Good morning. It is a great privilege to be here and to bring you the Word of God this morning. I want to thank you all for your hospitality, for inviting me here. If you would, take your Bibles and open to the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 5. The Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 5. As you see in your bulletin, our text this morning is Matthew 5, verses 17 through 18, and particularly I'll be covering how Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And so verses 18, I'll not be going into depth, but for the sake of context, it is typically my habit not just to read the verse that is going to be expounded, but to read the entire chapter in which it is contained. So I'll begin with Matthew 5 verse 1, and I want you to hear this chapter afresh, as if you've never heard it before. Matthew chapter 5 verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say, all men are of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is the reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is since forth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. He hath heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that the whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery. Again ye hath heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let thy communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. He hath heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that you resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man shall sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. "'Ye hath heard that it hath been said, "'Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. "'But I say unto you, love your enemy. "'Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, "'and pray for them that despitefully use you "'and persecute you.'" that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even public it, and it is the same. And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even public and so. Be, therefore, perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. Amen. Miss Holy God, Lord, You are exalted on high, O Lord. You are worthy of our worship. You are worthy of our attention. Lord, we ask that you'd be with us in this hour as we hear your word proclaimed. That you would grant me your spirit, to have clarity of thought, to have boldness, to be able to articulate your truth, to rightly divide your word, and that we would all sit under your word. that we would receive your word with faith, we would receive the promises that are proclaimed with faith, that we would hear your law, and by your Spirit yield obedience unto all of your commands, that we'd hear your threatenings, your warnings, and tremble, that we would have a fear and reverence of you, O Lord, that we would fear to offend you, Lord, we ask that you would glorify your holy name this hour, in Christ's holy name. Amen. If you have ever read a mystery story like most of you probably have, I remember reading Sherlock Holmes when I was younger. You probably remember by the time you come to the conclusion of the book, and it's one of those whodunits, you figure out who committed the crime, who committed the murder, you go back to the beginning of the book and you read the whole book, every clue, every hint about who did it, It's clear. When you first read through the book, it was obscure. You didn't know what these clues meant, but by the time you come to the end, by the time you come to the conclusion, it brings clarity, it brings illumination to the entirety of the book. Some portions of Scripture are like that. Some portions of Scripture, you come to them and they serve, as it were, a hermeneutical key to understand the rest of Holy Writ, understand the rest of the Bible. We come this morning to one such text. We come this morning to understand the purpose and the goal of all of Scripture and in whom it is all fulfilled. What is the Bible all about? What is the purpose of all the Old Testament? Is it about how to govern a political nation? There may be things that are relevant to our current political climate, but is that the purpose of the judicial laws, for example? Is the purpose of Scripture merely to speak about the age of the earth? Not that that is not a vital issue, but is that merely the purpose of Genesis 1 and 2? Is the purposes of the historical narrative merely to show the reliability of Scripture? Again, it may do all those things. It may inform us on politics. It may inform us on the age of the earth. It may inform us on ancient history. But is that the purpose of Scripture? And we see in our text that it is not. At Christ Reformed Church, my home church, I've been going through in the Bible study hour, a study through the Gospel of Matthew, and I recently came to the Sermon on the Mount, where we are today. And that's, as the Lord opened up this passage to me, this is particularly why I brought this passage here this morning. So before I get into the study of this passage, these verses, I do want to give you a contextual overview of the Sermon on the Mountain, where they fit in. This will be brief, but I think anytime we read the Bible, we need to know the context of the various verses and not just merely extrapolate them. And so just a brief overview, and this may be helpful any time you're reading the Sermon on the Mount to understand that the Sermon on the Mount is not just random truths that are just throughout the chapters, that there is a cohesive structure to the entire sermon. Our Lord is not just putting things out there, but that there is an order and there is a structure to the sermon. And so, as many of you know, He begins