I think that's next yes I'm not used to having to think through this to Luke chapter 16 and we're we're going to be continuing the basically the text that we looked at last week but we're going to be focusing on verse 17 this week if you remember we had spent the majority of our focus last time on verse 16, and we were focusing on the issue of discontinuity, the discontinuity that exists between the Old and New Testaments. In other words, some younger folks asked me, what's discontinuity? Well, we're talking about in what ways that they differ from each other, what ways they're distinct and unique to themselves, and the thing that we emphasize most last week is that the way in which the New Testament is greater, fuller, more complete. So I told you four things that I want to remind you of while you're turning. The first is that my premise to you at the beginning was that the reality of how these two relate to each other is going to ipso facto create an interpretive framework for us for the whole Bible. In other words, a framework for the way we interpret the Bible. And that framework, like it or not, is going to affect the way we understand any part of the Bible, any other part of the Bible. And my biggest contention to you at the outset then was that it's the Bible itself, not the Academy, not not books on covenant theology, or books on dispensationalism, or not even the history of the church, right? The church and its testimony throughout history that ought to determine these things, but the Bible itself. And the fourth thing, very closely related to that, is that Jesus has the final say on that. As the fullness of God's self-revelation, Jesus, and by extension his apostles, has the final say on how they relate to each other. So hopefully you can remember all that. You can see there, and I'll remind you that my point in that title was this is what we see in our text. We see a glimpse into Jesus' own interpretive framework for the scriptures. But, that all being said, we only saw half the picture last week. If you weren't here for that, you may want to check that out on Sermon Audio, or today will seem imbalanced. But last week we focused, as I said before, only on the discontinuity. But that alone is not enough to develop a proper interpretive framework for the scripture, right? We've got to see both. We've got to see the areas where there's discontinuity and the areas where there's continuity. What does that mean? Where they work together, right? The areas where, how they read is one message. How they have one consistent theme and purpose throughout all 66 books of the Bible. How they support each other and hold the same ideas and have one goal. What's the goal? the glory of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's the point of the Bible from Genesis to the maps. And in that, in Christ, we see it's all one. So let's read our verses together and we'll do some review of verse 16. So Luke chapter 16, beginning in verse 16. This is the word of the Lord. The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Amen. Let's pray. Father, if you would, please be gracious to us now as you have been thus far. Please help us to understand this text accurately. Please implant it on our hearts. Help it to give us a better understanding of the way you've revealed yourself to us. Lord, help it, excuse me, to make us better servants, more faithful servants, more clearly and accurately understand Christ, and more clearly and accurately proclaim him to the world. Please help us. We need your grace. Protect us from error. Guide us in truth. We ask in Christ's name, amen. All right, well, as I said before, let's begin with a review of verse 16. I hope it will be about a 10-minute review. You know me. But I think the language, particularly for those who weren't here, the language of verse 17 is not going to make a lot of sense if we don't have the backdrop of verse 16. We'll review that. Look at it with me, verse 16, and remember that first proposition that Jesus set forward was simply that the law and the prophets were until John. So, in other words, remember what that meant, that that Old Testament period of revelation through its various prophets, that Old Testament economy, if you will, Old Covenant economy, that continued up until and even into the ministry of John the Baptist, right? Hopefully you can remember that. But, verse 16 again, since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. So the language there is just saying that there's something greater, something fuller, a more complete revelation from God, a greater covenantal economy than what existed before John that was coming and John was to serve as the transition point, if you will. It's going to be a little overlap in the ministry of John, but then something greater is coming following John. Remember we fleshed that out a little bit with some parallel passages Matthew 11 verse 9. Hopefully you can remember this Jesus asking about John remember what then did you go out to see a prophet and he answers his own questions. Yes but he's more than that. Yes, he's an Old Testament prophet, but he's more than a prophet. Well, how can he be that? Well, the next verse is in just any prophet. This is the prophet who's to be the forerunner for the visitation of God on the earth, right? He says, this is he of whom it is written, verse 10, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. And so then I said, it's not