ve made a career of keeping the law – but let me tell you for the average schmoe – it’s impossible.  I think you’re right.  This is going to be good news. Surely, God is not going to be as demanding as He was in the past.” 

“For sure.  Instead of 10 commandments, I’m sure Jesus is going to tell us that there are only 6.  He’s going to scratch out a couple.”

And so there’s this anticipation in the crowd and that anticipation is only heightened as they hear the beginning of the sermon and how Jesus defines belonging to the Kingdom of heaven.  Those who live under the sovereignty of God are poor in spirit.  They mourn.  They are meek, they hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And you can see heads turn and you hear the people whisper, “He hasn’t said anything about the law – this is looking good. Maybe He’s going to do away with all the commandments.  And being a part of the kingdom of God won’t have anything to do with the law.”  So there is this air of anticipation.   (If the disciples were Southern Baptists they would be at the front shouting, “Preach it Jesus, Preach it!”)

But that anticipation soon gives way to shock as Jesus makes a series of astounding statements beginning at verse 17 – “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets.  I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

And you can hear the crowd – “Did Jesus just basically say that the law is a good thing?”  “Yeah that’s what I think He said.”

“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will be any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.”

“It sounds like the law is here to stay.”

“Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”

“Hey!  He just said that the law is not only a good thing and it is here to stay but that keeping the law has a direct connection to our participation in the Kingdom.” 

“For I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Well the crowd is really confused now.  Because for the first time, the Pharisees are used as a positive example.  And the people sit there in stunned silence, for instead of making it easier, it appears that Jesus has made it harder to live with God and enter His Kingdom. 

It sound like anything but good news. But let me assure you that this is the best news that you and I could hear. 

Of all the passages of scripture I would say that this particular one has had a great influence on me in terms of helping me understand the Christian life, and all that God has done for me and every other Christian in Christ and in understanding what God expects of me. I have been greatly helped in this through the writings of Hudson Taylor, Watchman Nee and more recently Charles Price. 

To understand this, we must understand what the law is and what the prophets are that Jesus came to fulfill.  We may understand what the prophets are and how Jesus came to fulfill the word of the prophets.  He fulfilled each prophecy given about the messiah in His birth, life, character, death and resurrection.  He came and fulfilled all the promises of God given through the prophets to His people – 2 Corinthians 1:20 - “For no matter how many promises God has made they are “yes” in Christ.”

But what about the law? What did Jesus mean when He said He had come to fulfill it?  Well, we know that there are three aspects of the law.  There is ceremonial law - all those laws that govern how the people can approach God through the sacrificial system; all the laws governing the priests and the cleansing rituals.  And we know that Jesus fulfilled all these laws with His death upon the cross. He was the perfect sacrifice offered on our behalf and when He died, the veil in the temple was torn in two – telling us that we now have access to God through faith in Christ.

There is also the civil law. Those are laws which applied to the people of Israel as they began to set up a nation.  These laws were given to Israel and Israel alone and concerned a particular time and place.  As they set up the a constitution, a nation, with God as their leader.

There are the moral laws.  These laws apply to all people for they govern how any society is supposed to behave. We know them especially as the Ten Commandments. 

It is the moral law that Jesus is speaking about here. 

Now we might ask at this point, Why did God give us this moral law?  I don’t want to be irreverent or anything but was God crazy??? Who can keep these laws He’s given?  I’ve have no hesitation in saying you haven’t kept them.  And you could have the same confidence in saying that I haven’t kept all the commands of God.  Then why did God give them?  To answer that question we need to look at 2 verses of Scripture that speak of the law.

The first is 1 John 3:4 – “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”

This verse tells us that to break the law is sin.  We’ve already admitted that we cannot keep the law – that means each one of us have sinned.

I have told you in the past that sin means to miss the mark.  It was a word used in archery.  So if you miss the target it was called sin.  If you missed by a mile or 2 inches it was called sin.  So each of us - we have missed the target.  Sin is not a measurement of how bad we are but how good we’re not.

You see if you are golfing and your ball kisses the lip of the hole but rolls right by you’ve missed it.  And if you putt your ball and you miss by 20 yards, you’ve missed it.  You don’t congratulate yourself for missing the hole by 20 yards. You’ve missed it. God is not interested in how bad you are – but how good you’re not.  Sin is missing the mark – by a whisker, or by 20 yards.

What does God say is His mark? It is the law.  The law represents the target we miss every time we sin. 

The second verse we need to look at is Romans 3:23 - “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Now Paul says we have all fallen short of God’s glory when we sin.

If we put these 2 verses together -  John says sin is breaking the law, and Paul says to sin is fall short of the glory of God - it tells us that the glory of God and the law of God are the same thing.