with the Beatitudes. He begins by describing the qualities, the characteristics of His disciples. and the blessings that follow from them. He describes his disciples as those who are poor in spirit. He describes his disciples as those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are persecuted. And so he begins with describing their qualities. And then he moves in verses 13 through 16, described their function in the world. He described first who they are, what they are like, and the blessings that follow them. But then he describes their function in the world, that they are to be salt and they are to be light. And it's significant at the end of verse 16, if you see in your Bibles, how it begins to now shift the focus of the sermon. It says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Now the rest of this sermon, from verses 16 on to about the middle of chapter 7, are describing the good works that follow. The good works that are an example of the good works of believers. The good works of Christ's people. And so, he goes on in verses 21, if we skip our text for now, he goes on to describe them as, you know, that not only do not kill, but they, by the grace of God, as they seek to mortify their sins, they're ones who endeavor to not be angry with their brother. They're not merely those who do not commit adultery, who don't sleep with another woman, but by the grace of God, by His Spirit, they are the ones who endeavor not merely to sleep with another woman, but even to mortify the adulterous lust in their heart, the adulterous thoughts. And it goes on, it's those who are not merely who love their neighbor and hate their enemy, but again, by the grace of God, they seek to love all men, all their fellow men. They're the ones who give, excuse me, give alms, not to be seen of men. They fast not to be seen of men. They pray not to be seen of men, but to be seen of their Father, which is in heaven. And then passing over anxiety and over seeking not to judge unjustly. The sermon ends with the warning passage. It ends with to enter in the straight gate. And so it shows all these good works and it warns us, and this is important as we all read the theme throughout the Bible, to not be mere hearers of the word, but to be doers. Not to be mere fruitless hearers that hear the word and your lives are not changed, but to be doers. And Christ ends with that warning. And that is more or less the structure of the sermon on the Mount. But then, as we back up, before he gets into the particular application of the good works of believers, we arrive at our verse this morning, verse 17. And so, Christ puts on, to describe the good works, he puts on this all-important qualifier that permeates the rest of the sermon, that the righteousness that he fulfills The righteousness that his disciples are to perform by the help of his spirit is a righteousness that does exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees who merely search for external adherence, and they did not seek to obey the law of God from their heart. It's a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, but it is not a righteousness that is altogether different than what God has required in man in the Old Testament. Christ doesn't come to bring something brand new in that sense. He comes to rightly expound the Holy Word of God. He comes to rightly expound the Old Testament. But the way he does that, the way that he points that the righteousness that he is requiring, the righteousness that he will fulfill in his own person, the righteousness that by his spirit his disciples will endeavor to follow, he does that not merely by saying that my commands are not contrary to the Old Testament, but that the whole Old Testament, both the law and the prophets, all point to him and are fulfilled in him. So he makes this blanket statement about all of the Old Testament, not merely the exhortations, not merely the commands. Thus, the ramifications of this verse, these two verses, permeate throughout the whole Scripture and how we understand the Scriptures, because he's saying it's all fulfilled in him. So in verse 17, he begins with, "...think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets." The law and the prophets is a shorthand for all of the Old Testament. We see that throughout the Bible, that they don't use the language of Old Testament apart from Hebrews, and it's not even talking necessarily about the Old Testament scriptures in that context. Predominantly, when they refer to the Old Testament Scriptures, it is the Law and the Prophets. And then you have in Luke where he says the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. And so it's a shorthand for all of the Scripture. However, sometimes law can particularly have application to the five books of Moses or the more narrowly Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the various commands of the old covenant. And then the prophets can refer to all the scripture. They can refer to the historical narratives. Historically, the historical narratives were called the former prophets. and then Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are the latter prophets. And so the prophet is an all-encompassing term, not merely, don't, when you hear the law and the prophets, don't think Moses and Isaiah, Jeremiah, but no, it is all of the Holy Scripture. Why would our Lord, as we see in this passage, why would our Lord tell, ask, or bring that out? Think not that I come to destroy the law and prophets. Why would he say this? Why would he bring this up? As many of you know, you've read your Bible, you've read the Gospels, it's because throughout his ministry, the