surprising then that Jesus said of John, truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Why? Because John's message was the greatest yet. Why? Because it said everything that the previous deposit of revelation had pointed to, had predicted, everything the Law and the Prophets had prophesied, John is saying that's finally here. Everything foreshadowed in the Old Testament deposit of truth It's here, right? It's come, it's arrived. Why? Because God incarnate had come. The Messiah had come. And immediately following John's proclamation or attendant to it, Jesus is baptized, presented to the world as the Messianic King, right? As the faithful son of God. And John's task was greater than any before him because John said, he's here, prepare yourself for him. How? Repentance and faith, right? Always the answer. And my premise to you last week in pointing that out was it forces us to recognize a distinction between the period before and after John and also a superiority of what followed after John over what came before. Remember this, back in Matthew 11, 11 we had read that about John being the greatest of men born of women, and then remember Jesus said, yet the one who is least in what comes after John, that's the implication, in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Now remember, we looked at two things from the book of Hebrews to sort of flesh that out. The first was that prologue to the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 1, 1-3 that showed us how the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ was the greatest, fullest, most clear revelation of God that had ever yet come or ever would come, right? The manifold ways that God had spoken in the past through multiple prophets. Now he's spoken singularly through his son who's the very outraying of the invisible image of God. Right? Remember that. We won't read over it. We also read there in Hebrews chapter 8 what the author of Hebrews wrote about the superiority of the new covenant that Jesus would bring about. He said this, we won't read it all, but portions. Remember he said Christ had obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old. In fact, he says, it's as much more excellent than the old as the covenant that he mediates is better. So Christ's ministry is greater than Moses or Aaron's ministry. Christ's covenant is greater than Moses' covenant. He says, since, he tells us why, remember? Since it is enacted, it's coming into force on better promises. And we talked about those, I should have just read it, but I didn't, but it's, what's that? Circumcision of the heart, not just the flesh, right? God, the Spirit of God causing obedience, giving people the want to, the fact that everyone in this new covenant would know God personally and salvifically. None would fall away and be lost as they had in the old covenant. And more than anything else, what? the final fulfillment of that promise that He would be their God and they would be His people. Guys, those things just weren't fully, finally, and ultimately realized in the Old Covenant. And then finally, He would finish with this, verse 13, and speaking of a new covenant, making the disconnect clear, he says he makes the first one obsolete. So that's the relationship of the two. When the one comes in as inaugurated, the other is omitted, okay? Negated. We're going to qualify it. Hang in there with me. Back at verse 16, finally we saw this by way of review. The Law and the Prophets were until John, since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached. and everyone forces his way into it. My premise to you in that was that this too designated a really important distinction between the operation of these two covenants. The typical way of entrance into the old covenant was through your physical circumstances. Your natural birth. I said typical way. There was a path of proselytization. I'm not even going to go into it. The typical way was natural birth, ethnic status, paternal lineage, and physical circumcision. All those things were physical and temporal things external to you. But to be in the new covenant, you had to be Born again. You had to undergo a spiritual birth, an inner transformation, an inner renewal. You had to undergo, have done to you, not the circumcision of your flesh. but the circumcision of your heart, right? Those things that the Spirit of God does that produces that repentance and faith that John was calling for, right? A big distinction, you didn't just passively wake up into the kingdom of God like you would in the old covenant. By the grace of God, you pressed your way into it, right? Remember this, we read, among many other places, Paul saying that the true circumcision, those who are truly holy unto the Lord, like really and actually, not just externally, are those who worship not through animal sacrifices, but through the Spirit of God. Those who glory not in Moses, but in Christ Jesus. And look at the way the true circumcision is described. who put no confidence in the flesh. That's a big, big discontinuity there. Shouldn't have been, but it was. Finally, remember this. We read this quote from R.C. Sproul. Somebody told me afterwards, you could have just read that. Saved us about 50 minutes, right? Touche. But that's why I'm reading it again. In other words, Sproul says about verse 16, what he's saying to the Pharisees is this, in the old days, the law and the prophets predicted in a nebulous way