So we must ask, what is the glory of God?  It is used in different ways in the Bible depending on the context but primarily it refers to the character of God, what He is and what He does. 

This is what John had in mind when he wrote John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory – the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

What he is saying is that in Christ we saw what God is like.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only – who came from the Father.  In the way Jesus acted, played, related to his mom and dad, his friends and acquaintances, we saw what God is like. 

The glory of God is the character of God.

Going back to Romans 3:16, if we have fallen short of the glory of God, then we have fallen short of reflecting the character of God.  Though we are made in the image of God, sin has entered in and we have missed the mark.

So, with all we can now answer the question, why did God give us the law?

Well, if the law of God is equal to the glory of God and the glory of God is the character of God then the law of God was given to show us the character of God, and on top of this, to show us how to behave in order to reflect the character of God. 

So when God gave the law – you shall not steal, it’s not because stealing will disrupt the fabric of society.  It does, but that’s not why God gave the law.  God have the law because God is not a thief and man was made in His image, so do not steal.

When He said, you shall not bear false witness it is because God never tells lies.  And man was made to be in His image so don’t ever bear false witness.

When He said, you shall not covet it is because God isn’t greedy.  And man was made to be in His image.

When He said do not commit adultery it is because God is totally faithful and man was made to be in His image so don’t ever commit adultery.

When He said do not murder it is because God does not murder and man was made to be in His image. 

When He said, six days you shall labour and on the seventh day you shall rest, He tells us why, because God rested on the seventh day.  We are to rest in the utter sufficiency of God. 

Children honour your parents, why?  Because in the trinity, the Son says I always do those things that please the Father, and human beings were made to be in God’s image.

You see, God didn’t simply give a set of guidelines to Moses because they were all getting messed up down there.  The law is far more profound than that – it reveals what God is like.  So human beings understand what they are supposed to be like having been created in His image.

The purpose of the law is to reveal the character of God. 

What, then, is the effect of the law?  Romans 7:7 says I would not have known what sin was if it wasn’t for the law.  The law, then, makes us aware of sin.

In other words, I could be driving along Highway 7 just east of Hwy 48 doing a fine clip just before Christman Crt, the cemetery on my left and on my right.  I’m going 70, just like everyone else.  But it’s not until the officer pulls me over and says, “Do you know you were going 20 kilometers over the speed limit?”   That I say, “Really? I didn’t realize it!” 

“Well, you were sir. Here’s your ticket, next time keep the law.”

I was enjoying myself up to that point.  But then the law came and exposed my sin.  If there is one thing that God has to do with everyone of us if we are going to know this life of victory and power and fulfillment, it is to come face to face with our own utter bankruptcy and inability in ourselves to be what God created us to be.

You see, it’s not what we do that’s the problem, it is what we are.  It is a heart issue. 

So in the verses that follow this, Jesus says it’s not murder that’s the problem, it’s anger.  It’s not adultery, but lust.  Its not what you do, but who you are that is the problem.

And you can imagine the people, the beads of perspiration coming down their faces – “This isn’t good news – this is terrible news, it was bad enough that we couldn’t do those things now we can’t even think about them.”

What is Jesus doing?  He is backing us into a corner to make us realize that we cannot be what God wants us to be on our own.  He is helping us realize our poverty of spirit that He speaks about in the beatitudes. Now note Jesus is not doing this to be mean.  But to get us to acknowledge it and that we might hear the good news.

So if the purpose of the law is to reveal the character of God and the effect of the law is to reveal the failure of man, then the third issue is the fulfillment of the law.  How does Jesus fulfill the law? Or to change the question, how is the character of God going to be restored in human experience?

Read Colossians 1:25-27- “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The thing that has been missing is Christ in you the hope of glory. Our hope of hitting the target is not Christ alongside us, not as your guide helper but Christ in you.

This is the promise made in Jeremiah 31:33 - “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.  “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

The new covenant says God will not require a rewriting but a relocation of the law.  Up till now the law was written on tablets of stone but now it will be written in hearts. 

Christ in you is the hope of hitting the target.  I will take the law and write it on your hearts and put it in your minds.  I will put my spirit in you.  I will move you to follow my decrees.  I want to suggest to you that this is all that is involved in fulfilling the law.

What was a command in the old covenant will become a promise under the new covenant.  Let me illustrate this to you. 

I heard a true story one day of a man who was converted to Christ in prison in England.  He was in prison for stealing - he was a thief.  While he was there someone had come to him and witnessed to him and talked to him about Christ and as a result he became a Christian. 