Pharisees were constantly saying that he was going against the law of God. Throughout his ministry, they were saying that he was violating the Sabbath. Throughout his ministry, he was violating their commands, the commands that tradition has brought up that were never commanded by the law of God. And so, in the minds of the people, They thought that Christ was coming and abolishing the Old Testament. Christ was coming and bringing some new commands, and he was saying, for example, and unfortunately people won't understand it this way, saying, the Sabbath is old news. Don't obey the Sabbath. That's how the minds of the people may have perceived it. Don't obey the washing rituals. Not that he was actually against those things, but that the Pharisees were opposed to the true Old Testament scriptures. The Pharisees were the ones who were opposed to the law, and so Christ wants to put into the minds of his hearers, the multitudes that are mentioned in Matthew 4, that his commands, his exhortations to the multitude is not contrary to the law of God. Why would he say, think not that I come to destroy the prophets? In a very similar vein... When Christ came in his earthly ministry, it was very much contrary to people's expectations. People, they've read their Old Testament, and they heard of the vengeance of the Lord, and they ultimately misunderstood those passages, thinking that when Christ came, he was going to overthrow the Roman Empire. He was going to bring some earthly kingdom right there in the first century. And they misunderstood that, so again, in the minds of the people, not that he was actually against the prophets, and that's the point of this, in the minds of the people, they thought he's bringing something altogether different than what the prophets brought, or what the prophets spoke of. And so he is saying that his person and work, what he's come to do, is not something different than what the prophets spoke of, but is a fulfillment of what the prophets spoke of. He says, He's come not to destroy them. I've come not to destroy. He has never, our Lord has never had the intention to just discard the law and the prophets. He has never had the intention just to discard the Old Testament and to cast it out. Unfortunately, and I'll just be brief on this, unfortunately some theological traditions have sought to lay aside the Old Testament. Dispensationalism has historically taught that the Old Testament was applicable to the Jews, and that the prophets had no expectation of the church, the prophets had no expectation of the 2,000 years after Christ's resurrection where we are today. And so the historic dispensationalists, I'm not saying every dispensationalist, but historic dispensationalists did believe that what Christ came to do after the crucifixion is altogether different than what the Old Testament ultimately was about. That the Old Testament was about some theocratic kingdom and some millennium, and that Christ has come ultimately to cast away that. Furthermore, New Covenant theology has taught that Christ has come to lay aside the law, except for those portions that he explicitly repeats in the New Testament. And so they say he's not come to destroy, but I've come to destroy everything that I don't repeat. And both of those traditions, not to dwell on those, but both of those traditions fall short of what Christ is teaching in this passage. So what does he say? He says he has come to fulfill the law of God. He says, I've come not to destroy, but to fulfill. So what is it to fulfill? The Greek word can be defined as to make full, to complete a period of time, to bring to completion that which has already begun, to bring to a designed end, to bring to completion an activity in which one has been involved from the beginning, to complete. And so we can get bogged down into all those various definitions, but the ultimate point of it is to bring it to its purpose. It's to bring it to its end, to bring it to its purpose of why it was written. It is for something to reach its purpose. And so when Christ says he's come to fulfill, he's coming to bring, he is the ultimate purpose of all that is contained. Philip Ross writes, And the reason I read that is because Jesus fulfills it. He fulfills the law in a multitude of ways, because He is the purpose. He fulfills it in His person. He fulfills it in His work. He fulfills it in His teaching. He fulfills it in His own obedience. And so just to take He's fulfilled it and make it all mean the same thing in all the different passages. It's to misunderstand what it means to fulfill. It's not meaning, okay, fulfilled, you know, for example, and we'll get into this, but to fulfill the ceremonial law, you say, okay, we discarded the ceremonial law, therefore, to fulfill the moral law means you discard the moral law. But no, to fulfill it is to bring it to its purpose, and therefore, the fulfillment looks different based on the different purposes of the various different passages of Scripture. And we see this in the gospel. We see this in the beginning of the gospel. If you look at Matthew chapter one, he speaks of being fulfilling the prophecy, behold, a virgin shall be with child and she'll bring forth a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And I believe that that is a direct fulfillment, that that fulfillment is in Isaiah, its reference is Christ. However, in Matthew 2.15, it says, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. That's quoting Hosea 11.1. If you read Hosea 11.1 in its context, the son in that reference is Israel. And so Christ is a fulfillment of that, but not a direct fulfillment as he is of the virgin conceived