the coming of the kingdom of God. But the coming of John signaled a new dimension of urgency. Here it is. The kingdom of God is broken through. The gates are open. and people are pressing into it. But the Pharisees, who were supposed to be the leaders of righteousness, stand outside the gates and resist it. And indeed, that did seem to be the point that he was making to the Pharisees directly. But, and I intimated this before, if we take verse 16 and isolate it from verse 17, we're going to come up with a very inadequate, lopsided, and erroneous interpretive framework for the Bible, right? Because while there's We just reviewed it, some very clear discontinuity, right, between the covenants, between the testaments. There's a lot of continuity and that's forever going to remain. Guys, flee from anyone who tells you to unhitch yourself from the Old Testament or from any part of God's Word. God's, all of the Bible is God's Word and it all works together. It all has a common purpose and a common goal. And we miss it if we negate and set aside any part of it. My position clear enough? Okay, we'll try to see that that's biblical. Verse 17, I think verse 17 was meant to force the boundaries of discontinuity to to be established. Look at it again and notice Jesus begins it with the language of contrast. So he's made this statement about discontinuity very forceful and then he says, but it's easier, sorry, for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. Now, why is he beginning this with that conjunction? With that language of contrast? Well, I mean, I imagine because if not, what he said in verse 16 is going to give them a lopsided view of what he's saying, right? That they're going to take it as he's making some radical disjunction that totally throws the law and the prophets and the Old Testament in the garbage and says, I'm done with that. God's done with that. We're on to better things. No. See, you know what he's doing? I take great satisfaction in telling some of it, pointing some of this out to some of you. He's giving a qualifier. If you know, you know. People give me a hard time about that, if you don't know, about giving too many qualifiers. But that's what Jesus is doing here. He's saying, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not throwing the law in the trash. I'm not saying God has changed his mind, or God's word has changed, or anything like that. He's saying the very opposite. And look at how strongly he's affirming it. Look at this little comparison here. He says, it's easier, it would be easier for that to happen, it would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away. What does he mean by heaven and earth? I mean, I'm taking that as saying everything created, the entire created order, right, for all of it, right, to just cease to exist. Now guys, is that something that's gonna happen? This'll be important for later. Depends on who you ask and what their eschatological presuppositions are, right? Peter said, some think it's symbolic language. I'm gonna show you a few things. I hope it'll be worth our time later. Peter said the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And guys, have we not been reading that the day of the Lord came in the first century when Jesus was on the earth? Yeah, what does that tell us about the day of the Lord? It ain't 24 hours, is it? Okay? It's when the Lord comes to the earth and does things, okay? That's not even my point. I just like to point that stuff out. He says, so Peter points to the future, after Jesus has already come that first time, and says, the day of the Lord's coming yet, and when he does, the heavens are going to pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies are going to be burned up and dissolved. The earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. In the next verse he says, these things are thus, or in other words, like this, in this manner, they're going to be dissolved. He says that in verse 12, the heavens are going to be set on fire and dissolve. The heavenly bodies are going to melt as they burn, but not to despair. He says, according to his promise, we're waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So there's a new creation. Now guys, that new creation began already when Jesus raised from the dead. Okay. But here we see this already, not yet. Anywho, I probably don't need to get into that. John said this, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The sea was no more. Now, you guys be good Bereans here. Some people say it's symbolic. It seems literal to me, but even if it isn't, we'll get back to our text. Even if it isn't, what's it describing here by this language of the heaven and earth passing away? the most cataclysmic of events, right? This final act of God in which he destroys what's wrong and makes everything right. This final act of his redemption. So either way, whether we take that to mean literally the creation is going to be destroyed and remade in a different manner, or it's talking about something else. Either way, the statement that he's saying in verse 17 is made very profound by it, right? Because he says, remember, coming back, it's going to be easier for that to happen, for all of creation to pass away, than for the law to become void. Is that a strong enough statement? Does that prove his point? Does it put enough emphasis on it? Now, what did I leave out on purpose by the ellipsis there? It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away, not just for the whole law, but for one dot of the law to become void. It's even stronger, isn't it? It's even clearer. I like the NAS, it's helpful. It says, but it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail. In other words, what? It's easier for all of creation to cease to exist for even the smallest part of the Old Testament to fail to do what it was supposed to do, what God said it was going to do. Why? Why is that impossible? Yes, that's right! Because God's immutable and this is the Word of God. Right? God doesn't change. It's this idea. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand. Forever. That's the basic idea behind what Jesus is saying here. And before we move on from this concept, I just want to, this is a little rabbit trail, but consider what it means for Jesus to say this on the Olivet Discourse. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words, he is not mine, will not pass away. Whose words won't pass away? the word of God. Jesus says, my words will never pass away. What's the subtle, not so subtle implication here? Jesus is God. I love to point those out to you, so the cult's arguments against the deity of Christ won't be persuasive to you. Jesus is God, and it's all over the Bible. All right, back to continuity. There are a number of ways I think that the Bible affirms its own internal continuity. We're only gonna look at some of the primary ones this morning. I thought of these, these are in no particular order, but I thought it would be helpful just to talk our way through a list of them before we actually see how the New Testament affirms that. The first I talk about a lot, and that's through the perpetuity of the moral law. What does perpetuity mean? It's perpetual. Think perpetual. What's something that's perpetual? Ongoing, right? And so we're separating there the moral law codified in the Ten Commandments from the civil and ceremonial application laws in the Old Covenant. Secondly, this will always be until the new creation comes in its fullness, and that's the law showing us our need of grace. In other words, the old covenant showing us our desperate need of the new. There's the issue of type, shadows, and substance. The former two occurring and being given to us in the Old Testament, and the substance, the completion, the fulfillment of those in the new. There's the fact that the Bible has one redemptive message, right, from Genesis 315. to the maps, as I like to say, there's one story of redemption that it's all about. It's all working toward that same end. And then, of course, the biggest way I could say that the Bible's continuity is obvious is in the fact that it's all about Jesus. Guys, if the way you interpret, teach the Old Testament, Bible prophecy, does not have Christ at the center of it, you're missing it. You're missing it. It's all about Jesus. So, for the rest of our time, we're going to look at some of those, or some scriptures that illustrate these things, and we're going to be bouncing back and forth to a parallel, somewhat of a parallel passage to verse 17 in our text, but we won't be going back there specifically. This is the one I'm referring to, Matthew 5, 17. So this is the Sermon on the Mount, right? Jesus says something very similar here. He says, Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. He says again, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, now notice here it's not, it's easier for heaven and earth to pass away, this is a different setting, a different time, he's teaching something similar at a different place, so he doesn't say it exactly the same, but here he says, until heaven and earth pass away, I think meaning it's going to, Not an iota, that's the smallest Greek letter, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. So that's a pretty clear statement, isn't it? Remember, in the Sermon on the Mount, he's going to be saying a lot of things that contradict their understanding of the Old Testament, right? Now, is he contradicting the Old Testament in its essence? Johnny shakes his head before I get it out of my mouth. That's good! No! Absolutely not. It's the Word of God. But from their perspective, he's going to be contradicting a lot of that. And at the very, almost the very outset, he's telling them, that's not what I'm doing here. He's reassuring them, not only will every tiny detail and promise be fulfilled, more importantly, saying they're going to be fulfilled by whom? By Him, right? He says, I've not come to abolish it, I've come to fulfill it. He's the one that's going to be doing the fulfilling of it. Guys, that means the fulfillment of it is not going to happen outside of Him, right? These are big interpretive framework issues. Now, is there a lot of continuity in that? No. Yes! Right? I mean, my goodness. He couldn't be any more clear. But let's look and see how consistently this is the interpretive framework of Jesus' apostles, right? Those who carry on his ministry. Colossians 2.16. I hope this will be rapid fire. Probably won't be. Therefore, Paul says, let no one pass judgment on you, Christian, in questions of food and drink or with regard to festival or a new moon, or the ESV goes for the unorthodox, a Sabbath there to distinguish from the Sabbath that's part of the moral law. So in other words, he's saying, don't let anyone judge you on these matters of the civil and ceremonial applications of the