When he left the prison one of the first things he wanted to do was to visit a church.  On the first Sunday of his release he went to the church, he didn’t know what church to go to he just picked any church in London. He went in, sat down at the back, looked up to the front of the church, and there on the wall at the front of the church were written the Ten Commandments, five on one said and five on the other.  He thought to himself, that’s the last thing I want to see - I know my failure, I know my history. The last thing I want to do is to sit and read those laws that only condemn me. 

But he did read them. Maybe the service was a bit long, maybe it became a bit tedious and he began to read them.  And as he began to read them he realized that he was reading them very differently from the way read them before.  Previously when he read them they said things like this:  You shall not steal - it was a command.  But this morning when he read it, it said, You shall not steal - it was a promise. If I can put words into his mouth he might have said, Thank you Lord!

Why?  Because I will put my spirit in you and will move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws.  It used to say, You shall not bear false witness.  It was a command.  But this morning it said, You shall not bear false witness – it was a promise.  Thank you, Lord! Why?  Because Christ in you is your hope of hitting the target. 

It used to say, You shall not commit adultery.  It was a  command. But this morning it said, You shall not commit adultery.  It was a promise.  Thank you, Lord!  Why?  Because I’ve put my law in your mind, on your heart. 

It used to say, You shall not covet. It was a command.  But this morning it said, You shall not covet.  It was a promise.  Thank you, Lord!  Why?  Because I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  And the very thing which only had ever been commands that condemn became promises that liberate.  Isn’t that fantastic?

You see that’s the gospel – God through faith in Christ is able to recreate us so that we might reflect the image of God again.  You see that is how your righteousness can surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees had a righteousness that was all external.  Therefore it was hard to keep because their hearts weren’t changed.  But if God has changed your heart, then He is able to change your conduct and enables you to keep the laws and your righteousness is able to surpass that of the Pharisees.

And you see that as long as the commands are external on tablets of stone they can only condemn us; now when written by the Spirit of God on our hearts as He lives in us the life of Jesus what He commanded in the Old Covenant He now promises. 

So we read in Romans 8:3 – 4 -“What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”  

What the Law was powerless to do, weakened by human nature – in other words, the law was okay, but human ability, human nature, the flesh was unable to fulfill its demands.  So what the law was powerless to do and was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering and so He condemns sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

He says there what the law could not do, all the law could ever do was expose our condition.  Leave us guilty. God has done by implanting His own Spirit in us, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us.  When the law says you shall not steal, you don’t.  Why?  Because you are little more disciplined than you used to be?  NO.  Because God works in you now to work and will His good pleasure. 

This is the miracle that we call regeneration.  The life of God planted in the human soul.

When you understand that, when you grasp this, you discover that you have a whole new Bible.  You have a whole new set of promises that you always thought were commands but now by the Holy Spirit’s indwelling they become promises! 

Anyone here with a problem with stealing?  I have a promise for you.  You’ll find it in Exodus 20 - it used to be a command, it used to be written on tablets of stone, but now written by the Holy Spirit on your heart it says this, “You will not steal.” 

Nobody living in the fullness of the spirit of God steals.  Because God is not a thief and His purpose for you now is to restore you into His own image.

Is there anyone here who is facing sexual temptation that you can hardly cope with?  Here’s a promise for you, you’ll find in Exodus 20.  It used to be a command written on tablets of stone, now it is a promise written by the spirit on your heart, and now it says this, “You will not commit adultery.”  That is a promise. No one living in the fullness of Spirit of God commits adultery.

Someone here who is greedy?  I’ve got a promise for you, it used to be a command, you’ll find it in Exodus chapter 20. You will not covet.  What a relief.  You can relax and not be greedy about what other folks have. It’s a promise.

Someone else here tonight for whom things have become too important? And you get your priorities all messed up? Here is a promise that used to be a command written on tablets of stone it says, You shall not have any other God before me. It’s a promise. You allow Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit to fill your life with Himself. You won’t struggle with having other gods before you.

You see, all the commands that God gave left human beings utterly helpless and hopeless and pathetically impoverished aware only of their failure until Jesus came and said, I have not come to abolish the law.  I have not come from heaven with an apology for the law that you have been unable to keep because the law reveals the character of God.  That is why he said not a single dot from any “i” or a single stroke from any “t” will disappear from the law because God does not change.  Heaven and earth will pass away, He said, the law is more secure than the earth on which we stand.  It is even more secure than the heaven that we anticipate because the law reveals the character of God. 

But here is what I have come to do - this is what is exciting, this is what is good about the good news - I have come to fulfill it.  I have come to inhabit the life of any person from any background who has been in the grip of any sin, who has been locked into any habit, and as they allow me to fill their lives with myself says Jesus in effect there, I will fulfill the law.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - October 2006

[Home] [Coming Up] [Programs] [Sermons] [About Us] [Contact Us]