Messiah. But he's a fulfillment of that in the sense that when Israel was brought out of Egypt, its purpose was to prefigure and to serve as a type of the Christ to come. And so those fulfillments, they both are fulfilled in Christ, but they are fulfilled differently. One through direct fulfillment of a promise, the other through type through a repetition of that event in the Messiah. So we come So how has he fulfilled? That's just an example. How has he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets? And this is going to be the heart of the message. How has he come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets? So we'll divide first between the Law and the Prophets, and I'll begin with the Prophets and end with the Law. How has Christ come to fulfill the Law? As I mentioned already, the Law, the Prophets, contains the The latter prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, all the prophets which we can say are the prophetic discourses which bring direct promises of the Messiah, as well as the prophets can describe the historical narratives. The historical narratives are also sometimes called the former prophets. Joshua, Judges, First Kings, Second Kings, First Samuel, Second Samuel, Ruth, Christ fulfills the historical narratives. First, Christ fulfills the historical narratives by either type or by fulfillment of the direct promise. He fulfills them by types, such as individuals like Joseph and David. In his person, he fulfills them in his person by being what they imperfectly prefigured. Thus, with Joseph, the ultimate purpose of Joseph, the ultimate fulfillment, what the Joseph story ultimately pointed to was to prepare for Christ and to prefigure Him. There are many other purposes of the Joseph narrative. He was to bring the sons of Jacob so that they don't starve, and to put them in the Egyptian context in which the exodus will occur. All those things are, as it were, proximate purposes of the Joseph story, but the ultimate purpose of the Joseph story was one to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah and for Joseph in his humiliation and exaltation to prefigure the work, the person and work of the Messiah, to prefigure the person and work of Christ. So, too, for David. David served many purposes. He served many purposes in his delivering the people of Israel, in being that faithful king, in being in the line of the Messiah. But David's ultimate purpose was, yeah, to bring about the faithful, ultimate Christ, and also to serve as a type of Christ, to be, as it were, a picture of the kingship of Christ. Whereas David failed, Christ was faithful. Furthermore, the historical narratives point to Christ by negative example. We see that in the cases of the judges and of Saul. If you've read the book of Judges recently, there is this longing for a faithful judge. Even the best of judges are covered with faults. There is a time where the people of Israel do what is right in their own eyes, and there's this longing. The ultimate purpose of Judges is pointing for this longing for the Messiah, who will judge righteously. And we see the case of Saul, who was called to be king, but he also tried to act like a prophet, and he tried to act like a priest, and he failed in all three of those offices. And it just serves as a negative example for the coming Messiah, who will be king, who will be prophet, who will be a faithful priest. And so Christ fulfills the historical narratives by them being examples, either positive or negative examples, by being types. Furthermore, he fulfills the historical narratives by direct promises, and we see that various portions of the historical narratives have direct promises. We think of 2 Samuel 7, where where God promises to David a faithful king, a king who would establish David's stone forever. Ultimately, that is fulfilled in the Messiah. Ultimately, that's fulfilled in Christ. And that goes on to the prophetic discourses, which speak directly of Christ. He fulfills the prophetic discourses by being the judge and savior that the prophets promised, by being the servant in the servant song, by being that greater temple promise in Ezekiel, by being the coming redeemer that's seen throughout the scriptures. Ezekiel promises the restoration of the temple, and that finds its fulfillment ultimately in Christ, as John writes, that when Christ spoke of the restoration of the temple, He spoke of His body. And then ultimately, as we are in Him, it's fulfilled in the church. And so, Christ fulfills all of the prophetic discourses. Christ fulfills ultimately all the purposes of the prophets. Again, they may have many other references. They may have the Assyrian deliverance, but ultimately they all point to the coming of Christ, the coming of the Messiah. They are all ultimately about Him, about our Redeemer. John MacArthur, who is a dispensationalist, but he sometimes speaks and writes better than his theology, writes, in Genesis, he is the seed of the woman. In Exodus, he is the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he is the high priest. In Numbers, he is the pillar of cloud by day. in the pillar of fire by night. In Deuteronomy, he is the prophet like unto Moses. In Joshua, he is the captain of our salvation. In Judges, he is the judge and lawgiver. In Ruth, he is the kinsman redeemer. In 1st and 2nd Samuel, he is the trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, he is the reigning king. In Ezra, he is the faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, he is the builder of the broken wall. In Esther, he is Mordecai. In Job, he is the ever-living redeemer. In Psalms, he is the Lord our