moral law, right? Jewish feasts, Jewish Leviticus 11 teen, 11 teen. Sorry. I can't recover from that. Leviticus 11, dietary law. I don't even know what I was combining there. Anyhow, he says, don't let anybody judge you on those. Why? Here's the point. because these are just a shadow of the things to come. In other words, what? They were never the ultimate end. They were always types and shadows pointing to a greater, more full reality that was to come. And he says, what's the reality? What's the substance of those things? Jesus. Jesus is the substance of Food and drink and festival and new moon and Sabbath. Jesus is the substance of those things. So why does He say don't let them judge you about it? Because if you're in Christ, right, those things are satisfied on your behalf. You've satisfied those things in Him. I gotta go faster. Luke 24, remember this, the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. They're still disheartened because Jesus has died and they're not realizing he's risen yet. Jesus says to them, oh foolish ones and slow of heart, notice, to believe all that the prophets have spoken. What's he pointing them to? Says, the Old Testament, okay? Says, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? What things? The things that the Old Testament predicted, that he's now suffered in the cross, and enter through that, enter into his glory through that. And then watch, beginning with Moses, And all the prophets, that's the Old Testament, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. What's the point? The Old Testament's about Jesus. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. He's the fulfillment of it. That's Jesus' own position. Romans 15, 8 is underutilized for this. Paul says, I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness. How so? Because in Jesus, it was shown that God was faithful to his promises. To his Old Testament promises. Look, Paul says, he became a servant to show God's truthfulness to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. Guys, what does that tell us? Who is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham? Jesus. Who is the fulfillment of the promises to Moses? Jesus. How about David? Jesus. Need I go on? Paul saying, Jesus, the fact of Jesus incarnation, earthly ministry, death and resurrection proves that the word of God never fails. Because he's the fulfillment of it. Think about this, think about the way Paul describes Christianity on trial in Acts 24, 14. He says this, I confess to you that according to the way, that was a way they were referred to Christianity at that time, which they call a sect, I worship, look, Jewish man speaking, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets. So what's he saying there? This way, which is centered around Jesus Christ, this is what the law and the prophets pointed to. Being obedient to the law and the prophets is to have faith in Jesus Christ. Is that clear enough for continuity? It's powerful, isn't it? Watch this one, you're gonna like this one. 1 Peter 1.24, I hope you do. For all flesh is like grass, and its glory like the flower of grass. That's Isaiah 40 verse 7. Here's verse 8. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Again, underutilized. And Peter says what? This word of the Lord, of God, that lasts forever, is the gospel. He says, this word of the Lord that lasts forever is the good news that was preached to you. Guys, you see that? Jesus, right? The cross of Christ is how the word of God never fails. Period. I love this one. Paul, again, in 2 Corinthians 1 20 says, all the promises of God find their notice the way they capitalize it. Their affirmation, their yes. in Him. In whom? Jesus. Right? Think about this. We'll narrow it down. This is me trying to come back to our text. Paul said in Romans 9, it is not as though the Word of God has failed. Why would people accuse the Word of God of failing? That's right, because for the most part, the Jewish people were apostate. It didn't look like those promises made to Abraham, et cetera, were coming to fruition. But Paul says here, and this will go somewhere, he says, no, no, no, you're misunderstanding this. This was never to everyone who's ethnically Jewish. He says it was always delimited. For example, where he says, not all who were descended from Jacob, Israel, belonged to Jacob. Not all are children of Abraham because there is offspring, and he gives the example through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. So understand the idea. What's he saying? He says, hey, Abraham had two sons. The promise only went one direction. Ishmael has no claim on the promise, right? Isaac had two sons. The promise only went in one direction. Jacob, right? And so he's showing that God's always had in mind a particular remnant, if you will, that this promise was going to be made to. Okay, now watch this. Remember, he starts with the Word of God is not failed. You know what I mean. I don't know if my grammar's right there, but watch this. Galatians 3.16. Paul says, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. Okay. We're with him so far, right? He says, and it does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring, who's the offspring of Abraham to whom the promises were made? Jesus. Jesus guys, that's why I connected that to Romans 9 we says it's not as though the Word of God is failed Right regardless if they're all apostate, but this one man It's not as though the Word of God has failed because this is the offspring of Abraham now watch this he goes on to say this and this is gonna bring us back bring our focus back to the issue of continuity and back to Matthew 5 down in verse 21 he says here's the answer or here's the where we're going to go, where our minds naturally go. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? So remember what he just said. He just said, no one is saved through the law. Right? Before that, we didn't read it yet. He said, does that mean that the law is working in opposition to the promises of God? Does that mean that the law is on a different team, trying to take people a different way? Paul says, may it never be. Certainly not. He says, first, the qualifier, if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. He's just said, we didn't read it, but he's just said in the context, righteousness ain't by the law. It can't be by the law, right? So the law can't produce righteousness with God, so Are they on a different team? Is it contrary to the promises of God? He says no. So then how are they playing on the same team? Verse 22, the scripture imprisoned everything under sin. That's how the law works together with the new covenant. That's how the old covenant works together with the new what? It shows you the standard of righteousness that must be met and condemns every act that falls short of it. And what does that do? That drives us to Jesus. So the law does that so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe, those whose faith and trust is in Jesus. So, are they working toward a different end? Law and grace? No? Old covenant, new covenant? No, they're working toward the same end. They're pushing people the same direction, right? The law shows us our need of Jesus. The new covenant brings about that redemption accomplished by Jesus. That takes us back to the Sermon on the Mount. This is what we read before. I'll try to connect it. Matthew 5, 17. Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. Jesus said, I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not Neota, not Adot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. We read that before. Now watch. Following that, Jesus said this. Remember, I'm just trying to show you biblical continuity here. Verse 19. Since that's true, he says, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments, excuse me, and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So what's he saying here? He's really setting aside some of our common notions today that, well, God just chilled out in the New Testament, right? That He was very austere and strict in the Old Testament with those things that were objects of His wrath, and now He's just relaxed. Guys, that is not the Bible. That's not the way we harmonize the Word of God. He says anyone who relaxes One of the least commandments of the law and tries to get others to do so, they're going to be least in God's kingdom. Do you see at the very least the continuity being affirmed in that? He says, you can't set that aside. You set that aside, you're the enemy of God. That's essentially what that means. Now think about this. to try to bring this somewhere. We know this well, Matthew 22, 36. Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law? Remember, Jesus being asked this? And Jesus said, verse 37, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. So in other words, he's taking the first four commandments This way for y'all. The first four commandments are duty to God, and he's summarizing them in one moral axiom. What's that? What does it look like to obey the first four commandments? It looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then he does this. He says, and the second is like it. Over here, six commandments. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Say, well, Josh, you're just assuming that. No. He says, on these two depend all the law and the prophets. See, this is how the moral law, summarizing these two laws, codified in those ten that were given on Sinai, this is how they are the foundation for all the law and the prophets that spring forth from them. Right? It's the basis of them. And that's why Jesus says, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and tries to get other people to do so is the enemy of God, essentially. Watch. He's the enemy of people. Watch. Verse 20, next verse. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now guys, I want you to think about this. When it came to the civil and ceremonial applications of that moral law, the scribes and Pharisees appeared to have it in the bank, didn't they? They kept the right feast days, they wore the right clothes, they ate the right foods, they didn't eat the wrong foods. Right? Physical circumcision, all those external things, they had it in the bank. They were what the people looked to as the paragon, the example for covenant fidelity. But what was the problem that we've seen all throughout Luke's gospel about them? All those external boxes were checked, and what wasn't there? the moral law, the heart, right? The very foundation that could be summarized in love God with all your heart, love people as yourself, honor God in the way you love and treat people, they were bankrupt from what matters the most. Jesus was telling these people who looked to them, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, if your righteousness doesn't exceed theirs, You aren't going to be a part of God's people. Right? Why? Well, let's read on a few verses. Because here's the standard. And the Pharisees collectively didn't meet it. You therefore, 548, must be perfect. As your Heavenly Father is perfect. See, that's the standard of righteousness that God requires. He's the standard. The moral law, I tell you this all the time, the moral law is just an outraying, if you will, of the immutable, unchanging, moral perfections of God. They stem from His nature. Does His nature change? Then can the moral law change? So then for you to be in right relationship with a perfectly holy, righteous, thrice holy God, what standard must be met? There you go, Flash. Perfection, right? The standard of God's own nature. Are you encouraged? Only if you know the rest of the sermon, right? This is where the law buries us. This is where the law drives us into the ground and forces us to look outside of ourselves for an alien righteousness, as the Reformers said. Think about this. I thought this was a great place to end, Romans 3 and Romans 10. Paul said this, think about this. Think about how he's wrestling with this issue, which obviously means the people he's ministering to are wrestling with this issue. He says, we hold that one is justified, comes into a right relationship with God by faith apart from the works of the law. Okay? Let that sink in. Now, here's the obvious question, if we're thinking through this issue of continuity. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? See the problem? He's saying, hey, we don't come into a right relationship with God through the works of the law. Why? Because you've got to keep them all. Right? You've got to keep them all, you've got to do it perfectly because the standard is absolute perfect conformity to it. And Paul's saying, we're saying you don't get to God through the law, you get to God through faith. So does that mean then that what we're saying in that is that the law is overthrown? Thankfully it wasn't rhetorical or we could debate it. We can't debate it, right? Because Paul says, by no means, that emphatic double negation in the Greek. He says, on the contrary. Christians don't negate the law. Christians don't overthrow the law by their faith. The gospel doesn't overthrow the moral law, that's what he has in mind, by their faith, we uphold the law. How so? It's very simple. Romans 10, 4. I use it all the time because it's that important. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. It's that word telos, right? The consummate finish and fulfillment of the law. Christ is that. What does that mean? It means that only Christ in His humanity fulfilled the law completely. Only Christ in His humanity perfectly conformed to the divine image. Of Christ alone could it be said, Matthew 5.48, that He was perfect in His humanity just as the Heavenly Father was perfect. See, Christ alone has fulfilled all righteousness. Christ alone has accomplished and born and lived out and rendered the obedience that God requires for people to be in communion with Him. And it's through the imputation of His righteousness, that righteousness, that justice to the divine law is rendered. Guys, only Christianity upholds the law. Only Christianity, what was the way he said that? Only the gospel upholds the law. Only the gospel can bring people into a right relationship with God, reconcile them to God without setting aside the law of God, without creating a radical disjunction between it and causing impossible tensions and contradictions in the nature of God. Why? How? Because Christ fulfilled the law in our stead. Let's talk about appropriation and we'll be done. What do I mean? Probably has a bad connotation today. What I mean is, how does that become ours? How do we uphold the law in Christ? We don't uphold the law in Christ. Christ upholds the law, but here's the point I'm getting to. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every single person that lives on the face of the earth. No, it's qualified with what? Faith. Everyone who believes, right? Everyone who has faith, not in ourselves, not in our ability to keep the law, not in our own righteousness, but faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness, right? See, guys, this is a beautiful thing here. I think in the work of Christ and in the work of Christ alone, do we find the proper balance of how to relate the Testaments, the two deposits of God's self-revelation to themselves, only in the cross of Christ. He's the key, if you will. He's the Rosetta Stone. I think that's what it was called. The thing that tells us how we interpret, right? The Old Testament promises, the New Testament affirmations, et cetera, right? It's only in Jesus Christ. If he is not the center of our interpretive framework, we're going to fall into error. Amen. All right, well let's, sorry, a little over there as always, but let's pray, let's thank the Lord for it, and if that brings up any questions, please talk to me after service and I'll try my best to address those. All right, let's pray. Father, Thank you for providing for us what your perfections require of us. Thank you for the work of Jesus, for the manifestation of your nature and the glorying in it that he accomplished in this cross. Oh Lord, give us faith in him. Help us to trust in Him, to turn from all other hopes. Circumcise our hearts. Give us the want to. Grant us repentance. Please, Lord. We ask in His name. Amen.