shepherd. In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he is true wisdom. In Song of Solomon, he is a real lover and bridegroom. In Isaiah, he is the prince of peace. In Jeremiah and Lamentations, he is a weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, he is a wonderful four-faced man. In Daniel, he is the fourth man in the fiery furnace. In Hosea, he is the eternal husband, forever married to the backslider. In Joel, he is the baptizer with the Holy Spirit. In Amos, he is the burden bearer. In Obadiah, he is the savior. In Jonah, he is the great foreign missionary. In Micah, he is the messenger with beautiful feet. In Nahum, he is the avenger. In Habakkuk, he is God's evangelist pleading for revival. In Zephaniah, he is the Lord mighty to save. In Haggai, he is the restorer of the lost heritage. In Zechariah, he is the fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for cleansing. In Malachi, he is the son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings. He is the theme of the Old Testament. Every bit of it is his story. Amen. It is all ultimately about Him. It is all ultimately pointing and has this fulfillment in Christ. So when we read the prophets, when we read the historical narratives, yes, it is important to get the details, important to understand who Abner was, who Absalom was, but ultimately, when we read them, we are to look for our Savior. How is this teaching me, one, of my sin and my need of my Redeemer? How is this prefiguring, somehow, the work of my Savior? We remember in Luke, when our Lord led His disciples in the Emmaus Road, He opened the Scriptures to show that they were all pointing to Him. All of the prophets It doesn't necessarily mean every verse you find Jesus in it, but the ultimate end of all the prophets is to declare Christ, to declare his person and word, to exalt his great and glorious name. And as we read the New Testament, as we read passages like this, again, it serves as a key to understand all of what the prophets spoke. So he says he has also come to fulfill the law. So, What does it mean that he's come to fulfill the law? Does it mean that the law is in no sense binding on us anymore? Well, clearly the prophets. When he comes to fulfill the prophets, it's not that, okay, he's come to fulfill the prophets so we can throw out the prophets now. No. We understand the prophets rightly by understanding his person and work. Therefore, we understand the law rightly by understanding his person and work. So how has Christ come to fulfill the law? So, like I said, different portions of the scripture are fulfilled differently, as the purpose relates differently to the person and work of Christ. The historical narratives are not fulfilled in exactly the same way as the prophetic. Therefore, the law is not exactly fulfilled in the same way of all the others. But they all ultimately relate to Christ. So when we come to look at the law, and I know Pastor Jerry has been over this, and this would just be an overview, not a full-orb defense, but when we come to look at the law, the law of Moses, it has historically been divided into three distinctions, or three divisions, the moral, judicial, and the ceremonial. Our Confession articulates this in chapter 19 when it speaks of that God, in chapter 19 verse 1, God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, by which he had bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it. and endued him with power and ability to keep it." So it speaks of the law of Adam. The law that Adam had was not merely, don't eat of the tree of knowledge, good and evil, but that the law of God was written on his heart in his state of innocency. And paragraph two of chapter 19 says, the same law, which was first written in the heart of man, continued to be the perfect rule of righteousness after the fall, and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments, and written in two tables, the four first contain our duty towards God, and the other six, our duty towards man. And so it's simply articulating the Ten Commandments is a reflection of that law that was written on the heart of Adam. Paragraph three. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, benefits, and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation, and that's not the Protestant Reformation, that's the coming of our Lord, Only to the time of Reformation are, by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only Lawgiver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken away. Speaking of the various ceremonial commandments of the Law, which are predominantly found in the Book of Exodus and Leviticus. And then in paragraph four, "...to them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now, by virtue of the institution, their general equity, only being of moral use." And just to recap that, As far as what is obligatory, I mean, our confession already states what I believe is taught in the scripture, is that the moral law is a continuing standard of righteousness. The ceremonial law has been abrogated as a prefigured Christ, and judicial law has expired with the state of that people, not obliging any by virtue of that institution, but their general equity is of moral use. And so, the judicial law, as it reflects the moral law, is continually binding unto the people, but as it was for the state of that people, it is abolished, but not that the morality of it is removed. Thus, the moral law is the natural law that was written on the heart of man, which is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments." And again, this won't be a full-orb defense, but I do want to just briefly show how this distinction is evident in the Holy Scriptures as we then think about how it's fulfilled in Christ. We can easily see this distinction within the law by the way the Ten Commandments are distinguished from the rest of the law. In Exodus 34, it says, speaking of Moses, that he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water. and he wrote upon the tables of the words of the covenant the ten commandments and it came to pass when moses came down from mount sinai with the two tables testimony of in moses's hand when he came down from the mount that moses whisked not that the skin of his face shown while he talked with him So there refers to the Ten Commandments, or the ten words that were given to Moses, and they were put on two tablets of stone. 1 Kings 8-9 says, there was nothing in the ark, the ark of the covenant, save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel. when they came out of the land of Egypt. Now we know in other portions of Scripture, other points, the Ark of the Covenant did have the staff of Aaron that budded and it had the manna, but it's interesting to note that the two tables of stone were put in the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments. Therefore, People now say you cannot make a threefold distinction of the law. Well, God did. God distinguished the Ten Commandments from the rest of the law by putting it in the Ark of the Covenant. By putting it in the Ark. Furthermore, we see a distinction of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 4. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments, which he wrote on two tables of stone, and the Lord commanded me, speaking of Moses, at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land where you go to possess it. So here, in Deuteronomy 4, It distinguished between the Ten Commandments that Moses received and the various statutes that Moses was given for the people of God in the land. It distinguishes the Ten Commandments from the statutes and judgments that would be done in the land. One of our Baptist fathers John Gill writes, And besides these, There were also several laws, both ceremonial and judicial, which were to be peculiarly observed in the land, as well as others that they were obliged to do while without." And so the distinction is that there were, and this is the only place in Scripture, there were laws that were commanded for the people of God, the Old Testament Israel, to do while they were in the land. And that is put in distinction with the Ten Commandments, which is the eternal law of God, which reflects the character of God. But we also see in that verse in Deuteronomy 4 that the Ten Commandments, as summarized in it as the covenant, the Ten Commandments to undergird all of the other laws. So we could go to more distinctions of how we see the threefold distinction. I'd simply point out the distinction of the Ten Commandments. Most people don't deny the distinction of the ceremonial law from the rest of the law, so we're not getting to that. So how has Christ fulfilled these laws? How has Christ fulfilled the moral judicial and ceremonial laws? Well, he's fulfilled the ceremonial law, in his person and work as our high priest and sacrifice, which the letter to the Hebrews is an extended commentary. All the priests, the Aaronic priesthood, the high priest, the various other priests, all pointed ultimately to the person and work of Christ. As the priest represented the people going into the Holy of Holies, So too does Christ represent His people as He enters into the presence of His Father with, instead of having a breastplate with the names of Israel, He has, as it were, the breastplate of all His people's names as He represents all His people before His Father. The sacrifices find their fulfillment in Christ, because the sacrifices could not ultimately atone for sin. You see that even in the Old Testament, that the blood of bulls and goats cannot make an atonement for sin. All the sacrifices ultimately pointed to Christ. And this is why going back to sacrifices, as we see that happens in the early church when people are tempted to go back and make sacrifices, is to deny that Christ is the fulfillment of those things. that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice on the cross who's truly made atonement for the sins of his people. Christ fulfills the moral law primarily in his perfect obedience, as he completely obeys all of the law's demands on the behalf of his people. that Christ has not come, as it says, he's come not to destroy. He did not, our Lord did not break the Sabbath one time. He broke some of the traditions that the Pharisees had, but he never violated the actual Sabbath command. Christ came and obediently obeyed all of the law in his person, in his obedience. And that is a righteousness that is given to his people as we lay hold upon him by faith. Furthermore, there is a sense that He fulfills the law in His people, by His Spirit, as He writes His law upon their hearts, as they seek to obey. So there is a righteousness that Christ works for us that is imputed to us, and which is our only entrance into heaven, but there is also a righteousness in which the Sermon on the Mount speaks of both, a righteousness that Christ works in us, out of gratitude by His Spirit, in order to obey this very same righteousness. that he's fulfilled. Not in perfection, not yet, not until glory, but there is this righteousness that he's working in all his people. Finally, he fulfills the judicial law. He fulfills the judicial law partly by being the fulfillment of what the nation was for, the national context in which our Lord was to be born in. But he also fulfills the judicial law as as all the sanctions of the judicial law show that sin, the various warnings, the various death penalties of the old covenant. We can talk at a different time of how to apply that to a modern nation, but ultimately all the death penalties, all the sanctions of judicial law showed what sin deserved. Disobedience to your parents deserves death. Adultery deserves death. Murder deserves death. And ultimately, all of them deserve the wrath and curse of God. Deuteronomy closes with that massive passage of all the curses of those who do not obey the law of God. Judicial law shows what sin deserves. And it points to Christ, as we're reminded in Galatians, that Christ, cursed is the man who hangs on the tree, that Christ reserved for his people all the curses of the law. He was made a curse for us, that we may be made righteousness in him. So when we read of the death penalties, often we read, oh, that's so cruel. And again, I think God is just. But ultimately, instead of focusing on whether or not you think that is cruel or inhumane, ultimately recognize that that is what your sins deserve. You deserve the wrath and curse of God. You deserve death. But if you lay hold upon Christ, He has received that death penalty on your behalf. He has received that curse on your behalf. Homosexuality deserves death. Disobedience to parents deserves death. Adultery deserves death. Murder deserves death. All these things are worthy of death, but Christ has borne that death for his people. And so Christ fulfills judicial law, and in just in passing, there is the morality that the judicial law has the Ten Commandments girded under it, as it were, so therefore homosexuality is undergirded by the Seventh Commandment of sexual purity. And so there is a sense that we read the judicial laws not merely to see death, but also to see an elaboration of the righteousness of God. such things as we know clearly from Scripture that incest is sin, because the Bible tells us in those various judicial laws. So all of Scripture, the law and the prophets, find their fulfillment ultimately in Christ. And just briefly, verse 18 says, Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, until the end of the age, one jot or one tittle, not the smallest mark, not the smallest Hebrew letter, nor the tittle is just a small mark on a Hebrew letter that distinguishes it from another letter. Not a single portion of scripture shall know wise pass from the law to all be fulfilled. And the word fulfilled there in the authorized version is not the same word in verse 17. It means, the word here means to come to pass. So, the law does not become irrelevant to us. Though it must be seen through the lens of the fulfillment of Christ, it doesn't become relevant to us, irrelevant to us. The law and the prophets has relevance to us throughout all of our lives. There's no point where we say, okay, I'm done with the Old Testament. It's irrelevant to me because Christ has come. No, it has eternal relevance because it all points to the Messiah. When we read the historical narratives, they lead us to Christ. They point us to Christ. When we read the prophets, they speak to us of Christ. When we read Leviticus, they picture to us Christ. When we read the law, it shows us the righteousness of our Lord and the righteousness that we are to be conformed into. When we read the various punishments, again, it shows what our sins deserve. So all of the scriptures ultimately find their goal, their end, their point in the person and work of Christ. This hopefully, and though it's not exhaustive, it would take a whole series to be exhaustive, this hopefully was a helpful overview of how Christ's fulfillment of various portions of scripture. But before I close, I want to bring just three applications to you. First, to those of you who are here, whether you're a child, whether you're older, that are unbelievers. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, speaking of the Jews, that they hear the law of Moses in their synagogues every Saturday. and yet they are blinded to the glory of Christ. They hear it proclaimed, and it all has this ultimate reference in Christ, and yet there is a veil over their eyes, and they do not see Christ. They do not see his person, they do not see his beauty, they do not see his glory. Is that your condition today? that you read your Bible, and you see a bunch of historical narratives, you see a bunch of cool stories, you see death, you see scandal, but you don't see Christ. You see the morals of the Bible. You see the absurdity of the world, you see the absurdity of our culture, and you see the morals of the Bible, and you see the wisdom of the Bible. And to a certain extent, you practice the morals of the Bible, and to a certain extent, you practice the wisdom of the Bible, but you don't see Christ. You seek to be an obedient child to your parents, but you don't see Christ. You endeavor to keep yourself pure before, until marriage, or you endeavor to keep yourself pure for marriage, and you see the wisdom of that, but you don't see Christ, you don't see Him. You keep yourself from bad company. You don't hang out with people who would lead you down a destructive path. But you don't see Christ. You're conservative. You watch Fox News or Tucker Carlson or somebody, but you don't see Christ. You see the wisdom and the righteousness of the law, but you don't see your need of a Savior. You don't see your need of Christ. You think you're good. As long as I go through all these things, I'm good. I'm fine. My warning for you today is that you are not fine, and that it is not okay for you to be a mere hearer of the Word. You sit in a church that has the word faithfully proclaimed to you, Lord say, by Lord say, by two faithful pastors, but that's not enough. They can preach of the glory of Christ and they can open up the scriptures and how it all points to Christ, but your eyes are blinded until Christ opens them. My friend, I would plead with you, turn to Christ for mercy. Turn to Him for forgiveness. Confess your blindness. Confess your need of a Savior. Confess your need of His Spirit to open your eyes to your sin and misery, to open your eyes to your need of a Savior. Read the Bible. Come to worship as you do, but pray to God that He would open up the word to you and that you may behold Christ. Take to him your sin of blindness. Take to him your sin of unbelief. Cast it upon him and flee to him for mercy and salvation. Search the scriptures for in them you shall have eternal life for they testify of Christ. They hold upon him by faith. Just as you heard the judicial laws, they show you what your sin deserves. They show you what your blindness deserves. But they also show to all those who lay hold upon Christ of who bore that punishment, who bore that punishment on their behalf. Flee to him for mercy. Flee to him as the city of refuge. That's what the city of refuge pointed to. You have, as it were, the avenger of blood after you, and you need a refuge. Flee to him. Lay hold upon him. Secondly, I would exhort my brothers and sisters in Christ, when we read our Bibles, when you read your Bibles, yes, study the literary context, yes, study the historical context, study the grammar as you are able, but ultimately, look for Christ, look for your Savior. How does this passage that I'm reading point to Christ? How does it show my need of him? How does it prefigure his work? How does it prefigure his person? How does it show forth his love? How does it declare his righteousness? Be as the bride in the song of Solomon who diligently searched for her beloved. The old writers, I think particularly of New England, men like John Cotton, they would speak of searching for Christ in his ordinances. If we worship, if our worship is truly governed by the scriptures, then our worship will be full of Christ, be saturated with Christ. Behold Christ as we sing the Psalms, as we sing his word. Behold Christ as we hear the word proclaimed, Behold His majesty, behold His beauty. Behold Christ as the sacraments are rightly administered. As we are today, and as Pastor Matt mentioned, of a coming up baptismal service. Behold Christ and His sacraments. Behold Christ in the bread and the wine in just a few moments. Our faith increases. You know, we wonder, how do I have more faith? Our faith increases not by just flexing some sort of muscle. Our faith increases when we have a greater view of Christ. We have a greater view of our God, greater view of his work, greater view of his love, greater view of his faithfulness. Then our faith increases, not by just straining some sort of muscle, but by beholding him as he has revealed himself in this holy word. Finally, I'd exhort your elders and all who would desire to preach the Word of God. I know Pastor Jerry is going to continue through a Faithful Man program, and I'd imagine that some of you desire to be in that and desire possibly at one point to teach the Word of God. Remember, there are many purposes of Scripture. But the great theme and subject is Christ. Our confession speaks of the scope of the whole of Scripture is to give all glory to God. And where is God's glory magnified? In Christ. Where does that glory find its center? It finds its center in the person and work of Christ. This is why Paul could write in Colossians 1, wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. whom we proclaim Christ, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And again, in 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians 2, he says, to not know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." It's not that Paul just repeated the same message. It's not that Paul just constantly said the exact same thing, but in all of his sermons, in all of his preaching, it finds its end and its goal in Christ. How does this relate to Christ? Again, does the Bible speak of politics? Yes. Does the Bible have reference to Cultural events. Absolutely. It speaks in these things. But the Bible cannot be properly understood nor preached unless Christ is the center of all of it. And so brothers, you who are preaching the Word of God and endeavor to preach the Word of God. And I know that both of your elders do endeavor to preach the Word of God and faithfully proclaim Christ, but we must watch ourselves that we do not fall away from it. And we must ever endeavor and pray that at the end of our ministry, at the end of our service to our Lord, Our preaching is more saturated with Christ than when it first began. That in all of our sermons, no matter the subject, Christ is proclaimed, and his glory is seen. Let us pray. O God of heaven, O Lord, we confess that we are often so blind to your majesty. We are often so distracted by so many things, rather than beholding our God, beholding your majesty in all of your word. Lord, we ask that you would forgive us of our sins, forgive us of our blindness, and open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your law. Open our eyes as we prepare ourselves to partake of the sacrament, the bread and the wine, that we may behold Christ we may see our Savior crucified, as it were, and that our love would increase, our faith would increase, and our hope would increase. Lord, be with us this day, and that all that is said and done will be to your glory. In Christ's holy name, amen.